Hello and welcome to The Big Night In. We talk recipes, restaurants, and the occasional bit of drivel. If somehow you have slipped into my house and are still not subscribed, don’t worry, we can fix that:
Today’s letter includes:
No formal recs, but really good chat (maybe expect more of this? idk, we’re workshopping)
Being brave
Daniel Day Lewis pretending to be a parrot (probably)
A specific dream about swing bars
What to make for a Sunday morning breakfast, as you roam around pantless in an oversized button down
Meighan Grady’s ‘I think it’s brave’ substack is a free read and the other week she said it’s brave to not have a personal brand. I think it’s brave too. I want to be brave, yet I’ve heard time and again ‘but it’s a food account…right?’ Yes, it’s a food account. Yes, I have and do cook for a living. I also went to drama school (more on that later). I also write. Good writing, I believe, can settle you. It helps you come up for air. If you aren’t a natural reader, seeking out long-form doesn’t come easy. Just the act of reading a substack is an achievement. I say that without a hint of sarcasm. So, my wee challenge to you reader, is twofold. First, go find things to read, by writers who are actually good. Meighan is a great start. Second, be brave and don’t pigeonhole (yourself or others). If you’ve ever read a cookbook by a genu-ine writer, you’ll understand the merit of allowing people to be more than one thing. I find myself reading each excerpt with feverish calm. Annabel Langbein’s ‘Bella’ and Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s ‘Chasing Smoke’ are great examples of a readers cookbook. Personally, I want to be brave enough to write for readers who want a fresh thing to consume. Not only people looking for a recipe. I want both; I’m greedy, and thank god so many of us are. When we put baby in a corner, the internet gets stale very quick.
I’m pretending you read last week’s newsletter and have done nothing since, so we can just pick up where we left off. Speaking of Baby Reindeer, yes drama school is really like that. Daniel Day Lewis would have hopped around a 4000 square foot room cooing like a parrot. Judi Dench likely spent days mimicking a tiger - sorry, being the tiger. One school used to operate a human zoo on a Saturday as their end of term assignment. It’s exactly as it sounds; I won’t elaborate. Personally, I spent three hours in a hot studio in Clapham in a corset and petticoat, trying to embody a lion. Occasionally I would lick my paw as a fellow classmate hissed before slithering across the wood.
If you’ve ever had a question about drama school, I could probably answer it. You learn the hotbed secrets pretty quick (see: teachers behaving badly, or teachers bankrupting the school, or teachers telling you you’re ugly). Debbie Reynolds would be the first to tell you: everything is not as it seems. If you’re curious, we could start a thread - that could be fun! I could tell you about the lunatic military man who threw a chair at my ex. He ended up on Latvian deal or no deal; he wasn’t Latvian.
I’m a wealth of ridiculous stories, but will be hoarding all the good stuff for future letters. Expect secrets to be spilled at a later date, in a chat thread somewhere (I have few loyalties, and I’ll write about it when I’ve had a negroni). That said; I’m incredibly grateful for my time in London. Things can be so mundane without whimsy and imagination. Acting (and writing) are fantastic ways to root yourself in a wider world. If you can get over the whole ego/self-deprecation of it all. You get to have bigger, weirder dreams because of it. Like, I have often have this one very specific dream.
Fine I’ll tell you.
It goes like this: to be in a swing bar but it’s not a themed night, that’s just the energy of the place. Someone is playing the trumpet too close to my champagne coupé & the table is comically small. It feels authentic & no one is wearing a feather boa. The smooth trumpet player winks at me, and I know we’re getting platonic ice cream with a big group of friends after this. I laugh genuinely and often.
I’m very impetuous & protective of my nights out of the house. I can’t even spell fomo anymore - at least not for mundanity or nightclubs. But if you could promise a room full of people that will, unironically, pull me on to the floor to swing dance as I stop mid-way (only for a second) to bite from a spoon of chocolate mousse, then I’m in. I’m in on a Tuesday. It helps if my dance partner has big arms.
I also have a dream about a campfire on the beach, but NZ legislation said I wasn’t allowed to have that one.
These are all things you now get to think (and read) about on a Sunday afternoon! Indulge in long form and a bagel with bacon, cheese, and maple syrup. Better yet, turn it into a two-for-one and listen to an audiobook as you let your bagel dough rise. Spotify, now doing audiobooks.
The Recipe
Maple Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Bagel
If I cop flack for using sourdough protein bagels (decidedly dry), then I didn’t use enough maple syrup, or butter…or fat. This recipe doesn’t need a homemade bagel (I have a recipe for those pinned on my Insta); would be stellar if you went the whole nine yards though. Unlike me this week.
4 bagels (however many you want to make)
Butter
Dijon Mustard
Maple Syrup
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
12 pieces of Streaky Bacon (3 per bagel)
4 eggs
Salt & Pepper
Cut your bagels in half and generously smother the cut-sides with butter. Smear one side with a bit of dijon and the other with about 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. Add the sliced spring onions to the base of the bagel.
Cook the bacon until your preferred level of crispy (mine is just before too crunchy), remove from the pan and crack the eggs into the bacon fat. Cook the eggs on both sides until the yolk is just firm, but still jammy in the middle.
Place the egg, bacon, and a crack of black pepper on the bottom half of your bagel. Top it with the other half then fry the bagels in the same frying pan. I use another pan to squish them down so they get toasty. Then flip them over and repeat until the cheese is melted.
Coming up this month
A one pot recipe for fennel & parmesan pasta
A ritz and oreo chocolate pudding
Satay mushrooms
A lime & raspberry sponge cake
How to plan for a 20 person dinner (and all the recipes from the family reunion I cooked for)
A lot more fresh fresh writing