Coffee With Kate #3
Romanticizing life, connecting with friends, and food art
Does anyone else feel like October was over in a flash? I feel like that’s happening more and more but I won’t accept it for these last two months of the year - which are my favorites. I’ve seen the idea of romanticizing your life a lot around the internet and kinda roll my eyes about it, but as I’ve challenged myself to live a big life I’m thinking about how I can romanticize these last two months of 2023. I love this quote from the NYT article:
It may also lead to a larger question: What truly brings us happiness? Is it that expensive vacation or that new piece of clothing? Or should we stop waiting for that picture-perfect moment and start enjoying the present?
It’s been a strange year as I get into the groove of a new phase of my life with two kids. 2023 is also the first year since 2019 that I haven’t been pregnant, which is weird to think about when I put it that way. There is so much to celebrate in these fleeting moments, and yet I often find myself just going through the motions - striving for the moment to be over so we can move on to the next one. Does anyone else find themselves wishing the time away? Time seems to be doing a good job passing by quickly without needing any additional help from us.
This Week’s Intention
Connect with friends
I saw something last week, I think on Facebook, where someone said they made a list of friends they wanted to reach out to and tell them why they are happy they are in their life. This sounds nothing like something I would normally do, which is why I’m going to do it. I’ve been awful about keeping up with friends for the past couple of years and I need to do better about this. So I’m going to take this challenge to text five friends next week to tell them why I’m happy they are in my life and what I admire about them.
Recommendations
kunanets.art was an instant follow! I’m obsessed with her art and watching her reels. My kitchen deserves this croissant painting.
I have short eyelashes and I’m jealous of everyone who has beautiful long, curly eyelashes. I came across this Tiktok the other day talking about using Aquaphor and an eyelash curler to give yourself an instant lash lift. I’m 100% going to try this technique and see what happens.
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I have been passively keeping up with the Michigan Football cheating scandal and (sorry Michigan fans) but it might be my favorite thing to come of this football season… and that includes Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. It’s just so interesting to see the details unfold. If you want a quick explanation of the events, here you go!
My children have stopped sleeping, so I’ve been keeping myself awake at night by playing the crossword puzzles on Apple News. If you have an Apple One subscription, you get access to the puzzles. I love a good crossword and used to do the NYT puzzle before they stuck it behind a paywall. Now I do the Mini and play Connections every day using the NYT app. Highly recommend for a quick little brain break!
I read Lessons in Chemistry in the spring and have been excited about the miniseries by Apple ever since. I’ve watched one episode and need to see the others, but recommend you watch it too. It’s a great story!
I loved this week’s newsletter from
about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. I immediately requested to borrow Hunting the Falcon from my library to hear more from the authors and to learn more about this piece of history.Speaking of books! Iron Flame, the sequel to Fourth Wing, comes out next Tuesday!! I loved Fourth Wing more than I ever expected to and cannot wait to get back into that universe. If you haven’t read it and like to dabble in fantasy reading, it’s a great series. It played out like a movie in my head as I was reading it which only made it that much more enjoyable.
I shared this post on Instagram the other day because the comments section is truly amazing! There are a lot of little helpful nuggets and a big heaping spoonful of motivation.
ICYMI
What I’m Eating This Week
We’re continuing soup season over here. For the sake of saving money, I’ve been trying really hard to use up everything in our fridge. Fridays are usually for takeout and we were this close to getting takeout but I refused. We had a TON of broccoli in the refrigerator so we put together a broccoli soup that also included some diced ham we already had and frozen cheese tortellini from Costco. It ended up being such a cozy dinner! Here’s how we made it:
Saute diced onions and carrots in your choice of oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven. We used avocado oil, but you could use olive oil too.
I added 2 packages of diced ham once the onions and carrots were getting soft. This helped deglaze the pan and to bring in more flavor too. Then we added garlic and butter until fragrant and then 1/3 cup of flour. Stir until the flour is incorporated with everything in the pot.
Now we added our broccoli. We did both florets and chopped-up broccoli. We had planned to use the immersion blender but since we didn’t want to lose the diced ham, we added more broccoli by doing the chopped broccoli.
Next is the chicken stock and half and half. We didn’t end up having chicken stock or we would have used that, so we used water and Knorr chicken bullion powder.
Add whatever spices you want to get it to taste how you’d like. You probably won’t need much salt because of the ham.
We also cooked the tortellini and kept shredded sharp cheddar cheese separate because it was better for storing. It ended up being really good and we ate it for multiple meals. After we ran out of tortellini, we served it over white rice and it was soooo good and comforting.
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