May Musings 2022

How is it June? Halloween is practically tomorrow. Here’s what went down last month!

• The best tweets of May can be found over here and here.

• I wrote an essay about my hated for the Kard***ian family.

• Nathan’s show Trapped got reviewed in The Globe and Mail!

• I visited the insanely disappointing part two of the costume exhibit at The Met.

• I also revisited part one of that same exhibit because new pieces were added and they are spectacular. (And quick note: there’s no rooftop exhibit at The Met this summer! I emailed them to see why and they told me that it “has been delayed per the artist’s request“ which is complete bullshit! If the artist couldn’t make it work for this year, why the hell didn’t they commission someone else to fill the space for this year? The fuck?)

• I read and reviewed Christopher Reeve’s memoir.

• I never use face cream, but the texture of my face was weirdly rough for about a week so I lathered on the belief aqua bomb cream each night and it smoothed me right out back to normal within two days. It also works really well on elbows if ashiness is ever a concern for you.

• So intensely in love with these new shorts I got from Banana Republic Factory.

• I made this tomato, zucchini, caramelized onion & feta tart with puff pastry that was too, too good.

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• I made these flourless chocolate brownie cookies and they were truly disgusting.

• I’ve tried many foot masks, but this Holler and Glow one from Target is my absolute favourite. It’s even better than that baby foot mask everyone loved a few years back.

• Went to Bar Crudo in Brooklyn and it was incredible. The crab cakes were perfect, everything we ordered was phenomenal (except the ricotta toast). Have to go back.

• I’ve been making individual iced teas each day and this month solely consisted of the Trader Joe’s pomegranate white tea. It’s so fruity, but not at all too sweet.

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• Two new discoveries! I have a moderate dairy allergy and a possible pollen allergy! Sweet! This is what your late thirties looks like I guess?

• I tried a sample of the silk peony eye cream (eyes are rolling at that name) from Tatcha and it yes it was good. But no it should not be $62. All creams should be max $20 and that’s even pushing it a bit.

• Links I’m Loving:

  • If you’re still spring cleaning, this is such a great guide.

  • These sandwiches look so wildly good. Can I please just be invited to this woman’s house.

  • The best SNL sketch of the season. (It’s called Old Enough! Longterm Boyfriends if you need to search for it in Canada.)

  • I badly want to make these chocolate toffee cookies (below).

• Things I Watched:

  • I’m in the middle of a rewatch of Friday Night Lights (Hulu), it’s not as good as it was the first time around but Riggins can still get it.

  • Also rewatching Undeclared (YouTube!) and it’s as good as I remembered it.

  • Our Father (Netflix) was pure chaos. It’s so disturbing and awful, I kind of want to tell you not to even watch it? It’s not worth it. Awful people who get away with doing awful things is such a weird thing to recommend to watch.

  • Inventing Anna (Netflix) was irritatingly bad. A lot of the acting was terrible, the scripts were awful. Why on earth was this longer than a 90 minute made-for-TV movie? This is one of those times the Wikipedia page is more interesting than the final product.

  • The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (Netflix) was, again, hard to watch. I’ve seen dozens of movies about this woman and every new thing I learn about her is more depressing than the last. God, the Kennedys were awful people.

  • St. Elmo’s Fire (Hulu) was terrible! I’d never seen it before but UGH. There are so many good people in it, I had such high hopes. Not one likable character in a cast of what seemed to be fifty people. Also, I know it was the ‘80s but no friend would ever put another friend’s head in a toilet, it just wouldn’t happen. Terrible script.

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (theatres) was good! There were definitely parts that were a smidge too corny, but as a whole it was really good.

  • Flamingo Kid (streamed online) is such a good summer movie, I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before. It’s light and low maintenance and a young Matt Dillon is very pleasant to look at.

  • Big Night (streamed online) was so good. I’ve wanted to see it forever because of how food centric it is and it was perfect.

  • Top Gun: Maverick (theatres) was actually really good. Even I surprise myself sometimes. Love Tom Cruise. LOVE that he insisted on little to no CGI.

• It’s amazing that spring garlic is still in season, I’m begging you to find some.

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The main thing I’m looking forward to this month: I’m going on my big postponed-from-2020 trip! I’ll definitely be posting about it on my Instagram stories and (and highlights section) if you have any interest in seeing what I get up to. I could tell you some of the things planned, but where’s the fun in that?

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in April over here.

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Taste: My Life Through Food By Stanley Tucci - A Review

Truly, what a great book. There are only a handful of books I’ve read in a day (Animal Farm, The Bell Jar, White Noise, Mr. Vertigo) and now I get to add this great one to the list. I didn’t intend to read it all on this past Sunday, but a cold kept me in bed and each chapter kept me enthralled. I love days like that. Favourite parts ahead.

• The line, “Culinary creativity may be the most perfect art form. It allows for free personal expression like painting, musical composition, or writing and yet fulfills a most practical need: the need to eat. Edible art, what could be better?”

• When his father would always comment, “My God, what does the rest of the world eat?!!!!” when his mother would cook some wonderful dinner reminds me so much of any time I cook something especially decadent for my own father and he always says, “I feel sorry for what the peasants are eating tonight!“

• Genius idea: “The buttering of the corn… well, it wasn’t just “put knife into butter, put butter on corn with knife.” No. No. Good God. No. A piece of homemade bread was buttered and then used to slather the salted ear of corn, thus, in true Italian fashion, creating two dishes out of one, the ear of corn being the first dish and the homemade bread (now saturated with the melted butter, salt, and sweetness from the buttered kernels) being the second. This may have been the single most delicious part of an an already delicious meal. An act so simply it’s almost stupid.”

• I love his entire rant on page 129 about what bullshit it is that certain celebrity chefs don’t really taste their food on certain food shows and that you can always tell.

• When he’s talking about how fettuccine Alfredo should only be made with butter and cheese: “Over the years, in many restaurants, the sublimely simple combination of butter and cheese has been altered to satisfy American palates. Cream has crept its way in (unnecessary), as well as chicken (yuck), broccoli (why?), and turkey (really? Fuck off).”

• I absolutely loved the chapter on his wife’s way to cook English roast potatoes. My dad has been trying to explain this to me for years and I still haven’t got it quite figured out because of all the smoke involved.

• The entire chapter on his battle with cancer is absolutely wild and must have been so hard to write in such detail, especially since it’s all so recent. How his pregnant wife handled all of it is truly beyond me.

• Reminders to myself:

  • Why on earth haven’t I seen his movie Big Night yet?! Christ. I think it’s just so difficult to find. Have to get on this. Must also watch Babette’s Feast (he said it was part of his inspiration for making Big Night).

  • Must remember to make the tomato salad on page 46.

  • He mentions that “the truest ragu alla Bolognese recipe” is in the cookbook Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, published in 1891, by Pellegrino Artusi so now I must make it.

  • When in Rome, eat the carbonara at the restaurant Pommidoro.

  • For dried pasta, buy the Cav. Giuseppe Cocco spaghetti, can by found online. It’s supposed to be among the best dried pasta available.

  • I have never tasted bottarga, but now I must?

  • Visit the beautiful seaside town of Deauville in France, but do not order andouillette.

  • Visit Dukes in London for a memorable martini.

  • If I ever start making martinis at home, see page 201 for reference.

  • Visit Lo Scoglio on the Amalfi Coast to eat the zucchini pasta that this man talks about at least once a day, it seems. (It’s also a beautiful hotel, so maybe stay there as well).

Fully recommend this book, especially if you want to stay in bed all day and dream of each dish he describes. (Thank you so much to my dear friend Diana for gifting this gem to me!)