Festive advice for festive people
The Thanksgiving serving trick I'm saving for Christmas, a hack for finding the perfect fairy-lights-to-tree ratio, and the best Sunday night noodles.
A happy belated Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! And a happy what-the-fuck-is-this-weather to everyone on Australia’s east coast right now.
I spent the weekend celebrating a friend who’s getting married in January, losing my voice at karaoke, eating my first slices of Christmas ham, and ignoring push notifications about the Omicron variant.
Here’s what I have for you this week!
A Thanksgiving Hack I’ll Be Saving For Future Dinner Parties
My scrolling finger stopped in its tracks when I saw this photo on the NYT Cooking Instagram last week. As someone who has a pad of Post-It notes in almost every room of the house, I love this idea of labelling serving dishes ahead of a big lunch or dinner.
As someone noted in the comment section, these notes make it really easy to assign a willing helper an easy task in the kitchen (put potatoes in dish labelled ‘potatoes’) as you’re putting the final touches on your meal.
A Hack For Buying The Perfect Amount Of Fairy Lights
Speaking of The Festive Season, I’m still tossing up whether or not to get a tree this year. On the one hand, I’m desperate to have a real tree during our first December in this house. On the other, I live with a small dog who enjoys bringing sticks in from the yard and chewing them into a million tiny pieces—I can only imagine the havoc. But if you are set on getting a tree, may this advice help you decorate it perfectly!
According to Real Simple, the best lights-to-tree ratio is one 150-bulb strand of lights for every foot of tree. So, if you have a six-foot tree, you should look to decorate it with six strands—or 600 to 1200—lights.
And A 20-Minute Noodle Recipe That’s The Perfect Sunday Night Dinner
Every morning through lockdown, my team would share what they had for dinner the night before in Slack. Beyond being a wholesome way to start the day without jumping straight into work requests, dinner Slack chat has naturally resulted in good recipes being shared within the team.
After my colleague Jules dropped ‘dan dan noodles’ in the chat several weeks in a row, a few of us politely requested the recipe, which I finally tried last night. A perfect Sichuan spaghetti bolognese and soupy ramen hybrid, the recipe comes together using a handful of pantry staples including chicken stock, peanut butter, white vinegar, and light soy sauce. I highly recommend making it the next time you feel like getting food delivered, but don’t actually want to get food delivered (me most Sunday nights).
That’s everything I have for you this week!
Gyan x
This recipe had me at "10m prep | 10m cook" Thanks Gyan!