Friday Roundup #46
Y’all, what a week.
Halloween came first. We had 18 kids this year, including four older teenagers who showed up later in the evening in flannel shirts and some pretty sus makeup. They got candy too, because I love that they still want to come trick-or-treating. The grown-ups took all but four of the Jell-O shots, the wind spent the night blowing the fabric off our ghosts (a circle of bare Styrofoam heads around a fake bonfire is its own kind of spooky), and we finally met the neighbors across the street. Then we got to fall back on Halloween eve. An extra hour right after trick-or-treat? I’ll take it. The whole setup is in How We Do Halloween at the Creek House if you missed it.
Día de los Muertos ran November 1 and 2, and I love it, y’all. The marigolds, the sugar skulls, the whole idea of setting a place at the table for the people you’ve lost. But it isn’t mine, so I’m not going to dress it up for a blog post. If you want to know more, go learn from the folks whose tradition it is. I’ve followed Mely Martínez at Mexico in My Kitchen for years, since before I ever started KaraCooks, and her Day of the Dead collection is the place to start.
And then Tuesday happened. I’m thrilled. I never thought I’d see Texas turn blue in my lifetime. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for the Senate, the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Texas since 1988, and Gina Hinojosa beat Greg Abbott for governor. Much less Ohio, where Sherrod Brown is headed back to the Senate and Amy Acton beat Vivek Ramaswamy for governor. Or Kansas, where Adam Hamilton unseated Roger Marshall. Mississippi is still counting as I write this, and Scott Colom is ahead of Cindy Hyde-Smith by a couple thousand votes. The list goes on: Iowa, Alaska, and Nevada flipped their governors’ races too, and Democrats came out of the night with both the House and the Senate.
Here at home, Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms governor, the first Democrat to win the job since 1998. Her great-great-grandparents, Shephard and Betsy Peek, were enslaved on a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia. In an 1860 inventory, her great-great-grandfather was listed at a value of $1,400. The day before the election, she visited Betsy’s grave. One hundred and sixty-six years later, their great-great-granddaughter is going to govern the state that once counted him as property.
I want America to do better. This week, I think we did.
- Cool thing I found online: Brian Mann at NPR rewatched The Shining on a big screen and came away convinced that Shelley Duvall, not Jack Nicholson, delivers the real horror. It’s a fantastic review of the movie from a different angle, and good reading for the week after Halloween.
- Coming on the blog: Sunday is how I actually cook our Thanksgiving turkey (spoiler: sous vide, then the fryer). Tuesday is caramelized pork and beef bowls, and Thursday is the whole Thanksgiving 2026 menu.
- This past week: Eight Pies for Six People, Floating Under the Hunter’s Moon at Chateau Elan, and Sharon’s Rice and Green Chile.
- Garden Update: The saffron is blooming! Three flowers so far, which gave me nine threads (every saffron crocus makes exactly three), and there are 18 more flowers out there in various stages right now, with what looks like more buds coming. I’m drying them, and they’re going into a pot of rice. Next fall I’m planting double. Inside, the holiday cactus that lives year round in the downstairs bathroom by the frosted window is chock-a-block with blooms, one week after the clocks fell back. A quick lesson from your Auntie Kara: mine’s a Thanksgiving cactus, and you can tell by the pointy, claw-like teeth on the leaf segments. A Christmas cactus has rounder, scalloped edges and blooms closer to December, and an Easter cactus has rounded segments with little bristles and star-shaped flowers in spring. A lot of what gets sold as “Christmas cactus” is actually Thanksgiving cactus, so go check yours.
- What I’m Reading: El Paso by Jazmine Ulloa [Bookshop.org* | Kindle]. Ulloa is a New York Times reporter who grew up in El Paso, and the book tells the city’s story through five families.
- What I’m Watching: Still The Great British Baking Show [IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes], and we’re getting close to the end now. Backrooms [IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes], which was mind-bending and unnerving. And The Cycle [IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes]: a good story, a little slow at times, but a solid payoff.
- What I’m Eating: Posole, acorn squash stuffed with wild rice and sausage, black bean tostadas, and leftovers.
What are y’all reading/watching/cooking/dealing with this week? Let me know in the comments.
P.S. The new neighbors across the street have a dog named Gumbo. GUMBO. Remy has a play date in his very near future.
P.P.S. Remy valiantly “boofed” at every single person who rang the doorbell, and then wagged his tail and asked them for pets. Fearsome guard dog, that one.
P.P.P.S. So far, the motion sensor has kept the deer away from the front door, so it’s looking good for adding a few to the back garden next year. Sorry, deer. The salad bar is closing.
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