If we had a catchphrase at Lit Hub this week, it could be the bard’s whole bit on music and the food of love. Your favorite masthead has been eating, cooking, baking, nesting, and jamming.
Jonny Diamond reports from the backyard apple tree where he and his toddler have had some fruitful picking sessions. Diamond’s wife Sarah has been turning the hand-harvested apples into cakes, sauces, and crumbles—with special props given to this crowd-pleasing cake recipe.
While our editor wishes to emphasize that neither he nor Sarah have ever employed the #TradWife hashtag, he did also complete a new home improvement project this week. The Diamond kitchen now contains a built-in storage bench, so the expanding gang can “have roomier family dinners.”
As with the apples, the joy is in abundance. The more, the merrier.
James Folta has also been busy in the kitchen. Our staffer’s been enjoying back pocket recipes lately—with the first one inspired by Richard Olney, the Iowan painter, food writer, and Parisian ex-pat.
Perhaps best known “as a student and champion of French country food and techniques,” Olney was the seed from which a lot of great American chefs sprouted. James being just one of them.
“I love his cookbook Simple French Food, and when I see some good mushrooms for sale, I make his Mushrooms Provençal,” says our staffer. “It’s very easy—you basically just sweat and toss the mushrooms in some chopped garlic and parsley—but filling. You can make it look pretty too, if you’re trying to win a vegetarian’s heart.”
The second surefire hit is Jacques Pépin’s Chicken in Mustard Sauce. “The sauce is incredibly silky for how few ingredients it has,” James says. And the recipe apparently scales nicely, if one is cooking for extended family.
A final tip, from the chef? “Both of these are very simple recipes, but reward attention. Cook them patiently.”
Oliver Scialdone has been carving laughs into the day. Specifically, our community editor has been asking the question, “Will MomTok survive this?” in response to small inconveniences.
“Even though it’s this little dumb thing, it makes a day where literally nothing is working out feel so much less evil,” Oliver observes. It really is the little things.
Drew Broussard is on a music high. Our podcasts editor is specifically loving the new Julia Jacklin record. The Gem is the fourth album from the pleasingly off-kilter Australian singer-songwriter whose songs hit like good stories.
On the other end of the genre spectrum, Drew’s also been digging the first two singles off Aesop Rock’s new joint with Blockhead. The production choices on Trouble Mountain are apparently “lush and delightful.” But the bigger takeaway may be the sense that the kids are alright, musically-speaking.
Says Drew, “a friend was bemoaning recently that he doesn’t listen to albums anymore, everything is built for streaming singles, to which I reply: you just gotta find the right albums, man.”
I, Brittany Allen, have also been in the tuneful spirit. The other day I snatched a cheap ticket to the New York Philharmonic, where I got to hear and see the much-feted Gustavo Dudamel conduct Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
All my previous associations with conductors and this piece of music being tethered to the film Tár, I went in with stuffy expectations—but left transported. I never realized how physically involving classical music can be to play, and how gripping and emotional it can be in performance. What a perfect way to learn.
Wishing you all a weekend of chopping, dicing, snacking, and singing along.