ocean rain
potatoes, cheese, and endless soups
Did everyone have a good Halloween? Over the weekend I went to a showing of Jennifer’s Body presented by Out on Screen at the York Theatre, complete with relevant drag performances at the intermission. I’d never seen the film before (I KNOW, I know) and I’m so glad that my first experience of this camp masterpiece could be in a room full of other queers while fundraising for queer youth and events.
On Monday, Jeff optimistically filled our biggest mixing bowl with the Costco Halloween candy I assumed we’d bought for our own enjoyment and put his Superman t-shirt on under a suit, but we didn’t get any trick-or-treaters (we never have at this house). It’s something I really miss about our old house, which was in a “destination neighbourhood” for that activity— hundreds of kids would come to the door and I always loved seeing them in their costumes.
Instead, I watched the most holiday-appropriate Star Trek episodes* and ate a bunch of the candy myself, which was still a pretty good time. And now that Halloween’s over, the marketing world is telling us it’s time to get ready for Christmas, which is exhausting. Let’s just try to get through November with our minds and bodies intact.
*Night Terrors, Empok Nor, and Catspaw, if you’re wondering.
From November on basically every meal has to involve either potatoes or cheese, and sometimes both. I made a roasted brussels sprout and potato gratin (based on a recipe from the book Six Seasons) which I enjoyed a few times last winter, usually with bacon or prosciutto for a satisfying punch of salt and fat. But it’s still really tasty without: roasting the potatoes and sprouts beforehand gives them a bit of caramelization and the cheese and cream— I used provolone, gruyère, and oat milk— makes everything deeply comforting. Lots of black pepper is also necessary. This was a decent enough meal on its own, but a crisp salad in vinaigrette would be a nice side, too.
Also in the cheese category, I make this mushrooms and greens with toast quite often in the fall. It’s quick and deliciously savoury, and easily lets you use up the butts of a loaf of bread and a wilting bunch of kale. Fancy mushrooms are nice— I used half oyster mushrooms this time— but using all brown or white mushrooms still gives you a really nice dish. Instead of toasting the bread first, I just cut it into cubes and then throw the cheese overtop and broil the whole thing for two or three minutes, until the bread is toasty and the cheese is browned. It’s not enough for me that the cheese simply melt; I need it to burn a little, too!
It’s the start of the season where seemingly every other day, I think, “yeah, a soup sounds good,” unlike in early spring when I’m thinking, “please lord, when can I stop making soup?” With the last of our garden potatoes and a couple of Yukon Golds from the store, I made a classic vegan potato leek with lots of fresh thyme, and put half in the freezer for later (a bonus of making a big pot of soup when you’re a household of two). This is a recipe that has few ingredients— potatoes, leeks, onion, thyme, and cashew cream— because it’s already lovely without needing much to fancy it up, though I do enjoy a nice drizzle of good olive oil overtop.
I also saw this one, a tomato-based lentil and sausage soup with chard, again from Smitten Kitchen, and got excited— and not only because from October to March I am always looking for ways to use up a bundle of rainbow chard. I love lentil soup and it’s great that there are so many different iterations of it (my usual go-tos are the French lentil from the Veganomicon or green lentil with curried brown butter).
We don’t generally keep a lot of meat around so I used Gusta Italian veggie sausage for this, and I didn’t have celery but I had an extra leek, and used that instead (soup is infinitely adjustable). I made this on the stove because I had time to waste while I experienced the pain of watching the Astros win in a no-hitter against the Phillies, but the recipe also includes instant pot instructions if you want it to be ready in about half the time. It was so satisfying, with perfect acidity from the tomatoes and a little pecorino on top to serve. The only thing that could have made it better would have been some fresh bread to mop up the broth with.
Media:
As a reluctant sweet potato eater (I will eat them but I rarely love them), I found this a fun piece: what, according to a few prominent people in food media, makes a good sweet potato fry, and why so many of them end up being largely disappointing. The short of it is that because of its higher starch and sugar content, frying sweet potato is more temperamental than other potatoes, and they can end up soggy, bland, or dry much more easily. I’m convinced Jeff’s apparent fondness for them is simply because he really likes the chipotle mayo most places tend to serve them with.
Also this week, if you haven’t read Alicia Kennedy’s piece on tipping fatigue yet, do. It’s short and to the point, and really emphasizes that the “fatigue” people experience when being asked by an electronic prompt to leave a tip on what they feel is a low-effort level of service is really not about the money itself. It is instead just public complaining about the fact that we, as citizens, are being served with a difficult-to-ignore reminder that our society is failing to provide for a huge subset of its labourers in a way that actually lets them live a dignified life. The people who feel affronted by this aren’t upset about “having” to tip, because you never “have” to— what they want is to be free of the guilt of not having done so for jobs they feel are not “worth” tipping. And that’s something that will only come with better pay and labour laws for service workers. What are the people who don’t want to leave a tip when they buy a cup of coffee trying to do about that, I wonder?
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please smash that like button below, or 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, remember to show your love in a way that truly matters.