Seven things to eat and drink to savor the last of Alaska summer
Notes on: Crush's dessert special, '90s parenting, perfect summer wines, roasted okra, pasta alla Norma, "Dog Show," a historic Alaska dessert and a Carrs Gambell memorial t-shirt.
I cannot wait for school to start. My youngest, Neri, is at an awkward age, having turned 11 in June. Hoping to keep him occupied, I signed him up for summer sports camp. He hated it. We went to Plan B: a very nice, very sporty high school senior to hang out with him for part of the day so I could focus on paragraphs. That, too, failed. Frustrated to the point of actual tears, I asked him, “What do *you* propose you should do all day this summer, then?”
“Ride my bike,” he said. “I won’t bug you.”
“Fine,” I said.
And so began his ‘90s summer. And my experiment in letting my kid find his own way.
It occurred to me, especially after reading this article in The Atlantic, that kids benefit from being untracked. Maybe we all do? When I was his age, I used to ride miles to Russian Jack Park, holding a Fisher-Price tape player along with one of my handlebars, listening to The Beatles’ White Album. Maybe I’d hook up with a buddy from down the street and we’d get 99-cent burritos from the Muldoon Taco Bell. If I needed money, I looked in the dryer. No one knew where I was before dinnertime.
On the way to Crush’s Bottle Shop yesterday to pick up wine for a dinner party, I thought about everything we’re tracking. Kids’ locations, sleep phases, ovulation, elevation, days since your last drink, DoorDash Thai, bank transactions, stock market, steps, Starbucks points, Slacks, team chats, weather systems, headlines, Amazon packages headed for the porch. Much of that tracking is done by apps that are also tracking us so they can calculate the best time to show us ads. What would our brains do if we freed them from some of this vigilance?
I don’t drink all that much, so I asked Kathy, who works at the shop, to recommend a bottle. She introduced me to her favorite “porch wines.” I carried away a nice Italian rosé and some elderflower tonic for myself. On the drive home, I thought about the ritual of porch wine. What would happen if I hung up the smart watch, turned off the notifications and made the rest of August a ‘90s-throwback, know-less experiment? What if I traded tracking vitals for activities like sipping something delicious on the porch, hunting blueberries, making room for a little vintage mystery about everything, including when my packages would arrive?
Anyway, I don’t know if this week’s ‘90s summer challenge is specifically about loving Anchorage so much as it’s about loosening your grip on the data and seeing what happens. I suppose that might improve life anywhere. Join me and let’s find out?
(Okay, this is weird, but right now as I type, from my older son’s room, I hear him playing and singing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge.” Are the ‘90s trolling me? Is it a sign?)
What’s for dinner? Porch picnic! Among my favorite little snacks to go with porch drinks: shishito peppers (I got mine from Arctic Harvest) tossed in oil and salt and charred in a hot cast iron under the broiler. Also delicious: fresh okra from Walmart, sliced lengthwise, oiled, salted, laid face-down on a sheet pan and roasted until crispy in a 425-degree oven. On the al fresco dinner menu: summer pasta. I used my Walmart eggplants to make pasta alla Norma, Mark Bittman’s vintage recipe, for family dinner on Sunday. This is pasta tossed in a sauce made with eggplants fried in a healthy amount of olive oil, Costco San Marzano tomatoes, a little garlic and chiles and a lot of pecorino Romano. And then I had a family birthday request for a traditional ragu instead of cake, which I made with ground pork and beef, using a recipe in my head similar to this one. (Might be perfect today, because it’s presently pouring.) Hot tip: it matters to buy the good passatta, or tomato puree. I got mine at Sagaya City Market for about $8 for a 28-ounce can. I served it with Alaska Pasta Co. rigatoni, cooked al dente, and put a candle in it. 🥳
Little treats: What a treat to slide into a booth at very busy Crush, after a tour through "Dog Show" at the Anchorage Museum (OMG the quilt, tho! The paintings!) on First Friday. I tried the dessert special, strawberry shortcake with a sassy little biscuit soaked in orange liqueur, along with a sip of a very dry, very cold Acinum Prosecco Rose. (Also ideal for porch drinks.) Another treat: T-shirt shopping at 49th Supply Co., where I came across this memorial T-shirt for Carrs Gambell (which raised the question: can you say “Ghetto Carrs” affectionately if you never lived in Fairview?) and another one printed in an Old English font for my ancestral ‘hood, Muldoon. Makes me miss my big East High School don’t-make-me-take-off-my-hoops hoops so bad.
The Chugach draws a person like a magnet, doesn’t it? If you head up for a walk/hike, bring your blueberry water bottle and this cool ADN guide to wildflowers. I got to guest-host “Talk of Alaska” on Alaska Public Media this week with a group of researchers who are collecting recipes related to Alaska history for a cookbook, part of the “Around the Alaska Table” project. Take a listen. Also a treat: poking around for half-off perennials at Dimond Greenhouses. 🌸 My contribution to Conde Nast Traveler’s 50 States, 50 Desserts project just dropped this morning. (👀: Wild Scoops and Whisky & Ramen.) And, finally, I liked this peek inside the JBER commissary by Ava White and Matt Faubion.
A massive thank-you to those of you, especially my personal friends, who broke your rule against subscribing to things to subscribe to this newsletter. We’re approaching 1,500 readers now, from almost every state (including an impressive number of people in Oklahoma?). Maybe you know someone in Alaska or elsewhere who would enjoy this valentine to Alaska life/food and want to share it with them to help get us over the 1,500-subscriber mark?
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Write to me with your favorite porch drinks, what it’s like in Oklahoma and/or local spots to get into tough-girl hoops (can a 40-something woman still rock those?). And anything. Really. (Except maybe parenting advice. I get plenty of that already.)
Thank you, always, for reading.
Julia
P.S.: For my newest recipes and access to many stories I link to, subscribe to the Anchorage Daily News and Edible Alaska. Search all my recipes and writing at juliaomalley.com.
P.P.S.: Neri doing scooter jumps in the August rain.
*Eagle-eyed editor-for-hire Egan Millard reads this newsletter. Hire him. 🦅*
Oh Julia, Julia, Julia! Everytime I read your stuff I feel like I'm looking at you and listening to you talk! You write just like you talk, and I so enjoy reading your posts every week! Keep up the good work, girlie!! So proud of you!!! :)
On a sunny summer evening on the porch, I am always a sucker for a Tom Collins. We use our ever-abundant rhubarb to make big batches of rhubarb simple-syrup, freezing it in mason jars to pull out as we want it. Some good gin, squeeze in a whole lemon, rhubarb simple syrup, and top off with seltzer. Drop in a couple fresh raspberries or some borage flowers too for extra fanciness. Then just keep moving your adirondack chair around to follow the evening sun!