I got my second vaccine shot a couple of days ago. I knew the morning after might be tough, so I took the day off ahead of time. As I’d anticipated, my recovery day was spent from bed. Key activities: chugging water and Tylenol, moving passively through episodes of Overserved with Lisa Vanderpump, pouting at the cat, mewing for lunch served bedside. Standard self-indulgent practice.
I also thought about the things I liked to have on a sick day, when I was little and feeling sorry for myself. I have distinct memories of turkey sandwich triangles on white bread, with a little lettuce and mayonnaise. Sleepytime tea. Maybe an episode of Passions, “the Twin Peaks of daytime TV.” Perhaps you can see a through-line in my consumption habits here.
Anyway, self-indulgence on a sick day can be restorative in more ways than one. I feel right as rain today.
A SICK DAY READING LIST
A fun legacy piece about martinis, including:
“My stepfather, E. B. White, sometimes took a dry Manhattan at lunch, but his evening Martini was a boon forever. Even when he’d gotten into his seventies and early eighties, I can remember his greeting me and my family at the Bangor airport late on a summer afternoon and handing me the keys to the car for the fifty-mile drive back to the coast. Sitting up front beside me, he’d reach for his little picnic basket, which contained a packet of Bremner wafers, some Brie or Gouda cheese and a knife, and the restorative thermos of Martinis.”
Watch this lovely mini-documentary about pizza toast and while you’re at it, learn a bit about Japanese kissa culture
“A cyclist on the English landscape”
Absolutely fascinated by the Frankfurt Kitchen and its architect, Grete Schütte-Lihotzky, who didn’t even cook and yet created the whole standard for modern kitchen design
Sparks > 4 Loko, though Blue Raspberry OG 4 Loko is a flavor experience that I hold deep in my sense memory, right alongside the KFC Double Down and other relics of 2010
CHEAT PAN PIZZA
You can buy fresh pizza dough from your local shop, or barring that, Publix has fresh dough in the bakery section in a little refrigerator. It’s better than whatever is in the section with the cinnamon roll tubes. It also makes you feel like you made homemade pizza, without having to bother with the most annoying part (the dough). That’s the reason for “cheat” pan pizza (also, the sheet pan).
You do make your own sauce for this, which is the best part of a good pizza, anyway.
INGREDIENTS
For the sauce:
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Dash of red pepper flakes
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes with their juice
1 tbsp. oregano
2-3 leaves of fresh basil
1/4 cup, red wine
Dash of fish sauce
Small dash of nutmeg
Pizza:
1 ball of pizza dough, acquired separately
Your cheese of choice (shredded mixed Italian cheeses, or mozzarella)
Toppings of choice (I like mushrooms, broccoli, classic pepp)
WHAT TO DO
Warm olive oil in a saucepan. Add red pepper flakes and garlic, cooking until just golden (not brown). Add tomatoes and oregano, mixing well, then bring heat to a boil. Mix in red wine, reducing by half, the lower heat to medium. Dash in fish sauce and nutmeg, stirring, and simmer for a minute. Add your basil leaves, and submerge them; bring heat down to a low, low simmer, and let it cook (stirring occasionally) for about 30 minutes. Fish out basil leaves before topping pizza.
While sauce is cooking, pre-heat your oven to 425. Using flour or cornmeal, roll your pizza dough out to as flat as you can get it without creating holes. Sprinkle a little flour on a regular-sized sheet pan, then place your dough. Coat with sauce, cheese, topping, then layer again in that order. Cook for about 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.