Three Things

My complete Super Bowl menu, a so-good, so-easy dinner, and great books doing great things

Feb 05, 2025

Greetings eaters and readers! A little feel-good news for you right at the top: Did you see that Barbara Kingsolver, author the novel I’ve maybe mentioned more than any other in this space, has used proceeds from Demon Copperhead to open a recovery house in her community for women struggling with addiction? “If you bought and read Demon,” she wrote, “you’ve already contributed to our project. And you understand that for all the real kids like Demon, a little support can make the difference between salvation or being orphaned.” Not that we all needed another reason to love her but omg, there you go. In other news, I joined Molly Stevens and Kristin Donnelley on the wonderful Everything Cookbooks podcast for a seriously nerdy deep dive into cookbook writing. I talked about my own non-process process, my Dinner Diary turning 27* (!) this month, and of course the origin story of The Weekday Vegetarians. I really loved talking to them — Kristin and Molly are such pros, and amazingly, I don’t think I mentioned my peanutty-cabbage-tofu dinner once in the entire hour, which has to be a podcast record of some kind. Give it a listen if you can. Lastly! Did you see the dips-to-desserts Super Bowl Menu (+ shopping list + those go-to nachos up there) I sent to subscribers last week? You’re covered for game day, if so. And now! Your Three Things…

*I’ll have a fun announcement about this next week

1. This Week in No-Brainer, No-Recipe Recipes

We spent last weekend helping one of our daughters move into a new place, and in between the hauling and the string-light draping and Ikea-instruction-cursing, we only really had time for eating things that fell into what I’d call the Grab-and-Go Bread-and-Cheese food group: Pizza, bagels and cream cheese, Triscuits with Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar. (I forgot how good Triscuits are!) I was absolutely not complaining, but by the time we pulled into our apartment on Sunday night, hands callused and bellies grumbling, we were craving a quick meal that included at least an ingredient or two that had sprung from the earth’s soil. Enter: Niçoise, also known in our house as Niçoise-ish Salad because it does not include actual Niçoise olives…or any olives at all. (Catering to a certain hater in the house, aka me.) What it does include: A can or two of good-quality tuna (preferably Italian, olive-oil packed), hard-boiled eggs, and yellow potatoes that are tossed in a little bit of the mustardy-shallot dressing while they are still warm to infuse them with as much flavor as possible. After that, it can be rounded out with whatever you like or, more to the point, with whatever you got. Here’s the how-to…

A summer Niçoise from the archives, so pretty!

Nicoise-Ish Salad

In a large bowl combine any of the following:

Hard-boiled eggs, quartered as shown (I’d say 1 1/2 per diner)
Potatoes (preferably red or fingerling, halved and boiled for 10-12 minutes until tender then tossed in enough of the mustardy-shallot dressing to coat all potatoes)
Olive-oil packed tuna (such as Cento-brand), one 5-ounce can per 2 diners
Green beans (lightly boiled in salt water about 4 minutes, they should be tender but not mushy)
Carrots, sliced thin
Radishes, sliced thin
Lettuce (Bibb, gem, Romaine)
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Niçoise olives (which will take the “ish” out of Niçoise-ish)

Toss with this mustardy-shallot vinaigrette:

2 teaspoons Dijon
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar (or a mix)
1 tablespoon minced shallots
pinch sugar
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Whisk or shake all ingredients in a small bowl or jar until emulsified.

2. Heart Hack

Here’s your annual reminder that it’s not necessary to buy a fancy heart mold for that Valentine’s Day cake you’ve been planning to bake for that special someone next week. Just use one 9-inch square pan and one 9-inch round pan and assemble as shown. Rosa’s Mud Cake is pictured, but it works with any cake recipe.

3. Notes on Immersive Reading

Last week I had the good fortune to go for a walk with Gretchen Rubin, who, you probably know, presides over a multi-tentacled enterprise devoted to happiness — in addition to her bestselling books, she also writes one my favorite newsletters and hosts the Happier with Gretchen Rubin Podcast. Whenever I spend time with her, I feel like an old-school reporter following her around with a little notepad because she’s always reading or working on something interesting, or taking on a new personal challenge, which inspires her followers to do the same. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with such a commitment to self-betterment — take for example our walk itself, which was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she goes every single day. Not so different than a walk in the park, when you think about it, if the point is to be surrounded by beauty.

Anyway, as we were gazing into the stormy Winslow Homers in the American Wing — this was after she told me she’s picked up daily watercolor painting, but before she told me about her goal to become a real Knick’s fan — Gretchen mentioned that she was partaking in the War and Peace Slow Read, where she reads one chapter of the Tolstoy novel every week all year long. This might sound familiar to you — Simon Haisell writes about Slow Reads on his Footnotes & Tangents newsletter, “exploring books together at a gentle pace” and this is the third year he’s taking on War and Peace with his extremely devoted readers. Blame the headlines I guess, but I feel more inspired than ever by these innovative community-building ideas, especially as they relate to books, and I wanted to be sure you knew about it. Plus, I’ve been in a strange stretch of reading right now, new and old, fiction and nonfiction, and even though this month’s books — Hidden Valley Road, Good Material, JFK Jr., We Do Not Part — were each excellent in their own way, I have been craving a different, more immersive experience, something that helps me feel far away when I turn off the light and drift off to dream world. (Again: headlines.) Maybe a Slow Read is the answer. (Or maybe this novel which has been on my to-read list for approximately 10 years is the answer.) What do you think? Have you read anything you’d describe as immersive? Have you ever done a Slow Read? I’d love to hear about it.