It feels kinda cruel that March ends with my least favorite of the candy-basket holidays and the kids only have school 13 (out of 30 lol) days of April. On that note, some miscellaneous recs ‘till the next time, or until we have more childcare.
To eat:
Don’t sleep on high quality dashi, which I got at Ten Ichi Mart to make a dashi-miso broth with kabocha squash and tofu (from Hetty McKinnon’s Tenderheart cookbook). I’ve had it for dinner and for breakfast and it’s perfect. The elite dashi destination is Dashi Okume in Greenpoint.
The Alison Roman raspberry ricotta cake, which is my most-baked recipe from Sweet Enough. This time I added a 1/4 cup of flax seed and subbed out half the AP flour for a mix of spelt/almond flour and it’s perfect.
On her newletter’s recommendation, we also went to Authentic Szechuan in Park Slope which is zero ambiance (think: soundtrack of unlicensed covers of the top 5 pop hits of the moment on loop) but very tasty. Perfect with children! Order the house specialties, obviously The Chong Qing chicken was notably good.
Nami Nori is my favorite sit-at-a-counter-with-a-friend meal. All the temaki are an incredible two-bite treat and don’t sleep on the nami nori salad.
To watch:
We started watching “Ramy,” and I’m also excited for Youssef’s new comedy special “More Feelings,” which came out last weekend, especially after hearing him talk to Sam Fragoso on Talk Easy. The special is directed by Christopher Storer (creator of “The Bear”).
The Many Lives of Martha Stewart, a four part doc series on the domesticity titan. If someone deserves an era’s tour it’s truly Martha: model, woman of wall street, domesticity queen, media mogul, jailbird, anti-aesthetic BFF to Snoop Dogg.
The Miami Open (tennis) on whatever network you happen to be able to find it on. Carlos Alcaraz is the most exciting tennis player to watch since Rafael Nadal and after my 20 year tennis hiatus, I’m back both playing and voraciously watching. Rooting for an Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner final.
The kids re-watched Miniscule: Valley of the Lost Ants, the wordless animation by French directors, Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo, which they first watched early pandemic as 2 and 4 year olds and they still love. (Amazon Prime)
Because it’s been very wet out:
Merry People’s Bobbi rain boots are the best ones for older-than-toddlers. Julian finds them so comfortable he wears them…every day.
Also a fan of the REI waterproof shells for kids b/c insulated rain coats can only be worn on like one specific weather-condition day, but the shells can be layered over fleeces and sweaters, or used when it’s warm out.
Depending on whether you generally agree with kids using umbrellas at all, this Weatherman one is the best I’ve found. Easy to open/close, extremely strong, doesn’t invert, bright colors without baby-ish patterns.
To do:
An Ambient Church event. Experiential music/art in churches. We went to one last week in Chelsea and it was ethereal and transporting and a real treat.
To read:
Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control, the NY Mag piece on the celebrity neuroscientist’s elaborate cheating network. Just picture: all your exes with whom you’ve been cheating on with each other corroborating everything in a Whatsapp group.
Don’t Tell America the Babysitter’s Dead, Faith Hill’s piece in The Atlantic around both the disappearance of teen babysitting — and for those who do it, the increased expectations. I’m very interested in the discourse around modern parenting styles stripping kids of a sense of responsibility. Even my 8 year old is never more on her shit than when given responsibility/some sense of needing to care for a younger child. Also, send all your teen sitters my way.
Birnam Wood is truly delicious writing and Eleanor Catton seems like someone you truly wouldn’t want to go against in debate club.
Re-discovering all of Arnold Lobel’s non-Frog-and-Toad gems, Mouse Soup, The Great Blueness, The Rose in My Garden, and Giant John, among others.
Recs please: I recently had a memory of this game book above being the great activity book of my childhood (it’s from the early 90s). I recall doing it multiple times over and it having both a combo of like logic/IQ tests, activities, puzzles, etc. I find that most game books now are…either very babyish or one-note (all mazes, all word searches, etc.) or strive to be overly overtly educational. What are the good activity/game books for kids that offer both variety, real challenge, and are well-designed? And are just…fun? The one other ones my kids really like is Mike Lowery’s Kid’s Awesome Activity Book.
Highlights magazines are my go-to for my 8 and 9yo daughters. Not an activity book, but they’re still as good (or almost as good) as when we were kids.
I used to 💰 CLEAN UP 💰 babysitting in high school. I watched 3 girls for a family at least once a week - mom & dad took date night very seriously! That led to several other jobs, even the coveted summer nanny gig. At $15/hour plus a little extra, I often had an extra $500 floating around.it felt great to have that independence, even if I was spending it on silly things.