I've found the perfect couch

And have been thinking about parenthood a lot.

Highly Enthused is a newsletter, once a podcast, concerning all the best things to consume in life. It’s written twice per month by Sophie McComas-Williams and Sophie Roberts, and today’s dispatch is written by SoMo! The majority of each newsletter is free, but there are five extra recs in each for paid subscribers. That’s often where the gold nuggets lie. Thanks for being here!

I often think about the kind of parent I am and want to be. This act of even thinking about it probably makes me a good enough one, I guess, but it’s a question I’m asking myself more and more as my kids get older and need more active “parenting” (other than just keeping them warm, fed, clean and alive as babies!). I’ve also been thinking lately about why we chose to have kids at all. Not because I don’t love it, but why specifically did we choose to have them - other than the “because we should”? When parenting frustrates me, I’ve been thinking “well why did you choose to have kids? Did you think it’d be easy?” We wanted us two, a couple, to become a family. We wanted change, the next phase, growth. We were curious, and it looked like a fun challenge. These now seem like semi-selfish reasons, or maybe just naïve ones. I never really thought about what was in it for the kid, having us as parents. Did I choose to become a mother so I could teach someone all about the world from my perspective? So I could pack as many wonderful experiences possible into their tiny lives, rather than them just packing endless joy and wonder into mine? So I could curate a fun, magical childhood for a tiny human? I didn’t, not overtly anyway. Mostly I dreamt of what a baby would bring to me, how it would change me, and us, change our lives. How they’d fit into what we like to do (Martinis? Shopping aimlessly? Overseas travel? Long lunches? Sleep-ins? lol). Maybe this is common, I’m not sure. When you have the thought - “I want a baby” - do you think about why?

An example of this is something like an indoor play centre, or maybe Disneyland. Before I became a parent, I thought “I’ll never take my kids to these places,” they looked so awful - the lines, the germs, the chaos, the cost. I, selfishly, thought only about myself and my experience. I didn’t really want to commit to weekend kid activities too soon either because as a kid-less 30-year-old, the thought of having somewhere to be every single weekend, rain or shine, was the stuff of nightmares. I thought we’d just want to hang out at home all weekend snuggling or something. Now, that gives me anxiety, especially with three weeks in a row of rain and a three-year-old. Now I’m here, I’m literally desperate for weekend activities. I take my son to places I never thought I’d go, not only to tire him out but to see the look on his face as he jumps into a likely filthy ball pit, his joy, his wonder, his excitement. I love answering questions - “what letter does ‘trout’ begin with?”, or “where do kangaroos grow?” I’m considering Nippers (junior lifeguard training at the beach horrendously early on Sundays, for those not in Aus). Nippers was something I thought I’d never sign up for. Maybe this train of thought is circling back to answering what I originally wanted from this choice; growth, the next phase, a focus not on me. Maybe I did get what I was looking for, after all. Do we fit our children seamlessly into our old lives? A little, but as I’m understanding, the point is more about making a life for them, with us in it, loving and supporting them. A newly shaped life for all of us. Anyway, in light of mother’s day over the weekend, that’s what’s on my mind. How about you? Don’t worry there are recs ahead:

Eat / Drink

Three weeks of rain is good for something other than the garden and the indoor play centre trade, and that’s moussaka. I wanted to make a slowly braised one, rather than mince, something that could bubble away on the stove and end up soft and yielding. This recipe by Matt Kemp for Gourmet Traveller gave me just what I was looking for, with a whisper of cinnamon and oregano and rich ragu-esque lamb. A winter winner if i’ve ever heard of one. I topped mine with feta for a little sharpness.

Read / Watch / Listen

A book for those who love relationship stories, tenterhook intrigue, wedding drama and very good food writing. Piglet by Lottie Hazell packs all this in. A cookbook editor is getting married to the man she thought was the stuff of her dreams. She’s finally getting the life she always thought she wanted. But he betrays her, how exactly is kept from us, and as the wedding inches closer, her inner turmoil completely spins her out of control. I inhaled this, pun intended. It also really made me want puttanesca, porridge, and a whole toffeed croquembouche.

Do / Buy

I hadn’t bought a new cookbook in bloody ages, and Ellie Bouhadana’s Ellie’s Table did not disappoint. I’ve only been to Hope Street Radio in Melbourne once, and though I loved the food I thought the vibe was a bit intensely ‘Melbourne Cool’ for me. The book, however, is all sunshine and simplicity, filled with stories. She plates up the exact things I want to eat - fast crostini with stracciatella and two types of anchovies; Parmesan broth; cavatelli with squid and XO sauce; whipped butter with sesame seed and shmaltz; a summer tomato crostata. The photography is filmy and grainy, shot by one of the Buffet team’s most-saved international photographers - Lucia Bell-Epstein (aka @luuuuush), the font and design is *chef’s kiss*. An A+ gift to yourself or someone who loves snacking on things like hunks of Parmesan and fresh figs.

The Fast Five

A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: our exact life-changing couch, a one-pan chicken dish that is DEAD EASY, a serum for your new eye wrinkles, a bottled Bellini and a TV show that stopped me in my tracks.