Holiday movie reviews ☃️ & the year in cooking [Like You Know Whatever]

Hi friends!

How are you?? I’m simply splendid, as Vanessa Hudgens’ duchess character in The Princess Switch would say (sorry, I just rewatched it last night). As I begin to write this, I am sitting outside our Airbnb in Palm Springs, staring out at the beautiful indigo San Jacinto mountains, palm trees, and a man-made pond full of ducks that used to be part of a golf course but is now a nature preserve. It’s a pretty great view. Twice now, a hummingbird has come up to say hello. I have been eating exceedingly well down here, sleeping like a rock, and unfortunately, watching a lot of sports. I’m down here with my husband and my in-laws, and between the World Cup (for my British father-in-law) and American football (for my American husband), there is no escape from watching overpaid men chasing after their balls. At least, on Thanksgiving, I got to watch the National Dog Show. That was my kind of sports viewing. Very thrilled for Winston, the French bulldog who won, and his overly excited handler. (Even though I am firmly an Adopt, Don’t Shop kind of gal, it’s hard not to squee over cute dogs parading about.)

The next newsletter I send, on December 16, will most likely be my final one for the year, as I will be away on vacation in Mexico with my husband and our dear friend Ben when I would normally send the final one on December 30. For the past couple of years, Ben has been flying out from NYC to visit us in LA during the Christmas holiday, since he’s single and Jewish (ladiesssss) and his family doesn’t do much for Christmas. (Plus, ya know, that whole LA-is-much-warmer-than-NY thing.) This year, we decided that since he has to fly anyway, we should all just meet up somewhere cool for an actual vacation instead of making him sleep on our couch and watch our cat bat ornaments off the tree. Between flights and Airbnbs and everything else it ended up being quite a bit more expensive than that initial equivalency, but we keep telling ourselves, “It’ll be cheap once we get there.”

This is all just a preamble to BEG you for recommendations for Mexico City and Oaxaca de Juárez, please!! I’ve been to Mexico City before, once, in 2017, for four days, and it was fabulous, but it’s such a big, cosmopolitan city that I know there’s plenty of it I haven’t seen yet. And I’ve never been to Oaxaca! Tell me where to eat and what to see and where to get the good mezcal, please!

I know this sounds ridiculous because I have actually done a good amount of traveling this year, but this is the first REAL, week+ long vacation I’ll be taking that does not involve a) seeing family and b) attending a wedding… since the Panda Express, I think? And I am SUPREMELY grateful for all the time off I’ve had this year, and all the long weekends I’ve stolen away, but there really is something different that happens in your brain chemistry when you take a full week or more off and your only obligation is to enjoy yourself. I am super psyched to be squeezing in a real vacation just before the end of 2022.

Next time, we’ll take a look back at my New Year’s resolutions for 2022 and see how I did (spoiler alert: not great!). But this week, I’d like to get into Two Things: my favorite new (to me) recipes of the year, and a review of every holiday movie I’ve watched so far!

*Like You Know Whatever Presents: The Best New Recipes I Made In 2022*

Yep, I went back through every issue of this newsletter I sent this year and went through all the new recipes that I shared to compile a list of the very best. These all deserve a place at your table. Let’s count down now:

#6: Baja-style fish tacos. Early on in the year, I went through a major fish taco phase that I seriously need to revisit. I tried a few different approaches, but this beer battering method is my favorite. The secret is to use a cold Mexican beer and let the batter rest for 15 minutes. Delish!

#5: Country-style sausage gravy. As much as I resent the Pioneer Woman for her annoying voice and secretly 1% blue collar phoniness, she did write the simplest, most reliable recipe for delicious sausage gravy that you can make while still half-asleep. I like to add a pinch of rosemary and garlic powder to zhuzh up the flavor a bit, but that’s all.

#4: Anne Burrell’s meatballs. I only made these a few weeks ago, but I can already tell they’re going to become a staple in my household. These are truly perfect meatballs, so who needs another recipe?

#3: Chicken tikka masala. Sometimes I like to attempt to make certain dishes I’ve been eating in the takeout version for years just to see what makes them tick, and this recipe was a revelation. Unlike the tom kha gai I also made this year, chicken tikka masala is a dish that is 100% worth making from scratch, even if you have delivery options available. It’s another one that I’d love to revisit sooner than later.

#2: Crispy cabbage and cauliflower salad. Smitten Kitchen is probably my favorite recipe blog. Even though I don’t religiously make her recipes, I admire her perfectionism and commitment to the excellent over the good enough. This roasted veggie salad with tahini dressing was my favorite recipe of hers from the past year, and I made it over and over again. One blessing about it is that both cabbage and cauliflower keep forever in the fridge, so it’s worth it to keep them on hand just so you can whip up this recipe whenever the mood strikes. It’s also secretly vegan! I would have made it even more often if it didn’t require turning on the oven—this summer was just so damn hot.

#1: Baked rigatoni with lamb ragu. I have some mixed feelings about putting this in first place, as I only made it once, it took hours, and it wasn’t the simplest recipe nor the most user-friendly ingredient list. Still, I can’t deny that this “fancy baked ziti” was the most delicious dish I’ve made all year. I’m not even a big fan of lamb! It just had that “special occasion” quality to it, despite me making it on an ordinary Friday night. If you are looking for a show stopper to make for Christmas (Eve or Day) or New Year’s (Eve only–New Year’s Day is for ibuprofen and maybe a quiche), this should be a top contender. Barefoot Contessa rarely, rarely misses.

Okay, now let’s get into Every Holiday Movie I’ve Watched So Far This Season! Please don’t judge me for how long this list is. My husband and I got a head start this year and have been watching holiday movies since mid-November, often choosing them on weeknights over our usual episodic TV viewing (I’ve been so behind on The White Lotus!). Here are the Good, the Bad, and the Cheesy-As-Hell:

- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (DVD). This is the 1964 Rankin Bass stop motion animated version that I’m obsessed with. We threw this on during our tree-trimming gathering, and I only really got to watch the first half, because then friends started arriving and we started drinking wine and getting into their latest dating app exploits and before I knew it, the movie was over. But I always forget how funny this movie is, especially Hermey the elf, whose most deeply held secret ambition is to be a dentist. The songs are all pretty lame, but they only last about 90 seconds each, so who cares. I just love stop motion animation, don’t you?

- Four Christmases (HBOMax). I was very excited about the premise of this movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, about a happily unmarried, childfree couple who chooses to go on vacation to somewhere fabulous rather than spend Christmas with their families (sound familiar?). Of course, their flight to Bali gets canceled due to the weather and they end up going to four different houses on Christmas Day to visit with everyone (both sets of their parents are divorced). However, if I may spoil the happy ending for you (and please, skip ahead now if I may not!)... I was disappointed that they do not end up unmarried and childfree at the conclusion! Look, all life choices are great and blah blah blah, but we so rarely get to see stories about fulfilled couples who don’t end up in state-sanctioned domestic bliss with 2.5 dependents! It’s so BORING! Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to write that story myself someday.

- Last Christmas (for rent on Prime Video). Oh, this movie. It started out so promising: Paul Feig directing! Stunning Emilia Clarke and dreamy Henry Golding starring! Supporting work from legendary Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson! And most importantly, based on the perfect Wham! song “Last Christmas,” easily one of the top five Christmas pop songs of all time! But I regret to inform you that this movie has a twist that is one of the dumbest things I’ve experienced in a movie this year (and I watched the Lifetime Original Movie Identity Theft of a Cheerleader, if you’ll recall). It takes the movie’s interpretation of the song from charming to frustratingly literal. It didn’t exactly make me mad that I’d wasted my time watching this movie, but… well, yeah, it kind of did.

- Jingle All The Way (for rent on Prime Video). I don’t have much to say about this 90s classic, which was one of my favorites as a kid (despite the inappropriateness of the weird Santa black market, Arnold getting drunk with a reindeer, and all the “going postal” jokes). I will just say that upon rewatch, Sinbad really shines as a talent in this, and I miss Phil Hartman a lot.

- The Night Before (for rent on Prime Video). This stoner comedy about three best friends annually reuniting on Christmas Eve to party together was like chocolate-covered pretzels: a little sweet, a little salty, a little indulgent, but perfect for Christmas time. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie star, with lots of fun cameos. We see sooo goddamn many holiday movies about family, it was nice to see one that focused on friendship for a change. This definitely falls into the rare but fun “party holiday movies” category, along with A Bad Moms Christmas and Office Christmas Party, both of which I recommend as well.

- Love, Actually (Peacock). Watching this movie is a part of my husband and my tree-trimming tradition (along with ordering way too much Chinese food), so every year, I have to contend with how flawed it is (the fat shaming alone, my God!). This year, we fast-forwarded through the ultra-cringey Laura Linney and Andrew Lincoln plotlines–but we never, ever skip Emma Thompson’s scenes, even though they always make us tear up.

- The Family Stone (for rent on Prime Video). I remember not liking this movie when it first came out, but a couple years ago, there was a very vocal group of smart women on Twitter who said it was their favorite holiday movie, so I revisited it. It’s not a perfect movie by any means (the charades scene and the dinner scene give me the worst secondhand feelings of cringe and ugh, not to mention the weirdly normalized sibling/partner swapping), but there’s something about it that I keep going back to. Maybe it’s the messiness of the family dynamic and the challenges life has thrown their way. Or maybe I just like Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel McAdams. It always makes me want to make a strata with mushrooms for Christmas morning, though, which I did do one year (I recommend it!). I didn’t drop it on the floor, though.

- Happiest Season (Hulu). I remember this “lesbian Christmas movie” coming out (haaaa) to mixed reviews in 2020, but at my house, it has definitely made its way into our regular holiday movie rotation. Of course, the biggest problem with this movie is that you have to watch the main character being treated poorly by her girlfriend for most of the film. And honestly, the girlfriend just kind of seems like a bad person??? But I find it has a lot of laughs, and all the performances are great, and it’s overall a breath of fresh air in the holiday movie department.

- Christmas Wedding Planner (Netflix). Now, for the trash! The next movies on this list are all made-for-Netflix movies, so, you know, the quality is questionable. But sometimes, watching a shitty, made-for-TV-or-streaming holiday movie has its charms, no? This movie, unfortunately, was a weird one. I don’t know why the concept of a Christmas wedding comes up so often in these kinds of movies, because I have never in my life heard of someone having a Christmas-themed wedding. It sounds beautiful in theory, or, like, as a photo shoot for a bridal magazine, but logistically, what a nightmare! I’ve heard of New Year’s Eve weddings, but never Christmas. But I digress. This movie is about a woman who is trying to launch her wedding planning business by planning her cousin’s Christmas wedding, but a private investigator (lol) keeps getting in her way. It’s based on a Harlequin romance book, so you know it’s going to be cheesy. The best part was Joey Fatone playing a restaurant owner, and that’s not saying much. I would skip this one if I were you.

- Christmas With You (Netflix). Okay, now this one actually wasn’t bad! Freddie Prinze Jr. costars in this story about a Jennifer Lopez-ish Latinx crossover pop star who is in desperate need of a Christmas hit to break through the Christmas Hot 100, because that’s totally a real thing. She finds inspiration in FPJ’s small town music teacher and also gets involved in choreographing his daughter’s quinceañera’s baile sorpresa. It was cute! And I actually thought that the new Christmas song they come up with wasn’t half bad. 

- The Noel Diary (Netflix). The first thing to note about this movie is that it is technically part of the Selling Sunset cinematic universe, since Chrishell’s ex, Justin Hartley, is the star. It’s definitely not a bad movie as far as these things go, but I found it to be very melancholy for my taste, concerned more with grief and complicated family stuff than building a romance. There IS a romance, don’t get me wrong, but there’s also a guy cleaning out his estranged, recently deceased hoarder mom’s house. Kind of a boner killer, if you ask me. But there’s also a cute dog, so ymmv.

- The Princess Switch (Netflix). So stupidly wonderful. If you can suspend your disbelief (and suspend it again… and again…), you’ll love this one.

Okay, that’s all of them for now! Phew! I told you it was a long list.

And that brings us to the end of this week’s newsletter! I hope you enjoyed. Next time, we’ll get into more of 2022’s wins and failures, favorites and least favorites.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and share this newsletter if you want–you can use the buttons at the bottom or the top.

Until next time—have a holly jolly.

Love,

Liz

XOXO