Friday Favorites
Ranchero Black Bean Dip, Your Friends & Neighbors, and my dream Mother's Day gift.
Welcome to Friday Favorites! This quick glimpse of my week goes out to all subscribers (free and paid). I include a fan-favorite recipe, something I’m watching, reading, or listening to, a recent find (or two), and a weekly win. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
What I’m Cooking
After Monday’s Cinco de Mayo fiesta, I ended up with a ton of leftover homemade black beans in the fridge, which I’ll use for my favorite Ranchero Black Bean Dip. To make it, I use the black beans from my Instant Pot recipe and add them to a food processor along with some chopped shallot and jalapeño and 1/4 cup of salsa verde (Herdez brand or Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde works great). You can sauté the shallot and jalapeño to soften them and caramelize their flavors, or add them to the food processor raw. I add about 1/4 cup of cilantro leaves as well, but if you’re not a fan of cilantro, just leave it out. The black beans from my Instant Pot recipe are already seasoned, but if you want to make this with a couple cans of drained and rinsed black beans, add a teaspoon each of chili powder, garlic powder, cumin and kosher salt. Mix everything up until smooth and taste for seasoning; serve with tortilla chips. P.S. You can also make this a little creamy by adding 1/2 cup of ranch dressing to the mix when you purée the ingredients.
You can find all the SITK recipes I’ve shared on Substack in my Recipe Index.
What I’m Watching
My brain is too fried to catch up on my “TBR” right now. I downloaded a few books last weekend and haven’t gotten hooked by any of them, but I attribute that to my May focus level and not the books themselves. I’ve been loving my weekly escape watching Your Friends & Neighbors on AppleTV and Prime Video. Great cast (Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn are two of my favorite actresses), slightly kooky premise and good writing. Has anyone watched The Pitt? If so, report back. I need something to fill the gaps!
What I’m Coveting
Oh, man. I went down a rabbit hole recently on Dorsey and fell in love with this turquoise necklace, but unless someone plans to gift it to me (hint-hint), it’s not something I’m pulling the trigger on right now.
You might want to check out the Mignon Gavigan sale. I’ve met Mignon a couple of times, once when I hosted friends for a happy hour at Kitchenette Farm during the Round Top Antique Show and again at The Southern C conference, and she is such a sweet and kind human! Mignon’s jewelry company is having an Insider Event on her site right now, and if you spend $175, you get 20% off. Check out her jewelry, I love her scarf necklaces with a white t-shirt and jeans! I also like both her simple earrings and her more whimsical food-themed studs, and these metallic feather earrings.
I have a weekend at home and I’m in the mood to do some spring closet cleaning. When I do this with my girls, we typically send a bag of items to ThredUp via the Reformation collab. Then after our bag is processed, I use a Reformation credit for one of my girls. I like the idea of “upcycling” clothing that’s still in good shape. We used part of our last credit to get these studded jeans for my youngest, which look so darn cute on her.
This Week’s Win
Yesterday, I was reading Caroline Chamber’s Mother’s Day gift guide and loved her quote about being clear about your expectations for the day. Communicating well is a key to happiness, in my humble opinion. As Brené Brown says, “clear is kind.” So, in the spirit of setting clear expectations, I sent a message to my family group text and requested dinner at home Sunday night. Preferably tri-tip or burgers on the grill, so the mess stays outside and we can jump in the pool while the food is cooking if the weather is nice. As of Saturday afternoon, all my kids will be home for a blip, so I plan to soak up time with them before internships, summer school programs and jobs begin.
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GIFT CARD
Looking for a Mother’s Day or “just because” gift for your best friend, mom, sister, or aunt Sally? I have the perfect idea! You can gift a subscription to my Substack! The annual subscription can start whenever you want!
Order my award-winning cookbook, Dinner is Done! It includes over 100 weeknight and family-friendly recipes, including chapters on meatless mains, fish and sauces, appetizers and snacks, cocktails, desserts and more.
