PicoBlog

Yesterday I shared with you my recipe for the Greek-style Freddo Cappuccino. It’s as ravishing as it is refreshing, if you can forgive the fact it doesn’t truly resemble an iced cappuccino. The frothed milk sits atop the espresso, like the cream over an Irish coffee. The dairy is standoffish. It doesn’t mingle with the coffee below, in the manner of a textured cappuccino. Michalis Katsiavos, now of Seven Steps Coffee Roasters prepares his freddo cappuccino in the “traditional” way, in the sense that it actually looks and sips like a cappuccino.

Ahoy! I’m a week late with this newsletter (ty to the eagle eyes who noticed), but luckily you’re just in time for the next issue of: Dear lord. Over the past three weeks, in order to hit my most recent mini-deadline (yesterday!), I chewed up and spat out almost 26,000 words. In an ideal world those words would be thoughtfully considered. Instead it’s been more like speed-digging a tunnel, where the words are clumps of mud I’m flinging over my shoulder.

Of all the writers who use Substack, no one is as good at promoting their newsletter as Judd Legum, publisher of Popular Information. Judd was previously the editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress and has also been a political campaign researcher and lawyer. I convinced him to join me on a special pop-up episode of the Substack Podcast to share his advice on how to run a one-man newsletter business, build an audience, and turn Twitter to your advantage.

This month’s unit is a little nontraditional. It’s not really a standalone 3-4 week unit at all, but rather a year-long, all-the-time rhythm of classroom life. Originally Kelly Gallagher’s brainchild, I’ve used Article of the Week in different ways over the years. It has always been beneficial. But it has taken a lot of time. We could easily make a whole class out of just Articles of the Week, and it became so consuming a few years ago that I just dropped it altogether.

Hey, everyone! I often get asked what fats and oils I like to use at home when I’m cooking. Fat is one of the most important ingredients in cooking, and it’s one of the few things (along with salt) that you’ll use almost every time you cook. Fats serve a functional role, but they also provide flavor and nutrients. And now that cheap and toxic vegetable/seed oils have penetrated nearly all restaurant and packaged food, it’s even more important to seek out and use high-quality oils at home.

Mother sauces are an important feature of the traditional French cooking known as haute cuisine, characterised by classical, luxurious, elaborate dishes, often based on rich sauces. At least two notable figures have contributed to the introduction and standardisation of mother sauces. In the early 19th century, Marie-Antoine Carême was the first celebrity chef, who cooked for many well-established people at that time, including the preparation for a wedding cake and decorative centrepieces for Napoleon.

In honor of Orthodox Easter this past Sunday, I thought it would be useful to create a dip “cheat sheet”. My mom’s family is Greek and although I am not fluent in the language by any means, one thing I do know how to do is order. I’ve provided some ideal pairings below but these are all personal, you do you! There’s a time and a place for each dip and right about now, I think I’d like to be on the seaside in Greece sampling them all with some Greek salad and a freshly caught fish alongside a ton of lemon.

Hello, readers! This week we read the first two chapters of Team of Rivals, which largely served to introduce us to the four primary characters in the book. The first chapter gave us a snapshot of each man’s circumstances at the time of the 1860 Republican convention; the second chapter provided a bit of background and context for each of those men. Nat… ncG1vNJzZmismJqvqrPRnpidZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9OemKZln5t6s7XVmqOsZZOdrrHAxKuqZmldZ3qieceeqZytnJqurw%3D%3D

Occasionally, I pitch stories to other publications. Today’s post is a story that I’ve pitched and had rejected at least 10 times. As I was gearing up to pitch it again, I remembered that I publish this weekly newsletter. So, I pitched the story to myself, and it was accepted. Enjoy this so I can prove the haters wrong. this post has no title In 1802, Ludwig van Beethoven completed his “Moonlight Sonata”, not only one of his most famous compositions but arguably one of the most famous compositions in the history of western music.