Meatless March

In our never-ending quest for Something Different to do during these dreary days, my family headed to Big Brook last week to find fossils. It was our first trip there, and the place sounded too good to be true: could any rather sad woman, months overdue for a haircut and sporting a face mask, just wade in to the stream and pluck out fossilized prehistoric creatures? The unlikely answer, my friends, was YES. Anyone else experimenting with unusual hair choices during quarantine? Note the pink streak. While New Jersey had plenty of dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters , the fossils you find at Big Brook originated elsewhere, and were ferried into what is now the stream bed and banks by long-ago glaciers. In the space of around an hour, we found a lot of remains of small prehistoric squid-like animals, and one triangular lump that we think is a prehistoric shark tooth, and a lot of triangular lumps that turned out to be just rocks. Triangular lumps are everywhere when you are looking f...

I made the most mouth-watering sandwich not too long ago, featuring--I kid you not--TOFU. No matter how enthusiastic I am about cutting down on meat consumption for the sake of the environment, I am not usually one to throw around terms like "mouth-watering" in connection with tofu. But even though I deprived it of some naughty deliciousness by pan-frying it instead of deep-frying it, I found this sandwich nonetheless exceptional: " Superiority Burger’s Crispy Fried Tofu Sandwich " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). Serving it, I held my breath: would my small backup dancer declare it too spicy? She did not, because it really wasn't spicy. I loved the sandwich more than the others, but all were pleased to some degree. I highly recommend brioche buns for this sandwich, and all sandwiches, for that matter. The new school year is looming, when my backup dancer will be entering third grade. I have been largely despairing these last few weeks with the approach of ...