WHAT IS INSIDE THIS LETTER?

T H E

L A T E S T

Hi! I am quite aware we are now in Libra season, but there are simply things I have promised you I would send that I would like to check off my list now, okie?? This is the energy of Virgo.

My moon is in Virgo. I’m no professional astrologer, but I’ve always loved this aspect of my chart. Someone once told me, “Your moon is how you move through the world.” My mind immediately went to a memory of being about six years old and deciding I needed to rearrange my bedroom. I asked a parent for help, and they said yes, they could help me later, but I simply couldn’t wait and moved giant pieces of furniture on my own. This is the energy of Virgo.

I figured out how to plan a kitchen, procure a liquor license, read a commercial real estate lease, get business documentation, open a store, and run it for ten years. This is the energy of Virgo.

Last week, I had a craving for Banana Bread. I’ve never been a big fan of it; we’ve eaten a million, right? I didn’t think anyone wanted a recipe, but it turns out you do, and it turns out I had an idea to make a new version of it. Then I got obsessed with perfecting it. Virgo!

I would like to get into the energy of autumn. I would like to write something maybe a little deeper to all of you, but first we must get through:

This week:

Next week:

And so with intention and some boundaries, and in the spirit of integrity, I present to you a bunch of stuff! I hope they all serve!

THIS is the energy of Virgo.

If you like these recipes, you should subscribe and support this work!

ok, love love

ppppppppppppppppp

aige

You voted, and here is the recipe for Beans in Bright Green Sauce, which is really just a recipe for the most beloved sauce on earth. It is my belief that bright green sauce makes most people giddy, and if I did a poll, 100 percent of people would like a bright green sauce.

And BGS is probably the most useful and friendly recipe for the home cook. Do you have herbs you want to use up? Jalepeños about to rot? Does the meal need something to tie it all together? Even when you wing a bright green sauce, they mostly come out GOOD, but not all are created equal.

Here is my recipe for an Aji Verde-leaning Bright Green Sauce exactly to my taste, down to the gram. It’s so satisfying to have a scale and know the future!

Note the less common and important ingredients: scallions, mustard, an herby mix instead of just cilantro, etc. I hope you enjoy it, too, and let me know what you think in da comments, or just keep living your life!!! Love love.

Bright Green Sauce (for bean with fennel salad + chicken + fish + more)

In a blendy machine, blend everything very smoothly and thoroughly except for the parsley, dill, and cilantro. Once creamy, add the herbs and process until smooth. It shouldn’t be watery; it shouldn’t be too thick. I’ve made this recipe EXACTLY how I like it down to the gram, but your taste buds may be different. Check the seasoning: add more salt if needed. Is it bitter? Add a little honey. Not spicy enough? Add some more jalapeño. Not zingy enough? Add more lime juice.

Makes about a cup and a half of sauce. Store in a glass jar with a tight lid. In fact, store most things in a glass jar with a tight lid! If you wanna freeze it, scoop it into an ice cube tray and pop the cubes out into a Ziploc bag when frozen. If you use mayo, don’t bother freezing it and eat it within four days.

Use it on most everything, but I love it especially mixed with room-temperature or cold beans, sea fennel (if you can find it), and thinly sliced fennel (which goes really well as the crunchy veggie/beany part of a meaty taco), or with your morning eggs, roast chicken or fish, as dressing for panzanella, and so on.

If you make a lot of beans, it’s time to procure an Instant Pot. You don’t have to buy one, just steal it from somewhere! Your parent’s house, a party in an apartment, the street, etc. Barter with someone in the newfangled Lipari Island Community Swap/Meet Channel if you so desire! (Here is one off craiglist for $60 if you are worried about getting caught.)

It is simple: I measure out 1 pound of beans, fill the pot with the beans, a few bay leaves or tejpatta leaves, a few cloves of garlic if I’m feeling up to it, and 8 cups of water. I am usually using up older dry beans, so I cook at High Pressure for 45 minutes and let them cool down to the point where I’ve forgotten about them. Then, I mix in some salt and pepper and store it all in a giant jar and eat them all week. I leave them in their beany liquid because this is the best way to get the salt to absorb into them, but if I need to rinse before I use them, I rinse them before I use them.

more virgo energy ⧨ I made my own very simple planner

As someone who has been very busy with lots and lots of tasks for a very long time, I could never find quite the right planner. I decided to just mess around and make one. It’s deeply simple, but seems to have the right ratio of events to tasks. It also gives me a view of everything at once. I can see how much energy I am giving away and how much I need to take back, week to week. I print it out and staple it on full-size printer paper and usually have about 16 to 20 pages printed out at a time (or four to five months’ worth). Also, when I’m done with a few weeks, I just throw them away. I scoot forward the info I need and let go of the past!

Maybe this is exactly what you need or you will be inspired to make your own! Eccolo!

All week I was in a euphoric state about frying the bananas in oil and making like a banana oil. I hope this triggers euphoria in you, too!

Chocolate Banana Bread, apparently!

In your widest sauté pan, make sure it is bone dry, then set it over a medium-low flame. Sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Chop your banana into 1-inch disks and set them on top of the sugar. Work quickly. You will see it browning - that’s ok as long as it isn’t burning. Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of turbinado sugar, the 1/2 teaspoon of spice, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the canola oil and keep the heat at medium-low. If at any point you get stressed about the sugar burning, just throw in your canola oil a little early.

Let it bubble and get golden and caramelize for ten to fifteen minutes, shaking the pan and stirring from time to time. You can even let it go longer, but the moment you see the browning get very dark, that’s when they are ready. Your house should smell totally amazing!

Let this cool completely. Transfer it to a measuring cup or anything that is easy to handle. We are going to pour it into our batter later.

Preheat your oven to 325F. Set the middle rack.

Next, in a KitchenAid mixer, attach the paddle and cream together the butter and the cream cheese for a minute. Then add the white sugar and cream and beat until lightened, about 8 minutes at medium-high speed.

While this is creaming, put together your dry ingredients, including the chocolate chips, and give everything a good mix.

Also, while this is creaming, prepare your pan: I use a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan and set some tray-sized parchment paper inside so that there is overhang on each long side. It’s easier to set if you sprinkle a little water on the bottom of the pan before placing the parchment. Then I smear the pan and the parchment with a tablespoon of room-temperature butter and sprinkle it with turbinado sugar. Now your pan is prepped! Set aside.

When it is happy and fluffy, beat in your eggs one at a time along with the vanilla. Once fully incorporated, slowly add the banana oil (holding back the bananas with a spoon) in a slow, steady stream. We don’t want to shock the batter by adding the oil all at once; go steadily.

Once mixed, remove the paddle attachment, give it a good thwack to eject the batter that’s hanging on, and pull the bowl onto your work surface. With a spatula, hand-mix everything in the bowl. There will likely be a layer of butter and cream cheese at the bottom of the mixer. Almost at the end, dump in your flour/chocolate bowl and mix only until most of the flour is no longer visible. Finally, add the cooked bananas and mix. Don’t overmix.

Pour this all into your prepared pan. Lick some of the bowl.

Ok, almost there: Get your firmest banana and slice it very thinly (thinner than I did in the picture), then place it all over the surface of the batter. Sprinkle with a little sugar and a little salt, and stick a few chocolate chips between banana slices, too. Not too much of any of this stuff. Just a kiss! Va bene.

Bake until fully cooked. It usually takes between 80 minutes and 95 minutes. You want it to feel cooked and for the knife to come out without batter. Put it in longer if you aren’t sure. At 325F, you are likely not burning it, just letting it get deeply brown in its full browness. Resist putting aluminum foil - it takes away some of the crisp.

A few notes:

The sugar here is very important. I tested it with 150 grams of sugar, and it was not sweet enough. I tested it with 180, and it was too sweet. 165 is quite literally the sweet spot! Use a scale :)

325F is the perfect temp for a long, slow bake that doesn’t burn, but instead gets deeper brown and more browny. Also, chocolate burns at 400F (just fyi!), but at 325 it’s so happy and just melts and settles into the bread. If you have an oven thermometer, it's the only way to know how hot your oven is really running.

Also, remember that banana bread tastes much better the next day. The moisture redistributes, and the flavors meld. Toasted the next day with butter is kind of the simplest and most unreal way to eat this bread. Obviously!

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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 vocally not 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 :)

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