Cooking clairvoyance is the best

And, is Superman the best superhero ever?

Hello! Hope you had a great 4th of July!

It’s easy to just embrace a long weekend, fireworks and a hot dog or two, without really thinking about what the holiday stands for. It definitely felt a bit more complicated this year, given, well, the current state of things, but I felt lucky to celebrate it in Rhode Island. Rhode Island was the 13th state and the final colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution and enter the Union, and was founded by someone whose statues and monuments haven’t been destroyed and torn down. Roger Williams believed in religious freedom—he was thrown out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for this belief—and was opposed to stealing land from the Native Americans, so he started his own colony, actually purchasing land from the Narragansett Indians in Rhode Island to do so. Learning this about Roger Williams felt like a ray of sunshine, given the U.S.’s history and the history we’re—unfortunately—making now. I’m really trying to make a practice of looking for all of the silver linings these days! It’s not as hard as you’d think, and sometimes history provides some positive stories like this one.

New England’s contribution to the U.S. food diaspora can’t be denied. The lobster roll—I like mine Connecticut-style, tossed with warm butter—is one of America’s best inventions. The fried clam bellies were delicious, and those round things that look like hush puppies are clam cakes and they were so good. Go to Blount Clam Shack in Warren if you find yourself in Rhode Island in the summer

Rhode Island-style clam chowder is my favorite clam chowder. No cream, just broth. I believe it’s not super well-known in other parts of the country, or even in other parts of the northeast; I was once rudely shouted down by a sadly closed-minded New Englander (from Massachusetts) who denied the existence of RI clam chowder completely. Rude!

Recipe foreshadowing is a thing

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of thinking of something—like a person or a place—only to have it pop into our reality shortly after. I personally love it when this happens with a recipe.

My mom has been perfecting her spaghetti allo scoglio recipe, a classic Italian seafood pasta. It’s an impressive dish, and not that complicated, but getting each step right is important. In a recent phone conversation, we were thinking of other pasta recipes she could make for an upcoming dinner party, and I suddenly remembered one we’ve made in the past that’s similar to pasta puttanesca (traditionally made with tomatoes, anchovies, olives and capers) but with the addition of fresh, grilled tuna steaks that have been flaked into the sauce.

Proof of our mother/daughter Psychic Friends Recipe Network! Also, check out the sushi we made for our monthly Asian American Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group gathering at Fortune Media (AAPI ERG, in corporate work world language!)

I used cherry tomatoes of different colors, but that’s not a requirement. It does make it extra pretty, though. I forgot to take a photo of the tuna before I cooked it, but it was beautiful and ruby red

You can imagine my excitement when, upon my arrival via the Amtrak Acela in Providence last week, my dear friend of (yikes!) almost 40 years, hostess with the mostest, and Rhode Island resident, Susanna, took us straight to the fish market to buy some local oysters, and lo and behold—there were some beautiful Atlantic tuna filets! It was like the recipe gods has whispered in my ear!

Not only are the local oysters delicious, but Susanna knows how to shuck them, which is a home entertaining game changer

Tah-dah! We used linguine, but you could use spaghetti, too

Friends, the pasta was delicious. I highly recommend it. And you barely need a recipe for it. I was winging it and a little worried I had done things in the wrong order, but it all worked out. If you wanted to cook the tuna on the grill instead of searing it in a pan, that would be great. And as I said in my text to my mom, you could even use canned or jarred tuna, and it would still be delicious. I personally like a ton of parsley in this dish, but that’s your choice to make.

Side dishes

I had a mini-epiphany yesterday, which was exciting, given that I was finally able to connect two things that have been rattling around in my head for the past several months. One of them is: how is it possible that you can see all the signs of what someone is capable of, based on how they treat others, but you will almost always assume that YOU are somehow different, that they couldn’t possibly treat YOU that way. In hindsight, the signs were almost always there, but you ignored the breadcrumbs. You overestimated them, and frankly, yourself. You thought their behavior was quirky, entertaining, charming, even…until you realized it wasn’t. Though troubling, it’s a good lesson to learn…and then, boom! I realized that this was the same premise behind people and groups you wouldn’t expect to make choices that will ultimately harm them. Like marginalized groups voting for Trump and thinking he would help them, for example.

This isn’t exactly new information, of course…but combined with the circular, delusional arguments flying around right now regarding the Jeffrey Epstein situation, the capacity to which people are capable of denial is really being hammered home! Sheesh!

Then, I went to see Superman, and my whole day brightened. How had I forgotten that Superman is our most uncomplicated, kind and altruistic super hero? He has no dark side, he loves his parents and his adopted parents, he’s not a problematic billionaire…Superman is just happy to be here and just wants to help people, sometimes to his own detriment. And his alter ego, Clark Kent, is a journalist, just trying to get the facts right and provide people with information! (Nevermind that he may have violated journalistic ethics by frequently interviewing and quoting Superman, ie, himself, in his stories, oops.) I loved every second of this movie. I was even charmed by the dog sidekick, in spite of him being designed for maximum cuteness. And David Corenswet is definitely a tall drink of water with great hair and is kind of the perfect Superman—I’m totally sold! Fun fact: his maternal grandfather was Edward Packard, the creator of the Choose Your own Adventure book series. This association makes me like him even more.

To close things out, and on the topic of super heroes, I’d like to give a shoutout to Susanna and Steve, my Rhode Island hosts, regarding the amazing job they’re doing at parenting two teenagers simultaneously. As a non-parent, I was impressed by their perseverance and patience, and as a former teenager, I felt like my parents deserved an apology! Sorry, Mom & Dad! 😬

Prior to navigating the typical holiday summer weekend teen shenanigans, things kicked off with Susanna pulling off an impressive feat involving a scheduled boat trip departure, forgotten sunglasses, and misplaced homemade sandwiches (made by Steve with, among other ingredients, roasted eggplant, prosciutto, goat cheese and beet green pesto—I wish I had taken a photo!), and transporting all of them, including herself, in a kayak to meet the rest of us on the boat. If that sounded complicated, it totally was, but she pulled it off with skill and aplomb. Superman couldn’t have done it better!

Supermom, kayaking herself to meet us on the boat with a backpack full of sandwiches, sunglasses and sunscreen

That’s all for this week. Thanks again for being here😊

See you next week

xxMolly