As a self-proclaimed January hater, I have to admit that this month wasn’t so bad! Sure, the city is frozen over (literally), and I’ve barely left my apartment in days, but I still managed to have a memorable start to 2026.

Food I Made

I was on a cooking spree this month. A lot of comforting meals were on the menu. A few highlights include these buffalo chicken meatballs (so easy), my go-to chocolate chip cookies, and something my husband and I have named a “Sweets salad.” That’s what we call each other, and we’ve been making this salad for years. I love alliteration, so it’s now known as the Sweets salad. I’ll have to do a separate post with the recipe, but it’s my favorite salad! We make at least once a week, and everyone who has ever had it loves it.

Fun Things To Do in Brooklyn

The New York Transit Museum. This was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Located underground in an old subway station, this museum is on the outskirts of Brooklyn Heights and shares the history of New York’s subway, bus, and commuter rail systems.

I’ve always had so many questions about how the subway was built, and this museum does an incredible job of educating on every facet. The stories are inspiring and tragic, and they make you appreciate all the hard work and sacrifice that went into creating something that makes modern life easier.

One of the coolest parts of the Transit Museum is that you can go even further underground to the unused subway platform and walk through old subway cars. They have trains that are perfectly preserved, spanning many decades. You can see how the design and style changed over the years, and Ioved how interactive it is.

Green-Wood Cemetery. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law were in town, and while we were hanging out at our apartment, it started heavily snowing. It snowed at least four inches in a matter of hours, so we ventured out in the snow. It was so much fun. Brooklyn is beautiful in a snowstorm. We bundled up and started walking, and walk we did. We trekked through Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and then took a subway to Green-Wood Cemetery.

The cemetery has been on my list, and walking it in the snow was magical. It sits on 478 acres, and was once a Revolutionary War battlefield. Notable people buried there include Jean-Michel Basquiat and Leonard Bernstein. It’s a beautiful, hilly place, and offers great views of Manhattan from the top.

Fun and Games

Boggle. Boggle is a game near and dear to my heart. Some of my earliest memories are of family dinners on my mom’s side, where post-dinner was Boggle time. I obviously didn’t hold a candle to the adults, but I played and learned the ropes young. I’m going to get a little cocky here and say that today I am a Boggle fiend. My winning record is pretty strong, although I think I’ve made Joe play too much. Last weekend, he beat me by ten points in a cut-throat game where the loser had to pick up dinner in sub-zero temps. Yes, I’m still harboring some resentment.

Q-Less. Joe knows my love for word games, so he got me Q-Less last year. It’s a solo crossword-building game where you roll twelve lettered dice. You have to use all twelve dice to make words. Words must have at least three letters, and you cannot use proper nouns or names. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but fun and challenging!

Dungeons and Dragons. I went into January not knowing anything about Dungeons and Dragons, and I have left January still mostly knowing nothing about Dungeons and Dragons. My sketch group did a game (or campaign?) one weekend, and it was so much fun. I have never been more confused than when I took chemistry in high school. It was another language, but we had some experts (and thankfully, many novices) to guide the way. That’s all I’ve got. I can’t tell you what I did or if I did well, but it was the perfect way to spend a cold day with friends.

Out To Eat

Montague Diner. My friend Amy and I went to the diner, and each ordered French fries and a milkshake. It was perfection. I’m a purist who doesn’t mix foods that don’t make sense together. Hot with cold? Soft with hard? No, thank you. On this particular day, I let my hair down and dipped a fry in my vanilla shake. It was magical. I get it now.

Forgione. I’ve been craving a cozy chicken dish, so we went to Forge when we had family in town. It’s a great place to bring visitors. I mentioned this in my Favorite NYC Restaurant post,

Khaoson. Sadly, I’ve never eaten at Khaoson, but I finally went inside and sat while my group ate. It’s a neighborhood Thai spot that Joe’s been eating at since we moved here. Thai food is pretty nut-heavy, and as incredible as it looks and smells, I just don’t feel safe eating it. I wanted to mention Khaoson because it has Joe’s seal of approval and is a popular spot in Brooklyn Heights if you’re looking for a solid meal.

Gravesend Pizza. This was one of my favorite slices I’ve had in New York. It’s located next to Industry City, which I still haven’t been to. I got the vodka sauce slice, and it was everything I had hoped for. Bonus points for friendly service!

Luigi’s Pizza. Open since 1973, Luigi’s is a staple. The slice was incredible, and you can tell how popular it is because there was still a line out the door during a snowstorm. I also believe they said they were completely nut-free because someone in the family has a nut allergy. It was hectic when I asked, so double-check, but that always makes me love a place even more.

Exercise

January is the time of “new year, new me” proclamations. I can assure you that a new me is rarely crafted in the depths of winter. Particularly this winter. I attempted a few outdoor walks early in the month, but the wind chill has been so piercing, I just couldn’t last. I walked almost every day last year, so I was really down on myself most of the month.

Then I experienced a glimmer of hope when I learned of Leslie Sansone, the queen of walking at home. Her company is literally named Walk at Home. I found some old YouTube videos in mid-January and have been hooked ever since! Leslie started the Walk at Home brand over thirty years ago, and from what I’ve seen online she has a huge fan base.

I showed my husband a few of my walking moves, and his eyes screamed, ‘Can I unsee this?’ I think he also verbally said as much. I do feel like I’m in an 80s aerobics class, but I honestly am loving it and can count myself amongst the Leslie fans. Leslie is so upbeat, and the workouts are enjoyable. My heart rate is surprisingly high during the workouts, and I feel a sense of accomplishment after. It really puts me in a good mood, which I really need this time of year. To clock 3 miles in my tiny NYC apartment is one of my greatest January accomplishments.

What I’ve Written

I still need to do a dedicated post sharing about how I started doing writing and performing comedy years ago. I wrote one last year and it’s been sitting in my drafts ever since. It feels a little vulnerable because I’ve intentionally kept it separate from the rest of my life for so long. Self-preservation has been a learned skill over the years, especially with anything creative.

With that said, I thought it could be fun in these monthly recaps to share some pieces I’ve written. I mostly write scripts, so I’ll just give a brief snippet of my pieces, or how the ideas came to me.

Moisturizer. I love personifying things. I wrote a character piece in 2024 in which I personify a bottle of moisturizer that feels trapped by the influencer it belongs to. It’s had multiple rewrites, and I’ve been reworking it in a class I’m taking right now. I really love where it’s at now! Imagine a beauty product trying to fire up its fellow products to plan a daring escape from their influencer “prison”. It’s very Braveheart-esque. I’m performing this soon, and am currently putting together the costume.

Martha Stewart as a Preschool Teacher. This was another solo character piece I wrote for an assignment. I had a lot of fun writing and attempting to use Martha’s voice to perform. I tried to think of the last place I could see her being, and that’s how we ended up at a preschool.

Marry Me Chicken. I see the words “Marry Me Chicken” way too frequently on my social media. The idea is this chicken dish (which I haven’t even looked at the recipe for) is so good that your partner will ask you to marry them after. That got me thinking of other dish names this person might make. I’m still working on this piece, but I brought a half-written draft to my writers room and I like where it’s headed!

Also, I recently saw a recipe for “Marry Me Cabbage” on my Pinterest. I’m sorry, but we can all agree that nobody’s getting down on one knee due to a good piece of cabbage.

Confusing Idioms. I recently heard someone use a turn of phrase I had never heard before. After they said it, I silently repeated it back to myself to try and understand what it meant. I had nothing. I even Googled it. Still nothing. I realized it was a made-up idiom. That got me thinking about idioms in general. Some are pretty damn weird. I wrote a sketch about these random thoughts. I’d like to film it for social media soon!

Odds and Ends

Floral Flip Flops. Thinking ahead to warmer times, my mom and I each got a pair of these floral Melissa flip flops. She went with black and I got the pink. They’re even cuter in person!

Culture Pop. Joe and I are massive fans of Culture Pop. It’s a probiotic soda made with organic fruit juices, spices and herbs. It’s just as satisfying as a regular soda but without all the bad stuff. We had our first can in 2024 and have been stocking our fridge with them ever since. He’s a grape guy and I’m a black cherry girl. We also love ginger lemon and tumeric, lemon lime, and grapefruit. All the flavors are top notch. Culture Pop sent me some variety packs recently, and it was great to try all the flavors.