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The Raw and The Cooked

Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living

My Favorite Books of 2025

We are officially in the home stretch of 2025, and as we close out the year, I think it’s worth pausing—just for a moment—to feel grateful. Even if you’re in the middle of a very hard season. And honestly, December does feel hard this year. The sun disappears by 4:30pm. I’ve been leaning hard into one-pot and one-sheet-pan meals. Anyway, while right now, things feel a bit heavy, I’m going to stop, and take a moment to feel grateful for all the amazing books that fed my soul this year — because there is nothing like a really good book. The kind of book you curl up with and cannot put down. A true page-turner that pulls you out of the fog and reminds you why reading feels so nourishing.

This year, I read 55 books, and I expect to close out the year around 57. What follows is my curated list of the books I loved most—books that stayed with me, challenged me, comforted me, or simply delighted me.

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One-Pot Butternut Squash-Rice-and-Chicken Bake

This is one of my recent favorites, not only because it’s easy to throw together, but because it’s jam packed with delicious, complimentary flavors: thyme, rosemary, coconut milk, lemon juice. It’s warm, it’s hearty, and very low fuss. I’m extra lazy, and will always pay the $4.99 for two-pounds of pre-diced butternut squash. I almost never purchase pre-diced anything from the grocery store (including pineapple and watermelon), but there’s something SO ANNOYING about cutting butternut squash that to me, it’s worth the overmarked price tag. This has become a Friday night favorite this winter.

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Genesis 37:1 – 40:23 | Vayeshev | “And He Settled”

I was just telling my mother on the phone last night, after Shabbos ended, that I realized, that day, the first night of Chanukah is…. tonight. And even though it’s written on all three of my calendars, Chanukah always has a way of sneaking up on me. Every year. We’ve had the Chanukah PJ’s in rotation since Rosh Hashana, so at least there’s that. And so today, in addition to packing school lunches, baking sandwich bread for the week, and Sunday Stuff, I’m going to add homemade latkes to the list. We got our menorahs out, the dreidels, and magically found three unopened boxes of candles (another Chanukah miracle!), and threw last minute invites out to our two local cousins to join in tonight. Latkes + Chicken Taco Bowls. Cheers, Happy Chanukah, everyone!

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One-Pot Winter Dinners for the Overwhelmed Mom

December is… a lot. The magic and lights and celebrations are real — but so are the 4:30 p.m. sunsets, the jackets and snow boots everywhere, the restless kids who cannot go outside, and the witching hour that hits right as the light disappears.

If you’re nursing, tired, overstimulated, or buried under the winter gear of four small children, this season can feel like a marathon you didn’t train for. And in this season? Dinner doesn’t need to be gourmet — it just needs to get done. 🤍

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Re-Reading Gone Girl Thirteen Years Later

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I found myself standing in front of a Little Free Library box at our neighborhood playground, while my cousin, sister-in-law, and I let the children burn off steam before we all stuffed ourselves with approximately 3,000 calories worth of Thanksgiving dinner. And there it was: Gone Girl. A perfect, slightly weathered paperback copy, begging me to take it home with me.

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Genesis 32:4 – 36:43 | Vayishlach | “And He Sent”

This weeks parsha post is dedicated to our sweet girl, who turned seven earlier this week. We are so proud of the polite, kind, smart, vivacious, funny, and beautiful girl she’s turned into. And wow — those seven years went by f-a-s-t. Suddenly, Jacob’s line makes a little more sense to me, 29:20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Motherhood — especially these early years — is a kind of serving too. And somehow, the years feel like days.

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