i'm trying to distract myself from the collapse of our country with all of the below

In addition to those recently linked recipes, here are a few other things I'm loving lately:

Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
I finally read this (or should I say inhaled? I can't believe how quick of a read this was for me), and it was so good. Beautiful, moving, just the right amount of sad, I'm going to need to read this again.

Watching: Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki
I watched this on Mother's Day by myself, which sounds more depressing than it was. It was fun! This movie is magical and lovely and now my phone home and lock screen are pictures of Howl and Sophie so you know I'm a fan. It also reminded me that there are still so many Miyazaki movies I haven't seen (and aren't available on the holy trinity of Netflix/Hulu/Amazon), and I totally could've checked them out from the library, and I DIDN'T. Now my greatest regret from my time at Penn.

Listening: United States of Eurasia by Muse
I don't know why I love this song so much, but I've listened to it approximately 10,000 times and that Middle Eastern-y part never gets old.

More listening: The Bon Appetit Foodcast
I walk 25 min to/from lab every day, and this podcast makes it go a lot more quickly. The format is conversations among people from Bon Appetit (and often guests) about recipes, culinary techniques, the food world, etc. It's informative and funny and makes me really hungry for dinner when I get home.

MORE more listening: The Alison Show Podcast
I'm a big fan of this podcast, too. I initially thought it might be a little over the top for me (Alison is kind of out of control but in a good way!), but she actually gives a lot of practical, concrete self-improvement tips that put me in a better mood, even if I'm not intentionally focused on implementing all of them.

And finally, sidenote: I'm leaving for Paris and Rome in two weeks from yesterday. (Yay!!!) As a lover of spreadsheets and advanced planning I've already put together itineraries, but if you've been to either city, what was your favorite thing you did/place you ate? Don't want to miss something and have another thing to regret!

better than hot ham water

Hi! I found some good recipes recently:

vegetable soup
I didn't make the basil pistou or the garlic bread, but the soup alone is delicious. Light and healthy without tasting like deprivation.

curried shepherd's pie
This was a great twist on shepherd's pie, but we used our favorite mashed potato recipe (boil the potatoes whole! peel and rice, add butter first, then add way more milk/cream than you think you'll need, salt generously)

red lentil soup with lemon
So much flavor coming from so few ingredients. It's pretty amazing.

Also: I am currently in denial that we are leaving my beloved Philadelphia in less than three weeks. Even though all of my extraneous pieces of furniture are disappearing and my guest bedroom is filling up with boxes, it still doesn't feel real. It's not happening!!!! You can't make me leave!