2020. TYIL.

(PANDEMIC PART 2)

A common abbreviation among posters in Reddit, Facebook, et al. is TIL – Today I Learned. Well, in 2020 I learned a number of things. For one thing my capacity to sit in a chair staring into space pouting about my lot in life if not infinite at least has a lot of depth. If it hadn’t been for many of the following, I might still be sitting there. Hence – This Year I Learned:

Brownies. I could devote an entire blogpost concerning the Brownie recipe from Susan Delbert, head chef at the National Press Club. It remains one of the best, most comforting sweet treats ever devised. If you need something to ease your psychic distress, this might do the trick.

Scrambling and Poaching Eggs. The Washington Post food column, Voraciously, is one of the best ways to learn to cook and try new recipes. It’s well-written and on the strength of the prose alone I have been encouraged to try such dishes as Cabbage Braised in Apple Cider (pretty good). But the most interesting columns were on eggs. Apparently I have been scrambling eggs ALL WRONG for my entire life. I had no idea. What I learned from Becky Krystal: salt your eggs (I hold back on salt with everything) and beat in at least a tablespoon of butter (who knew), but my major mistake was using a whisk for scrambling eggs. Never, ever use a whisk. Use a fork. I forget why (here is the article), but when using a fork and beating in butter, these scrambled eggs are delightfully fluffy and don’t stick to the pan at all.

They are so delicious I’m afraid I’ve eaten a LOT of scrambled eggs since then.

Concerning poaching eggs: I love poached eggs. I love eggs benedict. One of our favorite go-to quick dinners has been corned beef hash (Libby’s) topped with fried eggs, but always preferred a poached egg which was an elusive creation. Elusive, no more, after I followed the advice of Becky Krystal again in Voraciously (go here) which was, and I quote, “just poach the damn egg.” I followed the instructions, and voila, perfectly poached and no more fried eggs for us.

Butter. Let me say a word here about butter. Butter cannot be overrated. I once heard a story of someone’s grandmother who ended every meal with a pat of butter as a dessert. Yes, she ate a pat of butter which might seem a little much to some but I’ve been known to just have a pat of butter myself as a treat while cooking. Most Brownie recipes call for 1-1/2 sticks of butter. The National Press Club Brownie recipe mentioned earlier requires two whole sticks – pretty sure this is why it is so superior. And then there’s the butter beaten into scrambled eggs. The movie Julie and Julia (2009) is a charming ode to Julia Child and the simple pleasure of cooking. This quote from that film says it all about butter:

“I cooked artichokes with hollandaise sauce which is melted butter that’s been whipped into a frenzy with egg yolks until it’s died and gone to heaven, and let me say this: is there anything better than butter? Think it over: every time you taste something that’s delicious beyond imagining and you say, “What is in this?”, the answer is always going to be, Butter. The day there’s a meteorite heading toward the earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here’s my final words on the subject, you can never have too much, butter.”

Julie Powell on Butter in the movie, Julie and Julia (2009)

Cast iron pan pizza. What can I say? For years I made homemade pizza using the pizza dough recipe in that culinary bible, The Joy of Cooking, but gradually got out of the habit especially since the daughters had left home and our elderly menu seemed to preclude pizza. Plus I mourned the loss of Luigi’s on Rt. 1 – a marvelous restaurant that featured wine barrel dining booths and pizza that has become more glorious in memory than it probably was. I fondly remember the maître d’ singing Lucevan e stelle. <sigh> Luigi’s hasn’t been a fixture in the local dining scene for more than thirty years, having been succeeded by a cosmopolitan buffet, a chinese restaurant, and now a Walgreen’s which doesn’t serve food. But as usual, I digress. Once again, a mention in Voraciously, caused me to renew my acquaintance with pizza. This time the column touted the crunch of the crust made in a cast-iron pan (here). Well having a cast-iron pan and longing for the delights of gooey cheese and sauce and that promised crunch, I gave this a try. The results were, well let’s just say we have pizza once a week now and one of my favorite Christmas presents was a 14-inch cast-iron pizza pan – bigger pizza, thinner crust, same delicious crunch.

Chili. For many years I have been known as an excellent chili cook. After all I won the chili cook-off twice at my last place of employment. My chili recipe is ALWAYS in a state of evolution. The chili recipe that I originally used to economically fill up two active daughters is not the recipe that won the chili cook-off. I have researched chili recipes extensively, most notably with the comprehensive history of chili in A Bowl of Red which has excited in me a desire to visit Big Bend National Park and the Original Terlingua International Championship Chili Cook-off. Again, I digress. For years I’ve been operating with two chili recipes, one made with smoked brisket (a laborious all day project) and one derived from the recipe favored by Lyndon Johnson which is much simpler. At any rate, while in quarantine, I successfully married elements of each to produce a less time-consuming but family-beloved concoction. I even, at the behest of my SIL, added black beans since I’m not entering any more chili contests. I try to keep four quarts in the freezer at all times. Chili season in Hybla Valley is deemed November – April, May through October being just a little too warm or busy to make chili.

Video Production. As I mentioned in Pandemic Part 1, I have become something of a minor expert in creating small videos of readings for my church’s Sunday morning zoomed services. This has become a creative outlet that my husband always says was just lying in wait. (“But what she really wants to do is direct.”) Here is a short (2.5 minutes) video featuring a reading of the poem, “Dimetrodon’s Sail” by Jeff Moss from his book, Bone Poems.

Renewing my love of poetry. This next is really weird. Here’s the stack of poetry books I purchased in 2020:

This probably needs it’s own blogpost. Yeah, let’s do that. But, suffice it to say, this was a notable part of 2020. I could write a paragraph about why I purchased each book and a notable poem in each. But I do think this got out of hand, partly because it was so easy to just order another book from Amazon and partly because I liked getting packages. And don’t think I didn’t already have a collection of books devoted to poetry.

Cats. Two cats moved in with us in August 2020. Because their parents are still nomadic and haven’t found an apartment yet, the cats are still living with us. Prior to this experience, our longest sojourn with a cat was approximately four weeks and it was only one cat. Entering their sixth month with us, Indy and Barry have taught us much. So much so, that in the future they will get their own blogpost.

January 15, 2021