What To Cook

Hi! Carmel Valley schools are operating on a half-day schedule all week, and we’re in the middle of an extreme heat wave, so it feels like a mini spring break before real spring break is upon us in April. I know a lot of your kids have spring break this month (my friend Mary Pell is visiting from North Carolina right now for her daughter’s spring break!), so today we’re sharing a few spring break-related things, should it be on your radar right now, too.

Whether or not you’re in a spring break time of life: spring as a season will be official on Friday! To celebrate, Saturday’s new recipe includes my favorite spring vegetable, asparagus, but in the meantime, we wanted to share our team’s personal favorite super-springy recipes from the archives to welcome the new season.

And lest you forget: there’s a whole “spring” section in the What to Cook recipe index — along with many, many more categories based on cook time, protein, and mood. If you’re ever needing inspiration for dinner, let the index be your guide. Also worth noting if you’re a Substack app user: we are VERY happy to report that the WTC index is pinned again under “posts” when you’re on the WTC homepage within the app. The pinned posts went missing for a few weeks but they’re back, baby!

Caro’s: sheet-pan spring salmon

This is perhaps the springiest weeknight dinner recipe I’ve ever written. Dilly sauce, asparagus, roasted potatoes, and salmon with lots of lemon… it’s so fresh and delicious. It’s also both gluten- and dairy-free as written and is delicious served either right out of the oven or at room temp, so you could cook the entire meal ahead of time, let it cool, and store it covered in the fridge. Bring it out 30-ish minutes before dinner to let it come to room temperature, then dig in! It’s a total crowd pleaser. There’s an even simpler version of this meal — it omits the potatoes — in WTC the book on page 40!

Jillian’s: crispy artichoke and chicken salad

Artichokes are one of my favorite spring vegetables! This is a good-all-week salad that combines roasted marinated artichokes with chicken that you marinate in the artichoke brine, a can of white beans, kale, homemade croutons, and the most addicting, springy lemon-Parm dressing out there. I typically eat vegetarian and highly endorse the mushroom vegetarian riff that Caro suggests!

Molly’s: roasted asparagus farrotto

I cooked this meal one day last week after the time change and it was a perfect springy experience. I sipped a glass of white wine (the same wine I used later for the recipe!) while the asparagus and farro roasted away in the oven and the evening sunlight (!!) poured through the windows. It’s VERY tasty, and Caro’s asparagus-roasting hack in this recipe — you cook it on an inverted pot lid! — always makes me feel like a pro.

Do you have a favorite springy WTC recipe?!

Whether you’re traveling this season or not, these “vacation house” meal plans will get you in the springy and/or spring break spirit! Version one + version two.

I’m taking my older boys on a very adventure-heavy spring break trip with Lonely Planet Journeys (formerly known as Elsewhere, the travel company that sent me on the Camino and to Patagonia!) next month. It’ll be my first real trip with kids that isn’t a plop vacation by the pool/beach — we are going to be making our own chocolate from native cacao! Snorkeling in cenotes! Exploring ancient ruins! We are all so excited and grateful for the opportunity.

That said, my typical spring break plan is to go somewhere that I can plop in front of a body of water (pool, beach, lake, etc.) with the kids, and have easy access to a house or hotel room with all the creature comforts we may need. Other years, we hang at home and go to the pool after work and/or on local outings that we can’t usually do when the kids are in school. Whatever your plans may be, here’s a random collection of spring break tips and things we are loving.

* I’ve said this before but one of my favorite vacation tricks is shipping a Thrive order to the rental house with pantry staples, kids snacks and meals (like Goodles!), and any other miscellaneous things we’ll need during the trip like sunscreen, dish soap, diapers, etc. I love that when I’m filling my Thrive box I don’t have to study the ingredients lists — they have a strict vetting process to ensure that everything they carry is organic and free from more than 1,000 artificial, synthetic, and GMO ingredients. It also saves me money!!! The membership’s only $5 a month, they run sales all the time within their membership, and the items are already priced up to 30% off retail. Click here to get 30% off your first order and a free $60 gift of your choice when you sign up. And as a reminder, new-to-Thrive WTC Insiders get $25 off their first four orders (plus lots of other perks)!

* I got this suit in black for Mexico and it’s a really nice middle ground between mom suit and sexy suit. It’s definitely VERY SNUG in my normal size, so size up if you’re on the fence about going up or down!

* At the pool this week three of my friends had this sun hat and it looked so good on everyone! I’m a ball cap person but I know I need to become a sun hat person for more coverage, ugh.

* I continue to be obsessed with this glowy face sunscreen. It’s honestly helping me remember to wear SPF every day because I love the way it brightens up my face when I’m not wearing makeup!

* Loeffler Randall gifted me a really great travel tote bag and it got a lot of use in February. I love that it slides onto the handle of my roller bag and actually stays in place, it fits under the airplane seat nicely, and has tons of storage compartments. And it’s nylon, so it transitions from airplane to poolside splashes nicely.

* Speaking of roller bags, I just got a new one and I’m VERY into it. I really prefer a hard shell when I’m trying to cram WAY too much stuff into a carry-on (like for my 10-day business trip in February!), and this one has tons of great storage compartments and glides really nicely.

* I just ordered these Bermuda shorts! In black. I’m very excited about them!!

* From Molly: I went shopping at Vuori this past weekend in NYC and found another pair of my all-time favorite shorts, the Villa, in this new color. I wear them everywhere — exercise classes, my kids’ sports practices and games, and as a coverup at the beach and pool. They have a wonderfully roomy thigh, dry quickly, and are just the comfiest. I also got this tee — I’m a shorty and the crop hits perfectly with high-waisted bottoms like the Villas. (From Caro: I’ve been thinking about ordering these!! We love a roomy thigh. I’ve been getting a lot of wear out of my fave $20 shorts but they’re more athletic looking than the Villa. Also, FYI that we have heard from multiple readers that these are a great Target dupe!)

* Speaking of coverups…

* From Caro: I’ve been wearing this button-up dress to the pool (and around town) all week (and I wore it all last summer while pregnant and postpartum!).

* From Molly: I shared this Quince coverup last year but can update that it held up well all summer (and we live at the beach so I wore it a ton!). It stretches out/gets weighed down a bit when it’s wet, but shrinks back up once washed and dried. I love this one, too, that’s similar but collared. I’m also excited for an order from this sister-owned small business to arrive soon — I’m trying to invest in more UPF-50 coverups!

* From Molly: One last staple I’ll be packing for beach outings this spring: my Reefs! The back strap makes them easy to walk through soft sand in (I hate it when flip flops fling sand up my legs!), and you can hose them down afterward.

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. farro fattoush, 2025

Here’s another springy good-all-week salad that will hold up well in the fridge for days! This one packs farro, chickpeas, tons of herbs, cr…

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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 m…

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I had so much fun cooking the Christmas Strata live with so many of you this morning! I love that we’ve all knocked out Christmas breakfast and now have it ready in the fridge — phew! One thing off the list. If you missed it, you can still cook along with us with following along with this recording.

The live crew also asked for a kitchen tour so I do that at the end!

Thank you Sarah Conner, Charlotte Kaufman, fillups44, Buffy C-P, Shannon Hanson, Karen Mulvaney, and many others for tuning in and cooking with me! Join Insiders to join more live cooking classes in 2026!

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Thanks to all who tuned into our turkey day chat earlier this week! Here’s the recording in case you missed it.

Have any questions we didn’t cover? Ask them here!

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ONE OF YOU IS WINNING A TRIP TO CARMEL!!!!

I promise I’ll stop yapping about pre-orders soon, because the book will BE IN YOUR HANDS IN LESS THAN A MONTH! But until pub day on August 13th, it’s pre-order city, baby.

And to show you just how SERIOUSLY, UNENDINGLY GRATEFUL I am to all of you for pre-ordering, I’ve been working really hard on a truly massive giveaway…

CARO’S PERFECT WEEKEND IN CARMEL GIVEAWAY!!!!!

**TWO NIGHT STAY AT CARMEL VALLEY RANCH**

**$100 GIFT CARD TO STATIONAERY**

**A PICNIC BOX + CRACKERS FROM LADY & LARDER**

**A WINE TASTING FOR TWO AT PELIO ESTATE WINES**

**A WINE TASTING FOR TWO AT HOLMAN RANCH**

**$100 GIFT CARD TO WINE HOUSE**

**A WINE TASTING FOR TWO AT JOYCE WINE CO.**

**$100 GIFT CARD TO CELLA RESTAURANT**

**PLUS… A SIGN SLAP HIKE OR GLASS OF WINE WITH LITTLE OLE ME!!!! (if you want to lol)**

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know and recognize all of these spots as places I frequent with my fam, friends, and on dates with George. Bring your whole fam (all of these tasting rooms are kid-friendly, trust me, I’d know), bring a friend, come with just your significant other, or bring your grandma…! No matter who you bring, I’m just so excited for one of you to get to get to experience the beautiful part of the world where we live.

TO ENTER:

* If you already entered to join the cooking class, you’re already entered!

* Otherwise, preorder the book, then head to this link to enter! FYI it says nothing about the giveaway right now, but don’t worry, this is how you enter!!

* If you can’t remember if you already entered to join the cooking class, just do it again!

* Winner will be announced on August 14th, 2024.

**Carmel Valley Ranch disclaimer: Accommodations based on availability. During holidays and special events, blackout dates apply. Valid Sunday - Thursday.

**Flights not included.

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Get this week’s full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/author-annabel-monaghan-on-getting

It’s summertime, and that means it’s Annabel Monaghan time!

Annabel’s one of my favorite authors, and lucky for us she cranks out a delightful new book seemingly every June.

This year is no different, so today we talk about Summer Romance and a whole lot more: from kids and smartphones (she’s also mom of 3 boys/young men), to sneaking away from her family to write her first adult novel during the pandemic (“it felt like a love affair”) to her recent embrace of getting rid of old stuff – and the existential questions that pop up when you’re deciding whether to let go of a 15-year-old shirt.

Plus, Annabel’s fascinating writing process: part art, part science, part voodoo. And bribing her sons to read her (not even that steamy) books: “They’re like, ‘Gross!’”

Links: 

* Annabel’s new book, Summer Romance - https://amzn.to/3R5GYc1

* Her debut (adult) novel, Nora Goes Off Script - https://amzn.to/3wVtadi

* Same Time Next Summer - https://amzn.to/3R0DHuo

* Annabel’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/annabelmonaghan/?hl=en

* Our new cabin! - https://www.instagram.com/p/C7hGmo_xKSM/?hl=en&img_index=1

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Get this week's full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/the-idea-of-you-author-robinne-lee

The Idea of You was a book that changed the way I read. 

I absolutely loved it. I recommend it all the time. And it was my gateway drug into the romance genre… although, as its author Robinne Lee shares in this episode, she never intended to write a romance novel (nor does she consider it to be one).

The Idea of You really is about much more than meets the eye. As Robinne wrote in this Time article, the book grapples with themes including “ageism, sexism, the double standard, motherhood, female friendship, agency, and the dark side of celebrity.” And now that it’s been turned into a hit movie starring Anne Hathaway, it’s the perfect time to hear from Robinne herself.

If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie yet (BTW, I really recommend reading the book first!), it follows the relationship between a 40-year-old single mom and art gallery owner (Solène) and a boy-band lead singer 16 years her junior (Hayes). In the podcast, we talk about the inspiration for the book (it’s not Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde, y’all); the tension between motherhood, romantic love, and career; what she wishes was different about the movie; and much more.

We also get into:

* Her hustling for 7 years to sell the book, copy by copy

* Why she ended the story the way she did

* Writing sex scenes and why she doesn’t see TIOY as a romance novel

* Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine’s performances in the movie

* A tantalizing tease about her next book

Whether you’re a fan of The Idea of You or not (yet!), I’m so excited for you to get to know Robinne, who is also a talented actor and overall smart and fascinating woman.

PS: I know I said So Into That episodes are going to air every other week now, but the world is currently *loving* The Idea of You, so I didn’t want to sit on this interview!!

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Get this week’s full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/how-to-get-rich-af-with-vivian-tu

Vivian Tu (Your Rich BFF) is here, and she’s here to make us smarter about personal finance like we’re out for margaritas.

No condescension. No jargon. Just tons of actionable tips, no matter your income or family situation.

You might know Vivian from Instagram, where her personal finance videos go viral on the reg. But not everything can fit into a 60-second clip… so she’s written a new book called Rich AF. 

Today, we tackle everything from negotiating a raise, to “the talk” she recommends stay-at-home parents have with their income-earning partner, to the website that could reunite you with hundreds or thousands of dollars that are rightfully yours (really!).

Get ready to learn more about making and managing money in an hour than you did in 20 years of school!

We also get into:

• What to do when it feels like bachelorette parties and weddings are bankrupting you

• Why talking about money more usually makes you richer

• Why she doesn’t believe in splitting rent 50/50

• Advice for stay-at-home moms who feel left in the dark about money

• Step-by-step salary negotiation tactics

• High-yield savings accounts

• Hiring your kids (!) to lower your taxable income

• And much more

Links: 

• Vivian’s new book, Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life - https://www.yourrichbff.com/richaf

• Vivian’s website: https://www.yourrichbff.com/

• Vivian’s Substack, Enriched - https://yourrichbff.substack.com/

• Vivian’s podcast, Networth and Chill

• Vivian’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/your.richbff/?hl=en

• Vivian’s TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@yourrichbff?lang=en

• MissingMoney.com - https://www.missingmoney.com/

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

Get this week’s full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/so-into-that-ask-me-anything

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I do the occasional “question box” style Ask Me Anything there. Well, today I’m bringing that format to the pod – and you sent in some juicy ones.

This Q&A gets into:

• Workout motivation with young kids

• How do I deal with “mom guilt” as a working mom?

• Toddler tantrums

• Deciding whether to have another child?!

• Will we stay in California forever?

• Ghostwriting cookbooks 

• My brother? (yes, I have one!)

• And more!

Links: 

• Emma Lovewell on So Into That - https://whattocook.substack.com/p/pelotons-emma-lovewell-is-so-into

• Cameron Rogers episode - https://whattocook.substack.com/p/efficiency-hacks-the-transition-from

• Gaby Dalkin episode - https://whattocook.substack.com/p/gaby-dalkin-is-so-into-mastering

• Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety by Drew Ramsey, MD - https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Beat-Depression-Anxiety-Nourish/dp/006303171X

• Expecting Better by Emily Oster - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310896/expecting-better-by-emily-oster/

• Final scene of Mad Men (spoilers, obv) - https://youtu.be/Exf63KPXF6w?si=5J3nO7dPQTZcda3s

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

Get this week’s full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/angela-santomero-the-creator-of-blues

As the creator of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood on PBS, Angela Santomero may be the person most responsible for getting my family through the pandemic with our sanity intact. The show was (and still is) a lifesaver in moments when George or I needed a break from hands-on parenting, and its musical life lessons have become part of our toddlers’ lexicon.

Today, I get the chance to thank Angela in person! And you get to hear about the early childhood development principles behind her Emmy award-winning work. Plus, her take on screen time for kids; working with the real-life Mr. Rogers; and two wise pieces of advice for parents of young kids.

We also get into:

• Why Daniel Tiger doesn’t wear pants (but Mom Tiger does)

• How Angela developed the show (and Blue’s Clues before that)

• How music and repetition help kids learn

• Advice she’d give to her younger self (now that her daughters are in their 20s)

Links: 

• Angela’s new book, Life Clues - https://angelasclues.com/

• Her Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/angelasclues/?hl=en

• Her TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@angelasclues

• Her new show, Dee & Friends in Oz on Netflix - https://www.netflix.com/title/81223055

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