the best things i read, watched, and cooked in 2022

an end of year list!

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

It’s the end of another year! For my last newsletter of 2022, I’m rounding up some of my favorite things I read, watched, and cooked this year.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share two pieces for Vox recently that readers of this newsletter might enjoy: this month, I wrote a not-intimidating guide to meal planning, including all my strategies/apps/systems I use to meal plan every week (plus great tips from Abigail Koffler of This Needs Hot Sauce and Erica Adler of Fresh Erica). And last month, I wrote about how inflation is hitting grocery prices, and how to still cook and eat well when food is so expensive.

Hope you have a wonderful start to 2023!

The best things I read

The end of mom guilt, by Lara Bazelon in The Atlantic: It’s still pretty taboo for a woman to admit that sometimes she prioritizes her career over her kid(s) — to be a “good” mom, you’re supposed to want to be with your kids more than you care about anything else. So when Lara Bazelon’s article found me during maternity leave, when I was secretly dying to get back to work but afraid to admit it to anyone, it made me think, holy shit, I’ve found someone else like me. I loved it so much that I read a lot more of Lara Bazelon’s work, including her new book Ambitious Like A Mother and her previous New York Times op-ed, “I’ve Picked My Job Over My Kids.” Highly recommend to anyone else who feels like a misfit in a sea of perfect moms.

Your career is just one eighth of your life, by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic: A lot of career advice published online is garbage, but this was the rare piece of actually good career advice, and I’ve found much of it to be true in my career thus far. I especially loved the idea of “explore, then exploit.”

Inside Voices (Real Life Mag), What daily routine videos actually show us (New York Times), The irresistible voyeurism of “day in my life” videos (Vox). I spent a lot of time on Tiktok this year, and regret to admit that I watched way too many of these day in the life / daily routine / clean with me / morning routine / etc type of videos that have proliferated on this app. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t on Tiktok much, but they are strangely addictive. I loved all three of these pieces digging into why there are so many videos of this genre, and why we can’t stop watching them.

I smuggled my laptop past the Taliban to write this story, by Bushra Seddique in The Atlantic: It’s hard to describe this piece, but I will say it’s just an incredible, harrowing personal story, one of those pieces that stays with you for a long time.

The Town of Babylon, by Alejandro Varela: This was by far the best novel I read this year — I wrote about it for Vox as part of our coverage of the National Book Award finalists earlier this year, and I simply loved this story of a young man returning to his hometown for his twenty-year high school reunion.

The best things I watched

The Bear: This show about a chef who moves back to Chicago to take over his family’s Italian sandwich shop is an excellent depiction of what the restaurant industry is really like.

The Dropout: I hadn’t followed the Elizabeth Holmes scandal much before, but this show had me totally hooked. Amanda Seyfried is truly perfect as Elizabeth Holmes — the hair, the VOICE, everything!

Bad Sisters: This whodunit flew a little under the radar, but it was another one that had me totally hooked from start to finish, telling the story of what happens to five sisters when one of their husbands mysteriously dies, starring Sharon Horgan of Catastrophe.

Industry: It took a while for me to appreciate this show. I think it took at least three episodes in for me, so if you don’t like it initially, give it a shot for a little while longer, and it might surprise you. The best description I’ve heard of the show is that it’s like a cross between Billions and Euphoria—two shows I also love, so that sealed the deal for me.

The best things I cooked

Crispy pan-fried shrimp with cabbage slaw and gochujang mayo, Bon Appetit: This BA recipe came out a couple years ago and I had it bookmarked, but didn’t get around to trying it until this year. Once I did, I loved it so much, I made it three times within a month. The gochujang mayo is also my new favorite condiment.

Spiced chicken burgers, Bon Appetit: This recipe is from Chintan Pandya, the famed chef behind all the cool new Indian restaurants in New York, including Dhamaka, Semma, Adda, and Masalawala. It is not hyperbole to say: it is incredible!! It is one of the most flavorful burgers I’ve ever eaten. I will be making them every summer. I wish I had some now.

Bulgogi tofu, New York Times Cooking: I love any excuse to use gochujang, and this recipe was incredibly simple to make and delicious.

Slow cooker crispy chicken tinga tacos, Half Baked Harvest: If you follow Half Baked Harvest recipes a lot, you might know that Tieghan has several crispy taco recipes that vary in terms of ingredients but all feature the technique of folding up the tacos and putting them on a sheet pan in the oven for a few minutes to crisp them up. I can say that after trying several of these recipes, the pro move is to pan fry the tortilla with a little oil on the stove instead of doing the oven and sheet pan trick. (Every time I tried the sheet pan, the bottom side of the tortilla got soggy and fell apart; but frying the taco on the stove made it perfectly crispy.) With that out of the way, enjoy — this recipe is seriously good.

Freezer-friendly breakfast burritos from The Kitchn: These burritos are such a good make-ahead recipe and my husband and I ended up loving them. We made huge batches, froze them, and then had a delicious breakfast awaiting us any time we needed it.

Chicken fajita cobb from What’s Gaby Cooking: This recipe seems simple, but it really surprised me when I made it. The whole thing was so flavorful — the chicken marinade, the combination of veggies, the dressing — that when it all comes together, the final product is much greater than just the sum of its parts.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and subscribing to this newsletter in 2022 — hearing from readers is what makes writing this newsletter so much fun. Happy holidays, and I’ll see you back here in 2023!