Blog

Sometimes it takes a widely publicized protest recreating a dance by a “German dancer who’s pretty popular, they tell me” to remind me that most people have no idea what I’m talking or writing about, most of the time. It’s quite possible more people read my recent story on Joann Fabrics stores closing than have ever read a dance review I wrote. That used to make me mad. Now, it just is. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This thing we call dance is niche and sometimes obtuse.

And beautiful.

The Daily Show certainly isn’t the first to poke fun at Pina Bausch’s Nelken Line performed in Washington D.C. in objection to President Trump’s apparent takeover of the board and programming at the Kennedy Center. But every criticism was followed by a “You know what? Go on with your bad selves,” or some variation thereof.

Too bad the Washington Post laid off their full time dance critic, one of two left in the country. The paper didn’t even cover the protest.

As Jeff Bezos thankfully pours money into maintaining an important totem of the fourth estate, he simultaneously degrades its integrity by refusing to keep his hands out of the editorial cookie jar. At this point, The Daily Show might be a bigger and more influential platform.

So go on with your bad selves, dancers.

I found this post in my draft folder, dated September, 2017. Just the headline, “In uncertain times, I turn to food preservation,” with no text. I was probably setting up some post about a thing I’d canned.

Apparently I thought 2017 was “uncertain times.”

That’s cute.

It’s true, though, that I look to my kitchen as a coping mechanism. After nine weeks of sheltering in place—and with the stress of lost employment and the trauma of a global pandemic—I’ve spent more time there than ever. I feel really lucky that I like to cook; undoubtedly, preparing three meals a day is placing more stress on many families, not less.

One of the things that’s given me the most joy during this time is finding ways to produce less waste. I’ve dehydrated orange peels to supplement a tin of black tea; saved bones and vegetable scraps for gallons of chicken broth, turkey broth, ham broth and beef broth; frozen and canned chilis, soups and salsas and restarted a compost regimen which had fallen by the wayside.

Yesterday I made cream of broccoli and potato soup and thought I’d post it as a flexible base to make “cream of whatever you’ve got” soup. Please enjoy.

Continue reading In uncertain times, I turn to food preservation—and a pandemic soup recipe you might like