Closed Loop Cooking Weekly Newsletter 1.29.21

January 29th, 2021

Hi friends,

There is a rhyme and reason to every recipe. More than a set of instructions, I’m intrigued by the subtle narratives you can pull out of an ingredient list and set of to-do’s. Take the colorful recipe for Orange Delight out of the 1977 edition of The Saturday Evening Post’s Fiber & Bran Better Health Cookbook. 

Orange Delight

2 navel oranges2 maraschino cherries2 teaspoons unsweetened shredded coconut½ teaspoon lemon juice2 teaspoons sugar or other sweetener (optional)2 mint leaves

Slice the tip off the bottom of the orange so that it will sit gracefully on a plate. Using a very sharp knife, notch out the top as you would for making a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Set the top aside. Hollow out the fruit by running a knife around the edge and scooping out the fruit with a teaspoon. Cut the fruit fiber and flesh into pieces into a bowl so that none of the juice is lost. Combine with the cherries cut into small pieces and the coconut. Add the lemon juice and the sweetener if desired. Fill the oranges with the mixtures. Replace the cover, inserting a mint leaf at a jaunty angle on one side. Chill well before serving.

--What does it mean for an orange to sit gracefully? Have I ever jaunted an angle before? I appreciate the confidence in my assumed Halloween decor technique. Regardless, I feel deep kinship for any cookbook with a vegetable section entitled Taking Your Leaves. This cookbook is a strange, but heartfelt love letter to the kitchen of yesteryear. A culinary moment captured in time, diet gazpacho, and coffee banana jelly.I’m thinking back on the recipes that have been most indicative of the last year for me. My ephemera cookbook that captures the moments of a year wracked with grief, uncertainty, and love. An equally strange momento to look back on and wonder why us folx in 2020 were making banana bread with the flavor of a fervent social revolution mixed in.Sections include adventures in sourdough, what to do with 25 pounds of dried chickpeas, and how to feed yourself after every Zoom funeral. It’s mostly an ode to hearty soup after that with a shout out to my fav granola recipe. It’s not a cookbook I care to use often, hopefully one that lives on the shelf and I can revisit in good time.What’s in your ephemera cookbook?Stay hungry,Hawnuh Lee | Founder, Closed Loop Cooking

The Cabbage Patch by Hawnuh Lee

To-do’s and how-to'sWhile it’s been virtually impossible to shop completely package-free during covid there are still ways to keep your dollars local and promote equitable food systems. Maia’s latest dive into grocery store alternatives is the most resilient way to shop folx. Hot tip–check out grocery offerings from your favorite restaurants, it’s a whole new market out there.

This week’s required readingA low impact lifestyle is so much more than bulk grocery shopping. We spoke to sustainability crush, Sabs Katz, to hear more about starting conversations that make waves. Co-founder of Intersectional Environmentalism, she’s fighting for enviro justice one local moment at a time.As someone who has accidentally / on purpose been using the same retainer since high school this revelation that it’s not that hard to buy nothing seems like second nature. But a vital reminder that stuff is, well, just stuff.

Seasonal eatingBringing back one of my favorite nut-free spreads to the pantry. Cinnamon maple sunflower seed butter feels like just the right cold weather indulgence. Must be that little hint of maple and that fact that I’m indefinitely carb loading.Soup’s (always) on. Love a little cabbage and sweet potato spoonful. Feel free to get wild with your choice of legumes kids.

Here’s what’s for dessertLook, I am leaning into some sweet treats because January 2021. I’m melting over these mini caramel apple clafoutis that our talented friend @micks_magic has whipped up. Plant-based / vegan goodness that shows off that seasonal apple haul and gives you something to share in with your pod. (Maybe.) I’m a sucker for homemade caramel and a sprinkle of toasted hazelnuts so it’s dessert for dinner, every night this week. Also, the TINS y’all, too dang cute.

We’re cooking withRicha Hingle’s Vegan Richa’s Everyday Kitchen: Epic Anytime Recipes with a World of Flavor. I’m looking for those go-to daily dishes, packed with *chef kisses*, plant-forward, and easy to add into the rotation. Whether you’re looking to swap up your dinner routine or just want something for meatless Mondays, Richa’s Indian inspired vegan eats are just the thing. (I’m looking at you peanut butter noodles.)Not usually one for romantic gift exchanges I would be more than not opposed to receiving this zero waste denim wine tote, I’d be damn delighted. On the list of things surplus denim is good for, I’d say getting wine to my kitchen is high up there. (Brownie points if you reply back with your fav bottle of vino.)Plus one for these gorgeous, recycled glasses to enjoy said beverage in. Light green glass, you make me weak.

AttendWoah. Design friends it’s time to go back to school and continue our anti-racism education. BIPOC Design History is offering a myriad of mindful courses in design history that bring marginalized narratives to the front. Can’t wait for Black Queer Stories in Print, must soak in Black Data, and so so many others. GO sign up.

Can't stop staring I just want to live in @graphicsandgrain’s illustrated landscapes. Soothing reminders of our sacred outdoor spaces.Decentralized ordering through IG. In love with every restaurant / pop-up / food adjacent small biz that repurposed the platform as a social scrolling takeout menu.

Make changeDaydreaming about tearing into a piece of fresh baked sourdough in the future kitchen of Bunkhouse Acres. You can donate funds to farmer Shellie Ann to make her goal of sustainable stewardship possible. She’s working to provide access to healthy foods in the long time food deserts of western Washington. A tractor goes an incredibly long way my friends. PS - you can sign up for her CSA or donate a share to a family in need. #farmingwhileblack <3

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