Solo Celebrations
I’m cooking a holiday menu for one, and it’s not all bad.
In this installment I reflect on my solo holiday season and the music/food combination that’s getting me through it. Get cozy, she’s a long one.
What I’m Listening to: Sufjan Stevens, Ascension
I can say with complete confidence that each period from my past five years has featured a Sufjan Stevens album on repeat. In 2015, when I was fresh out of grad school, worked for an amazing artist management company and at a less amazing restaurant, I listened to Carrie and Lowell. During my band’s earliest touring seasons, navigating how the hell I was getting from point A to point B, I listened to Planetarium. The summer I lived in three different apartments, jet-setted to Japan for our first international tour, and for months following that, Illinois was a staple. In “Pandemic Phase One” I lived alone in my apartment with barely any human contact for seven months, and kept Age of Adz on repeat. During “Pandemic Phase Two” back to work with digital Hub New Music and food writing (aka right now), I’m infatuated with The Ascension. If I were to ever write a dissertation on anything, it would be on Sufjan’s discography.
This extraordinary predicament naturally has me reflecting on holidays past. Despite Christmas being this week, I’m thinking of previous Thanksgivings than more than anything else. I know I’m a bit late to the Turkey-day food writing party, but it’s 2020 and at this point time is all blurred together. Anyway, Thanksgiving has historically been my holiday, a tradition that dates back to cramming my parents and a few close friends into my tiny college apartment for an extravagant meal. My friends and I would spend the entire day prior cooking and watching movies, fueled by a mixture of coffee and liquor our college selves were all too familiar with. We referred to ourselves as Team Stuffing, and it was perfect.
(A Team Stuffing throwback, ca 2011).
Slightly out of place nostalgia aside, this time of year inevitably comes with traditions we cling to. This particular year demands a different scale of celebration, and is the first time I’m spending the holidays alone. To stave off the depression of not being surrounded by friends and family, I find myself turning to music that acts in a similar capacity - namely Sufjan Stevens albums. Like close friends, there are artists who have acted as steadfast companions as I carve out a path in this life. And just as I update my closest comrades at every twist and turn, Sufjan’s ever growing body of work continues to resonate every step of the way.
What I’m cooking: A Solo Holiday Feast
Recipes linked below
On the endless list of intersections between music and food is the ability to anchor and simultaneously leave room for growth. In this current situation, I’m thinking of a roasted chicken, tender carrots, buttery potatoes, and an apple tart. They all possess the perfect blend of familiarity and riffablity. They’re grounding, but also provide a blank canvas with which to explore my own creativity. In crafting a holiday menu for one, nostalgic hominess created a foundation for something uniquely seasoned for this unique moment.
While I’m definitely not preparing a traditional holiday menu, I think all holiday spreads present a similar monotony of richness. You will rarely hear me complain about an abundance of carbs and fat, but an entire meal of those is a bit one-note. As such, I enlisted my friends from the spicy, fresh, tangy, and crispy end of the spectrum whenever possible. A generous schilack of mustard butter adorning a chicken served with a vibrant salsa verde, a dressing of yogurt, harissa, and lemon for the roasted carrots, and plenty of fresh herbs sprinkled on my crispy potatoes all add pops of texture and pucker. They place these otherwise rich foods in a happy state equilibrium that keep the meal engaging from first to fourth helping.
Okay, I will admit that ending with a French-inspired apple tart is about as classic as it gets, but I hereby concede that some classics are impossible to beat. Especially when rounding out the evening with glass of wine number four, and yet another rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
My final thoughts on this holiday season . . .
A smaller number of people to cook for doesn’t make a meal any less special, and doesn’t mean the food should be any less meaningful. Whether it’s for your personal Team Stuffing or just yourself, cook and listen with as much love for those near and far as ever. In this round of holidays let’s stay safe, be kind, and cherish those who matter most.
