Love You For A Long Time

Maggie Rogers, mushroom bao, and kale caesars.

Oct 21, 2024

Happy Monday! It’s the end of October, we’re weeks out from the election (I’m planning to vote early, wbu?) and the weather oscillates between quite chilly and warm and sunny. Every warm day feels like it might be the last so I’ve been taking extra walks, trying to store away the memories of the sun on my face. I ended the weekend with Maggie Rogers at MSG (I got face value tickets via her email list which was a real treat). It was so special to see her perform live—I still remember the first time I heard her music back in 2017. My old coworker went to sleepaway camp with her and described her as the girl who was always writing songs in her cabin. She showed me a few on YouTube and the rest was history. At the show, Maggie kicked off an acoustic set with a handwritten list of all the venues she’s played in New York since 2012. It took years to break even from a show, but every single one meant something and eventually led to selling out two nights at Madison Square Garden.

This Needs Hot Sauce turns seven in a few days (more on that next week) and I sometimes think about writing those first few issues on TinyLetter in my old apartment. It takes a long time for things to happen but that doesn’t mean you should stop.

On Thursday, I’ll be sharing some backlist book and cookbook recommendations. There are fewer new books that usual this year (due to the election) so it’s a great time to read and cook from older titles, which are usually really easy to get at your local library. If you have any specific requests (like a book to bring on a vacation or a cookbook for beginners), let me know.

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook:

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work on Monday and grabbed a pretty random assortment of things. Cauliflower looked good, canned beans were on sale. I got home and remembered that

Caroline Chambers

had a recipe in her book for basically cauliflower nachos. You roast the cauliflower with a bunch of spices, make refried beans (without even draining the can, we love to save a dish), and add nacho toppings like cheese, pickled jalapeños, etc. It was so good and easy that I immediately texted my family group chat a picture of the cookbook page (and wrote down how good it was).

For lunches, I had roasted potatoes with chickpeas, spinach, walnuts, avocado and Haven’s Kitchen Aioli, which I left in the office fridge for whenever leftovers need an extra something.

I like vanilla yogurt but I don’t like how much sugar (or fake sugar) gets added to vanilla yogurts. My new solution is buying my fave Brown Cow yogurt and adding some vanilla bean paste (it mixes better than vanilla extract and you get little flecks). Vanilla bean paste is expensive but a little goes a long way and Trader Joe’s has a cheaper version that I bought to see if I liked it. So far so good.

I know I would be busy last night so I did some advance meal prep and made a pot of Annie’s mac and cheese with broccoli and chickpeas. I always add extra spices: chili, garlic powder, black pepper, and nooch.

We went to Queens for a Sunday afternoon hang and my parents made this delicious herby dip (Frida brought it for Rosh Hashanah and it’s already entered the rotation).

Something to order:

Zoe, Hillary, Julia, Julianne and I caught up at Sappe, a fun Thai spot in Chelsea. The space is colorful and the food was really good, with lots of vegetarian options as long as you’re okay with a little fish sauce (I eat Caesar salad so I am). My favorite dishes were the fried enoki mushroom, the okra skewers, the mushroom laab, and the spicy corn salad.

This salad did not need hot sauce, it had great heat already.

On Wednesday, the Isetta team celebrated Chopin and Fferrone’s gorgeous collaboration in Soho. Did you know the martini glass turns 100 next year? After the event, we had a team dinner at Soho Diner (the fact that it’s hard to get a table for 5 people at 9 in Soho is a good sign that the city is vibrant). Diners, even fancy ones, are so comforting. I got a grilled cheese and tomato soup that came with a mustardy side salad.

Dale and I had a date night on Thursday at Pen Yen, a Japanese restaurant on the top floor of Ludlow House. The space is so beautiful, full of plants, and the food was so good. I loved the mushroom bao and the vegetable maki.

Lizzi was here for the weekend so we had to kick things off at Lighthouse. Walking in there always feels great and going with a larger group means you can try more things. We split oysters, fries, labneh, burrata, and a tahini caesar and I got the seasonal pasta for my main. We had a great orange wine that was described as the macarena in wine form and then hung out at Bushwick Country Club for a bit, a throwback.

Dale and I went to Cozy Royale for dinner on Saturday. I needed the kale caesar and he loves their spicy vodka pasta. After dinner, Lizzi, Leah, Erika and I watched old SNL clips and One Direction videos on the couch, much needed after the past week.

Before the Maggie Rogers concert, Julia, Julianne, Alli, Ian and I got dinner at Vin Sur Vingt in Nomad. If you have a favorite pre MSG spot, please share! I always need more ideas.