Liars and Saints

*If you're working with tomato paste, there's an easy way to get it out of the can. I didn't invent this. You remove *both* the top *and* the bottom of the can, then you use the detached top as a kind of broom: The top sweeps the paste out of the cylinder, directly into your Crock Pot! This is among the greatest things I've ever learned. *There's nothing more therapeutic than a crime-story podcast and a bit of food prep. Something about the sinister-music and spice-measuring combo is deeply satisfying. *An entire world exists in which people write short essays about "kooky memories with broccoli," and then at the end of the essay, there's a recipe. I'm not sure everyone should be doing this. Not everyone writes like Ruth Reichl. But you can almost always skip the essay; there's generally a "jump to recipe" button. *People also go online to publish their guilty thoughts about paternity leave/maternity leave. Many people write, ...

A few thoughts on Ruth Reichl's "Save Me the Plums," now causing waves in bookstores: *Reichl says, in childhood, she was drawn to fairy stories. In such a story, there would often be a "magic door," a portal to another world. Reichl understood that food could be her own magic door. By paying very close attention to the things she was eating, Reichl could begin to narrate fairy stories of "a different sort." She could have an adventurous life. (Reichl can also be unsentimental about writing. She says a gift of newspaper-writing is: seeing your carefully-crafted words from yesterday "wrapping up today's fish." Writing is a job, just as fish-preparation is a job.) *One thing that inspires me about Reichl is her sense of empathy. Reichl does not describe her adversaries with a sense of incomprehension. Instead, she takes the time to understand where people are coming from. So, for example, Reichl tangles with her advertising director, bu...