no. 122: Greek lemon chicken soup with couscous!

Plus, eye masks and caviar!

Last weekend, I catered my first event since returning from my month-long sabbatical in New York, and let me tell you, it’s GOOD TO BE BACK. It was a lovely lil’ baby shower in the Palisades, and I served sandwiches, salads, dips, and of course, my passion fruit bars for dessert.

Whenever I go a few weeks without having any in-person catering events, I can genuinely feel it in my bones (sorry to sound dramatic, but it’s true). There is something so gratifying to me about being in someone’s home on a special occasion of theirs for the sole purpose of preparing food for their friends and family.

Don’t get me wrong, these events are a lot of work—shopping, prepping, schlepping, serving, cleaning, etc. But still, it’s all worth it to me because I love being able to share my food IRL.

Earnest tangents aside, here are some other things I’m into these days.

Fishwife Caviar

It’s the gift of all gifts!!!!! As I mentioned last week, I’ve been working on some recipes with this caviar and it has been a real treat. This stuff is SOOOO good. Did you see this caviar grilled cheese? After I shot this recipe, I kicked my feet up on the table, rocked my head back, and ate this whole damn thing with a huge evil grin on my face. I love my life.

Dieux Forever Eye Mask and Eye Serum

I am not into skincare the way that I feel I should be, but I did recently cave and get these reusable eye masks. I mostly got them because I had so many weddings to attend and wanted to have something to put on my face while I was getting ready to make me feel lux and hydrated. I’d recommend you get the bundle so that you can use the eye gel.

They feel so NICE, and it just feels like you’re doing something good for your skin while you’re hanging around. I have them on as I’m typing this!

OLD NAVY AND GAP

See? I contain multitudes. I can go high brow AND low brow. Life isn’t always caviar and silicone eye masks, in fact, for me, it’s mostly Old Navy and Gap. I mentioned this on my story earlier this week, but both of these stores (which are the backbones of my wardrobe) are both having big sales right now (which, granted, is not uncommon) which means a lot of shit! that! rocks! is extremely cheap right now.

For starters, I’ll never shut up about these twill barrel pants. They’re so comfy, and they run true to size, IMO. I guess I should get them in black, huh???

The barrel pants!!!!!!!

ALSO, the Old Navy t-shirt that I wear pretty much every day and own in every color is also on sale. The Skims dupe lounge shorts that I wear to bed are $8. I wore these jeans the other day and Karlee asked me if they were Agolde. No, girl! OLD NAVY!

Justine Cooks: A Cookbook

Justine Snacks literally did the damn thing and wrote a cookbook!!! And it’s out on October 29, which means you should pre-order it. Justine is a real one and I am genuinely so inspired by her work.

Her blueberry cookies entered my life in 2021 (not for nothing, they were also the impetus for me coming around to white chocolate), and I have been in awe of her since!!!

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup with Couscous

Serves: 4-6

Active time: 25 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

I don’t have a new recipe for you this week because I tried to develop a recipe and didn’t totally love it. So, we’re reaching into the ol’ grab bag and pulling out one of my all-time, cozy go-to recipes. In fact, it is my FAVORITE soup.

From January 2024: It is such a perfect soup. The chicken broth is thickened and made richer with eggs and egg yolks, and the whole dish gets a mighty punch from freshly squeezed lemon juice. Typically this soup is made with rice or orzo, but I had some pearl couscous leftover from the shower that I decided to use. To me, they are a textural delight and I would highly recommend these lil’ gems.

The most crucial step when it comes to making this soup is to temper the eggs. By introducing the hot broth very gradually to the raw eggs, this ensures that you won’t have any scrambled eggs floating around in your soup. I would recommend using homemade chicken stock, but if you don’t have any, store bought works fine. You could also use a whole raw chicken to make stock, and then use that chicken in the soup (like this recipe).

Whatever you do, make sure you add 1 metric mouth full of dill to this soup. It wants it. It needs it. It deserves it.