Make congee. Eat pasta. Play board games.
Things to cook, read, and buy
This is Cook, Read, Buy, a round up of recommendations from me, and (soon!) from contributors. Got a recipe, a read, or a product you want to rave about? Looking for advice about what to make for dinner? Stumped on what to get for your niece's birthday? Sound off in the comments and let's help each other out!
Cook: We finally got rain in Los Angeles, and whenever it gets cold and rainy I crave congee (rice porridge). I use the technique from the MVP Recipes list and this Instagram post: All you really need is a cup of rice and water. To make it more flavorful, I like using chicken broth, ginger, and sesame oil, and then I top things off with scallions, a splash of soy sauce, and chili crisp. (My favorite chili crisps are by Lao Gan Ma, Fly By Jing, and Momofuku.) Congee is also a great way to use up leftover rotisserie or roast chicken.
Read: This New York Times feature (gift link) about a friendship that fell apart because one friend brought an incredibly noisy cockatoo home to the apartment next door is everything that I love in a human interest story. Any current or former apartment dweller will likely have their own tale of a neighbor-turned-rival (sometimes the rivalry is one-sided and secret), but such rivalries rarely begin as close friendships and end in hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and serious health diagnoses. Like any great feature, this one effortlessly weaves in history (the fight against noise in New York City) as well as a glimpse inside a niche community (Manhattan co-op owners and the politics of their governing boards). Writer David Segal’s reporting also asks some big questions: What peace are we willing to sacrifice to be told we’re right? What sacrifices should be made to live in harmony with each other?
Buy: Between school breaks and an epic cold & flu season, I can say the hero toy right now is Chutes & Ladders. Not only has this game quite obviously up-leveled my 4-and-a-half year old’s math skills, it’s also been a great way to practice things like taking turns and holding disappointment. Sometimes it’s her watching me model disappointment and being okay losing, because I have a tendency to get caught in chute loops. We have both the current version and a classic board. Also? Chutes & Ladders is way more fun than Candy Land. Like way way. We’ve even done a Chutes & Ladders play date! I hope her love of board games continues, since her dad and I are into more involved games like Settlers of Catan, Splendor, and Ticket to Ride. Does anyone else love board games? What games (for kids, grownups, or both) have you been playing lately?
Cook: When cookbook author Alexis deBoschnek published her recipe for pasta with sausage, broccoli rabe, kale, and crushed Calabrian chili, I knew I wanted to make it. She includes anchovies, too, which I love and never would have thought to pair with sausage, and I live for a double-veg situation. I decided to really lean into the adult dinner of it all by going extra spicy with hot Italian sausage. (Adult dinner is when I make a separate meal for the grownups after bedtime, which is especially good for when I'm craving something I know my preschooler won't go for.) I didn't have broccoli rabe, but I did have baby broccoli, so I swapped that in. I think you’ll enjoy this one!
Read: Bella Darden went Substack-viral with this essay about why now is the time to embrace adult hobbies. She argues that hobbies that let you connect to your inner child are like “little vacations from reality,” leaving her more creatively connected, more energized, and happier. This piece resonated with me because I too found I felt much happier when I started doing activities that were purely for me and not tied to any expectations of productivity or excellence. For the past two years, I’ve been learning African drumming at a wonderful local music shop that unfortunately lost its building in the Eaton fire (please check out their Gofundme). Trying something without the pressure of being good at it can be very restorative for perfectionists like me. Take a look at Bella’s piece for ideas about how to get started with restorative hobbies.
Buy: However, much like adult dinner, most of my adult hobbies happen at home. After my daughter’s bedtime. Usually while I listen to an audiobook (in and of itself an adult hobby IMO). Since about age 7, I’ve been in a cycle where I get very into making friendship bracelets and then take a five-year break. I'm currently making a chevron bracelet with some of the colors in this 36-pack of embroidery floss. I have been doing Johanna Basford's coloring books for years (I've especially enjoyed Rooms of Wonder and Small Victories), and though she recommends colored pencils, I use Kuretake Zig Brushables brush-tip markers and Crayola fine line markers. It feels so luxurious to drag the brushes across the paper, while the fine-tip markers are better for filling in the little leaves. I'm getting that peaceful feeling just thinking about my markers. Do you have any other suggestions for easy at-home hobbies?
Cook from the Archives: For another sausage + greens pasta, check out my skillet pasta with sausage and brussels sprouts from December. While I made this using only ingredients from Trader Joe’s, no access to that specific grocery store is required to execute this recipe. I make this dish with sweet Italian sausage to assuage my anti-spice kid, but it would be great with hot sausage instead. Butter, pasta water, and parm come together at the end for a silky, saucy finish, which is a trick you can take with you to future pastas!
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not a game, but just because our kid LOVED it at that age so I gotta recommend: have you shown her Number Blocks? I think some episodes are on netflix and maybe some youtube, but it's a british math show that really helps bring addition and multiplication to life in a smart, visual way (and also gave our kid a really cute accent for a minute...)
We've been really loving the momofuku garlic crunch which is all the crunch without the spice! Blockus is another fun math-ish game that we love playing as a family, though it gets super competitive!