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| ISSUE NO. 505 |
SOMETIMES ONE WORD SAYS IT ALL . . .This newsletter is about sharing with our community. GFJ is about sharing jobs and resources to make people's lives better. When I think of my business partner, Taylor, the one word that bubbles up into my mind, paired with her signature big, genuine smile, is: sharing. Don't you just love to share? I can hear her saying to me.
Well, no - not always, the dark little voice inside me says. Sometimes I'm afraid to open myself up to sharing. Sometimes I'm afraid I won't have what I need. Sometimes I think I won't be heard or - even worse - I'll be misinterpreted. If I can sum up one fear about sharing that seems like the biggest of them all, it's the idea that sharing will lead to loss, in one form or another - lost resources, lost opportunity, loss of self-respect when you realize that what you shared was taken advantage of by someone else. It was a newsletter reader - Anne, in Northwest Indiana - who reached out recently to remind me how important this one word is: sharing. Anne said: '...we share toilet paper, masks, alcohol, anything that our town is out of in our stores, someone in our neighborhood has in abundance. If I go on [the Nextdoor app] and say I could really use, someone will drop it off on my porch within the hour.' Anne reminded me that sharing is the opposite of loss. Sharing inherently contains something valuable, even when we face loss, or fear loss, or find loss in some way relational to it. And like all the other cycles of the earth - like the ebb and flow of the tide that I think of for comfort in moments of overwhelm - behind loss, there is more sharing. Each week, we look forward to hearing back from some of you who have the time and inspiration to share with us - your ideas, your perspective, your criticism or feedback, your gratitude. Thank you for sharing. We'll leave you with the rest of Anne's story, because it is too good not to share: 'Our son lives in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Fortunately, he’s a corporate chef so he has a job. There are many people up in the hills who are very poor so he has organized numerous food drives. The Mexican neighbors in the area said that collectively, they probably had 1,000 tamales in their freezers. Our son and [his] friend distributed all of those door-to-door. Other neighbors said that they had hundreds of pounds of frozen fish that they caught in their freezers. So they had a big outdoor fish fry where people could pull up in their cars and get a bag of to-go dinner. [Our son] made 500 hush puppies and another neighbor made a huge pot of beans. They fed approximately 250 people in 2 hours.' And finally, in the spirit of sharing, here's a recipe to balance out all the baking you *might* be doing lately - it comes from another friend who shared with us, many years ago... Taylor's Caesar Dressing: I have distinct memories of every refrigerator I came across as a kid having at least a half dozen different bottles of salad dressing inside. Newman's Own was a staple in our household, but you could also find some creamy Ken's dressing (who can resist a peppercorn ranch?) or some wishbone red wine vinaigrette. When I went with my Mom to the local Foodtown (yes, that was the name of our local New Jersey grocery chain) there was nearly an entire aisle dedicated to salad dressings. They seemed to multiply with my age, as brand extensions became all the rage throughout the 90's (why offer one flavor when you can offer a dozen?). When I was a kid, it didn't occur to me that you could make all of those dressings on your own. Now I can't imagine dedicating precious refrigerator space to specific bottles of salad dressing. With the right ingredients on hand, you can make hundreds of variations. And when it comes to salad, we have an endless debate in our household: is your desert-island salad Caesar or Iceberg Wedge? Caesar often wins out for versatility. It never NOT hits the spot. And it works equally well on crunchy romaine or dark leafy greens. This particular rendition is the 'cheater's version', adapted from a recipe given to us by Erin Fairbanks. We begged her for it after having the kale caesar she made for us during Farm Camp at Flying Pigs Farm over a decade ago. Erin coated lacinato kale with olive oil and crisped it up on the grill before drenching it with this creamy Caesar. CAESAR DRESSING
Combine mayonnaise with garlic, mustard, lemon, worcestershire, hot sauce, salt and pepper (keep in mind that Parmigiano-Reggiano is very salty, and you can add more salt later). Whisk by hand. Fold in Parmigiano-Reggiano. Adjust seasoning to your liking (add more salt if you want salt, more lemon if you want it brighter, more garlic for more punch, more Worcestershire for more funk). Free the bottle,
Tay + Dor Co-Founders, Good Food Jobs |
tidbits...what we’re reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday…
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