10 Things: All Babies, All Right, Animals

My Recommendations for what to consider, read, do, eat, cook, make, listen to, and more this week.

My Loves,

It’s been a hard week. May I suggest many, many things? Like what to do with egg yolks, squash blossoms, and your time in the car? First three are free, but man, the paid tier has some good stuff this time around. It might be the moment to up your subscription. It just might.

1. CONSIDER: Talking to animals

There’ve been many articles recently (three) about how animals communicate, and whether or not we might be able to communicate with them. Any time we venture into this territory, amazing discoveries are made, because humans sit very still and stare for a very long time at other animals.

• Anthony Ham in The New York Times on the question for an alligator dictionary:

  “He went down under the water and started blowing bubbles at her,” said Sonnie Flores, a crocodile researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast who observed the interaction. “It was kind of sweet. It was almost like he was blowing her a kiss.”

• Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker on talking to sperm whales:

  Female sperm whales, meanwhile, are exceptionally close. The adults in a unit not only travel and hunt together; they also appear to confer on major decisions. If there’s a new mother in the group, the other members mind the calf while she dives for food. In some units, though not in Unit R, sperm whales even suckle one another’s young. When a family is threatened, the adults cluster together to protect their offspring, and when things are calm the calves fool around.

Just an old reject, but you never know. The whales might be saying this.

• Conor Gearin in BirdNote on parrots on video chats:

  Many parrots chatted amiably during the call, behaving much like wild birds keeping in touch with their flock. They often stayed on the phone for the maximum allowed five minutes. Some birds even learned skills from each other and seemed to form lasting friendships, continuing to call each other after the experiment.

2. MAKE: Citrus curd

This pie, which my cat Puppy is coveting from the background, was EASY. I parbaked a crust, scooped in the curd below, put raw raspberries on top and then some meringue topping.

An unusual problem I have is that in the summer I always have too many eggs. (In the winter I don’t ever have enough eggs, because I get accustomed to having too many, and chickens really don’t lay eggs in winter, and then there you are, eggless during baking season.) The way I’ve solved this problem, mostly, is by giving them away to anyone who comes over to my house. But if no one comes over for three consecutive days, I have ten trillion eggs, and what am I to do?

As I’ve written previously, I’ve learned about making meringue topping, which I had no idea was so easy and required no oven. But what a shame about the yolks.

WELL, OK, THAT’S WHY THERE IS CITRUS CURD.

Obviously, people knew this. There’s a reason why lemon meringue pie is lemon meringue pie. The thing that that actually is is EGG PIE WITH LEMON JUICE. I just didn’t put it together. I also didn’t realize how simple it was to make curd, nor did I understand that you can make citrus curd with any kind of citrus. Here’s how:

• In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of (vegan!?!?!?!) butter, combined with 1/4 cup citrus juice, plus the zest (2 tablespoons should do it), 3/4 cups sugar, a little bit of salt. Beat in four egg yolks.

• Cook over medium heat for four to six minutes, until the mixture has thickened enough to form a solid line when you dip a spatula in it.

• Remove from heat. Add another 2 tablespoons of butter, stir until melted.

• You’re supposed to strain it, but I didn’t and I liked what I made much better than what I get at the store, because I love the little fruit bits. You can strain it if you want. Strain it or don’t, but chill it for two hours. The end.

• VEGANS! If you don’t have access to egg yolks from very very loved hens (or you, fairly, don’t believe any egg yolks are ethical), I love this lemon curd recipe from Minimalist Baker. I’ve made it probably 20 times in my life and have never been disappointed. It’s also deceptively simple.

3. SUBSCRIBE:

   Kelcey Ervick
   ’s newsletter,
   The Habit of Art
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I don’t really know how Kelcey has the time to do what she does, but she is such an amazing author and artist, etc. She draws images like the one below for each and every one of her newsletters, which examine the practice of art-making, and all its highs and lows. I always devour this newsletter when it shows up in my inbox.