Thanksgiving, Two Short Films, and an Epic Roast Fail.

An end-of-week catch up.

My apologies for being a little late. This mid-week’s hello has turned into more of an end-of-week hello. There’s good reason though. Suddenly, and completely out of the blue it seems, in my other writing world, I’ve been hit by an outpouring of inspiration, accompanied by a deluge of words so good, I had to record them before they disappeared. I’ve been sitting uninspired for a very long time, praying for one of these deluges to arise, and now that I’ve got one, it would be a sin not to take advantage.

☀︎ This week we had Thanksgiving (the Canadian kind).

There were two vegetarians, two meat lovers and one pescatarian (me) at the dinner table. So I made a veggie lasagna, and for the meat lovers, I tried a Mississippi roast in the slow cooker. It was a fail. Not the lasagna, everyone loved that, but the Mississippi roast. Despite following the New York Times Cooking app’s recipe to the T, it turned out dry and well…. how can I say this in a reader friendly way… none of the two meat lovers liked it. But I couldn’t just throw out a whole 4 pound roast. So my older son (the same one who got engaged last week) suggested making a gravy to go with it. I know what you’re thinking: why didn’t you just make a gravy in the first place? I’m a pescatarian okay. Not everything meat is obvious to me. Let’s just pretend you never asked the question and continue on with the culinary story because it all leads back to the brilliance of Substack.

You see, before this whole Mississippi roast ordeal, I’d been reading

Ritch Life

’s article on making broth. I knew the powers of a long, slow simmer. Inspired by the article and determined to save the Mississippi roast with the world’s best gravy, the next day, I sautéed an onion in butter (because butter), threw in some garlic, a carrot, a red pepper, a nice fatty piece of the actual roast, a bay leaf, a few juniper berries, some pepper corns, a green chilli, a Knorr beef cube I found at the back of my pantry, and simmered the whole thing for 3 hours. Can I tell you— the two meat lovers practically drank up the gravy bowl. And the roast platter—you needed a magnifying glass to find even a crumb of beef left on there.

The lesson: every roast needs its gravy.

Enough food talk.

☀︎ I’ve been reading Matt Haig’s new book The Life Impossible

about a retired math teacher and widow who inherits a house in Ibiza from a friend she hasn’t seen in decades. It’s turning out to be quite a mysterious and inspirational read. I’m hoping to finish it this week and report back to you soon. I think I have the perfect list for it.

☀︎ If you’re in the mood for a good romance read,

the comments section under this comic is a treasure trove and should keep you busy for the next year.

☀︎ I have two short film recommendations this week.

The first is called If Anything Happens I Love You, directed by Michael Govier and Will McCormack. It won an Oscar in 2021 and is about the grief of losing a child. Have a tissue handy.

The second is a stop motion short, hasn’t won an Oscar (yet), but is brilliant nonetheless, and— directed by my very own son, Miles Mendes. It couldn’t be more timely in light of the upcoming US election.

And before I say goodbye, I’ll leave you with these four words from Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

I hope you do.

Until next time,

XO Ingrid

P.S We Live In Time with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield is now out in theatres. I watched in when it came to TIFF in September and can highly recommend. In fact it was my favourite film of the festival.