Thursday, August 31, 2023
For the first time in a very long time, I got to slow cook tonight.
On a Thursday.
While listening to Swingin’ Doors on KEXP.
These three things are important, both together and separately.
Cooking on Thursdays to Swingin’ Doors was a regular activity in my Bremerton life. During the summer, I’d shop at the Farmers Market at Evergreen Park, loading up on vegetables and fruit for the next week (and often more than what I really needed). I’d wander into a booth, see something unusual, ask the farmer about it, and usually walk away with a handful of it plus a recipe that was memorized or scribbled on a scrap piece of paper. After making my shopping and social rounds, I’d pick up my weekly burger and chips from CJ’s booth, then precariously carry it all home four blocks up the street.
I’d heave my loot up onto my kitchen counter, then treat myself to my Thursday night beer and enjoy the now lukewarm burger and chips while watching life go by at various speeds on 11th street from my front porch.
Eventually I’d get back to the kitchen to sort through my goods. Depending on how hard the beer hit, sometimes I’d just put it away in the fridge, sometimes I’d crank up Swingin’ Doors and start processing the vegetables and fruit that needed it, or make that recipe that was generously shared. On those nights, I’d forgo the burger and beer, cook in the kitchen for 2-ish hours and not eat until 9 p.m.
If I was really feeling it, I’d crank up the radio and crank it loud. Like right now, playing on the show, the song “Go Out Smokin’” by The Meat Purveyors, would get cranked up REAL loud.
It was such a great way to roll into Friday.
These days, Thursdays are usually taco night (especially on school nights) but it’s summer right now and Jeremy made that last night. At breakfast this morning, I was dead blank on what to make for dinner, flipping through my recipe binder and not being inspired by anything. We had pork last week, and pasta too. Red beef last night, those chicken burgers were good and easy and fun but we had them last week…
Finally, I saw the promising “Johnson Boys Approved” label scribbled at the top of a page. I award that to any recipe that elicits a positive comment at dinner (also resulting in clean plates and/or getting seconds).
Classic Minestrone Soup.
Easy. Cut up vegetables, simmer in a pot for 30 minutes, add shredded chicken and small pasta for protein and texture, serve with some warm crusty garlic bread… the youngest has soccer until 7, so that gives me a plenty of time to get to the store, get home, make dinner and even have time for the soup to cool.
However, as is common these days, plans changed halfway through the day (I’m considering changing my middle name to “Pivot”), and I got caught in Hood Canal Bridge closure traffic on the way home, delaying me further. As I got closer to home though, I realized dinner wouldn’t be ready until after 7. So I suggested that the guys grill burgers so they could eat sooner.
I, however, committed to making the soup, because honestly, I hate fresh vegetables going to waste and I wasn’t sure when my next chance would be to make this.
As I was driving home, I was reminded that tonight was Swingin’ Doors last night on the air, and I REALLY wanted to listen to the whole show while cooking. And it worked out perfectly. I came home to burgers and fries being plated and disappearing into the living room for an epic binge session, leaving the kitchen completely open for a slow night of cooking, with no pressure to meet any time commitments or hungry stomachs.
I popped in my headphones, plugged into my phone, hit that KEXP app, and then got lost in Don Slack’s voice and music selections while pulling out ingredients and slicing and dicing and measuring and simmering.
I suddenly had flashbacks to working my knife on my cutting board on my 24”-deep black and gray granite countertops with the track lighting overhead, the LED lights bouncing off my beloved 20+year stainless steel cookware, with things simmering and cooking and giving off steam on that trusty gas stovetop.
Swingin’ Doors is promoted as playing hard core twang, alternative country, classic western, and honky tonk – something that I never ever in my life I’d thought I’d ever associate with liking. I’d always had a disdain for country, but after listening to Swingin’ Doors, I realized it was mainstream pop country that I really disliked.
In my nearly two decades of listening to Don’s show, I’ve learned about Neko Case and Steve Earle and other modern alt-country bands, and now understand the greatness of Willie Nelson and Hank Williams and other legends. It was likely because of Swingin’ Doors, I knew who the Dusty 45s were when they came to Bremerton a few years ago and I got to witness the flaming trumpet finale at Rock the Dock.
Basically, I have a better appreciation for alternative country, and also, the older it sounds, the better. And I love that the subject matter is usually the same across the board, no matter the decade.
Don’s last show is all about closing time and gratitude and goodbyes and missing people and lovers and reflecting on the past and moving into the future. And upon closer listening, some tongue in cheek.
I suddenly realized that I grew up with some of this genre, recalling Dad being a big fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” by Neil Young and Crazy Horse plays through my headphones.
And of course, at 25 minutes to go, Don plays … “25 Minutes To Go” by Johnny Cash. Classic.
I guess a kind of chapter, on several levels, is closing. I mourn sometimes for my old life while also grateful for this new life. And I didn’t realize that until I had a night of cooking and Swingin’ Doors ahead of me and how much I missed slow cooking, just for myself.
I thought I’d give the last hour a listen on the archives when I would be by myself in the car so I could cry but alas, here we are, 9:47 p.m., and I’m going to make it.
AND THEN MY APP DROPPED for 10 seconds during the last air break and I had to listen to the stupid Station ID and an underwriter.
Guess I’ll be listening to that archive anyway.
Kitchen is trashed (well, only partially because I’ve learned to become a more efficient cook in our dishwasher-less kitchen) and the soup is finally cool enough to eat. A couple bowls of it have been consumed and it’s even better than I remember it.
Thank you, Don Slack, for being a companion in the kitchen all those years. You helped crank out some delicious meals… even tonight.
Final song: Ray Price’s “For The Good Times”
Tiffany Royal 