Milk Tooth Jewelry, A Visit with Bjornqorn, and Sheet Pan Halibut Recipe
Plus! Johnny Cash's lesser known activist album, and the best documentary I've seen this year.
Good morning! I have been deep in a recipe development headspace, spending my days tweaking the formulas for our Salad for President Salad Toppers. I am working on a third flavor profile as we develop our brand identity and packaging (hello Polonsky&Friends!). It’s tedious work, but it is so rewarding when you nail it. Our rubric for testing is that the texture and flavors in the toppers should be enough to carry a simple bowl of cabbage dressed with only lemon and olive oil. More on this soon.
In the meantime, I am sharing what to watch, listen to, eat, and cook this week, with an easy, no-mess recipe for Sheet Pan Halibut with Spinach and Cherry Tomatoes.
WEAR
When the 19th century British Queen Victoria turned her eldest daughter's baby tooth into a brooch, a trend was set in motion. It became a common Victorian practice to set baby teeth, or "milk teeth," in jewelry as one would with a precious stone. Whereas hair jewelry was a practice of mourning, milk tooth jewelry was a celebration of life — You beat the odds! Your baby survived the perils of infancy and now you have a ring to prove it. Macabre sentimentality, my favorite kind.
When I was a kid, I had some baby teeth pulled. Unpleasant as it was, I was very impressed by the length and shape of their roots, half an inch long. In fact, all baby teeth have long, pointy roots, but by the time they fall out naturally, the root has been absorbed to make way for the adult tooth to form in its place. But I digress. The point is, I stashed my fangs in my jewelry box for use in a future art project.
Fast forward 30 years, and my husband’s oldest friend, Owen, regifted him a bag of teeth, leftover inventory from an ill-conceived yard sale they co-produced in 1995. Why he saved them all these years, we may never know. Shockingly, the teeth had not been quick to sell, but I welcomed them back all these years later. It was a sign; I needed to do something with them.
I pretty much only wear sentimental jewelry — gifts to mark a milestone, family heirlooms, or pieces I’ve made using stones and findings from my pearl dealer grandfather’s coffers. (Little known fact, I studied jewelry at RISD for one year before switching to photography).
I started researching milk tooth jewelry, but from what I found, the look of the raw tooth was a little “ick.” I decided to cast the teeth in gold, preserving the form and concept, while obscuring their materiality. The result would be less, “vintage gingivitis,” and more, organic, abstract shape with a visceral familiarity. (I worked with Justine Barnhart in Canada).
I threaded the teeth onto simple hoops, one for each ear. Now, all we have to do is wait until the kiddos lose theirs so I can rep the entire family on my lobes.
LISTEN
We have been listening to Johnny Cash’s lesser known 1964 album, Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian), from start to finish. Concept album meets history lesson, Cash wrote and performed these eight songs from a Native American’s perspective. It’s minimal, and heartfelt, and was a risky move for the mainstream artist at the time, one that was surely not appreciated by his record label at the time.
EAT
My husband often complains that everything in our pantry requires soaking and fermenting before it’s can be consumed. Meaning, I suck at buying snacks.
Bjornqorn, everyone’s favorite bagged popcorn dusted with nutritional yeast, is where I break from my commitment to make daily life as complicated as possible. My allegiance to the brand began with its founders, Stephanie and Bjorn. Stephanie and I grew up together in NYC, and Bjorn worked at MoMA after college with a handful of my friends. I remember his early, far-fetched descriptions of a massive foil-lined, crater that would harness the power of the sun to pop his family’s corn (early video of that process below). The corn itself would be (and still is) sourced from their Minnesota farm.
Fifteen years later, they have retired that method in favor of more traditional solar power, but I turn my pockets inside-out every time I see their product at every Shoppe Shop I frequent.
On our recent trip to Accord, NY, we took a family field trip to Bjornqorn HQ, a vital institution in this small town that counts the popcorn as one of its proudest exports. Tumblers of nutritional yeast whirred like cement mixers, and popcorn spilled forth from old-timey kettles. We enjoyed a moment of sensory exploration, waving our hands through a sea of un-popped kernels while Bjorn drew from his musical pedigree to compare the timbre of Minnesota corn to the locally-sourced crop. We even had the distinct pleasure of taking home some botched bags from the assembly line, like a souvenir of shredded money from The Mint.
With an eye towards growth, Stephanie and Bjorn recently bought Skate Time, the local roller skating rink, which they will continue to operate as they convert the 10,000 square foot adjacent warehouse into a new production space. I love this life of theirs, with neon lights, skee ball, and an endless of snacks.
Stephanie and Bjorn are offering 15% at Bjornqorn.com to my paid subscribers. Scroll all the way down for the code.
WATCH
I saw Dancing in A-Yard at MoCA last Fall, not knowing exactly what to expect, but happy to see something that combined my interest in dance with my husband’s passion for prison reform. If you have every questioned the “real world” impact of artistic expression, watch this trailer.
The film follows French Choreographer Dimitri Chamblas as he leads ten inmates in Lancaster State Prison through an intimate choreography and contemporary dance workshop. The participants are candid, open, and eager to find themselves through the practice of movement and radical vulnerability. Change is possible, if we only give people the chance.
Consider donating to filmmaker Manuela Dalle’s drive to fund future screenings of this visionary work.
COOK
I recently sent a friend on a mission to procure fish with no further instruction. An unsettling task that I realize, in retrospect, felt like a test. When he returned with a nice, thick piece of halibut, what did I have the nerve to say? “Ah, is that all they had?” Sorry Aaron!
Here’s the thing about halibut. It’s refined, it’s expensive, but it’s a mild white fish with very little fat. Fat is your friend if you are trying to avoid making jerky out a pricey piece of protein. I would normally gently braise a lean fish like this in broth with lots of olive oil, but I didn’t have the stock, the wine, the herbs. We were in a vacation home with limited resources and leaving the next morning.
Time to play my favorite game of cooking with every last bit in the fridge! I had a handful of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of spinach, garlic, capers, and olives. What if the spinach was the cushion of moisture to protect the delicate fish from becoming rubbery and dry? By nestling the fish in with the greens on a baking sheet, I could harness the residual humidity of the spinach to create a cloud of steam around the fillets. Oh, and did I!
The result is a one sheet summer fish entrée and side all in one. Minimal clean up, 30 minutes meal, great for a summer party. You can do this with sea bass, or another white fish, just adjust the time accordingly since your fish will likely be thinner and cook faster than meaty halibut.
Sheet Pan Halibut with Spinach and Roasted Tomato
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