Hi guys! Thank you so much for all your wonderful responses to last week’s newsletter on mental health. To give you a peek at what I was seeing, here’s a smattering of a few of your comments: "I've already started incorporating some of these tips"; "I'm about to start a 12-week wellness challenge, so this letter came at the perfect time" (so cool of you!); "I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me!" I’m happy the letter resonated. To tell you the truth, I was a little anxious about it because mental health can be so touchy — and I’m not a professional, just a curious gal with room to improve — so I’m relieved you guys found some of my tips (and Greer’s) helpful!

Now, onto this week’s hot topic (literally): cooking! As it happens in early fall, I found myself on a Monday night craving soup — fun fact about me: I love soup! I cobbled together a few different recipes, threw some chicken and veggies in my Le Creuset, and dinner came together in about 27 minutes (it would 100% be faster for you because I always slightly overcomplicate things in the kitchen). As I was enjoying every brothy tortellini-y spoonful while watching the game, I realized, and maybe this is a bad analogy but we’re going with it: Making soup is kind of like making a quesadilla, you really can't f*ck it up — and it’s always comforting and delicious!

So…we’re making my soup today! It’s inspired by a chicken noodle but turned into a chicken noodle with spinach and tortellini(?) soup. It’s SO good. I ate it for dinner Monday night and then for breakfast the next morning (actual soup >>> cereal).

My skill level, for context: I usually read through a couple of recipes and adapt my own. I’m not a precise measurer and don’t have great time management skills (like, I’ll chop my vegetables but forget the spinach in the fridge and throw it in last minute — I get there in the end!). Also, I’ve found that I can either make something that tastes bomb but the presentation is a little off or vice versa; it's hard for me to nail both and that’s okay! It’s just a weeknight dinner, nbd.

The shopping list (general guidelines — feel free to embellish):

- Onion

- Carrots

- Celery

- Spinach

- Thyme

- Oregano

- S&P

- EVOO

- Chicken broth

- Heavy cream

- Chicken breast

- Cheese tortellini

- Egg noodles (optional but recommended)

The big ‘ol pot of soup recipe:

It starts with the basic onion, carrot, and celery. My mom tells me to keep this in the fridge at all times because almost every soup starts with this base. If you’re getting particular, I'd say a yellow onion over a white onion or a sweet onion. Big carrots, but I'm cutting them up, so size doesn’t matter. I tend to over-index on carrots and celery because I think you can never have too much. Chop ‘em up.

Pull out the chicken breast. I buy organic, but it’s whatever you want. I seasoned it with a little salt and pepper. Cook the chicken in a pan on medium/high heat with oil; I use good-quality extra virgin olive oil. I cut into the chicken to make sure it's done. Then I throw the cooked chicken in a stand mixer to shred it, which is my favorite trick ever (this is a great tip for chicken salad, too). I usually mix for 2 to 3 minutes max, but you can decide how shredded you want your chicken.

Sauté the veggies (also in EVOO). You can use the same pan. Add the spices. I had fresh thyme, but normally I don't, and I'll just use dried. Then some oregano.

In a big pot, add the sautéd and herbed veggies, shredded chicken, chicken broth, the tortellini, and a splash of heavy cream. I also add some egg noodles, about a handful, simply because I love egg noodles. I let it all simmer on a lowish heat and waited for the boil. At this point, I remembered the spinach lol. So I chopped that up and added it in at the end. Although I feel like you’d want to do this anyway because spinach wilts in like a second.

And that’s dinner! With soup, I always feel like I want something to dip (bread), but with this recipe, I didn’t even need it. I ladled the soup into my favorite new chalkboard bowls from Diane Keaton’s collection with Hudson and Grace — she’s so freaking cool, and the bowls are great. Speaking of…

A mini kitchen tour!

One of my favorite things about Florence Pugh (also if you haven’t watched Cooking with Flo - it’s a must watch) is that she gifts her friends chef’s knives. A little weird, right? No, she does it so she has a good knife to use when she goes over to their house and cooks! How cool to be that friend? Similarly, my kitchen is filled with things I’ve gifted to my boyfriend or tools I’ve been gifted over the years, which makes everything feel very special!

● Miyabi Kaizen chef’s knife: I got this knife for Josh last year for Christmas because cooking is something we love to do together. For Christmas, he got me…the same one in a different colorway! After we exchanged our knives lol, he told me there's an old wives’ tale that if you gift your significant other a knife, you have to pay for it, otherwise it signifies the severing of a relationship. So we exchanged quarters so we didn't have that bad omen. Anyway, oh my God, I love this knife! I don't know much about a chef's knife, but it is just so nice and makes me feel official.

● Big ol’ pot: I love my large Dutch oven, the Le Creuset. I got this big 'ol red one from my parents last year for the holidays. I have a white one too. They’re perfect for all my soups.

● Stand mixer (amazing for shredding chicken): I have the Kitchen Aid stand mixer in silver. I like how it looks on the counter, and I reach for it all the time — like when I want shredded chicken. Also, I pull it out when I’m baking my chocolate chip cookies (keep scrolling for that recipe).

● Decorative paper placemats: Greer turned me onto these great paper placemats (she has the best taste). I like that you can get multipacks with different designs. They're just so easy.

● Coffee-table cookbooks: If it's 3pm on a weeknight and I need to make a dinner with the things I already have, I go on Pinterest and type 'soup with tortellini and spinach” — and I’ll find a random recipe. But if I have time, I prefer pulling a recipe from a physical cookbook. I have a collection, which I started because I wanted a little book display on my counter (like a coffee table book for the kitchen). Now I have a bunch of great ones. My most-used cookbooks are by Half-Baked Harvest. I love that you feel a sense of family when you flip through Tieghan’s recipes.

Something sweet to finish:

I haven’t shared this with anyone, but I’ve been tweaking my homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe for years and I finally nailed it. I love these cookies and LOVE you guys so I wanted to share it here!

You’ll find it’s pretty much your standard choc chip recipe, with the addition of 2 extra ingredients that I think make a huge difference: cake flour and a hint of cinnamon. Another thing I do differently that I never used to do is chill the dough, so don’t skip that step, if you can help it:)

2 sticks salted butter

1 cup white sugar

1½ cups packed light brown sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (have you ever tried making your own vanilla extract? Maybe that’s next..)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup cake flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1½ tsp. Salt

Lots of milk chocolate chips. I’ll add in some white chocolate chips if I’m feeling *frisky*.

Melt the butter! Let it cool.
In a stand mixer, mix together brown and white sugar with butter.
Add in vanilla.
Add in baking soda.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly add this mixture to the mixer.
Add in all your chocolate chips/mix-ins.
Then CHILL! At least 2 hours and up to 24!
Make sure the dough is close to room temp before scooping onto baking sheet and placing in oven at 350 for (depending on the size of your cookies) 10-12 mins.
ENJOY!