So I made a giant lasagna for Thanksgiving, which involved making a béchamel sauce, which involved making a roux! And it got me thinking about roux in general, and all the times I’ve used them to make macaroni and cheese, or stews, or étoufées. So I did a bit of a deep dive. ^_^

Roux are kind of magical! Mixing flour into fat coats the flour particles in fat, so they disperse smoothly and evenly into whatever you’re cooking, thickening it without clumping up. Roux are famously used for gumbo and étoufées in Cajun cuisine, but they’re also instrumental in most styles of gravy, in three of the five mother sauces of French cooking, and even in Japanese curries! Cooks all over the world use this method to make their dishes richer, thicker, and more flavorful.

Anyway. It’s December! A lot, like a LOT of stuff has happened this year, and I think the next newsletter will be a kind of year-in-review summation. In the meantime, I hope your shopping is mostly done, and your cookies are all made, and you’re having a relaxing holiday season, enjoying some sparkly lights with a big mug of hot cocoa or chai or something tasty. ^_^

Shameless Self-Promotion:

Still a few days left for deep discounts on my Threadless shop, but you’ll need to order in the next few days in order to guarantee shipping by Christmas.

I’ve also started adding some original art to my own web shop! I think I’ll keep at least a few pages up for sale here going forward, but feel free to reach out if there’s something specific you’re interested in.

What I’m into lately:

I’m still reading Bitter is the Heart by Mina Hardy, and loving it. It’s good and creepy, but it’s also alternatingly brutal and tender, and I’ve been trying not to rush through it. I’m about the same age as the protagonist, with a similarly fraught history with my mother, and siblings who experienced very different versions of her. I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of books with protagonists eerily like myself lately! It’s new! but good!

What Toki’s into lately:

Inspecting the new Christmas tree ornament Sara Varon bought us! Made by Hannah Sellers aka Catdroool, but it doesn’t look like she’s selling them on her site. You can get them at the shop at Lotsa on Elston, though! It has met with the Young Prince’s approval.