In the Queue: Good Vibes and Better Eats

Let’s get one thing straight: if there’s a Touch Tunes in sight, someone in the group is adding to the queue. For those who haven’t experienced the power of Touch Tunes — for better or for worse — picture a jukebox in a bar that you can queue up any song out there. No matter your age, we all know that good music sets the tone for a good time.

Combine the right music for the right vibe and the right meal, and you’ve got the perfect experience.

Here’s how I started my Sunday this past weekend, judgement welcomed:

Two things that are at the top of my list in how to relate to many different people has to be food and music. There’s not much food I won’t try, and there’s not much music I won’t listen to. That said, everything has a time and a place. A slow, early morning baking might take me to the classic vinyls with James Taylor and Billy Joel or slower vibes of Jon Batiste, Mac Miller and Tom Misch. The long days of cooking and bigger dinners will jump around from Cage the Elephant, Good Charlotte, Dead and Company, Zach Bryan, maybe even AC/DC and Meat Loaf. (This probably just scratches the surface.)

And one of my favorite parts of cooking with other people or hosting is finding the right music to go with the food. Taco night calls for Pete Rodriguez (look him up and you’ll see), Sunday Sauce calls for Dean Martin and Louie Prima (you should know), and Christmas baking calls for [insert your favorite Christmas songs]… I’d go for Aloe Blacc’s Christmas album (yes, the “I Need a Dollar” guy) or B101, of course (IYKYK). Fun fact, I do have the Big Night soundtrack on vinyl. (It wasn’t a want, rather a need.)

I’m sure there’s a science about how certain restaurants should play certain types of music, and I’m not saying that all good restaurants should think about their music choices. But for my meals, good music sets the tone. And I think if you can get that right, the vibes with good food lead to memorable nights.

What’s Cookin’

To nobody’s surprise, most of the week was filled with leftovers from the previous weekend’s self-imposed cooking marathon. So when Thursday rolled around and I hadn’t cooked a meal yet, I went back to a source of truth for my two cooks this weekend: Molly Baz.

Benny’s Tender Tenders

Buffalo chicken tenders + a blue cheese, lemon and tahini dressing? It’s like tricking the mind that it’s healthy because it’s a salad with pickled vegetables and a fresh cutlet covered in hot sauce. It was even better than it sounds. Kudos to Molly’s husband Ben for putting this top recipe together from her second book, More is More. Bonus for you: they made it together on YouTube, so no need to buy the book (even though I highly recommend buying the book).

Citrus Braised Beef Tacos

Combine the crisp 50-degree morning with the first football Sunday of the season, and my mind and stomach were craving something cooked low-and-slow. But part of me couldn’t lean into a heavy meal just yet, so off I went once I spotted this citrus braised beef. This recipe is worth the $5 per month alone to have access to consistently. Easily a top 3 favorite Molly recipe I’ve made. Subscribe to The Club. (And no, I am not sponsored by Molly (sadly)).

This will continue to be made into tacos and served over rice all week. I ate it for lunch today, and I’m already excited to have it for dinner again tomorrow night. Also, there’s not much better than coming back to the smells building and filling an apartment all day long.

Feed the Feed

This one fits the music vibes, and probably was partly the inspiration for this week. This man cooks damn good food, share damn good music. If there’s anything to prove it, it’s his latest accomplishment: he made it to Bob Marley’s YouTube channel for cooking jerk chicken to the legend’s music.

Daniel Williams leads with his tagline “First, We Vibe”. He shares nostalgic stories of his own experiences and those with his family and friends as he recreates meals and serves them up as recipes that like an album cover. Check out his Instagram reels page here that features meals made right in his home, like Oxtail Potstickers, Butter Chicken and Pizza Rolls.

He also shares great series like Tune for Your Timeline, sharing stories about certain songs, and New Vinyl Monday, where he shares new pickups from local vinyl stores. Simple and fun.

Maybe if I didn’t spend so much on food, I’d be able to get back to expanding my vinyl collection. Recently purchased my first album of the year with the pre-order of Leon Bridge’s upcoming album. In my eyes, this doesn’t count because he’s a top artist for me, and I already have his first three albums. Whenever the next free weekend rolls around, sounds like I have some plans.

Let the good vibes roll 🤘