Side Of Spaghetti: #1
What I watched and ate this week to stay sane and entertained!
Like you dear reader, I am scared of being alive right now. It feels strange to talk about the privilege of getting to indulge in eating delicious food and having the time and ability to relax and watch movies. But I also feel compelled to offer a bit of respite from the viciousness we are privy to for the majority of our waking hours. So if you need a brain break and some inspiration as to what to enjoy in a world that attempts to steal joy from us, this is a weekly diary series of a single woman who loves vegetables, chocolate and action movies.
Monday 3/17- In Season 2, Episode 9 of The Sopranos, titled “From Where To Eternity”, Christopher wakes from a coma and tells Paulie and Tony that he saw hell and “it’s an Irish bar where it’s St. Patrick’s Day forever.” I used to share this vision of the afterlife, but in my advanced age I have come to find something to appreciate about most holidays, because life’s too short to be a hater! There is much to love about Irish culture and many fantastic Irish/ St Paddy’s Day films to watch. I started the day at The Chelsea Piers in Downtown Brooklyn, where I go almost everyday to attempt to manage my stress by twisting, pulling and sweating. I rewatched the first half of No Way Out while on the treadmill. Watching Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman go toe to toe in this neo-noir nineties thriller made the time fly by! I came home and made a deconstructed caesar salad ( rotisserie chicken shoved inside little gem leaves and dunked in leftover homemade caesar from a catering job) and ate it with my hands while standing up and listening to an episode of The Rewatchables podcast about, you guessed it, No Way Out! For dinner I roasted some broccoli, sweet potatoes and red cabbage and ate the veggies with some leftover stewed lentils and a cucumber/ avocado salad with lots of lime and cilantro. In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, I watched The Banshees of Inisherin, one of my favorite Irish films of all time. When it was over I watched the last half of The Fugitive, starting at the part where Harrison escapes at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago and ate two tahini/cocoa stuffed dates that I made and conked out at around 11pm.
Tuesday 3/18- Watched the rest of No Way Out on the treadmill and went to a yoga class after. Came home and smashed a salad with rotisserie chicken, left over roasted veggies and the rest of the cuke/ avo salad thing mixed in. YUM! I have been craving a burger for weeks, and made my fantasy a reality with one of my all time fave burgs at Henry Public. Cheeseburger medium-rare with pickles, ketchup and mustard, and a side of their delicious salad that has almonds, apples and cheddar cheese in it. I ate my burg and read my book, The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner. Incredible food writing, highly recommend. There was a super drunk guy sitting next to me who followed me out and CHASED ME DOWN THE STREET, but two kindly strangers stepped in and I ran to Brooklyn Wine Exchange to decompress by shooting the shit with my friend Thomas and the other lovely people who work there. I haven’t really been drinking but Thomas poured me a splash of the new Susucaru Rosso, and it was very tasty and weird. He gave me a bite of a double chocolate chip cookie from Levain and felt a lot better. Came home, had some raspberries and watched three episodes of The White Lotus. I rarely watch shows because I prefer movies. There are like 5 shows I like ( Soprano’s, Mad Men, Seinfeld, Curb, Larry Sanders, Twin Peaks, Simpsons, a SNL ( mostly for sentimental reasons), Succession, Columbo and Mad About You. More than 5 but you get the gist), but I do like The White Lotus, and I stayed up late to catch the now infamous Sam Rockwell monologue- worth it!
Wednesday 3/19- Had a handful of coconut pumpkin seed granola that I had made over the weekend and headed for the gym. My favorite coffee shop, East One, closed a few weeks ago and I feel lost without it. It was such a special part of my day, and I feel like I am cheating on my dead husband by going elsewhere, but I do not enjoy making coffee at home, so I have been stopping at Octavia on Court Street. OMG what a lovely spot with the nicest owner. This is what being a neighborhood business looks like! Treadmill movie today was Cruising, lol. I feel confident that I am the only person to ever watch Cruising on a treadmill. For dinner I had stewed white beans that were leftover from catering with some frozen Trader Joe’s shrimp and a fat pile or lemony arugula salad. I ate a whole container of raspberries and watched The Firm!
Thursday 3/20- I made home made pistachio milk! I know, I’m insufferable, but I randomly bought pistachio milk when I was sick last week because I didn’t want dairy, and not I am obsessed. But the store bought is criminally expensive and filled with weird oils, so I made my own and started the day with splashing it into some early grey tea with a pinch of salt, allulose which is a natural no calorie sweetener, and cinnamon. So good! Finished Cruising on the treadmill and nearly passed away when a hot guy jumped on the one next to me during one of the racier scenes. But hey, my Mr Right will appreciate the work of William Friedkin as much as I do. I got home and made something embarrassing. I know we are supposed to eat protein for a living now, and cottage cheese is the preferred way to do this, but cottage cheese is like basically the only food I don’t enjoy eating, so I made a “viral recipe” as the kiddos call it- cottage cheese bagels! You mix cottage cheese, flour and baking powder, top with everything bagel spice and bake, and then 30 mins later you have these bagel things and guess what folks……they were pretty freaking good! I met my friend Liz for dinner at Un Table, and it was absolutely amazing as always. We had cucumber gin cocktails, shrimp ceviche, calamari salad, chicken leg green curry and this flank steak thing with greens and crispy shallots. Beyond! Came home and watched a perfect 70’s comedy with Jill Clayburgh, Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristopherson called Semi Tough, about the love lives of two pro football players (Burt and Kris), and their BFF/ roommate played by Jill Clayburgh, who is perhaps the most underrated star of the 1970’s. This is a must watch if you like movies that go down smooth like Shampoo, Foul Play and It’s My Turn.
Friday 3/21- I had an iced coffee at home with my pistachio milk and it made me do a little dance and say “yummmm” to myself out loud! Treadmill movie was True Lies, and my truth is that while this is a fun and entertaining 90’s blockbuster, it sadly does not hold up well in a political sense. It got me through my workout, but I was cringing so much I almost didn’t need to lift weights after. I recipe tested the midnight spaghetti for the Moonstruck newsletter, and also whipped up a batch of soft baked tahini pistachio cookies using the pistachio pulp from. my milk. They were very tasty, but I have some adjustments for my next batch that I will make later this week, tay tuned! I headed to Brooklyn Social for a marg and finished my book, and ate Bjorn Corn for dinner…….don’t tell my mom!
Saturday 3/22- Grabbed a post yoga citrus honey sumac scone from Poppy’s and headed out to Long Island to see my folks and their tiny little toy poodle, Cher. Cher nibbled at my nose and brushed my hair with her paws and all was right with the world. My mom has been dying to take me to this new Persian restaurant in Huntington called Ravagh, and holy moly it was BEYOND! Such a kind and welcoming staff and seriously some of the best Middle Eastern food I have ever had. We had baba ganoush, the best hummus I have yet to try, a brunchy cucumber and tomato salad, freshly baked pita, juicy, flavorful chicken and lamb kebabs and this incredible rice with sour cherries, almonds and saffron. Without traffic, Huntington is an hours drive from the city, and worth a day trip for some great thrifting and eating! I will post a guide soon, but for now, make sure to check this place out if you’re in the area. Came home and watched the first half of the 1990 bad cop/ Richard Gere-aganda/ slap fest drama, Internal Affairs and ate some raspberries.
Sunday 3/23- Took a long walk and grabbed a cappuccino from Octavia and a perfect, flakey croissant from Caputo’s Bakery. If you know me you know that Caputo’s is my religion. Get yourselves here for the best bread and pastries in all of NYC with really great, unfussy vibes. I recipe tested a “healthy” banana bread that I was thinking of making for the next Stress Baking letter, but it was really meh. It was made with GF flour, cottage cheese, maple syrup and blueberries and it was like, okay i guess? But it felt inauthentic to my personality to make something like this. No shade if this is your thing, but I just feel like if I’m going to make banana bread, or any other special treat, I’m going to make it good, otherwise I don’t see the point in making it at all. If I want something light, I’ll make a juice, and if I want banana bread I am going to make it with butter, sugar and lots of chocolate chips. I apologetically pawned the shwaggy bread off on my friends and neighbors and headed to Diner to meet my friend Becky. I hadn’t been to Diner in forever, but I had been telling Becky last week about my burger craving, and so she suggested we go straight to the source. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had already had a burger earlier in the week, so off to Diner we went and tbh it was really good! We had a very garlicky caesar, which prompted a conversation about how we both feel garlic is overrated. The salad was very good and we both like garlic, but I don’t really enjoy how the flavor haunts me like an old victorian ghost for the next 48 hours. I would not wish to live a life without onion, but garlic I could go without, so sue me. Anyway, we also split a burger and it was a delicious as ever with fabulous hand cut french fries. Loved every bite! Came home and watched the last half of Internal Affairs and episode 6 of White Lotus. Guys, my theory is that there is going to be a tsunami that kills most of them. Thoughts?!?
See you next week babearinos, and in the meantime, lmk what you are eating, drinking, watching and feeling!
xoxo,
Z
