A book at the bar

Plus fall salads and spritz situations

Nov 20, 2023

Hi friends,

First of all, a huge thank you for supporting the Gift Guide! I got so many lovely messages and LOVE hearing what you wind up shopping from it, please keep me posted. If you’re new here, welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce! The All Stars Gift Guide for paid subscribers is coming on Wednesday and then we are signing off for the long weekend. That gift guide features some of my most loved items from past gift guides.

Also continuing to share this link to call your reps for a ceasefire (this one works to write).

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook

I made the TikTok famous baked feta pasta and ate the leftovers all week, I also added chickpeas for some protein which was a good touch. Baked pasta is one of my cold weather joys.

We had a Thanksgiving potluck at work and they made such a beautiful tablescape. I brought this fall kale salad because I need a little green on my holiday plate and kale holds up well (I used only 2 cloves of garlic in the dressing, it was an office situation!) Jeremy brought these rolls that disappeared so quickly.

The Peanuts on in the background was a great touch!

PSA that fried eggs with feta and hot sauce are absolutely delicious.

We had a belated birthday celebration for Dale on Saturday and kept things simple snack wise: we got many kinds of chips (I love a ruffle potato chip) and made a spritz bar with Aperol and Faccio Bruto apertivo. It was lots of fun.

Something to order:

I read such a good book, Banyan Moon, after being in a bit of a reading rut fiction-wise. Even better, I started it at The Esters, which is one of my favorite spots to read and drink wine. Julia joined me later for more wine and pizza.

On Saturday, I was craving a good salad so I tried the burrata salad from Lella Alimentari, which Leah always recommends. It’s a hearty salad with tomatoes, capers, onions, kale and a big ball of burrata. Very delicious.

We saw Lambert in his final Julliard performance (he was incredible in Water by the Spoonful) and were hungry after. Dale took us to Three Monkeys, a sports bar with bar food that hit the spot. They had a housemade veggie burger (so important) and really good fries.