Favorites 5.29.13

French bread: The very fresh kind, from a real bakery—I'd forgotten all about it. Soft as a pillow with a lovely crunch. Employ it as a makeshift spoon to consume your bowl of soup, and be rewarded with joy.

Ray Romano: He's got this salt-and-pepper, funny-awkward thing going that I'm pretty down for.

Sleeping easily: You don't really appreciate it until suddenly you don't have it—the kind of night when you fall asleep naturally and sleep deeply, waking only once to let in the cat and maybe lie there for a moment listening to the rain out on the lawn before slipping off again.

Milk Music, "The Final Scene": Wild, beautiful stuff. Eight minutes, sure, but ride it out—it won't be a chore. Let the reaper laugh, let the mountains crumble.

About A Ball

Oh hi. It's Friday and I don't have anything to say. I haven't read anything or watched anything or heard anything or done anything good lately (with the exception of red wine and spicy almonds at Box Social with Trish the other night—which was a kinda chocolate sauce on the top of my boring week). Besides that, though, all I can do is live vicariously through Lefty and hope I stumble upon one of life's unmolested softballs to dig my own teeth into, ya know?

Tiny Batch Jamz

Fresh, just-ripe strawberries can make your head spin. They’re deeply sweet and tragically tender. Wait too long to eat ’em and they disintegrate into a pile of mold and mush on your countertop. Wait too long to buy ’em and their season (the fleeting cusp of summer) is over.

With that in mind, I bought a couple pints of said berries last weekend and simmered up a tiny batch of homemade jam. No pectin or fancy canning equipment—just three simple ingredients (strawberries, sugar, a few lemon wedges) and a spell simmering on the stove. This recipe makes just the right amount—and the way the jam tastes is rivaled only by how a pot of bubbling strawberries can make your house smell. Divine is a pretty good word to employ here.

Ingredients

3 1/2 pounds strawberries, washed, hulled, and halved

2 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 lemon, quartered

Preparation

Mix all ingredients in a heavy medium pot. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit releases juices, about 30 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring as needed to prevent sticking, until thick and slightly darker, about 1 1/2 hours.

Chill jam in airtight containers up to 1 month or freeze up to 6 months.

Gatsbysville

About The Great Gatsby. It's a movie—maybe you've seen a trailer or something? Yes? So, some friends and I went to a private screening last week. Champagne was involved, just like in the movie. Anyhoo, here's my big verdict: I liked it.

Now, I've read some bad reviews but ya know I'm not gonna be too hard on it. The book is lovely and haunting—hard to pin down. The movie is a spectacle. They're two different things—it's okay. See, I'm a reader first and movie watcher second. I don't need to love movies as much. I'm not spending hours and weeks of my life steering my eyes over tiny black markings on paper in an effort to divulge meaning. I'm just sitting here for a couple hours and I wanna be entertained.

So .... Go to see Leo perform. Go to hear how Jay Z and Kanye jazz up the jazz age. Go to see the costumes and the hairdos and the cars and the colors and the imagery. But don't go expecting tears and truth and the best movie evah. Just FYI.

Favorites 5.13.13

Kim Gordon: I read an article recently that reminded me why I heart her as my feminist idol. "'Kim comes off all cool and badass, but she’s really sweet and gentle and feminine,' longtime friend Sofia Coppola says, praising Gordon’s ability to draw power from vulnerability."

Almond milk lattes: Richer and more toasty than ones made from rice or soy, markedly less phlegm-inducing than the cow's milk variety.

A break in the weather: It's oddly moving when a long stretch of weather—even if it's not bothering you none—ceases quietly in the night, and you wake up at dawn to find a very fresh situation outside your windowpane, kinda like some ole friend you forgot you were missing.

Tangerine: The color, the fruit, and most especially the Led Zeppelin song. Warm and loose—and gone before ya know it.