Taking Me Back

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day over our love of Spam. One year for her birthday her husband bought her a sampler pack of 12 different varieties! That was something new I learned – I had only ever known of the true blue original can. Growing up my mom used to mix spam, shredded cheese, and mayo together and place it on an English muffin then pop it in the oven where it got melty and crunchy. It was delicious!

That got me thinking about other recipes I enjoyed growing up – the ones my mom learned from her mom and on and on it goes. Here are a few books in our collection that highlight those recipes with a modern twist:

Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves: Women in the Kitchen

There’s that old patriarchal saying that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen,” but in an industry dominated by men, it’s actually a lot harder to “get in the kitchen.” Just last year the Department for Labor Statistics showed that only 19.7 percent of restaurant kitchens are run by women. Things are changing, but it’s a cultural shift – kitchens have been notoriously unfriendly places for women between sexual harassment, long work hours, and lack of parental leave.

Here are two memoirs of women who have pushed against the norm and are changing the way we think about food.

Wild Sourdough

Meet my starter: Neko!

I love bread, but more and more it just tastes like filler. My husband and I started going to a neighborhood Farmer’s Market open year-round to incorporate more whole foods and seasonal finds into our meals at home. One of our favorite vendors is a sourdough bread baker. I started doing a bit of research into wild yeast and thought this is bread I would be more than happy to eat! After trying a few loaves, I started to wonder how I can do this myself

Bus Reads for December

Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time. Here’s what I read on the bus in December:

Sal by Mick Kitson. A beautiful book despite its tough subject matter. The sisters, Sal and Peppa, are adorable and charming. Sal, the oldest, has been taking care of her younger sister for years as her mom drinks the days away. Her mother’s boyfriend uses the mother’s addiction to his advantage and sexually assaults Sal numerous times. Despite this Sal is tough and getting prepared because the boyfriend has made it known Peppa is next. With Sal’s resourcefulness and determination the girls will flee to the woods and start a life of self-sufficiency. ​Also, there is so much hope in this novel!

Food Comics and Manga

I’ve been reading a lot of food-focused manga and comics recently. Maybe I’m just a hungry person? I do like food, but really, while these manga and comics share the culinary theme they span some wildly different story-telling territory; from D&D-esque dungeon crawlers, to queer slice-of-life stories, to cooking competitions. Some of these stories even include actual recipes (though a few use fictional ingredients).

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui
Follow a band of adventurers as they attempt to rescue a party-member from the dungeon’s infamous red dragon, but not before killing and cooking up other monsters along the way. You can try to make these recipes at home, but you’ll have a difficult time finding all of the ingredients…

Get Jiro! by Anthony Bourdain