Friendmendations 10.7.19

Hello, and thank you to everyone who’s said something nice about my Britney Spears piece! I appreciate you all.

On the topic of appreciating, thank you all for subscribing to this thing. I’m feeling really grateful this week that people find it worth reading. Okay! Emotion time is over!

A podcast to save for a rainy day

A few years ago I was going through a depressive episode and wanted to shut out the world with something nice. That qualification eliminated all of my podcasts that revolved around current events or true crime, and I found that a lot of the comedy podcasts I liked could veer into dark humor, bickering among the hosts, or something else that would rankle me. I ended up finding and loving Our Debut Album, a goofy podcast wherein two good-natured Canadian comedians earnestly attempt to compose real songs in an hour’s time each episode, to hilarious results. There are only 12 episodes (though the duo have been podcasting for years on their main show, Stop Podcasting Yourself) and I ended up listening to them all again the last time I needed a little boost of joy.

*banging my fists on the table* FALL! FOODS! FALL! FOODS!

My quest to be the coziest lil’ bitch in the Tristate Area continues apace. This week I made this very simple, extremely delicious pumpkin soup. It’s perfect comfort food and came together really quickly. I also made this tortellini in pumpkin sage butter, although the recipe is confusing because it calls for 1/2 a cup of parmesan but only instructs you to toss in half of it. What do you do with the other half? I figured I should toss it in too, and I figured wrong, because I think the cheese overpowered the nice sweet pumpkin. Please learn from my mistakes and don’t fly too close to the sun. Just add 1/4 cup of parmesan. In other pumpkin news, I’ve been making homemade pumpkin spice lattes with this recipe, though now that I have leftover heavy cream to use up from my pumpkin soup, I’m switching to this pumpkin spice creamer for regular coffee instead. I plan on making this copycat version of the Williams-Sonoma spiced pecan pumpkin bread because I live in New York and can’t be bothered to trek to a Williams-Sonoma to pay like $25 for a bread mix. If you can be bothered to trek to a Williams-Sonoma, though, you should definitely pick up a jar of their Muirhead pecan pumpkin butter to make these pumpkin butter bars, which are enormous crowd-pleasers and very easy to make since they start off with a box cake mix.

If you don’t like pumpkin foods, you can go FUCK yourself! Nah, just kidding. Might I suggest this apple cake with brown sugar frosting as a non-pumpkin fall alternative? I once made cupcakes from this recipe for a going-away party for a friend moving to Canada and subbed maple syrup in the frosting (because she was leaving the Big Apple for Canada, so apples and maple, get it?) and the combo was extremely good. So follow your bliss on the flavors there, but either way you’re gonna have a good time.

RIP The Toast

All the baking I’ve been doing has reminded me of this classic Toast piece, “All the Comments on Every Recipe Blog.” I genuinely think of it every single time I pull up a recipe online, which is constantly.

“a warning that if you cook this at 275°F for three hours instead of at 400°F for twenty-five minutes its completely ruined. do you have any suggestions?”

On the topic, “A Day in the Life of a Brooding Romantic Hero” is one of my all-time favorites of anything published on the Toast, almost entirely because of the phrase “cravats of wrongdoing.”

Products for your head

THIS SHAMPOO IS EXCELLENT. My hair is wavy, but this magic shampoo gives it SO much volume and actual curl. It has coconut flakes in it, which is a little strange, so you have to work it through thoroughly to make sure stray coconut flakes don’t end up in your hair. But the result will be shiny and curly and lovely. I’ve used this with Bumble and bumble’s BB Curl Defining Creme and turned into that girl on Peanuts who never shuts up about her naturally curly hair.

If you have straight hair and feel like you’re missing out on content here, I can suggest two other Lush hair products to make you feel better. Both the Fairly Traded Honey shampoo and my go-to conditioner, Happy Happy Joy Joy, smell amazing in a really luxurious way. You know what I mean? They smell expensive and sophisticated, like they belong in a really lovely hotel in a forest somewhere.

Watch this IMMEDIATELY

It has come to my attention that some people have not seen The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo. If you are among those people, I implore you to make this your top priority. This 5-episode series is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in years and has spawned an endlessly applicable meme, so you really owe it to yourself to allow it into your life.

Okay, ciao until Wednesday! Until then, here is a tweet.