Hi friends!

How the heck are ya? It’s been ages (okay, about a month) since my last newsletter. Thanks for allowing me that time off, I really needed it! I hope you had lovely holidays and are doing okay during the US’s rapid descent into fascist, imperialist nightmare. Why is it that every new year under Trump has to start with some horrific bullshit? Jesus effing Christ. Well, I guess I will… somehow put that aside for now? Otherwise, I will just be screaming, “What the fuck is wrong with people?!” for this entire newsletter.

Our friend from NYC who often spends the holidays with me and my husband came out to stay for a week, and he brought us a dozen BAGELS!! Unfortunately, it rained very heavily in L.A. over both Christmas and New Year’s. We drove out to Solvang and stayed for one night on Christmas Eve Eve, but it poured the whole time. Solvang is this charming little Danish village about two hours north of L.A., there are tons of wine tasting rooms and bakeries, but did I get to live out my best Danish fantasy of drinking wine in the sun next to a windmill? Um, no, but I sure did trip and fall in a puddle on the way to brunch! And the drive back home on Christmas Eve was sort of terrifying. We drove through the mountains and next to the ocean in wind and pouring rain. It would have been a vibe if I didn’t have anxiety.

I ended up making lasagna bolognese for Christmas dinner, as has been my tradition for the past few years, but to make things easier this year so I didn’t have to cook all day, I served it with an appetizer of frozen pigs in a blanket (hat tip Anthony Bourdain), a bagged Caesar salad, and homemade garlic bread. Our friend made chocolate chip cookies and a fruit torte for dessert. It was a lovely meal, and we were all stuffed.

So, what did we do in the rain? Well, we actually went and hit a bunch of balls at Topgolf, where I had been just the week before for my company’s end-of-year Fun Day. I was a little embarrassed to admit that despite having worked on a golf-focused project for the past six months, I actually have never hit a golf ball before in my life outside of mini-golf. You know what? I did better than I thought I would! I was very middle of the pack, which for me basically means I’m a prodigy. (Um, can you be almost 40 and still be considered a prodigy?)

We also celebrated my husband Ross’s birthday by doing KBBQ and an escape room where the objective was to find a little old lady’s beloved missing cat. I thought that was a really creative and cute story for an escape room, and of course, it was very on-brand for my cat-loving husband. (We did, in fact, find Whiskers in the end.)

We also played a bunch of Catan, sometimes with the Seafarers expansion, until one night we left the board out on the table without cleaning it up when we went to bed and my cat knocked a whole bunch of pieces all over, and we still haven’t found a few settlements. Honestly? Totally on us. Zadie’s gonna Zadie, we should have known better. We also played a few games of Terraforming Mars, a board game that our friend bought for us last year that I honestly hated the first few times we played, but that Ross and I have gotten addicted to since. We’ve actually both purchased it on Steam so we can play each other on our computers where everything is automated.

I also watched all of Heated Rivalry over the past few weeks. More thoughts on that series, the book, and my recs for what you should read next if you liked it later on. But first, let’s get into some things:

- Cooking. Since the last few newsletters were my Best of the Year series, I haven’t gotten to write about what I’ve been cooking in a minute! Ages ago, I made this creamy white chicken chili, which honestly would make a pretty great snow day meal, if you live somewhere with snow. It was delicious, and that recipe also has a slow cooker option, too, if you’re into that. I served it with store-bought cornbread that was way too sweet and much less tasty than the chili.

Then, I tried a new Smitten Kitchen recipe for these crunchy brown butter baked carrots. I think I served them with some air fryer chicken breasts and Stovetop stuffing (which slaps, btw). Since the carrots were kind of labor-intensive, I wanted the rest of the meal to be relatively easy. The verdict? The carrots were just okay. It was pretty disappointing, considering how many steps and how much butter is involved in that recipe. I also thought the inclusion of cheese was a weird choice. I don’t know man, cheese with carrots? Not for me. Not a total miss, but a very rare SK “meh.”

The rest of my cooking has mostly been repeats. I made the creamy tortellini soup and buffalo chicken dip sliders that were featured in my Best Recipes of 2025. Both are still great. I tragically overcooked some steaks on New Year’s Eve because I was afraid of them being too rare, but I course-corrected a few days later with the rest of the steaks in that package. When it comes to cooking meat or fish medium rare, you just have to have the balls to pull them off the heat sooner than you think. Otherwise, you’re fucked. And protein is too expensive these days to fuck up like that.

What did you cook over the holidays? Anything special?

- Pluribus (Apple TV). Over the holiday break, we watched the entire first season of this sci-fi show from Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I really enjoyed it! I love what a difficult character Carol is. Some people think the show is slow, but I thought it was really compelling. Every episode ended on a cliffhanger, we could not stop watching it. I’ve since been perusing the show’s Reddit page, and man, the people on there are stupid! I’m sorry to say it! SPOILER ahead, be warned. But it feels like every day, there’s a new post saying something like, “I used to be on the hive mind’s side until this happened [insert late season moment].” Excuse me, what?? You mean you were on the side of the alien virus that takes over people’s minds without their consent? Dude. I don’t think that’s the journey we’re meant to take.

- The Traitors, season four (Peacock). I have to be honest, I am not crazy about the cast this season. It feels like they are moving away from the “gamers,” former contestants on strategy shows like Survivor and Big Brother, in favor of… I don’t know, drama? I’m not fully caught up on all episodes, but allow me to say: I have never been a fan of Michel Rapaport. Politics aside, he’s an obnoxious loudmouth who sucks all the energy out of a room. Colton is not my favorite person either… I’m glad he’s living his life more authentically these days, but I remember when he was stalking and harassing Cassie so much she had to take out a restraining order against him. I also was not personally ready for Lisa Rinna to be back on my TV. I’m sorry!! She just has this desperation to be on camera that will make her do anything, as we saw when she was on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and I don’t think that makes a very good player on this game. And I have nothing against Mama Kelce, but I find it kind of hilarious that the other players fear the wrath of the Swifties if they “kill” or vote her off the show.

I love Ron Funches and Monét X Change, though, and I’m glad Dorinda got another chance to actually play the game. I love Kristen Kish on Top Chef, but I don’t know about her playing this game. I actually think Rob Rausch from Love Island is going to be a great player. He’s just the sort of two-faced backstabber who could make this season exciting.

- Heated Rivalry (HBO Max). As a prolific reader of both hockey romance and M/M romance, I have to say, never in my life did I expect the TV and film industry to ever actually adapt an M/M hockey romance novel. So, it was a delightful surprise when Heated Rivalry was released as a limited series! Some light SPOILERS ahead for both the book and the series, so be warned! I don’t talk about the ending or anything beyond the first episode/chapter, but if you like going in totally cold, maybe come back to this section later.

I read the book last summer, and honestly, at first, I had a hard time getting into it. I actually read a couple chapters and then put it down for a few months before finally picking it up and finishing it. I think the problem for me was that in this story of enemies-with-benefits, there is no will-they or won’t-they, at least as far as sexual tension goes–they fuck in the first chapter. There are certain romance novels where it feels like the story is a thin excuse for a series of graphic sex scenes, and Heated Rivalry felt like that to me at first. But the book improves considerably as it goes on, and dare I say, it’s actually kind of a slow burn romance, as far as the falling in love part goes. Once it got to the more yearning-y parts, I was hooked.

The TV series, a low-budget Canadian adaptation, also felt to me like pure smut at first, almost softcore porn. I am so serious when I say, please don’t watch this show with anyone who you wouldn’t be comfortable being in the room with as two guys blow each other on screen. There’s no male (or female) frontal nudity, but that’s about the only hard line. But again, similar to the book, the series really gets better as it goes on. Episode three, a bottle episode about another couple, is a real treat. I thought that was a smart choice and very well-placed in the season. I also thought it was a smart move, in the TV series, to present the story in chronological order, as opposed to how it’s done in the book, which starts in the middle of the story and then goes back to the beginning.

I am also so, so impressed with the acting in this series, especially the two leads, who were relative unknowns before this. I know this is going to sound weird to say about such a smutty show, but I think they both achieved a real subtlety in their performances. These roles demanded a LOT of both of them: fuckin’ ICE SKATING, just to start with!! Tons of vulnerability and on-screen intimacy. And of course, Connor Storrie learned fucking RUSSIAN for this role! And not just a few phrases, either, dude delivers some seriously emotional scenes and monologues entirely in Russian. And he’s not Russian at all, he’s from Texas! Incredible.

The soundtrack is also a banger. I know everyone has been talking about the t.A.T.u. of it all, but for me it was that montage to “My Moon My Man.” 

Now that there’s a second season coming, I have the sequel loaded up on my Kindle. I’ll let you know how it is! In the meantime, if you’re looking for more enemies-to-lovers, more smut, more hockey, and more M/M romance, well, I have recs…

What to read next if you loved Heated Rivalry

- Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. This was the first M/M hockey romance book I read, and it’s still one of my favorites. There’s just something about Jamie and Wes that gets to me. They’re just so hopelessly in love! If you liked Heated Rivalry, this is a similar mix of romance and smut. Former childhood best friends who had a falling out reunite when they’re counselors and roommates at a kids’ hockey camp over the summer, and sparks fly. I think I actually listened to this on audiobook the first time, which is a good option, too. Tropes include friends-to-lovers, bi awakening, and low angst, but lots of feelings.

- Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen. Sarina Bowen writes a lot of straight hockey romance that’s set in college, and those are great, too, but the one M/M romance in her “Ivy Years” series is a special one. Graham and Rikker were once childhood friends-to-something more, but their reunion years later on a college hockey team is angsty AF when Graham is still heavily in the closet, and Rikker isn’t. Somehow, though, they’re just drawn together, and as they rekindle their friendship, feelings grow… or maybe they never went anywhere to begin with? Medium angst, lots of yearning, five stars.

- Want Me by Neve Wilder. Listen, if you just want some absolutely filthy M/M smut where they fuck first and feelings come later, you want Neve Wilder. Her “Extracurricular Activities” series takes place at a college and is an 11 out of 10 on the steam scale, and I don’t think there’s any hockey in any of them, but maybe, I suspect, it’s not really about the hockey for you? Want Me is the first in the series, and probably the best one, although I enjoyed them all.

- Rule Breaker by Lily Morton. If you’re looking more for the enemies-to-lovers aspect of Heated Rivalry, you might like this British M/M romance about an asshole lawyer and the assistant who has been mentally plotting his death. Forced proximity leads to sparks flying, and maybe he’s not such an asshole after all? There’s a slight age gap and a workplace romance, none of which are things I really go for, but it works for me here, mostly because Lily Morton’s dialogue is so fucking WITTY. I keep coming back to her books because they’re so damn funny. Low angst, more of a romantic comedy. Like a British, gay version of The Hating Game.

- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. I went back and forth on including an M/F romance on this list, but if you’re down for that, Icebreaker is a very smutty enemies-to-lovers romance between a hockey player and an ice skater that might scratch the same itch as Heated Rivalry. This book is ridiculously long and content warning, there’s some eating disorder/verbal abuse stuff going on (not between the main couple of course). But mostly it’s them banging. It’s also a New York Times bestseller, so if I had to put money on the next hockey romance that would get adapted into a low-budget Canadian series on Crave, this would be it (although… probably not, lol).

And that’s it for now! Hopefully that’s enough to tide you over until season two!

And that brings us to the end of this week’s newsletter! I will be resuming my normal every-two-weeks schedule after this.

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page. This post is public, so feel free to share it on social media, or forward it to a friend.

Until next time—happy reading!

Love,

Liz

XOXO