Much like anyone experiencing a big event that shakes up their little routine, I’m a bit one-note these days. Kitchen, kitchen, kitchen; our days are marked by milestones of installation. Leading up to Thanksgiving (the proposed deadline to completion), my mind is on materials and surfaces and color variations of flooring tile. Right now I am, as they say, fun at parties 😎
Adrian and I have talked about how this project has warped our internal sense of calendar. A few weeks will go by, filled with the normal trappings of work meetings, neighborhood walks, going to concerts or seeing friends; those same few weeks also hold the capacity for demolition and rebuilding. A lot and nothing, all at once. I try not to think about it too hard, but it’s a steady reminder: the sound and the fury and the mundane things and the “so what do you want to do about dinner” can and do co-exist.
We miss having a sink, though. And Gloria is ready for our contractor to stop making noise and go home. If all goes as it should, in a couple of weeks we will have our kitchen and its sink, right and ready and new for the next few decades.
On another note, my hope is that a couple of extra-long editions of In Good Taste (albeit, currently recipe-free) will make up for my recently scattershot publishing schedule 😂
A SCATTERING OF GOOD TASTES
Offline reading:
Currently reading The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden (1958), a story of disruption in a certain fashion: a family of English children left to vacation alone in France. Written from the point-of-view of one of the children, it’s a lovely, winding story that’s really perceptive about young adulthood without being, as the young adults say, cringe.
I’m halfway through, and I like this as much as I liked I Capture The Castle, which was published a decade earlier (1948) and also features an eccentric English family. Telling of my type, I guess. Incidentally, I have now found out what a greengage is and am anxious to try one.Continuing my theme of slightly obscure fiction written by quirky women, next up is The Ex-Wife (1929) by Ursula Parrott (recommended by one of my favorite New York Times critics, Molly Young).
I’ve just finished Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles (1943), Molly Young’s own review basically sums up the experience of reading this book. YMMV!:
“It reads as if written by an extraterrestrial who spent five minutes on Earth and became bizarrely determined to write a comedy of manners. The plot is almost totally absent of momentum and the dialogue reads as if Georges Bataille wrote fortune cookies. Defies explanation.”
Admiring:
The jump into having glass-front upper cabinetry is enticing me to replace dishware. I am firmly resisting this call of The Shoppies, but I do love this collection of mugware by John Julian (h/t a great gift guide from House & Garden)
Fancy cooking tools made in Japan and a fancy camping cushion
Vermeer-quality natural light in our homes, and the stylistic trend of sunshiney food photography
Other items of note:
The distinctive style of American diners and why they all look like that
Unclaimed Baggage: apparently this is a legitimate retailer?
A brief yet compelling history of shrimp cocktail
We recently went to a fun dinner for Hermann J. Wiemer wines (from the Finger Lakes region of NY) and are stocking up for Thanksgiving and other late-fall wines. This guide to planning your wine menu for the big day might be helpful to you (whites and reds, under $25, and including one of my faves, Field Recordings!).
Listening to:
The inspiration playlist for Priscilla, which we saw last weekend and I loved
Pop music: Kesha, the new Troye Sivan
Soporific, electronic: Suddenly My Mind is Blank, Jouska (2023)
Avant-garde jazz: Next Door, Leo Takami (2023)
Such a great list of links, as usual, Emily. So interesting about the “sunshiny” trend in food photography. Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Emily! Lovely to hear from you. I remember reading Greengage Summer years ago and loving it. I might read it again as a treat for myself.
I also loved I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Did you know she also wrote The 101 Dalmations?