Recipe: Lemon Popovers with Pecan Honey Butter

Since I was packing up to move, I was trying to use up random things in the kitchen so I didn't have to pack them up and take them with me. I knew I had flour, chopped walnuts (same as pecans, right?), and lots of butter, so when I found this popover recipe from Taste of Home, all I needed to buy was a lemon. And only three steps? Easy enough!

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons finely chopped toasted pecans, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk until blended. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth (do not overbeat). Stir in 3 tablespoons pecans, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

2. Generously grease a 6-cup popover pan with nonstick spray; fill cups half full with batter. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 350° (do not open oven door). Bake until deep golden brown, 10-15 minutes longer (do not underbake).

3. Meanwhile, combine butter, honey and remaining 2 tablespoons pecans. Immediately remove popovers from pan to a wire rack. Pierce side of each popover with a sharp knife to let steam escape. Serve immediately with pecan honey butter.

I've never made popovers before, and I didn't have a popover pan, so I had to improvise using cupcake tins. I think that works okay, except that the dough does stick to the papers (even though I did spray the papers). Perhaps if you REALLY greased the cupcake tins and forwent the papers, that would have worked better. And I didn't have a wire rack for cooling, so I just used a random grill-like thing. Welp.

Since we were packing, I didn't have all the usual tools at my disposal. I didn't have a large bowl, and I used a fork instead of a whisk, so I don't think everything incorporated quite as nicely. I also didn't have a zester, so I just used a serrated knife to cut tiny pieces of lemon rind. Luckily I still had the juicer, and I only needed half the lemon (the other half could be used for cocktails!). 

How much butter do you need?!

Also, this makes A LOT of honey butter, much more than you need. You could easily halve the recipe and still have enough (you could also disregard this completely and eat them on their own or just use regular butter). 

I didn't poke the sides of the popovers (I missed that step), but I think they turned out okay. Sticking to the cupcake wrappers is certainly not ideal. But the flavor was yummy. I couldn't taste much of the lemon, but maybe that's because all I could taste was the butter! Maybe a lemon-flavored butter could be better? (Say that three times fast!) I'm not sure I would make these again (I don't see myself investing in a popover pan anytime soon), but it was worth a try. 

PS: In the end we threw away most of the butter, and my husband let some of the pop-overs go moldy before we could eat them. Too bad!

Brooks & Dunn at Merriweather Post Pavilion

I had hoped to post this MUCH earlier, so sorry for the delay!

My family saw Brooks & Dunn at the Delaware State Fair the summer of 2003, but I didn't get to go because I on vacation with my grandma in France (not that I'm complaining!). I've been wanting to see them myself, and I was excited they were coming to Merriweather Post Pavilion before I moved from the DC area!

I didn't know who the openers were, but I was happy to see ERNEST again (I saw him open for Chris Lane at the Fillmore Silver Spring in 2022. Read that blog post here.), and I was psyched to see David Lee Murphy for the first time. 

This was my favorite of the night from ERNEST:

Did It for the Story

My friend knew right away that David Lee Murphy sang "Dust on the Bottle," which is probably his most famous song. Of course he saved it for last to end his set!

But Murphy is also an incredible songwriter. He performed several songs which he wrote for other country singers (just like Old Dominion did when I saw them in 2019. Read that blog post here.):

Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not by Thompson Square

Anywhere with You by Jake Owen

The More I Drink by Blake Shelton

And a few Jason Aldean songs:

Big Green Tractor

The Only Way I Know

Murphy has worked with Kenny Chesney a lot, too. Along with "Here and Now" and "Pirate Flag," the two event made an entire album together called "No Zip Code," which is pretty neat!

Here and Now

Pirate Flag

Everything's Gonna Be Alright (This song was actually added to the album at the last minute!)

Then it was time for Brooks & Dunn! I did not realize that they are 69 and 67, respectively. Good for them for still performing! But, their age was showing, or at least Ronnie Dunn's was. My friend commented that his voice was a little pitchy, especially during the harmonies. But that was the least of our worries. Throughout the show he walked off stage, and later he explained that he was in a lot of pain and had a steroid shot to help, but he still was feeling it. You could tell how stiff he was, especially by the end of the show. So sad! I think this impacted the set list, with Kix Brooks singing more of his own songs and just jamming with the band. But they still sang a bunch of the hits, so I was happy with that!

Red Dirt Road

Ain't Nothing 'Bout You (my personal favorite!)

Brand New Man

Cowgirls Don't Cry (not quite the same without Reba)

Only in America (During this song, a few Marines in uniform came on stage, so that was pretty cool!)

Boot Scootin' Boogie

Put a Girl in It

They sang a few songs that I didn't recognize, but maybe I just know more of the really famous hits:

She Likes to Get Out of Town

We'll Burn That Bridge

Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothin'

But they didn't sing some of their best hits, which was too bad:

My Maria

Neon Moon

That Ain't No Way to Go

You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

How Long

I still had a great time, despite the issues and some of the songs missing. I'd even see them again if they continue to tour, even at their ages!

Recipe: Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a random can of sweetened condensed milk that I didn't know how to use. I'm pretty sure I've mainly ever used it in pumpkin pie, and that's only at Thanksgiving time! I found this recipe on the blog A Pretty Life in the Suburbs, and it looked pretty easy, so I thought I'd try it. 

It IS very easy! I pretty much melted ALL the butter (since I started with it frozen; and there's A LOT of butter), and you easily mix everything together. It takes a little bit of time to roll the balls for the cookies, but if you had one of those little scoops, that would make it even faster! And they only bake for 10 minutes, so you've got really soft, yummy chocolate chip cookies in just a short amount of time!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Mix in the sweetened condensed milk.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Roll the batter into 1-inch balls.
8. Place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets about 1.5 inches apart and flatten the dough balls slightly.
9. Bake for 10 minutes. The edges should only be slightly golden.

I do think this recipe could be improved as far as lay-out goes. Putting parchment on the baking sheets should be one of the first steps so that the pans are ready to go once the dough has been made. The recipe also doesn't say how long to leave the cookies on the sheet once they're done, or if they should be transferred to a cooling rack at any point. I left them on the sheets for 5-10 minutes, and then transferred them to a cooling rack. I figure it couldn't hurt anything!

I would definitely make these cookies again. They are so easy, and I love how soft they are. And they are tiny, so the recipe makes a lot! I actually doubled the recipe, and some of the cookies were a little too big (I did notice they start to crack on the top if they're bigger), and I had plenty of cookies to share with colleagues and friends. A fan favorite for sure!

2024 JxJ Film Festival

I have participated in the JxJ Film Festival, hosted by the DC JCC, for many years now.* This time I only bought a 3-pack pass, which is probably for the best, because I don't think I would have had time to see more than that!

Here are the films I saw:

Looking for Chloe

This documentary is about the French fashion house Chloé, created by Jewish Egyptian designer Gaby Aghion. I had heard of Chloé before, but that's about it. Aghion was one of few women to have founded a fashion house during the 1950's, and her style was very flowy and free (she is credited to have perhaps invented "ready to wear" fashion). Aghion herself was a very active, independent woman and enjoyed the outdoors, so her designs were meant to fit women with similar lifestyles. She kept herself in the background of her work, which is probably why I had never heard her name before. In the late 1960's she hired Karl Lagerfeld to design for Chloé, which was interesting since she was Jewish and he was German. She let him be the face of Chloé, and he did amazing things for the brand through the 1970's, which really put him and the fashion house on the map. There was some drama relayed in the film between the two designers, and Lagerfeld left and later was very successful with Chanel and Fendi. Aghion was adamant that Chloé had made Lagerfeld, not the other way around. The two did come back to good terms before she passed away in 2014. I didn't know about any of this, and this film did a great job summarizing this fashion story!

Elik and Jimmy

I saw this rom com with a friend, and even though I fell asleep in the middle of it (I had had three margaritas beforehand. What do you want from me?), since rom coms are pretty predictable, I don't think I really missed anything. Essentially boy meets girl during a final military practice in Israel; he immediately has a crush on her, but he's fat and she's not interested. She moves to New York, but over the years they run into each other and stay in touch as friends. For me, it seemed like the whole film focused on him being fat and therefore undesirable, not just to her but to any woman. But wouldn't you know it, at the end he loses weight and she decides she does want to give him a chance. What the heck? What kind of messaging is this film sending? "If you become skinny, only then will people like you" ? Can you imagine if this had been the other way around, with the woman losing weight so that the man of her dreams would finally love her? We would NOT celebrate that, and we shouldn't celebrate it in this way, either. What would have been a better message would have been if he had met someone who loved him just for who he was, and by the time Elik came around, he would have been able to rub it in her face and tell her it was too late and that she had missed her chance. We should not use people's weights or appearances to equate their value to other people in society. Ew.

Rabbi on the Block

Of the three films, I was most excited to see this one. I love documentaries, and the story of a black, female rabbi sounded really interesting. Tamar Manasseh is a Jewish woman from the South Side of Chicago. Her mother is Jewish, so therefore she is (she hates getting asked, "How are you Jewish?" as in, "How can a black person be Jewish?"); she grew up going to Jewish day school, and when she had children of her own, she sent them to Jewish day school, too. She is an activist, having founded Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK), and to be an even greater role model, she went to rabbinical school to become a rabbi. But she faced much adversity through all of this. She was discriminated against as a woman, and it took her 13 years to finally be ordained as a rabbi. And while she likes to see herself as a bridge between the Jewish and African American communities, she has found that many Ashkenazi Jews do not want to associate with black Jews. AND her own child's day school no longer wanted her son to attend; they were sneaky about it, too, refusing to send her the next year's application even though she had already paid to hold his spot. She took the school to court and won the case, but her son never went back to the school, so he also faced terrible discrimination and racism. But the story is mostly a hopeful one, with Manasseh helping to bring together the local community and fight injustices, and living her life "Jew-ing" with her commitment to Tikkun Olam (healing the world). 

This actually wasn't the first movie that director Brad Rothschild made about Manasseh. In early 2020, he released a film called, "They Ain't Ready for Me," but it kind of went under the radar with the pandemic. He was at the film screening and spoke afterwards, talking about meeting Manasseh and saying how impressed he was by her every time they spoke. 

I am so glad I had the chance to see these films! I always enjoy going to this film festival, as you can see from the list below, and I'm glad I could squeeze in this year's festival with my busy schedule!

*Here are my blog posts on previous JxJ Film Festivals:

2017

2018

2019

2023

Met Gala 2024 - The Best and the Least Best

I totally forgot about the Met Gala until my mom asked me if I had seen any of the outfits (she was watching a clip on the Today Show about it). So of course I had to go down the rabbit hole and look at the outfits! I checked out the list on Vogue's website, but I have to admit I only made it halfway through. But you get the idea!

The official exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” but the general theme of the Met Gala was “Garden of Time.” I find this a little confusing, since I would interpret the two of those things very differently. The first would make me want to wear an outfit from a particular time period in the past, paying homage to the corsets of Marie Antoinette or the avocado greens and tangerines of the 1970's. But the "garden" theme instantly makes me think of flowers, perhaps with a little wink to the White Rabbit of Alice in Wonderland. And yet, of course there were celebs who took neither of those approaches and wore whatever the hell they wanted. I was surprised how many wore black. I feel like the Met Gala is the time to wear anything but black, really experiment!

Here are some of the best, and the least best (thank you, Keith Habersberger), ensembles IMHO:

BEST

Vogue's Anna Wintour of course has to be on the best list! While this piece may not be the most exciting, I appreciate the flowers and the color they bring to the whole outfit.

Zendaya looks AMAZING! Someone on X posted saying she's ready for The Hunger Games. So true!

I love the layering flowers that Ayo Edebiri is wearing, and the fade from color to white is so cool.

I'm not sure I love this dress (the pointy not-straps are strange), although the train is superb. And I do love this color on Kerry Washington.

I'm not sure how Mindy Kaling's dress matches the theme, but I do think the sleeves and fabric framing her head are magnificent. And I appreciate that she is supporting other Indian artists.

Taylor Russell looks like a wooden toga goddess! I've never seen clothes look like polished wood before!

I adore Karlie Kloss, and this pink and Swarovski crystal dress is a VISION.

Although this look from Nicki Minaj is childish, it's very playful, which is on-brand for her. And it clearly fits the garden theme, no doubt!

While a more somber outfit, Penelope Cruz looks so sophisticated and looks like she stepped out of a time machine.

Giovanna Engelbert is a reptile-turned-hot human! How creative to think of an animal in the garden instead of a flower?!

Jenny Chandler's dress is something I would want to wear to this event! I love Oscar de la Renta, and the flowers look like they are from stained glass.

LEAST BEST

I had forgotten Ashley Graham existed until I saw this photo. Biker chic is NOT doing it for me.

While I appreciate how hard Lana Del Ray leaned into the garden theme, it's just too literal.

I guess Dua Lipa is channeling the Madames of the brothels of old?

Amanda Seyfried is wearing tin foil and a torn metallic swimming cap.

This is probably the most lackluster outfit I've seen worn to a Met Gala. Zoe Saldana looks like she could just be walking down the street going to grab brunch!

I couldn't help but make an ugly face when I saw Chloë Sevigny's dress. The hair makes it worse!

Another brothel look, this time from Teyana Taylor. I'm not trying to shame sex workers of the past! It's just that I'm not loving the reinterpretation of those kinds of outfits...

There's too much to look at! You don't know where to start!

This dress that Jordan Roth (who I only realized was a man upon Googling) is wearing is even with Cynthia Erivo's outfit above. Flowers are beautiful, but not when pink petals are just sticking out everywhere.

Paloma Elsesser looks like an Amazonian warrior who got tangles in her own bedsheets.

I don't know WHAT Erykah Badu is wearing, but it's BAD.

Just, no. No one wants to see your pregnant belly, Adwoa Aboah. What is up with celebrities revealing their pregnancies at big events (like at the Superbowl)? No one cares.

I've never liked Cara Delevingne, so I'm a bit biased, but I just don't understand the combination here.

Is Rachel Sennott part of the Von Trapp family? Because she looks like she's wearing an apron made of curtains.

I can't tell if Raye's dress is covered in wires, dust bunnies, or static energy.

The dress Camila Mendes is wearing looks like a high schooler made her own prom dress. But it was actually designed by Joseph Altuzarra, the man next to her!

Sarah Pidgeon looks like if Little Red Riding Hood and the witch from Hansel and Gretel had a baby. Oh, and it's what Cinderella would wear to clean the house: they look like torn rags!

I love Lizzo's sinched-in waist, but the headpiece is wack! 

SHEER DRESSES

I am giving this its own category because in my mind these don't fit the brief at all. But I do think they are very pretty! I think these women just wanted to show off as much of themselves as they could. If you've got it, flaunt it, I guess!

J.Lo can pull off any outfit!

I had never heard of Greta Lee, but now I feel like I know her intimately...

All I can see is Emily Ratajkowski's butt crack.

I can barely call this mini-outfit on FKA Twigs sheer because there's barely anything to begin with!

I can't tell if Elle Fanning is wearing plastic or ice. Maybe shower curtain?

Janelle Monae ALMOST made it into my Mermaid category (see below). But you can still see her legs, so sheer it is!

It doesn't get more sheer than showing off your nipples, Doja Cat!

Compared to the dress she wore at the 2019 Met Gala, this look seems tame for Kim Kardashian! And it does have the floral touch, which I like.

Angel Reese (a basketball player. I didn't know who she was!) is in a tutu gone wrong. And I love the ballet, too!

Vera Wang's hair is helping to cover her up. But nothing can cover those scrawny arms!

BRIDAL

Also its own category. Perhaps there have always been weddings, so therefore a wedding dress is timeless...?

Ariana Grande looks like she's just about to walk down the aisle. I don't even know whom she's dating these days!

Kylie Jenner. Not sure who her current beau is either...

Law Roach could be a bride in this tux!

I love how the white completely contrasts with Jodie Turner-Smith's beautiful skin!

I really like the tight collar on Cailee Spaeny's Miu Miu dress.

Jeremy Pope is doing some major gender bending here with his fashion! Part bride, part groom!

Adut Akech's outfit could have also gone under the sheer category, but the pair certainly looks like they're getting married!

MERMAIDS

I'm not sure when in time mermaids were at the peak of fashion, and I'm not sure what they have to do with gardens. But many celebs were inspired by the magical sirens.

Kaia Gerber's outfit could be in the bridal category, but it's screaming albino fish to me.

Is Hari Nef in the same dress, just with a big bow on the back? No, it looks like an H&M knock-off of the Tiffany & Co. dress.

I LOVE this dress that Gabrielle Union is wearing. I want to wear that dress! The only reason this is not in my "best" category is because it most obviously belongs with the other mermaids.

Anok Yai is a mermaid with legs in this Swarovski crystal bodysuit!

If you made it down this far, thanks for reading! What were your favorite looks?