A Few Christmas Recipes
Because you're probably hungry
I’ve already given you The Only Christmas Movie List You’ll Ever Need and lately I’ve been baking a lot so I thought I’d give you a few recipes to make for dinner, brunch, or out of boredom during your holiday break.
Whiskey Cake- If you have a senior citizen in your life, make them this cake. This is the cake that is constantly requested by my 94-year-old grandmother and her best friend. They don’t drink so I think the whiskey glaze is the closest they can get to being buzzed. Also it’s delicious.
Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Layer Cake- Speaking of seniors, my grandmother requested this cake for her 94th birthday last week because her mother always used to make a chocolate layer cake. I knew she wouldn’t want caramel so I skipped that part of this recipe and when my grandmother ate it she said it reminded her of her mother’s. What more could you ask for?
Make Once, Eat All Week Bean Salad- Lately I’ve been making this salad (or the same thing with pasta), making a jar of dressing on the side, and keeping a bowl in the fridge to eat all week. It’s delicious, stays good for at least five days, and means I have something to grab when I don’t feel like cooking.
The Best Brownie Recipe- Love and Lemons is my favorite food blog and her brownie recipe is seriously so good. I skip the chocolate chips because this is a brownie not a cookie what are you doing but otherwise this recipe is gold.
Of course, cookbooks are not going out of style. If you’re in LA, I recommend visiting Now Serving but be prepared to spend every dollar you have ever had. Here are a few of my favorite cookbooks or cookbooks that I have my eye on or, in the case of Snoop Dogg, cookbooks that are too funny not to include:
From Cook to Crook- Snoop Dogg (and yes, I did link THE SNOOPERMARKET)
Mastering the Art of French Cooking- Julia Child
Julie Morris’ Superfood series, especially Superfood Soups
The Martini Cocktail- Robert Simonson (this is the book I used to find my
favorite martini)
Happy cooking!
Choose the Bear- Today’s guest is Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of Population Balance. We had a great conversation about how her upbringing in India influenced her decision not to have children, how the choices we make impact the environment, and what we can do about it. Find it wherever you find your podcasts. Here it is on Apple and Spotify.
What to do with yourself
Watch
Fallout (Prime)- After The Last of Us I didn’t think we would get another truly excellent video game adaptation but Fallout is really incredible. It’s a show about a post-nuclear America and how the bomb got dropped in the first place. Even if you have never played the game you will love this show. And, like me, you’ll probably end up ordering at least one version to play while you wait for season two.
Tokyo Vice (Max)- I finally watched this show and I can’t believe I waited so long. This show, along with Fallout, belongs to the rare pantheon of shows where the characters are all smart and make decisions that make sense but that don’t always work out because the other characters are also smart and making decisions that make sense. With one extremely notable exception that I am still angry about. Vice is about the first gaijin- non Japanese person- to work at a major Tokyo newspaper who of course immediately falls into the orbit of the Yakuza and wowie wow wow. You’ll fly through the first two seasons and then you’ll be really angry that Max cancelled it.
Listen
It’s a holiday which means Jorge Riverra-Herrans dropped another installment of EPIC and ODYSSEUS IS FINALLY IN ITHACA. I will be listening to this on repeat forever but especially when Christopher Nolan f*s up the Odyssey but putting it in space and making Odysseus ride a time machine or something. Here is the entire EPID so far in a neat little playlist for you.