by Paula D.
on March 25, 2023 3:01 pm in Food
They call it molded meals. It’s a form of fruit salad. It can be savory or sweet. Some of the recipes include mayonnaise. Jello was a thing. A very fashionable, opulent food thing in the Victorian era. Jello had a mid-twentieth-century revival when the Jell-O company changed their advertisements from black and white, to color lithographs. Jello is color. Today, the only place I can think of that serves Jello is the hospital. And then there’s Bill Cosby. But to my delight, there are others like me. I found them on the internet. There is an underground jello sculpting community.
My interest in jello was triggered when I saw a vintage photo of a beautiful tower in “Better Homes and Gardens, New Cookbook, 1981.” Bold hues, structural shapes vs. organic forms, and the endless foods you can suspend within jello were so inspiring. I immediately saw jello as an art form. My mind was overwhelmed by possibilities – a jello longboard with a little jello person on it; an elaborate English jello garden; one large jello flower; a jello dolphin jumping out of blue jello water and a layered, pastel jello Easter egg with embedded fruit, were just some of my concepts.
Before I share my jello journey, I need to address gelatin. It’s gross and it’s not vegetarian. In light of this roadblock, my first step was to find an alternative. You can buy vegan jello online. It’s made of seaweed and plant starches. Get that and rest easy.
I thought about purchasing fancy, vintage molds on eBay. Instead, mainly in the interest of submitting my column somewhat on time, I used Tupperware. I completed the first layer and included strawberries. I was so excited! I yearned to continue but layered rainbow jello takes time to set. With this, I discovered jello challenged my patience.
Day by day, layer by layer, I realized something was amiss. It wasn’t getting hard. I posted about the jello problem on Instagram. A very wise man named Jimmy O’Brien responded with this, “I think the issue here is you have to cook the fruit first. Some fresh fruit doesn’t allow jello to set properly because it has proteases, which break down the proteins in jello. Cooking the fruit will break this enzyme down.” Many recipes in the New Cookbook used canned fruit. This aligned with Jimmy’s information. Also, I feel the vegan jello is a loose player in this game.
When I finally released my jello sculptures from the molds, I was overcome with grief.
I followed the book. I put the groundwork in place. Yet after all of my time, my passion, and my investment, I failed. Coping with failure is so hard (unlike my jello). It’s a hit to our ego. It makes a mess. It’s guilt. It’s all the time you feel you’ve wasted. It’s watching in slow motion, your shortcomings toppling over onto the open door of your dishwasher. And you saw it coming, but you couldn’t stop it from falling apart.
It’s starting over.
The next morning, lying in bed at 5 a.m. after a night of sleep, I ordered more vegan jello on my phone. Is it really a failure if you learn from it?
Next time I will use less water per packet. I feel higher density will help correct the problem.
Dear gardeners – we made it. Spring is upon us! I know you can feel it. The need to get your fingers in the soil. The want of the sun on your back. And the warm breeze on your skin, that carries the fragrance of spring.
Gardens at Wave Hill
This is our busiest time of year – pruning, clearing organics, and seeds, sourcing compost, and I’d argue the best part, planning out our gardens for the season.
Last summer I visited Wave Hill with my friend Winnie – a stunning, 28-acre space in the Bronx where gardens live within gardens above the Hudson River.
There, we came across a border garden along a walk. The concept: edible landscaping. The idea hit both Winnie and me as brilliant. We felt inspired. It pushes the creative boundaries of gardening; challenges gardening norms and centers on sustainability and ecology. Below I elaborate on edible landscaping and other interesting garden themes to consider this season!
Edible Landscaping: By definition, edible landscaping is the use of food plants as design features in a landscape. These plants are used both for aesthetic value as well as consumption. The veg plants are intermixed with beneficial non-edibles such as citronella grass, marigolds, chrysanthemums, and petunias. These companion plants keep pests away while attracting beneficial insects. Together, gorgeous colorful foodscapes, garden borders, and patches are created. Each year you redesign your edible landscaping with different vegetables and arrangements – so fun! Ditch the lawn, (please, please) and build out an eco-edible landscape this year.
Tea Garden: A themed tea garden is perfect for a small patch, a balcony, or a window sill with south-facing light. Plant chamomile, peppermint, lavender, lemon balm, and red clover to name a few. Lots of light and well-drained soil will do the trick. Use these herbs to create your own unique blends. At the end of the season, dry and store the herbs for an abundance of tea through the winter months.
Herb Garden: Also great for small spaces or a container garden, the textural varieties will look beautiful intermixed. Herb plants are valuable to bees, other insects, and your Sunday sauce. One of the joys for me in midsummer is popping out the back kitchen door, choosing my fresh herbs, and starting up a meal. Personalize your herb garden to your food likes or grow a medicinal herb patch.
Culture Garden: Create a garden centered around your ethnicity or a culture you embrace. Create this garden in honor of a friend or a loved one. The bounty of this garden will give you and your family everything needed to cook delicious, Latin food, Italian food, Indian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Polish cuisine – you choose. The foods of this garden will provide an endless variety of meals, under the umbrella of one chosen, the beloved country.
by Paula D.
on March 10, 2023 12:00 pm in Instagram
The home stretch of winter seems like a silly time to write about ice cream but here we are. I was never that into ice cream, not even as a kid. But people change. I’m an ice cream person now. I’ll save my ice cream story for a future, 5-part column. Better yet, it will be included in my tell-all memoir, of which Katie Honan will edit, but she doesn’t know it yet.
Over the summer I’d go to Mara’s Ice Cream Parlor a few times a week with my friend Teresa. We’d eat ice cream for dinner and lament about the Cookie Monster flavor shortage. During the holidays I got my fix at all the parties.
A few weeks ago I spotted cute, colorful, instagram-able ice cream cones in Key Food. I was leaning over my cart, debating… then clarity. F it. It’s cold out, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy ice cream. The prospect of making my own ice cream cones with all the toppings, in the comfort of my own kitchen, hit like a warm rush of rainbow sprinkles washing over my serotonin receptors.
Next stop: The Museum of Ice Cream. Have you heard of it? Things weren’t adding up as my journey through 13 different “exhibits” progressed. Finally after the floating banana experience there was some history and artifacts on ice cream. These are fun:
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1774 America’s first ice cream shop opened, located on Dock St. (now Pearl Street NYC).
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1790 – George Washington first consumes ice cream.
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1881 – The Sunday was born. Vanilla ice cream drizzled with different syrups, garnishes, and toppings is sold only on Sundays.
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1929 – Willam Dreyer develops Rocky Road Ice cream as a metaphor, for the stock market crash.
Googling on the A train home, I learned The Museum of Ice Cream is not a museum. It’s a wannabe influencer’s instagram dream come true. That’s why I loved it so much! And you can eat ice cream throughout the whole experience. So there’s that too.
The interactive, multi-sensory “art” exhibit and adult pleasure playground was conceived in 2016 by then 24-year-old co-founder, Maryellis Bunn. Bunn is a California native and Parsons graduate. A quote in NYMag explains… a lot:
“Bunn found the city’s existing institutions disappointing: They hadn’t adapted to larger cultural currents, leaving little that would “engage and capture” her demographic.”
The Museum of Ice Cream started as a pop-up. It was self-funded by Bunn and co-founder Manish Vora (former CEO of Lightbox,). Thirty thousand tickets at $18 each sold out in under a week. Boom, you’re rich.
The selfie museum concept is disturbing and undeniably brilliant. If you like ice cream and the color pink, it’s a must on your culture calendar. It’s a fun, indoor winter activity for the whole family or the charismatic narcissistic.
Check out my fake influencer account – @theglorifiedtomato.
Three circumstances came together that inspired this column. I attended a baby birthday party over the weekend. I found an old “kids” book on the shelf. And the guest room switch-over to my art studio/office is complete.
Levi and Noah, my BFF’s kids turned 2 this weekend! The party was held the Rockaway Beach Brewery. I’m sitting at a table eating a delicious vanilla frosted cupcake, with my dinosaur party hat on, observing the little rugrats. I noticed their energetic movements, their curiosity and creative play. It was a breath of joy to share in their weird little world.
The next day, I was looking for a cookbook recipe to share with you. Instead, a flimsy, old book caught my attention. It’s called, Naturewatch, Exploring Nature With Your Children, by Adrienne Katz. I have know clue where this book came from but I’m glad it found me. The book’s chapters include: garden awareness, plants, garden visitors, crafts and magic plants. The ideas set in the book rest on familiar sights in urban environments – the obvious that without observation are most often overlooked.
The beauty of the black and white illustrations drew me in. Each section includes projects for the kids (and you). Some include: grow food from kitchen scraps, experimental potato obstacle course, peanut butter bird feeders, pressed flower pictures, natural dying, artwork from printing, seed necklace-making, catnip toys, bruise balm and more.
“There’s a way in which we can make visual recordings of tactile surfaces. A translation to picture from what we experience through our senses of touch. This actively leads to the discovery of many strange surfaces. It may be dishcloth or wrought iron gates passed every day, but recording in this way is like seeing it for the first time.”
Inspired by the book, I decided the first project in my new art studio would be prints from food. I used – ready for composting- items found in my fridge. Here’s a guide for printmaking, rubs and imprints:
Printing: A print can be made by painting or inking an object, then pressing it onto paper or fabric leaving an impression. Consider: sliced vegetables like onion layers, pepper, mushroom, cauliflower, parsley or textured greens. Before printing, make sure the veggies are somewhat dried out. Also try natural things outside your home like bark, leaves and sticks.
Transfers : Move a wax crayon or oil pastels back and forth on paper, laid on the source you wish to record. The raised areas will be revealed in the rubbing. Bring your crayons around town and record surfaces in the neighborhood! Some suggestions: a tree, a manhole cover, twigs, gates, brick.
Imprints: Using plasticine, playdough or clay take impressions of rough surfaces by pressing on the chosen objects. Remove the clay gently. You can then use Plaster of Paris (according to the instructions) to make your imprints permanent. Try pebbles/rocks, shells or snail shells for this technique.
I found the printing process simple, rewarding, and sensory. I learned to adjust the pressure of my pressing (onto the paper) to get different effects and patterns, all from the same piece of food. And the textures are endless!. Some foods I thought would work well, for example corn, didn’t look great. Others, like an oddly cut pepper, worked very well. I discovered using colored paper had a nicer feeling than white paper. Fully engage. Get your hands messy. Don’t overthink it. Enjoy!
Naturewatch was published in 1986, but guess what… you can still purchase it on Amazon.
