When I look back at Saturday morning, it feels like an eternity ago—likely because I fit more things into this weekend than I usually do in a week! The highlight being, of course, the Pop-Up Shop. Our entire team arrived at The ROW DTLA at 7 a.m., armed with bagels and coffee, and by the time we opened at 11 a.m., there was a line out the door. If you went (or followed along on Instagram), you know we had the most beautiful balloon arch from Bonjour Fete, and the Go Get Em Tiger team serving complimentary almond milk lattes (here’s the recipe!). I’ve said this a million times, but it makes me so happy each time I get to meet more of the creative, smart, funny, driven, impressive women who make up this community. You’re all so inspiring! On Saturday afternoon, I snuck away from the pop-up to go to a rock climbing event with Jonah, then celebrate a friend’s birthday party at Medieval Times (have any of you been to one of these? It’s a chain that’s hilarious, cheesy, involves jousting, and is kind of amazing…). Here’s what I’m loving this (much more low-key) week:
Mad Men creator Mathew Weiner’s new anthology series, The Romanoffs, is technically about one family—but with a unique twist. That “family” is the thousands of people who believe themselves to be direct descendants of the Russian royals. But the joke is right there in the title: Many of the “descendants” are so far removed from royalty that even their names have become anglicized over the past hundred years (one Romanov shows clear disdain for a “Romanoff, two Fs” in the second episode). Outside of the familial thread, each episode stands alone as its own movie and is only peripherally related to Russian history. Reviews have been mixed, but it’s worth watching for the set design, incredible cast, and other-worldly drama of elite in decline. You can watch it on Amazon Prime here.
This week, I made two Indian-inspired dishes from Bon Appetit, a dal and a curry chicken. They were delicious, warming, and exactly what I needed—but in each case, the best part wasn’t even the core dish itself, it was the chutney that went on top. On top of the chicken, you add a mixture of cilantro, lime, red onion, and toasted coconut flakes. The dal was punched-up by a Cilantro-Raisin Chutney. Both toppings contain the same core ingredients that could be applied to nearly any dish:
– something sweet (toasted coconut, raisins)
– something fresh and herbaceous (cilantro)
– an acid (vinegar, lime)
– salt
– and fat (optional, the olive oil in the dal)
It’s simple to make and adds a sweet and unexpected crunch to nearly any dish. For my part, I’ll be creating a similar chutney for everything from rice bowls to soup and roast chicken.
A few months ago, two friends and I started a fiction-writing group for fun. We meet every Tuesday night with the fiction we’re each working on, and read each other’s work, then chat about it, provide critiques and encouragement, and then offer “assignments” for the next week. Last week, a reader commented that November is ‘National Novel Writing Month,’ (NaNoWriMo) so we’ve decided to each sign up! Starting Thursday, we’re going to join this online community and each try to write a 50,000 word novel. The idea is that it’s okay if the books we come up with are terrible (they likely will be), but I’m also anticipating it to be fun, encouraging, and inspiring! You can sign up here.
I’m sure there are people who subscribe to The New Yorker, read every issue cover-to-cover as soon as they receive it, then promptly recycle it. But then there are the rest of us. The New Yorker fiction podcast is for anyone who’s subscribed to the magazine, had every intention of reading it, and then let it pile up in a dusty corner for “someday” (just me?). In each episode, a well-known author selects their favorite New Yorker fiction story from the archives, reads it, and then discusses it with the fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. I’ve only listened to a few, but I’m already hooked—it’s the perfect thing to listen to on a long walk, or to wind-down from a tense day. They also have a similar podcast called “Writer’s Voice,” where authors read their own work, and another on “Poetry” (which I’m inspired to listen to after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s recommendation, “poetry before sleep is essential, like flossing the word-loving parts of the brain.”) Happy listening!
P.S., I’m planning on going to goat yoga next month at Golden Road Brewing—have you ever tried it? And this live orchestra screening of Get Out looks really interesting! I’m also hosting another Quilt chat here, around the theme of leadership (read more about why I love Quilt chats here).
