Make soup. Eat beans. Drink wine.
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!
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Cook: I'm all about soup right now (see: last week's adasi lentil soup), and this miso chicken soup by Kendra Vaculin in Bon Appetit is one of my new favorites. Red miso adds deep umami which pairs brilliantly with surprisingly tender squash. I did take commenters' advice and cook the chicken over a low simmer. Is anyone else on a soup kick?
Read: This weekend I finished Onyx Storm, the third book in Rebecca Yarros's runaway-hit romantasy series that started with Fourth Wing. If you're already finished and looking for what to read next, I've been recommending R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War trilogy, which has similar themes to Fourth Wing including a war college setting, but with less romance, more elevated prose, and more sophisticated explorations of empire. For another book that looks at dismantling powerful systems from within, I also highly recommend The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. While a bit more academic in its approach to empire, colonialism, and race, it is just as much of a page-turner, and the story deepens in books 2 and 3. Be warned: Of the three series I've just mentioned here, only The Poppy War trilogy is complete. Dickinson's Masquerade series at least ends on a satisfying note in book 3, should he choose not to finish it, but Yarros's Empyrean series is slated for 5 books, so we're in for a few more years before the story fully concludes.
Buy: If one of your goals for 2025 is to cook more, invest in some anti-fatigue mats. As someone who deals with chronic joint pain (especially in my ankles), my kitchen mat is a lifesaver. I use two plain, absolutely functional ones from Target (similar to this) — one in front of the sink, one in front of the stove. If I were looking for a new one, I think I'd go for something with more pizazz. I love the look of this Mackenzie-Childs silver checkered mat.
Cook: Carolina Gelen's recipe for beans alla vodka crossed my feed and I instantly added it to my to-cook list for adult dinner. (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.) This recipe happens to make use of my standard pantry; all I needed to add to my shopping list was heavy cream. I accidentally used cannellini beans instead of butter beans — folks, I literally had the butter beans, I just ignored them staring me in the face in the cabinet. The cannellinis worked fine, though next time I will go for the butter beans because I do think the dish would have been better with a bit more starch. It was still an excellent dinner, creamy, spicy, and delicious. A delightful bowl of beans.
Read: I really resonated with Andrea Strong's essay about her discomfort with "Dry January" and the "preachy marketing industrial complex" it has spawned in recent years. Dry January, she argues, is distinct from addiction and sobriety, in large part by how it specifically judges women’s consumption. I am not a daily drinker to begin with, but January — with its dark, with its stress, with its difficulty — isn't a time I feel like going without. This year especially, I'm keeping my glass of wine, thanks.
Buy: For the past year or so, I've been on the hunt for a salt cellar. Ideally it has personality, functionality, and isn't especially big. My current solution is decanting kosher salt into an ancient stainless-steel Ikea prep bowl, which I keep by the stove. This system works fine, making the salt cellar a want, not a need. I like the Emile Henry salt pig, but it seems a bit large for my tiny counter. I like the look of handmade ceramic ones like this one, but I'm intrigued by how the ceramic Zero Japan salt box has a lid. Anyone have one they like? Tell me about it. In the meantime, I'm happy to keep browsing till I find something I really want to bring into my kitchen.
Cook from the Archives: For another recipe that treats beans like pasta, check out my chickpea puttanesca recipe from October. This one is easy to make totally vegan, and can even be more like a soupy stew depending on how much you reduce it.
Fatigue mats are a lifesaver! My absolute favorites are spendy but worth every penny: https://www.wellnessmats.com/collections/all
adult dinner!