january

I came back to Boston a few days into the new year. Settling into the rhythm of things after being away from the place you call home is always a luxury. Having all your things in one place and not in a suitcase is wonderful, although I did end up wearing the same outfit all month long—blue jeans, a sweatshirt, thick socks, and boots.

I went out for the first time in a long time the first weekend of the year. My friend Ceci and I drank good wine and danced through the streets and into a bar with her friends. We danced and danced and danced all night long. I was in bed by 11:30—success.

The first two weeks of the month saw a love affair with ground chicken. (Hear me out.) There were lemon basil meatballs to throw into salads and garlic parm meatballs for pasta. Then Matt and I ate bowls of coconut rice, fresh herbs, and incredibly savory ground chicken after a day of (unsuccessful) art hunting, but I did find my dream couch in a warehouse in Waltham. We eventually found just the perfect piece for the living room on Facebook Marketplace, and the artist even drove up from Connecticut to deliver it to us.

In an effort to reconnect with my teen self, something I’m leaning into this year, I logged back into Tumblr and read Alexa Chung’s It. I ate lots of avocado toast (am I aging myself?) and ventured into my archive, the articles of clothing I’m saving for my future children. If you know me, you know I love to thrift, but I made a promise to myself that I’d limit my spending this month, so dipping back into old clothes would have to hold me over. I squealed with delight when a top that used to be too big on me hung snug around my body. That’s growing up for you.

We went on a double date to june bug in Somerville on one of the coldest nights of the month. It’s some of the best pizza I’ve had outside of New Haven (pine nut agrodolce and spinach, brussels and smoked cheddar), but their charred cabbage really takes the cake.

sorry, no pictures of the food. i was being present.

The drinks of January were anything but dry. Matt loves this ginger simple syrup I make, so I made a TikTok of it before the short-lived ban, and it ended up going viral. I call it our “house drink”—ginger ale on fire:

• 2 cups sugar

• 5-6 inches of ginger, grated on a microplane

• 2 cups water

• Optional: juice of 5-6 limes

1. Add sugar and ginger to a sauce pot and work the ginger into the sugar with your hands. (We’re trying to get the most out of it.)

2. Add water and bring to a boil. Let sugar dissolve and remove from heat.

3. Let ginger steep for 10-15 minutes. Strain.

4. Optional step: Once syrup is cool, add lime juice.

Make it in bulk; it stores in the fridge for about a week. I like mine with a can of seltzer—do an ounce or two of syrup depending on how sweet you like it. It also goes well with vodka, gin, whiskey, you name it. As for wine, I finished up a bottle of Doodle White (Temjanika and Riesling Italico), a yeasty, citrusy, apple-y white from Aleksandar Todorovic. At work we have a Spanish chilled red on draft at the moment that is everything I love in a beverage—salty, herby, fruity, kind of like kombucha. La Vivi Dora from Finca Parera. Apparently it comes in a bag!

I had friends over for a night of chicken cutlets after watching a Molly Baz video on giardiniera slaw. For dessert I served the cookies I forgot to bring home for the holidays—chocolate chips with dried cherries and pistachios. We drank a bottle of Gamay that my parents brought back from their trip to France over the summer.

I worked a lot towards the end of the month which meant my poor roommate was left to fend for himself most nights. But when we were able to come together, I made sure to do a good job. One night we had cutlets and slaw. Another night I made steak frites and butterscotch budino. I loosely followed an Alison Roman recipe for the salad we had that night and can see it being made on repeat. Little gem, arugula, dill, chopped lemon, toasted pistachios, honey, and parmesan. Then Matt proceeded to cream me in Monopoly.

The work I keep mentioning is my job at a wine bar. I started working there back in September, and it’s become one of my favorite places in the whole wide city. We went candlepin bowling for our staff party and chowed down on hundreds of tacos. It was epic.