Cosmic Weekly: Ditched Dumplings and Toot Sweets

We're back again for the first November check-in. Gaby and I had to meet over Google Hangouts since I'm currently in Denver observing a school as part of my Montessori training. Thankfully we're just as productive and strange as we are in person, but I'll be happy to be back on the East coast next week.

All right, let's check in on our current reads. Same? New?

Gaby Brabazon: I dropped everything this weekend when my copy of Circe (Madeline Miller) came in. It’s luxurious; it's got these gorgeous wide margins, and it’s super heavy. A lot of times I pick up a book and it makes me want to write… This one makes me want to garden. She's in exile but it actually sounds kind of wonderful because she's in exile and surrounded by nature. I ultimately had to force myself to put it down, but I can't wait to finish it.

Grace McKinney: My current read was actually an accident... I purchased a book that I intended (and still intend) to give to my best friend for her birthday and found myself with an awkward chunk of time and a dead phone with no choice but to read it. So, I liked it, and I didn't stop. At the risk of her reading this, I'll refrain from the name of it, but let's just say Madeleine L'Engle is a gem.

And, per this accident, Louisiana's Way Home isn't quite finished yet, but it's really her turn next.

And what are you eating?

GB: I'm eating a lot of soup now that it's finally getting cold. I made chicken soup this weekend—well, I basically made chicken and dumplings without the dumplings because I was too lazy to make them.

GM: Since I'm in Denver, I'm trying to take advantage of a different food scene while also cooking myself the same school lunch kind of things to maintain some normalcy. I'm pretty much waiting for the moment I can go to Little Man's Ice Cream to get their salted Oreo ice cream because it's everything you imagine it to be plus a cone.

And, finally, share a slice of your favorite pop culture lately.

GB: Jenny Slate was amazing. I saw her last week with my sisters and it was incredible.

I also started watching The Crown, and I thought of you (Grace) because of all the queen's corgis and all their cute names—Honey, Willow. So sweet! Anyway, I watch it with Wikipedia pulled up next to it for each time I say, "What?! Did that really happen?!" So now I know a lot of things about the royal family.

GM: If all of your friends haven't already told you about it, I'm deeply in love with the new Netflix miniseries Salt Fat Acid Heat. It's based on a recent cookbook by Samin Nosrat, and in each episode she takes you through one of the four key elements of good cooking. It's stunning and fun and elegant and casual all at the same time.

I also was craving an old movie and felt too guilty to watch White Christmas on, like, the first day of November, so I instead watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Things resurfaced from deep within my childhood—like my abiding love of Dick Van Dyke, my utter fear of the child catcher, and, apparently, my knowledge of every lyric but not a single plot line from the movie.