Queer Kitchen Connection #9

Hey Taste Buds,

This spring has become a season of navigating intense personal losses for people close to me. At a time when the rest of the world often feels overwhelmingly terrible, I feel like I have even fewer places to seek solace. If you are also navigating a lot of loss right now, I see you, and you are not alone.

The moments of joy I find are precious and beautiful! I hugged one of my best friends whom I haven’t hugged since 2020. I shared an incredible meal with my partner and a friend where we each made something slightly different but those foods met our individual needs perfectly. There was a moment where a guest from my wedding remembered the amazing food and shared rave reviews 12 years later. I have a client who has a cat that adores me and comes out specifically for me to provide belly rubs (?!) whenever I come by for an adventure. And I can still think of more!

Life feels pretty daunting, and I’m forgetting a lot more than I would normally (or maybe I’m just missing some things entirely). But I’m holding on to these joyful moments and doing my best to both notice them, remember them, and savor them for the times when everything feels impossible again.

I hope you all can keep noticing the better moments. Let’s keep doing cool shit, in spite of it all!

Jex

A photo of Jex, a white nonbinary person with short brown hair and wearing glasses and a black chef coat.

Send Foodz

Food pictures, stories, and connection from my kitchen (and yours)!

Five square cheese-and-cracker sandwiches on a small, round, white plate.

I recently snagged a pack of snack crackers, and was delighted to discover they were cream-cheese-and-chive flavored. I remember these as being the best when I was a kid. Thinking about it more now, I wonder if it’s because I only had onions a very few times…and if I liked onions then, I really like them now. (I also remember eating lots of onion grass from the yard.)

Sometimes my easiest foods are PB&J and chocolate milk (soy milk, in this case). A whole sandwich felt like too much of a commitment, but after cutting them into quarters TWO whole sandwiches became part of my nourishment for the day. Looking back, I can’t believe I resisted (or didn’t notice) the urge to dunk a sandwich. I feel like that’s something little Jex would’ve done.

A plate with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut in quarters beside a teal cup of chocolate soy milk. One sandwich is made with the ends of the bread.

Thank goodness for screen time when I know I need to eat, but nothing is appealing! I’ve been watching episodes of the X-Men cartoon from the ‘90s that are somehow both nostalgic AND unfamiliar (Did they really fight aliens most of the time? How did I miss that?). These refried bean and cheese quesadillas were easier to eat while watching Wolverine and Captain America punch Nazis.

Taste Bud Contribution

A dish featuring white beans in a creamy tomato sauce with wilted spinach, torn fresh basil on top, and 2 slices of toast set to the right side. The food is in a square blue and white bowl with rounded edges.

“I haven’t felt like cooking anything for a few weeks now, so I decided to try some new recipes. I found this one for a Creamy Tuscan White Bean Skillet and had no idea what a treat I was in for! I prepared it as written—except, let’s be honest, I was quite generous with the garlic (it smelled SO GOOD)—and I couldn’t believe what a delicious meal I’d made for myself! It seemed beyond “restaurant-quality” and came together fairly quickly. This recipe’s a keeper, and the results have given me some energy for cooking my own meals again.” ~Taste Bud (and newsletter “Edible-in-Chef”) Ashley

Want to send foodz? Reply with a photo/story and we'll try to include it in the next Queer Kitchen Connection!

What’s Cooking?

Upcoming special events—Food Focused Nutrition-related or otherwise!

Happy Pride!!!

Pride parades are often too corporate for my liking, but I was delighted to see that the Buffalo Pride Parade had a good number of activists marching this past weekend.

When is Pride happening near you?

If you’re waiting for Pride later in the month (or Pride already happened and you still want more like me), have you considered celebrating Pride sooner with a food adventure? This Sunday, 6/9, from 3-5pm EDT, I’ll be facilitating a Pride Food-Play Adventure, and I highly recommend you sign up by Thursday, 6/6 so you can plan and pick up any special ingredients you want!

I’ve been toying with the idea of making a 7-layer bean dip by sculpting the refried beans into a brick (or maybe a brick path in the pan?), and using the other ingredients to make protest signs, and other thematic decorations. The first Pride was a riot, after all.

I’ll still be building something with graham crackers too (pretzels and sour candy are my favorite flavored decorations), but the brick thing might happen on my own time because it fits my mood really well.

Please feel welcome to be creative with savory foods too, especially if sweeter things aren’t your favorite!

A photo of a small white and brown dog lying on a rainbow Pride flag, looking into the camera. A speech bubble includes text that reads, "Wanna PLAY?" Below is white text that reads: "Let's celebrate PRIDE with rainbow foods and community!"

Sign Up Here!

Speaking Engagements and Workshop Facilitation

I’m working hard with Ashley to develop a page on the website that will invite more folx to hire me to speak and facilitate group discussions and workshops!

Here’s a sneak peek of topics I love to talk about:

FOOD

Disrupting food shame
Making “what’s for dinner?” an easier question

Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Accessibility

Food access and kitchen accessibility
Anti-establishment healthcare

Special Interests

Tea (I used to run a tea and coffee place on campus)
Games, and how approaching with playful curiosity fosters learning without judgment

If you hear of any opportunities, please feel welcome to toss my name out there!

The Intersection

I'm always working on making Food Focused Nutrition more accessible with baked-in, intentional inclusion. What's the latest step in my journey?

I’ve been lucky enough to have the capacity to join Petra Vega’s discussions about how the characteristics of white supremacy show up and impact us and our communities. It’s a series called Unraveling Me + We, “a space for us to unravel and detangle from our ideas and insights around White Supremacy culture characteristics (which is a big barrier to us leading in ways that are more life-affirming, humane and liberatory).”

I was able to join the conversations about individualism & competition and power hoarding, and this Friday’s topic is worship of the written word.

Divesting is uncomfortable af. Doing it in community makes it easier (for me), and Petra has created a space where it feels okay to sit with discomfort (for me). Join for the discomfort, leave with stronger community and insights.

If you’re interested in liberatory leadership, shaping change, and giving and receiving feedback that feels awesome, please connect with Petra. She does phenomenal work!

On a green background is a red starburst "bang" shape, as in a comic book, with lines and stars emitting from it. Within the shape is text that reads, "Support the Pay It Forward fund!"

All contributions to the Pay It Forward Fund support folx in accessing low- or no-cost services with Food Focused Nutrition. Learn more or share my post about the fund on Instagram or Facebook!

Suggest-ipe

Because the way I see it, all recipes are merely suggestions!

Stromboli

Based on this recipe: https://therecipecritic.com/quick-easy-stromboli/#wprm-recipe-container-83492

With premade dough and a few ingredients, this can be a meal that comes together with minimal prep!

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (canned, store bought, or make your own)
Sauce (consider tomato/pizza sauce, pesto, BBQ sauce, etc.)
Protein filling (i.e., pepperoni, sausage crumbles, deli sliced meats, or other ready-to-eat proteins)
Shredded cheese (mozzarella is classic, but other shredded cheeses could work too)
Optional egg for egg wash (this will make the top more golden brown, and can be used to add shredded cheese, herbs, or sesame seeds to the outside if desired)

Instructions:

Roll out the dough, aim for a roughly rectangular shape.
Spread a thin layer of sauce on the dough, but leave about two (2) inches around the edges without any sauce.
On top of the sauce, layer protein, shredded cheese, and an optional second layer of protein on top of the cheese.
Roll up the stromboli like a cinnamon roll, folding the longer edge closest to you over the filling, and then continue rolling until the opposite edge is on the bottom of the roll.
- If you have an edge of the dough that has a particularly interesting shape, putting that edge on the inside can make the finish neater and reduce leakage.
Place the rolled-up dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet, seam-side down, and tuck the ends under themselves so they seal a bit. Use a sharp knife to cut slashes across the top to allow steam to escape as the bread bakes.
Optional: brush a beaten egg all over the top. Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese, herbs, sesame seeds, or something else you like on top if desired (the egg wash will help it stick).
Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 20-25 min.
- A stromboli about the size of a foot-long sub roll will bake in the suggested time; larger may take longer and smaller may take less time. When in doubt, let it bake a few minutes longer.
- Even if the stromboli seems super hard when you take it out of the oven, it will soften dramatically as it cools (because of the fillings inside).
- If you cut it apart and find parts of the middle are doughy, put the whole thing back in the oven for a few minutes longer.

You can absolutely use vegetables in stromboli too—any filling ingredient you love can work! However, you need to be careful of moisture content. Make sure to use vegetables (and fruits, if you like) that are pre-cooked so they won’t release a ton of water inside the stromboli while it bakes, as this will make a soggy mess. So use leftover cooked veggies! Or sliced olives! Or canned, drained mushrooms!

As with all the Suggest-ipes, I’d love to hear if you try it, and how you made it work for you!

That’s all for now!

Queer Kitchen Connection is an every-other-month newsletter from Food Focused Nutrition.

I want this newsletter to be an invitation for us all to foster more connection around food.

My dream is that Queer Kitchen Connection will be the start of a conversation, and I welcome you to taste, savor, and share in the creation of community with direct replies to the newsletter.

Author Jex Calvert, RDN, Food Focused Nutrition
“Edible-in-Chef” Ashley Bovin, Ease Up Consulting

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