cardamom pear muffins, chilled reds, and lots of good reads

plus a really good salad dressing.

Happy Sunday! Here are a whole bunch of things to read, cook, and watch this week as we head into fall for real.

Good things to read

Against the parent v. childfree binary | Ann Friedman. This was the smartest, most thoughtful and nuanced take I’ve read on that infamous friends-with-kids story from The Cut.

I Never Called Her Momma | The Atlantic. Incredibly moving. A must-read.

The Pandemic Skip | The Cut

Millennials are tired of trying to be perfect moms | The Washington Post

The Invention of a Neighborhood | The New Yorker

The Woman on The Line | Slate

Disney's wildest ride: Iger, Chapek and the making of an epic succession mess | CNBC

A Plague on the Industry': Book Publishing's Broken Blurb System | Esquire

We're all lurkers now | Embedded

Do Not Underestimate the To-Do List | The Atlantic

Lies, Damned Lies, and Social-Media Metrics | New York Magazine

Surprising New Research on the Gender Pay Gap: Women Negotiate More Than Men, But Get Told No More Often | Inc. Magazine

How Did Vanilla Become a Byword for Blandness? | The New York Times

There’s Still Overwhelming Cultural Pressure to Get Married and Have Kids | The New York Times

Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truths” | The New Yorker

Good things to cook

Stuff I’ve made recently: Cardamom pear oat muffins. The best zucchini bread. Tuscan chicken. Sheet pan greek chicken and potatoes. Saag shrimp. Coconut poached fish and bok choy. Orange tofu and broccoli.

I was also inspired to make the famous Via Carota salad thanks to Ali Stafford’s newsletter, and let me just say: this dressing is incredible. I had bookmarked this recipe years ago but never made it because I thought it seemed too fussy (5 kinds of lettuce??) but then I realized I could just make the dressing, which is the real key to the salad, and put it on whatever greens I had. I ate it three days in a row and it was perfect every time.

I’m also really excited to dive into this package of 100 easy weeknight recipes from New York Times Cooking.

Recommendations

Minx season 2: If you didn’t watch Minx the first time around, now’s a good time to start since a new season came out. The show is about a feminist editor starting a porn magazine for women in the 70s, and it hits all the right notes.

Real Housewives of New York: Listen, I’ve never tuned into the Real Housewives franchise much (though no shade here, I’ve spent way more hours than I’d like to admit watching 90 Day Fiance). But I decided I needed to check this new season out because Jenna Lyons, of J.Crew fame, is on it, and it’s actually kind of great when you throw in one person who’s different from the usual Housewives crew!

Ice cream flights: If you’re in New York, a hyperlocal rec: Brooklyn’s beloved ice cream shop Ample Hills has reopened in Prospect Heights, and they have a whole bunch of new flavors plus a “flight” where you get 6 small scoops for an incredible deal of $8 so you can try a whole bunch of flavors. I love the new orange sherbet and the Cotton Mallow, which is cotton candy flavored ice cream with marshmallows.

A perfect new neighborhood restaurants: Another one for the Brooklynites — I finally got to try the recently-opened Gertrude’s this weekend and it was just perfect. Go have a burger and latkes and a martini — you won’t regret it. (And they were super welcoming to kids and families, too!) Thrilled to have this place so close by.

What I’m drinking: It’s perfect weather for chilled reds, so I’ve been drinking this light, fruity red wine.