WHAT IS INSIDE THIS LETTER?

two things about eggs

Even people who cook all the time don’t always know these two things about eggs! I hope it helps your life.

T H E

L A T E S T

upcoming events

SATURDAY AUGUST 22 / Archestratus Hang at the Greenmarket

SUNDAY AUGUST 30 / A cooking class on Arancine

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 / LIPARI ISLAND Book Club

The WORKSHOP

for POTENTIAL

RECIPES

(a free printable PDF)

I have too much to say about Oulipo, but in short, they were these French writers (mostly guys) who took play very seriously. They were sort of over this idea of being romantically struck with inspiration and only then having an outpouring of work. They loved systems, but systems that left the outcome to chance. They were not vocally into mysticism or esoteric practices, but I would liken this to divination.

In 1961, Queneau wrote a book of poems called One Hundred Hundred Million Poems. It’s a set of ten sonnets, each 14 lines each, with similar rhyme schemes and sounds. Both the sonnets themselves and the book is designed in a way that allows you to combine the sonnets any which way. In fact, you can combine them 100,000,000,000,000 ways.

I have so much to say about how difficult this last year has been, but for now, I am taking play very seriously, too. It’s very easy to lose yourself in all this heaviness. Enter Oulipo: A practice I am returning to. A good warm-up for me to go deeper later.

I wrote 10 recipes, 14 lines each, designed to be combined any way. One hundred million million ways, in fact.

Want to play? Print this out below and start experimenting. Cut horizontally to the black line. Bind it on the left. Snip off the other three sides. If you’ve got card stock it will last longer, but regular printer paper will work fine.

The cooking method and amount of each ingredient are up to you, but that doesn’t mean the recipes are without some instruction. To choose each line, you can roll a 14-sided die, or smoosh them around whilst closing your eyes, or look up another Oulipo mathematical constraint to get there. The idea is to make space for this kind of work. The work of play.

I hope you enjoy and PLAY WITH my version of One Hundred Hundred Million Recipes and that it triggers IDEAS. I hope it SHAKES THINGS UP. That it pulls you into the realm of spontaneity, which can be transcendent.

Want to make your own? I’ve also included a blank template at the end for you to create and make it happen. And feel free to reply to this email if you have questions!

By the way, mathematically, it would take 2 centuries to read every version, so lord knows how long it would take to cook this whole book.

Have the best time :)

F E R R A G O S T O

a mid-august feast

To make a long story short about Ferragosto, Emperor Augustus made August the official time to chill out in Italy, and everyone during the Roman Renaissance loved it. Bosses gave out Ferragosto bonuses, people took vacations, and the Church, wanting to capitalize and be included in these immaculate vibes, moved the Feast of the Assumption to August 15th — right in the middle of it.

Centuries later, Mussolini used it VERY effectively to create tourism within Italy among its own people. It’s one of the reasons many Italians from ‘the greatest generation’ have a terrifying fondness for the Fascist dictator.

Anyway, the Feast of the Assumption celebrates the Virgin Mary. When I think of her, I think of this:

And then this — Mary’s cathedral in Monreale. Legend has it that she came to William the Good in a dream and said Build me a church!

Anise dates back to Ancient Rome in Italy, and to my early childhood in Queens and Long Island. Roman herbalists prescribed it for digestion, and Nonna did too, putting a bowl of raw fennel on the table after every meal. My mother makes anise-flavored pizzelle once a year with a special iron.

(Sometimes I can’t believe how beautiful anise tastes and smells. The form and content of pizzelle really do honor each other in this way.)

But I digress! All this to say, I love the flavor of anise in a buttery form, and during Ferragosto, they bust out a traditional Tuscan recipe called biscotti di mezz’agosto. It’s a large donut-shaped ring cookie, flavored with anise and wine.

We are not making that, but we are making my lil version: Biscuits di Mezz’Agosto. A big buttery floral-honey-anise American biscuit mouthful. SI, it is time to turn the oven back on (or make and freeze these to be there for you when you can).

ok, love love

pppppppppppppaige

P.S. I made a video back in 2020 with my highly original (to me hah!) stacking technique that I now see everywhere, which is very validating! Always nice to feel not crazy. Watch on Instagram here!

I was dreaming about anise biscuits for a while, but I was pushed to crack and develop the recipe properly for an event at Archestratus I did with author and pastry chef Natasha Pickowitz and Maria Gaymen of Masha Tea, TÈ TIME. Perhaps you were there? It was almost exactly two years ago. Maria just so happens to be coming out with her first book on tea, With Tea, very, very soon. It all feels like divine timing to be sharing this recipe alongside the publication of her new offering.

B I S C U I T S D I

M E Z Z ‘ A G O S T O

(Mid-August Biscuits for Mary + Goat Milk Icing)

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LIPARI ISLAND Book Club

september 20 @1p (EST) on ZOOM

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Originally published in 1979, Italo Calvino's singular experimental novel crafted a postmodern narrative like never seen before—offering not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambiance, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Support our online bookshop ARCHESTRATUS on Bookshop.org. Zoom link available here.

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SI, WE WILL BE RECORDING THIS CLASS AND SENDING IT TO TICKET HOLDERS.

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