gouge away
bachelor chow, Juneuary, and an alternative to pie
Hi, friends. Is everyone happy about the rain we had over the weekend? I do feel like I got whiplash going from temperatures in the mid-twenties and then back to 13°C so suddenly, but I don’t mind. If this newsletter is a bit more concise than usual, it’s because I’m trying to dash it off before Iain gets here and we go on a beverage journey and get some food in the shipyards/brewery district. He’s here til Monday and I’m looking forward to having some good friend time over the next couple of days. We’re watching the season premiere of Strange New Worlds together later tonight, and it should be very grounding for me to watch with someone who enjoys Star Trek a normal amount (my level, as many of you know, is much more “unhinged Trekkie”).
Next Tuesday, I’m getting a wisdom tooth removed— I only have one, oddly, and thankfully, I suppose, but I’ve never had surgery of any kind before and I’m not too sure what to expect! So I may write to you next week, and I may not. I’m not looking forward to several days of not being able to eat anything crunchy, I’ll tell you that much. I plan to make a big batch of black bean soup and hope I don’t get sick of it before I can eat bread again, but I’m not a huge fan of mashed potatoes and I loathe smoothies, so aside from soup I’m kind of at a loss. If any of you have had oral surgery before, I’d love to hear from you in the replies about soft foods you enjoyed in the healing process!
True to my word, I lived like a bachelor all weekend while Jeff was away and did not turn on the stove once. I ate leftovers for dinner on Friday night (tofu green curry with summer squash) and then made a huge batch of popcorn and put both dill and cheese seasoning on it like a true snack hedonist. Then I put on Star Trek: The Motion Picture with the volume way up to let the soundtrack wash over me, as god intended.
I make popcorn using the Whirley Pop we got as a wedding gift, which always feels kind of magic in that if you get the oil ratio and the temperature right, all you have to do is turn the crank to get a batch of perfectly popped popcorn and next to no unpopped kernels! Though I did burn my wrist on the lid of the pot as I was transferring it to the bowl, but I don’t know, if that’s the price for perfect popcorn, I think I’m willing to accept it.
On Saturday, Iain had a long layover before his flight to Whitehorse, so we met up in Mount Pleasant for a bit of a walkaround and some lunch and beers while we caught up with each other. The last time he visited was in December so it was nice to see him, and know that it’d be less than a week before we got to hang out again, rather than another six months. We got a coffee at the Federal Store and walked around noting what’s changed— always a fun and/or depressing thing to do in that neighbourhood, since I don’t really have a lot of opportunities to go there.
For lunch we went to the Tamaly Shop, where you get what it says on the tin: tamales! I’ve tried their stuff before at the farmers’ market, and they’re very good and filling. I got the molé and jalapeño-cheese tamales, and Iain got one of the vegetarian tortas. While we were waiting for our food, one of the staff brought us shot-sized samples of the Mexican-spiced coffee, which was delicious. I also got an agua de jamaica (lightly sweet hibiscus water) because I find a nice little beverage so difficult to resist.
Afterwards, we headed to Brassneck, where for a little while we were the only people in the taproom— definitely a first for me. I guess that’s the difference between going on a Saturday at 1pm when half the city is still at brunch or running errands, versus 6pm on a Thursday or Friday when everyone’s finished work and meeting up with a friend. We’d originally intended to also check out Electric Bicycle, but we were comfortable and enjoying ourselves there, so we just continued drinking delicious IPA until it was time for Iain to make his way back to the airport. We walked to the skytrain together, and even after four hours together our conversation was going strong right up until we had to go to opposite sides of the train platform. It’s nice to have people with whom you never run out of things to talk about.
On the home front, because I hadn’t cooked all weekend, I actually had to make lunch on Monday while working from home. I made these garlic & honey buttered gochujang noodles, always good for a quick and tasty meal. The gochujang I have isn’t all that spicy, so I like to add chili flakes as well, and we have a tonne of chives in the garden right now, which I used for garnish. Why is it so satisfying to eat spicy food when it’s hot out? Maybe there’s a science behind it, but it’s enough for me that it’s almost always true.
I made another batch of beet burgers this week (and somehow, still have like four beets left to use up, so I guess I’ll be making a beet salad soon, too). I wasn’t quite as jazzed about them this week because the weather’s been less summery and more Juneuary— which I have no problem with, given *gestures at wildfire map of the country*— but I was burdened by leftover rice in my fridge so it was happening. On the side, we grilled some romaine hearts with vegan caesar dressing, which is always nice. I like the way the tender outer the leaves get a little charred and wilty, while the inner hearts stay more crisp.
After making vegan nachos last week, we still had a tiny bit of the lentil meat left, so I made a fresh batch of the lentils and mixed the old ones into that for taco purposes. There was also some of the vegan queso and pineapple salsa left over, and with a bit of lettuce, pickled onion, and avocado, these were quick and delicious. Jeff, who’d been in Portland eating a lot more meat than usual, said he could practically feel his body rejoicing about the vegetables.
It’s a little earlier in the season than I’d usually make this tomato and summer squash galette, which has more of a an August/harvest season feel to it, but I bought some cherry tomatoes from the dollar rack and had to use them up and felt like something a little fancier than pasta. I made this two or three times last summer and loved it. Galette is great because it has all the flaky, buttery appeal of a pie but the dough is a little more forgiving to work with, and you don’t have to fiddle around with a top crust. After chilling the dough, I just roll it out on floured parchment with the plastic wrap I covered it with on top so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin, and then it’s easy to transfer the whole thing to a pan to add the filling.
Because this needs an hour or so in the fridge, that’s plenty of time to prepare the filling and let it cool. The recipe is great as is, but you can also mess around with it a bit and it’ll be just as good if not better. I browned half a yellow onion before cooking the tomatoes since I didn’t have any green onions, and added a little garlic and some fresh herbs (oregano, basil, and parsley). Last summer I used grilled corn in this which was amazing, but it’s also just fine with frozen corn, which is what I did this time. I also want to try this with the cheddar pastry crust from this recipe— the crust is really good, but overall I found the effort involved not totally worth the payoff compared to this galette which is pretty easy and really satisfying. Our yellow zucchinis are just starting to come in and we have a lot of tomatoes on the way, too, so I imagine this will show up on the menu at least a couple times more this summer.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Finally, I don’t know if you can relate, but for me, life’s feeling a lot like this lately.