I’m currently sitting in a quarterly meeting for an association associated with my job, browsing for Legos on Amazon.
I wish I could tell you I write these pieces from my Grandfathers antique desk, pen to paper like a “proper” writer, whatever that means. In truth, I write most of these in the corner of my notebook- my daydreams always take me here.
There has been this magnanimous shift in my life lately- and, much of it is due to this little newsletter of mine. Salt, with Soul, is an action towards what I have always dreamed of, and while statistics tell me you’re reading this, it does have this rawness to it that makes it feel like Blogger, in the best way possible.
I just found two small Lego sets for $15 each, just in time for a new speaker to go on stage and discuss all the good they’re doing for the people in the room; our full-time jobs are always stacked with moments where you have to hear how great someone else is.
In this case, I’m grateful for the egos in the room. It allows me to present myself well, all while living in my own world. A few weeks ago, I wrote about letting go of my own list to success and allowing myself to really cultivate and envision the life I want. In 15 days since releasing that, I have felt unburdened. I have dreams of my characters again, I find myself doodling or jotting down story ideas. I can finally completely visualize exactly where my life is going. If your thoughts become things, my thoughts are finally focused on the frequency of the things I want.
This brings us back to the Legos. (I promise, we’re getting there- I do have to look up every once in a while and nod my head)
They say that an artist needs to immerse themselves in the medium they wish to explore. We need to train our brains. Creativity is a discipline. And, the world I want to enter again is one of my own imagination. Legos, for me, are the direct conduit of that.
One of the oldest stories about me and my brother is the story of when we would receive Legos. My brother, a Type A personality since I met him, sorted his pieces by size, color, and which part of the structure they belonged to. He would follow each page meticulously, never once wavering from the instructions. Eventually, he graduated to Kinetics- his wonderfully analytical brain thrived in that type of world.
I, on the other hand, did not follow instructions well. I would take my Lego box, dump the contents, find the instruction manual, flip to the end of the book to see the final product, decide I didn’t like the final product and would build my own world. Many times, I’d build multi-level structures styled as homes. When I would finish, I would take my parents on a tour of my “home”, showing them the kitchen, closets, playroom, and imaginary pool. You could find me immersed in this world for hours- bringing in toys from other brands, like my Barbie dream car (but not Barbie because she just wasn’t my jam) to escort my Lego family around. I’d make our childhood dog, Buddy, into the “Dogzilla” of our playland, his patient demeanor never moved when Barbie’s dream car would drive “away” from him. Leanneland was the place to be, and I’m sure everyone loved that I was quiet for a few hours.
Somewhere along the way, my imagination evolved. I went from creating my own little worlds with invisible friends named Gregory, or imaginary underwater worlds in the pool, to writing and photography. At first, those two mediums proved to be the perfect adult version of Leanneland but over the course of the last two years, it’s become a bit too structured and uninspired. I still love it- but I want to love it more freely and organically.
This brings us back to the Legos. In the last few weeks, I’ve written a number of new short stories for children. Audrey, my favorite character, is being re-imagined (I had a dream of exactly what she’ll look like on this re-brand and I have been feverishly trying to recreate it in Procreate), and my hope is that playing with Legos again will allow me to tap back into Leanneland.
In life, it’s okay to start over. There’s this misnomer that when we start over, we’re starting from scratch- in reality, when you start over, you’re building off of the foundation of all the lessons you learned along the way. After all, how else are we supposed to learn if we don’t fail every once in a while?
WITH SALT
In the spirit of starting from scratch, I’m going to give you my white wine sauce recipe, which you don’t need a can for. All of the “tablespoons” below are up to your discretion. I am a flavor queen and air on the side of over-seasoning. But, I find that when you’re building a sauce, it’s best to layer the seasoning in. A pinch at the start, a pinch halfway through, and a pinch right before serving. Like the great Moira Rose once said, FOLD IN THE CHEESE.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1 bottle of white wine (remember, cook with wine you would drink! I like to use a buttery chard or a pinot grigio)
2 tbsp of red pepper
1 tbsp of salt
1 tbsp of pepper
1 tbsp of thyme
1 tbsp of rosemary
A few cloves of garlic
OPTIONAL: Lemon
INSTRUCTIONS
Bring your saucepan to medium heat, and put your 1 part butter in the pan to melt. You’re making a roux here, a fancy French term for “thickening of sauce”. I tend to make a brown roux, which means it cooks longer for more flavor in the build. If a brown sauce icks you out, only cook your roux for 3-4 minutes.
Once your butter is melted, add in your one part flour and stir in a figure 8 with a wooden spoon for 3-5 minutes. Remember, a good roux is a 1 to 1 ratio of fat and flour. (your “fat” can be olive oil, too. I just watch a lot of Julia Childs and like saying butter like her)
Once your roux is a little puffy and to your cooking color preference, add in your garlic cloves and stir for 2 minutes.
Then, add in a sprinkle of seasonings but not all of them. Remember, it’s layered.
After your sprinkle, bring your heat up to high and add in your white wine. Stir, stir, stir as you cook out the alcohol and reduce the white wine to blend with your sauce.
After about 2 minutes, bring your heat back down to medium. Sprinkle in seasoning, stir, stir, stir. Here, I add in lemon and then I just let the sauce sit and cook. Tasting it every so often to see what it needs. Before I serve, I remove the lemon and salt it one more time.
A FEW TIPS:
If you plan on making this sauce with a meat protein, cook your meat in the sauce pan you plan on using to build the sauce. For example, when I make this with chicken sausage, I cook the chicken sausage with olive oil and garlic and then remove the chicken sausage, leaving in the garlic, and build the sauce using the flavor from the meat.
If you plan on making this a seafood sauce like the one pictured- add in 1 cup of water and a bouillon and cook the seafood in the pan of the sauce. The water and bouillon help “steam” the seafood without losing the goodness of the wine sauce.
Making a sauce is a very creative and fun venture- don’t panic, and constantly taste it to see what adjustments it needs. Trust me, as long as your roux is built well, you can’t fuck up the rest.