I must admit that I bought an air fryer
Black Friday brainworms, and other thoughts
I may have been a hater, but I am also curious, and a sucker. These are my takeaways a week later:
Air-fried lumpia is fine, albeit not the prettiest. Air-fried Jollibee peach mango pie — I buy a bunch and freeze them — is actually very good.
I get that some people can’t for health reasons but: Oil!!! You should still use it!
Many recipe writers cannot and should not be trusted with the word “crispy.” Cauliflower may be “crunchy,” by virtue of barely being cooked, but that does not mean it is “crispy.”
Everything is… good enough. I’ll admit it is quite nice to be able to make breakfast with potatoes in the air fryer and only eggs on the stove, but if I want a truly great breakfast potato, I’m grabbing a pan. (My go-to strategy: Microwave a waxy potato, with holes poked in it, until fork tender; cut into whatever size pieces you want; cook over high heat in neutral oil until crispy on each side, which takes longer than you think; season. I use my big kitchen tweezers to baby each piece.)
I will still deep fry, but maybe I’ll use the oven and the microwave less. It will be better in the summer, I think!
I still don’t think you need it, and I remain skeptical of any trendy appliance.
Also, hi! In trying to “launch” a “newsletter,” I have been encountering the same problem as when I attempt to start a new notebook: Do I have anything to say that is more perfect than a blank page?
I struggle, as perhaps you can tell, with the idea of perfection. I need everything to seem as though it came out of my head fully formed and pristine, and I fear ever letting people outside my Instagram Close Friends in on the fact that I am a person in-progress. This keeps me from doing a lot of things, but now in my 30th year (fuck): I’m finally kind of tired of it, and of having the exact same conversation with therapists about my trouble getting started.
When it comes to writing, this is all a bit funny, of course, as I spent years 12 to 20 posting all my dumbest thoughts on the internet, behind the faux privacy of Livejournal’s Friends Only filter. At some point, for no good reason, I just never posted on Livejournal ever again, and I stopped writing just to write. And then I picked it back up as my livelihood and dumped all this constant pressure on myself about writing (haha!).
Now, here I am, taking a risk and Posting. I have thoughts — many stupid, but some smart — and Twitter, where I’ve gotten used to dumping those thoughts, is increasingly unenjoyable. So, in the spirit of my working name for this “newsletter,” I will be treating it instead like a Livejournal. All of this might change (I’m sitting on other handles and name ideas). For now, the vibe is “mood: quixotic.”
Songs that are spiritually on my Spotify Wrapped this year, except I’ve had the same hyperfixation songs for four years so they skew everything:
“You Want It Darker” by Leonard Cohen (yes, because of the Bones and All trailer)
“Saturation Gradient” by Pay for Pain
“Permanent Rebellion” by L.S. Dunes
“Inbred” by Ethel Cain
Please appreciate these beans (I started with something like this recipe, and then added greens, breadcrumbs, and cheese):
