Hi there,
Rob and I are up in the air, on our way back from a much-needed, much-appreciated mini break in Palm Springs. We left Lilly in Brooklyn with my parents and spent the weekend thawing out by the pool and getting our fill of palm trees and cacti. We definitely took the low-key, low-scene approach to Palm Springs and it suited us quite nicely.
A few desert picks and some other things on my radar:
Palm Springs faves: This was my first trip to Palm Springs, and I definitely get it. The combination of the desert and mountains is pretty spectacular and as someone who loves hotels, I appreciate having a profusion of fun properties to explore. Our goal was to avoid scenes and bachelorette parties, which we accomplished at Sparrows Lodge, a completely magical 20-room property that also has a knockout chicken salad sandwich and chocolate chip cookies. We didn’t do any of the fancy restaurants but did have a bonkers good breakfast at Cheeky’s (thank you, Gina, for the strong rec), excellent fish tacos at the very local Shanghai Reds, and a fun wine-and-snack situation at Counter Reformation inside the Parker Palm Springs.
Winter salads on repeat: It’s definitely still winter in New York and I’m way past my limit on roasted vegetables. We’ve been coping by adding winter citrus—blood oranges, grapefruit, lemon—to everything, including salads. Rob made one with grilled turnips, citrus, greens, and gruyere, from Dinner at the Long Table and it was such a tonic. The recipe isn’t online but this BA post is a pretty great guide to choosing your own citrus adventure.
And burgers for good measure: I asked Rob for homemade smash burgers (Shake Shack-style, well-seasoned patties crispy around the edges) for my birthday and it was a great reminder that we should be making them more often. Serious Eats has a great guide to them, and I highly recommend these sweet potato fries to go on the side.
Rain boots, finally: There are aspects of me that are very very impractical, including the fact that I haven’t owned rain boots since my yellow Hunter ones died in 2010. But I’ve turned a corner with these simple, inexpensive, and comfy Target rain boots. Highly recommend.
Page-turners, fiction: I was hunting for something fun to read by the pool so I went straight to my friend Grace’s blog, The Stripe, where she has tons of amazing book (and beauty and travel and shopping) recs. I downloaded The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and read it, no joke, in a day. Extremely fun and escapist.
Page-turners, non-fiction: I zipped through Ian Parker’s fascinating/disturbing New Yorker profile of novelist Dan Mallory, who appears to be a modern-day Tom Ripley, and Russell Shorto’s New York Times story about a Dutch art dealer who discovered two Rembrandts and started a dramatic feud around them.
Custom shampoo, ooh la la: I just restocked my shampoo and conditioner with Prose, which personalizes its formulas to match your hair type, lifestyle (my bottles say “fitness lover”), geographic location, and more. I have pretty easy hair but find that the Prose formulas do what they say they’re going to: add volume and shine, and smell great (eucalyptus and lavender in my case).
Splurgy slides: My friend Nandita told me I wouldn’t regret these Jenni Kayne suede mules and after wearing them nonstop these weekend, I know she was right. They’re spendy but simple and timeless, and I can’t wait to wear them in New York once the slush subsides.
That’s it for me—time to eat our snack pack and cry my way through an in-flight rom-com.
xx
Mollie
P.S. Work has been bonkers because we have so much exciting stuff coming to Hungryroot, and I can’t wait to share. In the meantime, if you want to try our food, feel free to use my code MOLLIE for half off your first box. My latest faves: our new, nut-free Oatmeal Spice Cookie Dough, and this plantain linguini that cooks in literally three minutes (Lilly loves it too!).
P.P.S. Promise I’ll update this with all latest newsletters!