This and That

Small things and snacks

I thought of calling this letter “In praise of small things,” but it felt too precious/ pretentious, like I was suddenly Michele de Montaigne writing a wee essai. But also? I love small!

e.g.: Babies. I was giving blood at the hospital earlier this week—and by “giving blood,” I mean only that many vials of my blood were being extracted for self-oriented testing purposes—and I got to see two different couples walk out from the birthing center with their miniature brand-new babies! One of the babies was crying just about as loud as a mewling kitten and the parents looked so panic-stricken and when they stopped in front of me to adjust something or other with the car seat I smiled at them and gave them an old-lady thumbs up, said, “You guys are crushing this already,” and they smiled back nervously and probably assumed I was in the process of donating my elderly corpse to science, which I essentially was.

e.g. The pinky-sized spotted garden eel with its tiny frown, which we got to see at the New York Aquarium last weekend.

photo from the Denver Zoo because I forgot to take pictures

e.g. Tiny bowls and plates. I cannot enough sing the praises of tiny bowls and plates. It’s our main complaint when we’re staying in a rental—that all the bowls are cereal-sized, even if all you wanted to have was a 11 pistachios or a handful of olives.

A ramekin is a great sub for a small bowl.

But I just love small bowls so much that we have tons of them, most of them thrifted or purchased from actual pottery people.

If you’re full from dinner, Michael will offer to make you a micro-sundae. You can choose your own bowl for it.

Those two bluish ones I bought from an immense thrift store outside of Reykjavik, which I made my family take a city bus to. (Worth it.)

Oooh that rice-cake-peanut-butter-pepperoncini picture reminds me! I made this two days ago:

It’s a Trader Joe’s seedy flatbread cracker with cottage cheese, garlic powder, pepperoncini and dill. An ideal snack in every way. Speaking of: I found this picture of a Birdy snack from some years ago. Sob!

Oh, wait, I got sidetracked. The last small thing: tiny vases, so you can turn a bouquet into an endless, iteratively smaller arrangement.

I am too lazy to hunt for an old picture from when we used to have flowers in the house before this animal arrived, intent on devouring every toxic thing in the known feline universe.

Wow. Is that it? I don’t know! Have I mentioned this chocolate cake recipe before? I am obsessed with it and make it all the time. It’s small and gluten-free and doesn’t require a ton of effort or ingredients. The only thing I do slightly differently is that I whip the eggs and sugar together to ribbons before adding the chocolate mixture. Also, I use salted butter, obvs. And I add vanilla. I am back to baking it at 375 despite the note that says otherwise, but I do double it for a party and bake it a little longer in a 9-inch pan. (A party! Please. I mean, like, having two people over.)

That’s all I got for now. Except that Michael made me this sobriety chip for my 2-year anniversary. I was so afraid when I saw the jewelry box! But then it was one of the best gifts I have ever received. If you look close, you can see that he used glitter Mod-Podge. I love not drinking so much, even though it is still very occasionally hard because of how much I loved drinking.

And we are protesting in everyday (e.g. we take care of our people and we do not shop at amazon) ways and in special-occasion (e.g. No Kings) ways.

Plus, we are alive and welcoming the spring light.

I hope you are alive and welcoming the spring light too. Thank you so much for being here.

xo