My Favorite January Bites!

January is dark and cold, but your food doesn't have to be

The Sumo website, very charmingly, calls the citrus’ signature northern nub its “topknot.” Mandarin with a man bun!

We live in a world where we can get almost everything we want, whenever we want it. Zucchini? Year round at the grocery store! Emergency pair of gold, glittery roller skates? Amazon will deliver them tomorrow!* So I love that there are still a few things to look forward to, like produce that is truly only available in-season, for a short window every year.

The only fruit that has me texting “THEY’RE HERE!!!! (orange emoji x100)” from the grocery store is the large and lumpy Sumo mandarin! Have you had one??? They’re always perfectly sweet, seedless, easy (dare I say ENJOYABLE?) to peel, not too pithy, and so spendy you’ll have to pick up a paper route, or sell your spleen, to fund your new habit. But it’s worth it: they’re only available January through April & I don’t even know what my spleen does. Plus: no scurvy!!

*This was how far I made it before springing from my seat and racing to the kitchen fruit basket to grab a Sumo!

“If there was a pasta, yo, I’ll buy it!” - the REAL Vanilla Ice lyrics

If you’re a listener to the excellent The Sporkful podcast, you probably remember host Dan Pashman’s Mission Impastable series, a documentation of his journey to invent a brand new pasta shape. Cascatelli (waterfall in Italian) was released in 2021, with so much fanfare that it took me months to secure a box. But it lives up to the hype! Cascatelli immediately became one of my all-time favorite pastas. I love the texture and sauce loves to snuggle into its grooves and ruffles.

Two weeks ago, Dan announced he was adding two new pastas to the Sfoglini family. He didn’t invent them, but they’re extremely rare shapes that have never been made in the US and are nearly impastable to track down in Italy. I ordered them both immediately and they arrived yesterday! I’m trying to brainstorm the best possible recipe for each shape (My shadow-self wants to see if a Lil Smokey will fit inside that Quatrottini!). What would you make?

Easter is more than four months away, so obviously my grocery store already has an entire aisle dedicated to egg shaped candies. Valentine’s Day WHO?!

I’m here to tell you that holiday shaped Reese’s are the very best Reese’s and the Reese’s Egg is THE MOST SUPERIOR holiday Reese’s!

• The smooth, rounded texture is far more pleasing than the ridged/fluted perimeter of the original Reese’s!

• The peanut butter to chocolate ratio is higher!

• The peanut butter feels fluffier and less dense!

I usually find one on my desk every year, a gift from a sweet co-worker. But now that I’ve left the radio station, and am a shoulder-padded business boss, I figured the only way I was going to get my Reese’s Egg fix was to buy one myself. So I did. And it was good. The End.

If you think this photo’s gross, wait til you see the next one!

Is this photo fairly unappetizing? Did I take this photo last Thursday in a dark rental car in a dark parking lot at 10p? Was the cheeseburger so good that I talked to myself about how good it was, alone, out loud, in said rental car? YES.

Despite living more than half my life in California, I am an In-N-Out late bloomer. But since discovering its majesty a few years ago, I have gone full California cliche, and insist on driving there straight from the airport.

I take pride in having a special order (it makes me feel like I’m a true In-N-Out’r!) and what you’re looking at here is a 2x3: two patties, triple the melty cheese, plain, add caramelized onions. While I agree that a contrast in textures and temperatures is often the key to a cravable dish, I’ve found that lettuce, raw onions and sauces get in the way of a truly perfect In-N-Out burger. My burger is extremely savory, a mouthful of umami, and the only runnerup to that indulgent blob of melty cheese is the melty cheese I get to scrape off the paper with my teeth when the burger is gone.

Told you!

I offset this cheeseburger with the World’s Biggest kale, fennel & avocado salad for lunch and I wish I didn’t feel the need to tell you that.

What’s your In-N-Out order or, gawd forbid, a fast food burger you like better??

A new episode of Your Last Meal drops tomorrow morning, so make sure you’re subscribed so it automatically pops into your podcast player, bright and early!