A greeting to arms

Business first: I am giving a talk ~TODAY~ at the hallowed Ann Arbor Downtown Library at 6:30 p.m. on the themes of LIFTOFF and diet culture, followed by an informal meetup at the Jolly Pumpkin. (At least that’s where I’ll be, peacefully eating a burger probably.)

The event is free and open to the public, so please come if you’re in the area! If it goes well maybe I will take this act on the road, sandwich board under my arms and the Whitmanesque American dream in my heart.

A Physical Education with Casey Johnston | Ann Arbor District Library

Ann Arbor District Library

A few weeks ago, the good people of the Liftcord noticed that chef/hero Julia Turshen, author of the cookbook/memoir Simply Julia, competed in a powerlifting meet and won her weight class. Fans of her work gathered round, virtually speaking, in excitement.

Since I’m always living at the intersection of lifting and food, I reached out to Julia to congratulate her but also bother her for her favorite protein-forward recipe. I didn’t prompt this at all, but of all the recipes in all the cookbooks in all the world, Julia chose… a frittata! This delights because, if it were advisable, I would eat eggs for all the meals that I didn’t eat protein swoalts. She said it is “very easy, very flexible, and full of protein. I like it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.”

Kitchen Sink Frittata

by Julia Turshen

The only rule about what goes into a frittata is that there are no rules. Here’s the one I most enjoy, with a little sausage, tons of spinach, and plenty of sweet shallots and tiny tomatoes. Feel free to use whatever you have, from salami and goat cheese and arugula, to kale and scallions and leftover roasted potatoes. Anything goes. You can always make the filling ahead of time, hold it in a container in the fridge, and then assemble and bake the frittata whenever you’re ready to eat. Or you can bake the whole thing and just warm it up in a 300ºF [150ºC] oven before serving . . . or just serve it at room temperature. You can also bake the frittata, cut it into wedges, wrap each wedge in plastic wrap (or whatever you use to freeze things in) and freeze them. Then you can unwrap a piece and pop it in the toaster oven or microwave for a quick breakfast before school or work.

• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lb. fresh breakfast sausage, casings discarded
• 6 large shallots, thinly sliced into half-moons (or 1 red onion)
• 5 oz. fresh baby spinach
• 1 large handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Place the olive oil in a medium oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Use your hands to break the sausage into small pieces directly into the skillet. Cook, stirring now and then, until browned and crisp, about 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sausage to a plate and leave the fat in the skillet.

Add the shallots to the skillet and cook, stirring now and then, until just softened, about 8 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 1 minute (it will seem like a lot at first, but it will quickly wilt and you’ll find yourself saying “wow, that really turns to nothing!”). Stir in the cherry tomatoes and the reserved sausage. Turn off the heat and hang onto the skillet.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the salt and pepper, and whisk well to combine. Pour the eggs evenly over the sausage mixture, and put the skillet in the oven. Bake until the eggs are set and the frittata is firm, about 25 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve immediately while hot (or let it sit and serve at room temperature—it’s equally good that way).

[From Simply Julia by Julia Turshen. Copyright © 2021 Julia Turshen. Published by Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.]

Now get frittatin’, as we say in my largely egg-fueled household!

The discerning person’s guide to plateaus

When you can’t lift any more—how do you lift more?

She's A BeastCasey Johnston

Eat

~Discord Pick of the Week: Much bemused contemplation of this absurdly expensive “squat machine” that alleges it will give you a nice butt. Banish this accursed thing to the Curves whence it came, in my opinion.~

Long overdue: The FTC wants to make it illegal for subscriptions like gym memberships to be harder to cancel than they were to sign up for in the first place.

An ode to arms. (Missed opportunity to call this “A hello to arms,” “A greeting arms, something along these lines.) Reminded me of how literally physically strong my mom was and is from hefting four children around.

Shohei Ohtani deadlifts.

Serving size: all 12 bonbons.

Drink

Here is a way to try to mitigate some of the worst fitness and diet content in your social media feeds. (In practice I haven’t had amazing luck with telling big tech I’m not interested in certain posts or topics.)

Ab etching seems to be going big-time. I appreciate how many of the pitfalls this piece catalogues.

An account from someone who tried a “miraculous weight loss treatment” of years past (gastric band surgery) who connects it back to our current Ozempic era.

Speaking of Ozempic: Jia Tolentino tried ordering some of the gray-market generic semaglutide, first by lying about her weight and then not. Both telehealth clinics barely glanced at her details before shipping her what sounds like an extremely off-book version of these drugs. A source in the pharmaceutical compounding industry insisted to her that “the FDA knows this is going on, and they haven’t said a word.”

Rest

“But how do you read so much?”

What if climate change meant not doom, but abundance?

Speaking of: Glen Canyon heads, that's our music!!

Who’s getting arrested for pedophilia? Hint: It’s not drag queens.

That’s all for this week! I love you for reading, thank you, let’s go—