magid

• soup: turkey stock (made around Thanksgiving, frozen since then) with onions, carrots*, parsley, and matza balls
  
• turkey breast (also frozen since Thanksgiving) topped with smoky tomato* jam, baked over onion, sweet potato*, and slices of Georgia peaches (frozen since the summer)
  
• mashed potatoes* with spinach*, pureed basil*, pureed garlic scapes*, and scallions
  
• sort-of red flannel hash, with onions, pieces of what I guessed is corned beef in the mix of deli ends picked up from the Butcherie, thinly sliced cabbage*, potatoes*, and beets*
  
• the rest of the peach slices baked with a bit of matza meal, Earth Balance, and a a little hot* honey*

* locally sourced

Boxed share again, so I pulled out the kitchen scale.

• 2 smallish bags of spinach
  
• 4 dried hot peppers (looks like two different varieties, but the email is not helpful here)
  
• almost 3 lb beets (3 large beets)
  
• almost 7 lb carrots
  
• 3 heads of what the email said was Savoy cabbage, but looks a lot more like Taiwanese flat cabbage (one tiny, one small, one medium, about 5 lb)
  
• a jar of giardiniera (swapped for more potatoes because lack of kosher certification)
  
• almost 10 lb potatoes (both my original ones and the swapped ones)

First thoughts: all the roasted roots. Do the pickle thing already, darn it! Baked roots under a protein (fish/poultry). Various cabbage and carrot slaws. Carrot soup. Carrot halwa. Carrots baked with lemon tahini dressing. Any further carrot suggestions?

I went to Haymarket (Boston's weekly open-air market that’s been meeting there for about three centuries at this point) for the first time in ages. I was in need of onions and potatoes, and open to whatever else appealed. Few things are local or organic, but the prices are excellent; caveat emptor definitely applies, since things can be ‘cook now’ in their lifecycle.

What I bought:
- a bunch of flat-leaf parsley ($1)
- a head of hydroponic butter lettuce ($1)
- 2 eggplants ($3)
- a pineapple ($2)
- 10 lb onions ($6)
- 2 bags of potatoes (3-4 lb total; $2)

There were berries for tomorrow’s celebration of romantic love, a choice of strawberry or raspberry in heart-shaped containers (and many more in regular quadrilateral packaging, as usual). I’m a bit leery of getting berries there, having had one subpar experience, so was easily able to resist.

I won a copy of Hinenu (David Shlachter) from LibraryThing, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I had a bunch of library books out so it sat for a bit, until I got an email from Lehrhaus that the author was going to give a talk tonight. That got me to read it Friday night so I could be prepared for the talk.

This is a gorgeous, full-color book using profiles of 100 Israelis as representatives of the entire population of the recently achieved 10 million. He uses a variety of demographic axes: age, gender, religion, native/immigrant (including region of origin)/non-citizen resident, and region lived in. The design is beautiful, with a full-page spread for each person, approximately one page of text facing a full-page photo, plus a smaller second photo. Under the big photo there’s the demographic information, which is also color coded. The photos are incredible. I found the choices of which colors to use for which age ranges led to some photo captions in those colors that were quite difficult to read (lacking enough contrast). I appreciate the thought that went into the design; it would work better for me with just a few different particular color choices.

The profiles are organized in decade order (and oldest to youngest within the decade), oldest first. I hadn’t realized until reading this just how young Israel skews: 18 profiles were of people aged 0-9, and another 17 were aged 10-19. So a third of the population is under 20. I understood why there were so many younger profiles, though that meant a number of the later (younger) ones were from a parent’s perspective, which I found inherently less interesting than the ones in first person.

Because it mirrors the population, I got a better sense for how the country’s demographics are in general; I know my experiences there have definitely been skewed/siloed, so this helped me.

I appreciated the author’s notes on the project at the end (and agree that there were a few too many surfers!).

At the talk tonight, I heard more about how the author came up with this idea and found people to fit the needed profiles, as well as how it’s changed him. He also talked about some of the challenges (some people would’ve liked to have participated, but feared retaliation from their community, for instance). There was a short 9-min video about the book, including some of the people profiled; it was great to hear their actual voices. He’s an engaging presenter, very curious about people, so I was glad I went (plus I got my book signed).

Sunday into Monday we got a good sized snowstorm, almost two feet of snow (the biggest storm since 2022). Work announced the campus was closed Monday, but those who could work from home should, so I did (no people distractions, but no large screen either, so maybe a wash?). Tuesday I was feeling a bit off in the morning, plus the forecast was cold, so I worked from home again (Cambridge schools were closed, the parking ban in effect until 5p, but the library was open because…?).

But the forecast is staying cold for a long while (where cold = doesn’t get above freezing even during the day, often single digits F at night), so yesterday I ventured out for the first time in three days. As always, sidewalk conditions varied widely, some fully cleared to the ground, some cleared pathway for just one person, some clearly tramped down by folks walking through when the owners/landlords hadn’t bothered. My usual bus stop was useless, with no way to get from the sidewalk to the bus, so I walked to the next one, which was fully cleared.

One advantage of the cold is that it’s mostly not in a melt-freeze cycle, which means there’s a whole lot less ice than there could’ve been. Still, I’ve had a couple of slips (though no falls, thank goodness). And curb cuts are not reliable, either. I thought of it as a 2D ant farm for humans, as the paths change over time, as huge hills of snow get moved about (the city is bringing snow to Danehy Park, with possibly overflow to Harvard’s Allston campus, the unbuilt part near the Mass Pike entrance).

I checked the Massachusetts drought monitor today (it’s updated Thursday mornings), certain that at least those numbers would be better, but somehow, nothing has changed since last week, despite two feet of snow? Is it because the snow hasn’t melted yet? It’s not obvious to me.

The drifts on my porch are tall enough that I can’t open the screen doors (outward), so the blue jays will not be getting almonds until I can.

The forecast has snow again this Sunday, but I don’t know whether that means some frosting on top, or a new layer with noticeable depth. I don’t want to buy anything tomorrow for the nationwide general strike, so I really hope I’ll be able to get groceries Sunday before it starts (I will be out of onions, potatoes, and eggs by then).

If vampires weren’t tall and thin, but rather short and squat, would they be hemogoblins?


This question brought to you by the color red: I had bloodwork done this morning.

3.5 pounds of carrots

• 3.5 pounds of sweet potatoes
  
• 3 pounds of beets
  
• 3 pounds of purple starburst daikon
  
• a big bag of spinach (1.5 pounds, maybe?)
  
• a pint of Real Pickles kimchi, swapped for more sweet potatoes due to their lack of kosher certification, alas

First thoughts: I need to buy alliums. Maybe a pot of split pea soup with carrots and sweet potatoes. Carrot-daikon slaw. Maybe look into some kind of steamed shredded daikon + flour thing that then gets fried, that someone mentioned at the distribution site. Someone else mentioned beet muhammara, which also sounds interesting. Pickle all the things (ok, not the leaves or the sweet potato). Add a handful of spinach to any sautes I make.

And though I can access most of the site just fine, when I try to look at my archive/calendar, I get a message about not being able to access the site in Mississippi, due to the court case. Which I knew about, but neither I nor my computer has ever been in Mississippi; I haven’t even left MA in the last year! So something’s hinky somewhere.

I find it too easy to stay home when I don’t have particular reasons to leave the house, but I’m trying to resist this. It took until late afternoon for me to get out, though. I headed out Brattle St.; it’s where I defaulted to walking during the early days of the pandemic, because it’s very pretty with all the historic houses, plus the trees and other greenery make it feel more spacious. This afternoon felt similar because there was so little traffic, likely not only because of the holiday but also due to the cold winds blowing.

The houses were pretty in their Christmas decorations, which tended towards little white fairy lights, swags of fresh greenery along fences, and various bows and wreaths, very understated compared to some. I was surprised to note three houses for sale on Brattle St. just between Longfellow House and Fayerweather St. That seems like a lot of turnover at once.

I found what I thought might be a foreign coin (the color was too brassy to be US currency), but turned out to be a vacuum token. I couldn’t figure it out until I got home and thought to check the obverse: apparently carwashes can have vacuum tokens.

I visited one of the biggest trees I know of in Cambridge, at 12 Reservoir St. It’s gorgeous (but not on the city’s map of trees***, because it’s on private land, not public).

I saw turkeys twice: the first was a pair on Sparks St., while the second was a group of 15 on Craigie St. It seemed to me that they were all hens, no males at all. Happily, they went about their own business without interacting with the humans nearby.

I went down Berkeley St., which gave me the chance to visit one of my favorite historical markers, at the house where the future Thai Princess Mother Sangwan Talapat lived from September 1919 to April 1920. It’s fifth on this list of the Massachusetts Trail of Thai Royalty.

And then home in the gloaming, thinking about my options for lunch.

* I know it should be Newtonmas**, but given his achievements, ‘mass’ feels more appropriate. (It would’ve been even more appropriate had I managed to walk to Newton, though.)

** Clara Barton was also born on December 25, but no one uses Bartonmas/Bartonmass (she grew up in MA, even, having been born in North Oxford). (More about her accomplishments from Wikipedia.)

*** This is from the city’s open data sets, which includes a whole lot of information, even including lists and maintenance of public art and sidewalk poetry.

I made another batch of hot water pastry today that became the crust for two vegetable pies: parboiled beets*, purple-top turnips*, carrots*, and potatoes* with frozen peas, quartered hard-boiled eggs, and onion-mushroom (baby bella) white sauce. There was some dough left, which I used for a sort-of galette filled with apples* and some of the failed apple* jelly I boiled down to about half the volume.

I should make a slaw, but the weather has me uninspired towards salad.

* locally sourced

This morning I stopped by the credit union ATM to get some cash. I did not think about denominations, which is how I ended up with a $100 bill when I’d expected $20s. Ack.

This gave me an excuse to buy lunch out (in addition to not having brought more than breakfast with me), which, now that Bakey has lost kosher certification, meant I headed to Milk Street Cafe to grab one of today’s specials (tuna-noodle casserole will always be comfort food for me, which I know is definitely not a universal opinion).

Previously, I had a great default route from the Downtown Crossing station to the restaurant through the 101 Arch St. lobby. Recent construction has closed that option off permanently, alas (the atrium is really pretty, with a multi-story internal spiral staircase (that I suspect is no longer used, but looks great)).

On the way back, I decided to avoid the exit I’d used on the way out, which had a bunch of pigeons fighting over chicken bones (I don’t really want to think too much about that…), so went through the non-Arch St. part of the lobby at 101 Summer St., which still has an entrance to Downtown Crossing. Except that the down escalator was blocked off for maintenance, and there weren’t any obvious stairs, which is how I found out that there’s an elevator. You know how when you get into a new-to-you elevator, you do a quick scan for which side has the buttons? Well, both sides had buttons, L for the floor we were on, and… different buttons for the lower level. I pressed M (I’m guessing for MBTA?), while the other guy who got in the elevator pressed L2 on his side. Why L2? why not just L, or L1? These are mysteries. Were there not enough L2 or M buttons to go around? Is this an office plagued with Borrowers? Was there previously an L1 level that aliens sucked out and wiped from our memories except for this one slip? Inquiring minds want to know!

Also, the long-closed Charlie Card Store at Downtown Crossing is no longer empty, but not open to the public, either: it seems to be a supplies depot for cleaners and possibly other workers?