Carrots for the New Year?

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This odd little postcard was among the ones I picked up at the big sale earlier in the fall. I don’t know why but in my mind I identified these as turnips but they do indeed seem to be carrots.

In a house full of cats (quite literally at the moment) I am here to say I rarely find one playing with a carrot or two, but here are these two kittens, be-ribboned, showing real interest in two. A while ago there was an online meme of cats being afraid of bananas (incidentally, the New York cats do not seem to be performing to type on that) and the internet tells me it is both the smell and because they recognize the shape as a snake and instinct kicks in. I have always doubted that the New York duo have much in the way of survival instinct and perhaps this goes to prove it. I gather it applies to cucumbers too and I could test the Jersey Five – I suspect Peaches will attack it with vigor. Her instincts seem perfectly intact.

Meanwhile, the internet is a bit vague on the point of carrots as a symbol of the New Year (turnips actually fare a bit better) on that score. In other cultures (Jewish New Year, Chinese) carrots seem to be a symbol but not really for January 1. However, this was indeed mailed on December 31, 1906 so no question of the intention there. There are allusions to slices of carrots looking like coins and bringing good fortune. l assume these tabby kittens know something we do not. It’s a bit hard to understand what the creator of the card was thinking – let’s do kittens and carrots he said to himself.

The kits have a carrot each, large and small, as well as bows and bells. The one seems to be tackling the large one. The other one, more timid, just looks on. Below them A Happy New Year. The company that produced the card appears to be J.P. Belle, just identified as Belle in the lower right corner here. Founded in Paddington in 1881 it produced cards until 1939. The official name of the company was J.P. Beagles.

This postcard was addressed to: Madam Donshea, 22 East 21st St. New York City. It was mailed from Jersey City at 3:30 on December 31, just under the wire I would say.

It has me contemplating what I might cook up today and I have promised a friend this recipe so I thought I would share it with you as well. It is a good vegetarian base I use as a jumping off point for all kinds of soups to use up whatever is in the house at the moment. I do it by instinct now so I hope I have given complete instructions. Feel free to ask questions! Happy and healthy New Year to you all!

*A photo of the soup taken a while back but you get the idea. this version may have had spinach in it.*

Miso Soup Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 heaping tablespoon miso paste (dissolve in a small bowl of water
2 carrots, sliced thin
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 tablespoon gingerroot, chopped
Salt, pepper, bay (2 leaves), dried basil and oregano to taste. (I like Maresh red pepper which is a mild red pepper, but you can use black pepper.)
half a large red onion
2 containers of vegetable stock
1 container extra firm tofu (shrimp could be substituted)
Small bowl dried mushrooms (soaked in water – reserve the water for the broth)
Green beans (frozen or fresh) trimmed to bite sized
Fresh mushrooms, chopped, optional.
Half a cup wine or sherry to deglaze
3 chopped scallions
Italian flatleaf parsley
Frozen dumplings or pantry gnocchi as desired
Also optional: sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, mirin and balsamic vinegar. If you want this spicy jalapeno peppers can also be added.

Instructions:

Start the miso softening in water, mushrooms in a separate bowl.
Chop the onion, carrots, green beans, gingerroot and garlic and soften in olive oil. (If you are using shrimp add them after.) Add salt and pepper. Chop the parsley and set aside. Cut the tofu in bite size pieces and put aside.
Deglaze the pan with the wine or sherry. Add the dried mushrooms and liquid and then the broth and then the tofu. Bring to a boil and add the parsley, scallions and tofu.
Season to taste and add the optional seasoning now. Keep at a boil for a few minutes and then simmer and continue to adjust seasoning – I almost always need salt at this stage.
If using dumplings add them at the end, if frozen when the soup is at a boil, but just before serving or they will fall apart.
This essential base is a good vegetarian option for a number of soups – sometimes I add beans instead of tofu, or shrimp. Any number of vegetables can be added, corn is a favorite, diced tomato and sometimes I use creamed corn to thicken the soup as well – but potatoes can be used to thicken it too.

Picking

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I recently bought this photo in one of my jaunts to the Red Bank Antiques recently. It is the kind of quiet photo that catches my eye sometimes and seems fitting for the house here in New Jersey.

This pair has been picking something although hard to say what, my first thought was apples. I don’t know if this a local photo – there’s nothing on the back for date or location. Those wooden buckets could have held peaches or even cherries just as easily. There is a nice rock fence behind them.

The woman’s dress puts this at the 1910’s or there abouts. She looks cool despite her layers of cotton. The man looks a bit warmer in his rolled up shirtsleeves and suspenders. I love the way the sun filters through the leaves. I think it will find its way to our guest room in anticipation of a friend coming at the end of the week.

I wrote a post about picking cherries at my grandmother’s house as a kid. (It can be found here.) Those cherries were cooked down into preserves that we would eat all winter.

A friend suggested peach picking this summer, but we have not attempted it. The peaches seem a bit off this year and as a result I have taken to cooking them down in an easy recipe shared by a friend.

I take all my overripe fruit and cut it up – today will be peaches, nectarines and blueberries. I sprinkle just a bit of sugar, spoonful (I am using regular but you might want to use brown), lemon juice and most importantly lemon zest. Pop it in a baking dish at 375 for about 45 minutes until bubbly. Yummy hot, but great in yogurt or over ice cream once you have refrigerated.

Hot Stuff

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It has been quite a long time since I have written about food or offered a recipe. (A few popular recipe posts from the past can be found here and here.) Today’s post will supply a few simple recipes, but in fact pays tribute to a new condiment residing in my pantry, Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp. (Those of you who do not like spicy food can adapt both recipes below, which I initially made without the chili crisp!)

My appreciation for spicy food has ratcheted up over the last few years. The change has even made me wonder if my palate changed after losing my sense of taste for a period of time as a result of Covid. I gave myself a course of sniffing herbs, peppers and condiments to help bring it back. My friend Winsome showed me how to can my homegrown scotch bonnet and jalapeno peppers (a post can be read here) which landed in soups and stews for the most part, most notably turning my seafood stew into a much more spicy dish.

During Covid I had already found the joys of a regular use of red pepper and had settled on a mellow (not hugely spicy) Marash Red Pepper I found at Fairway. Subsequently they recently seem to have stopped selling it and replaced it with a similar Aleppo Style Chili Flakes which appear larger but very similar. I also mentioned buying some Marash or Aleppo pepper at a place selling fresh herbs I discovered in the West Village. (That post can be found here.)

That said, fresh ground black pepper definitely has its place and for many things I have become addicted to a salt grinder too – really ups my game on avocado toast – which incidentally still needs regular hot red pepper flakes. (I recently had a Cacio e Pepe pasta, worthy of every calorie, which reminded me of the greatness of fresh ground black pepper applied accordingly! For my avocado toast, a post can be found here.)

Anyway, onward to Fly By Jing Chili Crisp. Somehow at first I completely ignored the rising chili crisp enthusiasm. In fact, I believe I had an unopened jar in my pantry, purchased from Fresh Direct at some point, when one day after reading an article about how the author put it on everything I decided to give it a try.

*From the Fly by Jing website – fish sauce and chili crisp on ice cream sounds awful but this looks pretty darn good.*

I will start by saying, although I am a fan, I am not sure I belong in the mega-fan category. For example, I tried it on my eggs one morning and really thought meh. I have never tried it on ice cream (although I might given the right opportunity) and I don’t eat much white rice to pair it with. However, having said that, it gives an even greater kick to my seafood stew and it has really changed up a recipe I invented for salmon. There are a number of other products and although tempted by, let’s say, smoked salmon with chili crisp, the price, $40 for three small containers, discouraged my curiosity. (However, if anyone has tried this I would love to know!)

*Small and expensive tins of smoked salmon with the crisp available online.*

Founded in 2018, Fly by Jing appears to be owned by a young Asian woman (the Jing in the name, Jing Gao) originally from Chengdu, China where the products are made, although it is headquartered in Los Angeles. She claims that the product brings the taste of her grandmother’s chili crisp to every table and that she wishes to redefine the ethnic food aisle at the grocery store.

*Gift packs proliferated over the holidays but I don’t know anyone with my level of devotion to spicy!*

Without know this for a fact, my casual assessment is that it is indeed Fly by Jing in particular has ignited the chili crisp craze, although I currently have one from a local restaurant in my pantry to try. I have tried a few different varieties of Jing’s crisps and I have to admit I have not been entirely able to discern the difference between them. I seem to end up with the Sichuan. The company sells dumplings and other foods but I have not tried them. Variety gift packages were in evidence over the holidays.

So for starters, this stuff is pretty hot so start slow and find your level. The amounts I suggested in these recipes is calibrated to my own taste level. I also reference a nice premade curry sauce I keep in the pantry. There is a whole line of different curries and they are made by a company called Maya Kaimal. I prefer the Madras, although I have liked all I have tried.

The salmon recipe originated with some lovely homemade preserves a friend gave me. Failing that I am partial to marmalade for that recipe. You’ll note that I pop both into a pre-heated oven around 400 degrees. Generally I am already cooking something else in there so this is sort of natural. If not, I would definitely pre-heat the oven. Two recipes are below. I apologize for no pictures of the finished product. Let me know if you try them and certainly any interesting variations you might come up with!

Fast recipe for shrimp:

Pound of shrimp
Sliced mushrooms
Fresh or frozen peas/mixed veg
3-4 tablespoons Maya Kaimal Madras Curry sauce
Mix in Fly by Jing chili crisp to taste – I use about 1.5-2 tablespoons
Fresh ground salt and Marash pepper

Take a pound of shrimp, cleaned, no tails. Mix the curry sauce with the chili crisp. Spray a large skillet with olive oil and drop the shrimp into the hot pan. Season with the Marash pepper and ground salt and brown up, add some sliced mushrooms. Deglaze the pan with white wine (or I keep dry vermouth in the house for this purpose) and scrape with a wooden spoon. Add the frozen or fresh veggies remaining. Let that liquid cook down before covering the shrimp with the sauce and sticking in a pre-heated oven of about 400 degrees. Cook to the level of dryness you like, I usually leave in about 15 minutes.

Even faster recipe for salmon:

Salmon fillets, I usually get two 5 ounce fillets
Preserves, jam or marmalade, about 3 tablespoons
2 or more tablespoons Fly by Jing chili crisp
Ground salt and Marash pepper

Heat an ovenproof skillet sprayed with olive oil. Once hot, lay the fillets, skin side down in the pan. Season with the salt and pepper. Layer the preserves or marmalade onto the salmon and then “top” with the chili crisp in the middle. Place in the preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the marmalade starts to brown. (Note that the sticky pan is impossible to clean – you will curse me – until you let it sit with some water and soap and then just rinses away.)

Soup Days

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama has a recipe post today for the first time in a long time. Like many of my past recipe posts, this one is a soup recipe. I am a fan of soup and make big pots of it all winter long and vary our meals between it as a main course or a smaller bowl for a first course or even brought as lunch for work.

*I’m a tad obsessed with blue and white bowls here at the house in NJ and share a look at a couple here. My cabinet full at top.*

Previous posts have been devoted to my grandmother’s split pea soup recipe (here) and a pantry tomato based soup which I also doll up as the base for a fish stew. (That post can be found here.) For those of you who prefer baking, posts devoted to cookies, cheesy bread, and quick cakes can be found here, here, and here!

I had a hankering for today’s recipe which I have not made in a long time. As it happens I made a big pot of it – just in time to land myself in bed with a miserable head and chest cold. It makes me appreciate it even more.

*Getting a look at the miso paste in case you’ve never seen it! It has a long shelf life in the fridge and can also be used for a glaze or sauce base.*

Miso paste (fermented bean paste) is a very flexible base for a soup. This recipe can be made with fewer additions (just the miso broth and veggie stock) for a lighter soup. I’ve made it with shrimp instead of dumplings. Corn and tomatoes come and go. The tofu is a constant for me – giving the soup some ballast. Time has evolved the seasoning to include sesame oil, rice wine and rice vinegar which I keep on hand for a salmon miso glaze. Another option beyond hot peppers or hot sauce is a discovery I recently made of Fly by Jing Xtra Spicy Chili Crisp which I think might work to spice this soup up. (I especially like this chili crisp on my broiled salmon mixed with preserves like marmalade as a sweet and spicy glaze.)

Recipe found below. Hope you enjoy this and that you don’t wait until you are sick to have it either.

****

Miso based soup

Ingredients:

Carrots, onion, garlic, new potato chopped
Regular salt and black pepper, finish with ground sea salt and red maresh pepper
Optional jalapeno peppers, scotch bonnets, chopped
1 pepper, red or green, chopped
Tomato paste
Mushrooms (if using dried soak in water half hour and reserve water for broth)
Miso paste, two tablespoons dissolved in two cups of water
Green beans, chopped bite sized
1 can of creamed corn (optional)
1 can chopped tomato
Wine (white or red) to deglaze
Dumplings (or tortellini optional)
2 containers veggie broth
scallions

Seasoning to taste:

Balsamic vinegar
Rice wine
Sesame oil
Salt and pepper
Bay leaves
Marash red pepper

Instructions:

Soften carrots, onion, garlic and new potatoes, add tomato paste and season with salt and pepper. Add peppers including hot peppers if using them, mushrooms and green beans.

Deglaze pan. Add broth, miso, corn, chopped tomatoes, bay leaf. Add sesame oil (about a tablespoon), rice wine tablespoon, balsamic vinegar (depending on thickness and quality of balsamic to taste. Bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning using rock salt and marash pepper. Add chopped scallions and dumplings. Reduce to a low simmer. Continue to check and adjust seasoning.

Although I have written this up with hot peppers optional, hot sauce also does the job if you want to give folks the choice of a bit spicy or not.

Recipe makes about 4 32 oz containers or 8 large bowls of soup. You’ll need to add a bit of water when reheating as it will thicken considerably!

A Bowl of Cherries

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A few different things conspired to prompt a rather wonderful childhood memory recently. The first was our friend Bruce bringing over a bag of Ranier cherries – the ones that are sort of orange fading to a bright red, rather than the dark maroon of the more common ones. Despite the story I am going to tell, I somehow came to gobbling cherries late in life, but have eaten them with an abandon to make up for lost time. I generally buy the dark red ones, but cast no shade on the Ranier variety.

The next things was this little device shown at top – a cherry pitter. I also use it for pitting olives. I was in New Jersey a few weeks back and realized that I only had my decades old one, acquired in cooking school tucked happily away in our New York apartment.

Not much to look at yet it is perfectly adequate for these two tasks and if you are trying to cook with either cherries or olives it is a much needed and appreciated tool. To be without it means any chance of a perfectly sliced cherries or olives for decorative effect will likely not happen. I promptly ordered the contemporary equivalent from Amazon. I searched cherry olive pitter and there is was. The beauty of the internet age. I sent it to NJ and it was waiting for me when I got here on Wednesday; it is a decidedly zippier, upgraded version. A happy summer of cherry and olive pitting awaits.

Meanwhile, the memory in question was one of an annual cherry picking at my grandmother’s house. She had an enormous Ranier cherry tree in the backyard. In retrospect as an adult I don’t think I realized that cherry trees got that big. It required a proper ladder to get to the top.

*Was actually a bit hard to find a photo online of a large-ish one. My grandmother’s was much larger than this!* *It makes me remember it being in bloom though.*

Anyway, the kids, spouses of kids and grandkids were all assembled and we picked cherries all day. There were sea green plastic buckets I can still see in my mind and we filled them with those orangey red cherries. My grandmother would then take them and cook them down and can them. They would supply pie filling and get spread on toast for the rest of the year and long winter ahead. (Mom’s mom who I have written about before here with a historic photo of that yard – sadly the tree was in the other direction and would have been tiny!)

Oddly, I don’t remember eating them off the tree. Now, I was at the time probably the youngest family member of the team, probably about five or six at the time I am describing before my brother was born. Perhaps my mother, always a worrier, didn’t want me eating pit filled cherries. I can see her fretting about that. Anyway, I didn’t and somehow didn’t really get into the swing of eating cherries until I was more or less an adult. If I were able to visit that tree today I’d be popping half in my mouth as I went, eating my body weight in cherries off the tree.

On one of those days I remember it ending in, if not a barbeque at least a picnic. (My Italian grandmother wasn’t really much into barbeque – she liked to cook her food on her stove and in her oven and make the table grown with delicacies which were not of the grilled burger variety.) I wandered around and found my way to a small tree. Much to my horror, as I touched the tree I was immediately covered with ants! I screamed the way only a small child shocked by ants can scream. It took a minute for mom to figure out what was wrong with me, get them off and set me right. (Tree must not have been well to be full of ants, but I don’t remember much about it.)

*Dusk on the deck with the fairy lights on. Deck (and lights) had to be completely redone last fall – boards were all rotted! This is my first evening of return on investment! Well worth it.*

Perhaps that memory came back to me because as I write this I am sitting on my deck in New Jersey, in the evening of July 4. Next to me on the fence I share with my neighbor, I discovered a huge and evidently industrious ant colony. I can see those hard working fellows even by the dim light of my fairy lights out here. Do ants ever stop and rest? These don’t appear to as I spotted them early this morning and they are still at it.

*On of the solar lights I have around which I love!*

A gentle boom, boom of distant fireworks is going off, but not enough to bother either me or the five New Jersey cats who have had their dinner and are largely sleeping. Fireflies have come out and look like miniature versions of the fairy lights. (People ask me if we still have fireflies and I am glad to assure them we do – have they really disappeared from places?) The mosquitoes, whose enthusiasm for my flesh has been somewhat tempered by some spray will chase me in soon. But my first evening on the deck this year and I guess summer has begun.

*The back gate! Newly installed light here also last fall – so we have a bit of light coming and going at night. It is motion activated.*

Packed Like Sardines

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This unusual item crossed my path while strolling through the online shop for Ghost Era Antiques (@ghost_era or ghostera.com) recently. There was something compelling about it, but it wasn’t until it nagged at my brain for several days that I went back and purchased it. Before doing so, I did a quick bit of research and was surprised to find that sardine boxes were indeed a Victorian thing and that once you start to look there are many in a variety of sizes and with many levels of decoration, ranging from plainer than this one to ones of majolica greatness.

*Majolica beauty, not in my collection.*

As one site states, the Victorians couldn’t resist a specific dish for a special food and back in that day sardines fell into that category. There is something wholly satisfying and pleasing about this plump fellow acting as the handle on this be-flowered container. I would have thought it a tad small for sardines, but I guess not because all the sardine boxes I have viewed online seem to fall into this range. (Perhaps I am thinking of those rather extra large Italian ones?) I can’t help but wonder if there was a sardine fork or device for removing them for consumption.

I imagine that in its day the gold was a bit brighter and less worn which would have given it more sparkle. It has a few well hidden, fine cracks in it and I don’t know that it would be entirely leak proof if challenged.

*Peering inside! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

While I am generally a contented consumer of fish and sea beasts, sardines and anchovies have long left me cold – too salty and oily. (Having said that I do religiously keep anchovy paste in the pantry which does a nice job of enriching soups and stews without having to contend with consuming the entire fish. I highly recommend this particular cooking hack.)

Sardines consumed as a delicacy seem to come on the scene in the late 15th century, kept in brine. Canning came along in the 19th century and one site says that canned sardines were served as an elegant and exotic course for fine dining as late as the 1860’s. (This same site assures me that yes, special tongs and forks were a part of the show.) And those tins were still laboriously made by hand. However, by the early 1900’s their veneer of exoticism fades and they become fare for the working class blue plate special. How far in prestige they did fall!

Turns out that there are a myriad of fish covered under the canned rubric of sardine including, but clearly not limited to pilchards, silds or sprats, and at one time even herring, although I guess someone put an end to that with some truth in advertising. At first we in the US seemed to get them largely from France (they had the good sense to fry them before canning), although those herring were being canned in Maine where these canned treats became a major boom, and of course ultimately bust business. The East coast sardine biz was referred to as Sardineland and the West coast had the more familiar sounding, Cannery Row. The fish themselves ultimately largely disappeared from these locales as I gather is also their pattern.

Evidently sardines tucked away in olive oil are also aged by some, like fine wine, in cool cellars, largely in Europe. 10, 15 and even 30 years marinating is mentioned. I am not sure this increases their potential appeal in my estimation.

My box will likely reside either in my office or in New Jersey to serve as a pin box of sorts for odds and ends. I must say, I wouldn’t hesitate to invest in one of these other beauties, should ones like them ever cross my path – perhaps a whole new avenue of collecting here at Pictorama.

Avocado Toast and Coffee

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Ongoing readers know that I have temporarily shifted my base to New Jersey to help with the care of my mom. This is rough going – a marathon interspersed with sprints in runner’s terms. For those of us who have been here ongoing, this last length of it is exhausting. Despite feeling like I have been training for it it takes a toll on body and mind.

I have written before (find it here) about the extraordinary care mom gets from the folks we have assembled here. They gently lift my mood and spirits daily with their efficiency and affection. Among them a sign that I am in residence has been a pot of freshly perked coffee on the stove. These days made early enough for the night shift before they leave and enough for the morning folks coming in. Coffee drinking is now a two pot affair which continues through late morning – maybe a final cup for some at lunch although I am well done by then myself.

I have written about my coffee preferences (here) which are old fashioned – I use a stainless steel percolator. (The same as I use at home.) The younger nurses have never even seen this method of making coffee and they are now all studying it and my technique. I am reviving this method of coffee making single handedly! It has the decided advantage of filling the house with the smell of freshly brewed coffee in a way that no other method can do. I go through a lot of coffee these days and while I am not devoted to one in particular I purchase good coffee from a variety of places. We need good coffee.

My mom has always made sure that the house is full of good food for the folks who come and go. She orders prepared food from Fresh Direct or a local farm market gone gourmet store, Sickles. (My first cat, Otto, came from that farm and as a result would go nuts at the smell of corn silk.) However, as days here for me turned into weeks, and my waistline increased despite maintaining my 25 miles or so of running weekly, I started to take things into my own hands.

A good friend makes sure I get out of the house beyond my run daily and that often takes the form of grocery shopping. I have embraced Trader Joe’s with fervor (I don’t live or work near one in Manhattan) while also learning about the ins and outs of the local Dollar store (where everything is $1.25) and an enormous Shop-Rite which I think might be the size of a city block!

Along with this I have of course started cooking. It happened slowly. First making eggs for myself and Winsome when she is on in the morning. Over medium with half a bagel with a recent foray into a cheesy well-done omelet. My friend Suzanne plies us with homemade French Toast as well and that has become a favorite, with people snacking on it until late in the morning.

*The basic salad – cheese and other bits are on the side.*

As a need for greens meant that daily salads (what I would eat at work most days anyway) have become the vogue. Quantities of green leafy vegetables, cucumbers and tomatoes make the base, along with a complement of nuts, raisons and olives, but leftovers or things that need eating find their way in – or around.

One day while munching salad I decided I needed something more and a yen for avocado toast possessed me. We had been putting avocado in the salad but I took half of one, toasted half an everything bagel, drizzled olive oil, lime juice, crushed red pepper, rocky salt. Well, I just set off a fire storm of avocado toast madness which swept through our small caregiving community! I have been churning out avocado toast for someone at breakfast, lunch or dinner ever since – who knew? It is spreading to their families and I am writing out the simple instructions – something of a run on crushed red pepper as a result..

I am branching out into dinner – a pasta with shrimp the other evening followed by salmon in miso marinade. (Have I ever mentioned that I was a professional chef before I was a fundraiser?) I am introducing folks to new ingredients and combinations. While mom cannot eat most of what I make, she is enjoying the smells of cooking and the community of shared homemade meals. I want her to feel that sense of a home inhabited and food being served to all with love which is what she would want to do if she could.

My being here means that poor Kim has been temporarily abandoned in New York and I feel bad writing about feeding folks here while he is fending for himself. However, I will be back to New York a bit this week and hope to make it up to you Kim! Miss you Sweetie!

Marinade for Miso Glazed Salmon: Equal parts (one tablespoon works for me) honey, miso paste, mirin, sesame oil and rice wine. Wisk together, marinade for at least 20 minutes, salt and pepper the filets. Drop into a hot pan sprayed with olive oil, allow to cook on the skin side and pop into a pre-heated oven at 450 for about 20-30 minutes, depending on your stove. I let it get brown on the top.

January Madness

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s an overcast Saturday morning here in New York City and there is a light bit of snow blowing outside. This has put my deep desire for a late morning run in question and makes me vaguely peevish. Kim has misplaced several key drawings for his next story (five or so luscious large pencil pages) and is slowing spreading the latter part of an almost finished graphic novel across our one room apartment in search of them. The pages have not left the apartment so we know they are here. A thorough search of piles of original art is underway. A certain frantic undertone to the commencement of our weekend here at Deitch Studio.

Meanwhile, Blackie is snoring softly behind me on a very large box which contains an air fryer. While I am a bit curious about air fryers I never would have purchased one (let alone such a large one) except we’ve been informed that a city mandated gas inspection, which commenced Friday, has our cooking gas turned off. It will take a minimum of 6-8 months, but many buildings report that it has taken up to two years or more. (Yes, you read that correctly – they are turning off our cooking gas for what could be years.)

*The model chosen after reading the NYT Wirecutter and other reviews.*

I have moments of thinking that maybe it would be worth getting involved in City policy long enough to eliminate this bit of idiocy which is based on an incident where someone tied out an illegal gas line with a garden hose and the building ultimately blew up. Manhattan, perhaps all five boroughs, are looking now to eliminate gas cooking. This is a concept that could ultimately roust me from my perch here in New York City – gas cooking is beloved to me.

*Life without making soup seems dreadful so I purchased this as well. Let’s see how I do with these new toys.*

So, for now and despite Blackie’s fondness for the aforementioned box, I will spend this weekend unpacking the air fryer and an Instant Pot. (I cannot live without soup. One of several recipes can be found here.) I will rearrange our tiny kitchen and somehow fit these new appliances in – some of my beloved larger pots and pans can live in the oven I guess. (An ode to a dying fry pan can be found here.) Of course the adventure of learning to cook with them remains – I suspect you will receive further details. We have a microwave as well which I have generally only used to heat leftovers, but will be pressed into service. I have tried to amass groceries for easy execution at first, baby steps.

*Blackie in full possession of the air fryer box.*

Maybe the toaster can live in our storage locker and give us back another 12 inches of counter space? Electrical outlets have become prized real estate overnight and we are grateful for a renovation which added one. Additionally, there are two electric burners which the building assigned to us as a stove top. I hear rumors that the power draw for them is huge and that they cannot be used in tandem with the other appliances. Note taken, but I think we can look forward to the odd days when we space on that and blow a fuse.

At work Covid is stealthily making its way through the office again. We talk about it less, but staff are sick with it or living with people who have it. Most of the rules and protocols have fallen away and we are left to our own devices, instructing people to stay home and test – five days clear? I think there is a sense that people will just get it and get it again and again, but we do need to think about the people for whom it can be dangerous for various reasons, or like me have someone in their life who is fragile physically.

Along those lines my mom was diagnosed with pneumonia last week, not surprising given her immobility. I have home tested for Covid, but will go out and get a PCR test in case I need to go back to New Jersey. I mentally add it to the list I am making for this weekend.

I have long thought that TS Eliot had it wrong – it is January not April which is the cruelest month. For me it has uneasy memories of illness commencing and death, truly the nadir of each year which then needs to be reincarnated annually. (Oddly I am a bit distrustful of August too.) There is a gentle but persistent, burgeoning insanity that is barely kept in check in the month of January.

However, the pages in question above have been located at last. Kim is now contentedly inking a page which was his intention when he discovered the pencils missing, so a calm has returned to the house. He has promised to bring me a cup of take out coffee from the diner so I don’t have to face the electric burner and coffee pot quite yet. Blackie has moved onto the bed making way for me to unpack the air fryer and at least for the moment the flurries have paused so maybe I will get my run in. January is half over, we’re turning the corner and soon February will dawn a bit brighter.