grazing the internet, December edition

Hello from New Orleans, after a sad, strange couple of days. Here's everything I'm glad I read across the world wide web in December.

Lately: I’m typing this on Jan. 2 from a coffee shop in Uptown New Orleans. I’ve been here since New Year’s Eve; my husband is covering the Sugar Bowl, and I tagged along. The trip has played out much differently than we imagined after Wednesday morning’s horrific attack in the French Quarter, which delayed the game and left Jesse moonlighting as a non-sports reporter for a day. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for awhile, you’ll know I consider New Orleans to be something like a second home, making this tragedy hit just a little bit harder, and it was eerie seeing the images of a deserted Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day. I don’t have any great insight to add and am mostly just sending all the positive thoughts to the victims, their families and this beautiful city. … With all of that said, here’s a slightly delayed round-up of stuff I’m glad I read (and, in one case, listened to) last month.

New Orleans, Jan. 1, 2025

The 14 best cookbooks of 2024 — by Paula Forbes in The Washington Post … read this if you:

• like buying or gifting cookbooks

• are looking for new places to find recipes

Out-of-context excerpt¹: The second half is where things get really interesting. Those sciencey pastry books I mentioned? They tend to use simple, classic recipes to illustrate big pastry concepts: tarte Tatin to discuss caramelization, say, or a vanilla layer cake in a section on buttercream. And while Lamb offers plenty of classics, the majority are her own concepts: a tarte Tatin built on tomatoes and fennel instead of apples, cake layered with pistachio mousseline and swathed in salted vanilla buttercream.

Tycoon or Tradwife? The Woman Behind Ballerina Farm Makes Her Own Path — by Julia Moskin in The New York Times … read this if you:

• follow Ballerina Farm (or briefly followed her after this summer’s Times of London Story, then unfollowed in a state of confused horror² like I did)

• will click on any headline that contains the word “tradwife”

Out-of-context excerpt: A panful of snow-white beef tallow sat on the counter next to a supply of fresh herbs and an unusually elegant KitchenAid mixer. “Jennifer Garner sent me that,” she said sheepishly, as if worried she might be name dropping.