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Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photo: Chris Bernabeo, Joe McKendry
If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked Alison Roman — whose new cookbook, Something From Nothing, is out today — about the nutritional yeast, lip balm, and baby oil she can’t live without.
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I’m obsessed with it. It’s for the baby. I mean, everything that you put on the baby ends up going on you, so I feel like it’s really important that you enjoy the way it feels and smells. I think it’s a calendula-jojoba blend, but the smell is just so, so lovely. It’s super hydrating. I got it from the time he was a newborn, and so I sort of associate the smell with the early stages of him being a baby. It’s very evocative for me now, even though that was only nine months ago but feels like five years ago. It’s a nice little ritual post-bath to do baby massage. And in the process it also keeps me and my hands pretty moisturized.
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When I got pregnant, people were like, “Are you gonna make your own baby food?” And I was like, “Probably not, that seems like a lot of work. I probably won’t have the time.” But now I’m absolutely making my own baby food, only because it’s actually pretty easy. I roast squash and then put it in a jar. I cook down a bunch of cauliflower in a pot and add greens and lentils and it becomes this coarse mash and then I put it in a jar. Two ounces in these jars is about a portion size for him, so I know how many servings I have and it kind of keeps me organized. I’m like, Okay. I know I have four dinners for him and two lunches. Otherwise, for me as an adult, I would just have plastic quart containers full of bullshit. And now I am all of a sudden portioning roasted squash in a glass jar. Motherhood will really change you, I guess. But I find them really, really useful and I kind of use them now for everything, like Cheerios and little portions of yogurt. I’m definitely trying not to use a ton of plastic for sure if I can, but plastic also just doesn’t last as long. It’s not as durable. Also when you put the lids on, I find the seal not to be as tight. The seal is pretty tight on these glass jars, so you can throw them in a bag and toss them around and there’s no seeping or leaking.
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I have it in a maroon sort of rusty color and I have it in a goldenrod yellow. It’s really the perfect size for actually making rice, like a personal pot of rice. But I also make my popcorn in it. It’s great for a personal or two-person portion of soup. It’s great for reheating leftovers. It’s great for keeping things warm on the stove over the course of a few hours. It’s one of my most used pots. It’s the perfect size and it just looks really nice.
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I was a diehard Chemex person my whole life. And I have some good friends who had a baby before me and they were like, “You’re not gonna wanna do that.” I can tell you right now what you’re not gonna wanna do, and that’s make a Chemex. I’m also not the kind of person who drinks coffee first thing in the morning all the time. I’m more of a 10:30, 11:00 a.m. coffee person. But I really, really rely on it. And I really like my hot black coffee in the morning. I have the white one because I just think it blends more seamlessly into my kitchen. My cabinets are this kind of bluish color that my landlord will not let me paint. If I had white cabinets, I’d probably pick a pop of color, but because I don’t, I want a more neutral, vanilla-cream color. It makes perfect coffee, and it is sleek and fits in a tight, tiny space, and it’s easy to clean. Anyone can use it. It’s a mechanical system that I understand. The water goes in here, the water drips in the grounds here, and the coffee comes out here. I can use compostable coffee filters. It looks great. I love it.
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I pretty much use it for one reason, and that is to season my popcorn. And you would think that I use it for a lot more because I go through so much of it. But when I think about the mission statement of this column, which is things I can’t live without — I really can’t live without it. I can’t enjoy popcorn without it, and I love popcorn. I’d rather not have popcorn than eat popcorn without nutritional yeast, you know what I mean?
Sometimes I just use olive oil because that’s just what I have next to my stove in that little pot. If I have coconut oil or ghee or whatever, I’ll use that, but olive oil’s fine. And then I add my kernels, just regular popcorn kernels. Put the lid on. I wait for them to pop. I shake the pot a lot. I add kosher salt, I add a fine chili, like a gochugaru or an Aleppo-style pepper. And then black pepper from the grinder and also nutritional yeast. I toss, toss, toss. And then occasionally, if I’m not in a rush and I’m taking my time, I will put the popcorn in a bowl and then melt a little butter in the pot and then drizzle it on top afterward as well. But I don’t always do that because often I find it doesn’t really need it.
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A friend of mine works for them and was like, “Hey, if you ever wanna try these jeans …” And I was like, Do I really need another pair of jeans? Because I famously am always buying a pair of jeans to figure out if I have found, quote, “the One.” For a while I was a Levi’s Ribcage high-rise person. And then my body changed a lot during pregnancy and postpartum. The Levi’s styles come and go and you can’t always find the right length for you. I was like, I don’t know if these Levi’s are really fitting me these days, both spiritually and physically, and so I gave Jeanerica a try and I love them. I think they’re extremely well made and they make my butt look amazing. I have a few pairs. They also have incredible white T-shirts.
The jeans are 100 percent cotton, but they’re not so rigid. They’re not super, super stiff, which I really appreciate. I have one that has a flare, which is really good with boots. I was just in London for a week for book tour and I wore them a lot with a 2.5- or three-inch heel boot, and they looked so great. I had a big long leather jacket and these flare jeans and a leather boot and I was like, Oh, I’m feeling very ’90s in all the right ways. It really worked for me.
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I love the Doona. I have another stroller that I have for my every day. The Doona is a super lightweight, two-in-one stroller car seat. It collapses really easily and becomes a car seat immediately and you don’t have to move the baby. In traveling, it is incredible, like a godsend. You don’t have to bring an extra stroller. You don’t have to bring an extra car seat. I do realize that this is only useful for parents up until a certain point because the baby will exceed the weight limit. I think we maybe have a few more months, maybe a year max, left in this. Probably not even a year. He’s a big boy.
We’ve been to Italy, we’ve been to London, we’ve done small road trips, and having this has made our lives so much easier because it’s the only one we bring. And even in New York, if it’s raining and we can’t take the train or think it’s gonna be a hassle, we don’t wanna walk, we can pop into a car and then walk home after if you want. It’s so flexible, but, also, it’s the only stroller that fits in a restaurant. Even if we’re not getting in a car, if we’re going to a restaurant, we’ll bring it. Because it’s so compact and small, it fits right under the tables. Especially when he was really little, he would sleep at restaurants. He doesn’t really anymore. But it was just perfect because as you know, restaurants in New York and Brooklyn tend to be very small. And people are always like, “Ugh, we don’t have room for a stroller.” And I get it. As a diner, I don’t want a stroller next to me. But they really fit in snugly, because they’re almost the size of a chair. They’re very convenient, very practical. Highly recommend. When I was stroller shopping, I was like, “Should I get a Doona or this?” And someone was like, “You need both.” I couldn’t imagine a world in which I would need two strollers, but I’m living in that world and I’m very happy.
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Aquaphor is another one of those things where it’s like, if it’s going on the baby, it’s going on me. It’s a thing that I started using that was recommended by my doula and pediatrician when the baby was born to prevent diaper rash and this, that, and the other. You basically need to create a barrier to moisture to prevent irritation, et cetera. And now it’s such an all-purpose balm. I know some people are really against petroleum, and I also use more natural oils for other practices, but for things like diaper rash, and for my hands when they’re really, really dry, or my lips when they’re really, really dry, Aquaphor is awesome and it works. In my older age, I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of things that are like, Wow, this has been around forever and there’s a reason. It’s a classic for a reason.
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Cherry Me, that’s my favorite one. It makes my lips look so good, and everyone’s always like, “What’s that lipstick?” And it’s always Baby Lips. It’s basically just a chapstick but it is incredible. I didn’t find it, I rediscovered it because it’s such an old product, very ’90s again. But in the pandemic I ordered a case of it, because, what weren’t we doing in the pandemic? I was just like, Whatever will make me feel something. So I ordered Baby Lips and I could only buy a case of it. This is the holy grail to me of lip stuff because it is hydrating, it’s super sheer, it’s glossy. It smells really nice to me. It smells like a teenager. It reminds me of having a crush. And it is the perfect tint, a sort of dark pink, rich lip color. I love it.
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The reason I decided to make that product to begin with is because I feel like I can’t really live without tomato sauce. It is one of those things that if you have on hand, you can make a million things. If you’re gonna learn how to cook, you should cook that. If there’s something you should have in your pantry, you should probably have that. I feel like the ones that we made — there’s three different types — are really, really excellent, wonderful versions of that. The spicy tomato with fennel is my favorite, and it doesn’t really need much else. That’s the beauty of it. The classic flavor, the garlicky tomato, is one that you can doctor up. Start your pot with some ground meat or sausage and then add the sauce to it if you want. You can make a quick ragu with it. You could do the same with the spicy-tomato fennel, but it doesn’t need it, it’s truly so delicious on its own. But a good shaving of a hard, salty Pecorino or something on top will never hurt.
[Editor’s note: The tomato sauces are currently sold out, but you can sign up to be notified when they’re back in stock.]
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