Queer Kitchen Connection #2

Welcome Taste Buds!
As we enter what can be a very challenging time of year together, I want to offer encouragement that I’m working on reminding myself of every day: it’s okay to slow down or say no to things or set aside more time for rest. When the number of demands on our attention start draining our energy without enough replenishing to sustain it, something’s got to give.

It is my hope we all take care of our precious selves so we can enjoy as much of the holidays (or the days between them) as we want.

Somehow I always forget that November and December have this draining effect on me, and I realized it (again) when this newsletter was coming together at what felt like lightning speed in October only to screech to a halt once November came around.

It’s so much easier to keep cooking with folx than to write about it, but I look forward to doing more of both in these winter months!

May you and those you hold dear discover lots of food joy this holiday season!

– Jane

Send Foodz

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

A rectangular piece of tiramisu served on a small white plate. The layers are visible on the side: coffee-soaked cookies, creamy yellow filling, cookies, filling, and then a dusting of cocoa powder on top.

Tiramisu has become an anniversary celebration food: my partner and I make it together almost every year. This year we made a vegan mascarpone cheese for the filling so it would be a little less dairy-overload—still delicious!

Fall is a colorful season with lots of seasonal activities that I love—like apple picking! I haven’t been able to go much the last few years, but when I went last month the weather was perfect, the apples I love most were all ripe for the picking, and I felt so good I grabbed a bag of “seconds” to make applesauce. Here the apples are just starting their long, slow cooking time, but the resulting sauce was tart-sweet, smooth, and had the right amount of cinnamon (for me).

The view through the clear lid of a large crockpot. Just below the glass is the top layer of apples, cut in quarters and cored, and sprinkled lightly with lemon juice and cinnamon. The apple skins are red with some yellow or green parts.

A baking tray that holds eight lightly-golden plain bagels. The tops of the bagels are shiny and slightly wrinkled. Most of the bagels have only a slight depression where there should be a hole.

Are you ready for a different kind of B&B? Last month, I had the pleasure of baking bagels with friends and playing board games together during the baking time (and while we patiently waited for them to cool enough to eat). This picture is from a different time making bagels, but that’s only because we ate them all so quickly! Bagels & Board games for the win!!

Eggplant parm is a food that I love to eat, but it can be a lot of work to make. This time, I shared the process with my partner and two other friends, and I’m sure that made it come out the best! For some foods it’s always better to have more cooks in the kitchen—because many hands make light work.

A large dinner plate with garlic toast, eggplant parm, and roasted vegetables clockwise from top left. The eggplant is visibly breaded, coated in tomato sauce, and topped with melted cheese. The vegetables include red and yellow peppers and broccoli.

A top-view of a plate of nachos, with visible layers of yellow corn tortilla chips, beans, salsa, shredded lettuce, diced tomato, pickled red onion slices, and a large scoop of plain yogurt in the middle on top.

National Nachos Day has come and gone (it was November 6th), but any given day could be nacho day at my house. I recently had a friend come by to have lunch together and we each made our own plate of epic nachos. Customizable and so, so good!

It’s pie season, and nothing says sharing and caring like pie! This pie was the first upside down pie I’d ever made (the filling is apple), and it was part of a Friendsgiving group adventure I facilitated last November. Do you want a Friendsgiving adventure of your own? Read more below!

A round, upside down pie with candied nuts on top and caramelized color dripping down the sides to the fluted edge of the pie where it sits on a large white plate. The image focuses on one rounded edge of the pie, with the rest slightly blurry.

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!

A small brown dog is standing in a snowy landscape, close to the camera and looking to the right. It is wearing a brown gingerbread person costume with white and red accents on its head and body and a dusting of snow on the hands and lower body.

Graham Cracker House
Food-Play Adventure

Sunday, December 18, 2022
3-5pm EST on Zoom
$25 per Zoom link

Sign Up Now!

For our next group adventure, we'll be building gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and decorating them with a variety of colorful foods!

Registration is now OPEN, so sign up to join us today!!

Forward this email to a friend to invite them along, and check out this Instagram post from last December to see what folx have made in the past!

An overhead view of a stove-top loaded with foods, including a skillet of sauteed green beans, a loaf pan of vegan meatloaf topped with BBQ sauce, a round white dish of cooked cranberry sauce, and a baking pan full of herby bread stuffing.

Friendsgiving Kitchen Adventures

Holiday season is a time for family, and also a time for chosen family.

Is hosting or attending Friendsgiving part of your holiday traditions? You can schedule a Friendsgiving Kitchen Adventure with a group of friends and me, and we’ll make all the tasty foods you want to share!

Whether you are seeking support with holiday food preparations or want to schedule a fun food time with friends, reply to this email and let’s talk about it!

Want Event Reminders?

We all get busy! If you’d like to get reminder emails about registration for Food Focused Nutrition events, reply to this newsletter and I’ll add you to my list for personal reminders.

I’ll send a reminder once per event, one week out from registration closing.

Hope to cook with you soon!

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?

Moving Beyond Awareness

As I finish putting together this newsletter, it is Transgender Awareness Week (11/13-11/19).

I have seen so many posts already on social media about respecting pronouns and updating language, but comparatively few about day-to-day struggles of trans folx (access to healthcare, jobs, and housing, increased violence faced by our community, and more). This past election cycle was fraught with anti-transgender rhetoric and disinformation.

This week will end with Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday, 11/20, a memorial for folx who were murdered in the last year due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. These numbers shouldn’t be trending up every year. We need to keep working on small, individual changes that eventually challenge the whole system to create a safer world for trans folx and our trans joy to flourish.

I commit to remaining visible as an openly transgender, non-binary registered dietitian and business owner, and supporting my community through my work in any way that I can.

What actions will you take with your awareness? Because the trans community needs more than awareness—we need action.

Here are some ideas:

Give $$. If you aren’t connected to folx to directly support, you can donate to the Food Focused Nutrition Scholarship Fund, which supports folx with marginalized identities to access my services at low or no cost. ($50 covers an adventure in full for folx who are unable to pay)
Follow and listen to trans folx, and take action to fight against anti-trans legislation. Some of my favorites on IG (and around social media) include: Transplaining, PinkMantaRay, TeachingOutsideTheBinary, and MegEmikoArt.
Be affirming.
Practice pronouns (and no pronouns) and name changes in private so you can kick ass and correct others in person.
Ask trans folx what support they need—this is not a conclusive list.

Recommended Resources

Here are some things I’ve been reading and listening to that stretch my brain and keep me focused on unlearning my internalized biases.

Pipe Wrench Magazine is a quarterly online magazine that brings together writers and other contributors who are historically underpublished for deep conversations about Race & Empathy, Medical Fatphobia (which is the first issue I read when I discovered this publication), and Indigenous Land. The current issue is about gender, specifically how colonization has disrupted language and imagination around genders outside the binary.
The Unsolicited: Fatties Talk Back podcast recently returned with their second season! Each episode is a conversation between 5 fat folx, nearly all of whom are some combination of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent. They share their perspectives on food, furniture, relationships, films and other media, and so very much more. I don’t always like listening to conversations (and struggle with most podcasts as a result), but I can’t hear enough of these rad folx and I hope you’ll take some time to hear what they are saying too.
A few months ago, Anjali Prasertong started her AntiRacist RD Newsletter. Her most recent essay was about the gap between food security and meal security that is filled by uncompensated labor expected of parents (particularly mothers) to feed themselves and their families, especially in low-income working-parent families. I usually think about my work as facilitating food access and security, so it was great to see that topic taken up by a colleague I value and respect.

Still Seeking ASL Interpreters!

I’m still building a list of ASL interpreters so I can offer ASL interpretation as a standard for group events, and more readily provide ASL interpreting for individual clients upon request. [See my recent post about this on Instagram.]

If you know an ASL interpreter who loves food, cooking, or has a culinary background, maybe they would like to know about this paid opportunity—please spread the word!

Suggest-ipe

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

A small round plate holding a halved panini. The halves are stacked so that the top half partially overlaps the bottom half in a V shape. The sandwich filling is visible: between golden-toasted bread is melted cheese, tomato sauce, and eggplant parm.

Leftovers Panini or Pizzanini or Eggplant Parmini

Bread
Cheese (or vegan option) that melts well
Pizza Sauce (could be tomato paste with spices, marinara sauce, or another favorite sauce)
Seasonings, like oregano (optional)
Toppings? (crumbled sausage works particularly well, but anything goes)

With holidays coming up, remember that leftovers make great sandwiches too!

Bread
Cheese (or vegan option) to help hold the sandwich together
Leftovers - whether this is eggplant parm, or leftover turkey and cranberry sauce, you decide!

Construct your sandwich as desired, and grill in a pan, toast open face in an oven or toaster oven, or cook on a panini press.

Enjoy!

That’s all for now!

Queer Kitchen Connection is a quarterly 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 Jane Calvert, RDN, Food Focused Nutrition
“Edible-in-Chef” Ashley Bovin, Ease Up Consulting