Rejection Letters Make Me Sad Until I Remind Myself, I Can Make Good Potato Salad
Some days I feel like a hamster spinning round and round on one of those little wheels, trying to get to the top. And I don’t even like hamsters, which could be because I put my finger up to the hamster cage in second grade and the little creature immediately bit me and drew blood. My mother was furious because she had to take time away from her work and drive me to the pediatrician to get a tetanus shot. She kept asking, “Why did you put your finger up to the cage?”
I had no ready answer, just like I have no ready answer for why I have a compulsion to get published again and again. In the case of the interaction with the hamster, I guess I was curious. In the case of my fixation on writing and publishing, every time I receive an acceptance I am elated. It feels so good, I want to do it again and again, despite how sad I feel each time a rejection letter arrives in my inbox.
Each week I send out a few stories or poems to various magazines all over the world.
I tell myself I’m building an audience so when I publish a big important book, I’ll have lots of readers. I certainly don’t do it for the money. Most literary magazines pay nothing or very little.
The reality of building a reader base is that the majority of books published, not including self-published books, rarely sell more than three thousand copies. Self-published books on average sell 250 copies. Selling books is kind of like doing hand to hand combat, one or two at a time. The trade paperback best sellers generate sales in the millions, but many literary gems that have received multiple awards never crack 100,000 in sales.
So back to the why. For me, it is purely about the joy I get when creating and the satisfaction received when I’m able to share my creation with someone else. Thus, each time I receive an acceptance, it tells me at least one other person (the editor) liked my work enough they considered it worthy of sharing. I remind myself if only one other person reads something I’ve written and it connects with them in a positive way, that is sufficient. Maybe they’ll share my work with someone else, and maybe they won’t. Regardless, I keep writing.
To take a break from the cerebral I concoct a new recipe. This summer in our garden, my husband Peter planted potatoes. He’d never planted potatoes before, but thought it would be fun to try. Green sprouts pushed their way up through the soil and grew into healthy plants and then died and disappeared while we were away one week. On the surface of the soil, however, we found a potato. Using a pitchfork, Peter dug up the earth and found dozens more potatoes in different shapes and sizes.
I’ve made sliced potatoes sauteed in olive oil with onions and fresh rosemary as well as mashed potatoes. Then, to use up a bunch and share them at a potluck, I made the kind of potato salad I like to eat- with a little vinegar and plenty of seasoning and crunch and without mayonnaise so here is my recipe which I share with you.
Nadja’s Vegan Potato Salad
Ingredients
12 medium potatoes
Six stalks of celery
Three sweet peppers
Fresh dill (a few sprigs)
3 large basil leaves
4 Tbsp, capers
¼ cup red onion
6 tsp Dijon mustard
6 tsp white vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
While some cooks may peel their potatoes prior to cooking, I prefer to boil my potatoes with the skins and then peel them away when the potatoes are close to room temperature. Depending on what type of potatoes you use (my husband did not save the packaging with the potato information, but it appeared he planted a combination of Idaho and white potatoes) and whether you enjoy eating the skin. In my experience Yukon Gold has flavorful skin.
Potatoes should be scrubbed clean, covered with water in a large covered pot and brought to a rolling boil and then left to cook. Check them after 10 minutes and then every five minutes. They are done when you can easy puncture them with a fork. DO NOT LET THEM GET TOO SOFT. As soon as they are done, remove from the heat, drain them and let them cool in a fresh bowl or colander.
While the potatoes are cooking, start chopping up your herbs and vegetables.
When potatoes are cooled and peeled, I put half in the large bowl I am planning to use for the finished salad and cut them into rectangles with a sharp knife. If edges crumble, the extra potato is already in the bowl. Add the chopped vegetables and herbs and mix. Then add your second group of potatoes and do again.
The amount of red onion can be decreased or increased depending on your palate and your guests. You can also add chopped parsley. And if you don’t have fresh herbs, just use dried ones, remembering that the flavor of dried herbs is more intense.
Notice in the ingredients that the Dijon mustard and vinegar are mixed together in equal amounts. Feel free to increase or decrease the total amount depending on how “moist” you like your salad. Add the spices and mix well and then refrigerate for several hours to let the flavors set into the potatoes. Garnish with cherry tomatoes. The beauty of this salad is that once you chill it, it does well outside on a hot summer’s day, although it was consumed so quickly it was gone within the hour.
Enjoy. This recipe produces approximately 14 servings.
Thank you for reading. If you haven’t already done so, you can sign up to follow me for FREE on WordPress, Substack and on Medium. Please check out my soon to be released chapbook Recipes from My Garden published by Old Scratch Press and if you have any youngsters in your life and want to support an important cause researching rare children’s cancer, please purchase my illustrated picture book Who is Santa?
Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on August 26, 2024.
