The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List: MEGA EDITION

Homemade biscuits, a perfect salad dressing, so many scoop necks, Oscar movies, and a long ass shopping list

Turns out when I don’t do a Weekly List, content stacks up quick. Buckle up for today’s Mega Edition — there’s lots to consume.

READING

I started Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano a few weeks ago and am loving it. I’ve never read anything by her before, and so far, really enjoy her writing and development of characters. I guess it’s supposed to be a kind of modern-day nod to Little Women, but I don’t really see that just yet. Maybe it’ll come, but I’m reading it as a totally separate entity and having a great time.

If you’re looking for something lighter (and hilarious), please do yourself a favor and go read the comment section of this post from Free People last week. They tried to say we’re wearing micro shorts this summer, and got trolled harder than Harry, Ron, and Hermione in The Chamber of Secrets.

WATCHING

We’ve been busy the last two weeks trying to watch as many Oscar noms as possible. We still have so many to go, but watched All of Us Strangers, The Holdovers, and Oppenheimer.

All of Us Strangers was beautiful, haunting, intense, and depressing as hell. A very brief synopsis is a writer loses his parents in a tragic car accident when he’s only 12 and, years later, is imagining all the conversations he wishes he could’ve had with them as fuel for his new play. I love Andrew Scott (AKA Fleabag’s “hot priest”) and he did an incredible job carrying the movie. Paul Mescal was also amazing and plays the broken, tragedy-struck guy a little too well. The movie is more atmospheric than anything, but when there is dialogue, it’s powerful. Jamie Bell is incredible (and also my OG celebrity crush a la Billy Elliot) and Clarie Foy never misses. It’s a heavy, grief-centric movie with a twist that I’m still thinking about.

The Holdovers stars the GOAT, Paul Giamatti. This is the type of movie that had me thinking “They don’t make them like this anymore.” It’s a nostalgic coming-of-age story set in the ‘70s at a prep school in New England. “The Holdovers” is what they call the kids who couldn’t go home for the holidays for whatever reason and are stuck on campus for the last two weeks of the year. Giamatti plays the gruff Ancient History teacher who’s infamously hard on his students and, of course, is the only teacher on campus during winter break. With just himself, the school’s freshly grieving cook, and one troubled teen left behind over the holiday, adventure ensues. It’s really, really good — we loved it.

Oh, Oppy. Listen — In general, Zac doesn’t love Christopher Nolan movies. He says it’s because they’re usually too long, light on dialogue, and heavy on atmosphere. I don’t have an opinion either way and really wanted to see Oppenheimer, so he begrudgingly agreed to sit through it last weekend. *I* enjoyed it, whereas Zac paused it multiple times and asked “are you seriously enjoying this?” It was a scene. I really was into it up until they dropped the A-bomb; once it became about trying Oppy post-war, I was lost, confused, and bored. We actually have 30 minutes left and I don’t think we’ll ever finish. Regardless, Cillian was amazing, and I loved Flo’s short but intense scenes. Emily wasn’t the right casting choice IMO, but who am I to say? Overall, I enjoyed ¾ of it and think it could’ve been shorter for sure.

A movie we started and didn’t finish was Next Goal Wins, a true story about the American Samoa soccer team. I love Taika Waititi (TAIKIA BUTTON for all my Ride listeners), but did not love this movie at all. We turned it off 30 minutes in or so.

Last thing: We started the new Apple series Masters of the Air, and holy cow it is incredible. It’s a Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg production, so the quality is off the charts, and the storytelling is amazing. My mom insisted we get into it, and we did, and now we can’t stop. My grandfather was a B-17 radio operator and bombardier who flew 28 missions and lived to tell the tales. It’s so well done — I highly recommend it!

LISTENING TO

I don’t think my audience shares my interest in male-forward podcasts, and hey — I get it. It’s okay. However, in case you do, Rick Glassman’s “Take Your Shoes Off” put out one of the most entertaining episodes I’ve ever listened to in my life the other week. Rick is very good longtime friends with Lamorne Morris (AKA Winston from New Girl), and I had no idea how fucking hilarious and creative Lamorne is. Him and famous freestyle rapper Harry Mack joined Rick on this episode, and it’s beyond entertaining. They talk craft, sure, but they also goof around and freestyle most of the time and ugh — it’s just fucking hilarious. I know no one will listen, but I had to speak my truth.

MAKING

First thing’s first — I tripled this buttermilk biscuit recipe from Dessert For Two to surprise Zac’s parents (who are coming in from Georgia today) for the weekend. The “hardest” part about making biscuits is “cutting in” the cold butter — it’s tedious and takes a while unless you have a pastry cutter, which I do not. However, they’re so easy and delicious, and you should go for it.

Some other things I made over the last two weeks that turned out stellar enough to mention in today’s letter: this tortilla soup (I subbed serrano for jalapeno to kick up the spice), a one skillet lasagna (amazing, but if you use 85% lean beef, drain the fat!), and my very own salad dressing that I’ve been whisking up since 2020 and it actually is perfect (especially on butter lettuce).

Honorable but not yet eaten mention: One of my favorite follows, Jessie Bernhardt, moved to Canada with her family to a) escape America and b) go to culinary school. She posted this Carrot Cake Loaf on her stories this week, and I immediately demanded the recipe. She gave me some recipe notes along with it and I abided, but I’ve yet to taste my creation (saving it for Zac’s parents), so I will have to circle back with y’all via Instagram. Keep your eyes peeled.

SHOPPING

Are you still with me? Good, thank God. ‘Cause we have lots more to cover in this section.

• I saw a reel where this MUA was going over drugstore makeup that’s as good as designer. She mentioned this mascara by L’Oreal, I bought it, and I LOVE it. I absolutely love the extremely light and thin wand and what it does to my lashes. It’s not clumpy at all — it’s just lengthening and detailed. Zac even very uncharacteristically noticed my lashes (???) and said “Your lashes look really good.” So.

• While at Target, I got two colors of this scoop neck tee (because we all know the newfound neckline mission I’m on). I got white and lavender. They’re ribbed, not fitted, and super thin — perfect for warm weather! (Medium)

• I also got this short sleeved button down in both the blue and white stripe and plain white. I can’t resist a good short sleeve button down, and I loved the fit of these. (Medium)

• We need more drinkware like I need a third tit, but I couldn’t resist these pretty green glasses. I got four and have no regrets.

• Outside of Target, I also got this white scoop neck tee by ZSupply (listen. I have a lot of crewnecks to replace, and all these new tees are different weights for different occasions!). It’s thicker and better quality, so I’ve deemed it my “fanicer” scoop neck tee. (Large)

• ONE MORE NEW TEE. This guy from Amazon. It comes in several colorways and is very pretty. I got the Dustyblue in a Medium!

• Last but absolutely not least is this tofu press. I’ve been trying to cook with more tofu because why not, but you have to press the shit out of it so the water escapes and it cooks up nice and crispy. Enter this wild contraption. I used it for the first time this week and am pleased to report it dried out my tofu and made for crunchy yumminess! Highly recommend as a kitchen gadget.

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That’s a lot of food for thought, so I hope you are thoroughly entertained this Friday. Have a great weekend!

— EGM