The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List
Pesto crusted chicken, my obsession with cooking shows, an ab fab podcast, and floral blouses
Good morning, readers! I apologize for the delay in what’s supposed to be the free Friday letter — yesterday was a doozy and I wasn’t able to get around to it. I’m sure it ruined your day, and for that, I apologize. I take full responsibility. But I promise I’m about to make it up to you in stride, so here we go.
READING
I don’t have an update here, but I should by next week. I’m trying to finish my current book and then I’ll have a lot to say.
WATCHING
So here’s something I already kind of knew about myself but that has recently ramped up tenfold: I love any and every cooking or baking competition show. I find the deepest comfort and joy from them, no matter what they are. When Zac was out of town last weekend, all I watched was the Food Network. I wish I was exaggerating, but it ran every hour on the hour from the time he left until he came back. The reason is twofold: 1) Because I couldn’t think of anything on any streaming service that I could watch without him because we tend to like all the same things, 2) I. love. cooking. shows.
Anyway, all that to say, I started watching the new season of Spring Baking Championship and, once I was caught up, went back to last season’s to watch that. Then my best friend told me about Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions and how I needed to start from season 1, so I waited for Zac to get home and we’ve been blazing through it. OMG — it’s so good? It’s truly awe-inspiring to see these wildly talented chefs create incredible dishes from the most random ingredient combinations and duke it out in the kitchen. The fact that they sometimes do it in 30 minutes is also mind boggling; it takes me 30 minutes to prep vegetables, ya know? Anyway, if you’re into cooking shows like I am, you must watch TOC. Every season is On Demand and the new one just started last weekend!
As for what else I’ve been watching, I watched The Matrix? LOL. I don’t know why, but it’s been in my craw that it was so good and I haven’t watched it since 1999. So when Zac was away, I loaded it up and GOD DAMN — it holds up. It’s such a good movie??? I remember at the time it got like a D from Siskel and Ebert, but my family ignored it and went anyway, and we were BLOWN away. It’s also very ahead of its time in terms of the conversation around AI.
Lastly, I turned on Jenny Slate’s new stand-up and turned it off after five minutes. You guys, I’m sorry, ok? I am. I LOVE her so much, but if I don’t audibly laugh within five minutes of you taking the mic, I’m out. I just wasn’t feeling it or her approach in this one. I feel bad because she is such a doll and I love everything else she does, but this special just wasn’t it for me.
LISTENING TO
I don’t listen to Smartless weekly anymore. I just kind of got over it. However, I did tune back in for Amy Schumer’s episode and I have to say… I hated it. I feel like Sean and Will barely had any idea who she was and or what her story is, and it was super awkward. She’s arguably the most famous female stand-up of our generation, and Will was like “So how many kids do you have?” IDK, man. It really put a bad taste in my mouth for the three hosts, especially because Amy is a national treasure.
A new-to-me podcast is Scamfluencers with
(who we already know I love) and Sarah Hagi. Both of these women are my kind of women: biting, sarcastic, cynical, opinionated, hilarious, and intelligent. They cover internet scams and dive deep into how the power of influence is so often abused. The George Santos episode is WILD — I truly had no idea what a con artist he’s been since day one.Another new-to-me podcast is Jessie Ware’s Table Manners. Jessie is a singer, but pivoted into the podcast world with her mum (they’re British) to create a space where they invite guests to the dinner table to discuss life, food, and everything else. Lennie, her mum, is a delight and their accents are like a warm hug — I could listen to them talk forever. Jessie’s sense of humor and the way she talks is so up my alley, and one of their latest episodes with Millie Bobby Brown is just fantastic. THE ACCENTS! Ugh. It’s so good, and I can’t wait to listen to their entire catalog.
MAKING
So this past week, I made the most delightful weeknight dinner of Pesto Crusted Chicken with Bucatini. I used this pesto recipe (toast the pine nuts!), but the chicken I sort of made up on my own based off a reel I saw. Here’s my loose Pesto Crusted Chicken recipe:
1 package of thinly sliced chicken breasts
Panko breadcrumbs + grated parmesan
Once you make the pesto, set it aside and take out your chicken. Salt and pepper all pieces, place them in a big bowl, and then dump about half the pesto on top. Using your hands, work the pesto onto the chicken, trying to ensure all pieces and all sides have a nice coating on them (they don’t need to be COVERED, just nicely coated).
On a large plate, mix about a cup of panko breadcrumbs and 1/4-1/3 cups of parm then dredge each piece of chicken in the mix (both sides). You may need to add more breadcrumbs and parm as you go, but start with one cup.
You can either cook the chicken on the stovetop in a skillet with oil or bake it in the oven at 425º until it reaches a 165º internal temperature (I would give you a time, but thinly sliced breasts cook fast, so I’d use a food thermometer if you can. We use this and it’s incredible).
While the chicken bakes, cook bucatini pasta per its package instructions, reserve just a little pasta water, drain, then throw back in the pot with pasta water and the rest of the pesto. Toss to coat and then slice the chicken and place it on top! Finish with a squeeze of lemon.
SHOPPING
I am loving the Winky Lush blush, you guys. “Queen” is my color. It’s a neutral rose, and just a dab or two blends so well and goes a looooong way. You can get it at Target or Ulta!
I sported two new pieces this week: This impossibly happy button-up from Sezane and these mixed metal earrings. The whole look is linked in my LTK Shop with details.
Another impossibly happy top I got recently is this long sleeved ruffle blouse from Anthro. I don’t own many feminine things like this, and I just felt so pretty in it. It’s a flowy top and true to size!
I also got these mesh ballet flats you probably saw me wear this week. God, they are so incredible. They’re super low on sizes, but stalk them because people return things all the time and you may stumble across your size! They are very narrow, so you need to size up a half size (I am a 7 and got the 7.5). I didn’t expect them to be as comfortable as they are — I truly forget I’m wearing shoes at all.
Lastly, I restocked on these very unsexy but extremely useful bottle cleaning tablets from Amazon. Sometimes soap and water isn’t enough for our reusable stainless steel vessels, but these work wonders.
I hope this Friday letter made your Saturday. Next week is my monthly Things I Bought and Returned letter for paying subscribers and will feature perhaps my greatest return of all time, so if you’ve been flirting with the idea of upgrading to paid, now’s the time.
I love the matrix! Pre cells phones I’m super figure and always reading a magazine or doing another activity while watching a movie. That was the first movie I sat through and just watched the movie!