3 Good Things ft. Carla Lalli!On her yogurt hack, "Night Cereal," and a recipe from her latest cookbook.
Hi hi! I’m excited to have a special guest in today’s letter. You probably know her from her incredible recipes and YouTube stardom: it’s Brooklyn-based James Beard Award-winning chef Carla Lalli. “Everything in my life was about to change, and food and cooking was going to be the constant that kept me together,” Carla writes in the introduction of her new book, Food Is A Feeling: Recipes & Stories, with Love. Her latest book isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a chronicle of how she used cooking as a channel for comfort and creativity after her twenty-four-year marriage ended, a mix of recipes and essays about this transitional time in her life. “I made a lot of popcorn,” she says of the days after her separation. Then, learning to cook for herself and taking “note of the cravings” she was having, “opened me up to the idea of self-care in a non-cynical way.” Food as self-care: we’re into it.
The recipes in Food Is A Feeling are non-precious and inventive, like “Night Cereal,” a zhuzhed-up evening snack (Carla uses ice-cold rice milk and a drizzle of maple syrup, garnished with flaky sea salt, duh). There’s also craveable, riffable stuff like Tofu and Kimchi Noodle Soup and staples like Chicken Cutlets. “To cutlet midweek is a treat: cutlets are the best,” Carla writes. HARD AGREE! The writing in Food is a Feeling is honest and relatable. Even if you haven’t gone through a separation, most of us know what it’s like to grieve a past version of ourselves. I planned to skim my copy but stayed up past 9pm, pulled in by her stories. Like the one about how Carla felt moving out of her Brooklyn home into a sublet carriage house to live by herself. Or how she learned to cook for just herself and her son. Or how her son, as a kid, invented the best PB&J ever. The book is a beautiful testament to how intertwined food is with our memories and life story. Below, Carla shares her downtime-y recs, a recipe for banana bread with cocoa and salted peanuts (YUM), and we’re giving away a copy of the book to one lucky reader. Enjoy! xo,
Carla Lalli’s 3 Good ThingsOne great read… I “discovered” audiobooks this year (ikr), and The Empire of AI by Karen Hao absolutely rocked my world. It’s gigantic and long and would have been very intimidating to read, but the listen was incredible (and the author narrates, which I always like). [Ed note: I too loved this audiobook and learned so much about AI from it. I think Patrick Radden Keefe fans will enjoy it.] What she loves to watch in her downtime… Captain Sandy is back for this season of Below Deck Mediterranean, and I am on record as going below all the decks, so I look forward to the new episodes every week. The Lonesome is great, as is Widow’s Bay, and I cannot wait for Real Housewives: Salt Lake City to come back. I watch/listen to Hasan Piker’s YouTube channel when I’m cooking or doing my makeup, and to Trixie’s channel when I need a giggle before bed. Her go-to beauty thing… The Westman Atelier HydroBalm Tinted Lipstick in Onyx is my everyday all day lippy.
A Few More Q’s With CarlaPlus a recipe excerpt for Banana Bread With Cocoa and Salted Peanuts 
What was your favorite thing you did this summer? As a high-summer Leo baby, I love the beach. I got out to Jacob Riis a lot this summer, a bunch with friends, a bunch solo, and it is always fun. I also just told one of my best friends, who lives in Australia, that if my book is on the bestseller list for more than one week, I’m coming to Sydney, where it is now summer. What’s inspiring you lately? The work and careers of “older” female artists. Specifically: Miranda July, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Issa Rae, Pamela Adlon, Elizabeth Strout, and Regina King. What are your go-to pantry recs? I have been very not good about eating breakfast this summer. It’s a problem, but I’ve realized that if I buy the yogurt I like in the 5-ounce pack size, rather than scooping out of the 32-ounce, I am more likely to eat in the morning. It’s more expensive ounce for ounce, but when it’s the difference between skipping that meal or eating, it’s worth it! If you have kimchi, you have a vegetable side, a spicy condiment, and one of the greatest pickles known to humanity. I am never without a jar of kimchi. I also always have Indian lime pickle on hand—it's fabulous stirred into yogurt or used to finish braised greens, and having it at home means I don't have to order it when I get Indian takeout from my neighborhood place. ◆ Food Is A Feeling: Recipes & Stories, with Love by Carla Lalli is out now. You can follow Carla on Instagram @carla_barla_garla and on her Substack newsletter, Food Processing.
RECIPE: Banana Bread With Cocoa and Salted Peanuts
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A Subscriber Giveaway!Exciting news! I’m teaming up with Carla + Clarkson Potter to give away a copy of Food Is A Feeling to one Downtime subscriber. To enter, please like this post leave a comment with a go-to pantry snack or staple that more people need to know about. (Mine are these frozen chocolate-covered raspberries.) Restacking gets you a bonus entry :) I’ll choose and contact a winner by next Wednesday, September 16th. You must be a subscriber of Downtime and over 18 years old to be eligible to win. Photographs copyright © 2026 by Lucia Bell-Epstein. Recipe is excerpted from Food Is a Feeling by Carla Lalli and published with permission. Copyright © 2026 by Carla Lalli. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
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