so into that: 6 quick things
in which i talk about aliens
Hi guys!
I had so much fun cooking live with so many of you yesterday. WTC Insiders can rewatch it here. In addition to cooking sheet-pan salmon with jammy tomatoes and peppers and white Cheddar polenta, we chatted about different knives I love (like this one and this one and this one), the cool necklace I’ve been wearing with everything from fancy dresses to T-shirts, and everyone got to meet my little brother, Will, and hear his official review of the recipe. Tavish also came to say hello with a very stinky diaper. Do you guys ever think about how wild it is that human babies poop and pee in their pants for YEARS AND YEARS? I do.
It’s the last week of school for my three older boys, and I’m working on a big project that I’ll share toward the end of this month, so I am in full scramble mode. I know I’ve talked about it many times but… summer as a parent is just a completely crazy thing. For nine months out of the year, the children go to school and the adults go to work. And then suddenly, BAM: for three months, the kids simply have NOWHERE TO GO and we have to figure out a plan for them at all times. Yes, there are camps, but they’re often in weird places with weird hours and my weird children don’t all like the same camps! The fact that every single parent has to deal with the same trials and tribulations of creating a summer childcare plan for their kids, and we have somehow not, as a society, created a more sustainable solution, is almost as wild to me as human babies pooping in their pants for years and years on end.
Anyhoo. Have I mentioned that my next cookbook is available for pre-order?! You can buy signed copies! It’s currently on sale for $24 on Amazon! IT’S REALLY GREAT!
So far this week alone I’ve listened to audiobooks while hiking, repotting plants, folding laundry, driving to end-of-the-school-year activities… the things you can get done with an audiobook in your ear are endless! If you’re an audiophile, you know the voice actors make all the difference, and Macmillan Audio’s narrators are always top notch. I’m currently toggling between Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino and The Shippers by Katherine Center. I love listening to multiple books at once, do you? The Shippers is a romance with tropes we all love (childhood friends-to-lovers! forced proximity!) and Best Offer Wins is a funny, smart, kinda dark thriller. Both are SO GOOD. WTC Insiders, you can download these audiobooks for free this month via your perks page! If you’re not an Insider, they’re available wherever you like to listen to audiobooks (Audible, Spotify, Libby, etc.) and I highly recommend ‘em.
Eight no-recipe recipes for summer cooking is one of my personal favorite posts we’ve ever published. Cooking should be ridiculously easy in the summer — summer produce tastes so good with so little effort!
Joanna Goddard’s “9 Habits That Are Making My 40s My Favorite Decade” was such an energizing read about the many ways that our lives continue to get richer and richer as we age. It's filled with small, actionable things that you can do to start enjoying life more right now. Big Salad is one of the Substacks I pay for a subscription to, and I devour every word of it the second it hits my inbox. If I had to sum it up for you, I'd say it's like reading a long, juicy email from your best friend who doesn't have a phone, so she just emails you once a week or so and fills you in on EVERYTHING. And she's cool and funny and so kind and a total girl’s girl and she has great taste. It's the best.
I found this deep dive into how different parents think about and employ in-home help from Kate Strickler incredibly helpful and illuminating. I wish I’d had it when I was a first-time mom trying to figure out how the hell to “do it all.”
I got to chat with Hamish McKenzie (Substack’s co-founder) and Amanda Hesser (Food52’s co-founder and current writer of Homeward) about the future of food media at the first-ever Substack Summit last week in New York. I learned a lot of things from a lot of media founders, creators, and People Of The Internet, and AI was, of course, the biggest discussion point. I am so sick of talking about AI. Yes, I get it, if we don’t keep up and learn how to use it we’re going to get left in the dust. The AI takeover is inevitable at this point. OK, OK. It was encouraging to be in a room with some of the best storytellers of our generation (I had dinner with Sebastian Junger!) and to be reminded that nothing can replace real human connection. People don’t just love good writing, they love the human beings behind the stories. The human life and feelings and sadness and joy behind the stories are what make the writing good. And AI can never replace that! Or, a whole lot of smart people convinced me that it can’t, anyway.
I also got absolutely schooled about… aliens… at the Substack conference’s unofficial after party. A group of us went to the The Fifth Column office to drink beers and eat pizza and I wound up gossiping about RFK Jr. and aliens with some of the biggest right- and left-wing political Substackers out there (I’m not naming names, I don’t kiss and tell!) for hours and hours. Have you watched The Age of Disclosure, about the government’s alleged cover-up of alien life? My new alien-enthusiast friends tell me that’s the best place to start, though I haven’t had a chance yet! Whether or not aliens are real, it felt so fun and refreshing to engage in a smart dialogue with people from both sides of the aisle without it resorting to everyone just tearing each other apart. The media would have us think that there’s no such thing as healthy discourse in politics anymore, but my wild night in SoHo (JK, I drank Spindrift the entire time) proved otherwise.
I’ve worn a Harper Wilde Bliss bralette every single day for the past four years. They are the most comfortable, supportive, no-underwire, no-weird-pads bras. I am most often wearing this one — it is the one I’m really an evangelist of — but on the rare occasion that I am not wearing a T-shirt or sweater and need a thinner strap, I wear this one under V-necks or this one under higher necklines. Sometimes people ask me what I do about my nips showing since these are unlined, and I guess the answer is that I don’t care? IDK, I’m not wearing a lot of skintight clothing, it’s not often an issue!
Have you read, watched, eaten, worn, or listened to something good lately?!
If you’re reading this and enjoy it, would ya hit the ❤️ button on this newsletter? It matters for internet reasons that I do not understand, and more importantly, makes me very happy to see!
Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup.
1. vietnamese-inspired grilled pork or chicken bowls, 2025
The star of this bowl is a nuoc cham-inspired sauce that you’ll make in about two minutes and use in two different ways: one, as a marinade for your pork or chicken, and two, drizzled generously over everything at the end. The cucumber-avocado-ginger salad is so good and is a star on its own. Pile it all over rice, add whatever toppings are calling your name, and dinner is done in 30 minutes, easy!
2. charred cabbage and chicken peanut chop, 2024
Fire up the grill! You’re going to char cabbage wedges and chicken thighs until they’re smoky and golden, chop everything up, and toss it with massaged kale, fresh mint and cilantro, peanuts, white Cheddar, and the most addictive peanut vinaigrette. As Sara put it in the comments: “So many flavors in each bite. Nourishing. Refreshing. No notes. Just adding it to the regular rotation for summer.”
3. beach sandwiches, 2023
The secret to a great beach sandwich is bread with a semi-hard exterior. We’re using ciabatta or focaccia (so a stray sandy hand doesn’t spell disaster!). You’ll spread both halves with a creamy avocado and white bean blend, pile on lemon-pickled red onions, cucumber, sprouts, and shredded carrots, and wrap the whole thing up to bring it wherever summer takes you. It travels beautifully, it’s vegan, and it’s freakishly delicious for how simple it is.
4. starbucks egg bite copycat frittata, 2022
Breakfast for dinner is always a good move. If you’ve ever inhaled a Starbucks egg bite and wished you could make it at home, this recipe’s for you. A low-and-slow 275°F oven gives you that impossibly custardy, creamy texture with no special mold required. While the frittata does its thing, a bacon fat-laced sweet potato hash cooks on the rack below it.
5. grilled pickle-brined chicken sandwiches, 2021
Picky chicky sandos! Five years later and these are still my favorite chicken sandwiches. Brine them in pickle juice, make a little pickle mayo to slather onto the buns, and grill up some zucchini or summer squash to serve as an easy side. They’re a grill-out home run every time.
I recently heard that audiobook listening on Spotify rose more than 30% over the last year, and I can believe it! Everyone’s catching on to my favorite hobby. WTC Insiders, be sure to download Best Offer Wins and The Shippers to listen for free this month.
I’m kicking off my “best decade yet” aka my 40s with my first big birthday party in 20 years with a Lisa Frank inspired unicorn bounce house, frozen drink machines and cookies and cotton candy as take homes. I’m kicking it off in a style of how fun I aspire to be!!
Did I miss your reaction to Off Campus?! I feel like you watched it all on your cross-country plane trip...but maybe I missed your thoughts on it? I just finished and I'm devouring all of the stuff on Instagram...