🚬Smoke, Succession & a Styles Super Bowl?🔥
+ A new Shit You Should Cook About!
Besties - this newsy is coming at you late (but what is time?) this morning because Bel and I have been up at an ungodly hour to record some new episodes of Own The Feels (our breakup podcast) for you!!! I’m sure you’ll forgive me though because the episodes actually slayed and I’m really excited for you to hear them when they drop!!
AND BOOK CLUB PSA!
Bel and I are hosting our first lil Shit You Should Read About check-in tonight in the Substack chat at 7pm NZT!! It will be chill - we’ll pose a question (that hopefully won’t lead to spoilers) and just hang out for a while and chat books! Sound cute? If you’ve got FOMO you can hang out by becoming a paid supporter 🥺
See you tonight!!!
Have you seen the air in NYC at the mo?
Our Succession wrap-up ep is out!
Massively unconfirmed: Harry Styles might headline the Super Bowl
Dam it! A huge dam was destroyed in Ukraine
Shit You Should Cook About: Heartburn Pasta 🍝❤️🔥
And finally, let me clear something up
Have you seen the air in NYC at the mo?
Feels absolutely otherworldly to have been in New York City literally LAST WEEK, laying about in Central Park, touching grass, enjoying the first few days of summer, to log on this morning and see absolutely apocalyptic (sorry, overused adjective) scenes coming out of the city:
Smoke from wildfires in Canada has quickly descended on the city, causing air quality levels to become the worst they’ve ever recorded.
From The New York Times:
“A plume of Canadian wildfire smoke rapidly darkened the skies of New York City and sent the air quality index soaring past 400 on Wednesday, well into the “hazardous” range and the worst since the Environmental Protection Agency began recording air-quality measurements in 1999.”
As well as engulfing the city in a deep sepia tone à la Selena Gomez’s ‘Who Says’ music video, the worseing air quality is incredibly dangerous for people with respiratory issues (and just people in general) and could last for a few more days.
Our Succession wrap-up ep is out!
In a fictional New York where the air is breathable and the Roys run the roost, Succession has come to an end. Dunc, Bel and I wrap it all up in this hilarious episode of Culture Vulture which you simply must listen to:
Massively unconfirmed: Harry Styles might headline the Super Bowl
Basically this all came from ‘independent reporters’ on Twit and places like ‘Pop Hive’ so honestly I don’t really think there’s much truth to it, but funny to think about a bunch of Harries sitting through the whole Super Bowl just to watch the performance!!
Dam it! A dam was destroyed in Ukraine
A stupid title for a very serious event. A dam in a Russian-controlled area of southern Ukraine was destroyed yesterday, and while it’s still unclear exactly what happened, the effects have been devastating.
The dam is next to the city of Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, and holds back a reservoir that is so huge locals call it the Kakhovka Sea - because you cannot see the opposite bank in certain places.
Flooding has obviously been the primary concern, but there are also concerns about the Zaporizhzia nuclear power station, which is about 130km upstream (the reservoir provided cooling water for this plant, but is rapidly draining.)
More on the dam burst here.
Shit You Should Cook About: Heartburn Pasta 🍝❤️🔥
Shit You Should Cook About is written by London Laura - our resident ray of sunshine and co-host of Culture Vulture (our weekly pop culture podcast!) She’s a new London dweller, chief of romanticising literally everything, and will definitely ask you all what your love language is at some stage. You can find more Shit She Should Cook About over here!
Helloooooooo!!!!!
Wow, a week away feels like a lifetime and only affirms that this space is SUCH a joy to be a part of!!! I said this on last weeks Culture Vulture pod to Luce but I feel so lucky that I have this whole move to London essentially documented in these weekly debriefs with you!! It’s coming up to a year since I left Aotearoa which I can’t quite believe as it feels like truly a lifetime ago - for my veteran travellers is this normal? To celebrate we are popping to Greece to go live my Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants/ Daisy Jones & The Six dreams so if you’re in the mood for a LOT of gyros content I’ll be documenting it all here!!
Todays recipe is likely Luce’s worst heartburn nightmare - I promise I’ll come back from holiday with only Greek salads and calamari on the brain but for today it’s indulgent, savoury , salty, creamy and basically an overload of all the foods I adore. Roasting toms for an hour is a labour of love so for a quick(er) meal I would suggest house party pasta or nothing left in the pantry cacio e pepe and save this for a rainy day!! But it also comes together relatively fast once roasted, and in that hour you could call a soul-friend, read the first chapter of Romantic Comedy or listen to almost all of Renaissance (DID I MENTION I WENT LAST WEEK!!!). Enjoy 💘💘💘 xxxx
Roast Tomato & Garlic Vodka Rigatoni (Heartburn Pasta)
1 onion
1 garlic bulb
1 tblsp tomato paste
500g cherry/ small tomatoes
Chili flakes
1 tblsp cream cheese / mascarpone
olive oil
White wine / vodka (a dash!)
Sprinkle salt & pep
Parsley
Parm / cheese to top
Pasta (however many you are serving)
Feeds 2-4!
Chop your tomatoes - in halves or leave whole if they are teeny! Peel the onion and cut in half, slice the entire garlic bulb in half (doing this makes mefeel very *chef* and you can pop the garlic cloves out easier later). Nestle it all into a casserole / deep baking dish. Pour olive oil over the whole lot, sprinkle with s&p and slide into the oven to bake, cooking for about an hour on 150C / 300F.
When these are done and smelling gorgggg remove from the oven and set aside. Heat 1 tblsp of oil in a pan and add your tomato paste and chili flake if using. Add your cooked cherry toms and squeeze out your garlic cloves straight into the pan (I use them all but depending on your preference you could use half or even just one). Cook for 5-10 mins until everything is looking suitably rich, then pour a little bit of white white / vodka into the pan to *deglaze* - this means any sticky bits will start to come off the bottom of the pan - and cook for another 5 or so. Stir in the cream cheese / mascarpone until everything looks creamy (add more depending on how creamy you want it) and reduce the heat. Boil some water for your pasta of choice, cook it up and once ready add to the sauce, stirring through until every piece is coated in the glossy sauce. Top with parsley / cheese 💘
And finally, let me clear something up:
Sometimes it’s okay to be wrong! Just not this time.
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the smoke looks terrifying! i’m scared if harry does superbowl (opens him up to a whole new world of people!!) but means he’ll probably do it haha
"...Just not this time" as the last line ABSOLUTELY WRECKED ME 😂🤣😂 savage Luce mic drop!!