The Weekly Recap #74
Prepare yourself, the holidays are here...
Welcome to The Weekly Recap! A lite Sunday read about my life and food. This email is free and if you are not currently receiving them in your inbox, click here to subscribe.
Tomorrow is the first of November which means we are entering ✨the holiday season✨. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years! I have lots of recipes I’ll be sending out in the next two months. Some you might recognize and some will be new. A Thanksgiving round-up with 15+ recipes will be going out this week in The Kitchen Club. If you have been thinking about joining or you need help with holiday hosting, become a member!
🦃 🥂 Use the link below to receive 20% off when you join with an annual subscription - Today only! ✡️🎄
Update! Update! Update! I wasn’t planning on dressing up for Halloween but today I am in a full lizard costume because my entire face is peeling off. As you might have seen on Instagram, I didn’t end up doing the Fraxel laser. My mom’s wonderful dermatologist in LA shot it straight with us and because my dark spots are from melasma, Fraxel wouldn’t give me the results I wanted. After a mini melt-down moment from the initial disappointment (I really wanted the laser), we moved on and I did a VI peel while in her office. I’m on a new routine and hopefully, the dark spots will start to fade 🤞🏼. Stay tuned.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in LA. I spent a ton of time with family but also squeezed in a solo day with a mani-pedi, stop at the dentist, a trip to The Container Store, solo sushi for lunch, and a stroll around my old neighborhood. All of our recent trips have been packed to the brim with plans and exhausting. It was refreshing to be alone, with no schedule, and have a whole day to myself.
Thursday’s traffic on the way to the airport was a real reminder of how stressful LA can be. As much as I love it, I also hate it. I made it to my gate with 4 minutes to spare and my flight was about half full allowing us to board and push back 10 minutes early…until we didn’t push back. We sat at our gate for about an hour and a half when a traveler saw a “gun” and screamed “GUN” in terminal one. I thought it was weird when the flight attendant informed us of a security breach at TSA and used the words “hysteria in the terminal” but it wasn’t until we saw hundreds of people run on the tarmac and swarms of police cars when I thought, oh this could be bad?
It was a strange experience, to say the least, and our plane finally made it to KC around 2:30 AM. I was exhausted but wired and put away my suitcase in the dark. I had a small moment of gratitude that it was a false alarm because if it were real, I could have been stuck on that plane with the doors locked in the middle of the madness.
On a positive note, during my flight, I watched Beetlejuice for the first time as an adult and it was way better than I remembered. It’s funny how your brain remembers bits and pieces of things from your childhood but you forget major details. Or in my case, you forget the whole story only remembering the dancing around the table. And Alec Baldwin was actually cute when he was young in the 80s, weird!!
Stuff to Read
On feeling "like yourself" from Haley Nahman. A good read about the transition into fall.
The Restaurant That Softened a Design Curmudgeon’s Heart. It’s Night + Market, love to see it 👏🏼
Recipe Inspo
Chin Chin Classic Shredded Chicken Salad My mother-in-law tried this recipe for Chin Chin’s iconic Chinese chicken salad (iykyk) and had good things to report on it.
Places I ate
Three spots for us to cover today:
Apple Pan is a LA classic that is always good. I hadn’t been since high school and very randomly had a craving for it. They are still busy but everything is to go. The parking lot was turned into a patio and my dad and I sat out back and had burgers.
I’m forever loyal to Hide Sushi (you already know this). Traditional sushi, high-quality fish, and low prices. This week I learned that Hide has been around since the 70s and is still family-owned. They just remodeled the inside and it was nice to see familiar faces still working there.
My last stop eating out this week was Soulmate in West Hollywood. Terrible, terrible name for a restaurant. The inside was very cool and the food was excellent. We shared a handful of small Mediterranean seafood dishes and each one kept getting better and better. The dessert flavor combinations blew me away and totally inspired me to think outside the box more. Only complaint is that it was loud LOUD. Like leaning in to hear and yelling loud. I did not appreciate the sore throat the next day but I would totally go back. Oh, and they check vaccine cards at the door which is something I appreciated.
Thing Everybody Needs
Phone clip thingy!!! I can’t even tell you how many people I have seen with these on all my flights recently. After watching another movie with my phone in my hand and my wrist killing me, I bought one! They are brilliant and I can’t wait to use it.
*Marco says American Airlines planes have a phone holder on the back of each seat!
Animal Cuteness
A very spooky black Halloween cat!
I think I am going to make some brownies in the shape of skulls today and later Marco and I will watch a scary movie. Maybe The Shining? It’s my favorite and I make him watch it pretty much every year. Have a spoOoOoooky night!
See you next week, M.
Alec Baldwin has always & continues to be cute! Saw him at my local greenmarket once! 🥰
Oh and phone clipy thing is now in my amazon cart. Thank you!! 🙌🏻