Hello! Happy Halloween!! I think October is my favorite month, with spooky decorations appearing all around the neighborhood, a crispness in the air without too much rain (yet), and HALLOWEEN! The month has gone by so quickly and hasn’t been super eventful for me, but I did come up with a lot of things to talk about, so let’s get to it!
Food!
Very excited about a new cookbook my sister sent me as an early Christmas Present! Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon. I love this because it’s organized by vegetable, with a story and section for each veg, in which that particular vegetable is the star of each dish in the section. For example, an entire section of Fennel recipes, Mushroom recipes, Cabbage recipes, etc! All the recipes are vegetarian and there are veg swaps listed for a lot of the recipes too. It’s just a really wonderful cookbook and the recipes are all pretty simple with great flavors!!! I am just obsessed with this cookbook.
Here’s an easy soup I made recently that requires mostly pantry staples, makes a ton, freezes well, and is vegan! Curried Chickpea and Lentil Soup! I like to add some chard or kale to this at the end, but this time I made it with some diced zucchini added to the mix and it worked out great. This soup is hearty and healthy, and perfect for rainy days!
I also made this Chickpeas and Dumplings soup this month, and it was so extremely cozy and comforting. I will definitely be making this or something similar again very soon!
I have one more soup I made this month that I’d like to recommend: Southwestern Bean and Vegetable Posole! This recipe assumes you’re using dry hominy and beans, but you can easily adapt this to use canned if that’s what you have on hand!
Gigi's Cafe is a really cute and delicious spot for brunch that I visited this month! They have so many styles of waffles and other tasty treats! I want to go back and eat all the waffles.
Books
You can shop all my recent reads here: https://bookshop.org/shop/michelleflook (Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.)
I have one non fiction and one fiction book recommendation for you this month!
Non-fiction: Gorilla and the Bird by Zack McDermott. This was a good audiobook, in which Zack details his experience of living with Bipolar I Disorder, which began with a Truman Show style delusion in his 20s, and subsequent treatment/hospital stays/etc. Zack has a straightforward storytelling style, and a dark sense of humor.
Fiction: Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin. I really liked this book. It’s a bit of a slow burn, and a lot different from her previous book (Saint X, which I also loved!), but perfect for spooky season! Dark and moody with a few twists, has a sinister fairy tale vibe, and is less than 300 pages.
TV/Movies
The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix is definitely the most seasonally appropriate series we watched this month. Loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe works, it’s very dark, pretty gruesome, and definitely kept us guessing with the creative deaths of the family members.
Red Rose on Netflix is also pretty seasonal, it’s a pretty serious and dark teen horror show, kind of like an extended Black Mirror episode, in which a phone app manipulates teens to their deaths using social media, etc. We liked it, and they definitely set it up for a second season, so we will see what happens with that.
Savior Complex on HBO, a 3 part documentary focused on a woman who did missionary work in Uganda and is accused of causing the death of MANY Ugandan children by treating them despite having no medical training. This documentary was really eye-opening, upsetting, and sad.
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence is another 3 part documentary that I watched this month. I will pretty much watch anything having to do with Cults, it’s just endlessly fascinating to me. I do feel that the term is used a bit loosely in this context, since it was only like 10 people involved, this is a good series if you’re into this kind of thing, and thankfully a happy ending.
Love is Blind Season 5 came out this month on Netflix and I binged it so fast. I feel like this show is an interesting sociological experiment, but not the most successful. While we are on reality tv, I’d like to shout out to Golden Bachelor for being the most wholesome and sweet reality show, but it just can’t hold a candle to Bachelor in Paradise.
The Enfield Poltergeist on AppleTV is a really interesting look at the world’s most famous poltergeist case. With well done reenactments which include the actors lip-syncing to actual recorded audio, and a replica of the house interior spaces, it’s a good (and spooky!) documentary!
Theater Camp is a really fun and cute movie for people who like mocumentary style movies like Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show. A goofy cast of characters, cute + talented kids, and a perfect hour and a half run length.
Not a new movie, but I watched Easy A for the first time this month and loved it. How did I miss this one?! It’s streaming on Hulu if you also haven’t seen it!
Taylor Swift - The Eras Tour MOVIE! This was the most fun I have had in a movie theater probably ever. Lots of smiling, a bit of dancing, and I even cried a little? I was surprised there were only a handful of people in the theater with us, but it was great, and I suggest you go see this in the theater if you can!!!
Projects!
This quilt finally got finished! This might look a little bit familiar because I used this pattern to make a baby quilt a few months back and I loved the pattern so much I decided to make one for us as well!
Miscellaneous!
This month marks 16 YEARS since I moved to Portland!!! Happy Portland-versary to me!!!
HALLOWEEN!!!! Our friends had an epic Halloween party, and it’s been so long since we’ve done anything for Halloween! We all got dressed up (even Remi) and had a great time with lots of friends. Matthew and Remi even won Spookiest Costume with their matching Skeletons! I dressed as a squirrel, if it’s not obvious.
Remi!
She’s the coziest baby.
Goodbye, until next month!
xoM