Instead of a usual interview, ELLE's April cover star (Taylor Swift, have you heard of her?) wrote an open letter of sorts called "30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30." Number 10 on the list is that she "found three recipes [she knows she’ll] be making at dinner parties for life." Among them is her friend Ina Garten's "Real Meatballs and Spaghetti."
Her other two go-tos are Nigella Lawson’s Mughlai Chicken and Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Fajitas with Molé Sauce, but the Ina one is interesting because (1) she and Ina have been fans of each other for years and (2) Taylor admits she modifies the recipe somewhat.
Instead of making fresh breadcrumbs and using pork, veal, and beef like Ina calls for, Taylor explains she "just [uses] packaged bread crumbs and only ground beef for meat." To each her own, I suppose.
Anyway, another game-changing few tricks she learned ahead of her 30th birthday, Tay explains, are "getting a garlic crusher" and learning "how to immediately calculate Celsius to Fahrenheit" in her head.
The only other food-related thought of note in her piece is that she explains she's been working hard on body acceptance and that gaining weight isn't easy for her:
I worked hard to retrain my brain that a little extra weight means curves, shinier hair, and more energy. I think a lot of us push the boundaries of dieting, but taking it too far can be really dangerous. There is no quick fix. I work on accepting my body every day.
You can read Taylor's full piece over at ELLE. And you can find the garlic press that I (and probably Taylor Swift) use here.
