The Weekly Wrap: September 28, 2025

In our cabinets, we have a coffee mug that has never been used for coffee. It's a cute mug that we picked up years ago from Crate and Barrel. It is white ceramic, on the squatter side, has a wide bowl, and the word "coffee" is stamped on the side. I love this mug. It makes me want to track down the matching cream and sugar set - even though we drink our coffee black.

This mug is fantastic... for everything but coffee. The bowl is so wide that any hot beverage you pour into it would cool off too quickly. The squatness means, in my usual sleepy morning state, I would likely spill all over myself if I were to try to drink out of it. Plus, it's a bit too oversized to comfortably hold in one hand.

But this mug is good for so many other things. It is perfect for mixing up a single can of tuna salad. It's great for snacking on chips when you don't want to stick your hand in a bag. It's ideal for whipping up a crema for tacos. It makes mashing avocado or other ingredients with a fork easier. It's fantastic as our daughter's cereal bowl. 

I love this mug. Just not for what it was intended for.

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• Hang on a minute... [Sketchplanations]
• It's really hard to protect kids from the internet. [WaPo - gift link]
• I used to do some of these bad cooking techniques. [The Takeout]

• How Big Bird came to China. [Very Special Episodes]
• An interesting conversation with Reese Witherspoon. [The Daily]
• The brutalism of DC. [City Cast DC]
• The president is not a doctor. Please don’t listen to him for medical advice. [The Daily]
• Creed Bratton has led an incredible life. [Office Ladies]

• I can't believe there are still new entries in the Liam Neeson Punches Things genre. The most recent is Ice Road: Vengeance. Aside from Neeson playing a truck driver, it's not really related to the first film. It doesn't matter if you saw the first movie or not - absolutely no plot points carry over. You should only watch this for the punching cause the script and green screen work are atrocious. [Netflix]
• This week, I started what is going to be a very slow rewatch of Nashville. I had forgotten just how many characters were in the ensemble. I did not, however, forget how much I adore the music. This series has an excellent soundtrack. [Netflix]

• On Saturdays, we eat a bag salad mix with some kind of protein or entree. Usually, that's pizza, crab cakes, or pot stickers. I wanted something new so I thought, let's get frozen buffalo wings. Now, the husband has made excellent buffalo wings from scratch before, but Saturday is our lazy cooking night. I perused the frozen aisle for wings that looked decent. The ones I grabbed from Perdue were pretty darn good. We went the oven route with the cooking instructions. [Perdue]
• I made pear, gorgonzola, and walnut salad so I could use up some ingredients in our fridge. I subbed bleu cheese for gorgonzola and used a mix of iceberg lettuce and kale. The husband was skeptical of this one, but came around in the end. The cheese was the best part of this dish. The funk works beautifully with the sweet fruit and tangy dressing. [Eating Well]
• I felt a little victorious with this dinner. We're trying to get our kiddo to expand her palate. Part of that is just putting food on her plate, declaring it dinner, and not letting her talk us into an alternative. Chicken thighs with couscous and kale uses pearl couscous which she does like. Everything else is suspect, but she ate it. She even ate the kale! I very much enjoyed this dish as is. I love anything you can make in a single Dutch oven. The husband does not care for kale so he would like to sub something in for that ingredient but I'm not sure what would work. You need the hearty texture of the kale. [Eating Well]