A Few Good Things, #2
Freezing temperatures, a new dutch oven, and the joy of cooking
Hi! I hope you had a lovely week. ☺
Mine was long and pretty exhausting. I know this newsletter is called A Few Good Things but I also want to be honest about how life is going so I’ll start with some of the more challenging parts of the week.
Work has been particularly busy and with the deluge of emails and tasks, I’ve been making rookie mistakes that I find incredibly frustrating. I’ve also been leaving work late everyday, not getting home until nearly seven o’clock. On Sunday, our car wouldn’t start and my saint of a father came over to give us a jump. Oh and I should mention that Chicago has been horrendously and unjustly cold this week. Tuesday hit a low of -8°F. All that aside, I do feel quite proud of what I was able to accomplish at work and I’m grateful for the good things that balanced out the week.
On the personal side of things, I think I am happily walking into my Julie & Julia era. In case you haven’t seen the cinematic masterpiece that is Julie & Julia, one half of the film follows Julie, a New Yorker with a soul-killing job who decides to blog her experience of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s 1961 cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The other half follows Julia Child and her inspiring quest to master French cuisine. They both share a passion for food and use cooking as a way to find joy. Lately, I find myself doing something quite similar.
I enjoy cooking and I’ve always found it quite cathartic. However, my husband recently remarked that I had fallen into a pattern of making the same recipes over and over. He must have known something was a little off. That man really does know me, dammit. I’m a very curious, restless person and I am always finding new hobbies, recipes, videos to share, books to read, etc. so the fact that I was just rinsing and repeating the same six dishes was a bit of a red flag. Stressed and exhausted, I wasn’t cooking for fun or to destress. I was begrudgingly throwing chicken quarters in the oven with tomatoes, hoping for the best and watching TikToks to keep me awake.
So find my spark again, I took it upon myself to order several cookbooks that have been rotting away on my Amazon wishlist, combed through them with Joe to find ones that seem interesting, and created a Notion page for each recipe that includes the page number, meal type, star rating, and notes. Like I said earlier…I am restless.
Anywaaaaay, let’s get to the good things!
Last Saturday, I had dinner with my sister at a wonderful Ukrainian restaurant called Velour. While a bit pricey, the food was wonderful and, as the kids say, the vibes were immaculate. There was a full blown party taking place and for some strange reason, we were still given a table and allowed to order despite looking hilariously under-dressed in sweatpants and sneakers compared to everyone else’s fur coats and heels. We felt like gatecrashers but it was such fun! There was live music, dancing, and lots of confused stares from the guests. 10/10 would do it again!
As mentioned earlier, I added a few cookbooks to my collection. Here are the ones I bought: Cook This Book by Molly Baz, More is More by Molly Baz, Go-To Dinner by Ina Garten, and Nothing Fancy by Alison Roman.
So far, my favorites are the ones by Molly Baz. The designs are beautifully bold and the recipes are modern, fun, and fairly approachable. I made her recipe for Crispy Salmon with Coconut Rice & Crackle Sauce and it was splendid! We also made and loved Creamy Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Thyme from Ina Garten’s Go-To Dinner cookbook. Delicious, refreshing, and cozy.
After hyperfixating on Le Creuset the last few weeks, Joe surprised me by telling me that I should just get one. Within the next two hours after he said it, I was literally at the outlet mall, walking into the Le Creuset store, with Joe on video call to show him all the different dutch ovens available. We eventually chose a Le Creuset Signature Wide Round 6.75 qt dutch oven in white. Joe was both amazed and concerned with how heavy it is, but I absolutely love it and have already used it to sear some steaks!
To end the week, we hosted my brother and father for lunch at my apartment. It’s the first time I have had people over in ages and it reminded me how much I love to host. It was fun to make Steak au Poivre, which we spent far too long trying to guess how to pronounce, only to find it out it was “oh pwah-vruh” and not “aw poy-ver”. We paired it with lemony asparagus and mashed potatoes. Joe was a darling and tried to help me prep the mise en place but was no match for the shallots and nicked his thumb. It turned out great so we appreciate his sacrifice! 😂
Joe and I recently decided that we are happy with our little apartment and would like to renew our lease. Now that we’ve made that decision, we want to settle in a bit more and make it our own. One of the things we want to do is give a bit of a makeover is our bathroom. It’s too…bland, like a hospital with cream walls and white tile. We want to add color so we are considering this Sproos hand shower which comes in bright colors and this fun Dusen Dusen tulip shower curtain. Please note that while I love this shower curtain, Joe said he cannot and will not pay $62 for a shower curtain so I’m currently scouring Amazon for a dupe.
I’ve also been very drawn to bold primary colors these past few months. I really want to start adding big pops of color around my home. I particularly love Francesca Perks’s home and style.
These gorgeous blue Ugg Classic Mini Pumped Molded and this Hope Macaulay knit mushroom hat have been burned in the back of my brain. I’m also eyeing this Kipling Ron bag that would be perfect for traveling.
That’s all I have for now! I hope you are having a marvelous Sunday and that your week to come has a few good things in store.
