For the grand finale episode of this season of the What To Cook show, I bring you a fajita feast! We’re headed to my backyard to grill up the most delicious summer spread of hanger steak, shrimp, and veg for fajitas, plus we’ll make a creamy charred jalapeño sauce and corn on the cob to finish off the meal. In this episode, you’ll learn about… * Grilling over direct vs. indirect heat * Using your intuition when you’re grilling a bunch of food that has different cook times * Cutting against the grain to make steak SO much easier to chew * How to prep all sorts of peppers * Much more!! I absolutely loved filming this first season and getting to SHOW you many of the things I tell you about all the time in the newsletter. Also to show you that my kids are in and out of my kitchen at all times trying to introduce me to lizards and climb on the counter and crawl at my feet. If you have kids, your cooking process likely looks similar, and I want you to know that we’re in it together! Have any of you become Cometeer diehards like me?! The fact that I can make myself a coffee shop-grade cup of coffee or iced latte at home in about 15 seconds flat has TRULY improved my life. Cometeer is what to make when you don’t feel like making coffee (or spending money at a coffee shop on a daily basis), and if you appreciate the ease of WTC recipes, I know you will love the ease of their product, too. THANK YOU, Cometeer, for supporting this show, and for fueling me with your delicious coffee every day! If you haven’t tried it yet, you must. Remember to go to cometeer.com/caro to get $20 off your first order! OK, that’s a wrap on this season of the show! Thank you SO much for watching. I’d love any feedback you may have. Did you like the longish-form format or would a shorter show be easier to watch? Would you be interested in watching more entertaining-style content, or anything else!? As always, I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow with the recipe itself, including a bunch of notes and substitutions. Happy long weekend! xx Caro Click here to watch this episode on YouTube! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Hi! Woah. I leave for the East Coast to start my Make It Fast (please for the love of ME, pre-order it!!!) book tour in less than 48 hours. My literary agent just called to check in on my mental state and I’ll tell you what I told her— I’m honestly feeling great. I haven’t started packing, but I’ve got a million outfit options strewn about my closet, and I’ll get there eventually. The flights are booked and the hotel reservations are made. It’s go time, baby. I’m also thrilled to announce that I have officially entered phase 5 of the creative process: With my last book, I was firmly still in phase #4 (“I suck”) until the book had actually been published and all of you started to cook from it and share your photos and reviews and love of the book. But with Make It Fast, I hosted a party and gave the book to my friends and family two weeks before pub day! I created an Illegal Bookclub and roped in my friends all across the country to share advanced copies of the book with their communities! And, comically, Indigo (the main Canadian seller of the book) accidentally sent all of the pre-orders like two weeks early, so all of the Canadian What To Cookers out there have had their books for a week now! And Canadians are so nice — they are sending so much positivity my way! So there are a LOT of people out in the world, people who I love and trust, who have already seen it, and cooked from it, and told me how much they love it. Thus launching me into phase #5 (“this might be ok”) a few weeks earlier than my last book publishing cycle. I guess, if I’m being honest, what I’m saying is that I require external validation to feel good about my work? Is that pathetic? I don’t think so. I think it’s a real, honest part of most (all?) people’s creative process. It feels really scary and vulnerable to launch a piece of work that you’ve worked so hard on out into the world. It feels a little bit like dropping your deeply feeling, sensitive, absolutely incredible child off at Kindergarten for the first day of school. Will he make friends? Will the teachers understand how creative and kind and cool he is? Will they be patient with him and let him finish his art project because he really doesn’t like when he doesn’t get to finish his art project? Will the world love him as much as I do? This analogy is not random: I am dropping my deeply feeling sensitive child off at Kindergarten for his first day of school tomorrow, and the jitters and unease of that feel so akin to publishing a book. By next Wednesday when I send this newsletter, Make It Fast will be in your kitchens, if you’ve pre-ordered (have I mentioned I’d really love it if you could pre-order?). I’ll have already been on Good Morning America two mornings in a row (bless them, what an invitation!), spoken with Jenna Bush Hager in front of an audience of you in Brooklyn, yapped with Dan Pelosi in Boston, chatted with Kerry Diamond in DC, and I’ll be en route to Charlotte where I’ll be in conversation with our very own Molly from What To Cook. I am excited, and I am nervous, and just like I’ve been telling my five-year-old, it’s OK to feel both of those things at once. And Phase 6 (“this is awesome”) is just around the corner for both of us. There are lots of other book tour dates — check them all out here! Today’s So Into That is sponsored by FP Movement. We’ve talked about our love for their Carpe Diem shorts many times before (a truly perfect athletic short at a very good price point!), but FP Movement has many more athleisure pieces we love. From Molly from What To Cook: I’m on vacation at the beach this week and have been living in this dress and shorts combo when I’m not in a bathing suit. It’s so so comfy and easy to throw on for beach walks — it’ll also be great to wear on the sports sidelines when it’s 100 degrees outside. I’m a shortie (5’3”) and had to shorten the straps a tiny bit (worth the effort!). We also love these biker shorts with this boxy short sleeve and this oversized long sleeve! * Dr. Becky invited me to plan the menu for a REALLY special dinner celebrating Good Inside Baby on Monday in LA. I got to hang with MALLY K. GOLDMAN and Megan Roup and Elaine Welteroth and so many incredible, smart women who make motherhood safer, more fun, stronger, and more fashionable. The dilly feta salad with feta brined shrimp, flank steak with elote salad, and bbq chicken are all straight from the book! My menu concept was elegant California BBQ and I think we nailed it! PS If you’re in LA, Heirloom catered and they rule. PS because I know you all want to know, Becky is awesome IRL. She is a fellow insomniac romance book lover, she values her female friendships so highly and they come up in conversation all the time (this is always a green flag for me when I meet new people), and she’s just so incredibly smart, insightful, and cool. This is not sponsored but we’ve swapped codes for each other in the past and my Good Inside code still works — you can use code WHATTOCOOK to get 20% off a subscription to Good Inside if you could use a little parenting assist (like with how to get your deeply feeling kid to dread the first day of school less!). * I recently worked with Groundwork to hire a new team member (woohooooo, Meg!) and it was such an incredible experience that I wanted to share. Three in four U.S. workers are also caregivers, and as that caregiving work collides with mid-career years, most end up forced to choose between staying all in at real personal cost or stepping away entirely — becoming a hugely qualified, "off-market" talent pool that's actually eager to work, just on slightly different terms. Groundwork connects people like that with employers building smarter, more flexible teams. In my case, I knew I needed help in a certain space but had no idea how to define the role or find the right person. They sat down with me, helped flesh it out, wrote the job description, sourced candidates, and ran interviews, and took it all off my plate. And brought me the most INCREDIBLE CANDIDATES! Like lights out brilliant women. If you're a small business owner stuck in hiring limbo, or you're job hunting and sick of the LinkedIn black hole, Groundwork is worth a look. * From Molly: A go-to breakfast of mine this summer has been avocado toast inspired by some Caro made for our team last time I was in Carmel. Mashed avocado seasoned with salt and pepper, slathered on a thick slice of GOOD toasted sourdough, and topped with chili crisp, pickled red onions, flaky sea salt, and fresh cilantro. So good. * From Molly: I’ve been slathering on this body oil after time in the sun this week — it’s very luxurious feeling and makes my skin glowy! From Caro: Oh I love this too!!! It really does not make you feel oily at all, it absorbs so nicely. My publishers are dropping a few more advance reader copies of Make It Fast in the mail to some of my media/Internet friends this week, and I told them to save some for WTCers!! We are going to mail three of you a copy of Make It Fast, along with a Butter Pants spatula and a Caraway kitchen timer! To enter to win, comment on this post with the meal you cook most often when you absolutely do not feel like cooking. It doesn’t have to be from scratch! For example, mine has historically been frozen dumplings and peanut sauce, and Molly’s is pasta with Rao’s marinara and frozen meatballs. Comment between now and August 10 — we will randomly select three winners next Tuesday, August 11, and alert them by Substack DM! Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup. 1. salmorejo, 2025 Oooh, this is such a good one. Traditional salmorejo! From José Andrés! If you have boatloads of ripe tomatoes that need to be used up, make this creamy chilled tomato soup. It gets its creaminess in part from blended artisanal bread, so if you have any leftover sourdough from this week’s summer shrimp panzanella, use it here! 2. skillet cheddar turkey burgers, 2024 Juicy, cheesy turkey burgers seared in a skillet and served with a tangy, punchy burger sauce — this recipe (which is an excerpt from What to Cook the book #1!) is just so good. Go classic with buns, or shake things up and make sliders for a party, meatballs for dipping, or crumbled patties in pita for lunch the next day. 3. turkey meatballs with corn butter rice, 2023 These juicy turkey meatballs are packed with flavor, but the real star of the show is the buttery corn-studded rice. It’s sweet, savory, summer perfection. While you’re cooking, double the meatballs and freeze half for later — future you will be thrilled. 4. healthy (or not as healthy…) corn chowder, 2022 Sweet corn gets blended into a creamy, cozy chowder that tastes like summer in a bowl. Keep it light with coconut milk, or go richer with heavy cream — both versions are equally delicious. Make it on a Sunday and thank yourself all week — it reheats beautifully and somehow tastes even better on day two. 5. sheet-pan crispy pork chops with fennel and peaches, 2021 These roasted peaches are iconic — soft, jammy, and caramelized at the edges. Add in sweet, roasty red onions and fennel, plus golden, crispy pork chops, and you’ve got an easy dinner that feels delightfully fancy. The method works just as well with chicken breasts or sausages if that’s what you’ve got. We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Thanks to everyone who joined for today’s Substack live cooking demo — if you couldn’t make it, find a full replay above! In the demo, I cooked smoky mole chicken enchiladas with lime crema, a recipe that turns a few humble pantry staples (peanut butter, chocolate chips, tortillas, tomato paste, spices, and chipotles en adobo!) into a delicious weeknight dinner. The only fresh ingredients you’ll need are chicken breasts, white onion, a red bell pepper, some shredded cheese, sour cream, and a lime! Recipes that rely heavily on pantry staples are easy to make on nights when the fridge is mostly bare — they can also be more budget-friendly, since the cost-per-use of ingredients like peanut butter and spices is often quite low. Thank you to Thrive Market for sponsoring today’s live cook-along, which allowed us to make it free for all subscribers! Thank you also to Thrive for making it so very easy for me to keep my pantry stocked up with high-quality ingredients (at an excellent price point!). In addition to pantry staples, Thrive is my go-to source for kids snacks and clean home products — I love that everything they sell is free from more than 1,000 artificial, synthetic, and GMO ingredients. I also LOVE their app and use it to immediately add ingredients to my cart as soon as I finish them, so that I don’t have to write them down or try to remember later. Sign up here to get 30% off your first order (STOCK UP!) and a free $60 gift. Now’s a great time because everyone — new and existing members — can get 25% off many products right now during their Friends & Family sale, which runs through Thursday. Also FYI that new-to-Thrive What To Cook Insiders get $100 off their first four orders! While we’re talking pantry staples, here are a handful of ingredients that pack a TON of flavor that I always keep on hand. We’ve linked WTC recipes to cook with each! * Coconut milk — Coconut milk’s a great dairy-free sub for cream that you can use in curries, smoothies, and soups. In my house though, it’s most often used to make coconut rice! * Chipotles en adobo — We used these smoky, spicy peppers today for our mole chicken enchiladas! You can also use them for chipotle black bean enchiladas and cheesy chipotle shrimp tacos. Rarely does a recipe use the whole can, so store your leftover peppers and sauce in an airtight bag in the freezer. * Creamy peanut butter — My house is never without a jar! Again, we used it here in our mole sauce, but I also love mixing it with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and honey for a peanut sauce to serve on noodles or alongside potstickers. This peanut veggie curry is delightful, as are PB&Js, apples with peanut butter, smoothies bulked up with PB… the uses go on and on! * Curry paste — Curry paste packs SO MUCH flavor into just one spoonful! Keep your pantry (or fridge, once you’ve opened it) stocked with red curry paste (Mike’s is my favorite) and you can cook thai chicken chops, one-pot pumpkin chickpea curry, and thai tofu curry noodle soup! * Jarred marinara/tomato sauce — You could make a homemade marinara… or let someone do it for you! I’ve written many recipes with store-bought jarred marinara/tomato sauce listed as an ingredient because if you get a high-quality brand (my favorite is Rao’s), it really does taste homemade and will save you so much time and effort. Stock up on a jar to be able to cook 30-minute chicken Parm meatballs, messy meatball sliders, shortcut shakshuka, and 5-ingredient eggplant marinara. What flavor-bomb ingredients is your pantry never without?! For a complete rundown on what I consider to be a perfectly stocked pantry, click here. And for a fun take on this topic, read “If My Pantry Were to Disappear, Here’s What I’d Restock Immediately” — a Bon Appétit article written by Alaina Chou that I recently weighed in on! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Hi! First of all, I recorded a voiceover of this So Into That! Click the play button above if you’d like to listen. I really, really tried not to cry, but it was just a crying kind of day apparently. I’ve had a wild few weeks of travel — both for pleasure to Mexico with the kids, and then, eight hours after landing from Mexico, I left for a 10-day work trip that included announcing my new book on Good Morning America, delivering a keynote at my alma mater (go Heels), taping an upcoming appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, bringing my 5-year-old along for the second half of the trip, and having a bazillion meetings and coffees in between. That 10-day trip marked the end of breastfeeding my fourth baby. I breastfed my first baby for 14 months, my second baby for 12 months, my third baby for six months, and my fourth baby for seven months. That’s three years and three months of breastfeeding. Before I go on, I want to say that I am not writing this to glorify breastfeeding. Any way you feed your baby is absolutely perfect. Formula rules. Giving a baby a pumped milk or formula bottle is just as cozy and wonderful (and also difficult at times) as breastfeeding, and provides many or all of the same moments I share below. But I did breastfeed (in combination with formula for my last two babies), so, now that that chapter of my life is behind me, I wrote a toast to it, to say goodbye. Breastfeeding: You made my boobs resemble empty wind socks, you made me question every single food or drink I had consumed in a 48-hour period whenever my baby wiggled slightly too much in his sleep, you made me smell so, so bad, you made my nipples bleed, you made my boobs leak in so many public places, and, according to my math, you consumed roughly 2,400 hours, aka 99 entire days, of my life over the past seven years. You also allowed me to spend precious hours alone with my tiny, perfect babies, to escape countless boring conversations, to get out of so many tedious obligations, and to hide in dark rooms at parties. You created quiet pockets of time in the middle of loud, busy life. You gave me thousands of small moments with my babies that I’ll never quite be able to explain to anyone who wasn’t there with us. I have loved you, I have hated you, and I have felt pretty whatever about you, sometimes all in the same minute. And it’s time for us to say goodbye forever. But before we do, here’s a toast to you. To the 1 a.m. feeds, the 3 a.m. feeds, the 3:45 a.m. feeds, the 5 a.m. feeds, and the 5:32 a.m. feeds, when the whole house was silent except for the rhythmic, baby-piglet snorts and gulps. To that first successful latch. To that first public breastfeeding session when you’re still trying to maintain a shred of modesty. To that last public breastfeeding session when you’ve thrown modesty to the wind. To the newly postpartum oxytocin blasts that felt like drugs. To never ever sitting in the rocking chair that my mother-in-law so lovingly bought me, instead preferring to breastfeed in bed, surrounded by pillows, in what my sons aptly named “mama’s nest.” To the frantic “I NEED WATER! SERIOUSLY, I’M DYING, PLEASE HELP ME RIGHT NOW!” shouts to my husband. To the times he handed it to me before I even asked and it felt like the truest form of love. To my sons asking “does he need to drink yer boob!?” every time the baby cried. To all the food dropped on my babies’ heads. To going from breastfeeding being a quiet, peaceful time to learning how to breastfeed while kissing toddler boo boos, or feeding myself lunch, or building MagnaTile castles, or making snacks. To living life to a soundtrack of white noise. To crying while listening to Michelle Obama’s memoir in my first baby’s first nursery. To flipping the pages of so many books with my chin because I didn’t have any free hands. To my body literally having a super power: the ability to instantly calm a baby. To powering through the extreme discomfort of breastfeeding on the bleachers at a baseball game or on a 90-degree day at a water park or on one of those tiny chairs at a pre-K teacher conference. To the hours spent pinned under a sleeping child, oscillating between feeling trapped and feeling like I was exactly where I was meant to be. To the way a soft diaper-clad newborn felt curled against my soft, squishy postpartum body. To the milk drunk faces. To the milk that dribbled out of the side of their mouth when they couldn’t even stay awake long enough to finish that mouthful. To kissing their little face and tasting the sugariness of my own milk and being kind of grossed out but not really. To helping me get to know my babies. To helping me understand every single noise they made except for the really weird ones that made me and my husband or whatever big kid was in the room laugh and laugh at the absurdity of such a tiny, adorable baby making such a wild noise. To my body waking up when the baby’s breathing changed ever so slightly because they’d just woken up. To the cheeks and thighs and knuckle dimples and wrist rolls my body created. To all the times I’ve nibbled on those cheeks and thighs and wrist rolls because I had no other option, I had to. To the thousands of hours of anxiety, joy, pain, and overwhelming contentment. To the end of an era. No more nursing bras. No more leaky boobs. No more pumping! No more calculating feed times before leaving the house. Thank you for allowing me to feed another human with my body, how cool. Thank you for the quiet moments, the escape hatch, and the excuse to re-watch every single season of Gray’s Anatomy. And now, respectfully, lovingly, goodbye. Unless you’re brand new here, you know that I’m a huge audiobook fan. Audiobooks accompany me on walks, make doing the dishes and folding clothes infinitely more fun, and played in my ear so, so often while I fed/rocked/walked/shushed my babies over the last seven years. I am excited to be partnering with Macmillan Audio today to introduce you to my new-favorite listen that I can’t bring myself to press pause on: This Story Might Save Your Life (TSMSYL) by Tiffany Crum, which released yesterday! I’ve been venturing outside of my usual romance reading over the last few months and am loving this story — it’s part romance, part suspense, with a touch of humor. And the audiobook specifically is a work of art. To celebrate the release of TSMSYL, we chatted with Tiffany! CARO: Before we get into This Story Might Save Your Life, we want to learn about you! I know (but also can’t believe because it’s so well done) that this is your debut novel — give us a quick rundown on your path to becoming a novelist. TIFFANY: First of all, thank you so much for inviting me into your community! My path to getting published was a long one. I’ve always loved writing, but I never allowed myself to pursue it as a career until my oldest son was born. That was when I realized: if I wanted my children to grow up believing they could follow their dreams, I needed to teach by example and follow mine first. I’d love to end the story there and say that was all it took — boom, immediate book deal! — but in reality it was a winding 18-year journey of writing manuscripts that will (very happily) never see the light of day. In the end, This Story Might Save Your Life is the one where all that practice and determination finally came together. CARO: I can relate to so much of that! How long have you wanted to be an author, and what did you do professionally before writing this book? TIFFANY: I’m not kidding when I say I didn’t even let myself think about writing novels until my first son was born. Before I became a parent, I worked full time as an executive assistant in the film industry. After he was born, I reprioritized. I chose to work part time so I could carve out space to pursue my dream while raising our son, and later our sons. We struggled for many of those years, but my husband was completely on board. He likes to say he never had any choice in the matter because I’m miserable when I don’t have time to write, but that really downplays how supportive he’s always been. CARO: Where do you live and where are you from? TIFFANY: I grew up on a dairy farm just down the road from a maximum-security prison, which is a pretty good origin story for someone who ended up writing suspense. After many years living in California, I now live outside Atlanta with my husband, our two sons, and our two dogs. CARO: What was your inspiration for This Story Might Save Your Life? How and when did the idea come to you? How long did it take you to complete this novel? TIFFANY: I’ve always been fascinated by the strange intimacy of podcasts. When you listen to someone’s voice for hundreds of hours, you start to feel like you know them — even though you’ve never actually met them. This made me wonder: what if something terrible happened to one half of a beloved podcast duo? How would the audience react? And what if the story behind the microphone turned out to be very different from what listeners believed? The first draft came together quickly because I was head over heels in love with these characters, but, like most novels, it went through several rounds of revision before it became the version readers have now. CARO: OK now give us the scoop on This Story Might Save Your Life! Will you sum up the plot? TIFFANY: This Story Might Save Your Life is both a thriller and a love story about two best friends, Benny and Joy, who host a wildly popular comedy survival podcast, and what happens when one goes missing and the survival story becomes their own. CARO: Is there a podcast that inspired Benny and Joy’s — their dynamic together, if not the content itself? TIFFANY: I’m a longtime podcast listener, and I’ve always loved shows hosted by close friends, particularly My Favorite Murder. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark were a real source of inspiration for me, not just because of their tangent-filled banter, but also their incredible trajectory to fame. I had a blast writing a duo whose friendship feels as fun and unpredictable as theirs. CARO: I’m an audiobook lover and was so excited to learn that this book’s narrated by Julia Whelan (my fave!) and Sean Patrick Hopkins. And I’ve been blown away by the production of it all. Why the extra attention on audio? TIFFANY: I’m a huge audiobook fan, as well! And because the story revolves around a podcast, it was exciting to have the opportunity to really lean into the audio format. Julia Whelan (the queen!) and Sean Patrick Hopkins are phenomenal narrators. Not only did they absolutely nail their POV chapters, they also recorded the podcast scenes in duet, which makes the listening experience especially immersive. I also wrote a bonus podcast episode just for the audiobook, and my producer had the brilliant idea to include tip-line call-ins, which are incredibly fun to hear. The Macmillan Audio team really knocked it out of the park, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. CARO: How can we expect to feel when we read the last page/listen to the last chapter? TIFFANY: I set out to write a thriller with a soft center. It has twists and tense cliffhanging chapters, but the real heart of the story is the friendship between Benny and Joy. If I’ve done my job, you’ll feel everything from delight to devastation along the way, and close the book feeling satisfied — maybe even with a renewed sense of hope in the goodness of human nature. CARO: Last question! If Joy and Benny were recipes from What to Cook, which would they be? TIFFANY: Easy! Joy and Benny would absolutely choose the 3-ingredient chorizo street tacos. Not only are street tacos their favorite, but the chorizo twist also feels very on brand — a little unexpected and guaranteed to make things more interesting. Plus, a 10-minute meal is always a win! WTC Insiders, we’re so excited to announce a new perk of your subscription: a free audiobook download thanks to Macmillan Audio! Starting today through the end of March, you can download This Story Might Save Your Life through your WTC perks page. We’ll have a new audiobook download for you in May, June, and July, too. Click here for the rundown on how to access this perk and others. As a reminder, a $100 Insiders subscription is valued at nearly $1,000! It includes a paid annual subscription to WTC for yourself, two annual gift subscriptions, shopping perks from Thrive and Duckbill, and six of my meal-prep plans, in addition to this newest perk. Click here to learn more about and/or upgrade to an Insider subscription. * I’ve been wearing these jeans nonstop. Get your smaller size, if between two. * I’m wearing a lot of these turtlenecks with vests these days, which is my best friend Lily’s uniform that I stole from her. I got this vest from Sezane while I was in New York and wore it on The Drew Barrymore Show (with a navy turtle under!). I borrowed an old vest from Lily that is similar to this one from Quince to wear on GMA! And I wore this one of Lily’s with a dark grey turtle under for my keynote at UNC. I also ordered this one when I got home. I told you, lots of turtlenecks and vests! * St. Patrick’s Day is next Tuesday! Low-effort, high-reward holiday moms unite. Last year was my first year as a holiday mom on St. Patrick’s Day — I put about 15 minutes of effort into it and my kids still talk about how St. Patrick’s Day is the most fun day ever. Here’s exactly what I did and what I’m planning to repeat this year: rainbow tic-tacs leading from their bedroom door all the way to the toilet. Toilet dyed green. Leprechaun potty tricks! Then, downstairs, a green tablecloth, rainbow napkins, green plates, crayons with coloring pages from Something To Host, gold chocolate coins scattered all over the table (but this year I got these sour gummy coins instead because my kids don’t actually seem to like chocolate coins), a big rainbow-shaped fruit spread (strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, apples…) with whipped cream clouds at the bottom of the rainbow. And Lucky Charms! * I just bought this Lake pajama set for probably the twentieth time for a friend’s birthday. It’s very important for my overcrowded, overstimulated brain to have a few go-to gifts that I know every woman in my life will love and deeply appreciate so that I’m not constantly racking my brain for new ideas. This set is my fave for a pregnant or newly postpartum mom. Another go-to is sending a cookie cake via Instacart or DoorDash with something funny written on it when they need a little pick me up or a birthday hurrah. * One of my best friends from college, Mary Pell, and her daughter Leighton are coming to visit us next week for her Spring Break. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!!!! They’re coming for three nights, which Mary Pell once told me is the maximum length a guest should stay. “You know what they say, guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” I love Southerners and their limitless expressions. * Local (Monterey County, CA) people, George and I went to Fishwife in Pacific Grove last night and had the greatest night! It’s totally dated but in a great way. Our food was delicious and there were some really inventive sauces. There were also some extremely 90s-feeling elements, like steamed broccoli and squash on every entree, and a truly wild lime green syrup garnishing the key lime pie. It is stuck in time but in a really cozy, still delicious way. We felt like intruders at a locals-only spot. And the service was amazing!! Every week, we dig into the archives to bring a few favorites back to the top of your meal plan. This week’s lineup leans heavily into bowls — the kind of dinners that are flexible, packed with flavor, and easy to adapt based on what’s in your fridge. 1. happy bowls, 2025 Roasted sweet potatoes, beets, cauliflower, and red onion piled over grains and greens with a completely addictive cashew sauce. This one’s basically a choose-your-own-adventure veggie bowl and an excellent meal-prep situation — make the veggies and sauce once and build your bowls all week. 2. thai-ish steak & noodle salad, 2024 A Hillstone-inspired noodle salad that tastes restaurant-level but is totally doable at home. Tender steak, herbs, mango, crunchy cabbage, and noodles tossed in a punchy cashew-lime-sesame dressing (that’s so good you’ll want to drink it!). 3. 30-minute pork and kimchi CYOA bowls, 2023 A fast, flavor-packed pork and kimchi situation with rice, a drizzly tahini-gochujang sauce, and lettuce leaves to wrap it all up in. Set everything out family-style and let everyone build their own bowl, wrap, or chopped salad. 4. sriracha shrimp sushi bowls, 2022 All the flavors of sushi night! Sticky rice, saucy shrimp, cucumbers, avocado, and pickled ginger — all without rolling a single piece of sushi. The sriracha-soy marinade doubles as the sauce, which keeps things simple. From WTCer Erin: “Woooooow this one is so flavorful and good. And so freaking quick to prepare!” This recipe’s in March’s really simple meal plan, in case you’re looking for an easy solution to meal planning for the days ahead! 5. blackened fish taco bowls, 2021 Broiled blackened cod gets piled onto lime-butter rice with citrus salsa and crunchy slaw for bright, taco-inspired bowls. If cooking fish feels intimidating, I will demystify it for you here! Congrats to Megan Z, the winner of last week’s Boopshop.org giveaway! We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means we may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What to Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe