#264: Mona Lisa Smile - Comfort Rewatch

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Emma: You're listening to The Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. This week we're dissecting a favorite comfort watch movie for decor and home inspiration. This one is perfect. If you need something to get in the autumn mood. This is an ongoing series for us and this week's selection is Mona Lisa Smile from 2003. We'll also be sharing a book report and our best ideas for freezer meals.

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Elsie: Don't forget about the freezer meal. Yeah, no, I am so excited to talk about this movie. I feel like it's perfect for the beginning of fall. It's just now September and like just the whole movie, the aesthetic of it. It's set in what, the sixties, the fifties, or the sixties?

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Emma: Yeah, fifties. I wanna say the mid fifties.

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Elsie: Okay. I feel like they say at one point 1950, you're probably right. Four or something. Like it's just very like plaid and autumnal and it's very, very, very nice. So if you haven't watched it, I hadn't watched it since it came out, so like around 20 years ago, I hadn't watched it one single time and I watched it recently and I was like, oh, we have to do this one next because it's just so joyful and beautiful, and I felt like it really held up the story. Like I love the story. I think it's really cute. I love them in the acting. Obviously there's so many celebrities in it and that's really fun. Yeah. But I think my favorite thing is I just love the aesthetic of it. It's beautiful. It's worth a watch just for the sets and the costumes and stuff. But it's also a fun movie.

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Emma: I will say though, have you seen Dead Poet Society yet? I know we've talked about it on the podcast. So I was curious if this was like the, that they made like Dead Poet Society, but female like immediately afterwards. Is that what happened? I feel like some movie exec walked into a room and was like, we need a girl Dead Poet Society. So I'm gonna get a couple of male writers and a male director and we'll get this done. No problem. And that's how this movie came to be. And it is beautiful and worth watching. But I would say to me, and I'll probably talk about this, like the worst part is the script by lot.

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Elsie: Okay. We wanna hear your detailed notes.

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Emma: Yeah. So anyway, yes. But if you haven't seen Dead Poet Society, it's great. It's kind of like this though, where it's like an oddball teacher comes to a school to shake things up kind of vibe. And the students at first are like, they don't know about this and then they end up loving them. And it changes their lives for the good. Similar thing here, which is great. I love that story arc. I love that idea. Very fun. But you felt it had too many cliches. I just feel like they didn't nail feminism and for the theme they were going for. I also feel like most of the students didn't really change that much except for Kirsten Dunst who really steals the show. There's a lot of, all the actors in this movie actually are amazing and bringing their A games like the performances are A pluses in this movie. But Kirsten Dunst steals the show because you hate her character. And then by the end, she has this huge arc where she changes and I believe it and it's good. So I feel like that one, it's incredible. It's good. But some of the other ones you're like, I'm not sure if they learned anything from the teacher, just more like they were in college and growing up, and that's cool. You know? Like, I don't know. And then I feel like they give Julie Roberts, who plays the teacher, so she's a feminist. She's unmarried. Big deal in this time, unmarried woman comes to a conservative school and is teaching the other women at the school to be feminist. Yeah, this is kind of her goal. A lot of her personal life that they show us is about male lovers.

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Elsie: She has a boyfriend or companion who comes to town and proposes to her.

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Emma: She has a teacher at the school who they very clearly and over and over show us he sleeps with the students, she falls for him. So I just feel as far as like feminist themes, what are we doing here? Why didn't you show us her painting? She teaches art history. Why don't you show us more of her painting? They show us like one little moment where she's like painting. I don't know. I was just like, what? What do you, okay, well give her more life, give you a whole person or what?

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Elsie: I do agree that maybe she shouldn't have fallen for that teacher because there really was nothing about, I mean, he's hot. He's hot, he's hot. But other than that, other than that great teeth, yeah, there wasn't a lot going on for him. Yeah, so I agree with that, but I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe.

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Emma: Well, and I'm fine. If their idea was we wanna show a woman who's just wanting to have a relationship that's basically sexual. Both people are okay with it. Both people are aware of that. Everyone's consenting, everyone's an adult. She just wants to have sex with this guy. That's fine. I'm fine with that as a relationship. I just feel like you don't tell us a whole lot else about her. What is her big picture goals in life? Did she want to be a painter but she couldn't be? So now she's a teacher. I mean, she says over and over she wants to be at that school, but then at the end of the movie, she's leaving the school to go travel around Europe and that's cool, but who is she like, what, you know, I don't know. It's like they were like, she's a feminist, but they don't know what a feminist is and they just sort of colored it in, in whatever cliche way. You know what I mean? She is a woman in her thirties who's not married. They're like, so there you go. And I'm like, well, but why? And because she has a really nice boyfriend who proposes to her and she ultimately doesn't wanna marry him. Okay. Can anyone tell us why? Yeah. Nope. All right. Well, you know, because he says he'll move to town, he'll move to where she is. He's supporting her career. Pretty cute. And he seems really nice and really cute. So what's the problem? Is it just, I just don't wanna be married? It's like, okay. But like, he seemed kind of open to whatever. I don't know, it was just kind of like, all right, that's fine. But overall still love the movie. I just feel like the script is sort of a two outta ten for me. Everything else is a ten out of ten.

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Elsie: Well, okay. I like your analysis. I think that they could have developed that character a lot more. I think that's interesting. I was like, really? I think I was really there for the aesthetics. And I didn't have any of the problems you had when I was watching it. I was just like, this is a good movie. I like it so well there you go. Yeah, I dunno. I was probably watching it still in the summertime, so I was probably having a little like mom downtime where I was just like zoned out or something. Yeah, if you don't even pay attention to the story, it's just a beautiful movie. So yeah, I did think her romantic plot was confusing. But I liked a lot of the other ones. I liked a lot of the other girls stories. Most of the other stories were very good. So it was very fun and the acting like there's just so many famous actors. I do a lot of nostalgia for that, like time of actors because it was like my coming of age, you know, decades. So all the actors in the movie I love. Julia Styles is, she's amazing. Maggie Gyllenhaal's amazing in it.

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Emma: Who's like the quirky girl?

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Elsie: Jennifer Goodwin. She's great. Who else? I saw Kristen Ritter in it for like five seconds.

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Emma: I did too. I don't even think she has lines. And I was like, whoa. Like I wonder if she had lines and it got cut maybe or something. But yeah, she's like in there as a student, but then she never has a scene. So I was like, that's weird. But maybe she was just starting her career. I don't know. But yeah, so everyone, it's great.

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Elsie: I loved it. Okay, so describing the movie, for those who haven't watched, I feel like Emma just kind of spoiled this one. But yeah, it is from 2003. It was a college in the 1950s. A woman's, what do they call it, finishing school and then so isn't this like the real life college where Hillary Clinton graduated from, is that right?

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Emma: I don't know. I'm pretty sure I didn't look anything up.

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Elsie: Okay. I'm pretty sure that this is her college, which I thought that like, made it kind of nice, but like, not that she was you know, because it specifically says in my trivia that it really didn't portray the kind of college that it really is. So it's a little bit different. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that that's where she went. And I think it's interesting that there was a time when there was like women's colleges specifically because we also didn't live for that. So it's a fun little piece of history. So for me, I had different, can't let it gos from Emma. My worst can't let it go from the whole movie is the first classroom scene when they all start banging out all the art information. They say they've read the entire textbook. Every student has read the whole textbook before the first class. I was like, okay why? Because like, that makes no sense to me. It doesn't seem like it's that serious either. Like, so I'm very confused. I was very confused by that. Whatever, whatever, whatever. Okay, so let's move into decor inspiration, because this is the part, this is why we chose the movie. So I love the campus, like always a campus during fall time is always gonna be iconic. Students riding bikes around love it. The movie has a 1950s wedding, which I love that. I just like, I mean, can't get enough of like those kind of cultural moments that have changed so much. I also really like the little house that Julia Robert lives in with her roommate and her roommate character, who's kind of like an unhappily single woman. So she's kind of this similar age, but she's not happy that she's single and she has a lot of kind of good scenes where they're kind of like a foil for each other or whatever. So I really like that. And it's kind of like my decade. Like I have more than one, but like this is kind of like one of my favorite decades. They also show us the dormitories, which are very cute. There's a lot of wallpaper and then kind of matching or matching adjacent bedsheets and vibes like that, so it's very fun. A lot of floral, wallpaper leaves, things like that. I had a strong reaction of coziness. I will definitely plan to watch it in my kitchen sometime this fall. I just think it's like so darling, and then like their costumes are amazing, the hairstyles, the makeup. I just love all of it. I liked when they showed, there's at least one scene where you see one of the students is asleep and another student goes and wakes her up to tell her something and she has her hair all pinned up because every time they would show like a morning class, I was like, man, they woke up so early to do their hair because it takes so long. Yeah, if you have long hair, then you know, like to dry your hair and curl it and get it looking a certain way, it takes a very long time. So I feel like this era, people were masters of sleeping in the curlers and that kind of thing, so yeah. They had a lot of painful beauty rituals that we don't have anymore. I hate sleeping with stuff in my hair. Like when people do all those, like the things with the socks and everything, I don't like any of that. I don't think I could make that a part of my routine to just to have heatless curls. It's not working for me.

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Emma: I will say this movie has a really big horn budget. There's like multiple scenes where they have big band dancing, one's at the wedding, and then ones like, I think a school dance or end of the year school celebration, something like that. And it's just horns for days it was so much fun. Everyone's dancing. And then there was also one scene where a character, she has a boyfriend and they go to this like beachy area and there's like a beachy restaurant. That was very cute. It's Cape Cod. I think it's Cape Cod. But in the winter, right?

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Elsie: Yeah. They're wearing sweaters. It was so cute. The beach, when you need to wear a sweater. I'm here for that. I like that. So I like being outside, but I also don't really like sweating. So I'm like, oh, this is perfect. Yeah, no, I like that actor, the male actor. He's in the TV show The Bear. Did you watch that show?

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Emma: I started it. It's too heavy for me. Yeah, I mean I was trying to make it my nursing show and then I was like, nevermind. Nevermind.

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Elsie: Yeah, no, I get what you mean. I mean, that is my favorite character from that show by just miles. I think his name's Richie in the show, just like an incredible character. And there's this one episode that is sort of centering his transformation, like his like mirror moment. And it is like 12 outta 10. So anyway, I just, I enjoyed that and he plays a very different character in this movie so he's like a great character actor. I had never seen him play in a romantic movie before. He plays kind of a dorky romantic, like definitely like the guy you love in this movie. You're like, oh, he's so sweet. He's so great. Mr. misunderstanding trope. No, he was great. So yeah, I love seeing him anyway. Yeah, just watching an old movie, I mean, it's not, I guess it’s 20 years old. I don't know. Watching a 20-year-old movie, you do get like all these little Easter eggs of like seeing I guess like Kristen Ritter when she's not famous enough to be a main character is like super weird. I know what's going on here. I thought it was full of delicious little 2001 Easter eggs. Definitely was. Was there any food, I'm thinking, I'm trying to remember if there was any food or drinks or thinking of the scene. There's definitely a scene with them drinking martinis or something. She has a kind of light blue martini at one point.

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Emma: Yeah. I don't know if it was the type of gin. Yeah, I feel like it must have been probably blue gin so there's that. There's also like, you know, it's the fifties. There's a lot of smoking in this movie. I don't know. It doesn't matter at all, one way or another. It never bothers me to watch smoking, but I'm just always like, oh yeah, everybody used to smoke. You remember that? Everybody used to smoke just everywhere all the time. Honestly, like having a board meeting and all the women are just smoking and they're like, we don't know about this teacher. You know? Like you're like, wow, okay. Even when we were little kids, there was smoking in restaurants where we live, so yeah, like 70 years ago there was smoking everywhere. Every single place you could go. Probably like doctors in the doctor's office is speaking to patients.

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Elsie: Probably. So I would love, I mean like in another episode at some point, let's just do a time travel episode where we just talk about specific niche places we want to time travel to because that's the sort of thing like, I wanna go into like the lobotomy era. I wanna go get a mental health evaluation. In the fifties. I wanna, I just wanna experience some things. You'll be like, there's a lot. You're crazy.

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Emma: You're not allowed to leave now. Lock her up. Your husband said we could lock you up. You're gone now.

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Elsie: Now I'm starting to have regrets about all the can't let it goes that you have. Now I'm starting to have them.

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Emma: I swayed you.

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Elsie: You did. I still love this movie. I just think the script is not very good. But considering that, boy, do these actors bring the performance, but it sounds like they just messed up one character really badly by underwriting her.

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Emma: I'd say the main problem I have is the teacher character. And then the rest of it, it's like there could be some things they could fix, but it's not a big deal. But that one I'm just like, nope. But she hangs so much of it together and we spend so much time with her. That it's a big unforgivable for me.

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Elsie: Well we're also gonna need a time machine to leave that review. I guess you could still leave it today, but I wouldn't do that, so, oh my gosh. Let's become an army of people who leave reviews, negative 20-year-old one star reviews on 20-year-old movies about how they're not woke enough for today's standards. So what aged well in this movie versus what did not? I would say, what aged and you can say what did not. So what aged? Well, I would say the acting a 10. The aesthetics, you know, whoever did costumes, wardrobe, makeup casting, set design, furnishing, just like every little detail of every room was perfect. So my favorite scene of the whole movie is the paint by numbers scene. So they have this little kit where they are supposed to make a Van Gogh and it's like the sunflowers, the famous sunflowers Van Gogh painting. I personally find paint my numbers so incredibly non-offensive that it's kind of funny to me when people find them offensive, but like still, I went with it. I loved it. Rolled with that and so they like, sort of like buy the kits for no reason. And then paint over them all their own different bouquets that all look different. And then they present her with all these different bouquets at the end. And I loved that scene. I just thought it was so charming, so cute, and like, I don't know, kind of like, just like a good perfect little bow to show that she had an impact on them that wasn't just academic, you know? It was like something more personal. So yeah, that's all the stuff I think aged well. What do you think aged poorly?

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Emma: So I also thought a couple things aged well in addition to the things you just listed. So I also like that they show throughout the movie a few times, like ads from the 1950s. I think they even show like a little clip from a commercial at one point, and all of them kind of speak to this era of time where it's right after World War II. So as everyone knows, you know, in World War II, men went over to Europe to fight so a lot of women filled jobs here. And then when the men came home, the women were supposed to get out of those jobs and go back home and raise kids and do the house stuff again. There was a lot of tension with that because a lot of women felt like, I like having a job and now that I've been outta the house, you know, I'd like to continue that. And then other women were happy to go back home. And I think that on the other side, there is tension for men who are like, I'm back from the war. That maybe was pretty traumatic to go to and now I feel a little bit displaced and there's this tension there. So the ads are kind of, I mean, I guess you could say propaganda, encouraging women to go back to the home and to take on that role again. And so it's sort of examining that and I think that is a really great picture of like some of the tension of feminism, of equality and of movement forward in a society of like, how do we make that happen? How do we change our roles knowing that it's gonna shake things up for everyone and how do we make that work? And I think that was really good and I really liked that. I think that that's still something that we're kind of wrestling with today. Yeah in different ways because we're pretty far from World War II, but in different ways. A lot of it I think has to do with childcare and things around that. Like many, many women I know have some kind of struggle with balancing career and motherhood. And kind of just like the pressure that comes along with being born a woman. And there's even a speech between the teacher and one of the students where the student is choosing not to go to Yale. She's been accepted to Yale Law School and she's choosing not to go because she's just gotten married and she wants to keep house. And she talks about wanting to have a family. She's not pregnant in the film, but she's, you know, talking about her hopes and dreams. And the teacher's like, well, you can have both. And she's like, this is what I want. I don't feel that you're listening to me. And I think that was a really nice speech where you're like, yeah, you should let a woman say what she wants. And that was really good. That age well too. What didn't age well?

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Elsie: Here we go.

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Emma: The love interest. A man who sleeps with the students. Like it's not that it's unforgivable, it's just, it's almost like the movie wanted to make it like, oh, look at this guy being such a, you know how men are. Oh, well, you know, it was just like, so not a big deal. And it's like, well. So he has a lot more power over these women. He's the teacher, they're the students. Also, presumably he's at least 10 years older than likely more now they're all, it is a college. So I'm assuming all of the students are 18 or older. I don't really know. They don't explicitly say that, but it's a college, so they're all adults. But it's just so talked about multiple times, shown multiple times. It's very in your face and he's still supposed to be like this kind of lovable love interest. And I'm just like, I don't know man.

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Elsie: I mean, I agree. I agree with you 1000% and yet that still happens today.

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Emma: Well, yeah. I feel like it's a tale as old as time. Can you think of anything else that didn't age well? I have no more complaints. I kind of felt like it aged, like for me, I watch a lot of movies and spend time and it was like, yeah, I think it aged pretty well. There was nothing where I was like, oh, you know what I mean? I honestly think this script sucked in 2003. Just like it does now. So I don't necessarily think it was way more forgivable then I feel like, because it's not even just like, oh, well he sleeps with students. We were okay with that back then, and we're not now. It's like, well, I dunno. I don't know if we were totally okay with it back then. I also think, by the way, that men can write feminist stories. I don't have a problem with that. I think everyone could be a feminist. My problem is that this wasn't very good. That's the issue for me. So it just needed a little, little more of a critique. Just pick a different theme if you're gonna do this love interest thing. But I also feel like, what did that really add? So they could have given her character this big, beautiful arc that she could have that that would've been.

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Elsie: You're right, you're right. Okay, well, we see the missed opportunity. I bet every single listener in the whole world is agreeing, nodding along with it. I definitely think that it fits into the category of comfort rewatch movie, though, on the merits of its gorgeous and entertainment.

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Emma: Oh, it's a lot of fun. Like it a feel good movie.

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Elsie: It takes you to a lot of different places, like emotionally. Which I enjoyed that. I liked all of the different stories, but definitely I would say the Kirsten Dunst story is like, I think everyone would agree the one at the end that makes you cry a little. I think that's like maybe the best writing in the movie.

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Emma: Kirsten Dunst, her scene with Maggie Gyllenhaal, where she's kind of yelling at her, but she's yelling at her things that she thinks about herself. And Maggie Gyllenhaal's character kind of figures that out and instead of throwing something in her face, she just gives her a really big hug. And it's a really, really sweet moment. In a moment of solidarity, of friendship and love and like she was facing her worst nightmare.

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Elsie: Well, if anyone watches it, please write us. Tell us what you liked. Tell us what you didn't like. Okay, I have some trivia. So this movie was really short on trivia. Usually I have like a whole page. This time I only have two things. But let's do it. So the first one is at the wedding champagne is served in flute glasses. I actually, I think I kind of knew this in the back of my brain, but I did not notice when watching the movie. So this is rarely used until the 1970s when dryer vintages became preferred and the 1950s champagne was served in champagne coops or saucer glasses. So they're kind of like the round bottomed martini glasses, the small ones. That's what champagne would be like properly served in the fifties, and then it says they still used champagne in fountains at the wedding.

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Emma: I also say, so I noticed too, they have this scene where the mom of the bride is like getting everything set up and she kind of has this list of like, no to this, no to this. And they're showing us that her character is very staunch and negative and proper. So she's sort of our, you know, look at this is what a, you know, housewife is supposed to be or something like that on her list. She says, no, candlesticks. Like, it's just very clear. That's like one of the nos. And then when they show the wedding, there's candlesticks that are lit everywhere. And I was like, wait a second. So I feel like that was like a little bit of a whoops.

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Elsie: Okay. We lied. There's only one trivia question or one trivia fact. And that was it. Because it's just the same one copied twice. I thought there's always more trivia in this. It's so funny. I wish there was more because that was really just like a tiny little continuity for the nerds. Continuity things are like, it's kinda like pointing out a typo. It doesn't really matter. But you know you notice it. But yeah, I love the movie. I will definitely be rewatching during the fall. It'll be one of my kitchen movies to kind of put on the background. Maybe you can watch it when we make Thanksgiving. So we have a couple more things we're gonna do today. So we're gonna do a listener request and then we are going to do our book report. And then of course we'll have Nova's joke. In fact, she's been preparing, she's already been preparing this morning.

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Emma: So I invited Oscar and he was kind of like huh? Like he's never, I've never shown him our podcast. He only kind of knows what a podcast is because he's listening to the Bluey podcast. He's four. He's four. So I was like, you can tell shark facts. And then he just started saying shark facts. So I feel like he feels like he did it.

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Elsie: I can ask Nova to sort of pitch it to him, but maybe we'll do it when he is five.

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Emma: We'll do it at something. I'll show him the Nova segment at some point, but it just hasn't come up yet.

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Elsie: Our listeners might have noticed Marigold. She was very interested to do it for like two times and then she doesn't care anymore. She's like, none of that. So yeah, that's show biz. So our listener request this week is freezer meal ideas. I actually love this question. I think that this is a compelling subject being the 1st of September, and I don't know how it is where you live, but here it actually has been cool. Like we've been waking up to cool mornings, which is like, like the first day I got the pumpkin spice latte. It was cool. Oh my God, like it's usually not like that. It's usually hot as hell all through September here. So this year's fall has happened right on schedule. It was crazy. It might still go back, but it really put me in the mood, so, okay. I think, yeah, freezer meals is something I'm so excited about. Tell me your best ones.

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Emma: So I have three things that are a must in my mind. These are always in my freezer. So one is soup. So, I don't know if you've seen, you turned me onto this, they have these, like the super cubes and it's like kind of a giant ice cube tray. So I'll make a huge pot of soup, like you could do this in a Dutch oven or a giant pot, or a crockpot, whatever, and we'll have that for dinner one night. And then the leftovers, I'll fill up the super cubes and freeze them, and then you can save them just in there in the super cube tray if you want. It takes up less space, in my opinion. If you take them out of the tray and put them into a bag and you get all the air outta the bag so they don't get freezer burn.

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Elsie: They don't stick together if they're already frozen?

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Emma: No. So they have to be frozen first. So then for me, like if Trey's gone one night or if I'm making lunch at home and I am like, oh, what should I make? Then I just get one of those cubes out and warm it in a pot. Or you could do it in the microwave and that's it. You have soup and you can have bread with it or whatever, crackers, whatever. And I love that. So right now I have, I actually did this the night I watched this movie. We made tomato soup. I made the tomato soup that's on our blog. It's my favorite tomato soup. And I made a huge pot of it. And we ate that for dinner and then I froze the rest in super cups and now those are in my freezer. So there's that. And then the other thing that I always have in my freezer is meatballs. So there's a few different meatball recipes on our site, or maybe you already have a meatball recipe that you love. Great. So in the past, people have kind of asked me, what's the move on frozen meatballs? Do you freeze them raw and then plan to bake them or do you bake them all and then freeze them already baked? You can go either way. One caveat though, if you are gonna freeze them raw, make sure you're not using meat that was already frozen. You don't wanna freeze meat twice. That's one thing that can kind of cause foodborne illnesses and things. It's not a guaranteed, but it's just not recommended. So I don't recommend that, I wouldn't do it. So if you've bought your meat frozen and you've thawed it to make your meatballs, I would definitely go ahead and bake them before freezing again. I tend to go the route of baking them anyway though, so I make a huge batch of meatballs. I bake them on giant sheets, like giant cookie sheets, whole bunch at once. I'm a little meatball factory one night. And then after they're all baked and they've cooled, then I freeze them in a bag because then you can just pop a few in the air fryer to throw into soup on top of spaghetti. You can make a sandwich with them. Like meatballs are pretty great all the time, in my opinion. So, and if you've already cooked them, then to me, you just kind of are warming them. That's all you're doing. So I usually do that in the air fryer because it's super quick and tasty. And then the last thing, it's not really a meal, but I always have frozen cookie dough in my freezer.

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Elsie: Okay. I knew this was coming.

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Emma: So right now I have, so there's a book, Zoe Bakes. She has a cookie one, and so I have her chocolate chip cookie recipe. That's what I have in my freezer right now. Most of the time though, there's this recipe on the blog that's called Soft Peanut butter cookies. And I usually have a batch or two of that frozen in my freezer at the time, so I freeze them in balls. You can do like a log and slice and bake if you want, but I like to freeze them in balls. So I'll freeze them on a cookie sheet and then I'll put them into a bag once they're mostly frozen, that way they don't stick together. And that way you can just make two or four cookies at a time. You don't have to make a dozen or more, because I don't really like to have a dozen cookies sitting around my house because I'll eat them. So I also feel like it's great for if you have guests over and maybe you weren't even planning to have a dessert or whatever, but everyone's hanging out and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna pop some of those cookie dough balls in the oven and then we'll have some fresh cookies here in like 10 minutes and it's great.

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Elsie: I think I might try that at Christmas time when I do gingerbread for Jeremy because it's like his favorite cookie. But you know, it's only good for like a week or so and then, you know, your batch is kind of done. So that would be a nice way to like kind of pase them through the month. I'm definitely only gonna make gingerbread cookies once in December. No, I love that idea. Okay. No, I have not much to add to this except for I'm gonna add chili. I think chili is like, it's the one of the foods that like if I have it for dinner because you know you make your crock pot of chili you have for dinner. It's amazing. Like 11 out of 10, then you put it in the fridge and then the next day you see it in the fridge and you're like, ugh, you just ate that, still need to eat that chili. Do I need to eat it again? So I would definitely say chili is like a really good frozen meal because I never wanna just keep eating it for five meals in a row. And it does just make so much. So the other thing I wanna try, like when I first bought the super cub, I was like, had this in my brain and then I never did it. So I still have this unrecorded desire, no, that's not the right word. Unrequited love. Unfulfilled, unfulfilled dream to make lasagna cubes. So I feel like lasagna is just like such an ultimate pasta. I love lasagna if I don't like to order it hardly ever at a restaurant, but every time I do, it's 11 outta 10. I'm so happy that I ordered it. So I just feel like it would be like a nice little like gift to your future self to make a batch of lasagna and super cubes because I feel like you would kind of have to like do it for the cubes maybe, you know? Like, it's a little weird, but yeah, I really wanna try that because it's just such like a treat at the end of a hard day or like a comfort food when you just like, you know, when you're like on your period or you just kind of like need a pasta meal. Like I just have that mood once in a while where it's like, there is nothing in the world that I'm gonna eat tonight except for pasta.

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Emma: Oh, it's just came to me. One other thing I always have in my freezer, pizza dough and it's frozen in portions so I can like the night before or the morning of, I throw it in the fridge and then it's thawed enough that the boys can help me mostly Oscar, make pizza at night for pizza night. We do that every week.

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Elsie: I feel like you're revealing yourself as like a real Martha Stewart.

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Emma: I made lasagna last week. It's amazing. Yeah, it's my only hobby right now because my life's really small with how little my kids are, so it's like my only little thing for me is like I cook something cool once in a while. That's about it. So it's also kind of a self-care. I think freezer meals are definitely like, because some nights you're like, I had a plan and I bought the groceries, but now it's 7:30 already because I already got my kids to bed and I don't wanna make dinner anymore. I'm so tapped out. My back's killing me. I can't stand anymore. And so then you get something out the freezer that you can make. Draw together or whatever. It's nice. Like a meatball sandwich I do sometimes.

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Elsie: Well I am inspired by you because the only thing I always have in my freezer is Jenny's ice cream. So I need to have more. Anyway. Okay. Yeah, so great question. Got that one from Instagram. I love it. Okay, so now we're gonna do our weekly book report. So my book is all the way from, I think last May I read it. I read it when I was on the plane ride to and from London. So we took our little family trip. I think I mentioned it in another episode and I read, I think I actually, I think I listened to the audio book. I don't think I read this one. The Wedding People by Alison Espach. So this book is, so I knew it was really popular. Emma told me that it had a little bit of a, like, sad beginning. So that was, she's thinking about suicide. Do you think that's an important trigger to know? You know, just so if you don't wanna read that you. It gets past that, that's right away it's happened. The book opens with that. I would say it blows past it in a way that makes some people leave one star reviews. So just that, and that's just like a consideration to, I love reading reviews if you can't tell. It's one of my passions. I like to read reviews, especially of books that I loved because it's, I think it's just so interesting to see how, like a book that you thought was just definitely a five star read that someone else will give it a one or a two and like just kind of completely dismiss every, like all the things that you thought were, you know what I mean? Like just great.

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Emma: I think Mona Lisa's smile has like 66 or a 33 on Rotten Tomatoes. And we saw it as we were clicking the rent button because we couldn't find this anywhere. And I was just like, I don't trust the tomatoes.

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Elsie: Lemme tell you a little secret. Jeremy and I fight about Rotten Tomatoes pretty often because I should have said this for my hot take. You can't trust it. You cannot trust it. I don't trust the tomatoes at all. I do not at all trust Rotten Tomatoes. Zero trust. I just feel like that when something does get a high score, the only thing it means is that it still has a low number of reviews. I think everything goes low when it gets popular. You know what I mean? Like, so I don't know. So anyway, The Wedding People, the thing about it that was compelling to me is it was just like, for sure of this whole year, it was the book I read that was like the quickest page turner, like the most compulsive read. And that's something that I am really interested in right now because I'm trying to write a novel and it's really hard for me to achieve. So it's something that I admire in other writing. But yeah, I loved this book. I mean, and for the plot is pretty quirky. Like the thing with suicide is like, I would encourage you to look past it, put on your sunglasses and just ignore that, I just don't think it's like really a big part of the book, honestly. It is just a hook I guess at the beginning. What I loved about the book was the unhinged character growth. Yeah, like unhinged character growth. Like we're talking like Home Alone, Kevin McAllister character growth for this character and no one grows more than Kevin.

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Emma: No one. No one in the whole world.

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Elsie: Yeah. I really liked that and I enjoyed the romance was really weird. I enjoyed that. It was weird. It was fun. I enjoyed the setting. But like just expensive weddings, it's sort of like gossip that I think is fun. Like just, you know what I mean? Like it's just a little like scratches an itch. I think we're all interested in how millionaires and billionaires live. It's fun. And then like there was this undercurrent through the whole novel because the main character, is it like a, is it a writing teacher? I think she's a, so there's this undercurrent also of like, just like good old fashioned snobby literature through the whole book, which I loved that as well. So yeah, it really, for me, there was nothing not to love. It was just a lot of fun. I would say it's kind of a, the kind of book you would take on vacation. I don't know if it would be a good book club pick. What, would it?

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Emma: I think it's the kind of book you take on vacation and a book club pick.

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Elsie: Yeah. Really? Okay. Okay, let's do a favorite. A favorite character. Lemme think for one sec.

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Emma: I liked the bride. Is it Lillian, Lily?

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Elsie: Lila.

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Emma: Lila. Lila. It's been a minute since I read it. I loved her.

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Elsie: Yeah. You know,I think I'm gonna go with her too, because that's great. Like I did read interviews that some people do hate her so much and that's what's good about her. Like that's what you grow to love is she is an insufferable person, like in a good way. And I know people like that in real life. And they are great to be around. She read real to life to me. Yeah, so that was a great book. What is your book report for the week?

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Emma: My book is Who's That Girl by Mhairi McFarlane. So this is a contemporary romance. If you like a romance that's very high on the hilarity scale, this is it. This author is so funny. Now, I will say, so this book is set in England. All the characters are British, and I think this author is actually from Scotland or Ireland. So there's kind of a lot of slang. That at times is so much, I couldn't even tell what they're talking about from context clues. Most of the time there's like little British slang that you're like, oh, I know what they're talking about. We don't say that here in the US but I got it and there were a few times in the book I was like, I don't even got it. This is so British. I have no idea. You know, it's the worst thing if you think you understand a British phrase and then 10 years later you realize you had it wrong, the entire opposite or something, and you're like, oh my gosh, I hadn't even really. So anyway, but despite that, I'm very American. Maybe you're listening and you're British, you'll be fine then. But even if you're American like me and you know nothing like me, you'll still love this book because it was so funny. And it starts off where our main character, she's sort of a little bit in love with a man who's getting married and she's at his wedding. And at his wedding, he kisses her. And that's the beginning of the book.

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Elsie: I'm interested, this is how it starts. You got my attention now.

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Emma: And so from there we watch her, you know, sort of go through that scenario and the bride sees and it's a problem. And what I love about is this author really brings it back from there because you're like, wow, that's not good. Right? That doesn't sound good. That doesn't sound like someone you'd wanna be friends with or someone you'd want for, but you do. You do. So this author really, it really does some work and it's also just so funny and the love is really nice if you like a really spicy book with a lot of sex on the page. This is not it. There is sex technically, but it's very like the bedroom door closes and we all know what's happening type thing. So if you're like, I don't really like a lot of sex in my book, great. You'll probably like this. This is on your level. Then I like all the whole spectrum, so I don't really care, but over and over again I was just laughing at so much of the dialogue. Her sister's hilarious. It's just so fun. So fun, so irreverent. But you end up loving so many different characters for different reasons and there's a lot of different types of growth and realizations and it's lovely. It's really lovely. She does not end up with the guy from the wedding. Don't worry if you're worried about that. It's someone else.

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Elsie: But does he, what happens to him?

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Emma: He keeps someone on his day. He has his, has his own comeuppance.

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Elsie: Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh, I thought that was like a very great sell. I'm gonna read it. Good job.

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Emma: Really, really fun book.

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Elsie: Nice. Alright, well we will be back next week. So let's go ahead and toss it over to a Joke or a fact with Nova. Hey, Nova, what do you have for us this week?

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Nova: Meditation.

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Elsie: I actually had a request for a meditation.

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Nova: Oh, what is it?

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Elsie: Okay. This would be my dream. A bookstore meditation.

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Nova: Okay. I think I can do that one. Okay. That sounds very interesting.

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Elsie: Okay. I'm closing my eyes.

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Nova: Okay. Remember, in every meditation we take two deep breaths. Now that you're calm, remember, keep your eyes shut, and imagine you are feeling very bored. You have nothing to do, and suddenly you stare. The most beautiful and mysterious bookstore was built, so you walk in. The people are really nice to workers, and even still, the workers are building some shelves in the background. So you buy a book, you take it out of the store, and then you start reading. You start reading and reading and reading more. You feel so good about yourself, and finally, you finish in a few days and you're feeling so good. You go back to the bookstore and say, this is my favorite bookstore. And that was the best day ever when I thought everything would be boring. And then you walk outta the bookstore a few minutes later with your book in hand with the sun shining and failing. Which book will I get next and what's ahead? Open your eyes and I have a request today. Whoever's in your house, give one person a good hug because I feel like showing people you're thankful is really good.

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Elsie: I agree. That's a good idea.

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Nova So everyone after this podcast is over. You don't have to do this. I'm just saying, whoever's in your house, or if there isn't any, just call up with a little pet and just take one or two minutes to feel thankful.

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Elsie: Ugh, thank you. That's beautiful. All right, have a good week.

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Nova: Bye.

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Elsie: Thank you so much for listening. We will be back next week with an episode about how to start your own book club.

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Emma: Ooh, I'm excited for that one.