The night of Sound + Season, Sasha made a huge bowl of couscous, which she fluffed with her fingers. The couscous was studded with plump currants, orange zest, orange blossom water, shaved almonds, and chopped black olives cured in oil. It was delicious. I’m weirdly terrible at making couscous, it always clumps together and gets sticky. Hers was perfect, so light and fluffy and dry.
Since my Acquired Taste story about Sasha isn’t available online, I thought I would post some of the photos I took when I visited her last summer. I have so many, I kind of want to share them all.
It was really humid that day, the kind where staying inside is almost unbearable. Being in a hot kitchen, even worse. Typical upstate New York summer, it rained on and off all afternoon, but we took every opportunity to escape outside to her backyard for wine or to go on walks.
I love writing about my best friends. It’s happening more and more, almost emerging as a pattern, which made me realize how fascinating and talented and smart my loved ones really are. I’ve long admired Sasha’s intuitive and thoughtful cooking style, yet I had never really watched her “in action.” (Whenever I would arrive at her house for dinner parties, everything would already be ready to go!)
More photos to come….
Posted in baking, celebration, family, food, grains, lunch, memory, nature, outdoors, party, people, photography
Tagged acquired taste magazine, home cooking, my friend sasha, sound and season
Last summer I wrote a story about Sasha, one of my favorite people in the world, and Ithaca, one of my favorite places in the world, for the new food quarterly ACQUIRED TASTE. Finally the issue is out. Even though it seems like that particular evening was a million years ago, I’m so happy with how it came out, and it makes me feel good to remember those times and that summer. I’ll never get over the tiny thrill of seeing my photos in a glossy mag, it’s almost more exciting than seeing my words in print.
Buy Acquired Taste here!
Posted in announcement, art, work, writers
Tagged acquired taste, ithaca, sasha, sound and season, writing