Officially a Childless Cat Lady

Cucumber cocktails, pistachio ice cream, and a new cat mom

May 05, 2025

Hi friends,

I’m writing to you as a brand new cat mom (she slept with me for most of last night and it was the best). I’m so happy to have her here and can’t wait till she gets more comfortable in her space—she was perched on the table this morning and really looked like she owned it. I’ll share more about her soon, but we do have one major thing in common: we both love restaurants. She was found outside of a Red Lobster in Brooklyn, in search of some food.

Last week, I shared more details about my saging night and the power of ritual. Getting a cat is the next step in fully reclaiming the space, I’ve wanted one for many years and feel very lucky to get to care of this sweet angel. And the aparment welcomed her with good energy,

The Witching Hour

Abigail Koffler

May 1

Rabbit, rabbit! It’s been a few days since my witchy gathering in the apartment and I wanted to share more about how it came together and why it felt so impactful.

Read full story

This week, I’m writing about walking for paid subscribers because I’ve been doing a lot of it. A little hint below.

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook:

I made chili crunch tofu for lunches this week. I followed this recipe and instead of the yum yum sauce she calls for, I DIYed a version based on the ingredients list with mayo, rice vinegar, and sriracha. It worked well and I ate it with rice, arugula, edamame, scallions,cucumbers and carrots.

I cannot even count how many tofu rice bowls I’ve eaten in my life, the limit does not exist.

I had an impromptu dinner party with Leah, Alyssa, and Brandon and made Grossy’s vodka sawce (I make it with a can of coconut milk instead of the heavy cream), garlic bread (use both garlic and garlic powder), and roasted broccoli with lemon zest, juice, and pecorino cheese. It came together quickly, which is a plus on a weeknight (I was at a work event in Manhattan till after 6 and we were eating by 8). I really love having people over—my tiny dishwasher gets a workout. A sign of having fun is that I took zero photos, but it was really good!

I had leftover pasta on Friday with a delightful side salad of arugula, pistachios, and pecorino with lemon juice, olive oil, flakey salt, and pepper.

In a similar vein, I hosted my family for an early Mother’s Day brunch. I made

deb perelman

’s Slumped Parmesan Frittata from Smitten Kitchen Keepers, which is a frittata with parmesan, milk, and shallots cooked in butter. It’s served with a salad on top to counteract the richness and you bake it in a cake pan, which is genius. It was a hit and the hardest part was hand grating a cup of parmesan cheese on a Sunday morning. I served it alongside toast with butter and jam, spring radishes, fruit salad that Leah and Erika made and a blueberry lemon cake my mom made. It was so nice to host everyone and see the table so full.

Something to order:

Leah and I got dinner at Mesa Coyoacan with Rebeca and it was so good. We shared guacamole, nopales, mushroom tacos, and enchiladas rojas.

On Saturday, I did yoga at Sky Ting and grabbed the Middle Eastern Breakfast sandwich from Bite (it’s egg, hummus, tomato and cucumber, and hot sauce in a pita). It’s under $10, which is the new bar for cheap eats in 2025. This was fuel for

Eden

’s delightful walking tour, which covered stuff in the sidewalks of Soho. I learned so much about Soho’s hollow sidewalks, rock art, and a living art installation that aims to depict Manhattan pre colonization. The walk was part of Jane’s Walks, a series of walking tours that’s held in honor of Jane Jacobs. I’ll definitely go on more next year and highly recommend Eden’s newsletter

Big City, Little Friend

to learn more about NYC, year round.

Vault lights in the sidewalks of Soho. They used to light the basement apartments underneath the sidewalks

Tilden and I took a long walk to Che for dinner on Saturday. The dinner menu changes a lot but it’s very veg forward and seasonal. We had bread with ramp butter, asparagus with ricotta and pea shoots, and “crab” cakes made from artichokes. They also have small but lovely cocktail menu and I had a drink made with shiso infused tequila and cucumber—it was so refreshing and delicious.

We walked back and stopped at Brown Butter Creamery for ice cream—they make great pistachio ice cream and then watched Marie Antoinette, which I had somehow never seen, what a hoot.