a very good, very large batch of apple cider painkiller cocktails

a very good, very large batch of apple cider painkiller cocktails

plus our favorite cozy sweaters, big news in the hummus world, and more

Caroline Chambers

Oct 28, 2026

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Hello from my absolute cesspool of a home, where tiny children with high fevers have been coughing into my mouth, eyeballs, and on every surface for the past three days!

I got home from speaking (and just being absolutely gobsmacked by the beauty of Wisconsin…) at the

Kohler Food & Wine festival

late Sunday night, whereupon I fell asleep for approximately four minutes before all hell broke loose and the fever-barf-cough-snot storm of being a parent during fall caught up with us all at once. It’s been a heck of a week — I’m hoping the babies will make a full recovery before Halloween so that they can debut their

matching glow-in-the-dark pumpkin costumes

on Saturday.

This is my first year as a parent where Halloween falls on a Saturday — anyone else? How fun. Should you plan to BOO-ze (🙃) this weekend, I’m sharing a recipe for a BIG OLE BATCH of apple cider painkillers below! AKA painkillers where, instead of pineapple juice and orange juice, we use pineapple juice, orange juice, and APPLE CIDER. They are

frighteningly

delicious. Make them the day before Halloween! Heck, make them two days before. I’m bringing them to our friend Jess’s house. Poor Jess doesn’t even invite us anymore — it’s just an unspoken rule that she will host all of us since she lives on the best trick-or-treating street. See ya soon, Jess!

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on a CRAZY GOOD walk-away beef chuck chili recipe that will hit your inbox FRIDAY morning — a day earlier than usual! — so that you can make it on Halloween, should you, like many of us What To Cookers, have the annual tradition of eating chili on Halloween. If not, make it anytime this week. It is really, really good.

I repeat: This week’s new complete-meal dinner recipe is dropping on Friday rather than the usual Saturday morning! Look out for it in your inbox!

Anyone dressing up as something clever or creative this year? And/or what are your kids/dogs dressing up as? My little boys (1 and 4) are being pumpkins, and my big boys (6 and 7) are being Navy SEALs. Different strokes for different folks, amiright. Share your ideas for those of us who haven’t decided what to dress up as yet.

I’ll randomly select a commenter and comp your What To Cook subscription for the next year!

Last year me and my friends surprised our husbands by dressing up as them. It was very funny.

Leave a comment

I have some big news for my fellow (or soon-to-be)

Little Sesame

lovers!

As of this month, their ridiculously delicious chef-crafted hummus (that I’ve been

talking about here

for YEARS now!) is available many more places, including Walmarts and Targets throughout the country! If you haven’t tasted Little Sesame yet, GET READY. It’s legitimately the smoothest, freshest, most restaurant-quality store-bought hummus out there. Their herby jalapeño hummus with cucumber slices is my current afternoon snack every single day, and some Little Sesame hummus served with fancy crackers or crudités would be a fabulous low-effort, high-reward appetizer for any holiday party (throw some pomegranate seeds and crumbled feta on their classic hummus to wow everyone).

Click here

to find Little Sesame in a store near you. You could also order their Favorites Bundle online (it includes their smooth classic, caramelized onion, preserved lemon, and creamy jalapeño hummuses), or a Build-Your-Own Bundle with even more flavors.

If you’re shopping online,

click here

to get 10 percent off your order!

Thank you, Little Sesame, for supporting So Into That, and congrats on your expansion!!!

Cozy sweaters

. We spent a healthy chunk of time on our team Zoom on Monday asking each other where we got our respective sweaters. So we figured we’d share them here, too! Here are our team’s current faves:

Quince’s oversized cashmere sweater

has been a staple of ours for years

($120)

. The brown is so pretty.

This

100% cotton Gap number

is thick and comfy and looks like La Ligne for 1/10th of the price

(currently on sale for $39)

.

I’ve never gotten more compliments on a piece of clothing than

this poppy red Sézane sweater

, but sadly it’s sold out! I love

their red cable knit

, too

($165)

.

Another cable knit

, but more classic — it’s 100% organic cotton and such a good price

($45)

. The fit is so good.

This

boxy cropped cashmere sweater

from Anthropologie is super soft and thin, so is great for warmer fall climates

($158 — it’s also

available on Nuuly

, if you’re a Nuuly girl!).

Here’s one on my wishlist: this

Tuckernuck sweater

($398)

that’s an excellent, albeit splurgy, dupe

for the

very

splurgy

Ophelia

sweater from The Row.

My mother-in-law gave me a green

Alex Mill Fair Isle cardigan

for Christmas three years ago and I wear it compulsively throughout November, December, and January

($228).

It brings me so much joy. They sell out every year, so if you’ve been jonesin’ for one, this is your moment! I want the brown!

Here’s

a bright spin on Fair Isle

that is SO FUN and SO ON SALE

($130)

! And

here’s

another cute and colorful take on it

($32

).

I wore one of my

fave super thin turtlenecks

every day on my tour du Midwest, including on stage with Katie! In Wisconsin, I got some QT with my BF

Dan

, and spent lots of time fireside after walks in the cool, crisp fall air!

Kohler, Wisconsin!

Following last week’s

Make It Fast

book tour event in Chicago with my beloved

Katie of Beach Reads & Bubbly

(which was SO. MUCH. FUN. Thank you, thank you to everyone who came! My largest book tour event yet with 650 of you!!), I headed up to Kohler, Wisconsin, for the Kohler Wine & Food Festival. I was absolutely blown away by the town! The Kohler family built this entire lovely little town with gorgeous hotels and golf courses and great schools and lovely markets and an INCREDIBLE spa around their Kohler factories. No ugly factory town here — it’s STUNNING and the factory and Kohler showrooms are all incorporated in this really lovely way into the town. A very cool, very special place.

Anybody have ACOTAR #6 in your

hands

or

ears

this week?!

I haven’t started yet but plan to as soon as I finish the ARC that I just received and audibly gasped when I opened —

CORE

by Ariel Sullivan!!! AKA the next book in the Conform series (my fave books of 2025!!).

We are hosting George’s childhood best friends here next weekend for a big joint 40th celebration and I am so, so excited.

I’m cooking dinner at the house on one of the nights and I just ordered

these tablecloths

to go with

these napkins

and my

blue East Fork plates

.

It’s going to be wild and wacky just like George’s crazy ass friends. It’s a special occasion, and I can never find great short ribs locally, so

I also just ordered

wagyu short ribs

from Snake River Farms

. I used the code

SRFBEEF

to get

two pounds of free ground wagyu

(add it to your cart then add the code to get it for free).

This is not sponsored but they are a partner of WTC — we love SRF!

I’ve got sick kids on the brain and

these

liquid medicine dispensers

that actually fit in bottles and hold up to 10 ml of medicine

are saving my life right now. This is the kind of thing you don’t need until you need it at 2 a.m.!

(Wow, I know EXACTLY what you mean by this and just ordered these, thank you!! —

Molly from What To Cook

)

Amazon informed me this morning that I just ordered a

3-pound box of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

for the fifth time

. I cannot find it in my local stores and it is the only type of salt I like to cook/develop recipes with. Please buy this salt if you cook my recipes! It is the best, and will give you the most accurate measurements.

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation and adding to your meal plan for the week ahead. Here’s this week’s lineup!

1.

saucy pork and sweet potato bowls

, 2025

This meal is greater than the sum of its parts. The saucy pork perfectly foils the roasted sweet potatoes. We also make quick-pickled carrots and cucumbers and a sriracha mayo to tie it all together. It’s so flavorful!

2.

cheesy chicken + kimchi rice

, 2024

A one-pot recipe from the lovely

Julia Turshen

’s cookbook

What Goes With What

. Kimchi + cheese + chicken + rice… lots to love here!

3.

creamy white turkey chili

, 2023

A turkey chili from Halloweens past! I’ve made this one for almost every Halloween since 2023, and I actually made it earlier this week, too! We use ground turkey, cannellini beans, salsa verde, kale, corn, and lots of pantry-staple spices. Option to add cream cheese for extra creaminess, but it’s creamy even without it because we blend the beans!

4.

white chicken chili

(by Anne Byrn), 2022

Another Halloween chili option! An easy, easy white chicken chili from the acclaimed cookbook author

Anne Byrn

. PS, I’ll be going live with Anne this Friday at 9 a.m. PT, noon ET on Substack to chat about all things holiday baking, cookbook writing, etc. Tune in, if you can!

5.

sheet-pan honey-roasted chicken, carrots, and brussels sprouts with tahini yogurt

, 2021

I made this one for dinner last night after seeing it here and wow, it’s so easy and so delicious. I swapped in butternut squash for the carrots, used boneless thighs, and sprinkled feta over top because I didn’t have any yogurt

or

tahini. I also broiled it (a bit too much!) at the end. Delightful.

my 2026 version of this fantastic 2021 WTC recipe!

Makes 12 to 18 drinks

Prep time: 5 minutes

Tools:

Large beverage dispenser (like

this 2-gallon one

I just bought from Walmart because my old one broke over the summer! —

Molly from What To Cook

)

Citrus juicer

Chef’s knife

and

cutting board

to slice oranges

Ingredients:

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