NOURISH YOUR BODY

Foods We Love

BY REBECCA CRICHTON

Craig Claiborne, the venerable food critic and cookbook writer for The New York Times, wrote that we all love “nursery foods.” Those would be the creamy, sweet, soft foods we associate with our childhood—or at least the childhoods of mid-20th century Americans. His point was well taken. I can’t hear the words “tapioca pudding” without my mouth watering. Same thing with “melted cheese.” From custards to whipped cream, we can count on feeling soothed and comforted when we encounter those foods, and they are often from our childhoods.

I am unashamedly conflating what we call “comfort foods”—macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in tomato soup, mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream, meat loaf with ketchup—with foods we love. These dishes often show up as regulars on menus at places where people go to eat what makes them happy, not what makes them appreciate a chef’s talent.

Food as both expression and proof of love are ancient pairs. I am not talking about food as a substitute for love. (I think that is a particular 20th century aberration and one which many of us can relate to.)

I asked a friend what foods he loved. He started with a generic statement I couldn’t dispute: “Any well-prepared meal made with good ingredients and care.” Even so, I shut him down. “No! What do you love to eat, what makes you happy?” He laughed: “A really good sardine sandwich! A bowl of excellent congee!”

Absolutely.

When I want to feel happy, I make my favorite garlic potatoes with peas, melted cheese, and Indian lime pickle. I mash it all together. Each bite has its own hit of flavor. What’s more, I usually eat this by myself since I can’t count on anybody else joining me with same level of enthusiasm the mixture elicits from me. I also crave my cilantro salsa with its bright citrus tang. (See the recipe in the Summer 2018 issue.)

I visited friends recently and was served “dump cake,” something never previously encountered. Turns out there is a whole range of dump cakes, recently revived—or never forgotten— examples of post-World War II foods that were made with cans and boxed ingredients. My virgin experience with the category was the classic Cherry Dump Cake—canned pie cherries, yellow cake mix, a stick and a half of butter dotted on top. Baked, served warm with whipped cream. OMG! It hit all the pleasure receptors on my unsuspecting tongue.

Foods we love are often foods we have with the people we love on anniversaries or other holidays. We don’t care whether they are good for us or healthy or made with the freshest local ingredients.

Canned pie fillings and cake mixes come from the Land of Labs—giant automated equipment spaces with people in white coats and shower hats. Okay, I made that up, but you know what I mean.

“Tasty Apricot Chicken” appeared in Joan Nathan’s first famous cookbook, Jewish Holiday Kitchen. It was simple and delicious (and embarrassing if you had been inspired by Julia Child or Marcella Hazan). Chicken thighs baked under a combination of Lipton’s Onion Soup mix, a bottle of Russian dressing, and either a jar of apricot jam or a can of whole cranberry sauce. I confess to not only serving it but sometimes telling guests it was a family favorite whose recipe was sworn to secrecy.

I am not suggesting we abandon all attempts at health and ecoconsciousness. Rather, I am reminding us that feeling happy and love(d) are good for us. They release endorphins and oxytocin—our feel-good hormones. Who doesn’t need more of those?

Consider this premise: Think about what you really love to eat. When did you first have it? Who was it with? What were you doing? When, where, and with whom have you had it since? When can you have it again, and with whom do you want to share your stories?

Better yet, invite people you love now to bring the foods they love and make time for each person to tell their foodlove stories. We can’t have too much love!

My recipes could qualify as a complete meal. Add a green salad to round out the repast. I am happy to share all of them with guests!

Rebecca Crichton is executive director of Northwest Center for Creative Aging and presents programs on that topic in the Seattle area.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs • 2 tbsp. flour • 1 cup sugar • 1 stick butter, melted • 1 cup buttermilk • 1 tbsp. Vanilla • Single 8-inch pie crust (a good quality frozen kind works just fine.)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. • Mix eggs, flour and sugar together, add vanilla, melted butter, and buttermilk and blend well. • Pour into uncooked pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until custard sets and knife comes out clean (the top should be nicely browned). Cool. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or some berries or peaches on the side.

Rebecca’s Tarragon and Garlic Chicken

Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce for Avocados

Most people have all these ingredients in their pantries. • Cut 1 or 2 avocados in half, in slices or in chunksl

Sauce

Equal proportions (generally 1 tablespoon each) of: • Worcestershire sauce • Sugar • White or cider vinegar • Butter • Ketchup Heat in saucepan and serve in avocado halves or over avocado chunks or slices. This also makes a terrific warm dressing for spinach salads.

Ingredients

• 4 to 6 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on • 1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly • 2 small packs of Trader Joe’s or other peeled garlic (20 cloves in total) • 6 waxy potatoes, cut in quarters • 1 jar marinated artichokes with its oil or 1 can artichoke bottoms • 4 tbsp. olive oil • ½–¾ cup dry vermouth • Juice of 1 lemon • 2 tbsp. freshly chopped Tarragon plus three whole sprigs

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. • Cover the bottom of a heavy 6-quart casserole with the fennel, potatoes, tarragon, and artichoke hearts. • Rub the chicken with salt and olive oil. • Place on top of vegetables, skin side up. • Pour the vermouth over the chicken and sprinkle with pepper. • Tuck the garlic around and between the chicken pieces. • Cover the top of the casserole tightly with aluminum foil and fit the lid over the foil to create an airtight seal. • Bake for 1 hour without removing the cover. Check for doneness. • Uncover chicken and allow to brown for 10 minutes. • Serve the chicken with the pan juices, vegetables, and garlic. • Serve with warm garlic bread.

love of dance Pacific Northwest Ballet’s artistic director, Peter Boal: From dancer to mentor.

BY MISHA BERSON

For many who choose to retire from a job, the retirement age is 65 or older. For Peter Boal, it was 40.

Until he neared that number the lithe, fairhaired Boal was considered one of the finest solo ballet dancers of his generation. A native of Bedford, NY, he fell in love with dance and began training at age nine. And for 22 years he was a principal dancer with the prestigious New York City Ballet and a great favorite—praised by exacting dance critics, lauded by his peers, beloved by audiences, in a wide variety of roles.

Describing his performance in the Apollo ballet, The New York Times critic Jennifer Dunning wrote, “[Boal’s] transcendent interpretation…was once again poignant for its purity of line, its veracity and its wisdom.”

But just like many professional athletes who give their all on the field, Boal anticipated and accepted an inevitable fact in a classical ballet dancer’s life. Due to the rigorous physical demands of his art, it would be time to move on and exit the stage while he was still a relatively young man.

Peter Boal, artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet, sitting in on a company rehearsal. Photo © Angela Sterling.

Gladly, for Seattle ballet fans, Boal moved on to Seattle. Still boyish-looking and agile, yet with the commanding air of someone fully engaged and committed to his second career, the now 57-year-old Boal is celebrating his 17th year as the artistic head of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. And his unflagging passion for and knowledge of the artform has helped make PNB one of the most admired, forward-thinking ballet companies in the country.

“I was one of those dancers who never had any ambition of becoming an artistic director,” Boal said in an interview last December, after supervising a PNB performance of The Nutcracker at Seattle’s McCaw Hall. “I had my own dance group, Peter Boal and Company, for a while. But when this opportunity in Seattle came up I thought, ‘Why not apply?’”

He admitted that he “didn’t know much about PNB, to be honest. I knew I’d be a bit of an unknown, and I was a little uncertain of myself.” He also was following in the footsteps of two local arts heroes: PNB’s longtime founding artistic directors Kent Stowell, a noted choreographer, and Francia Russell, a former New York City Ballet dancer and ballet master who was an expert in restaging the acclaimed works of NYCB’s illustrious leader, the late George Balanchine.

During the couple’s nearly 30 years at the helm they developed PNB into an internationally respected dance organization and academy, and a prime Seattle cultural resource. Though initially anxious about applying to succeed them, Boal “got nice encouragement from Kent and Francia, and that made me feel better about it.” It likely helped that Boal was trained in the Balanchine tradition himself, in a balletic technique he explained that accentuates “a level of speed, risktaking, willing to go off balance, and a clear approach to music.”

Moving to the Northwest with his wife Kelly Cass, a former NYCB dancer, and their three children was an adventure for the whole family.

“We were explaining to our 4-yearold about going to Seattle, that we’d get on an airplane, and land in our new home,” he recalled. “But we went for a little beach vacation in St. Bart’s first. When we got there she said, ‘This is our new home? This is wonderful!’”

Her parents had to inform her that, no, they were not moving to a Caribbean Island paradise. But the family adapted to Seattle, and from

the start of his tenure here Boal was welcomed as a fresh new arts leader who both honored PNB’s past achievements, and refreshed the repertoire with contemporary works.

While continuing to present popular, well-known ballets, Boal (who is not himself a choreographer) has expanded the company’s palette with less familiar works by dynamic modern dancemakers. The organization’s 2021-22 season reflects this. In April, PNB will present Kent Stowell’s version of the classic Swan Lake, followed in June by a program composed of several pieces by the major modern choreographer Twyla Tharp.

In 2009, PNB received a “genius” award from The Stranger weekly newspaper, which commended Boal’s openness to the new artistic trends.

Under his guidance the company has commissioned and performed a host of new pieces by an international roster of leading contemporary choreographers of color and women. Among them are Donald Byrd, Ulysses Dove, Victor Quijada, Robyn Mineko Williams, and Susan Stroman. In all, PNB has premiered an impressive 125 new works during Boal’s tenure, allowing Seattle audiences to see cutting-edge new

Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Crystal Pite’s Emergence. Photo © Angela Sterling

ballets first. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

Former New York City Ballet principal dancer Peter Boal in Apollo, choreographed by George Balanchine. Photo © Paul Kolnik, NYCB

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While continuing to present popular, wellknown ballets, Boal has expanded the company’s palette with less familiar works by dynamic modern dancemakers.

The artistic shift has affected both PNB artists and subscribers. “Dancers were really excited to work with choreographers from all over the world,” Boal said. As for the audience, “Some said ‘This isn’t for me.’ But others said ‘PNB wasn’t for me before, but now it is.’”

Though cancelling many live performances due to the pandemic has diminished the company’s box office revenue over the past two years, Boal responded quickly and constructively to the epidemic by offering highquality online streaming of earlier performances. The response was heartening, he said: “It felt like the public was there for us. We had a full digital season, and it was a lifeline.”

Another aspect of Boal’s job that is clearly dear to his heart is the company’s ballet school. Excellent, long-term training is essential to preparing the next generations of dancers, as he knows from his own experience at New York’s School of American Ballet, founded by Balanchine.

“I teach at the school four times a week, and I hit the road and do the national auditions with the top 50 students. I also hire almost exclusively from that group for our main company.”

The younger students can start movement classes as early as age two, with an adult or guardian accompanying them. “I started at nine,” Boal recalled, with a laugh, “which was practically middle-aged for a beginning ballet dancer.”

Boal has described his own life as a dancer in very personal memoir, Illusions of Camelot, which will be released (by Beaufort Books) this summer.

And when you ask about his second career, in his adopted city of Seattle, and plans for the future, Boal answers without hesitation. “PNB is about the celebrate its 50th season, which is wonderful. And I love it here. This is the only place I’m ever going to be an artistic director. It feels right.”

Misha Berson writes about the arts for crosscut.com and many other media outlets, teaches for the UW Osher program, and is the author of four books, including Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination (Applause/ Hal Leonard).