Gentle January Has Arrived

Plus Marcella's sauce and the best of 2023

Rabbit rabbit! It’s a new week and a new year. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed over the past few weeks seeing all these shiny recaps of 2023 and will not be making one here. For me, the winter is not my favorite time of year and the pressure to publicly reflect (some of this pressure is self imposed I realize) doesn’t make it better. I do think of the Clique books every time I see an In | Out list—Massie Block’s influence.

Here’s what has felt good over the past few weeks:

• Doing things that had been on my list for a while (finding a bridesmaids dress, ordering a light for my closet so I can actually see what’s in there, hemming pants, writing thank you notes)

• Some good culture (we watched the final season of the Crown, High on the Hog Season 2 (fantastic), The Iron Claw (so good, plz let me know where I can join the Zac Efron Oscar fyc campaign), and I loved this podcast episode)

• Quality time with my people. I got to see my family and have some fun friend hangs. It’s nice to meet up with a looser schedule and see where the day takes you.

• Journaling in my five minute journal and

  Kara Cutruzzula
  ‘s book, Do It or Don’t on boundaries—more on that when I finish.

Now, enough of December, it’s time for Gentle January

If you’re new here (hi, so happy to have you), Gentle January is a tradition here, started by Karlee Flores. It seeks to make gentleness the guiding principle of January, a needed contrast to absolutes, punishing resolutions or anything else that feels too aggressive for the start of the year. Gentle January is about taking walks, lighting candles, getting enough sleep, saying yes (and especially saying, no). There’s no prize or points system. You can keep it going as long as you want to but thankfully, January doesn’t last forever. This is our third Gentle January as a community.

In early 2022, I read Joy the Baker’s Let it Be Sunday post and found a phrase that I’ll never forget: Gentle January. Here’s how she describes it, “At the start of every new year, my friend Karlee Flores of Olive and Artisan reintroduces her concept of a Gentle January. A start to the year where we ease in, recover from the holidays, do things that please us and just take all the diet and detox talk down to zero. It’s a revelation and I’m working on it.” As Karlee writes, “I’m just telling you when I decided to make my January’s gentle, I began to love the coldest, darkest month of the year.”

I’ll be sharing some gentle January activities on Instagram and in paid newsletters. Are you into this? I’d love to hear how it’s going for you!

Now, let’s dive in. I'm sharing the best of 2023 at the end of the newsletter.

Something to cook:

Julia, Julianne, Hillary and I did our annual candle exchange and I made vodka sauce (ofc), roasted broccoli with a yuzu seasoning they brought back from Japan, and garlic bread (from Wegmans, storebought is fine). For dessert, boxed brownies and vanilla bean ice cream while we watched The Holiday.

Dale’s mom and my parents did most of our holiday cooking (thank you to them) so I mostly made simple breakfasts and lunches, like egg wraps with scallion pancakes and sriracha mayo (I used the scallion pancakes from Trader Joe’s for this and highly recommend), Annie’s mac and cheese with broccoli and chickpeas, broccoli and egg fried rice, toast with butter and strawberry jam, and crispy potatoes with fried eggs and feta.

this was so good, need more scallion pancakes

For New Year’s Eve dinner, I was in the mood to cook. I made a small batch focaccia and finally tried Marcella Hazan’s three ingredient sauce (I used crushed tomatoes not puree so it was a little chunkier). It was so good and could not be easier, it was a great thing to make when I had time but didn’t want to be doing anything super complicated (besides making bread lol). I also roasted some broccoli because I am who I am.

the before picture

At Julianne and Ian’s party, they had some fun appetizers—the stuffed mushrooms were the first to go and so classic.

Something to order:

Lizzi came to town and we had a family diner at Mesa Coyoacan. We split all the veg options including enchiladas, quesadillas, and mushroom tacos—so good.

We attended our third annual Christmas Day Knicks game and Paulie Gee’s slices are the best veg option.

Julia, Hillary and I saw the Dyker Heights Christmas lights and then got dinner at Gino’s in Bay Ridge (reservations needed). The vodka sauce was incredible and they let us get bucatini with the eggplant parm. They also have Italian wines for under $30 a bottle, shocking in this city, and great tiramisu.

this would be a beautiful color palate

Amy and I got a swanky drink at Temple Bar (it was so dark but they give you free popcorn) and then noodles at Hanoi House, which has veggie pho and really good garlic tofu summer rolls (they were big and I feel like summer roll portions can be skimpy).

Frida and I caught up at Clementine where I got a healing kale salad and then we walked to Fan Fan Doughnuts and I had a perfect cinnamon sugar doughnut.

Dale and I had a final dinner out of the year at Lilia. We sat next to a lovely couple from Staten Island and wound up chatting a bunch and recommending dishes to each other. We had our favorites (gnnochi and mafaldine) and also tried a delicata squash dish with pesto, walnuts and sage that I want to recreate.

Something to read:

Green flags in someone’s home

The poets and writers who have been killed in Gaza

What a year for las Culturistas

How Rachel Bloom revisits the pandemic every night on stage

Seth Meyers seems like a good boss

The Met Gala for nannies

Both Joyful and Killjoy from

Alicia Kennedy

is a necessary read about navigating life right now, as complex and painful as it is.

Mira Jacob on things that don’t make sense anymore

Keep calling your representatives for a ceasefire

Hunter Harris

reviews 2023

5 good lessons from

Chrissy Hennessey

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And now for the best of 2023:

Nancy: This was my absolutely best recipe find of the year. https://wapo.st/3v3ywlh. I halved it, and then made five individual focaccia (using about 105 grams of dough at a time) with various toppings over two weeks, following the general directions. The individual ones, baked on a piece of aluminum foil, take about 20-25 minutes. A baking stone helps, but if you don’t have one, preheat a baking sheet when the oven’s preheating. Then place the foil and dough on top.

Zoe is a digital nomad and covered a lot of ground in her 2023 eating:

• creme brulee ice cream from Bebe Zito in Minneapolis

• all the mediterranean food at Galit in Chicago

• chocolate chip sour cream muffin from babycakes in Marquette, Michigan

• cherry pie from grand traverse pie company in Traverse City, MI

• maple creemee from Morse Farm in Montpelier VT

The best things I ate this year (not an exhaustive list):

• Mussels and oysters and radishes and butter and local sourdough in Mount Desert Island, Maine

• Birthday oysters and mezze at Lighthouse

• Fresh tortillas and guacamole in Mexico

• Arepas with green sauce

• Tofu rice bowls with so many toppings

• Pasta and a select spritz at the bar at Lilia

• Pesto in all forms really hit the spot for me in 2023 and we are continuing the party in 2024

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No matter how you’re feeling today, I’m glad you’re here and I’m ready for another year together. Thanks for being here!

xo, Abigail