Back in November, my friends and I went to the Poconos for a weekend, sharing a house next to a near-frozen lake. It was to jointly celebrate two friends’ birthdays, which was honestly a brilliant idea. These are friends from my last job, where we bonded over stress and shitty hours (lol, remember when I worked overnights? I don’t recommend it); I love them all dearly, and obviously volunteered myself to cook a meal.
The day we were to leave, the 2019 Joy of Cooking arrived in the mail. I was originally thinking about bringing a Julia Turshen book, or maybe Smitten Kitchen; something, anything, that wasn’t so enormous and heavy. My girlfriend told me not to bring it. My brain told me not to bring it. My heart, and my friends in a cooking Facebook group that I mod (hi!), told me to just do it, and I did, and I had no regrets. I mean, aside from its weight. It’s a delight, a beautiful new addition to the Joy of Cooking catalogue; the recipes I recognized felt like old friends, and the ones I didn’t, new journeys in food.
Read MoreGod, I really thought I was going to get more of these recipes done this month! It certainly felt like I ate a lot of food from this cookbook, although in retrospect I think that may just be because I made two 4-serving chicken dishes that got spread out over multiple nights. No regrets with what I did make, only what I didn’t — I’m a little annoyed at myself for not making the most basic recipes, like Hummus or Tahini Sauce. Those are only two of the recipes I prepared for and didn’t get around to in April. I’m sure I’ll get to them in the future, because this book was fantastic, something I’ll be referring back to for a long time yet. I’m not surprised: I picked Tahini because it was written by Adeena Sussman, known for a great many cookbooks but, to me, primarily for Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings books. But amid the tumult of a job search and a trip to Nashville, things got…not lost, exactly, but set aside. Which is okay. (But I was really looking forward to the Sweet Potato-Tahini Dinner Rolls.)
Read MoreI haven't really used my RB67 since December, when I was in Canada, taking photos I thought I was going to like at the time but didn't really later on. I like these a lot, though. At the end of March I went down to Louisiana for the first time since summer 2015 (which, incidentally, was when I used the RB67 for the first time!). I toted around my cameras (which was easy, because we drove everywhere, so). I took a lot of photos. This is just one day, at my Papou's house, walking around his pond with my camera as the sun began to set.
Read MoreThe long-promised black and white 120 film from my December Toronto trip. I bought myself a negative scanner and finally caved on having these professionally developed. Sort of bittersweet to look back through them all; I wish I was there again.
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