Hi everyone! I’m back with one of y’all’s favorite segments- the weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. I want to start writing more personal essays, but I can’t lie. The format of the R.E.P.O.R.T. works for me! I get to share a lot (hopefully) without rambling too much on any given topic.
This will likely be the last Craveable before Kevin and I have our big trip to California! We’re leaving in a little less than a week, and I cannot wait. If you have any recommendations for San Francisco, Healdsburg or the Napa valley area, feel free to drop them in the comments! We have a few things planned, and are trying to be as budget conscious as we can on a trip like this 🫣 But, we don’t want to miss out on some of the best eats and sips in the country! Ok, let’s get on with the REPORTING
As a reminder, the weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. is a little recap of the things I’ve been Reading, Eating, Playing, Obsessed with, Recommending & Treating myself to over the last week.
1. What I’m Reading
Y’all. Books have been hard for me recently. I’ve been listening to lots of podcasts at work, and I actually just started listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt via my 12 hours of free audiobook listening on Spotify. If you didn’t know, Spotify premium users now get 12 free hours of audiobook listening a month! Game changer. I also read an essay here on Substack from Eliza Mclamb. The title “It’s Never Over” is a reference to Jeff Buckley’s “Lover You Should’ve Come Over” and the overall theme is the perpetual desire women harbor to be thin. I’ve thought so.many.times. about sitting down and getting all of my own thoughts on the subject out for y’all to read. But, at the end of the day, I don’t really have anything profound to say. I fear that it could just end up being a little bit depressing. That’s not to say that I’ll never share. My feelings on it all are complicated. For now, please go read the essay I linked above.
2. What I’m Eating
Ok, this one is tricky! I’ve had a lot of amazing food over the past week. Let’s give ourselves a visual recap.
Starting from the top left we’ve got:
Every Herb Dip: I improvised this for book club last week, and I can’t wait to make it again so that I can write down the recipe. If you’re feeling ambitious, I’ll give you a loose guide. I grabbed a handful of each of these herbs (probably about a cup): dill, parsley, cilantro, basil, and a whole bunch of green onions. All of those went into a food processor with 8 oz feta cheese, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, salt, pepper, plenty of red pepper flakes, the zest and juice of a lemon and a tablespoon of honey. This was so good and it made a lot that I snacked on throughout the week after book club.
A cheese board! This was simple & delicious. I picked up some St. Andre which is a French triple creme brie that has a little more funk to it than your average brie. I also grabbed my favorite salami from Trader Joe’s. If you see it, grab the Salame di Parma. It has such a wonderful flavor, and it’s a little bit of a unique shape too! Finally, I mixed an eight-ounce log of softened goat cheese with balsamic vinegar and some delicious smoked black pepper that I got for Kevin’s stocking at Christmas. Highly recommend that combo if you’re wanting to spice up your cheese board!
Roasted tomato & bell pepper soup. I roasted all of the veggies you see in the fourth photo. While they were in the oven, I crisped up some bacon in my dutch oven. I drained some of the fat, and removed the bacon before putting all of the veggies in the pot with a few cups of chicken stock and more salt and pepper to taste. I blended everything up with my immersion blender, adjusted again for seasoning and added some heavy cream to finish it off! I served the soup with the crispy bacon and feta crisps.
Perhaps my favorite new treat of all time: Dark chocolate covered sumo mandarins! I was inspired by Olivia Noceda and I’m so glad I made these. They couldn’t be easier! I peeled and separated my sumo mandarin, melted dark chocolate chips with a little bit of graza drizzle olive oil (I saw Faith do this on tiktok) dipped each segment in the chocolate, sprinkled with Maldon salt and froze! I like these completely frozen, but Kevin prefers them refrigerated. The juicy mandarin with the rich and sweet dark chocolate and little hit of salt is an incredible combo.
Cream puffs 🤭 another favorite sweet treat as of late. These are so much easier to make than they look. The choux pastry only requires three ingredients (plus water and salt) and the filling is a simple vanilla whipped cream. If y’all want a tutorial, let me know! I used the New York Times recipe for choux pastry, and I always wing it with my whipped cream recipe. And that’s it for all of my favorite things that I ate!
3. What I’m Playing
Here’s a playlist that Kevin made for my 27th birthday dinner party. It’s a great go-to with lots of our favorite songs. We played it when my coworkers came over a few weeks ago, and my boss asked me about the music the next day- a win!
I also have a rotation of podcasts, but I’m always looking for recommendations! So, if you have a favorite weekly or daily (or any time!) podcast that you love please drop it in the comments 🎧❤️
4. What I’m Obsessed With
Speaking of podcasts, I am a big fan of Brooke Averick and her brand new podcast, Obsessed! I heavily relate to Brooke’s inability to like things just a normal amount. Maybe one day I’ll get into my obsessions that I haven’t had the courage to share on the internet. Maybe if I have a podcast one day!
There are two episodes of Obsessed out now- give it a listen if you also find yourself obsessing over hollywood heartthrobs, tv shows, book series, etc.
5. What I’m Recommending
I’m back with another recommendation from me to me! So, you’re welcome to take it too, but I’m giving myself some advice that I really hope I take. Here it is!
Getting off of my phone! This isn’t revolutionary. I, like many of you, spend way too much time staring into the screen of my phone. Because Instagram and TikTok are part of my job, I can’t delete them from my phone but I might see if there’s a workaround for that. I’m inspired by Emma Miller and her Instagramless January. As an anxious person, I think that my phone is often a bandaid for my anxiety. But really, I think it fuels the racing thoughts and feelings of needing to do more, more, more.
So, getting off of my phone and being more present in social settings, at home with Kevin, even when I’m just alone with my thoughts. I want to feel things rather than smother everything with the chatter of social media.
Ok, on another note, Kevin and I have been watching the 2013 movie “The Butler” as I’ve been writing this and we just finished it and I’m SOBBING. It was so good. Please, please go watch it right now. The cast is incredible, the story is heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time, and I’m going to be thinking of this film for years. I’ll probably be crying intermittently throughout the rest of today as well.
6. What I’m Treating Myself To
Linguine with clams. Currently torn between following Dan Pelosi’s recipe and Molly Baz’s recipe. I’m sure I’ll document the process on my Instagram story this evening, so make sure you’re following me to see how it goes.
We’ve had a really fun weekend with friends, and I’m excited to end it on a high note before one more week of work pre-trip!
Thank you all for reading & supporting Craveable ❤️ If you enjoyed reading, please share with a friend and spread the love!!! Talk to y’all soon!
I actually just went on a vacation to California in the same spots!! A lovely Italian winery called Castello de Amorosa was probably my favorite place. It is a castle located at the end of the Valley. Could be a little pricey, but the views are completely worth it with the tour and tasting. We stopped at a restaurant called Market in St. Helena, it was the best food of the week. Downtown Napa has a lot of cute shops to walk through and a really good coffee shop called Näpastak. Another favorite place in Napa is Oxbow market. It has a Jewish deli, olive oil shop, bookstore, produce and more. For other activities near San Fransisco, I recommend walking around China town, Fisherman’s wharf, and visiting a redwood forest. I had the best soup dumplings at House of Xian Dumpling. Ahh so many recommendations, but all so good to not mention!
Love love love your blog! You are inspiring me! Thank you.