Note: This piece was initially written on Jan. 30, but not posted. It retains its place, and I should return to it later.

Home Cooking

One thing I've learned over the past year is that time marches on, regardless of how unprepared you are for its toll. I suppose that's always been the case. It just seems grimmer as you realize that you have less and less time left to make amends. I put a great deal of stock in the idea of "opportunity costs": what you give up the opportunity to do when you spend on something else. For instance, the money spent on building up defenses against the risks of war could have been spent on opportunities to reduce the conflicts that often lead to war. That's a double cost: the amount spent, and the opportunity lost.

And note that opportunity lost is denominated not just in money, but also in time, and that time is often irrecoverable. Climate change is especially time-sensitive: when we don't do things to lessen the risk, we allow the risk to compound by using up the time we needed to solve it.

For some unfathomable reason, I found a little notebook open to a page with my mother's dumplings recipe. Trying to impose reason on chaos, I decided I should copy it down and send it to you (I like more dumplings, so I usually scale this up by 50%):
  • 2 cups flour
  • 0.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp shortening
  • 0.75 c milk
I mix this up in the food processor, then turn it out on a marble slab lightly dusted with flour, and roll it out to something slightly thicker than 1/8-inch (probably more like 3/16), dusting it with a bit more flour, so the rolling pin doesn't stick. (The loose flour later thickens the broth.) I then cut these into 2-inch-wide strips, about 3-4 inches long. Before I do this, I boil a chicken for an hour, take it out, discard the bones and skin. I keep it on a light boil, to reduce a bit, but not much. I drop the cut dumplings in, and boil them for 20 minutes. They puff up a bit, and are slightly chewy (depending on how thin you actually roll them). Add the chicken back to the put, and heat it through, Season with salt and black pepper. I usually serve this with green beans, which have been boiled, then added to a skillet with sauteed bacon and onion. Picture attached. I haven't made this in several years, although a couple weeks ago I made the slightly simpler variation where the chicken and a more reduced broth are put into a casserole dish, topped with biscuits, then baked.

Notes on Everyday Life, 2026-01-30