Gift Guide: For the Chef.

I thought it might be fun to suggest a few gifts for different kinds of people as we approach Christmas. To me, buying for someone who loves to be in the kitchen is not only simple, but really fun. There are so many gadgets and crazy kitchen tools at this point that you'll never run out of options. 

Most of these recommendations are smaller gifts, so I thought they'd group nicely together for kind of a bouquet of kitchen-related gifts! 

1. Food scraper

I use this almost every time I cook for anything from transferring chopped veggies to a pan to scraping the excess biscuit dough off of my cutting board; If you know someone without this, it's a must. Buy it here.   

2. Specialty salt

My mom gave all of us this heirloom salt from a family mine in West Virginia last year in our stockings. We've used it sparingly, so it's still around! Y'all, let me tell you - hand-mind salt just tastes better. It's so nice to have it around when you're hosting a dinner party or just feel like adding a depth of flavor to a weeknight meal. It really does make a difference. Buy it here. 

3. Cast iron skillet

Every cook needs a cast iron skillet. It's a kitchen non-negotiable. They cook evenly, go from your stovetop to your oven seamlessly, and last a lifetime. This 10.25 inch skillet from Lodge Cast Iron is available for $25 - and free shipping! Scoop it up here. 

4. Cheese board

Most people who love to cook also love to host. Having something pretty to put out on the countertop for a little pre-dinner nosh makes all the difference in the world. A polished, pretty cheese board, like this one from Williams Sonoma for $40, is a great gift and starts any party off right.

 5. Chef's knife

Context for this one: when Jordan and I got married, we forgot to register for knives. So for almost three years, I've been using his bachelor-pad knife set that couldn't cut through a sheet of paper. Can't count the number of times I've almost sliced off the tips of my fingers because I was pressing down so hard to chop a potato or an onion. Enter: my new best friend. 

Jordan was so precious and got me a "big girl" knife set for Christmas this year. GAME CHANGER. I immediately ran to the kitchen and chopped a potato - totally different experience. I barely applied pressure and was able to slice the potato so thinly that I could see through the slivers. If you know someone who's using a dated, awful knife set, I can guarantee this will bring them hours and hours of joy and satisfaction.

Happy hunting, friends! 

Make Your House Smell Like Christmas!

My parents moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2015 - just about the same time Jordan and I moved to Asheville. With my brother in Nashville, we're officially in three different states, so creating holiday schedules has become increasingly challenging. 

This year, since we were all already going to be together for Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate ThanksMas - a new mashup holiday. On November 22nd, I decorated our whole house for Christmas and we opened presents in pajamas and ate our traditional Christmas morning breakfast (except we ate it for supper). The best part was that it was 7 o'clock - we got to have cocktails this time! 

One of the easiest ways to get myself into the Christmas spirit is to make it smell like Christmas. There are certain scents each of us ties to certain events - we always get a real tree, for example, so that's one of mine. Aside from that, this extremely simple stovetop recipe does the trick every single time, and will have your guests asking, "What smells so good??" 

Ingredients: 

1 cinnamon stick
2 T ground cinnamon
1 can of cranberry sauce
2 bay leaves
1 T cloves
1 T ground nutmeg
1/2 a navel orange
1/2 a lemon
2 c (or so) of water

Directions: 

This is the easiest thing of all time. You literally dump everything into the pot, stir, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. 

Once it starts boiling, your house will fill with the most delicious, Christmas-y scent. It smells like a warm cider mixed with a Christmas cookie mixed with...just general goodness. Trust me. Try it. 

The best part about this is, it keeps FOREVER. As you boil the water out, you can simply add more water and it starts the whole process over again. I keep this on the back burner of my stovetop all season long, and add more cinnamon and cloves as necessary to give it that nice pop of holiday smell. 

A word of caution: after you bring to a boil, make sure to reduce it to a simmer. Otherwise, you'll end up with scorched cranberries! 

You probably have most of these ingredients in your pantry already! So - get to work. A perfect Christmas house awaits you! 

New York Trip 2016

Every once in a while, I get focused on writing social/entertainment commentary pieces and forget I can sometimes write a post about something totally personal! So here's one of those. 

We went to New York - from the Saturday after Thanksgiving to Wednesday of last week - and had a BALL. Jordan had some continuing education work to do up there, so I got to tag along with his practice. 

I've been fortunate to go to NY many times, but this trip was really different. Every other time I've been, it's been with family or with a group of some sort. This time, though, Jordan spent a lot of the day in his classes, so I had hours and hours to myself. 

It. Was. Heavenly. 

Not because I don't love Jordan, but because I had never gotten to explore the city on my own! Everyone is like this - left to your own devices, you can linger as long as you want in a store, spend as much time reading about something totally weird, and do things like...drive to Carrie's Brownstone and pay homage. 

Not that I did that. (I did that.) 

Our "Secret Single Self" behavior, if you will. 

So I got to do several new things: brunch at Sarabeth's, where I enjoyed 6 uninterrupted chapters of Hillbilly Elegy and lemon ricotta pancakes; wandering through Barney's; a cookie at Magnolia Bakery; writing in Central Park. 

This was also Jordan's first trip to NYC ever, so we did a few things that are NY staples! Here's an onslaught of low-quality iPhone pictures: 

SATURDAY: 

NY Public Library
Natural History Museum
Central Park
Cookshop (dinner)
Milkbar (dessert)

Highlights this day: Jordan's reaction to all things New York was pretty great. The museums/library are always spectacular no matter how many times I see them - beautiful architecture and content.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant in Chelsea called Cookshop, recommended to me by one of my very coolest friends. We sat down at our table and looked over to our right to find that Lea Michele of Glee fame was having dinner next to us. Welcome to New York! 

SUNDAY:

Pilgrimage to Carrie's Brownstone
Le Pain Quotidien (brunch)
Meatball Shop (lunch)
9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center Observatory (more to come about that in a separate post)
Eataly (dinner)

This was the first morning I had to myself, and I lived. it. UP. I walked to Carrie's Brownstone, which was such a special experience for me as I am an ENORMOUS SJP fan and had never gotten to do this. There were a couple of other very timid fans who were there, so we all kind of quietly took each other's pictures and then went our separate ways. Very strange and wonderful kinship. 

We went to Eataly for dinner and Y'ALL. Holy WOW. It's basically a labyrinth of Italian food. The front part of the space is a specialty market which sells any Italian food you can imagine. They pull their own mozzarella in house. I was dying. We went to La Pizza and La Pasta, which, if you couldn't decipher from the name, serves house-made pasta and pizzas. I basically left my body. It was mind-blowing.  

SUNDAY:

Sarabeth's (brunch)
Walk through Central Park
Walked to and around Chelsea
Phantom of the Opera with the dental practice
Midnight pizza

Sarabeth's was a true delight. On Yelp, several people mentioned that the service was bad or that they were rushed out of their table. That may have been the case for them, but the service I received was second-to-none. These guys were so attentive, without hovering, and I had to ask for the check. I sat and read a ton of my book and just watched all the different kinds of people drift in and out. Heavenly. 

That night, Jordan's practice took everyone to see Phantom of the Opera! I am traditionally not a huge Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, but there is absolutely nothing like being in a theater on Broadway with a live orchestra in the pit. It is really electrifying. The performance was lovely, and, as an extra special cherry on top, the cast announced after curtain call that this was the 12,000th performance of that show. How insane is that?? 

TUESDAY:

Russ and Daughters (brunch) 
NBC Studio tour
Public (dinner with Emily and Kevin!)  

Per another great recommendation, we journeyed to Russ and Daughters, a famous Jewish deli-turned-restaurant, and had our minds blown. If you've never had a real New York bagel, you are missing out, my friend. They are just better. So for brunch, we had matzoh ball soup, latkes, cream cheese and lox and bagels, and raspberry blintzes for dessert. Please just kill me now 'cause I'm dead. 

Afterwards, it was pouring rain, so we decided to do an indoor activity: a tour of NBC studios. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but we got to tour Jimmy Fallon's studio, Seth Meyer's studio, and (my Holy Grail) the SNL studio. Y'ALL. It is SO MUCH SMALLER in person. So that's probably the only time I'll be in that room in my life. I soaked in every minute. 

The highlight of the trip was getting to have dinner with my great friend from high school, Emily, and her charming boyfriend, Kevin! There's nothing like being in a city full of strangers, only to cap the experience with a long, boozy, laughter-filled dinner with people you already know. 

And yes, I did wear those pants two nights in a row. Sue me, okay? It was New York and I needed to wear my ridiculous crushed velvet wide leg pants a lot of times. ;) 
 

Can't wait until next time! 

The Good, the Bad, the Last Four Words.

A note: This piece explicitly lists several major plot points. If ya don't wanna know, run away.

As I watched the most recent Netflix juggernaut, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, I found myself in a familiar pickle. When it's in season, I blog about The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise. While watching, I have to constantly decide which route to take. Should I:

1. Watch with a critical eye, placing this show in the real world and analyzing people's behaviors through a practical lens? Or
2. Sit back, turn off my brain, and let the ridiculousness wash over me?

Spoiler: it is hard for me to turn my brain off. Not because I'm a smarty, but because I am an analytical hamster wheel. I can't "just" anything. I am a judger. It's what helps me be a good observational writer, but it also means that it's tough to enjoy things that are meant to be just enjoyed. 

So let me say upfront: If you fall into Category #2, you will not like this piece, which picks apart lots of details in a show you probably found delightful. Also, I am jealous of you. 

I am a Category #1 person. And that made the Gilmore Girls revival problematic for me. I tried to make it work, but ultimately, I couldn't shake this feeling:

It wasn't great. 

I think the easiest way to run it down will be to actually run it down. I took four pages of notes in a Moleskin while watching. (I told you, I'm a nightmare). 

1. Too much foam, not enough beer. 

When I heard that we were going to get four 90-minute episodes to sink our collective teeth into, I was very excited. I bet you were, too. Now, having watched them all, I wish we'd been given one 2-hour episode chock full of plot. 

The upside of creating four separate episodes was that we got to check in with all of our favorite characters. The downside is that, in-between all those meet-cutes, they had to fill time. And boy, did they. 

Gilmore Girls was a show with a lot of zany, unrealistic pieces, but also a show with a lot of substance. It told the real stories of women (albeit mostly white women), their relationships with each other, themselves; it tackled hard subjects like sex, dating, finding your purpose, disappointing your family. Gilmore Girls was like an M&M: the ratio of candy coating to substance was 4:1. The re-boot, though, was like a disappointing jelly-filled doughnut: all sticky pastry and a barely-there filling. When they delivered, they delivered (see: Emily Gilmore's entire storyline). But they didn't deliver often enough. 

This problem really needs subcategories, so here we go. 

(Have you stopped reading yet? I get it.) 

A. Minor characters. 

Part of the charm of Stars Hollow is that it's filled with whimsical, eccentric townspeople, while Rory and Lorelai serve as the audience's points of access into that world. As a viewer of the series, I loved getting glimpses into these characters' lives - what was going on with Morey and Babette? What crazy hijinks had Kirk gotten himself into? Who was Mrs. Kim terrorizing now? 

The reason that worked is because those glimpses were anecdotal. There weren't entire storylines built around them. The fact that Michel, previously a total caricature of a human whose main goals were to count calories and be a general pain in the ass, was developed into a main character in this re-boot, is silly. Though he and Lorelai had the occasional tender moment, he was not her best friend. To characterize him as her "Paris" was re-writing history and badly making up for the fact that Lorelai's real best friend, Sookie, was conspicuously missing from the story. 

When it went well, it went very well: Kirk, Paris, and Taylor all "kept" beautifully over the years. These three, particularly Paris, who was flawlessly played by Liza Weil, were just as charming and intense as I remember. But the reason they worked is because these characters felt familiar to us; they were already caricatures of themselves in the series, and when we met up with them again, they were still those people. The reverse (trying to make Michel, a cartoon, into a suddenly sympathetic character with a backstory, husband, job opportunity, and child on the way), was a failure.  

B. Plots to nowhere 

Several times, we were taken on a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of irrelevant sub-plots that didn't seem to serve the story in any real way, other than to fill time.  

• What is the motivation for people to stand in line?? (Apparently to cram in a lot of cameos and provide the audience with a possible second paternity option for Rory's child!) 

• Will Lorelai and Rory deliver the Star Hollow Gazette in time?! (Breaking: It didn't matter, and they never cared about it again!) 

• Will Luke agree to a surrogate? (Who cares? We just needed a way to get Paris into the script!) 

• When will Luke's diner get franchised? (Never, and that conversation only served as yet another thing Luke and Lorelai weren't sharing with each other!) 

• Is Lorelai going to make it to the Wild trail? (No, and they beat this extended metaphor 'til it was dead as a doornail!) 

• And WHERE THE HELL IS RORY'S UNDERWEAR?! (She actually goes months without it! Not a joke!) 

Of course, the most egregious and painful: The Stars Hollow FREAKIN' Musical. Y'all. 18 minutes (including the debrief after the show) of pure, unnecessary foolishness.  Though the performers were great (Sutton Foster and Christian Borle of Broadway fame), what…and I mean this sincerely…was that? And the additional song at the end of "Summer," where the female singer literally reaches toward Lorelai while singing, "I'm breaking right now?” Come on, Amy Sherman-Palladino. You're better than this. That was precious time to viewers, and it was squandered.

Rory. 

I've read several think pieces about with some pithy title like, "Rory Gilmore Has Always Been Awful," citing the same handful of talking points about some of Rory's not-so-savory moments on the series (the fight with Lorelai, living with Emily and Richard, sex with married Dean, ignorance to her own massive privilege), and claiming that we should've seen her character's demise coming.

But if we're going to play that game, then let's play it.

Lorelai got engaged to her daughter's high school teacher, then broke the news that the engagement was off by bursting into her daughter's room in the middle of the night and announcing that the two of them were going on a road trip. She got engaged to Luke. Broke that off. Married Rory's father on a whim. Divorce. Treated her mother and best friend horribly. 

The point I'm trying to make is that every character we encounter (both fictional and real) has had their fair share of poor choices and triumphant moments. To argue that Rory's behavior in this re-boot solidifies her status as a snooty, selfish, wreck is to overlook both her virtues and similar unpleasant qualities of the other principles. Each of these characters (particularly Emily, Lorelai, Richard, and Rory) has lots of wonderful AND lots of awful traits. That's what makes them interesting, dynamic. 

But the Rory we know would never string a perfectly nice, albeit boring and apparently very forgiving, guy along for an entire year while secretly sleeping with her engaged ex-boyfriend. Not that she hasn't been the subject of an extra-marital affair before – she has. But that affair with Dean was clearly a low point. 32-year-old Rory carelessly cheating with someone who is also cheating just doesn't ring true. 

Our Rory was independent, ambitious, driven, kind, thoughtful, introspective, and sharp as a damn tack. The Rory we got here was aimless, casual, scattered, unreliable, and sometimes downright selfish.

The silver lining here was that we did get a glimpse of the "old" Rory in the second half of "Fall," as she broke it off for good with Logan and passionately wrote the first three chapters of her new book. The bad news is that we had to wait for five hours to see her again. 

Of course, there were winning moments. There were moments that GG fans everywhere gobbled up with total satisfaction and veracity. 

Among them:

• The fact that the characters can finally swear. Emily Gilmore saying "bullshit" and "tits" was such a highlight. 

• Petal the pig. 

• Finally being casually introduced to "Mr. Kim," Lane's perpetually absent father. 

• Callbacks to fan favorites like the basket auction. 

• Michel is finally gay! And Taylor, surprisingly, isn't. 

• Luke feeding Paul Anka the steak and blowing on it in Lorelai's absence. 

• April's marijuana confession. 

• However irresponsible and unrealistic, the Life and Death Brigade sequence.

• Parenthood cameos galore.

• Logan.

• Logan shirtless.

• Dean.

• Jess.

• Rory and Lorelai's standing Jeep ride to her secret nuptials. 

• The song Luke and Lorelai get married to is being the same song that was playing while they shared their first dance: 

My favorite season was "Fall." We got so much in "Fall" that we'd been pining for: Christopher. Dean. Sookie. Colin and Finn. Lorelai's dreamy, town-square wedding (though it did bother me that Emily and Sookie weren't present). Lorelai's reconciliatory (and tear-jerking) phone call with Emily, telling the Richard story she should've told the night of his wake. Rory and Logan's tender goodbye, perfectly acted by Matt Czuchry. 

And Emily. Good God. Emily Gilmore's storyline was easily the most winning, realistic, and triumphant. ASP did a hell of a job writing for the unparalleled Kelly Bishop, who, somehow having not aged a day since the Season 7 finale, delivered a powerhouse performance and got her character the ending she deserved. 

As did Lorelai. How many sighs of relief were breathed throughout the world as Lorelai and Luke FINALLY, FINALLY ended up together? 

In the end, that's what makes Rory's storyline so unsatisfying. Everyone got their ending -- except Rory. Instead, she was handed a meandering, listless arc punctuated by a surprise pregnancy and a mystery father. To think that ASP had this "last four words" ending in mind for the original, 22-year-old Rory is even more disturbing. Sure, I get it: Logan is supposed to be Rory's Christopher; Jess, her Luke. But those stories aren't consistent with any of the people involved. Logan loved Rory deeply and was rejected by her. Jess loved Rory deeply and has an actually life outside of Stars Hollow. And Rory is an Ivy League graduate in her early thirties who...accidentally gets pregnant? Sure, it happens all the time. But not to Rory. 

At its heart, this re-boot isn't all bad. The key, though, is to switch gears when watching it. I was watching it like I used to watch the series - ready to encounter the kookiness, but, ultimately, expecting the majority of each season to be meaningful and compelling. It took me a while to figure out why I had such a hard time enjoying it, but that's the reason: I wanted substance, and I got froth.

Don't expect it to be the series. Expect cotton candy instead. And then, when you're surprised by a little nugget of solid gold storyline, you can be pleased instead of starving for it. 

That way, maybe you can really enjoy this last visit with our Gilmore Girls. 

Thankfulness.

In the dark of my house this early Monday morning, I could write buckets on this subject. 

I am thankful that I have a house at all. Heat. Food. That we can pay our utility bill. Our rent. That we have a car that works. Warm clothes to wear. That our basic hygienic needs are met. But these are material things - the tangible things we can touch or see. 

The things I'm most thankful for aren't. 

I'm so thankful that as I type this, my entire immediate family is snuggled up in my house, warm and asleep. I'm thankful we're so close, we get along so well, and love each other so much. I'm thankful that I get to see my extended family in just 24 hours, and that Thanksgiving is one of the things I look forward to most because of how wonderful 100% of those people are.

 I'm thankful for all six of my grandparents who are living and healthy. I'm so glad I got to be the oldest granddaughter on both sides so that I could watch and learn from these amazing folks. 

I'm thankful for Asheville and all that it's taught us in the 18 or so months that we've lived here. We've learned about independence, about grace, generosity; we've learned about ourselves and each other (and Tom Hanks, of course). 

I'm thankful that, despite the first battle with illness that my family has faced in my lifetime, both my aunts who were struck with breast cancer have not just survived, but thrived. I am so thankful to have been a witness to my Aunt Brandy's warrior spirit, her quiet heroism in the midst of daily routine, continuing to take care of her family while fighting for her life. I'm so thankful she won that fight. 

I'm thankful, despite recent events and responses to those events, that we live in America. By a total flick of chance, we were born in a place that is principally concerned with what we bring to the table that can continue to make things better. For all its flaws, America is a dazzling place. I'm thankful that we have the chance to make it better. 

I'm thankful for my own health, that I am able to walk and jump and run around and have lots of energy to do so. For my husband who is the best part of every day. For my precious friends who are really family. For the best dog in the world. 

I don't know if it's the Christmas lights twinkling or the champagne just going to my head, but I have been especially mindful of all the things to be thankful for in this season of life. They're too many to name. 

And for you. I am so, so thankful for you. I'll write more on this subject on the blog's anniversary in a couple of months (!!!), but for now, just know that writing on this platform is one of the great joys of my life. You reading it - once, a few times, AT ALL - is something that blows my mind every time. Thank you. 

And to the One who holds all these thanksgivings, 

Thank You. 

Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Enjoy your families and loved ones. 

Top 5 Gilmore Girls Characters

Recently, Jimmy Fallon revealed that he'd been marathoning Gilmore Girls for the first time in preparation for the November 25th. 

(By the way NOVEMBER 25TH IS SO CLOSE OMG OMG OMG I'M SO FREAKIN' EXCITED.) 

He ran down his Top 4 characters, excepting the actual Gilmore girls Lorelai and Rory (because, duh). In case you don't have time to watch it, his were 4. Taylor, 3. Luke, 2. Kirk, and 1. Paris. 

Solid list. Solid. He also revealed that he's #teamJess, which is fine, because he isn't even through season 4 yet. Give it time, my son. Give it time. 

SO, I decided I'd do a "5 Things" on this very subject. Along with excluding Lorelai and Rory, I'm also excluding Emily, who is technically a Gilmore girl and would also easily be in my top 5.

 5. Kirk. 

When you think about threads running consistently through the show, Kirk is one of those threads. He's had about 85,000 different jobs in Stars Hollow and is a staple of the kind of off-beat, but overall harmless, eccentricity of that town. Favorite Kirk moments of mine include his weird and creepy "evolution of man" dance at Miss Patty's anniversary show, and Luke and Lorelai's first kiss being interrupted by Kirk streaking down the stairs with night terrors. Not to mention that Sean Gunn, the actor who plays Kirk, is seriously funny and committed to all his physical comedy gags. That guy knows how to play a weirdo really well. 

4. Logan. 

"And that's how we do it at THE DAILY NEWS!" One of my all-time favorite moments in the series. Listen, don't get me wrong - all the boyfriends served their purpose at the time they were supposed to. We just happened to catch Logan in a particularly adult season of his life, so it's not really a fair fight. At this point, Jess had turned out to be a decent person, so I get it. Jess doesn't suck either. But Logan's Logan. Love how he loves Rory. LOVE that he'll be back in the re-boot. For more on why Logan is the best, click here. 

3. Paris. 

Paris has all the qualities of an unredeemable character with one special quality that keeps us from hating her: we are her. Everyone has a little Paris in them - whether it's her totally inflated sense of self, her ruthless ambition, her bossiness, her suspicion that everyone is out to get her, her impatience - on our worst days, we all have one or more of these traits. Which is why it's so satisfying to see a character who is totally, unapologetically herself in every situation. And for all her undesirable moments, she's the only peer who can keep pace with Rory. Favorite Paris moments: her slovenly speech after getting rejected from Harvard, her pitch that "everything looks better in leopard," and her entire relationship with Doyle. 

2. Sookie. 

Of course we can't leave this list without Melissa McCarthy! Who knew that from Sookie St. James, we'd get that character in Bridesmaids? Thank you, Gilmore Girls, for launching this career. Seriously though, Sookie is such a long-suffering friend. And I mean that sincerely - Lorelai tends to be kind of a condescending ass to Sookie. She's so precious and bubbly, and, once again, we have to give some props to Melissa McCarthy for the insane physical comedy chops. Favorite Sookie moments include her date with Jackson's cousin Roon, she and Jackson smuggling bags of weed through the town, and her collaboration with Luke to throw the going away party for Rory. 

1. Richard. 

Why am I crying?!?!?! 

Ugh. Okay. I mean, this would be the case whether or not sweet Edward Herrmann had died. Richard and Emily are my favorite non-Rory and Lorelai characters for many reasons. I think maybe it's because, as the oldest grandchild on both sides, I've gotten to watch my own grandfathers go through a similar evolution to Richard's: initially, not entirely sure how to handle young children/girls again; eventually, softer-hearted than their wives. Richard loves Rory and Lorelai so much that it actually hurts me to watch. Favorite moments include "only prostitutes have two glasses of wine at lunch," his speech to Lorelai in the last episode, him enveloping Rory in a hug when she comes to see him after quitting Yale...basically everything he ever did. 

OH CRAP I FORGOT LUKE. Okay stick Luke in there somewhere. Damn. This is harder than I thought. 

How excited are we, people!? It's almost here. We've been waiting so long and it's SO CLOSE. Just a few more days. 

Us on Black Friday while the rest of the world is shopping: