E and I are both small people, to the point where many of our clothes require alteration. In 2019 he bought a sewing machine— a real top of the line one!— and started hemming our pants. Every year I say I’m going to learn about and practice alterations too and every year, I walk away ranting about how much I hate our sewing machine.
He’s finally decided he hates it for all the same reasons I do: too many settings, screens instead of knobs, and the feel of horrible, slippery, hollow, clinically white plastic. We’re in the process of selling it so we can buy a great vintage one. I want our new machine to be a sensory pleasure, I told him over the weekend, heavy and textured and loud. No amount of fancy stitch settings can make up for the real thing, the permanence of metal designed to run for decades.
I got to thinking about all the real-thing substitutes that litter modern life. Thinking quickly turned into rage; rage spiraled into a decision that my two month+ stint of accidental vegetarianism is over*. I am sick of meat substitutes (not tofu, never tofu) as much as I am sick of cheap plastic consumer goods. I want the real thing.
Tonight I’ll sautee about 1/3lb ground beef until deeply brown before seasoning it with coriander, cumin, clove, allspice, smoked paprika, maybe a dash of cinnamon and cardamom and nutmeg. I’ll throw in finely chopped red onion and when that’s soft, chickpeas I cooked over the weekend. If I have extra will to live, I’ll also toss together a red cabbage slaw in pickled red onion vinaigrette with honey and sumac (did I forget to mention that my Spring of panic purchasing included spices?). Both will go on top of rice alongside a generous drizzle of tahini dressing and cilantro from the yard.
*I’m PMSing, can you tell? Hahahahaaaa