The R.E.P.O.R.T

Read, Eat, Play, Obsess, Recommend, Treat...Like a Duchess.

It’s apple picking season! And pumpkin season! And soup season!

All things that this Duchess has partaken in since we last met.

But, by apple picking I mean driving 40 minutes to a farm, instead of just walking down the street to the farm in my neighborhood (mmhaha), wherein there were hoards of tourists - as everyone seems to descend on the lower Hudson Valley this time of year - only to not want to wait in line and just go to the general store to by a bag of apples and some wine and spiked cider.

The Duchess doesn’t do lines.

An adventure nonetheless.

As for soup, we are in full swing here breaking out the large Le Creuset dutch oven and not having a chance to put it away.

By the way, Le Creuset has new colors!

Nuit (Navy) and Mauve Pink.

I AM IN LOVE.

I promised myself I would never divert from Flame (Orange) for the overall aesthetic but I’m going to need to cheat.

Also, someone shared this from TikTok in regards to soup and I had to take a screen, it made me laugh….

My kind of soup.

The R.E.P.O.R.T prevails…like a Duchess!

The Duchess READS:

I wish I could say I was finished with The Untouchables series by Darcy Burke but, it’s A LOT. This is the longest series I’ve read being 12 books. I’m up to Book 7, the Duke of Ice, and if it weren’t for an Amazon error where I somehow ended up with two Dukes of Danger, I’d have moved faster!

I’ve also returned to reading the Sunday newspaper.

The what?

Yes, I subscribe and pay for the Sunday Journal News.

I just can’t bring myself to cancel, I’ve been tempted a few times but they keep making it worth my while and working in media and having worked for newspapers here and there and in the pursuit of holding up free press and journalism I do still very much believe in supporting the news, especially local.

While I have long departed reading the Sunday New York Times, which was a habit for MANY years living in New York City, there is something special about that first sip of hot coffee and the smell of newsprint on Sunday over breakfast.

When I was younger and had dreams of being an illustrator and cartoonist I’d scour the comics section looking for the latest Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes to copy and draw.

PS. I was 1,000% a colorist working in the Ink & Paint department on the Disney lot in Burbank in a former life. Somewhere around the 1930’s/40’s. I have no doubt. And knowing that before I read this article, it makes even more sense.

Women who could only be colorists at the time, as all the creative work was only available to men, were actually called the “queens” of the department and were allowed to take two “tea times” each day!!

Wild.

My mother splurged for a tour of the Ink & Paint area of Disney Studios in Florida when I was 8 and I’m pretty sure my face was smooshed up to the glass so close watching what they did, I was drooling.

While the newspaper is a little thin as of late, the nostalgia of print seems to be re-emerging. New York Magazine just PRINTED an issue around The Cut tied to New York fashion week, The Atlantic is going back to being a MONTHLY and as mentioned in another post, J.Crew produced a CATALOG.

Don’t count it out just yet I suppose.

The Duchess EATS:

As aforementioned my diet consists of mostly soup and more soup these days. I’m reminded of that episode of 30 Rock where Jack Donaghy is dating a younger lady and she makes him go hiking and clubbing and Jenna (or Liz?) tell him he’s crazy and he agrees saying “I just want to eat some soup”.

I forgot to take a photo of the latest - we ate it too quickly! - but I have sworn by Giada DeLaurentiis recipe for Winter Minestrone for YEARS.

You can get the recipe HERE.

A few notes…

• I recommend the Trader Joe’s diced pancetta, which is not easy to come by as the vultures usually grab it on the weekends. And, if you cannot find it anywhere else I have swapped out thick cut bacon chopped into tiny pieces and my husband agrees, it’s actually better!

• You DO NOT need to break out the Cuisinart to mix up the cannellini beans and beef stock to make a slurry. I grab a small handful of beans and mash them in a bowl with some of the liquid stock, same result with fewer appliances.

• It calls for Swiss chard but chards are also not easy to find so I suggest a bag of collard greens. I believe they are in the chard family. I don’t recommend kale - oof that’s bitter - or spinach, especially not spinach as that would add a different flavor to the whole dish.

• The absolute SECRET INGREDIENT is some parmesan rind. Treat yourself to a nice block of Pecorino Romano from Whole Foods and cut off the back edge to throw in the soup and then enjoy the rest of the block for a few weeks…damn, that cheese is good.

• Do not add extra salt! A dash if you must.

Enjoy!

A subscriber commented to me that they love my cottage cheese “salad” and I was flattered so here is another cottage cheese concoction cause ya know, gotta get that protein in…

A bagel of your choice scooped, toasted, then some cottage cheese, avocado mash, everything bagel seasoning and some nutritional yeast - or nutrish - as those in the know like to call it - for that cheesy flavor.

And before you get at me for the scooping of the bagel, I’m on your side and generally don’t scoop but I need a trough for the cottage cheese for this one and we are trying to be slightly low-carb but not in a 1990’s kind of way.

The Duchess PLAYS:

I wish I could say I have been doing more than making soup and apple-picking but I haven’t.

Isn’t that enough?

We are getting into our Winter Arc here.

I also made a pumpkin bread earlier today.

It’s loafed well.

Truthfully, the Mets are in the playoffs so all bets have been off for the past 2 weeks and likely until this series is over.

LFG!!!

OMG!!

And I’ll leave this right here…Pete Alonso’s homer in the 9th inning that saved the series and got them into the NLDS…the Moneyball edit.

Magical.

The Duchess OBSESSES:

Stevie Nicks crushing it on SNL as musical guest singing Edge of Seventeen…

And for the record, for all of the Gen Z’ers and younger who watched Daisy Jones and the Six and have only just discovered the version of Silver Springs sung on The Dance almost 30 years ago where Stevie basically sucks out Lindsey Buckingham’s soul 4 minutes in, we were all here long before you.

Watching this concert on TV in 1997 was a canon event in my life.

If you’ve never seen it, watch it now.

You can literally feel the moment where they are lyrically healing a wound and everything unspoken is said.

Chills then and chills now.

“You’ll never get away from the sound of my voice will haunt you.”

Goddess. Witch. Gypsy. Queen.

The Duchess RECOMMENDS:

Always here for the seasonal fashion finds…this time it’s a new fleece.

Jacket.

Pullover.

Vest.

Whatever keeps you warm.

I just bought this one at J.Crew Factory and I will be living in it from now until May, mostly on the weekends but since athleisure has a choke-hold in the corporate world currently, I may take advantage and do a tuck with a nice pair of pants and some sneakers.

I usually don’t go sherpa, broad shoulders and all sherpa sometimes makes me look like a sasquatch but this one seems to have a lighter tooth to it.

The Duchess TREATS:

I can’t help it.

It was my birthday and we went to Williams Sonoma and I was lured into all of the Bridgerton cocktail mixers they still had available.

I will save this lavish libation for a Sunday morning, when I’m reading the newspaper.

That is all.