The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List

How to make frozen veggies taste better, my first audiobook, and the best new sports bra from Target

Good morning, miluvs! I am writing you from the South Congress hotel in Austin, Texas (we’re not staying here — just met a friend for coffee. We’re staying with family!). If you’re thinking “Wait. Weren’t you JUST there recently?” the answer is yes. I was here back in September for Grossy Pelosi’s cookbook tour and my sister met me here then, and she met me here again this weekend so we can go to the Ride podcast live show tonight! Austin seems to be our meeting spot even though it’s nowhere near Chicago, but hey — whatever works.

To my paid subscribers, I want to apologize for not getting a paid letter out this week. Whenever that happens, I feel horrible. However, it was an incredibly busy and short week for me, and I didn’t have time to dedicate to a thoughtful paid letter. I promise I will make up for it and then some in the coming weeks — I always do. So thank you for sticking with me.

Now I don’t have much time, so let’s get into today’s very short 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List.

READING 📖

This essay about being Jewish in the midst of what’s happening in the world right now from

Bess Kalb

really spoke to me this week and put things into words I can’t seem to.

This other essay from

Jamie Varon

spoke to me even more last week. Recently, I spent two weekends off Instagram, and they were some of the best weekends I’ve had in a while. Jamie’s experience with rediscovering her confidence offline without the crushing weight of endless comparison while being online is a revelation. Social media is a necessary evil for so many reasons (especially as a writer and creator), and Jamie’s essay serves as a reminder of how easily the poison scrolls through your veins as you scroll through your feed. I highly recommend reading it.

LISTENING TO 🎧

Zac signed us up for an Audible account, and I downloaded my first book to listen to during this road trip to and from Austin. It’s called The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness. I’ve always been this very weird dichotomy of not giving a fuck and caring too much. I’m not a sociopath, but I’m not a people pleaser either. I don’t set out to purposely upset people or be a contrarian, but I also don’t love going along to get along. I found the title of this book intriguing and started playing it yesterday toward the end of my drive. It’s set up as a discussion between a young man and a philosopher, which makes it easier to digest. I will report back!

MAKING 🔪

I made these Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip cookies this week during a particularly anxious day when I needed a serious distraction and HOLY SHIT — they are incredible. Zac took most of them into the office and he said people raved. I love anything Butter Nut Bakery does — she never misses.

Image from Butter Nut Bakery

So if you’re like me, you try so hard to eat more veggies but IT’S REALLY HARD, OKAY? I’m so desperate to make vegetables easier for myself and Zac that I resorted to buying a bag of mixed frozen veggies this week (like the classic corn, carrot, and peas compilation) and looked up how to doctor them to make them taste not terrible and it worked? Basically you boil a cup of chicken broth, throw the entire bag of veggies in, sprinkle them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder… ya know what. Here’s the recipe I followed! Bottom line, they were WILDLY tasty? Like… this is how I’ll be getting more veggies into our diet going forward FOR SURE.

SHOPPING 🛍️

I have two new Target finds for you guys this week.

The first is this bra. My god, it is perfect. It’s SO comfortable, very flattering, and perfect for low impact workouts like walking, barre, lifting, yoga, etc. I love it so much that I got three colors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hey, when you find an amazing sports bra, you jump (but not too hard. Don’t break down that breast tissue!). I’m a 34DDD and got a large.

I also got these barrel leg pants in the brown color, and they are SO cute? Ellen was there when I tried them on and approved, so you know they’re good. I love the shape, they’re high-waist, and I am very into the brown color. True to size!

Lastly, this mesh, collared blouse I got from Anthro is on sale right now. It’s so fun, really comfortable, and I wore it last night so I have a fresh picture to show you. True to size!

Shop this look

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I hope everyone has an enjoyable pre-Thanksgiving weekend. Next week is another super short week as we leave on Tuesday for Thanksgiving in Florida, but I’m taking my computer and I WILL be sending you guys letters, so keep a lookout.

Until then…

— EGM