A jumble of thoughts including an act of kindness, winter, and a cat

Today was the first day in ages that I believed winter would, at some point, end. Every year, I reach a breaking point: sick of cold, of wet, of soggy earth, of layers and bundling, of chapped noses, dead grass, and that dreadful gray-white shroud covering the sky. I feel bleak and enervated.

It continues to be revoltingly soggy today- our yard is but a sponge. But after lunch, the sun showed itself and the temperature crept well north of “this just sucks,” and I was able to do some yard work and listen to the birds, and uncover tulip shoots and various other evidences of life, and it felt good. We probably have three or four weeks left of definite chill, but in spotting so many tiny buds today, and that green that only means and rejoices that spring is coming, I was replenished with faith.

After I forced myself in, exhausted from transplanting a large azalea and filling three bins with yard debris, I sat in my library working and looking out front. The kids and Tom were showering, and I was catching up on a bit of work. Out of one window, I saw someone tinkering with the dog-poop bag bin I’d hung from a yield sign in our yard. In all honesty, I assumed the worst: that someone was peevish about my desire to stop neighbors from leaving their dog crap in my gardens and planned to make a statement. Such reactions seem disturbingly common these days. Ugliness, entitlement, rampant examples of “the rules don’t apply to me.” It’s like watching the social contract break down on a daily basis.

So it was the most wonderful surprise when I realized that a neighbor I don’t know terribly well but whose family I am deeply fond of and feel we take care of each other when need be (they checked in so lovingly when Nut was hit; we always talk when they’re out walking their hound; they borrowed our Corn Hole set; I hire their daughter to check in with Nut during days no one is here with him) was repairing my dog waste bag bin and rewriting the message to please clean up which has faded in the past few months. My heart nearly burst with this kindness. An acquaintance noticed that my attempt at hosting a poop-bag station needed tending and took it upon himself to do so. Yes, he and his family always clean up after their dog and they have mentioned being irritated by poop left in their yard, but still. They live several streets down, and I am just so very touched by their attention to community and people with whom they have some connection. It’s lovely to the nth.

Experiences like this are good things, because the news in America is beyond heinous and I feel extremely dismayed on the regular. Sometimes I think all we can do is try and make our immediate communities better: our childrens’ schools, our neighborhood, our workplace friends, our personal friends, the things we value within all that like animals and the environment.

Perhaps because of winter, perhaps the news, perhaps the ascent into my 40s, perhaps having seen some really ugly behavior this year at the macro and micro levels, I find myself more carefully considering with whom and how I spend my time. I have zero interest in competition of any kind; I simply want to keep learning, encourage kindness, laugh, and try to take life’s pace down a notch or ten.

I’ve been using our Instant Pot (y’all try Melissa Clark’s turkey meatloaf with sriracha), loved celebrating Mardi Gras with the kids, and on one of the many recent school days off took the kids and one of Ol’s best pals to R&R in the cat cafe in Georgetown (Crumbs & Whiskers) and its new pop-up, the Kitten Lounge. I am telling you, lounging on plush futons with purring, playful, soft animals is legitimately therapeutic.

I fell in love with a diminutive slate gray lady cat nestled in a basket. So many of the kittens and cats were darling and tugged at our hearts, but this little cha cha really caught me. I said to Jack, “What’s her name?” As he flipped over her tag, I gasped: RBG. Her flipping name is RBG.

People, is there more of a cat for me (other than the one I already have)? There is not. Jack was like, “Mom, start texting Dad.” Obviously, I already was. He actually wore down pretty quickly; I think he knew objecting was a lost cause. Plus, Tom is a sucker for attractive animals, and, as you can see, RBG is a looker.

Right?

We put in an application and headed home, hopeful that Ruth’s adoption would be as simple as was Nutmeg’s.

Nutmeg wondered what was up, post cat cafe, based on my socks.

Nutmeg wondered what was up, post cat cafe, based on my socks.

It really hasn’t been, y’all. We still don’t have the cat. We met her more than a week and a half ago. We have subjected Nut to a blood test to prove that he doesn’t have feline leukemia (even though he is totally current on his vaccines), we have bought everything needed to get ready for Roux (we’re actually naming her Roux Bader Grossi, keeping the RBG but making it our own), and I have done every bit of research I can on introducing new cats to each other. I would not feel so rushed if spring break weren’t approaching and we were leaving. I do not want our poor house sitter to have feline mayhem on her hands.

I know this is ridiculously small-fry, but can we just have our cat?! This bespoke collar, a gift of talent and love from my friend Dakota, awaits.

a kitten-sized dissetn collar

a kitten-sized dissetn collar

I am thrilled to pay for and adopt the cat. OMG, don’t shelter cats need good homes by the millions? I deeply appreciate the thorough placement and thoughtfulness, but I just want my darling girl. We were supposed to get her today, but now it’s Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, be kind. Be generous. Send vibes of warmth and life and goodness.

updates re: the Instant Pot

Friends, So many of you have been veerry enthused about my Instant Pot experiences so far, so I thought I’d share some new recipes and one new accessory that I highly recommend.

Several people waxed rhapsodic about making hardboiled eggs in the IP. Oliver and Tom can clear through a dozen HB eggs in no time flat, but I don’t love boiling them because of shell-cracking and the ridiculously frustrating experience of attempting to peel seemingly super-glue-adhered shells from the egg itself without losing approximately a third of the white. With hope, I bought this stainless stackable egg-steaming rack which can accommodate 14 eggs and fits perfectly in the 6-quart IP.

After four minutes in low pressure, we had gloriously light and fluffy hard-”boiled” eggs whose shells released easily. This is a game changer, y’all.

Secondly, I have, since last writing, made two additional recipes from the Melissa Clark book, Comfort in an Instant, that I recommend to you enthusiastically, the first especially.

  1. Red Wine Brisket with Prunes

  2. Chocolate-Bourbon Lava Cakes

Prunes, wine, bay leaves, cinnamon, and beef are a mighty fine combination of flavors, y’all. That brisket was tender as can be and the carrots were like my Nanny’s used to be in the roasts she’d cook: they still looked like carrots in terms of holding shape, but they could almost be spread by a knife, so tender were they. I don’t think I’ve made the boys brisket before, and they are now huge fans. Plus, the leftovers are great.

For Valentine’s Day dessert, I made the chocolate lava cakes, long one of Tom’s favorite treats. They were really easy to put together and took just 9 minutes to cook and 3 to rest. Oliver thought they were heavenly; Jack didn’t like them, but he generally doesn’t like cake or oozy stuff so I wasn’t surprised. The texture was vaguely rubbery but, oddly, not really in a bad way. None of us could taste the bourbon, but that’s fine.

And just to get my non-IP cooking life on, I also made a gumbo. It’s always a good time for gumbo, and this one was superb.

Just look at that roux as it browns. Et voilà!

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the Instant Pot

Good morning, friends. Since receiving my Instant Pot (IP), I’ve made a variety of dishes to try and figure the contraption out. Is it worth it? What does it do well? What does it do less well? Do I recommend one and why?

What I bought:

I purchased the 6-quart Instant Pot Ultra. It comes with a steam rack (with handles), recipe booklet, two plastic serving spoons, and a plastic 1-cup measuring cup. In addition, I purchased two additional sealing rings because pretty much every review said that savory things infuse the ring with savory pungency which one would not want in, say, a cheesecake; a 7-inch removable base pan (I bought this one because although it’s not a springform proper, it’s made of stainless versus weird teflon stuff and I just prefer cooking as cleanly as possible, especially at high pressure and high temps); and two cookbooks, Dinner in an Instant and Comfort in an Instant, both by Melissa Clark.

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Why I bought those items, and my thoughts on them:

The Instant Pots come in 3-, 6-, and 8-quart size. For a family of four, 3-quart is very small in my opinion, and for things like roasts, I thought it’d feel cramped. 8-quart is on the big side for a family of four, and because I wasn’t sure how much I’d cotton to this machine, I didn’t feel like spending the extra money on an 8. The six is just right.
The handled steam rack is essential in my opinion, but I doubt I will ever use the plastic spoons or measuring cup. To be fair, I’ll probably never use the recipe booklet either. The instruction manual is seriously lacking so although it gives you a decent overview, please heed the advice of my dear friend, S, who sent me straightaway to YouTube. I watched one and a half videos and was set.

I knew I wanted to make a cheesecake sooner rather than later, both because I’ve heard it’s one of the things IP does best and because a 7” cheesecake (the size a 6-quart IP can make) is infinitely more family-friendly than a 9” or 10”er. Neither of the boys eats cheesecake, Tom is dieting, and there’s only so much cheesecake you can eat, freeze, and give away. So, the desire to make cheesecake prompted the purchase of the additional sealing rings and the 7” removable base pan. More on the cheesecake below.

Many IP recipes beyond cheesecakes do call for a springform or removable base pan; meatloaf for example. Assuming I would try some of those made me even more willing (beyond the stainless factor) to pay up for the nice ekovana pan I bought. Also, it has a handle which is fabulous. You need an assist lifting hot pans out of a hot, relatively narrow pot, and I knew I’d be irritated if every single time I had to fashion a foil sling to enable removal.

Lastly, the cookbooks. Melissa Clark is one of my favorite cooks. Her recipes are almost always delicious and successful. In addition, I am an experienced cook with an extensively stocked pantry at my disposal, and my whole family really likes to eat interesting things. This is why I bypassed all the starter IP cookbooks, and because I don’t need to cook for any specific diet, I bypassed all those books too (the good news is that there are SO MANY IP cookbooks for all level of experience, culinary preference, diet, and so forth.) I beelined for Melissa’s books because I was tired, short on time, and already trust and like her style.

Overall: I am pleased with and do recommend every purchase I’ve described above.

What I’ve made in my IP so far:

All are from the two aforementioned cookbooks:

  • Lemon Chicken with Garlic + Olives

  • Easy Weeknight Chili

  • Chipotle Pork Tacos

  • Black Beans with Green Chiles + Cumin

  • Salmon with Lemon-Caper Butter

  • Ginger-Lemon Cheesecake

  • Cod + Potato Chowder (though I made it with clams)

I chose these recipes to test a spectrum of foods, textures, and cooking techniques in the IP. (I also made wild rice but mis-measured the water so am not including that here.)

Reviews of those dishes:

The lemon chicken was the first recipe I tried. Why I chose it, I’m not sure as it calls for chicken thighs and I loathe chicken thighs, but lemon, garlic, and olives sounded so good, so I made it with four thighs and two boneless breasts and served everything over egg noodles as MC suggested. The kids LOVED the meal and much preferred the thighs, as, frankly, did I and Tom.

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The reason is a clue to one thing the IP is especially good for: higher-fat meats that can be tough when cooked incorrectly. Under pressure, the proteins and cell walls soften such that the result is fall-off-the-bone tender and juicy meat. In contrast, the boneless breasts were tough, flavorless, and not really worth eating. The lemon, garlic, and olives stayed intact but helped make a fragrant broth that was really lovely atop the noodles.

easy weeknight chili, unadorned

easy weeknight chili, unadorned

The next night, I made the chili. The kids LOVE chili but my go-to is the Silver Palate Chili for a Crowd which is perfect and sublime but not fast. MC offers a chili recipe in each of the books I bought and for no good reason, I simply chose the Easy Weeknight chili first. It was fine. Not bad at all and definitely easy and quick, but it did need some flair at the end so if you do make it, go forth with the sour cream and avocado, lime and salt.

Next I made the cheesecake and salmon, not together, obviously. While the cheesecake’s texture was incredibly creamy, consistent, and smooth, it was ugly as sin. I will absolutely try another cheesecake in the IP as it takes roughly a third less of the time than it does in the oven and the texture is dreamy (and it didn’t crack!), but the top looked like a steamed bun rather than a slightly-golden-on-the-edges-and-a-lovely-cream-in-the-middle cheesecake.

The kids thought the salmon was the best they’d ever had. Tom and I thought it was fine- I prefer to do it in the oven, but if the kids devour 6 ounces each in no time flat AFTER, by the way, the fish taking one minute on high pressure to cook, well, I will make it for them any time. That said, no salmon takes all that long, so…

On Saturday, we made clam and potato chowder. It was nice but a bit thin. More dainty vichyssoise than hearty chowder. I honestly didn’t even know you could make chowder with just a quarter-cup of cream, but go forth, MC. Not sure I’d make it again.

Yesterday, I made the chipotle pork tacos with the green chile and cumin black beans to go alongside. The pork was off the hook good, again proving that meats that really need to be cooked long and slow or at high-arse pressure are one thing the Instant Pot is truly made for. I pulled the hunks of pork shoulder out with wide tongs, just barely making each piece to the cutting board before they fell apart.

Not usually a fan of chipotles, here they’re terrific in concert with fresh orange juice, a generous dash of cider vinegar, and a whole slew of other spices.

chipotle pork tacos

chipotle pork tacos

The beans, while still in need of seasoning after the fact, are nonetheless another example of Instant Pot stars. How many of you never deal with dried beans because who remembers to soak them overnight and then cook them long enough in advance of actually needing cooked beans? I have many dusty bags of hopeful dried beans on my pantry shelf for just this reason.

In the Instant Pot, dried black beans start to satiny finish took under an hour. Tonight we had leftovers with hot rice and salsa.

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Do I recommend buying an Instant Pot?

If it’s in your budget and you have space to store it and eat meat, I definitely recommend this. I’m less certain about its applications for vegetarians unless you want to prepare and eat dried beans on the very regular. I can envision myself using this once a week or so.

Part of my reaction here is due to the fact that I like doing things from scratch and with attention to detail. This is why not a few people were shocked that I bought an IP. I love to roll a pie crust and stir a roux and watch jam come together, tasting all the while. I like listening to a pot of soup bubbling away on the stove on a cold day, and I like opening a hot oven and letting the steam give me a quick facial before I turn the pot or the cake or whatever. We are all so sped up all the time, and I just want to stop sometimes; to just stop being driven by efficiency and the clock.

That said, Jack had banjo until 6:40 tonight, and he and I got home with the groceries near 7. Oliver was pouting about how much homework he had because he didn’t chunk it well since Friday, and you can bet I do NOT have a full meal in me right now. Also, I was getting bored with all I was preparing.

I’m grateful for tasty leftovers in the same way I was last week grateful for tender chicken quickly made and served over freshly cooked egg noodles. I can absolutely see the virtue of this pot on harried, tired nights when you nonetheless want to serve your family a hot meal made in your kitchen.

As all IP reviews say, you need to figure out what’s in the Venn diagram of what you like to cook and eat and what the IP does well. If you can figure out that set, you’ll be glad to have one of these on hand!

PS- for tech-minded kids, this seems to be exciting. Jack has eagerly eaten every single thing I’ve cooked in this (despite being the pickiest eater in my family which is both saying very little and saying a lot) because he is fascinated by how pressure impacts cook speed. If you have such a child and plan to introduce an IP, go nuts describing the slashed cook times on things like dried beans and meats that need a long bake. Perhaps you’ll get lucky like I have.