Welcome to this week’s edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Pour yourself a glass of something nice, find a comfortable place, and relax.
Featured Links
What Makes the Perfect Pizza? »
Thanks to Claire Saffitz’ “Gourmet Makes” series — wherein she tries to recreate gourmet versions of popular snack foods — I’ve become a big fan of Bon Appétit’s YouTube channel as a whole. The various hosts on board there are all just so charming in their respective ways, and it often feels like I’m watching a kooky family getting together to cook great food.
(It’s also a productivity hazard, fair warning; I can easily lose two or three hours at a time watching their stuff.)
Which is why I was super excited to see that they were bringing the whole group together to develop a five-part video series on making the perfect pizza:
People ask me all the time if working at Bon Appétit is as fun as it looks in our videos, and the answer is yes. I just got back from a 10-day trip to sunny California to promote my cookbook, and I actually missed my coworkers. That’s not supposed to happen! But if you’re going to spend more time at the office than you do anywhere else, you need to love the people you work with, and I love the heck out of these people.
I think that’s why I laughed so hard throughout the filming of our new five-part video series, “Making Perfect Pizza”, which is the first time that the entire Bon Appétit food team has ever worked together to create one single recipe. Lucky for you, we caught it on tape.
I recommend watching the whole show before you dive into the resulting recipe, else you won’t appreciate it properly.
Photo and food styling by Emma Fishman and Susie Theodorou, Bon Appétit
The Art of Not Having an Opinion »
Philip Ellis, writing for Man Repeller (great website name, by the way) about how it’s okay not to have knee-jerk reactions about everything happening in the world:
But at an indistinct point along the way, I confused saying something — anything — with actually having something to say. Responding to world events began to feel like a race to have the most insightful takeaway. The impulse to formulate a hot take become more informed by a rush of endorphins than inspired by genuine activism.
[…]
In other words, clapping back at someone online or wading into a conversation we’re ill-prepared for might not be as good a use of our time and energy as putting the work in to educate ourselves and make a difference beyond our phone screens.
In the same way that it’s impossible to read every book on the planet, you’re never going to be able to keep up with the 24/7 news firehose. Engage in some discourse, sure, but pick your battles. Or better yet, get involved yourself, even on a local level. Reacting online is never going to solve anything anyway.
Photos: Tiffany Edwards, Creme de la Crumb
Recipe: Shrimp Boil Foil Packs »
I know Mother’s Day is this weekend, and far be it from me to recommend you cook anything but the Fanciest Foods™ to celebrate the occasion, but c’mon, this recipe for shrimp boil foil packs by Tiffany Edwards of Creme de la Crumb is too good to pass up:
I recently made shrimp boil foil packs and I can’t get over how good they turned out.
The key is just to boil the corn and potatoes for a few minutes, then you can combine everything with the seasonings, melted butter, and fresh lemon juice before wrapping it all up in foil and grilling (or baking!).
Top it off with some fresh parsley, more fresh lemon juice, and browned butter for the perfect shrimp boil dinner.
This is a whole lot like the crawfish packs my wife and I got from a hole-in-the-wall place on a recent trip to New Orleans, but without all the messy shell cracking and picking apart.
Photo: Elaine Casap
The Beauty of Being Satisfied with Enough »
Trisha Kehaulani Watson, writing for Civil Beat about the tenets of Native Hawaiians (and other indigenous people) on using resources in moderation and not overaccumulating wealth:
Hawaiians, as most indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific and the world, understood that the health of the natural resources around them was far more important than any individual want or demand.
The ‘auwai (traditional Hawaiian irrigation) system reflected this concept. Fresh water was mindfully directed from stream sources into lo‘i (irrigated pond fields), where the abundance of flowing wai would help staple crops to thrive. Ever careful not to horde this waiwai for themselves, every ‘auwai included a ho‘i, or output, where the water would be returned to the kahawai for the next steward to use downstream.
They took only what was needed, and this allowed for many to have enough.
Seems like a lesson we could take from the past, no?
Miscellaneous Links
I normally write standalone posts for the Kickstarter projects that interest me, but this one for a poster/invitation to a party happening 250 years from now — intended to be passed down through the generations — is more “Linkage-worthy” than “neat item-worthy”. It’s just so wonderfully silly and idealistic, I love it.
This week in great ideas (also, #urbandesign): Heer, an ergonomic bench that enables mamas to comfortably breastfeed in public spaces. Cities should have this sort of thing all over.
[Video(s):] Merlin Mann’s YouTube playlist for New Wave songs that still stand up is a nice little trip back in time. Give it a shot sometime.
Neat Stuff We Published This Week
- There’s carabiners, and there are carabiners: The “Firebiner” Fire-Starting Carabiner and Multi-Tool
- On raising your own superfamily: How to Raise Successful People by Esther Wojcicki
- Cut all the guesswork out of grilling and cooking meats: ThermoPro TP15 Instant-Read Thermometer
- Pick up pristine audio, anywhere: Shure MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone
- Small everyday backpacks for the urban lifestyle: Tom Bihn “Luminary 12” and “Luminary 15” Backpacks
- Fixed-blade knife that’s built for your environment: “The Current” by Quiet Carry
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.