2017 Year in Review
0Hi. What a year, eh? Oof. Having a norovirus knock out our entire family + all my inlaws the very last day of the year was pretty emblematic of 2017 as a whole.
This is the first year I won’t have much of a “real” recap as far as food is concerned because, quite frankly, I didn’t post enough to warrant an exhaustive list of favorites. So I’m just going to give you my favorite main and my favorite dessert, and then include some other non-food favorites, like I did last year. If you have any recommendations–music, TV shows, books, restaurants, whatever, I’m all ears. I love discovering (or, uh, having you discover and then tell me about) new stuff.
My favorite (new) main dish recipe from this year is definitely this Detroit-style pizza. I was actually just in metro-Detroit over the holidays, had a square pizza that was delightful as always, and still think this version is better (as homemade often is).
My favorite dessert recipe from this year is the one for these gluten free brownies. I never would have guessed “gluten free” anything would make it to a list of favorites but these fudgy, rich, fantastic brownies will be on your list too. Trust.
Favorite Restaurants: Goosefoot, Smyth. If you are in the area, please try both of these amazing establishments. The food at both was just phenomenal but more importantly, so are the owners/chefs.
Favorite Albums: In no order, I really enjoyed Spoon’s Hot Thoughts (also far and away my 4 year old’s favorite), Haim’s Something to Tell You (bonus: their “That Don’t Impress Me Much” cover), St. Vincent’s Masseduction, Laura Marling’s Semper Femina, and Dirty Projectors’ self titled.
Favorite Books: This year I read 47 books, which is a lot for me, but to be fair, I read a fair amount of “Tiny Stories,” graphic novels, and a few young adult books (including finally starting the Harry Potter series, thanks to parallel reading alongside an interested 7 year old) that helped up the total. My favorites were Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele or a Feminist Manisfesto in Fifteen Suggestions (really more a letter/essay than a book) with some honorable mentions to Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Ann Fessler’s The Girls Who Went Away, Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, and John Lewis’s March (I’ve only read Books 1 and 2; #3 will be read soon!)
Favorite TV: Master of None (that Thanksgiving episode tho), I’m Sorry (if you are wondering what I’m like, I am Andrea), Catastrophe, The Good Place, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Insecure (and the usual suspects like Veep and Better Call Saul). Late entry: Life in Pieces. We randomly caught an episode of this at my inlaws’ over Thanksgiving and then started watching it. We’re only through the first season, but we’re fans. For those of you who have seen this, the Cheeto episode had me dead. Really late entry: Togetherness. This show isn’t on any more (it aired for 2 seasons on HBO) but was great.
Feel free to tell me any or all of your favorites from 2017 in the comments, and I wish you a wonderful 2018!