Going Local

If these ideas are intriguing to you, maybe you wish to subscribe to my newsletter.

I know this one’s a day late, but I spent my weekend reading things, just like I said I would.

Other writing:

• Small Bites: Soup season is Aleppo pepper season at Tone Madison (the inaugural edition of my new monthly food column)

I'm A Food Columnist Now

We’ve lived in Madison going on three years now, and I gotta say: I like this town. I like how small it is; I like how big it is. I like that we could afford to buy a house in a walkable neighborhood; I like how we’re always close to water. I also like that this city builds strong communities that coalesce around shared interests and hobbies.

I am not a part of any of those communities.

Look, it’s fine: I’m in my fifth year and third job as a work-from-homer, and I like working from home. Plus, I have MS, so the whole “hanging out indoors” hasn’t really been an option since, oh, about March 2020. We’ve got friends, and we try to get out and about when we can, but we’re not really regulars at places way I’d like to be. That’s the life, right? Wake up, walk down the street, say hi to everyone as you grab coffee at the corner spot.

Working from home has made me hella productive. For one, it gave me time to practice using “hella” as part of my written vocabulary in a casual and understated way. But mostly it’s helped me be a better writer. Without a daily commute, I’ve got way more time to pitch and work on drafts than I used to when I went into the office every day.

It’s a bit of a trade-off, but one that I’m hoping to alleviate with my newest project: a monthly food column for Tone. The first one’s about Aleppo pepper. People seemed to like it.

I’ve always loved food and cooking because I’ve always loved eating. And now, once a month, I get to talk about those things. When I changed careers to being a food writer, I thought “I should write more about food in my newsletter.” And then I jumped out of being a food writer. And I haven’t written that much about food here.

And I still won’t! I have to save my good ideas for the column!

Every month I’m going to hyper-focus on one topic that relates to cooking or dining out, as long as it relates back to Madison in some way. In that way, my goal with this thing is to take the thing that isolates me (working from home and writing about stuff) and project it out into the world (actually leaving the house and doing things).

I usually try to find some sort of profound emotional core to these newsletters that rings true to a universal perspective. I don’t know if I really have one of those this time; I’m just excited to write about food from a local perspective. It’s humbling to put myself in a position where I have to venture out of my comfort zone and admit I haven’t been an all-star citizen of Madison.

I’m also drunk with the power of having a regular column. It’s really the best sort of feeling: you can say whatever you want and it doesn’t even have to be true. It’s just your opinion on things.

Finding a balance between those two things, I suppose, is the best way forward for a successful column.

Read

• Flaming Hydra

What do you get when you convince 60 independent writers to band together to form a newsletter? I guess, to be honest, the closest thing we have to modern digital magazines. Flaming Hydra puts out two pieces every weekday for $3 a month right to your inbox, and damn, the writing is good. More digestible than an entire monthly magazine, but with more variety than your average newsletter, Flaming Hydra might be one of the new models of how media survives.

Watch

• Unnamed TV Show

I was lucky enough to get screeners for [redacted] and though I was a little skeptical at first, the story between [redacted] and [redacted] was really intense. In some ways it played into the tropes I was worried it would, but in others, [redacted] was really something exciting to see on TV and done in a way that’s both familiar and brand new.

Listen

• Beyoncé “16 Carriages”

It’s a good song. Beyoncé is too big to make bag songs. She’s got untouchable creative control due to being Who She Is, works extremely smartly with songwriters and composers who know how to deliver, and she’s got a creative voice that has undeniably made her the top of the pops. But it’s also highly refreshing to hear a version of pop country music that actually has sonic roots in country music. Musically, nothign on country radio stations is really that distinct from 90s alt-rock, and if the only thing keeping Luke Combs from being Matchbox 20 is a dobro and a fiddler, then yeah, I’m not surprised that Beyoncé’s new country inspired singles are extremely popular.

Consume

• Eleven Madison Park’s Granola 

Granola is one of those foods that’s mind-boggling expensive in stores and incredibly easy to make at home. This recipe hits the sweet and salty tastebud centers perfectly (though I leave out the coconut usually) and I love anything with pepitas. When you make your own granola you can dial in the salt vs. sweet ratio that works best for you, but the best part is: you end up with a lot of granola. Grab a handful while you’re in the kitchen, why doncha. There’s plenty to go around.

Artwork by Ashley Elander Strandquist. You can view her illustration work here and check out her printing business here.