Pickle wraps are the glue that holds my family together. I’m kidding! But it does work as a great metaphor. We make them, eat them, throw them, and love them — together. Together, as we all know since the pandemic, can sometimes be taken away in a flash. Since 2020 I haven’t been to my home state of Iowa regularly, but before that, I would be sure to come back at least once (usually twice or so) during the summer for a family pool party. Only complete of course, with family and pickle wraps.
Making plans to come home — which seems weird to say since I feel that my true home is now New Orleans — gets me excited about a lot of things. I love a summer sunset amidst the backdrop of corn. Taking a trip to the local dive bar for a family shot of Vegas Bombs is definitely a highlight. Undoubtedly, visiting with my dear friends from high school and my cousins, second cousins, and even third cousins will be delightful.
But there’s always a nagging in the back of my brain.
Because as great as it is to visit Iowa, I don’t have any interest in ever moving back for the long term. Why, you ask? Well, I hate snow and winter for one. The other reasons are harder to articulate. There’s a sense of “calm doom” I have in Iowa. Imagine (lol, I can show you, see below) the meme featuring a dog with a fire burning around him saying, “This is fine.” That’s how I feel when I’m there. It’s a weird sense of anxiety knowing that at any given moment an ex-boyfriend could be at the same restaurant as you, or your aunt could guilt you into driving 45 minutes both ways to eat pie with her. You NEVER KNOW.
My life in New Orleans is exciting! Could I see an ex-boyfriend here? Technically, yes, but it’s probably much less likely because there are fewer of them and more people in general in my new hometown. None of my relatives are within driving distance. I have people here who care about me deeply as “friends” — and truly there needs to be another, better word to describe our soul connections with folks not in our proper family. The only people in Iowa who care/cared about me in this way were related to me or I had known since elementary school. It feels good to have built a “friend family” in a new place that I like as much as I love New Orleans.
Look, I love my family and I love the friends that are still in my hometown. It’s just the town and the region aren’t for me. I remember watching TV shows set in California as a child and wondering why I couldn’t live where there was an ocean. I’ve always longed for warmer weather, pool season year-round, and outdoor gatherings with lots of dancing and music. I never felt like I belonged there. I was always trying to find a group of friends that I could trust beyond my childhood besties.
It’s hard to describe. It’s like pickle wraps.
Pickle wraps encapsulate, for me, the world of the Midwest in food form. It’s simple, yet tasty. There’s something sour and there’s something sweet and creamy. And that’s all wrapped up in salty meat. It shouldn’t be good — but it is! You just might not want to eat it every day.
It’s hard to describe. It’s like pickle wraps. Recipe below!
RECIPE: Pickle Wraps (also sometimes called Midwest Sushi) GF
Ingredients:
BIG kosher dill pickles — 2, 3, or 4 big jars
Full-fat cream cheese softened — 2 or 3 packs
1, 1/2lb dried beef and 1, 1/2lb ham (or 1-1 1/2lb whatever salty lunch meat you want)
Steps:
Lay out a bunch of paper (or if you’re an eco-goddess, reusable) towels or napkins.
Take the pickles out of jars and lay them on the towels. Make sure to dry them all pretty well.
Set up another working area where you have the lunch meat laid out in slices. These are going to be what you wrap around the pickle, so if it’s a skimpy slice, put two down.
Ensure your cream cheese is spreadable and smear a generous amount onto the lunch meat.
Place a pickle at one end of the slice and then roll it up. Make sure there’s enough cream cheese and meat to cover the whole pickle. Practice makes perfect!
Slice horizontally into bite-sized circles about 1/2-3/4 in. thick.
Eat! Throw at your family! Love.
Midwest sushi! Aahahaha! So many fun and insightful sentences and paragraphs in this story, Whitney. "Calm doom" is certainly one I can relate to as someone who grew up in Minnesota and left there long ago. But a summer sunset amidst a backdrop of corn does have some nostalgia for me, too.