Your #WOTY and a non-fruitcake for all seasons.
A friend and I recently decided that Omicron has become synonymous with anything that seems inevitable, and you just want to get it over with. Primo example: Watching the second season of Emily In Paris (which I did in 5-7 days). Also see: tooling around the Clubhouse app (remember that???), and Dry January.
1.
I spent Christmas Eve upstate with my friends Matthew and Andrew this year (which we realized also happened to be the 12th or 13th anniversary of our first meeting). We cooked roasted arctic char with spinach and oven-blistered brussels sprouts, and slabs of bread and oozy cheese to start. The meal was perfect for how unfussy and untraditional it was, although our dessert—this densely-studded fruit and nut loaf from nearby Talbott & Arding is something I would love to make a habit of enjoying every holiday season…or even every weekend, as it’s available year-round. It’s not entirely a bread, not really a cake (and don’t you dare make me come after you by calling it a fruitcaaaaaake). It’s more like a silo’s worth of whole nuts and dried berries, apricots, dates, compressed with a little bit of baked bread in between. And speaking to its ambiguous nature, you can have it as is, or toasted with a light slick of butter.
2.
Growing up, Golden Girls was a beloved tv show of mine (which I think I shied away from admitting through my adolescence and teens, but now I completely stand by— it’s aged much better than The Cosby Show, don’t you think?). Estelle Getty’s character, the sassy elder Sophia Petrillo, was my favorite one to watch, but as I’ve gotten older and taken in the occasional rerun, I’ve come to appreciate and adore the subtle comedic genius of Betty White, who passed away last week. Here’s a scene I recently watched—mostly improvised—that had me (and White’s costars) in stitches.
3.
Speaking of The Cosby Show… what’s Lisa Bonet been up to? Sometimes a headline can just be empty clickbait, and sometimes it’s the spot-on truth. Marisa Tomei and Lisa Bonet Have a Rich and Delicious Conversation absolutely, 1,000% delivered.
4.
I’m not quite ready for all-out cowboy boots, but I enjoy a good cowboy boot heel, also known as a Cuban heel (though I wouldn’t make that your search parameters when online shopping, because all sorts of variations turn up). I’ve found that pants of all widths, but especially straight legs and flares, tend to fall really well over them.
5.
And lastly, this is something I ask all my friends around December/January: What’s your word for the year ahead? Not a resolution, nor even an intention, just a simple word (adjective, noun, verb…whatever calls out to you) that you want to manifest this year, whether in spirit or more literally (and no, you don’t have to tattoo it on your wrist as a reminder). Mine is UP.