Chloe Cullen's Blog, page 15

Self-Taught Cooking Homework #1: Chloe As Cook

In line with this week’s inaugural Dinner Party discussion thread, I wanted to document a recipe that I liked to show my cooking style. It’s the litmus test of my palette and a showcase of my nascent skills.

I will also be honest: I thought going into this recipe, okay, I’ve been reading a lot of cookbooks, I will be almost TOO good at this to be believed as a beginner chef.

Nope.

No. I’m not too good.

This kitchen was CHAOS.

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To start, coming off Lesson #1 where I outlined what a pr...

Let's Break Down Who Did It In ANATOMY OF A FALL

In Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, a black screen flickers in that sweet spot between credits and feature presentation. It stays for a few seconds then flits away quickly enough to feel subconscious.

It holds a web address and a question: didshedoit.com

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Then you’re thrown into the beautiful mountain-side chalet where our protagonist Sandra’s husband will die from an ext...

Lesson #1: What is a good cook? (and...how?)

Welcome to Self-Taught! This is a pure brain child moment where I have the time, the bandwidth, and the back-against-the-wall attitude that now is the time to try something new.

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Like I mentioned in my introduction, I would learn forever if I could. There are so many wonderful nuances in places, time periods, and plain old things that one can’t uncover it all in one life. That’s why we have people “specialize.” It’s much easier to “brand yourself” if you’re only one thing, I get it. ...

Welcome to the first (ever) Dinner Party thread!

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A Beginner's List to This Year's New York Comedy Festival

Today marks the first day of 2023’s New York Comedy Festival! This festival with over a hundred shows at venues all over the city takes place over 10 days every year.

Hilariously, in my four years of living in New York, most people don't even realize that NYCF is happening.

Sure, they promote it with subway ads, but how many subway ads have actually led to someone using that discount code for a SolaWave Wand? (Actually, I might be falling under the SolaWave trance due to my Instagram ads, and no...

Introducing My New Series: Self-Taught!

Bonjour! I’m currently writing this newsletter from Europe. One of the experiences I was most excited to do was an Airbnb experience in Paris. Customers baked madeleines and tarte tartins with a bonafide French grandma.

only in Paris

The chocolate chips in my madeleines cratered, and my tarte tartin disconnected in its miniature tin once flipped pastry-side-down. Transparently, I don’t know if I love madeleines, but I do love to learn.

Now that I’m almost 28 and five years out of school, I have a...

Small Towns, Small World

I cannot explain what exactly is happening to me, but I’m evolving—or regressing? progressing?—into a soft shell.

Last weekend, when I returned to D.C. for my friend Katie’s wedding, I stepped back into a D.C. that I haven’t felt in almost ten years. Katie was our high school uniter who brought everyone together with the paradoxical combination of efficiency and fun. Senior year, I sat in her passenger seat as she relayed who to text and what to say from her phone while she drove.

While we’re te...

Music Is My Medicated Time Capsule

I’m not sure how much you know about me, but if you know anything about my personal life, it’s full of weddings. What a gift! But also, what an easy way to fill up a calendar one to three years out.

This weekend, my first high school friend Katie is getting married. For the first time in almost ten years, since our graduation, our friends are within arm’s reach. Everyone has moved to different cities to pursue amazing things: law school, medical school, songwriting, skiing. This is the first tim...

Saving or Hoarding Time? My Compulsory Resistance to Jenny Odell's SAVING TIME

In August, riding woozily hungover on an 8:30 a.m. Port Authority bus, I started a note on my phone named "Memories" in the potent aftermath of a Dunkin' iced coffee.

Now, you might ask yourself, why make a list of memories? Don't you have… a brain that holds memories?

Absolutely right.

So what compels someone to write out memories as they come? Like that one time your former boss called Bo Burnham a genius? When your mom scoffed years and years ago when your dad suggested she liked Van Morrison?

A ...

BLISS MONTAGE: Ling Ma's Short Stories Escape Reality

Ling Ma is the award-winning author of the novel Severance (unrelated to the Apple show, yet accidentally its thematic cousin). In her second book, Bliss Montage, her short stories tinker with reality to show women keeping themselves within, or pushing, the boundaries of their own lives.

For as academic as that sounds, we have to take into account how weird the worlds are that Ma builds. Her protagonists are liable to:

have a one-night stand with a Yeti

discover a Narnia-esque escape in a profess...