Featured Blog Post:

search for meaning - 2026-07-20 01:30:49 -0400

I finished reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl after my dad gifted me a copy of the book*. The historical account of the holocaust was haunting, but the broader message hangs in my mind most clearly. This book gave me the tools to identify some of my own experiences which I previously had no way of describing.

Prisoners in the concentration camps would only survive if they were hopeful and had aspirations beyond survival. Frankl wished to publish his manuscript and one of his subjects, a pianist, only survived because he wished to perform his composition in an orchestra hall. Purpose grants us the ability to endure terrible things.

Suffering, no matter how miniscule, expands to consume someone in their entirety. People in ‘Hell on Earth’ have a limited capacity to suffer, since they attenuate after a while. With a limited perspective, the pain is comparable to something more mundane.

The book didn’t really cover what happens to people after they were freed, whether or not they return to a similar state before imprisonment. Frankl did describe an initial joy upon being released, and a new found appreciation for the natural world. Another comrade of his became spiteful, exacting punishment on others as he had experienced. He felt justified because of how we was treated. Contrasting Frankl with his comrade, the book might posit an argument towards people having a natural predisposition for spiteful or gracious behavior. I’m uncertain if the new thankfulness ever subsided, whether or not life returned to the same perceived drudgery as before captivity. Obviously internment in a concentration camp is a life-altering experience and will permanently mark someone, but I was curious if people would take their lives for granted again after freedom.

There’s grounds for a deeper rhetorical analysis between this book and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and a broader comparison between Russian and European cultural attitudes about incarceration.

*This was one of the few books he’s gifted me that he’s also read. The possibility to share the book’s experience made me more eager to read Man’s Search for Meaning.

Featured Recipe:

pesto chicken caprese sandwich - 2026-07-10 19:00:26 -0400

Recipe uses 4 french baguettes and serves 24.

Ingredients:

1. 4 baguettes
2. 2lb boneless chicken breasts
3. 3 sliced mozzarella balls
4. balsalmic glaze
5. 2 beefcake/heirloom tomatoes
6. 5oz arugula
7. mayonnaise

Pesto Ingredients:

1. 4oz pine nuts (shallow tub from Hannaford’s)
2. small tub of grated parmesan cheese
3. ~3 stalks of basil?
4. olive oil
5. jarlic
6. 1 lemon

Instructions:

1. Remove the basil leaves from the stalk and discard the stalk
2. Blend all pesto ingredients in a food processor, adding olive oil to thin the mixture. Usually pesto has a texture and isn’t pureed, but the recipe makes concessions due to volume of food
3. Cut chicken breasts along the grain into bite size strips
4. Place chicken breasts in a ziploc bag. Take half the pesto and massage it into the flesh. Refrigerate
5. Slice the tomatoes and then half them. Salt them to taste
6. Stage the remaining ingredients for easy sandwich assembly
7. Butterfly the baguettes open and spread olive oil and mayonnaise along the inside
8. Remove the chicken from the fridge and grill them until some parts are blackened
9. Rest the chicken
10. Toast the bread (Grill them inside-face down if there’s space)
11. Spread the remaining pesto along both inside faces of the baguettes
12. Line the bottom half with arugula and then alternate between mozzarella, tomato, and chicken
13. Drizzle balsalmic glaze across the ingredients
14. Close the sandwich and press flat
15. Cut each baguette into 6 pieces along the diagonal, similar to how the baguette is scored

Disclaimer:

I’ve toyed around with the ingredient quantities as I had extra chicken, mozzarella, and tomatoes the last time. I have a tendency to use all the ingredients at my disposal to make a meal, which sort of explains why the pesto is pine nut heavy. I find it much simpler to work this way and joke that it mirrors just-in-time manufacturing techniques. In the example of the pine nuts, I value using all of the pine nuts and feeding everyone over having pine nuts leftover and having the perfect flavor balance for the pesto. This also frees me from carrying a large inventory and concerning myself with food spoiling. If there is leftover food, it is already cooked and ready to be eaten immediately. The trade off for this approach is that I always must go to the grocery store beforehand and there is little room for error while cooking.