I have been on a real Stella Parks kick lately and that combined with my lifelong inability to settle on a granola recipe meant that I tried her buttermilk granola. It is super good, though not exactly what I am looking for. I think one thing I have learned is that I don’t care as much about clumps as I am supposed to. They are written about as if they are the holy grail of granola recipes but I kind of don’t care if I have clumps. Anyway, hers does have clumps and some nice light crispness and tang thanks to a buttermilk soak. The recipe is definitely worth trying, but a little too fussy to be a regular in my kitchen. I want to be able to just dump a bunch of stuff in a bowl and run. Also maybe I hate dried fruit? The quest continues.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about thinking. Specifically about how it feels like there is no longer the time and space to do the hard work of thinking. The speed of the internet has it all coming at us quick and we’re developing these fast triggers responding to things before we have even had the time to think them through. Tavi Gevinson touches on this, and a bunch of other important ideas in her latest editors letter on Rookie.

• Whatever you need to do to create that space for yourself, do it this year. Do it now. Fight the new pace of thinking designed to keep us in Facebook fights and make Facebook more money. Resist getting so wound up by every story that you accelerate off a cliff into apathy. Lengthen the circuit between a candid thought and your anticipation of how it will be received, a circuit constantly shrinking in fear. Try your ideas out with people you are not desperate to impress, so there’s less ego clouding your discussion.

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I was super late to the party, but the My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast is officially the funniest, stupid/dirtiest, most wonderfully British thing I have ever heard. For the uninitiated, three friends read aloud and discuss a series of erotic novels that one of their dads wrote. Few things have brought me more laughs in these dark times.

Alice Levine is one of the three friends and (for me) the star of the show. She also happens to be a food and “lifestyle” writer and along with business partner Laura Jackson works under the moniker Jackson & Levine. The two have hosted pop-up dinners, written for magazines, and designed a capsule collection for Habitat. They also published their first cookbook Round to Ours (great title!), which is super good-looking, if a little toothless. But you gotta love that bizzarro Pennsylvania Dutch cover!

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Curious about the dining basics available through Year & Day. Simple, good-looking and (sort-of?) reasonably priced. I especially like the shape of their tumblers, which can be hard to make feel special. I was into the matte black flatware but it seems like hand washing is probably best for them and who wants to worry about spots.

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Alicia Kennedy writing about loss and oysters is some peak food writing, in case you missed it back in November: The First Time I Ate an Oyster

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Kim Severson covers Medieval times like only she could. It lead me to some truly bonkers reviews for Medieval Times.

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We tried KP! Toffee (no idea what is going on with that exclamation point) on our last trip to Madison, Wisconsin. It might have been the best toffee I have ever eaten. I ended up ordering a bunch for holiday gifts. The milk chocolate is where it is at.

Short and sweet: I found this milk bread (more on milk bread here) recipe online, and I love it. It is easy to make and super delicious (don’t be alarmed by the salt content, it is an important part of the pleasure). The recipe makes two loaves, but they freeze like a dream, so you should make both. Simply slice the loaf and wrap well, you can take out a slice or two when you want them and toast from frozen. Breakfast is sorted.  read more+++

When we were in Los Angeles in November my friend Emily took us to Moon Juice, Amanda Chantal Bacon’s deathstar. The excursion was kind of a joke and kind of not. Emily knew how much I loved reading about Amanda Chantal Bacon (see: this, this, this, this, this, this).

I think there are multiple Moon Juices, but the one Emily took us to was in a strip mall. I wasn’t expecting that. In retrospect I don’t know what I was expecting, but Moon Juice is basically just a juice store in a strip mall, which we have in Chicago. But because this was Amanda Chantal Bacon’s strip mall juice store I felt like I was a part of something bigger than me.

The woman behind the counter had very beautiful skin and hair. Like she was made of better materials than what was available when they made me—or else this Moon Juice stuff really works! She seemed normal and was friendly. Not too friendly. I’d call it appropriately friendly. We took a really long time to order because I was overwhelmed by the options. I’d never seen so much stuff that had been activated. And you just know how much better things are when they are activated, you can seriously feel it. I found myself reading a lot of labels because they promised me a lot and I love promises. I learned that sugar is an allergen. read more+++

Astier de Villatte’s Snoopy

One of my favorite ceramics companies honoring the greatest comic strip of all-time.

Amaro Angeleno

We spent a good chunk of November in California visiting friends and family and came home with a bottle of this citrusy amaro. Perfect in a spritz, which we served for Thanksgiving this year(prosecco, citrus juice, amaro—cold!).

Rachel Gropper Mobile from Field & Florist

My friends Heidi and Molly opened the coolest shop in Chicago this year. Their main racket is growing the best flowers in southwest Michigan, where they have a farm. But this summer they opened a shop where you can get both their flowers as well as the most perfectly curated selection of gifts. They sell my favorite Hasami porcelain and these super rad mobiles from Chicago’s own Rachel Gropper.

Trust Women Patch

100% of proceeds go to Planned Parenthood. Because fuck this shit.

Postalco Wallet

Because my last wallet lasted me 14 years, I felt like I could spend a lot of dough on a new one. After months of research, I decided on this beauty from Postalco. I love it. It feels good in the hand and has all of the compartments I want. Also, Gen X green.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

I read a lot of good books this year but looking back this was the book that really stuck with me. Saunders long ago established himself as a genius and this really confirmed his place as one of America’s great writers and thinkers. Heady and hearty.  read more+++

Halloween is so fun and stupid. This weekend we spent like an hour in the Halloween section of Target and I never wanted to leave. Every animatronic monster and fake-elegant-goth serving bowl called to me. Bryan and I are very interested in someday hosting a fancy AND scary Halloween dinner party. We talk about it a lot, but still haven’t made it materialize. Maybe next year. We do know what cocktail we will serve. read more+++

When we moved to Oak Park seven years ago, it was not a town with a thriving restaurant scene. We have a bunch of restaurants that are fine, but I am never really excited to eat at any of them. It bummed me out. When someone visits from out of town, we almost always leave Oak Park to eat. Seven years later things are basically the same—this isn’t a redemption story—but there is one very important exception. Last autumn, sisters Meg and Molly Svec opened Spilt Milk Pastry, a tiny storefront bakery near the center of town, and just a couple of blocks from our house. read more+++

I keep thinking about my long-standing feud with Madonna. It began in 1993.

The previous year Sinead O’Connor (one of the most underrated musicians of all time) performed on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest. At the end of a moving cover of War by Bob Marley, she famously held up a picture of Pope John Paul II, tore it into pieces, looked into the camera and commanded: Fight the real enemy. It was, as you can imagine, controversial. It was also, for teenage me, the best thing I had ever seen. O’Connor used her platform to call attention to the sexual abuse rampant in the Catholic church and covered-up by its leaders, though few people understood that at the time. read more+++

Dorie Greenspan posted a recipe for raspberry and rose sablés in her Times magazine column recently. They are absolute perfection and you should make them tout de suite.

But then you should also spend some time LOL’ing about the people who comment on New York Times recipes. This round many of the comments center around people being exasperated that they are not familiar with some of the ingredients. Whenever I don’t know about something, I definitely lash out at people who do. Of course!

Luckily, a hero arrives to say:

To other readers: clearly you go online to post a question here. Why not just google terms like “sanding sugar, ” ” dried raspberries,” “rose extract.” You can get an immediate answer!

DUH.

Although props to the person who retorted: Because we crave human contact.

But seriously, these comments: read more+++

Spinning J, a bakery and cafe in Chicago’s beautiful Humboldt Park neighborhood, is located down the street from The Chicago High School for the Arts. At the beginning and end of the school day, Spinning J serves as 60622’s Peach Pit and is full of fresh-faced teens sharing pastries and milk shakes. I love these kids and I wish I had a place that cool to hang out in when I was in school. And they make me love Spinning J more, because they prove it to be a place that is comfortable and fun for the truly diverse group of patrons who walk through the door each day. Old curmudgeons like me, future stars of Disney musicals, millennials, neighbors, foodies—we all love Spinning J.

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Are Instagram posts the new food blogs? Ever since Elisabeth Prueitt started posting recipes as captions to her Instagram posts, I find myself getting more and more kitchen ideas from Instagram. I even posted the recipe for my favorite galette filling there. Am I a Millennial now?

Recently, Jessica Koslow posted a recipe for something she called Millet-nola (groan). It was a puffed millet granola. I can’t really explain why I was so fixated on it. In part, it was her enthusiasm. I am also going through a Granola Phase. A Granola Phase being a period of time in which I keep experimenting with granola recipes in an effort to perfect mine. One of the things I have learned is that adding puffed grains really improves a granola. Also, maybe cinnamon is not a good idea? So this recipe kind of lined up with what I have been thinking about. And you know I have strong feelings about Koslow. read more+++