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Recipes are stories and, so, they have tales to tell. About a set of ingredients transformed into a new thing, surely, but also about their time and place, about the level of skill of their cook, even about the cook’s ideals.

But because recipes are stories, they also are fact — or fiction. In one way, every recipe is a fact; it’s there, simply. But is a “Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad” a “Caesar Salad?” No, it’s a fiction, because the fact of a true “Caesar Salad,” at its origin, as it began, didn’t sport any grilled chicken. (Or, for that matter, anchovy, garlic, Dijon mustard, or small croutons or many other possible ingredients that a typical, contemporary, so-called Caesar salad might contain.)

This is the hobgoblin of “authenticity,” a notorious determinant for any recipe.

Cesare Cardini, an Italian immigrant to the United States, who lived in San Diego but also ran a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, was said, by his daughter Rosa Cardini, to have invented the Caesar Salad on the Fourth of July 1924 by cobbling together merely seven ingredients: whole leaves of romaine lettuce, a raw egg yolk, Italian olive oil, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Worcestershire sauce and lime juice. And a round slice of baguette, nicely toasted.

Apparently, Rosa’s father did not appreciate whole anchovies and considered the amount of anchovy (in essence, the level of umami) in Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce to suffice. All the other stuff — the garlic, etcetera — came afterward and at the hands of others, including his brother, Alex, who also laid claim to the “authentic” Caesar salad.

And so it goes with the origins — and, to say it another way, the authenticity — of recipes.

And when more than one source lays claim to the beginnings?

Along a 60-mile stretch of the Canal du Midi in southwestern France, three towns boast theirs as the authentic cassoulet. But Castelnaudry’s original recipe insists on lingot beans and a piece of ham added to the universally-included various cuts of pork, whereas Carcassonne’s adds a shank of lamb and a partridge (though updated from its original, neither) and Toulouse’s insists on its famed sausage as well as tarbais, never lingot, beans.

So which is “the” authentic cassoulet?

In Nice, writes the great food historian Waverly Root in his classic “The Food of France,” the salade nicoise “is innocent of lettuce … and must contain tomatoes, cut into wedges (not slices) … and should contain nothing cooked, with the possible exception of hard-boiled egg, not often permitted in Nice itself.

“Outside of Nice (and as close as Paris itself), the salade nicoise often sports green beans and potatoes, both cooked,” writes Root, “though a purist would regard either of these, especially the latter, with horror.”

And where’s the tuna?

“The Nicois [a person or persons from Nice, France] often combine anchovies and tuna fish in the same salad,” allows former Nice mayor Jacques Médecin in his book “Cuisine Nicoise,” although, he adds, “traditionally this was never done, tuna fish being very expensive and reserved for special occasions, so the cheaper anchovies filled the bill.” (Root does not even mention tuna fish as a possibility.)

In any case, in France, even today, the tuna would rarely, if ever, be a grilled plank of sushi-grade tuna with a cold center. It would “authentically” be canned tuna in olive oil. So, again, it goes.

As for the authentic recipe for our beloved green chile (chile verde)?

“It’s not canonical,” points out Mark Antonation, Communication Manager for the Colorado Restaurant Association and former food and drink editor for Westword. “It varies from town to town and region to region and changes all the time. Probably the only original ingredient is the chile itself,” which everyone agrees gives it its surname, “green” or “verde.”

In Mexico, Antonation notes, “they will use a combination of poblano and jalapeño, along with tomatillos,” but in New Mexico, “Hatch chiles, no thickeners and no or few tomatoes,” and in Colorado, “jalapeño and Pueblo chiles, tomatoes and thickeners such as masa or cornstarch or potatoes,” all these latter very much looked down the nose by New Mexicans who consider, Antonation says, “chile verde as the state dish.”

The Original Caesar Salad

By Cesare Cardini, July 4, 1924, at Hotel Caesar, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico; measurements from various sources. Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 1 head romaine lettuce, outer leaves discarded and separated into individual leaves
• 1 coddled egg yolk (see note)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (preferably Lea & Perrins)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Shy 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 slices baguette, toasted (2 round croutons)

Directions

Using a large open bowl (wooden, if you have one), add the lime juice, the egg yolk and the Worcestershire sauce and whisk or emulsify with a wooden spoon or spatula. Grind in the black pepper and mix in.

Slowly add the olive oil while emulsifying further and then 1 tablespoon of the cheese. Mix well. Add the romaine leaves longways and gently roll them over each other so that they gather up as much of the dressing as they can.

Plate the salad onto 2 chilled plates, the romaine leaves spine-side up and topped with the toasted baguette slice. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of grated cheese over the plated salads and croutons.

Note: To coddle an egg, bring a small pot of water to a rapid boil. Meanwhile, have ready an ice water bath in a bowl in the sink. Carefully lower the egg into the boiling water and precisely time exactly 1 minute when the water begins simmering again (almost immediately). Remove the egg to the ice water and let it cool well, 3-4 minutes, stirring gently. Crack the egg at its fat end and allow the liquid-y white to drain away, saving the yolk in the palm of your hand or on a large spoon for making the Caesar salad dressing.

 

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Cleanup on aisle Brighton.

Demolition is underway on the large warehouse building at 2900 Brighton Blvd. in RiNo, resulting in a pile of rubble that extends for a full block.

A large apartment complex is part of what will eventually replace it, development plans indicate.

The property, directly across from the Industry Denver coworking space, has been owned since 2017 by Santa Monica, California-based Mass Equities and AECOM Capital. They paid $38 million that year for the 2900 and 3060 Brighton Blvd. parcels — about 8 acres in all.

The two firms renovated the existing building at 3060 Brighton Blvd. and landed VF Corp. as a tenant before selling that property for $37.6 million around the start of this year.

The 2900 Brighton Blvd. parcel had 93,736 building square feet on it prior to demolition, according to property records. It is zoned for up to eight stories.

Houston-based developer Hanover Co. is looking to build an apartment complex on part of the site. The latest version of the company’s site development plan, submitted to the city in August, calls for a seven-story, 390-unit complex. It would have about 8,600 square feet of retail space and 530 parking spaces, the plans show.

The complex would be built on 3.3 acres, according to the plans, leaving room for additional development on the parcel.

Mass Equities Principal Brian Bair told BusinessDen in an email Monday that the company is still evaluating options for the northern portion of the parcel.

Hanover didn’t respond to a Monday request for comment. The company does not currently own any complexes in Colorado, according to its website, but has previously developed here. Its projects include Acoma at 816 Acoma St. in the Golden Triangle, completed in the late 2000s.

And RiNo isn’t the only local neighborhood of interest for Hanover. The company paid $9.5 million in late December for a 2.47-acre site at the corner of Jewell Avenue and Acoma Street in Overland. The city has approved development plans for a five-story, 278-unit apartment complex there, records show.

A major issue facing the city of Littleton, and one of the reasons why I am running for city council, is the growing problem of homelessness, which has been increasing across the metro area. My approach to this issue sets me dramatically apart from my city council opponent Krista Kafer who is a regular columnist for The Denver Post and has written on the issue.

Unhoused people are people first, and like all people, their history and their journey through life have been unique and often deeply traumatic. Many have lost their jobs due to COVID. Many are military veterans with PSTD. Many have experienced domestic violence. Many are families with children. Some have experienced racism or mental health or addiction issues.

I suggest we build communities that are more informed about the complexities of homelessness, not just show these vulnerable people more “tough love,” as Kafer wrote recently. So how do we develop communities that are more compassionate and well-informed about the impact of trauma and stress?

First, as a mental health professional, I believe that Littleton and other metro-area cities need to consider increasing the use of trained mental health professionals to assist police on calls for help from people suffering a mental health crisis.

I’ve met with Littleton Police Chief Doug Stephens, who wishes his department had twice as many mental health professionals available to respond to calls that are clearly not criminal in nature but are mental health-related. The involvement of a mental health professional can defuse situations that can otherwise be dangerous for citizens and police officers alike.

Second, we need to build more compassionate communities by giving back to others through volunteer work and mentorship. That is why I coach a girls’ softball team as a South Suburban Parks and Recreation volunteer, and why I have volunteered with hospice, mentored foster children, and worked with people who are blind.

Third, we must not underestimate the importance of parks, trails, and beautiful open spaces in reducing stress (especially pandemic-related stress) and at other difficult times. Parks must be safe for everyone, especially children. That’s why I pledge to enhance and protect the quality of Littleton’s outdoor spaces.

Fourth, we need to use the power of the arts to bring joy and healing in stressful times. That’s why I play viola with the Denver Pops Orchestra and for my church, and why I support programming at the Littleton Museum, Town Hall Arts Center, Hudson Gardens, and other Littleton venues.

Fifth, as the child of grandparents who ran their own small business, I know the stress facing our small businesses entrepreneurs. Compassionate communities take care of their local businesses, especially during stressful times, which is why I am deeply committed to doing everything possible to help our small businesses thrive.

Compassionate communities are healthy and well-rounded places that are welcoming to all and where all people want to live, work, play, and retire. Littleton has always striven to do the things that will make everyone feel welcome.

As a mental health professional, I understand all the different steps needed to ensure that Littleton continues to value its history, to face the future with confidence, and to continue to be the community we love.

Like other cities across the state, Littleton needs city council members who can build compassionate communities. I hope that on Nov. 3, The Denver Post will be able to report that I have been elected by the voters to help lead Littleton into a positive future.

Gretchen Rydin is a candidate for Littleton City Council and is a clinical social worker, and addiction counselor.

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Poverty rates have dropped to their lowest level in more than a decade. Workers’ wages are rising. Children’s hunger rates are falling, bankruptcy filings have plummeted and more people had health insurance in 2020 than the year before.

Pretty upbeat news for an otherwise wretched pandemic year.

Many Americans of ordinary means are doing markedly better in key areas than they were before the coronavirus shutdowns crippled major parts of the economy, recent data and surveys show, suggesting that the trillions of dollars in government relief in the last year not only kept people afloat but also pushed lots of them further ahead.

That’s fueling a debate over what role the government should continue to play in reshaping Americans’ livelihoods. Democrats say the gains offer a case study in what U.S. society could look like if Congress vastly expanded the social safety net — an argument that many are making as lawmakers weigh whether to shell out another $3.5 trillion on programs that would limit families’ child-care expenses, make health insurance more affordable and offer permanent tax breaks to families with kids, among other provisions.

“You have to concede that these changes are making a difference — that we are inching up a bit, and that there is a discernible reduction of poverty,” said Rep. Danny Davis, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee on worker and family support. “We are investing in the return of our economy.”

But Republicans and others who oppose the additional spending on social programs say that enlarging the government safety net through policies like the expanded child tax credit would be prohibitively expensive, leave families dependent on federal money and destroy incentives to work.

“The best way out of poverty and to raise the standard of living is not endless government checks but our job opportunities and growing paychecks,” said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. “That provides unlimited opportunity for families, especially those trying to climb the economic ladder.”

To be sure, large swathes of the economy are still reeling from the pandemic, with nearly 8.4 million people unemployed in August. Some 2.6 million tenants are in danger of imminent eviction without aid after a federal eviction moratorium expired, according to the Urban Institute. And economic forecasters have slashed their growth estimates through the rest of the year amid concern that the resurgent coronavirus is upending plans to return to normal.

And there’s no guarantee that the benefits bestowed by the federal government in 2020 will have staying power. Some real-time data shows a direct link between increases in government aid and immediate boosts to Americans’ livelihoods, and in contrast, a drop as soon as relief payments dried up.

Still, some areas have shown remarkable improvement since the government rolled out its relief measures, the most dramatic of which is the reduction in poverty.

Just over 9 percent of Americans were in poverty in 2020, according to the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure, which takes into account federal programs aimed at aiding low-income families. That’s a 2.6-percentage-point drop from the 2019 rate of nearly 12 percent. The bureau also found that stimulus checks moved 11.7 million people out of poverty, while enhanced federal unemployment benefits prevented 5.5 million from dropping into extreme hardship.

More broadly, other aspects of the economy have boomed as well. Median hourly wages are up 3.9 percent from a year ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, largely because of an unexpected labor shortage. Annual bankruptcy filings fell nearly 30 percent in 2020 from the year before.

American net household wealth surged by $5.85 trillion in the second quarter of this year, up 4.3 percent from the first three months of the year, the Federal Reserve reported on Thursday. Household net worth is now about $24.5 trillion above its level at the end of 2019 after more than a year of solid growth, the Fed said.

Credit card balances are $140 billion lower than they were at the end of 2019, and the percentage of people late on their debt payments has declined 2.0 percentage points since the pandemic first hit, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“There’s more money in low-income households than at any time in 2019, and many, many metrics to show that that is true,” said Angela Rachidi, an expert in poverty studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

It’s impossible to fully know what the economy would have looked like without any government aid. But the Urban Institute estimates that the poverty rate in 2021 would stand at 12.6 percent with only the country’s long-standing relief measures, like Social Security, in place. When accounting for the extra measures enacted last year — the enhanced federal jobless benefits, expanded child tax credit and stimulus checks — the poverty rate would fall to 7.7 percent, keeping nearly 50 million Americans out of hardship, the Washington think tank found.

“We’ve often heard that we have more will than wallet, but when we actually open up our wallet, we can do a lot,” said Greg Acs, vice president for income and benefits policy at the institute.

Rates of food insecurity spiked in March of 2020, for example, when the pandemic first hit. And though they dropped in the following months after stimulus checks and extra unemployment benefits went out, they ticked back upward in September of 2020 once the aid lapsed, said Elaine Waxman, an expert on food insecurity and the food assistance safety net with the Urban Institute.

“There are two big lessons,” Waxman said. “One is that when we lean in, we can make a big difference. And when we let up, you know, we lose some of that ground.”

Despite the improvements, however, some experts emphasize that the massive levels of federal spending in 2020 were born out of extreme necessity, and that in normal economic times — especially once the unemployment rate drops closer to 3.5 percent, where it stood before the pandemic — there is less justification for such expensive social programs.

The argument against further investment is that spending so much could ultimately drag on economic growth, especially if taxes are raised to pay for the programs, and that government intervention in private industries like child care could lead to redundancies and inefficiencies, Rachidi said.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion that we need these very large, expansive government programs,” she said, “in order to maintain the progress that we’ve made on poverty.”

Larry Hogan is going national, using his cred as a popular blue-state Republican to help other GOP candidates ahead of a potential 2024 presidential bid.

The Maryland governor, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, is lending his help to Republicans in states filled with suburban voters who bolted the party during the Trump era. Over the past few weeks, Hogan has campaigned for Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Glenn Youngkin and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. This weekend, he was the keynote speaker at an Amelia Island, Fla., conference hosted by the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.

And next May, Hogan is set to speak at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum’s “Time for Choosing” series focused on the future of the Republican Party. The forum in Simi Valley, Calif., has drawn an array of would-be presidential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

During Hogan’s travels, he has also set aside time to meet with donors, a ritual for those looking to build a national political apparatus.

Hogan told POLITICO he was currently focused on the 2022 midterms rather than the 2024 race. But, in an indication of his interest, Hogan said he saw an opening in the forthcoming primary for a Trump critic, and he added that he would not be dissuaded from running for president in the event Trump waged a comeback, a position some other prospective Republican candidates have been reluctant to take.

“If I decide that I want to run for president, it certainly wouldn’t stop me that he’s in the race, that’s for sure,” Hogan said.

Within much of the Trump-dominated party, however, there is skepticism that Hogan would be a serious contender, despite his sterling electoral record in Maryland. While polling indicates a portion of Republican voters would like to see an alternative to Trump emerge, there is consensus that the nomination would be his for the taking should he run. A POLITICO/Morning Consult survey conducted Sept. 18-20 showed Trump with an 86 percent approval rating among registered Republicans.

But Hogan — who flirted with a long-shot primary challenge against Trump in 2020 and called on Trump to resign following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — argued that the former president’s influence was diminishing. And while other potential candidates jockey to win over Trump’s supporters, Hogan said there was an opening in the 2024 GOP primary for someone unaligned with the former president.

“I believe that there’s 10 or 12 or 15 people all fishing in the same pond,” Hogan said. “They want to be the next Donald Trump, and … there’s some 30 percent of the Republican base that wants to go in a different direction.”

Other Trump critics, including Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, have been mentioned as possible candidates, though they have so far been less aggressive in positioning themselves for a national run.

Would-be Republican 2024 hopefuls are already crisscrossing the country to campaign for congressional candidates, make trips to early primary states and set up vehicles to raise money and increase their national profiles. Hogan supporters have launched An America United, a nonprofit group that’s been churning out slickly produced web videos promoting the governor as a bipartisan problem-solver.

As he travels the country, Hogan is assiduously casting himself as someone who can cure his party’s ills. Hogan offered what may be a preview of his national message during his speech at the Republican Main Street Partnership over the weekend, declaring that “successful politics is about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division,” and that “frankly we have been doing a lot of subtracting and dividing.”

The two-term governor has defied the political odds in deep-blue Maryland, a state Republicans haven’t won at the presidential level since 1988. While Republicans suffered a national bludgeoning in 2018, Hogan won reelection by more than 10 percentage points, making him only the second Maryland Republican governor in history to win a second term. He has remained popular since: A February poll conducted by Goucher College showed Hogan with a 65 percent approval rating.

Hogan’s team says it expects the governor to remain active in the run-up to the 2022 election, particularly in areas the party has recently lost ground in. Campaigning for Youngkin and Kemp were natural choices for Hogan, they say. Youngkin’s prospects partly depend on his ability to make inroads in the Democratic-heavy Washington, D.C., suburbs — where Democrats are trying to tie the Republican to Trump, who has also endorsed him. Kemp, who Trump has attacked repeatedly for not subverting Georgia’s 2020 vote count, needs to stanch his party’s bleeding in the fast-growing Atlanta suburbs.

The governor is also looking to bolster swing-district House Republicans, including members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, who he has supported through his co-chairmanship of the centrist No Labels organization.

With his home-state approval ratings sky-high, there have been discussions within Republican circles that Hogan might be better off waging a 2022 challenge to Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen rather than prepping a presidential bid. But Hogan flatly rejected that idea.

“I really don’t have any desire to run for Senate in 2022,” he said. “Being one of 100 people and arguing all day and getting nothing done just doesn’t have a big appeal for me.”