Dear M –

I’m ashamed at how long it has taken me to reply to your last post. These exchanges bring me SO much pleasure and happiness, and yet I neglect it. I add to the long list of things that are good for my soul that I’ve neglected or abandoned since starting my job: exercise, thrifting, road trips, walks, nature, escaping to the coast because it’s now permanently over 100 degrees, intimacy. When I had jury duty for two weeks this spring, I experienced what could be: I left at about 8 and was home by 5:30. (The courthouse is 15 minutes by car.) My neighbor, who works for the feds, has just such a schedule. Instead, I’m gone 11 hours per day, and then on the weekends go to the blessedly air conditioned super market, clean, make food for the week, pat the cats a bit. I would truly love to know how my coworkers have work-life balance but…it’s possible they don’t either. (Though most of them live within 20 minute of the site.)

Your description of Italy and dinner parties and such was like reading about the exotic adventures of bygone explorers….It sounds truly lovely…but also really tiring. I do cook though, out of necessity and also because I can turn off my brain, put on an audio book, not talk to anyone, stay in air conditioning, and the results make my week much more bearable. Aside from an almost weekly cake or muffin, I’m usually experimenting with tofu. My ongoing “Will It Tofu?” project. (Nod to the mysteriously popular book “Will It Waffle?” By the author of “Will It Skillet?“—I’m guessing he came up with the title first for that one. Earning one’s living by putting various foods in a waffle iron and seeing what happens seems much more conducive to work-life balance.)

I nurtured a longstanding grudge against tofu due to my childhood experience of the following (on a regular basis): cubed tofu, doused in soy sauce, heated in a cast iron skillet with oil, brown rice, broccoli, and carrots. Nutritious but…blech. It took me decades to recover. Now I just try whatever with tofu, and sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn’t. Some recent successes: tofu parmigiana, tofu katsu, tofu crumbles with pesto, tofu with various simmer sauces (nearly instant dinner), tofu banh mi, and “Thai Boxing Tofu”–which is tofu marinated in the “Thai Boxing Chicken” marinade from the Night and Market cookbook. This marinade is the definition of ambrosia. It makes everything divine and I have to restrain myself from drinking it. So far, I’ve soaked chicken, cod, shrimp, tofu, and beef in it and cooked them all under the broiler (since I lack a grill). There is no protein that this doesn’t make absolutely delicious, and I’m curious how it would do with vegetables–starting with kabocha. Maybe this winter.

My tofu failures so far (“No, It Won’t Tofu”) include tofu cake and tofu larb. The tofu cake was a viral social media thing where you beat a block of soft tofu with a little water or soy milk and then stir in cake mix and voila, perfect vegan cake. As with so much else on social media, this was a false promise. I tried it twice, first without fruit and then with nectarines and blackberries stirred in. The first one was, charitably, like wet mochi; the second, charitably, like a clafoutis or British style pudding. I mean, we ate it, but I won’t try a third time. (However, this experiment lead me to discover Bob’s Red Mill yellow cake mix–really tasty, and you can make summer fruit cake with slivered almonds in a matter of minutes. I also added spices and plums once. This winter I will try the chocolate mix, with some port-soaked prunes. Having cake on hand in minutes is very hard to resist.) I am going to try tempeh larb next–the tofu rendition was watery and bland and lacked umami–and also a recipe where you blend soft tofu with melted dark chocolate to make a mousse.

Your post reminded me that I am considering an Instant Pot. Your risotto is making me even more tempted. (Especially the newest one, which is a 13 in one! Air fryer, crock pot, pressure cooker, yogurt maker, bread proofer…I don’t know what the rest could be, but it does 8 more things.) Keeps the heat down too!

Love, C. xoxo

PS: Once I get around to signing up for a Spotify account, I can listen to your playlist. I miss our exchanges of mix tapes!