Bye!

This will be the final Haul post from Revue — next week you'll get an email from my new Ghost home! I'll be totally honest: I haven't wanted to switch platforms, for the same reasons people stay in crappy marriages long past their expiration dates. So I've dragged my heels, while I watched Revue grow moldy and brittle and send my weekly posts directly to the dumpster.

As such, I'll keep it brief. I have two tiny addendums to last week's lovey dovey edition of The Haul.

1) I have a habit of referring to friends "who have families" as a category separate from ourselves, i.e. people with children. I love that Abby, without fail, will correct me and say "We're a family."

2) I often reread this iconic interview with art critic Jerry Saltz, where he leaned into being one half of a very eccentric New York couple. Saltz and his wife are super-weird! And totally content with it. They've built a highly specific type of life that suits their contours, and which this generous city allows lots of grace for. Abby and I are well on our way.

The Haul will emerge next week from its Ghostly new home. In the meantime I have a HUGE FAVOR. Please sign up for the professional newsletter I'm launching on Monday, featuring smart and engaging content about farming, food, and our warming planet. Thank you!!

xo,

Jesse

Featured Items

Anchovies used to be one of those foods like liver and prunes that were used as a punchline, a stand-in to represent "icky food." I guess people found them too salty or something. My mom used to brag that her palate must be more refined than the average joe, because she had a soft spot for anchovy pizza. All this to say, anchovies are chic now, along with all tinned fish, and I feel lucky that we snagged like 10 of these from the dollar store. Last night I used them in a kale Caesar salad: classic.

I forgot to take a picture of this before we ate it, so here is the box on its to get recycled. Abby and I had a marked disagreement on this one! Unlike many allegedly spicy things (Taco Bell hot sauce is basically thin marinara), this pizza packed a legitimate wallop. I liked that, but Abby did not, so I ended up eating most of it. Also notable: They added chopped-up dill pickles as a topping.

I want to highlight what a big deal this company is making over "MADE IN NEW ENGLAND." Calm down guys, that's not like Tuscany or Toulouse.

I did NOT notice that these meatballs came in a "grape jelly BBQ sauce" so guess who spent precious life moments scrubbing them off in a colander? Worth it, though: They were a delicious pan-grilled side dish.

This is some THICC sour cream I'll tell you. If I turned the container upside down it would honestly not pour out. We solved this culinary quandary by adding like a tablespoon of half and half to each portion. Even made thinner, it was a rich and decadent product.