heirloom tomatoes + banned books
Spectacular, gimme 14 of 'em right now!!
“Action is the antidote to despair.” ― Joan Baez
Does anyone else have Kendrick Lamar’s “They Not Like Us” running on loop in their brain??? I didn’t even watch the Super Bowl because I have zero interest in football whatsoever, but I watched the halftime show and I could not have loved it more if I tried. The symbolism and message were of course incredible, but his jeans? His little shuffle dance moves? His Cheshire cat grin when saying, “Say Drake!” —as the kids say, it all lives rent-free in my head.
Filled with uncharacteristic enthusiasm for Valentine’s Day this year, I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes yesterday to decorate with my kids. Now, cupcakes in general are one of my least favorite baked goods — I’m not a huge cake person in general, and I usually only like the frosting. I lobbied for a full-size cake to play around with the decorating kit I got for Christmas, but my kids were insistent that they wanted to decorate individual cupcakes.
Well, I just fought for my life with that recipe —instead of following a set cupcake recipe, I followed Joy of Cooking’s recommendation to make a Devil’s Food Cake Cockaigne batter and use it to fill cupcake liners. I overfilled the liners and didn’t whisk the egg whites properly, so they turned out….fine. Passable! But sadly sunken in. Not my worst fail ever, but it was up there. I probably would have had a little cry if I were a contestant on Great British Bake-Off.
So we’ll decorate some of them, but the rest of them will get chopped up, flash frozen, and mixed into my next batch of homemade ice cream. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons!
Now, I thought I was finished with seeds for the year. Nay, I was sure! But then one of my favorite gardening reference books, Epic Tomatoes by Craig LeHoullier, practically jumped off my bookshelf and I found myself perusing Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The descriptions of heirloom seeds speak directly to my soul, I simply cannot help it! Between SESE and Seed Savers exchange, I ordered a nice mix of new-to-me-but-very-old-heirloom varieties:
Black Cherry
Japanese Black Trifele
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Large Red
Mortgage Lifter VFN
Yellow Brandywine
Mexico Midget
Livingston’s Paragon
Paul Robeson
Gold Metal
The only other *actual* seed packet I still need to procure —my beloved sun gold. If I could only grow one tomato, sun gold would be it. Prolific, delectable, and a total family favorite. I usually love growing heirlooms, but sun gold is one hybrid that I haven’t found a replacement for. Don’t mess with perfection!
A wee bit of housekeeping before we dive into the good stuff this week: I’ll be a guest on The Garden Party podcast next week, which airs live on YouTube Wednesday 2/19 @ 6:00 EST! I’m stoked to yap about gardening with fellow planty folks.
Some additional housekeeping: while I’m still deeply in my No Buy 2025 (it’s honestly been great and dare I say, easy?), I have a blanket exception for buying banned books. In my eyes, there is no better PR than to have your book be on a list of banned books, because it *immediately* makes me want to read it. Oh, radical conservatives think this book is a danger to society? Sign. Me. Up. Here’s a good list if you, too, are in the market for some new reading material.
Until next (pizza) Friday,
Amy
LOLs of the Week
Reading
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
Listening
Making
This year, I’m trying my darndest to make everything within reason from scratch —meaning, the goal isn’t perfection, but stretching myself to rethink my grocery store purchases. I’m talking all baked goods, granola, crackers, sauces, dressings, dips, etc. I’m trying to be strategic about making and freezing extra, planning ahead, and getting the kids involved. This isn’t a tradwife/everything is poison vibe, but more of a “everything at the grocery store is so freaking expensive and I’m sick of it” frugal hippie vibe, ya feel me?
From the past week:
butter (my 2.5 year old said it was, “da best butta I EVA HAD!!!!”)
sweet croutons (how I like to use up random crusts that my kids won’t eat)
balsamic reduction for chippy boys (see below for my new obsession)
brownies for lunch snacks
sunshine bars from Christina Tosi’s Bake Club cookbook which I got from the library, have made 4 recipes from, and added to my wishlist because I adore her and I’m obsessed with these bars!!
maple breakfast sausages (recipe coming soon to the blog, I just have to…actually write it! When I have free time!)
sourdough, reheated loaf from the chest freezer
chocolate cupcakes, against my better judgment
Loving
Iced Tahini Lattes. I waxed poetic last week about the salted honey iced latte I’ve been making recently, and someone commented that I needed to try this shaken iced tahini coffee. I didn’t make it exactly as written (3 Tbsp of tahini is too intense IMHO), so I dropped it to two and mixed it with milk, the rest of the ingredients, and two shots of espresso. It was an absolute delight and is going into regular rotation on my speshy drink at-home cafe menu. And by “cafe”, I mean it’s just me watching YouTube videos, pathetically trying to do latte art but somehow butchering it every single time.
@homesweetbrooch on Instagram. I’m a sucker for fruit and vegetable themed arts and crafts, and this artist makes beautiful hand embroidered jewelry in Poland. How stunning are these broccoli earrings?!
@seanweekly on Instagram. Weekly is a UK-based wildlife photographer and his images are absolutely incredible. As a National Geographic magazine obsessed youth, I always poured over the wildlife photography, and as an adult with an even deeper appreciation for wild animals and the horrific habitat loss occurring every day, I’m almost brought to tears when seeing images like this.
Chippy boys. I’ve had this TikTok snack saved for months now, but last week it started knock-knock-knockin’ at the back of my brain. I couldn’t stop thinking about chippy boys! So I did what any completely sane PMSing woman would do: I went to Trader Joe’s A) at noon on a Saturday, B) the day before a big snowstorm in Massachusetts, and C) the day before the Super Bowl. It was one of the worst grocery shopping experiences of my life, but I acquired chips and gorgonzola for said snack. In my quest to “make everything within reason from scratch”, I opted to make the balsamic glaze myself, but bought chips because it was a Very Dire Snack-mergency. I’ve already declared Saturday nights to be chippy boys nights, because they’re *so good* that I need to put barricades in place for myself, lest I turn into a chippy girl!
Paradise on Hulu. We just finished the most recent episode and it had me hooked from episode 1. It’s like dystopian drama thriller vibes —and it has James Marsden, who is a cutie patootie! Thank you to my dad for recommending it to me —he’s much more hip than I could ever be.
Link Roundup
Invasive Crabs Have Taken Over New England. One Solution? Eat Them. [NYT]
The perfectly imperfect art of visible mending: A beginner's guide [NPR]
Dancing Baby Sea Turtles Help Researchers Unravel the Mysteries of Their Navigational Superpowers [Smithsonian Magazine]
Microwaving your coffee changes it, and other lessons learned (while sipping espresso) in MIT’s coffee class [Boston.com]
Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest [The Guardian]
Enjoying Pizza Friday? Share the love and forward this email to a friend you think would dig it so they can get in on the fun, too. Like pebbling, which is what penguins do! They bring little trinkets like pebbles to their loved ones. How precious is that?
I was coming to comment that I’m so happy you got Black Cherry! I got them from SESE last year and the kids LOVE them! Perfect paired with Sungold!
But as I was scrolling down I saw the Huberman link and, uh, it just struck me as a mismatch to what you’re doing here. I know him as a manosphere misogynist but I couldn’t remember why, so I googled. It’s completely impossible to stay up to date with all the things, so I just wanted to let you know.
I blacked out at a seed exchange last week and somehow came home with 15 new tomatoe varieties so I feel this in my soul. I’m also deeply invested in the idea of backyard ducks to my partners absolutely non-excitement. Bring on spring!