Let It Be Sunday, 124!

Hello my friends! 

Welcome to Sunday.  It’s Father’s Day and I hope that means you’re spending quality time with your people.  My dad is easy to laugh, the best pie maker, and he’s got a small plastic bag full of colored pens that he uses to take notes, write bills, and organize his life.  That little bag of pens alone helps me feel a sense of calm and consistency in the world.  Dad, thank you for walking Lauren and me to school, working overnight while we slept, paying the light bill, teaching us about Alfred Hitchcock, selling me a 1989 Buick Century for $1, and I’m sorry that you had to deal with me from age 16 to 19.  I recognize that I was insufferable.

This week has had some weight. A jury acquitted the officer that shot and killed Philando Castile,  a jury convicted the woman who encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself, and a jury remains hopelessly deadlocked in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case. That’s a lot of emotions to process and a lot about who we are and what we stand for to grapple with.  Basically all that we are, we have to sort through in a effort to put compassion and care back into the world.   

Here is more of our world this week: 

•  London has been hit heavy these past few months.  Grenfell Tower fire: in pictures. 

• Where do we go from this place of extreme discord? Actual question.  How We Became Bitter Political Enemies

•  Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax– anxiety is the new depression.  And we all just need a chill pill… which apparently we’re all taking.  Is anxiety our collective consciousness? Ugh, honestly. 

•  Speaking of anxiety:  a very in-depth look at all the things we should be worried about including bagel slicing.  Don’t read this is you’re a worrywart. Be Careful! Your mind makes accidents inevitable. 

•  Everything in my body says No No No NO NO NO to this free-diving sport that’s because my body was not designed for deep depths with no oxygen… but apparently the payoff is euphoria.  We’re crazy creatures. Free-diving is the lung-crushing mind-altering path to inner peace. 

•  I love this so much.  Our Mothers As We Never Saw Them.  I love pictures of both of my parents before they worried endlessly about working hard and keeping small human alive.  My mom had bellbottoms with rainbow patches on the butt pockets and long straight hair.  My dad had an Afro and tight pants and muscle shirts. Basically they were living their best lives.

•  Let’s remember to take these Summer Fridays, ok?  I’m in it for the ice cream. 

•  New Orleans basically invented The Man Who Stands In Line For A Living  and you know this best when you’re sitting upstairs at Galatoire’s because some man was paid to sit outside of the restaurant in line all night for the coveted downstairs seats.   That was a very New Orleans sentence but suffice it to say, no one wants to sit upstairs at Galatoire’s and you’ve got to figure out your family line-sitter if you want better treatment. It’s a whole thing down here.  I recognize that these are not actually real problems…. not at all… but I’m just living and learning, big and small.   

•  Two summer recipes I can’t wait to revisit:  Roasted Strawberry Shortcake with Basil Cream and Charred Cron with Pistachio Cilantro Lime Rub. 

•  I’m learning how to make bagels and I’ve had the most success with these: King Arthur Flour Pumpernickel Bagels.  I’ve had the least success with these:  Bravetart Magic Bagels which I think is my own fault and I need to give this recipe another try because it has the word magic in it.  I’ve also got this tab open for when I make a bad batch of bagels, which happens every other day: How to make a better bagel. Learning is a process, turns out. 

•  Watch me read this YA novel based in New Orleans and really enjoy it:  The Casquette Girls. 

•  Have you ever cooked on a Himalayan Salt Block?  I was gifted a pink block and I’m learning how to cook on it.  Cooking on salt!  The book Salt Block Cooking also has us serving watermelon and making ice cream on a salt block. Why hasn’t anyone told me about this sooner!? 

•  Cakes from Internet trolls just like I make Cakes from Drakes.  

•  You’re in a cult.  Call your dad. 

Enjoy this day, stay out of the forest.

xo Joy