Welcome to our Monthly Digest, where we recap a month’s worth of books, podcasts, recipes and more. One of our monthly staples is our Dear Bestie/Besty column. We are answering your calls for advice as a mini podcast once a month. If you have a Dear Bestie/Besty question, you can share, anonymously, with us here.
Reading
Guess what?! We’re going to host a book club for the month of June! We are still narrowing down the selections (this, this, and this are on the list as considerations) so if you have any ideas/thoughts/opinions, leave them in the comments! Each week on the pod, we will devote a few minutes to discussing a section of the book and also talk about summer reading, suggested titles for adults and kids, and ways to incorporate reading into your family culture. It’s going to be a fun month!
BKS: This month I finished 3 books, I think? Hard to say because while I keep a book journal, I just jot down the title and rarely date them. But I think April was
-Heartburn by Nora Ephron: FIVE STARS! Gah. What a writing genius.
-Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry: Really liked it, even if it was very similar in parts to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
-Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones: a lovely and soothing collection of essays all about staying put.
KNW: I recently realized that I have the memory of a goldfish and can’t remember what I’ve read. I’ve committed to trying to figure out a system where I can document what I’ve read better than the occasional IG story when I remember. In April, I did manage to read (and have record of):
-Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry: loved it and put it easily in the top 3 of her books for me, maybe top 2. Give me all the layered love stories with developed and interesting characters.
-The Measure by Nikki Erlick: read for bookclub and I am still thinking about it. I can’t wait for her next novel which releases in June.
-The Wedding People by Alison Espach: the first hard copy book I’ve read in I can’t even remember. Enjoyed it and immediately passed it along to a friend.
Watching
BKS: We’ve been on a roll with good shows lately. Starting with Running Point on Netflix. Written and produced by Mindy Kaling, it is hilarious and heartfelt. It’s already been renewed for Season 2, and LAS and I can’t wait for it to return. If you’re at all interested in the actual Papal Conclave starting this week, I recommend watching the movie Conclave on Amazon Prime. It is fantastic and, I think, give you some idea of what the process looks like. After enjoying season 1 of Andor, we’ve jumped back into season 2 and it is as riveting as ever. While we wait for Andor episodes each week, we started The Four Seasons on Netflix. It is so, so good. We are 4 episodes in and I already love all the characters so much and each episode ends on a cliffhanger so you just want to keep going.
KNW: My April TV consumption was a lot of sports (Men’s and Women’s Final Four, The Masters and the NBA Playoffs), but I finally finished The Pitt and 100% stand by my recommendation (noting that episode 8 was a tough hang). I’m thrilled it has been renewed for Season 2. At Betsy’s behest, I’m currently watching Conclave to better understand the Pope election process and have all eyes on the Sistine Chapel until further notice. I also started Running Point because of the sports of it all. Television consumption is the first thing to go when things get busy, so godspeed to my May recap.
Listening
Executive decision to leave ‘audio’ books in the ‘reading’ section, we’re choosing to define listening as podcasts or other auditory content consumed.
BKS: This last month, I’ve been listening to a lot of Olivia Dean, who I learned about from my friend Ashley. I love her music. It reminds me of Corinne Bailey Rae in the best way. Our household has been listening to a lot of Forest Frank, which is super fun and uplifting. We especially love Nothin’ Else, No L’s, and Your Way is Better. And lastly, I’m also into ROLE MODEL and specifically, Sally, When the Wine Runs Out. It’s a bop.
KNW: Because we keep things very real around here, I’ve listened to a lot of Taylor Swift in April. Specifically, The Tortured Poets Department on shuffle, in honor of its first birthday on April 19. I did manage to catch Meghan Sussex’s guest podcast debut on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, and a neighbor sent me a podcast interview with Noah Wyle where he discusses the making of season 1 (the interview starts around the 46:16 mark if you want to skip the other discussion). And for anyone who needs some quiet background music during the chaos of Maycember, this Tortured Poets Piano Covers playlist is a treasure.
Cooking
Have we mentioned it is May?! This means we are getting real fast and loose with what constitutes cooking and how we are defining “dinner.” Here are a couple of home runs from April, when things were a little less manic.
The best April crowd-pleasers in the Storey household:
Bri McKoy’s Banh Mi inspired chicken sandwiches.
The caramelized onion and gouda chicken burgers from AmyLu (I get these at Costco). We ate these on ciabatta rolls for supper, but Luke and I have also been eating them cut up on salads for lunch and they’re great either way!
These sourdough discard cinnamon rolls I made for Easter.
The best April crowd-pleasers in the Winchester household:
April will be remembered as the month the children in my house learned they liked steak. I picked up this Sous Vide Sirloin from Costco, warmed it in a skillet on the stove for 45 seconds, and served it with some simple sides. It was a hit and an immediate rebuy.
Chicken Parm in a skillet. It comes together in 20 minutes and everyone eats it. I use the thin-cut chicken (which pounds out super easy) and I leave the cheese off and just sprinkle fresh parm for those who want it.
Will never not make this banana bread because everyone in house eats it and it’s a great way to use those very brown bananas (which I peel and keep frozen in a container in my freezer).
Speaking of connections, we are quite smitten with the chat feature in the Substack platform. It feels like a group text, without those pesky dings or notification bubbles.
Thanks for hanging out with us in this little corner of the internet. We love it so much and hope you do too. Thoughts and prayers to all of us wading our way through the Maycember of it all. Take your vitamins and be sweet to yourself. xx
Love,
Kristin + Betsy
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