seven fun things

The other day when I found myself on the far side of town, I stopped at Aldi’s. I only needed sour cream but by the time I’d walked to the dairy section and back to the checkout, my arms were full: assorted crackers, a candle, dill Havarti (for recipe comparison purposes), Lebanon bologna, and, of course, chocolate.

These peanut butter cups are, we all agree, much better than Reese’s peanut butter cups: creamier, less sweet, and without Reese’s icky chemical flavor and the bothersome paper cups. I wish I’d gotten several bags.

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I’ve watched this at least three times. It makes me so, so happy.

How I miss Ted and Rebecca!

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Like art? Then you gotta check out my niece’s Instagram. 

Noemi is a surface pattern designer and water color painter, as well as a sewist. She has a website filled with embroidery tutorials, coloring pages, and themed inspo boards, plus a newsletter and blog.

^{credit for the above four photos: Noemi Salome}

Oh, and she has an Etsy shop, too. Knock yourselves out! 

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I’m not usually one for these types of videos — I often find them a bit sappy — but the children made this one. It’s magical.

Bonus points go to the white-haired woman. What she said.

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If you need a laugh, check out Jenny’s post. “We couldn’t be prouder of this one-star review. Come for the cool chairs, stay for the intersectional feminism.” I laughed out loud.

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Have you watched Beckham (Netflix)? 

At first I didn’t like the show — just some teen athlete getting rich way too fast, blah, blah, blah — so I quit watching. But then one night I tried it again out of boredom and got totally hooked. There’s so much to be fascinated by: the horrific fame, the long-lasting marriage, the complete obsession with the game. We watched the final episode last night but the glow lingers. 

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My friend and I were talking about pies and she suggested I put bacon grease in pie pastry when making an apple pie, as per her Grandma Agnes Foley’s instructions. So I did.

For one recipe of pie pastry, I used 4 ounces of homemade butter, 2.5 ounces of unstrained bacon grease and 1.5 ounces of lard, and then used the pastry to make a free-form pie — or strudel, or whatever you wanna call it. 

Grandma Agnes was right! Bacon grease in pie pastry is glorious. It didn’t have a bacon flavor (though I suspect that might change if I added more), but it gave the pastry a special depth of flavor: saltier, umami-er, more robust and full-flavored. Paired with the sweetly-spiced apples, it was perfection. 

ALSO. I am beginning to believe that strudels (or free-form pies or whatever) are leagues better than regular-shaped pies, at least when it comes to apple. The crust-to-fruit ratio is spot on, you can eat the strudel out of hand, and the vanilla drizzle ties the whole thing together into a tidy sweet package.

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Happy weekending! xo

This same time, years previous: three girlfriend recommendations, cheese tasting: round two, change, the quotidian (11.17.14), lemony lentil goodness, three things, in which I ask a lot of questions.