new fave film + microbakery merch + a poppin' pilaf

Last week of winter, can you believe it! It's been a busy, but good week. Was just Merlin & me for most of it, an independant lifestyle I do adore. I'm ever-more spontaneous and consequently more productive (but in a non hustly way) when on my own. It's very cup-filling time.

Biscuit Tin Bakery merch & media (business cards & the like) were ordered this week. I semi-hate the image-related decision making - being a visual person, it just feels so FiNaL - but I'm trying to stay in the playful lane & just go with it.

I had another very smol run of Big Mouth (my cookbook of gentle vegan/gluten-free recipes for sensitive systems) printed this week, woo! You can find them in The HBOT Shop, or re-stocked in Brunswisk Bound in Melbourne.

I think I've secured a premise for the microbakery (will know by Monday), which I'm feeling good about! The person I've been talking with is warm, on-the-ball & approachable. I think it could be a really good fit! Cross your fingers for me ploise.

In other, 'cool opportunities' land - I might be on ABC Radio National Evenings this Sunday, talking about non-dairy products! I'm sure I'll be a nervous-wobbly mess, so maybe don't listen in. But I'm going to do some handstands beforehand, and we 👏🏻 just 👏🏻 keep 👏🏻 practicing. 👏🏻👏� 👏 👏🏻

READ.

I read child star (of iCarly) Jennette McCurdy's memoir, I'm Glad My Mum Died this week. I didn't know who she was before reading about this book in a new release capacity. It's heartbreaking & hard to read - but super illuminating on Hollywood's attitude towards child actors. Her mum was abusive, controlled her entire life, pushed her daughter into a career she really wanted for herself, taught her an eating disorder, gave her invasive physical exams until the age of 17 and guilted her into putting her mother's emotional needs before her own. She died of cancer when McCurdy was 21 (I think?) and freed her from a codependant, totally enmeshed, abusive relationship (cue the decade of healing).

It made me reflect on how much enmeshment (and toxic family dynamics) are normalised in Hollywood. Works like these are then so rare because people can't free themselves from these relationships in a lot of cirsumstances. So it's not suprising the title is making lots of people uncomfortable. But hopefully those who know, read it.

WATCH.

Ok who gave this film permission to be this good? I saw this on the weekend, feeling like a cosy cinema experience & only watching the trailer 30 minutes before (LOVE when that happens, I was fresh). Just one of those thank god I saw that film, films - about Nancy, a 60 year old widow & retired religious education teacher who hires Leo, a sex worker for the night. She's never had an orgasm, only ever had sex with one man & in a (deeply layered) way wants to expore her own sexuality.

The film's like a 4-part play (of the best kind), of Nancy peeling back the layers of shame, guilt, anxieties and insecurites, getting triggered in some very hard to watch ways. You hate her at times, want her to go away, go to therapy and learn what a friggin' boundary is - but you also have all the compassion for her. Most people are saying what an incredible film it is - for what it does for womens pleasure and untouched/older bodies (which it does, it's also sad that this is seen as ground breaking) - but I think what it does for sex work awareness/represenation is more impressive.

Anyway, super sex-positive & uncomfortably real at times, which are my favourite kinds of films! See it.

RECIPE.

Roast Pumpkin Slabs w Spiced Bean Pilaf & Baba Ghanoush! This is a gorgeous dish, simple enough for weeknights, sophisticated enough for dinner parties. Although who's still having those these days I'd like to know (or I'd just like to be invited rather hehe). Point being, it's a wonderful meat-free main meal that doesn't have any faux-meat or complicated elements - while being hearty enough to satiate the meat & 3-veg eaters.

Warmest wishes & best dishes friends,

Phoebe & Merlin

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