Of the Week: Fairy Tales and Birthday Cake

What I'm reading, writing, and cooking

Here with quite a bit of reading today, including probably my favorite new quote, which is describing the main activities of fairies in Ireland to be “feasting, fighting, and making love, and playing the most beautiful music.” Add in some writing too and I’m set, that’s all I need.

Reading

Irish Fairy and Folktales edited by W.B. Yeats and Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan. I’m also leafing through a few of my Flannery O’Connor books to see which one I’m reading next. (A semi-complete list of books I’ve finished this year over on Bookshop.) Alicia Kennedy’s “Defining and Refining a Food Justice Lens,” and the two newsletters she linked to at the beginning: Jon Randell Smith’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Food Security” and Raechel Ann Jolie’s “girl culture panic & the failures of feminism.” A few quotes that struck me recently: Kara Haupt: “But the more I garden, too, the more I realize the teetering fragility of the modern agriculture system. To eat is to be dependent—on farmers and the Earth.” Dr. Sarah Duignan: “We are living in a society where a woman giving birth in an encampment tent is a call for more policing, rather than more dignified healthcare.” Apoorva Sripathi: “I love chopping up cabbage into tiny, tiny shreds, stacking the leaves on top of each other and folding them over like bookmarking a page over itself because I hate the idea of a separate bookmark.”

Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan

Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson

The good people — they’re just like us

Writing

I’m editing and working on follow-up questions after interviewing Diego Gerard Morrison about his book Pages of Mourning (out in May from Two Dollar Radio). This process also includes reading his previous book Myth of Pterygium (fantastic as well—I finished it in a day.)

Cooking

My brother (#2 of 3) had a birthday last week and I made him a semolina olive oil cake with an extremely convenient (lol @ myself after last week’s essay) whipped topping and Amarena Cherries (the Trader Joe’s kind). For the cake, I used the Golden Glow recipe from The Miller’s Daughter, but didn’t do the blood orange topping because I made the cake the night before.

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Thank you for reading! The Good Enough Weekly comes out every Friday, alternating an essay with Of the Week (like today.) This time last year I wrote: “When I only cooked for myself.” I also take on freelance editing and writing projects. Reach out if you’re looking for help in those departments — I’ve worked on everything from zines to textbooks. More info here.