Fall cooking round-up 🍁 & RHOSLC

Hi friends!

How are you?? I’m doing well! It actually rained in Los Angeles this week, and I mean, RAINED, an almost all-day-long downpour. Since then, it’s been on the cooler side (50s/60s F/10-20 C), which has been lovely. I pulled out a sweater and my flannel pajama pants! It’s almost time for my cat’s great love, the space heater, to return!

I hope you all enjoyed my last post about my European travels! Check that out if you want to hear me gush about European art for 3,000 words or so.

It was my birthday this past Monday! I had the day off from work for Indigenous People’s Day, and I wanted to go see this exhibit at the Autry Museum about Indigenous art and fashion, but sadly realized that the museum is closed on Mondays. I’ll have to go some other time. I didn’t have a party for my birthday this year, I just kind of wanted to keep it low-key. Ross and I had a delicious dinner at Wildcrust on Sunday night to celebrate. We got a margherita pizza, Caesar salad, the honeynut squash dish, and a side of buttery Bub and Grandma’s sourdough. Oh, yeah, and tiramisu for dessert. Then, on Monday, I cooked dinner (more on that later), and Ross got me a cheesecake from Porto’s, as I requested, and some potato balls, which I didn’t request, but we always get when we pick up a cake there. On top of that, work sent me four Magnolia cupcakes, so I have been pigging out!

Next year is a milestone birthday for me (4-0), and also my 10th wedding anniversary, and I’ll be honest, I just have no idea how we’re going to celebrate! I was thinking we would take an epic trip somewhere, but Japan was my bucket list trip, and we already did that. I used to think we might go back to Hawaii, where we honeymooned, but we were just there over Thanksgiving last year. So, where are we supposed to go to top those trips? Space?!*

*Side note: everyone was making fun of Mariah Carey for asking “where’d she go?” after that guy already told her Katy Perry went to space, but I totally understand what she meant. Like, did she go to the moon? The international space station? Where’d she go? I got you, Mariah.

Sorry, I realize these are heinously privileged problems!! And there are sooo many places I haven’t been yet that I want to visit. Literal, continents full of places I haven’t been. I guess we’ll just have to pick one and go.

Speaking of milestones, the end of September marked 10 years of me living in Los Angeles, which is crazy. I still sometimes feel like a New Yorker cosplaying as an Angelino, even though I’ve now lived here twice as long as I ever lived in Brooklyn. This city certainly has its problems, but what great city doesn’t? The truth is, I love living here. It’s a pain in the ass to be so far away from family, but I’m addicted to the sunshine. I love the mountains and the desert and the ocean and the Pasadena parrots. I even love the stupid dying palm trees. I love that it’s a city with so much lore. And I love how colorful the buildings are here. You go to some other cities and you never see a pale pink or avocado green or golden yellow bungalow. How sad for them!! Life isn’t meant to be that serious, dummy, paint your house pink!

Let’s get into some things:

- The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, season six (Peacock, Bravo). Two weeks ago, I had the unique pleasure of catching up on RHOSLC while actually physically being in Salt Lake City when our travel home from Amsterdam included a layover at the SLC airport. If you’re thinking that it makes no sense to have a layover in Utah between Amsterdam and Los Angeles, you are correct! But we traveled Comfort+ paid entirely with our Delta miles, so we had to take what we could get. I find that sometimes when you pay in miles, you don’t get the best choice in flights. At least it was only a two hour layover. And I got to look out at the mountains (and the Mormons) while watching RHOSLC on my tablet! Talk about an immersive experience!

Anyway, this season has been bonkers so far. I love and fear these deranged women. I used to really like Heather, but then Bronwyn joined, and Heather has been such a bitch to her for no reason. It really rubs me the wrong way. I think Heather thinks she’s the voice of the people on the show, but it’s like, lady, you own a medspa empire, you are not the grounded everywoman you think you are.

In contrast, Lisa Barlow is her usual horrendous name dropper self, although honestly, it’s kind of comical. To say that she’s partying with Steve Carrell because she planned an afterparty for his movie premiere is hilarious. By that logic, I guess I could say I once hung out with Weird Al, because we both attended a screening of his biopic that my former employer hosted! I also once had dinner with Stanley Tucci, because we were both at Majordōmo at the same time (even though I went to the bathroom at the wrong time and was the only one at my table who missed seeing him)! Wow! Who knew that sheer physical proximity counted, as far as celebrity connections go?

Speaking of RHOSLC, you have to check out the new Us Weekly cover story about the cast that my friend Eliza Thompson wrote, with an incredible photo shoot that references the infamous drama-filled photo shoot with the Desperate Housewives cast. Putting Lisa in red like Teri Hatcher was just perfection. Bravo!

I also just want to say: this franchise is so FUNNY. There’s a lot of comedy in each episode week to week. I don’t want to give it away, but there is a comment Mary makes about a horse at the end of this week’s episode that had me laughing so loud I think I disturbed the neighbors. I love this show.

- The Devil’s Plan, season two (Netflix). This is a hot take according to Reddit, but I think this season of The Devil’s Plan was even better than the first season! If you’re unfamiliar, The Devil’s Plan is a strategy and mental skill based Korean reality competition show where contestants play a series of elimination games. If you are a fan of board games, card games, math, and/or the strategy and alliance building elements of Survivor, I think you would really enjoy this! I realize it’s a hard sell because it’s dubbed and episodes are like 90 minutes long, but you get sucked in and they fly by, trust me.

I loved season one, but I liked the games they played better this season, and I found this cast more interesting. I found myself really rooting for Justin Min, and then I was like, wait, is this what patriotism feels like?! (Justin is the only Korean American contestant.) But I like how mischievous he is! I also enjoyed 7High’s hot-headedness, Eun-yoo’s determination, and Ji-young’s nerves of steel. I didn’t care for Hyun-gyu’s lying and scheming, although as villains go, he was pretty mild compared to villains on American reality shows. But one thing: do we really believe the people in “prison” only got bread to eat for dinner? I feel like they must have had some secret crafty, too. If this was an American show, they would definitely be secretly feeding them to avoid a lawsuit.

- Love Is Blind, season nine (Netflix). This current season came out when I was traveling back from Europe, and I’ve been trying to catch up on it ever since. I’m about halfway through now, and to use some Gen Z slang, I think this show is cooked. The people who go on this show now are so determined to stay on TV for as long as possible to build their Instagram followings that they’re just brute-forcing getting engaged, even if it makes no sense whatsoever for them. It’s so clear to me from the fact that on this season, there are multiple men who seem to have back-up plans (that they execute on!!!) when their first choice ladies don't work out. That just seems kind of ridiculous to me. I wonder if it’s a strategy to stay on the show, to date multiple people for as long as possible?

This season takes place in Denver, and somehow all of the women are stunningly beautiful and all of the men just look like A Guy. All the men have big Coworker At An Office Job Energy, which makes them kind of indistinguishable from each other. I remember one conversation that had me seeing red was when a woman brought up the question of what would you do if your child came out to you as being “part of the LGBTQ+ community,” and the couple both agreed it “wouldn’t be [their] first choice,” that their kid should “know what they’re getting into,” and maybe LGBTQ+ is a “fad??” Oh, that made me so mad!!! If you are not going to accept your child no matter who they turn out to be, don’t have kids. I’m so serious!! Children don’t deserve to have shitty parents like you! (Of course, since all these men look the same, I’m not even sure who was having this conversation, LOL.)

I’m so curious, for those of you who live in Denver and have watched this season, is this indicative of what dating in Denver is like?? Let us know in the comments! Thanks!

- Cooking & baking. After getting back from vacation and getting over my jet lag, the first thing I wanted to do was cook a homemade meal! (I don’t cook when I’m super jet lagged because I’m afraid I’m going to chop off a finger.) I have been getting pretty heavily into squash & root vegetable season lately, ngl!! First, I made pumpkin bread with a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. That recipe includes chocolate chips, but I substituted them with chopped walnuts instead. Honestly? Go for the chocolate chips. I was trying to bring down the sugar content, but the loaf ended up feeling just a hair too heavily spiced for me. I think some chocolate would have cut through that in a lovely way. We still ate all of it, though! It was super moist, which, it fucking should’ve been, it had pumpkin, two eggs, and a half cup of vegetable oil in it.

Then, I made this pasta dish with butternut squash and orecchiette. I left out the kale because mine had wilted in my fridge in record time 😡, and added some sage sausage for protein. I’m still not sure how I feel about this recipe. I think ultimately, for me, it was a bit too much work for the result. You would think, with all these different steps, that you would be building some complex flavors in the sauce, but it turned out just kind of plain. Ross liked it, though.

On my birthday, I decided to make butternut squash mac n cheese, basically using my mom’s classic mac n cheese recipe and adding roasted butternut squash puree to the bechamel after I stirred the cheese into it. At which point I guess it was technically a Mornay sauce? I always forget what bechamel + cheese is called, I had to Google it just now. I also added some chopped onion, a little garlic, and some fresh sage and rosemary. It was quite tasty! You might think it’s weird to cook on my own birthday, but it’s something I really enjoy doing, and like 90% of the time, I’m happy with the result.

Finally, since we last spoke, I also made these sweet potato and chorizo enchiladas that are a year-round staple in my house, but felt seasonally appropriate for celebrating fall, too. Oh, and I made my chicken broccoli and wild rice casserole, too, another cozy season favorite. I’m sure I’ll get sick of cold weather vegetables eventually, as I always do, but right now I’m very into the fall cooking vibes.

- ColourPop x Shrek Beware Ogre Eyeshadow Palette ($25). First, let me say that I’m not a big Shrekhead or anything–nothing against it, it’s a fun movie, I just wouldn’t put it in my top 10. But I bought this eyeshadow palette because I loved the color story. Those grungy greens and toasty neutrals looked like such an appealing fall color scheme. I’m happy to report that it has exceeded my expectations! The mattes blend like a dream, and the shimmers are gorgeous and easy to apply. Honestly, the quality of these formulas makes them feel much more expensive than they are. They remind me of Natasha Denona’s shadows, which, for comparison, she is now charging $82 for a similarly sized palette. I’m obsessed with the shade “Sir Knight,” which is a cool gold, maybe duochrome (I can’t decide) with a pale green/turquoise flip. It’s so special!! If these colors appeal to you, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with this one!

Alright folks, that’s about it for now!

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Until next time—it’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers!

Love,

Liz

XOXO