Some favorite things from 2023
Dear friends,
Happy New Year! We are sending you so much love, today and for the whole year ahead.
But before we jump forward, we put together our family’s look back – our “best of 2023” lists. We hope you enjoy.
Quick family highlights this year: Lucas starred in a viral video and launched into a great first year of high school; Ida is a proud owner of three fish in a 10 gallon tank and an enthusiastic Girl Scout (watch out for her cookie sales soon). The two of us have had some major highs and lows this year (too much for a short paragraph), but we feel incredibly lucky to be weathering the storms together. We have also been held by community, again, in so many life-giving ways – thank you, thank you, thank you.
Wishing for peace, love and safety for everyone in 2024.
Love,
Krista, Burke, Lucas and Ida
Krista’s Top 10 Food and Drink of 2023
I feel too daunted to write about books this year (I am fortunate to be reading a lot for school and pleasure, but there are too many for me to narrow down). This year I’ve been enjoying food so much… and I’ve had the gift of so much food. And so, here is a list – incomplete and far too short – of some of the best things I’ve had the pleasure of eating and drinking this year.
10. Homemade spring rolls with Ida
Ida loves food sometimes (pastries, pizza, pasta), but she is also incredibly picky. I often feel sad about not being able to share foods we love (soups, curries, salads, most fruits and vegetables, etc.) with her. But somehow, if you cut avocado and cucumber and carrots and purple cabbage into tiny slivers and wrap them up with tofu and rice noodles in slippery rice paper, she loves it! And so do I. I prefer to dip in a tamari and peanut butter dipping sauce, and she goes for strait tamari, but still: we are enjoying delicious and healthy food together. It is very pleasing.
9. Pumpkin Soup with Ancho Chiles and Apples
This year our garden (from Burke’s compost) planted itself with a few sprawling volunteer pumpkin plants, and we eventually harvested more than a dozen delicious pumpkins. We made pumpkin bread, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin pie, and this great fall soup. I am also still happily making my weekly-or-so whole wheat sourdough bread, which is always best with soups like this one.
8. Teresa and Bruna’s fanciest camping salad of all time
In August we did our version of camping by renting out three extremely wheelchair accessible cabins at a state campground. It feels like such a rare treat, given all the things we need to travel, to sit out in the woods, around a cook stove or campfire, with friends. Anyway, this year our friend Teresa took camping meals to another level with an arugula, delicata squash, lentil, goat cheese, herb salad. It felt like such a treat, of kind of contribute-what-you-can-communism-with-friends, to have brought something like bagels and cream cheese as our contribution and get this for dinner. I will ask her for the recipe if you want it.
7. Pizza and negronis at Bar del Corso
It feels like we don’t get out a lot, but when we do we try to savor the chance. Bar del Corso on Beacon Hill has a sweet little covered-but-also-heated, warm-but-also-open patio. It was the first place Burke and I ate after COVID quarantine. I went back this year with friends and then for another date out with Burke, and each time felt like a celebration. The pizza is thin crust, wood fired delicious (and it’s served with pizza scissors, which make it feel extra fancy), and the negronis make me wish I could drink more than I can.
6. My mom’s vegan lasagna
My mom arrived for Christmas with a pan of her vegan lasagna. Ida, who usually squinches her face and turns away from “grandma cheese” (ie. vegan), declared, before even looking at the food, “Oh, I love your lasagna, Grandma!” This, I know, means a lot to my mom. She spent multiple days making three different vegan cheeses from scratch. And, truth be told, I don’t love a lot of vegan cheese, but this lasagna really is good. If you have that kind of time this lasagna needs, I can get you the recipe.
5. All the pastries and coffee at the Bright Spot
I love a local a coffee shop. I love pastries. I love a short Americano. I love reading and writing in a coffee shop. I love running into neighbors in a coffee shop. And so, it was very exciting when a new coffee shop opened two blocks from our house this year. My favorite things they serve: a buttery spinach and feta croissant and their affogato with vegan soft serve!
4. Cook’s Illustrated Apple Pie
The Venn diagram of my favorite pies and Ida’s overlaps at apple, so I’ve been working on finding the best recipe. This one from Cook’s Illustrated, with the lemon zest, is excellent, especially with local, crisp apples. This winter I was too tired to make the crust, so I put a frozen crust on the bottom and then topped it with an apple crisp topping (lots of earth balance, oats, nuts, brown sugar, and more lemon zest). It was also quite delicious.
* A close second to homemade apple pie are Macrina’s mini (but still sharing-sized) apple pies. Picture Ida and I groaning in delight as Burke – not usually a sweets guy – agrees it is really, really good.
3. Sparkly Gingerbread Cookies
A highlight of Christmas this year for me was making sparkly gingerbread cookies with Ida and her friend Tesni and way too many glittery sprinkles. I couldn’t tell who was happier – the two of them dumping more and more frosting and sprinkles on these quite tasty cookies, or me watching them.
2. Drinks with Burke at Itto’s Tapas
Shortly after we got confirmation that I had cancer, when we had just begun to digest the fact that I had a deadly disease that was probably not going to be deadly for me, Burke and I went out for drinks. For a week or two we had been holding it together by day, assuring our kids that all was treatable and not too big a deal, while quietly unraveling on the inside. In my memory, the cocktails we got at Itto’s (and also the food, but especially the drinks) were the best I had ever tasted in my entire life. I haven’t been back to see if they are that good when you’re not living in existential fear and joy, but maybe? (Also recommend: going bowling a couple blocks away after the delicious drinks.)
1. Every single dish we have been gifted this fall and winter
Meal trains feel like love, incarnate. Like consubstantiation (word I just learned for the belief that the body of Jesus is present in the communion wafers), I feel like I am eating the physical manifestation of love in the meals people have made, sent, and delivered to us. A very incomplete list: homemade empanadas, Korean noodles, bean soups, black eyed peas and greens and cornbread, enchiladas with mutliple handmade salsas, queso oaxaca, and Mexican crema. We often have baggies of cilantro-on-the-side in our fridge after friends made curries and tacos and soups (it doesn’t help convince Ida to s. We’ve twice had friends deliver pupusas, one of Ida’s favorite treats (and ours, too.) A friend who was taking her two kids to an appointment at Children’s Hospital while Lucas was inpatient met me near the elevators and handed me a bag of frozen lentil soups. It all has carried me through. All four of us, through the waves of overwhelm and awful this fall. Another friend with cancer said that the outpouring of love he’s felt almost made the cancer worth it. I feel it, too. I won’t wish for more diagnoses for more meals, but for now, this year’s food highlight is all the food/love we’ve been gifted.
Burke’s favorite podcasts of 2023
Listening to podcasts — along with basketball, and jumping in lakes, rivers & the Puget Sound — has become one of my escapes, especially since early Covid times when I started taking frequent walks around the neighborhood. I also listen while doing dishes or laundry or cleaning up the house, or sometimes when I’m really deep into a juicy podcast, just laying in bed after a long day. My favorite genre is multi-episode historical podcasts, those that use personal stories to tell a broader social-political tale. In another life I’d be a podcaster… or maybe some day when my kids grow up and I retire from organizing.
Anyway, here are my 10 that I listened to in the past year:
Ultra (MSNBC)
Rachel Maddow goes deep into far Right organizing in the 1940s including efforts by Nazi supporters to overturn the government and install a fascist regime. Hard to believe that some of this stuff is true and that the story is not one we know already. Maddow added even more to the tale in her book “Prequel” which came out after the podcast. Both are pointed towards the current rise of right-wing authoritarianism & the possibility of Trumpism taking power in 2024.
50 Years of Hip Hop (KEXP)
There were a lot of hip hop retrospectives this year (check out Lucas’s documentary list for a great one on screen) due to it being the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop (a 1973 Bronx house party featuring the beats of DJ Cool Herc). This year-long series from our local Seattle radio station KEXP — hosted by Larry Mizzel Jr, — has been superb, with episodes covering the origins, 90s socially conscious hip hop, and more recent artists (including a fascinating conversation about the devolution of Kayne West.)
Street Disciples: Politics, Power, and the Rise of Hip-Hop
Runner-up for best hip hop retrospective, this 5-part series from Trymaine Lee’s podcast Into America goes into the political events surrounding the rise of rap music and hip hop culture, starting with the social conditions of the Bronx in the 1970s. Episode 2 (“Broken Glass Everywhere”) is a pointed history of how hip-hop went political, starting with Grandmaster Flash’s song “The Message”, and on through Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”.
Louder than a Riot season 2 (NPR)
Sticking with the hip hop vibe. This is (was) a brilliant show hosted by Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden and season 2 gets into the voices that have been often left out, marginalized and abused in the cis-male dominated rap culture — specifically Black women and queer folks. Sadly, NPR canceled this show as part of layoffs last fall but I suspect we’ll hear more from Madden and Charmichael in the future.
After Ayotzinapa (Reveal)
Great investigative reporting, this is the horrifying story of 43 Mexican college students who disappeared one night in 2014, setting off a national crisis that still hasn’t lead to resolution for the families. Check out some of Reveal’s other podcasts including “The Culture War Goes to College” by my old DC housemate Sam Greenspan.
Foreign Agent: The IRA’s American Connection (Novara Media)
Another one that actually came out in 2022 but that I didn’t discover until earlier this year. I’ve gotten really into the history of the IRA (for example, Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Say Nothing) and this podcast tells the story of how the Troubles played out in the US and how Irish Americans in solidarity with the IRA managed to smuggle guns and money to their socialist revolutionary counterparts in Ireland. CISPES even makes an appearance in one of the episodes!
Think Twice: Michael Jackson (Wondery)
Oh man, this is a doozy. Michael Jackson’s legacy of abuse is repulsive and yet the impact of the Jackson 5 — and Michael in particular — on music and pop culture is undeniable (check out the poignant book “Monsters” by Claire Dederer for more on this theme). This 10-part podcast goes all in, and is co-hosted by the great Jay Smooth.
Ghost Herd (KUOW)
It makes me happy to see a skilled local journalist (Anna King) have the resources to make an in-depth, well produced podcast like Ghost Herd. And it’s a compelling story about capitalism, greed, land use, and cows in southern Washington state.
Grapevine (NBC news)
The way the Right has manipulated religion and fear around trans kids is one of their more despicable acts in recent years and could help turn the 2024 election in their favor. Or not. This story of how a rural Texas high school goes to war over books, teaching, and queer and trans kids is an intimate portrayal of one front in this terrifying culture war.
Reclaimed: The Forgotten League (ABC news)
Gotta have at least one sports podcast per year on my list and this was by far the best. We all know about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball but that moment occurred alongside the success of the Negro Leagues in producing some of the greatest players ever — including the grandfather of Vanessa Ivy Rose, the host of the show who is on a mission to resurrect the legacy of the Leagues.
The Fall of the Aztecs (Rest is History)
The Rest is History consists of a couple hilarious Brits going in depth on various historical events, from Antony and Cleopatra to the assassination of JFK. The 8-part series on the Fall of the Aztecs is the longest they’ve ever done and though it’s tragic the way Cortes’s triumph plays out, it also aptly demonstrates one of their main themes — which is that a small twist here or there could drastically change history.
Honorable Mention:
- The Grinch Holiday podcast (Wondery)
My kids’ favorite holiday podcast became mine as well. Hosted by the hilarious and master impressionist James Austin Johnson. - The Gun Machine (WBUR)
The ugly story of how gun manufacturers came to be so powerful in the US — told by a journalist who know guns all too well. - Kids of Rutherford County (ProPublica)
A disturbing investigative podcast about the jailing and abuse of kids in a Tennessee town, and the unlikely lawyers who fought back. - The Take (Al Jazeera)
Some of the best coverage of the war in Gaza, among other things. - The Big Dig (WGBH)
Who knew a podcast about a major infrastructure project in Boston could be so filled with intrigue! - The Rise of the Nazis (Rest is History)
Troubling and mind-boggling history that I never knew, at least to this depth. - If Books Could Kill
Hilarious takes on bestsellers full of conspiracy theories and other junk.
And here’s Lucas’s top 10 music documentaries that we watched in 2023. I hope you check them out.
- Little Richard: I Am Everything is a new documentary about Little Richard’s life and his music. My parents and I watched it all together and we loved it.
- Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone is a documentary about an all-black rock band from L.A called Fishbone. They never got really big but they ARE really good.
- Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World is a three part series on the history of hip hop from the beginning of hip hop up until recently.
- Bad Brains: A Band in DC is a documentary about the black punk band Bad Brains. They were from Washington DC… much like a certain handsome man we all know. 😊.
- Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time is a three part series about the music scene in Laurel Canyon, California in the 60s and 70s.
- Hype! is a documentary about the Seattle rock scene.
- Salad Days is a documentary about the punk scene in Washington DC in the 80s. You really need to know about the bands that rocked my birthplace.
- A Film about Jimi Hendrix is exactly what it sounds like. Pretty poorly named if you ask me.
- The Kids Are Alright is a documentary/concert movie about The Who.
- Count Me In a documentary about famous drummers.
Ida’s favorite books 2023
-smile, by Raina Telgemeier
-Max Einstein,by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
-Hilo series,by Judd Winick
-Harry Potter and the goblet of fire,by J.K.Rowling
-Whale done, by Stuart Gibbs
-Dash, by Kirby Larson
-the tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
– Planet Earth is blue, by Nicole Panteleakos
– One time, by Sharon Creech
– Stella, by McCall Hoyle
