A trip ✈️ to New Jersey & low-sodium fine dining [Like You Know Whatever]

Hello sweet friends!

How are you doing?? I’m doing pretty well. I just got back from a long weekend of visiting my parents in New Jersey, and boy, am I full of bagels! The primary goal of the visit was to spend time with my dad, who had a “small” stroke a few weeks ago, and I’m happy to report that he is doing even better than I expected! Cognition-wise, he is basically the same as he was before the stroke, and movement-wise, he is improving every day, even walking short distances without a walker. With all the therapy and at-home exercises he is doing, I think he is on the path to as full of a recovery as possible. It was a huge relief to see that.

I think I’ve mentioned in here before that my dad is a big horse racing fan, so I was happy that we got to watch the Preakness together. My dad even put in an online bet for me on the horse National Treasure (I had to do it for Nicolas Cage), who won!! I am a whole 36 dollars richer. I also am the weekend’s undefeated Scrabble champ. As my husband Ross pointed out, beating a stroke victim in Scrabble is not exactly something to brag about, but my mom (a crossword puzzle queen) usually smokes me, so I was pretty pleased about beating her.

The day you’re reading this, I will be driving down to San Diego with Ross and our good buddy to attend our good friends’ wedding, returning on Sunday to attend our other good friends’ wedding, which happens to be in walking distance of our apartment! The San Diego wedding is for college friends, and the L.A. wedding is for L.A. friends. I feel honored to be included in both events, truly. They’re all awesome people getting hitched, and I’m sure their events will both be fabulous in different ways.

When I was in New Jersey, my mom asked me to go through a big box of photos in my old bedroom closet from middle school through college, and since I had nothing to do for a few hours while my dad was at his various therapies, I dove in. I have to say, I was fairly ruthless. I guess I just don’t understand the point of holding onto pictures of people I haven’t spoken to in 15 to 20 years, no matter how close I may have been to them at one time. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that some people are brought into our lives at different seasons to pass through, not to stay, and I don’t hold ill will toward them, but do I really need a million pictures from an unremarkable eighth grade sleepover or a week at summer camp?

I formed most of my deepest friendships during my college years, which I don’t think is unusual for many Vassarites. Those bonds are partially strengthened by the fact that I married a man from my graduating class, partially from the fact that I lived in New York after college, which has a huge Vassar contingent, partially from the fact that our every-five-years Vassar reunions are heavily attended, so I’ve gotten to catch up with even more remote acquaintances. All that being said… as I was looking through those photos, I saw people who were in my friend group in college whose names I couldn’t even remember!! I felt fairly terrible, until I realized that they probably wouldn’t remember my name, either.

But you know, the wonderful thing about life is that until it’s over, there’s always a chance that you might once again intersect with someone whose path previously split off from your own.

Or not. Let’s just say I hope the winds of fate keep my high school ex-boyfriends’ paths far, far away from mine.

Let’s get into some things:

- Taking Zoom meetings on planes. Is this a thing now?! I spent a collective 10 hours on planes this week going between Newark and Los Angeles, and while in flight, I noticed a few people near me doing business Zooms, some on camera and some off. In ECONOMY CLASS, no less!! It made me incredibly depressed, because I thought that we had all agreed that air travel was the one place where we didn’t HAVE to work. Like, yes, it can be a great place to catch up on email or do some writing, but you shouldn’t HAVE to work when you’re 30,000 feet above the Earth with spotty wifi. In my opinion, we should all be half-zonked on Klonopin, watching Miss Congeniality for the millionth time. I mean, really! Plus, it’s annoying to hear someone talking to a screen while you’re trying to fall asleep to Sandra Bullock’s most charming copaganda. Damn you, capitalism, is there nothing you won’t ruin??

- Watching Sex And The City on planes. This one is on me, because, well, I guess I forgot how much sex and nudity is actually in this show. I kind of assumed that United would’ve censored it, like TBS does for the reruns, but nope. So really, it’s their fault for even offering the show in their in-flight entertainment options! Mostly it was fine, but my seatmate definitely gave me a weird look during the scene when Samantha fucks the guy in the swing, which, fair enough. I did look around before I started the show to make sure there were no young kids around me who could see my screen, since I was on the aisle. 

- Low-sodium cooking! Another reason why I wanted to go out to visit my folks was to be able to give my mom a bit of a break from being on caregiver duty 24/7. One day we went for a long walk (she used to do long walks with my dad three times a week but hadn’t since his stroke) through a nearby development and I marveled at the giant McMansions with three and four (!) car garages. Another day, she went out shopping while I “watched” my dad, which basically meant chilling in my old childhood bedroom and occasionally coming downstairs to give him the stink eye until he did his prescribed laps-with-the-walker around the house.

But the main way that I wanted to contribute was by cooking dinner for my folks. My dad is now on a “heart-healthy,” low-sodium diet to combat his high blood pressure, and he’s not too happy about it, so I tried to think of the most flavorful recipes I could make that were still low on saturated fat and salt. The first night, I made turkey pesto meatballs and orecchiette, a smitten kitchen recipe that I make at home all the time. This time, I halved the salt for the meatballs and barely salted the zucchini, and it was just as flavorful and delicious as ever! It was a big hit. (I should note that when I make that recipe, I also omit the broth portion, and just add a few splashes of reserved pasta water, maybe a half cup, when I mix everything together at the end to make the sauce extra silky.)

The second night, I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and just went very light on the salt. That’s another one of my go-to recipes. I served it with mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and a salad with creamy dressing. The magic of that dish is that the garlic cloves get all mellow and soft by the time you’re done stewing them, and they don’t actually have a strong garlic flavor at all. The other magic is the white wine sauce. Omgz, I could practically bathe in it! I can’t find a version of the recipe I use online, so here it is:

Chicken with 40 Cloves of GarlicAdapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (as “Chicken and Garlic Stew”)

6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs1 cup flour40 cloves of garlic, peeled (I just buy a bag of pre-peeled cloves)1 cup dry white wine*2 sprigs of fresh rosemarySalt and pepperExtra virgin olive oil

1. Dredge the chicken thighs in flour so they are nicely coated with a thin layer all over.

2. Add olive oil to coat the bottom of a dutch oven over medium high heat until warmed through. Then, add chicken thighs, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook for five to seven minutes, then flip them and cook for another five to seven minutes more, until slightly browned all over.

3. Add the garlic to the dutch oven, nestling it around the chicken.

4. Pour the wine over everything. Add two sprigs of rosemary on top. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 45-60 minutes. Check on it periodically to make sure it doesn’t boil. The dish is done when the chicken is tender and you can easily mash a garlic clove with a fork.

5. Remove the rosemary sprigs from the pot and serve the chicken with the sauce and garlic, and ideally good crusty bread for sopping up the sauce and spreading the garlic on.

* I used a reduced alcohol cooking wine this time, but it didn’t matter much, since almost all of the booze burns off during cooking, anyway. You can also substitute chicken stock for the wine if you’d like, just be mindful of the extra salt that adds.

- Applebee’s. The one night that I didn’t cook, my parents insisted on getting takeout from our local Applebee’s using a gift card I’d gotten them for Christmas last year. I can definitely see the appeal of Applebee’s from a financial perspective. It was a $100 gift card, and they were able to get an appetizer, three salads, and three entrees, and still have money left on the card for another meal! That said, the food is ehhhhh not my favorite, but I keep my mouth shut because my parents always get all excited about going there like it’s a big treat and I don’t want to burst their bubbles by being a snob.

This time, we shared a plate of the classic buffalo boneless chicken wings, and I had a Caesar side salad and the Bourbon Street chicken and shrimp. Boneless wings are not usually my favorite because I feel like they’re usually about 90% breading, but these were not bad! My side salad was totally fine, and my entree was… okay. The chicken was overcooked and pretty hard, but it was edible. If you frequent Applebee’s, what do you usually order? I need to know for next time I’m out there! Help. Me.

- RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars Season 8 (Paramount+). I’d intended to catch up on this season of All Stars on some of my many hours in flight, but the stupid fucking Paramount+ app on my phone refused to play any of the episodes I’d pre-downloaded! I’m lucky that because of my flight anxiety, I have backup plans on backup plans when it comes to entertaining myself during a flight. But that’s all besides the point. I’m not sure how I feel about this season so far! I’m finding it all a bit lukewarm. I was excited to get to see more from Jimbo, Heidi N Closet, LaLa Ri, and Kandy Muse, and learn more about Jaymes Mansfield, Mrs. Kasha Davis, and Alexis Michelle, but after last year’s all-winners All Stars, the competition just doesn’t feel as fierce. The bar has been raised, and I’m not sure these ladies are meeting it. I don’t know! Maybe things will pick up. As far as front runners go, I think Heidi has been absolutely killing it. If you’re watching, what do you think?

Alright, that’s about it for this week’s newsletter! I apologize that it’s a bit shorter than usual, I simply haven’t done too many interesting things to write about!

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Until next time—go easy on the salt.

Love,

Liz

XOXO