Cooking with Friends

Published on by Andy Affleck

Tonight our friend Jenn and her son Phillip came over for dinner and hanging out. Phil hung out with Marci all evening and they talked about Destiny II and who knows what else while Ann, Jenn, and I cooked dinner and drank margaritas. Let’s stop for a minute and deconstruct this. Today, on St. Patrick’s Day, we did the following:

  • Listened to Irish music (specifically, this Spotify Playlist)
  • Drank Margaritas
  • Cooked a Middle Eastern dish

So, it was a very global take on St. Patrick’s Day. Anyway, the dish we made was Brown Rice Bowl with Lentils, Caramelized Onions & Fried Egg. This is a dish we’ve made once before and it was a big hit. Of course, none of us really read through the recipe before we started because we were all so busy gabbing. So I used water to cook the Lentils in the Instant Pot and to cook the rice in the Zojirushi instead of chicken broth. And after cooking and starting to caramelize the onions, I decided to just dump the lentils and rice into the (very large) pan and do a little fried rice type thing for a few minutes while adding chicken broth. The end result was delicious.

This is from a year ago when we last made this. In fact, this is the next morning when I used the leftovers to make breakfast.

Normally when I cook, I try to stick as close to the recipe as possible. Usually it’s because I know that if I do, it will come out well and taste great. With some recipes, I have learned over the years to branch out and have some fun with it. But when I cook with friends, recipes often go out the window and we just have fun with it.

One time, I was cooking with a friend of mine (and for some reason I cannot remember right now who it was, it was more than 20 years ago at this point). I was making homemade pizza, spinning my own dough (what a showoff!) and making my own sauce (I made both a red sauce and basil pesto). We were getting punchy I joked, “I know! I’ll do a pesto sauce, feta cheese, and apple slices!”) She looked at me and said, “Do it!” And I did and it was incredible.

About seven years ago (or so) out friends Jamie, Sean, and Amy came to spend Boxing day plus a few more days with us (it was just after we moved into the house we live in now.) I said that I would cook my favorite dish, Chicken Marsala. This is a dish that I have to try every time I find a restaurant that serves it. I also have a thing about Marsala wine and that translates into an obsession to Zabaglione Gelato (which I have made for friends in the five minutes we had a working ice cream maker many years ago, but I digress.) Anyway, we went shopping and I was able to get everything I needed: chicken, pancetta, mushrooms, and so forth. But Rhode Island has (had?) stupid blue laws and because it was a Sunday, we were unable to find any open liquor stores (grocery stores in Rhode Island are not allowed to carry any alcohol) to get marsala wine. Well, this is a problem since the dish kind of has marsala in its name.

Jamie said that his aunt was a chef and he called her to ask her if there were any viable substitutions we could make. She said that grape juice and some extra sugar (or something like that) would do the trick and so we decided to give that a shot. The only problem? The only grape juice we could find was purple. In the end, it ended up tasting… well, it wasn’t marsala, but it tasted pretty good. Except the chicken was purple! It was the chromatic opposite of green eggs and ham!

My last anecdote was from a few years back. Jenn brought her friend Garen over thinking that Garen and I would cook brunch for all of us. Ann and Jenn thought this would be a lot of fun (I am sure because they would drink mimosas while Garen and I did all the work.) I was very nervous about this because Garen is a Johnson & Wales trained chef and I am a guy who goofs around with recipes. I thought, what on Earth could I possibly bring to this meal? Well, after we went shopping at Whole Foods, we returned home and made two amazing frittatas. I learned a great deal from him and we had a blast cooking together.

I love cooking but cooking with friends is my favorite thing. The house we moved out of 7 years ago to come here was not an open plan house. The kitchen was out in the former breezeway and far away from everyone else. Anytime we had friends over, I would be all by myself way out in the kitchen. In this house, the kitchen and dining room are a huge open room and friends are right there hanging out and having fun while we are all working together (or even if I am flying solo and they are just hanging out with us) and that is a vast improvement over the previous house. If I could, I’d cook for friends all the time, not just once in a while. So, come on by!

Adorable Mascots

Published on by Andy Affleck

My daughter challenged me to write a blog post every day using a topic she chooses.

As you may know, I recently started a new job at Automattic. WordPress is woven through everything we do. So, among the many things that come with the perks of working at a large, established company, are getting swag (socks, stickers, etc.) with the WordPress mascot, Wapuu on them.

Wapuu has more than a passing resemblance to Pikachu but is always pictured holding something. By default it is a ball with the WordPress logo on it. But it can be quite a few other things as needed. And Wapuu changes their costume as needed as well.

These are from the WP World Messages App for iOS to be used as stickers in Messages chats.

I have Wapuu stickers on my laptop (Wapuu holding a rainbow ball with the WordPress logo on it and another where he is holding a green ball with the Jetpack logo on it and wearing an actual jet pack), Wapuu socks (I think I now own three different varieties), and a plush Wapuu I gave to my daughter (who invented a really cute voice for them.)

Mascots are interesting in that they can help build a community. In the case of Wapuu, it is the many WordCamps held around the world that have benefitted from Wapuu. Each one designs (or has designed) their own Wapuu for the occasion and people collect them.

In the case of Wapuu, it is the many WordCamps held around the world that have benefitted from Wapuu. Each one designs (or has designed) their own Wapuu for the occasion and people collect them.

This got me thinking about other mascots and their impact and why we love cuteness so much. In some cases, especially surrounding sports franchises, the mascots are mainly there for the children. But then you look at something like Pokemon, which is nothing but mascots and that was started for children but is beloved by people of all ages (I already know that I will be getting a Switch to play the new game when it comes out this fall.)

We just love cuteness. And collectible cuteness is even better. I lament that I am so late to Wapuu’s world. Think of all the pins and stickers I missed out on over the last 8 years since Wapuu’s official debut. Then again, I only have so much room on my bag for pins or laptop back for stickers.

As to why we love cuteness, who knows? I am sure more than a few dissertations have been written on this subject. If I had to guess without doing any research of any kind (I know, how American of me) I would say it probably has to do with a parenting instinct. We are programmed to react positively to cute things. But so what? Whether I am right or way off, it doesn’t matter. Wapuu and other adorable mascots are fantastic and I love them.

(I can get a limited number of Wapuu pins. If any of my local friends wants to swap for a pin, sticker, or other tchotchke from their place of work, let me know! So far, I have a BBEdit pin and one for AS220…)