Benediction #68
Mollie | soup season, a 5-star read, & coco
eating
September 1 is soup season around here, so let’s do a quick link round up of some of my faves!
Lemony Chicken Soup - This is in constant rotation during soup season. I cook this on the stove and use 1/4 cup of heavy cream instead of the marscapone or 1/2 cup of cream in the recipe. You can also speed things up by boiling your potatoes ahead of time.
Pumpkin Chili - Another Bri McKoy recipe and the best spin on chili. I typically use Schlafly’s pumpkin beer.
Taco Soup - We have taco soup a couple times a month during soup season but I feel like I never make it the exact same way? I kicked off the season with this recipe last week, omitting the pinto beans. I also cooked ahead by browning the beef and onions and then throwing everything in the crockpot around lunch time.
Dutch Oven Beef Stew - This one takes a while, but is completely worth it.
reading
How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key — In one line: A memoir of what happens when your sweet Christian wife has an affair. How can a memoir like that be laugh out loud funny as often as it is heartbreaking? HSK figured it out. The title gives it away (they do indeed stay married), but the story is quite the rollercoaster. Alex and I both read this and have texted about it multiple times. While it left us both with questions, we also both loved HSK’s writing style.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett — You’re seeing this book everywhere right now, for good reason. A book that goes back and forth between March 2020 (a book set in the pandemic, but *not* a pandemic book) and the 1980s, when the narrator was an actress for a small summer theater production of Our Town. That summer the narrator had a romance with a now-famous actor, and she tells the story to her 20-something daughters, who are all home at the family’s Michigan cherry farm due to the pandemic. It’s a warm hug of a book. Meryl Streep narrates and I went back and forth between my hard copy and the audiobook (lucking out that my hold of the audio version was available on the Libby app). Absolutely on my 5-star list for this year.
loving
First, I’ve become full-on obsessed with Coco Gauff over the last week. I’m writing this on Friday night so we don’t know if she’s our US Open Women’s Champion yet, but even if not, I’m just so impressed by her. Skip to 16:30 of this interview from this week for the perfect example of why. Keep in mind that she’s *19 years old* when you listen.
Second, I’ve been listening to my car stereo A LOT these last couple weeks, and aside from my usual rotation of The Popcast, The Lazy Genius, and Bad on Paper, these are highlights:
NPR’s Up First — I don’t always need the deeper dive of NYT’s The Daily and sometimes I’d rather just here the “here’s what else you need toknowtoday.” (see what I did there?) This is that, in about 12-15 minute episodes.
Blame Brett by The Beaches — First this song heard on TikTok, and then they played it on Alt Nation and I thought “where has this band been all my life?!” Something about them makes me feel like I’m 19 again.
The Bright Method Podcast — I’ve loved Kelly’s Nolan podcast as food for thought on time management and career stuff. She’s a great Instagram follow, too!
‘Til next month, friends!
Wishing you well,
Mollie