I was just looking through photos from last summer, and came across this shot of Francesca and me at the Soho House pool (sigh) drinking vodka-strawberry cocktails. And now I want one. What? It's almost noon.
247 Results for: cocktail
Stress-Free Entertaining: Signature Cocktail
In this episode of "Better Bites," Donatella Arpaia teaches me how to make the perfect spring cocktail.
All My Thanksgiving-ish Recipes, In One Handy Post
Thanksgiving centerpiece by The Bouqs
Thanksgiving has always been sort of a crapshoot holiday for us - some years we were with Kendrick's family, some years with mine, some years with friends (and if you're wondering whether looking at those posts I just linked to made me cry, the answer is: yes. obviously). Since our split it's become even more up-in-the-air with regards to what we're going to do each year, and with whom, but we've decided that this Thanksgiving will be another in a long line of outliers (which makes them...not really outliers, but whatevs): All four of us are going up to my parents' place, where we'll eat our mashed potatoes alongside an assortment of their displaced friends.
All the Cozy Recipes You Need Right Now
Hey, did you hear? California's in lockdown again. GOOD TIMES. So one thing's for sure: This year Thanksgiving will look very, very different for most of us. It's OK if you aren't feeling particularly celebratory, and decide to just skip it - those emotions are 1000% valid and understandable. Thanksgiving has always been sort of a crapshoot holiday for us - sometimes we were with Kendrick's family, sometimes we were with mine, sometimes were with friends (and if you're wondering whether looking at those posts I just linked to made me cry, the answer is: yes. obviously), and sometimes we crashed other people's celebrations. So it's not like there are any huge traditions that we'll be breaking. But still: I miss my parents. You might be missing yours, too.
TL;DR, I think we can all agree that it's not an especially jolly holiday season.
But! Hunkering down with some carbohydrates until this cursed year is over isn't the worst idea I've ever heard, and Thanksgiving Week seems like as good a time to get started as any.
What It’s Really Like To Travel In An Amtrak Sleeper Car
I've been thinking a lot about this summer - specifically, how (if?) I'm going to see my parents. I'm anxious about the fall bringing another outbreak, and not seeing them for an entire year (or more) doesn't feel like a thing I can handle. I also don't know if we even technically can travel this summer - it feels like the rules are changing on a near-daily basis - but I figured it's worth coming up with some ideas just in case we can make it happen.
I've thought about risking a flight, then quarantining myself before seeing them. I've thought about an RV. I've thought about teleportation (get on it, Elon). What I haven't - or hadn't - yet thought about was Amtrak. And then, after my accident the other week, I found myself aboard one for the first time in my life, and now I am obsessed.
Links & Love & Stuff
Anyone else extremely grateful for eye cream and cocktails rn?
Just ordered a pair of these waterproof, lightweight Birkenstocks for gardening purposes, and am PUMPED.
Ideas for book-involving crafts (handmade bookmarks, painting on pages, etc) that are actually really cute. (Bookish Crafts to Do in Quarantine, via Book Riot.)
How To Make An Original Cayman Islands Mudslide
Lunch.
I've never been a huge fan of Mudslides. I acknowledge this is an unpopular opinion, it's just...you know, if I want ice cream, I want ice cream. If I want a cocktail, I don't want to add hundreds of calories to it; I'd rather have the cocktail...and then, maybe later on, have ice cream that doesn't taste like alcohol. You know?
But apparently real Mudslides - by which I mean the ones made where the drink was invented, The Wreck on Grand Cayman's Rum Point - don't have any ice cream in them at all. As the story goes, they were created in the 1970s when a customer came in wanting a White Russian (vodka, Kahlua, and cream), but since the bar was out of cream, the bartender substituted Bailey's Irish Cream. He threw it all in a blender, and ta da: A drink that's milkshake-level delicious, but not saturated in sweetness. (So you can have two. Just proceed with caution; these may not taste like anything but wonderfulness, but they're deceptively strong.)
Still There
I've had many summers that felt like little jewelboxes of time, sweet and slow - the one we spent living in temporary housing while we waited for our daughter to be born comes to mind - but there was one that was wonderful in a completely different way than all the others.
It was the summer after Kendrick and I moved from our tiny Hell's Kitchen place to our slightly-less-tiny Upper East Side apartment. The summer that I quit my office job, and started writing for a living (well, that was the plan, in any case). The summer that we were working out how to be married and wondering how in the world we were going to pay our rent and trying to figure out what we wanted to be when we grew up...but it was so exciting. The sheer possibility of it all. We were children standing on the edge of adulthood, thinking about jumping.
We had a little crew that summer. Stephen and Dave, of course - we had rooftop cocktails with them most nights, Lucy whizzing in circles around us while we watched the setting sun light up all that silver paint. Francesca was living in the city then, just a few blocks away, and a few of Kendrick's other friends from college lived at various points along the 6 line. We'd all go out to terrible bars and drink terrible drinks and stay up far too late, because we were still so young, and it still felt like bad choices were a life imperative.
Family Vacations In Divorceland
Kind of insane just-us-three camping trip, Summer 2018
So here's an odd little post-divorce conundrum that hadn't occurred to me until just recently: How does one best go about having a "family vacation"? See, the kids have Spring Break coming up in April, and since they've gone on two trips with Kendrick recently I'd really like to take them somewhere special for the week (I know, that sounds competitive - and it is, a tiny bit, but also I'm finding myself craving that kind of magical time with them that seems to come with being out of your element).
But...what does one do, exactly? How do you vacation with kids when it's just you and them, without...I don't know...feeling like you're just spending the whole time herding cats? Or without feeling weird, being in a place that's very literally set up for the kind of family that you no longer technically are?
The Impostor
Where I am, currently.
I've given a few talks over the years - at conferences and such. I know how to do it by now; I've (mostly) gotten over my stage fright, and have a bit of a formula going.
I start with the basic bio, make a few self-deprecating jokes about The Actress Years, and talk about what it was like starting a blog-as-business back in the Dark Ages. I tick off a list of experiences that my site has led to - shows, books, etc. It all makes me sound pretty successful, and pretty together, and at least passably like the kind of person who should be giving A Talk.