RPL at Home: October 2025

Welcome to the October 2025 edition of RPL at Home, where I share what I’m up to when I’m not in the kitchen or in front of the camera.

Every few months, I give you a glimpse into what I’m working on, habits I’m cultivating, things bringing me joy, books/TV shows/podcasts I’m enjoying, and more. Think of it as stream-of-consciousness blabbering meets a semi-curated list of recommendations meets life update.

Table of Contents
1. Fun Things!
2. What I’m working on in life
3. What I’m watching, listening to, and reading

We stayed in the rainforest, explored the Volcano National Park, road tripped, and stopped at beautiful waterfalls, gardens, and beaches. 

My mom is the opposite of what I would call an “outdoorsy person” and has barely exercised a day in her life, but she surprised us with her sense of adventure and I’m so glad we got to spend that time with her. 

Stay tuned because I’ll be sharing a detailed summary of our trip, including recommendations for things to do on the Big Island, where to stay, and what to eat. 

🎥 NYC Trip!

As soon as we got back from Hawaii, we hopped on another plane to NYC where I had the privilege of filming recipe videos in the New York Times Cooking studio! 

In case you missed the announcement in the last installment of RPL at Home, I became a contributor to NYT Cooking this summer! 

We filmed four recipes in one day(!), which certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the team at NYT Cooking. From the videographers to the food stylist, they made it so easy for me. All I had to do was show up and be myself in the kitchen, which is always the most fun part. 

My first video on NYT Cooking’s YouTube channel will be out in mid-November (another one coming in January). Until then, you can find several of my recipes for NYT Cooking on their app/website, plus videos on my YouTube channel.

🎂 Double the Birthday Fun!

Then, a few days later, we celebrated my 38th birthday! 

I was lucky enough that my mom had planned her 70th birthday party (with 200+ guests!) for the same week, so several of my closest friends and family were already in town and got to celebrate my birthday with me 🥰

We topped off a busy but very fulfilling season with my mom’s party, where Max and I regaled the audience with stories about my mom’s sense of humor. 

Oh, and in case you missed the email about this update, Max—who’s never baked anything in his life, not even pre-made cookie dough—baked me a cake for my birthday!!!

And not just any cake. He made The Celebration Cake from my cookbook Big Vegan Flavor, and he did an A+ job. Texture: 100. Flavor: 100. Happiness: 100. 

🏋🏽‍♀️ What I’m working on in life 

If the Oxford English Dictionary crowned a health-related word of the past few years, I think it’d be strength training (okay, fine, that’s two words!). 

With each month, more and more scientific research continues to shed light on just how powerful strength training is for overall health and aging, especially for women. And I’m pleased to say I’ve finally hopped on the bandwagon! 

I’ve documented my fitness journey in past editions, but as a brief recap: Four years ago, I was in a lot of physical pain due to a combination of my floppy joints, an exacerbation of old injuries, and lack of exercise. I was in too much pain to exercise, which created a vicious cycle of getting injured frequently because being weak = my joints get out of place more quickly and my old injuries resurface more easily. 

Two years ago, I started to get stronger by committing to pilates several times a week, which strengthened my core and hips. And this year, I decided to take my strength journey to the next level with heavy weights. Good-bye, 3 pound dumbbells! 

Listen, I’m not doing anything crazy like lifting and slamming heavy barbells down on the floor of a Crossfit garage. I don’t even have a gym membership. 

But I have been quietly obsessed with the at-home workout program Evlo. Perhaps one of the reasons I love it is that the program is created by physical therapists and it’s designed specifically for women’s bodies.  

The emphasis is on “gentle consistency”: consistently strength training but in a way that’s gentle to the body. I used to easily get injured when I tried strength training on my own, whether at home or at a gym, and this is the first time where I feel safe and grounded when lifting weights. 

The only downside is that my office is now turning into a weight room, as I’m collecting more heavy dumbbells. But I suppose it’s a small price to pay for feeling stronger, mentally and physically! 

What I’m watching, listening to, and reading

📺 Watching

I’ve discussed my love for spy TV shows in the past, so it’s not surprising that the first two on this list are just that. 

First up, season 5 of the British TV show Slow Horses, which is IMO one of the best shows of the past decade. It’s a spy thriller series but it’s also really funny, so it scratches two itches at once. We watched the penultimate episode last night, and I’ve been hypothesizing finale endings with Max all morning (he’s very tired of listening to me by now). 

Next, The Eastern Gate, a Polish espionage thriller series. Set in 2021, it follows Ewa, a Polish spy, while international tensions between Poland, Belarus, and Russia unfold. It’s intense and sometimes quite violent, but also captivating and full of clever twists and turns. 

I particularly love non-English TV shows because you have to give them your undivided attention; otherwise, you’ll completely miss the plot. In an age where there are now TV shows literally being dumbed down for “second screen viewing,” I, for one, love a TV show that requires your full attention. 

Finally, The Lowdown, a crime drama starring Ethan Hawke. He plays a scrappy, chaotic yet charming journalist who’s single-mindedly focused on uncovering the truth about corrupt, big money actors in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s shot artfully, has a great mix of humor and intrigue, and is each episode is packed with delightful surprises. 

PS: Ethan Hawke was my neighbor for a few years when I lived in Brooklyn, and he was always so nice. The first time he said hello to us, I think I garbled in surprise “uh, yes, you too.” 

📚 Reading

While I’ve read several books since I last shared an update, I wanted to share the one that stuck with me the most: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Adichie’s novel, now nearly 20 years old, is an epic and heartbreaking novel that recreates a moment in history that had long been forgotten: the brutal Nigerian Civil War and Biafra’s fight for independence in the 1960s, which resulted in the starvation of millions of civilians.   

I loved this book for two reasons. One, it’s just a masterful novel. It features complex characters with a page-turning plot. Two, it introduced me to a part of history I had embarrassingly never heard about (and sadly reminded me that history often repeats itself). 

As I was reading the novel, I’d find myself regularly putting down the book to research a fact about Nigeria or the Igbo people or the civil war, so I felt like I got to read an engrossing novel and get an education. 

🎧 Listening

I’ve been a longtime listener to This American Life, and the recent episode Harold has become one of my all-time favorites. 

It tells the captivating story of Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, elected in 1983.

Like the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, I enjoyed this episode so much because it placed me in a different historical period with such specificity that I almost felt like I was in Chicago in 1983 on the cusp of this historic moment. And I got learn about an incredibly inspiring politician who I had never heard of (sadly, he died shortly after being elected to his second term in 1987).

Okay, that’s it for this edition! Drop me a line below and let me know what you’re reading, watching, or working on in your own life!