Lydia Likes It

Potholders for grownups

For as long as it took me to go online and order one of these loopy potholder frames, I was smitten with the idea of returning to my childhood and weaving giant potholders. By the time the package arrived, complete with frame, tools and a starter supply of loops, I'd lost interest. Fortunately, my husband Ted dove in and began making potholders to match our plates, and potholders in different color combinations and patterns, and potholders for gifts. There's even a Hudson's Bay blanket potholder in our kitchen drawer now! When he's done with this, the loom and loops will get passed along to one of our crafty granddaughters. If you try this and get into it, there are Facebook groups where people share photos and graphed patterns, lots of Youtube tutorials, and a couple of good books to get you started. When your fingers are twitchy, making potholders is fast and easy therapy.

South End Deep Root Chili

The only thing better than a great recipe is a great recipe with a backstory. 

Once upon a time, a woman named Mary entered a chili contest, a benefit event for one of her charitable organizations, and she enlisted the help of her sister and two friends to come up with a signature chili.

She'd seen a recipe for a black bean chili in a magazine, and we started from there. (Cat's out of the bag now...I was one of the recruits.) We worked on our recipe, tweaking a bit, having fun, and — in a stroke of genius — adding some pasta at the end, until we all were pleased with it.

On the day of the contest, I prepared a large vat of our concoction, which we named South End Deep Root Chili in honor of the mega-toothache Mary had on the day we first tested our recipe. Off she went to the contest. There were nine other entrants, all of whom had made traditional chili.

The cook at the station next to Mary's came over for a taste. "That's not chili," he proclaimed. "It's going to win, but it's not chili."

And win it did. The prize was a crockpot, which the four of us agreed to share (!). I don't know what became of the crockpot, but the chili has become a house favorite, in my house and in a few other houses I know about.

South End Deep Root Chili 

This recipe, which appeared in my cookbook, South End Cooks: Recipes from a Boston Neighborhood, and then on my food blog, The Perfect Pantry, is unconventional but delicious, and like all chili recipes, proportions are not important. Serves 8-10; can be halved, or doubled.

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrots
6 Tbsp minced garlic
4 tsp ground cumin
10 tsp chili powder, or to taste
4 cans black beans, drained, rinsed and drained again
28 oz vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
4 tsp lemon honey (or 4 tsp plain honey + 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice)
1 small dried chili pepper, crushed, or hot sauce to taste
1 28-oz can diced or chopped tomatoes, with juice
1/2 cup orzo (or other tiny pasta)
1/4 tsp salt (taste first if using storebought stock)
Black pepper to taste
Monterey Jack cheese, grated (for garnish)
Avocado, chopped (for garnish)
Sour cream (for garnish)

Directions

Preheat a large heavy pot or Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add apple juice and bring to a boil. Add onions and sauté, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add celery, carrots, garlic, cumin and chili powder. Continue stirring for 3 minutes. Add black beans, stock, honey, lemon, chili pepper and tomatoes. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the beans don't stick.

Add orzo, salt and pepper, and continue cooking, covered, stirring frequently, until the orzo is cooked (8-10 minutes).

Serve hot, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and/or sour cream. Can be made ahead; cool, cover and refrigerate.

Once upon a time, a woman named Mary entered a chili contest, a benefit event for one of her charitable organizations, and she enlisted the help of her sister and two friends to come up with a signature chili.

She'd seen a recipe for a black bean chili in a magazine, and we started from there. (Cat's out of the bag now...I was one of the recruits.) We worked on our recipe, tweaking a bit, having fun, and — in a stroke of genius — adding some pasta at the end, until we all were pleased with it.

On the day of the contest, I prepared a large vat of our concoction, which we named South End Deep Root Chili in honor of the mega-toothache Mary had on the day we first tested our recipe. Off she went to the contest. There were nine other entrants, all of whom had made traditional chili.

The cook at the station next to Mary's came over for a taste. "That's not chili," he proclaimed. "It's going to win, but it's not chili."

South End Deep Root Chili 

This recipe, which appeared in my cookbook, South End Cooks: Recipes from a Boston Neighborhood, and then on my food blog, The Perfect Pantry, is unconventional but delicious, and like all chili recipes, proportions are not important. Serves 8-10; can be halved, or doubled.

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrots
6 Tbsp minced garlic
4 tsp ground cumin
10 tsp chili powder, or to taste
4 cans black beans, drained, rinsed and drained again
28 oz vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
4 tsp lemon honey (or 4 tsp plain honey + 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice)
1 small dried chili pepper, crushed, or hot sauce to taste
1 28-oz can diced or chopped tomatoes, with juice
1/2 cup orzo (or other tiny pasta)
1/4 tsp salt (taste first if using storebought stock)
Black pepper to taste
Monterey Jack cheese, grated (for garnish)
Avocado, chopped (for garnish)
Sour cream (for garnish)

Directions

Preheat a large heavy pot or Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add apple juice and bring to a boil. Add onions and sauté, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add celery, carrots, garlic, cumin and chili powder. Continue stirring for 3 minutes. Add black beans, stock, honey, lemon, chili pepper and tomatoes. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the beans don't stick.

Add orzo, salt and pepper, and continue cooking, covered, stirring frequently, until the orzo is cooked (8-10 minutes).

Serve hot, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and/or sour cream. Can be made ahead; cool, cover and refrigerate.

South End Deep Root Chili 

This recipe, which appeared in my cookbook, South End Cooks: Recipes from a Boston Neighborhood, and then on my food blog, The Perfect Pantry, is unconventional but delicious, and like all chili recipes, proportions are not important. Serves 8-10; can be halved, or doubled.

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrots
6 Tbsp minced garlic
4 tsp ground cumin
10 tsp chili powder, or to taste
4 cans black beans, drained, rinsed and drained again
28 oz vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
4 tsp lemon honey (or 4 tsp plain honey + 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice)
1 small dried chili pepper, crushed, or hot sauce to taste
1 28-oz can diced or chopped tomatoes, with juice
1/2 cup orzo (or other tiny pasta)
1/4 tsp salt (taste first if using storebought stock)
Black pepper to taste
Monterey Jack cheese, grated (for garnish)
Avocado, chopped (for garnish)
Sour cream (for garnish)

Directions

Preheat a large heavy pot or Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add apple juice and bring to a boil. Add onions and sauté, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add celery, carrots, garlic, cumin and chili powder. Continue stirring for 3 minutes. Add black beans, stock, honey, lemon, chili pepper and tomatoes. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the beans don't stick.

Add orzo, salt and pepper, and continue cooking, covered, stirring frequently, until the orzo is cooked (8-10 minutes).

Serve hot, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and/or sour cream. Can be made ahead; cool, cover and refrigerate.

Pick-up line

The city of Newton sits adjacent to Boston; it's a vibrant suburb, home to several colleges and universities and shopping malls and many restaurants and ample green space. Some time in 2025, Ted and I plan to move to a brand new senior independent living community in Newton, and it's occurred to us that we don't know much about the city at all. Most of our activity -- cultural, medical, volunteering, and our previous work life -- has been centered in Boston. Imagine my delight to learn that Newton has a city-sponsored on-demand ride service called New Mo: Newton in Motion. NewMo, which operates Monday-Friday, costs just $2 per ride, anywhere in Newton, and works just like Uber or Lyft. (If you are age 60 or older, the NewMo Senior Service offers some additional benefits, like door-to-door and Saturday morning service and the ability to prebook for medical appointments.) Affordable, sustainable, easy to use on your phone: I can't wait to try it.

Lunch doodles

Am I the last to discover Mo Willems and his wonderful books for children? Three years after the start of the pandemic, the New York Times published a short piece about by the artist and the videos he made to help himself through it. So, three years after the start of the pandemic, why I am writing about this now? Because I sat down and binge watched them all with a big smile on my face (and ordered a few new drawing journals). Because Mo Willems, author of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and eight other Pigeon books, treats kids like thoughtful human beings. And because I also believe that science has gotten us to this point, but art is in it with us for the long term. I'm letting the artist speak for himself here, because he is so much more eloquent than I am. Enjoy his videos; if this one makes you smile, there's a whole series to watch. Now, go get your Sharpies and doodle along!

BY MO WILLEMS, from the New York Times April 9, 2023: I think like many people in early March 2020, I couldn’t or wouldn’t comprehend the magnitude of an actual pandemic, so I didn’t. I’d been traveling to Los Angeles, then I flew to D.C. for a big show where lots of kids would come and doodle while a jazz band improvised. But when I landed, I saw what was on the airport TV screens. That’s when it hit me: We can’t do this. So I canceled the show and flew home.

I’d long been saying that I write about things that confuse me or scare me because if I’m confused or scared enough, I assume that it must be a universal emotion. On that plane, I knew I was afraid. So I thought, maybe other people were afraid, too. That gave me an idea. That was on Thursday, March 12. On Friday I called the Kennedy Center, where I was artist in residence, and pitched the idea of shooting a midday doodling session from my home studio. On Saturday, I wrote a few beat sheets, and my wife, Cher, and son, Trix, set up what we needed. On Sunday, we shot the first Lunch Doodle with a cellphone on a tripod on a table — that was it. No lights. No microphone. We did it in one shot with no edits, then sent the video to the team at the Kennedy Center, who formatted it and announced on social media the video would drop on Monday at noon.

As the week progressed, a pal got in touch to say, “You know what, let me send you a microphone.” My mother-in-law reached out to say, “Let me send you a comb.” The shows got tighter. It was, to be honest, stressful and isolating at the beginning. But within a couple of days, we started getting letters and drawings sent by kids. That felt good.

The whole project gave our family agency, which is what we desperately needed in those early days. Thanks to the kids, our sense of being untethered in a stormy sea gave way to a sense of being connected to a community, which grew into a realization: Science was going to get us out of this pandemic. But art was going to get us through it.

Hablas Español?

Do you hablas Español? Do you hablas French, or Russian, or Mandarin, or Greek, or Haitian Creole, or any second language (assuming English is your first)? In my New Jersey public school system, languages weren't a priority, and we didn't have the option of electing to study a language until high school. Having not achieved any fluency in Hebrew school when I was younger, I realized that language aptitude was not part of my makeup, so I convinced myself (and my parents) that taking Latin in high school would stand me in good stead academically, and give me a leg up in case I ever time-traveled to ancient Rome. Oh, how I regret that decision. Being good at crossword puzzles is one thing, but being able to travel and converse easily in Mexico or Costa Rica or Venezuela or Puerto Rico is much more appealing. ¡Debería haber estudiado Español! Now I can, with the aid of technology. Babbel, Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone are three sites to check out. Different styles, different prices, all with great reviews. It's never too late to learn. ¡Empecemos!