Happy Sunday to you! And OMG it’s time to panic because it’s now officially the holidays. No more complaining about holiday decorations up too early. Carols and cards and lists for Santa abound. I sent my list to my family on Friday—you’ll be shocked to hear I asked for several cooking tools. I broke my sieve and my tongs recently, and boy, you don’t realize how much you use things until they break. 

Thanksgiving was a success, happily. When you’re cooking to accommodate food allergies, recipes are a jumping-off point. It’s even scarier when you’re baking—baking is a science, absolutely. I’ve always known you have to follow the recipe to achieve perfection. But... when you have to substitute and create from scratch with different ingredients, it’s hard to say what will work out. For example, for the topping of my Dutch apple pie, the recipe called for a cup of rolled oats. We have a family member who can’t eat oats, but the texture for the topping was important. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided I’d try a combination of cashews and cornflakes. I use these as a base for breadcrumbs all the time, why not sub them in for oats?

And guess what? It worked!!!!!! I’ll put this apple pie recipe in the December newsletter for you allergen folks—and for the rest of you lucky ducks, you can just make it straight. It was delicious! 

We ordered a very special turkey breast from a free-range farm in Wisconsin that guaranteed no soybeans in the feed, and brined it overnight using a combo of two recipes, then cooked it in the Dutch oven with a lovely mirepoix, apple slices, butter, and white wine, and people, it was glorious. I even threw together a pumpkin custard with an almond flour crust that was delish. Score one for Thrillerchick.

The point of all this wasn’t to make you hungry, but to talk about tools. The proper tools can make a good cook a great one. I didn’t invest in my kitchen for the longest time, and my meals suffered for it. I was always afraid to try what I thought were complicated recipes, and when I did, I was less than successful. I wanted to cook Julia Child’s Coq a Vin, but ack, sooo complicated. Or so I thought.

I was at my brother’s place in Colorado while he made a pork shoulder green chili in a Dutch oven, and my eyes were opened. I invested in some serious bakeware, was gifted a Le Crueset 7.5 quart Dutch oven, and started with a French onion soup. Eureka. You can caramelize onions in anything, but the Le Crueset cast iron made it taste like the l’onion gratinee at our favorite Paris bistro (Le Zinc, in the 15th, if you’re interested. Also, here’s the recipe, should you be drooling...)

Your career as an artist will be enhanced by using the proper tools. Chefs know the exactly the right amount of salt and spices to add to a dish without looking at the recipe. Painters know exactly what kind of brush—sable, bristle, nylon, acrylic, palette knife—and what ratios of colors combinations are needed to get the right expression of paint on the canvas. Writers are less complicated, in many ways—do we really need more than a pad, pencil and a wicked imagination? Technically, no. But the progression from paper to typewriter made things a lot easier, especially editorially. Then came desktops, and Microsoft Word. Laptops, and Scrivener. Scapple. Story Planner. Mac vs PC (You will pry my Apple products from my cold, dead hands.) 

Just don’t shirk on your ingredients. You need the best basics, the mirepoix of writing—vocabulary, grammar, voice—not to mention the salt and seasonings: a kick-ass idea and a bunch of rowdy characters.

I think this metaphor is a little overcooked. Point is, the proper tools help.

And with that, off we go…

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WHAT I’M READING:

THE FOUNTAINS OF SILENCE by Ruta Sepetys

This intriguing look at 1950s Franco-era Spain was in turns enlightening, frustrating, and horrifying. Sepetys has a knack for using vivid characterization to tell the inside story of her chosen historical moment, and I was entranced by eighteen year old Daniel Matheison and his inamorata Ana Morena—star-crossed lovers who find themselves torn apart by the stringent rules of Franco’s twisted reign. A subplot diving into the illegal adoption trade is at once fascinating and terribly sad. An impeccably researched story, Sepetys’s unflinching account is well worth your time. What are you reading?

That’s it from me. Buy yourself something special for your kitchen, put on some Tchaikovsky and write some holiday cards, buy at least one of your gifts at a local indie store, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.