More Bites only
A trip to CPH, thoughts on deadlines, and salted butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies (bonus: more tomato content)
I’ve set myself the goal of sending out this newsletter (do we like the alliteration of Liv’s Letter btw? I giggled when I changed it from Liv’s Substack) on a bi-weekly basis and I intend to stick by that. Even on weeks, like this one, where I don’t feel like I have a concise thread or recipe to follow. Things might feel a tad disjointed. Please bear with me. 🐻
I’ve been thinking about creativity, deadlines, and boundaries. Mainly in that I do very well with a deadline, because without one? Frankly, not a lot happens. That being said, in the past I’ve definitely treated editor’s deadlines more as suggestions than facts, boundaries are malleable after all. But I enjoy a deadline, it gives me a very clear goal to work towards and, once completed, I get to tick it off my internal to-do list with a green check and a pat on the back. Especially right now, in a moment of upheaval and change, it feels nice to know that there is this one specific thing I need to do, even if it is self-imposed.
I’m writing this sitting on a bench on a glorious September day, surrounded by the greens of my nearby Schrebergärten (allotments that as a teenager I referred to as Strebergärten). Gardens that are filled with greenery, apples and pears that are reddening and ripening. Plums carpet the grass, so plump that gravity simply pulls them off their branches, round forms flattened and squished by hundreds of feet.
I experienced a mixture of burn out and boredom earlier this year, a combination that I can not recommend. In trying to work myself out of this state, I’m attempting to ground myself, be present, and notice the plums! All that new age jazz that is no longer new age but probably just excellent life advice that’s difficult to put into action on any given day, at least for me. Being present, enjoying a bit of sunshine on my face, and eating any wild plums I might come across.
Instead of one recipe or story, it’s a bunch of bits and bobs this week.
More Bites — the whole (news)letter edition
I spent the loveliest few days in Copenhagen in early September, I used to visit on a semi-regular basis but then had a terrible time when I last went in 2021 and haven’t been back since. This trip more than made up for it. I am admittedly not a huge coffee person, it’s the one liquid I know next to nothing about, but my friend Sarah has a whooole bunch of knowledge and opinions on natural vs. washed coffee. She took me to Det Vide Hus, where we found not only coffee but also their homemade ice cream. I ordered the raspberry sorbet with raspberry kombucha, which was v. refreshing with a candy-like coating that had a satisfying snap to it. Sarah’s tonka bean ice cream with apricot & yuzu coating was also delightful with a nice bitter component to it. Though I will die on the hill that tonka bean is not a flavour I want in my mouth. Afterwards, I wandered over to Lille bakery where I ordered their cheese toastie. A sandwich that’s very light on cheese, not something I would usually advocate for, but it left me feeling light rather than heavy and greasy. A generous schmear of mustard and gorgeously dressed side salad of radicchio leaves in a lemon emulsion perfectly accompanied the toastie, cutting through the richness with some welcome bitterness. A very nice light/ish lunch. I picked some plums in deep shades of red, yellow, and orange. Despite their picture-perfect frostiness, they were unfortunately slightly mealy.
Copenhagen, on a good summer day, is true northern European bliss. Warm and sunny, but as ever, a brisk wind blowing through the city. Immensely cyclable and wholesome as fuck. The light is golden and deep, especially around 6pm when leaves are darker, starting to curl with slight hints of yellow. We managed to achieve my goal of “dip a day”, plunging our bodies into the cool seaside every day. Being in a place where water is so freely accessible makes me reconsider how good of a deal those 63€ I paid for 20 Freibad visits really was. My favorite spot to swim is Svanemøllebugtens Vinterbadelaug, when I spent two weeks in CPH in 2018 I went swimming there every morning.
It’s endearing to listen to Danes complain about “sweltering heat” at 28 degrees with a breeze and sea access, but I’ll give it to them. It’s nice to not constantly worry about my skin burning, a UV index of 4 meant that I felt comfortable using 30 sunblock rather than my usual 50 (still 50 on the face because I am vain).
On my last day, we went for ice cream at Isoteket and I ordered the lime & cherry sorbet with a passion fruit vanilla milk gelato. Both outstanding.
I’m going to keep this one short: if you’ve been on the Internet in the last five years and like to bake, you’ve probably heard of Alison Roman’s salted butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies. These cookies became famous for a reason and they really are that good. They’re easy to put together, don’t require a ton of ingredients, the recipe makes a bunch (I must have gotten 30+ cookies out of those two logs), and the dough freezes well. Meaning that once you’ve got a log stored in your freezer, cookies are only an egg wash and sugar sprinkle away. My friend Cory, who is an excellent baker with an annoyingly nuanced palette put it like this: “Shortbread cookies are often so shortbread-y, that they crumble all the way towards the end, but these have a satisfyingly chewy finish”, thanks to the caramelized sugar layer. They’re buttery, salty, and snappy. A cookie that you can eat several of.
Did we think that I was done talking about tomatoes? Fat chance. I’m consuming tomatoes every which way for as long as I can and the other day, I made a tomato martini in my mom’s margarita cactus glasses from the 90s. Two parts tomato water to three parts tomato-infused vodka (I used the pulp from grated tomatoes to infuse the vodka for a few days) to 3/4 part soy sauce (sorry, that’s an annoying measure. Basically: use a little less than a teaspoon of soy sauce per drink) with the juice of half a lime. Incredibly refreshing, like getting punched in the face with umami, and oddly satiating.
YES 2 LL - alliteration, always!!!!!!!
Such a good read