A recipe and more...
to close out 2024 (IT RHYMES!!!)
New here? Hi! Scroll down for the video link and all the way to the bottom for the recipe!
In this dispatch
Chocolate mousse: the last thing you should eat this year
Hitting Pan: new noodles
What I drink when I’m not drinking
The most perfect T-shirt in the world
A New Year’s Dream
What am I doing for New Year’s? No idea. In my most perfect fantasy, I am a guest at someone’s house for a NYE dinner party, in a room with no clocks, and no one has their phone on the table. We are way off the grid somewhere, so that sounds of the countdown don’t reach us, and the town we’re in banned fireworks long ago, after being lobbied hard by the dog-lover’s association. We are laughing and eating and talking and playing with the candle wax that pools on the table. No one cares that there’s wax dripping all over the place, because this is a super chill party and we’re not uptight about wood varnish. Eventually someone gets up to pee and catches the time on the shower radio in the bathroom, comes back to the table and announces that it’s 12:30 A.M. It happened. We hug and kiss and someone (me?) grabs the chocolate mousse that has been chilling overnight in the fridge. A child is tasked with whipping cream and no one cares that splatters of dairy land in their hair, on the counter, on the ceiling. The child is allowed to spoon all of the whipped cream on top of the chocolate. The big bowl of mousse is set in the center of the table and everyone is given spoons. We eat mousse out of the same bowl and no one has a communicable disease and then we have a dance party in the living room, energized by the sugar and caffeine. But not too much caffeine! Afterwards, we all get 10 hours of sleep and no one has a hangover the next day.
The recipe for Chocolate and Vanilla Mousse is at the bottom of this post.
Hitting Pan: New Noodles
Despite having not posted a Hitting Pan-specific post in a minute, I have been tearing through products that I really loved and look forward to buying again. Every pasta shape that I’ve tried from Flour & Water is excellent, and the textured ones stay intact, even the campanelle, which has thin ruffles on the edges. They’re made with North American-grown semolina and extruded through bronze dies.1
What I Drink When I’m Not Drinking
On my flight back from Paris on November 5, I decided to take a break from alcohol for a while, despite being seated next to a French guy who drank straight through the 8-hour transit. There was no major event that precipitated this—fall cravings for bourbon drinks and a European vacation had just caught up with me. For extra motivation, I bundled the decision with a desire for better sleep habits and more consistency with my workouts. A day later, when the election happened, I would have drank nine thousand margaritas if this new rule hadn’t been in place. I am still tethered to my 2 A.M. bedtime (I know, it’s ridiculous), but the no-drinking has been undeniably great! Here are a few of the n/a drinks I keep stocked to satisfy the craving for a cute little cocktail around dinner time.
Ghia has been in the non-alc game a long time, and their products keep getting better. This zingy lime & salt number is great on ice; I like an extra spritz of fresh lime. I brought the 750ml-size Le Fizz to a Friendsgiving weekend where several people were abstaining, and it was a huge hit.
Fresca is incredible. I cut it 50/50 with seltzer, on ice.
The Superclassico from Casamara looks, smells, tastes, and drinks like an Italian apertivo—think Averna or Cynar spritz. Great with an orange twist. If you prefer less-sweet drinks in general, you’ll love. Also: the branding!
I am fully restocked on on my ride-or-die electrolytes, Superieur; this is a daily libation for me and my boys. I like one scoop each of citrus and raspberry with seltzer; Cosmo is a citrus purist, no bubbles, lots of ice; and Leo has recently taken a fancy to the strawberry lemonade flavor. Having this mixed up in my water bottle at the gym makes me very happy.