Boats, Games and Ice Barrels

Whatcha got going on this weekend? Our family is flirting with perhaps a long (or short) boat ride to the Cove, a new horror movie opening, maybe some spirited games of Clue? My youngest is getting ready to head back to campus next week, so there’s that chaos. I have a few new recipes I want to try out, some swimming to do, and lots of research, schoolwork and organizing to finish.

Here are twelve yummy things we are loving for the weekend here at Chrysalis Collective:

“Modern Love” Season 2 with Minnie Driver on Amazon Prime.

This article about Biden cancelling student loan debt for those with severe disabilities.

HugglePod Canvas chairs from Hearthsong. So fun for the kids, and statistically proven to be a calming space for children with special needs.

Ice Barrel. I’m considering getting this for myself for Christmas. Cold exposure improves mood and brain health, and activates the nervous system. If it wasn’t so expensive, it would be in my house right now. I took an ice bath at a fancy spa a year ago, and I can’t tell you how good I felt afterward, for DAYS. The price just needs to come down. They are one of my affiliates, but yowsa, the $$ is pricey. Check it out.

10 Quick Dinners With Five Ingredients or Less for Back-to-School chaos. Key word: SLOW COOKER.

“Night House” coming into theaters today. We’re going to see it on Sunday.

“Women of the Week” on M.M. LaFleur. I swear by M.M. LaFleur and Modern Citizen for my teaching style, and their message of feminine power through professionalism and career resonates with me. If you like to look sophisticated and polished, give it a look. I love putting on my work clothes to teach my classes in the fall, then coming home to put on fluffy sweatpants and cashmere sweaters. Is there a more yummy feeling? Live with purpose, ladies.

The iconic American Giant hoodie dress just came out in plum. OMG. I have this hoodie dress in black, blue, and green. They are my casual hang-out, run-errands, read-on-the-patio go-to dresses in the fall, and the first articles of clothing I roll up and put into my luggage when I travel. They are thick, flattering and versatile, and again, not cheap, but I bet my American Giant hoodie dresses will last longer (can you say forever?) than anything you could get at Marshalls.

Another funny slideshow by the Onion: “Major Things Your Teacher Glossed Over in Sex Ed.” Warning: rated R+.

This obscure sweet lilting Lyle Lovett song, “If I Had a Boat.” This song works its way into my heart, lodges in my throat, and reminds me of everything in the world that is good and right and pure. Close your eyes and turn it up.

I will be making these perfect roasted Brussels sprouts this weekend.

Finally, drum roll please….“To Kill a Mockingbird” starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch coming back to Broadway. Huzzah!!!! I’ve seen it twice, third time is the charm. Anyone want to join? Email me and have a great weekend!

Turkey Day Tips

Taking a cue from The Onion’s tips on how to cook the perfect Thanksgiving turkey (https://www.theonion.com/how-to-cook-a-perfect-thanksgiving-turkey), here are my tips on how to shop and prepare for Thanksgiving with as little stress as possible:

  • Leave for grocery store. As you drive, you try to recall what day of the week it is, then laugh, remembering that the concept of time has ceased to have any significance since March 2020.
  • Arrive at grocery store without your list, consider turning back, but assume you’ll know what you need when you see it.
  • Pass by the supermarket pie table, scoffing at the browsing customers who obviously don’t bake their own. Immediately buy 20 Granny Smith apples.
  • Head to the baking aisle. See an older lady buying cream of tartar and evaporated milk. She looks like she knows what she is doing, so you buy them too, having no idea what you use them for.
  • Follow the traffic and buy all of the products at the prominent end aisles, no matter what they are, figuring since everyone else is buying them they must be important.
  • Buy another turkey baster and make plans to misplace it as soon as you get home, as you have every year. Make a note to place “turkey baster” on your list for next year and make concrete plan to lose the list too.
  • Spend an hour in the magazine section looking at People magazine’s “100 Most Beautiful People,” noting that you have missed the list yet again.
  • Buy frozen puff pastry, happy it is on sale, and wonder as usual as to its general purpose. Make plans to freeze it until summer when it is finally freezer-burned and you have to throw it out to make room for freeze pops.
  • Buy way too much butter, sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs and cheese because you always run out of something.
  • Buy apple pie on way to register. Return Granny Smiths.
  • Checkout and see that you have spent $200 dollars on groceries, then agree to meet your friend for decadent lunch.
  • Arrive home, unload your groceries and leave all random non-refrigerated items on side counter, hoping they will assemble into something coherent by power-of-suggestion.
  • Wake up disappointed to see that the strange ingredients have not organized themselves into a recipe on the counter.
  • Read sixty articles on how to defrost the turkey breast, wondering again why there are so many rules. What makes them so fragile? Leave turkey out on counter for a few hours then go to bed, forgetting to put it back in fridge.
  • Wake up and realize what you’ve done and become afraid the turkey is now tainted. Call the country club and order take-out.
  • Donate all dry ingredients.

Happy Thanksgiving!