My favorite Thanksgiving recipe, hair care routine, and a few cultural treats I'm digging right now.

Whilst you read this, I will be on the East Coast in Montreal and Portland, Maine. Lucky me! Look forward to reading about that in future installments. 😘

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Someone recently told me she hates Thanksgiving because all the traditional dishes are mushy and sweet. What a funny thing to notice! I suppose it’s true that nearly everything on the table could pass for baby food, but that doesn’t bother me, not once a year, anyway. Besides there are lots of modern ways to add crunch and zing to the table. One of my favorites is this recipe for charred green beans with brown butter vinaigrette from Bon Appetit. We’ve made it the last several years and everyone at the table agrees it is a new classic.

Last year’s green beans. The hazelnuts get toasted and tossed with the veggies in a surprisingly acidic brown butter vinaigrette that positively **sings**.

I’ll tell you what I don’t love about Thanksgiving, though: Eating in the middle of the afternoon. Why do we subject ourselves to that? Is there some reason it once made sense? Do we just keep doing it because that’s how we’ve always done it, like the Electoral College? How can we really taste anything when our tummies are full of weird snacks, a cocktail (very likely), and it’s 3pm?

My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is rather ridiculous, and has nothing to do with the spirit of the holiday (though I love that, too): I insist on eating leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast the day after the day. My rabidly sweet-tooth daughter does, too. In fact, when Jake recently tried to negotiate a year of no sugar with her in exchange for money, she cited the annual Pie Breakfast as reason enough not to take the deal.

Several years ago, the local chamber of commerce invited me to speak for five minutes on the history of the Thanksgiving menu to a group of business owners. I took the challenge and really enjoyed researching and delivering it, not least of all because there’s a kicker at the end that makes my little writerly heart swell with pride. (The audience loved it, too. They invited me back last year.) The message is just as important today as it was the first time I gave it. Have a look, if you’re curious.

Things I’m Digging Right Now

• Just watched the movie Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. I’d been meaning to see it since it came out a couple years ago based on an interview she did with Stephen Colbert. Premise: Emma Thomson plays a 60-something retired widow who hires a young sex worker to help her experience greater intimacy. I love Emma to pieces and will see absolutely anything she’s in. In the case of Leo Grande, I’m so glad I did. Yes, there is sex and yes, there is nudity. But there is also so much beautiful dialogue and vulnerability about being a woman—especially a woman in her 60s—that I found myself in tears and/or smiling through most of. I asked one of my besties to watch it too, so we can chat about it. Whether she likes it or not is almost beside the point; it’s an excellent conversation-starter (so long as the person you’re speaking with is comfortable talking about sex and bodies) but do be warned that it’s graphic. No getting around that.

• For our trip to Montreal/Maine, I invested in a set of compression packing cubes. I’d borrowed some from a friend who swore by them when I traveled overseas last spring, and they are a revelation. If you’ve never used them before, picture a suitcase with two zippers around its circumference. First, you zip the roomier one, then you sit on the suitcase to enable the closure of the second one, making it nice and slim. That’s exactly what packing cubes do, just on a smaller scale, so you can fit more stuff into a carry-on bag. As I travel more, I find this works great for me because a) I don’t like minimalist packing and b) I’ve endured more cancellations/delays/switcheroos in the last three years than I did in my previous 43. You want your stuff with you when that happens. The cubes make it possible, though do note: your suitcase will weigh a friggin ton. This delights me, personally.

  

  Be sure to search for “COMPRESSION” packing cubes, like these from Amazon. (Not a sponsor, btw.)

• I discovered this radically fast and easy recipe for Crisp Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter from New York Times Cooking (that’s a gift recipe from me to you!) that my kids mowed through. It only took 20 minutes, is vegetarian for my daughter, filling for everyone else, and even has a vegetable in it. Badabing.

• I mentioned the Electoral College earlier. It’s totally on the brain right now thanks to the beautiful reporting of NPR’s show Throughline. Their episode, “Electoral College” sheds lots and lots of light on what it meant for America’s founders to embrace compromise. It reminded me once again what an experiment we’re all living through. Give it a listen and you’ll understand what I mean.

Hair care: I wish it was more complicated

Someone recently commented on one of my Instagram posts that featured my hair rather prominently, asking what my hair care routine is.

Indeed, my hair is a thing. I feel like it enters the room before I do. Listen, I have lots of problems that I don’t want to inventory here, but hair isn’t one of them. I inherited good hair genes from my mother who inherited good hair genes from both her parents. (They all have problems, too.) For one reason or another I may not always have it, so I like to enjoy it while it’s here.

That being said, my haircare routine is so disappointing for anyone looking to change it up. Before I went for bangs in the fall, I only visited my wonderful hairdresser Lauren Sandoval at Wallflower Salon in San Luis Obispo twice each year: once for a trim, and the other time for a trim and highlights. (Do the math: that’s highlights once a year. This for sure speaks to Lauren’s abilities as a colorist, so there’s no downplaying how important she is to the team.) Now that I have bangs, I get to see her about once a month, but only for 15 minutes at a time.

As for products, I fell in love with Redken’s All Soft shampoo and conditioner years ago and never veered away. It makes my hair so, so soft, which is how I like it. I also usually throw a dab of the Trader Joe’s Hair Serum on before I blow-dry because it smells like a tropical vacation and gives another hit of soft. Soft is what I live for. Have I mentioned that?

I wish I didn’t have to blow-dry, but if I don’t I get a weird scalp buildup that’s itchy, plus my hair lays completely flat against my head. I spend a good 100 hours a year pointing hot air at myself—a daunting number, but I’m grateful for it. Maybe I’ll mention that at the Thanksgiving table this year. 🦃

I’m thankful for you, too, my new newsletter-y friends. See you next time.