Coming to you live from a random town in Pennsylvania . . .

Friends, I’m currently cozied up in Meadville, PA, at a small bed and breakfast. It snowed this morning, so the place has an extra whimsical charm that’s so nice to wake up to on a Sunday in January. The dining room where I’m sitting is characterized by wooden fixtures, antique plates, mugs, and vases, and a corner full of windows brings beautiful natural light to the space. When you walk down the hall, the floor creaks under your feet, and there’s a plug-in nightlight in an outlet by my bed that makes the creepy dolls and old-timey nature of the house just a little less scary.

I’m here for a writing residency for the next week, and while I have some free time before my afternoon workshop, I thought I’d talk to you about what I’ve been eating.

Last night, our first night in the B&B, we ate pizza from a local spot called Pizza Joe’s. The plain cheese slice was middle of the road at best, but the veggie slice was really good—the vegetables were hidden under a thick layer of cheese, and the result was a slice that tasted like cheesy bread with a hint of earthy greens. Don’t fret—it was still greasy, like a slice of pizza should be. It was good. I rated it a 6.3 on my Beli.

Before I drove six hours from upstate New York to Pennsylvania, I’d been making a ton of soup in my Brooklyn apartment. It’s winter, and I’ve been in need of some warm, cozy vibes.

I made a tomato soup first, which was a first for me. I used this recipe from Broma Bakery, which called for fresh tomatoes to be used, where a lot of tomato soup recipes call for canned tomatoes. I think canned tomatoes are supposed to hold flavor a bit better than whole tomatoes, but I wanted this soup to taste fresh and earthy. I think it worked, though part of that is probably because I’m heavy-handed with my seasoning.

Roasting the tomatoes and onions was my favorite part. I let them sit in the oven for around an hour, and when I came out of my room to take them out of the oven, my apartment smelled like a dream of garlic, rosemary, and caramelized tomatoes—all the savory goodness. It was exquisite.

Shout-out to my work holiday party, where I was gifted an immersion blender, and to my family’s secret Santa, where I was gifted a dutch oven, because I used both to make this soup. I added some heavy cream to make it a bit thicker, and of course used a ton of chicken broth. It took a little over an hour (including the roasting time) for the soup to be done. We, of course, served it with grilled cheeses, and it was delicious.

The other soup I made recently is a broccoli cheddar soup from Love and Lemons. This one was so easy to make, and really quick. It starts by caramelizing onions and garlic, and once that’s done, you’re pretty much adding in your liquids (chicken broth and whole milk) and your veggies (broccoli and carrots), and letting those simmer until the veggies are soft and tender. Once that’s done, it’s the fun part: the cheese. I added basically an entire bag of sharp cheddar cheese, and I have no regrets. The soup was a balanced level of thick, creamy, and cheesy. I think this would even be good with some chicken added to it for some extra heartiness (honestly, thinking about it now, I wish I’d done this). I ate leftovers of this soup for two days after, served alongside two pieces of buttery, toasted bread for dipping—toasted in a pan for maximum butter-to-toast ratio. (You can also opt for croutons, homemade or store-bought.)

The last dish I want to share with you all is probably a new favorite of mine: skillet shrimp scampi with orzo. Orzo is a pasta noodle, but it cooks up like risotto in this recipe, which I got from a cookbook called Dinner in One by Melissa Clark. I added spinach to the recipe’s shrimp and tomato; I think this would also be good with peas added, but I didn’t have any on hand.

This was another pretty easy recipe to follow. I’ll note that the orzo cooks up pretty quickly—I listened to the recipe when it said to let the orzo simmer for a while, but be careful when doing this; everyone’s stove is going to heat differently. I left mine for about 15 minutes before checking it, and the bottom got a bit burned (for my Hispanic readers, I’ll say it had a pegao vibe). Thankfully, it was still edible and didn’t disrupt the flavors too much, and I honestly didn’t mind the small pieces of crunch. But I do think it would’ve been much worse if I’d left it even just a couple more minutes, so just be aware! (Aka, don’t get so invested in a game of Yahtzee while cooking this dish . . . I speak from experience.)

Of course, there’s always room for dessert, so I can’t leave you without telling you about the cookies I made recently: peanut butter blossoms using a recipe from Delish. The only thing I changed is that I melted the Hershey’s kisses, because I just don’t think it’s practical to put a Hershey’s kiss in the middle of a cookie you’re about to bite into. They came out delicious (pun intended), and were a hit on New Year’s Eve with my family. And having a stand mixer (which I recently adopted) and a cookie scoop (shout-out to my parents for this Christmas gift) were absolute game-changers. My baking life is infinitely better, especially post-Christmas cookie debacle.

So, that’s what’s been cooking in my house. I’ve been eating a ton of leftovers for the past week or so, but when I get back from this trip, I’ll go back into cooking mode!

Stay tuned for more insight into what I’ll be eating in Meadville for the next week—we’ve got some dinner reservations planned, and I’m in the middle of basically Stars Hollow, so I’m sure I’ll have some great experiences.

And send me good writing vibes!!!