My 2024 Superlatives + 2025 Food Trends You're About to See Everywhere

I'm back with 25 food, health, holiday and travel stories to help you end the year in style.

Happy holiday week!

The old adage “time flies when you’re having fun” rings true about 2024. It’s tough to believe we’re just days away from Christmas, the start of Hanukkah and a fresh new year. ✨ From the Super Bowl to seeing my byline on new-to-me brands like CNN and Conde Nast Traveler, 2024 has been full of utterly surreal moments—and so much to be grateful for!

The past few weeks have been rich with adventures, including a couple quick trips (to the Twin Cities area and Austin), plenty of cooking and baking (Grandma Arlene’s Peanut Clusters never disappoint!), festive outings around Des Moines and polishing up content before taking a few days off around Christmas.

Ahead, I’ve rounded up a couple dozen of those brand-new stories and sharing my best-of list in an array of topics that I hope might invigorate you as we transition to the next trip around the sun.

---

What to Read…

To compile the 2024 best-of list you’ll find after our latest link list, I scoured my Substack archives to refresh my memory on the adventures we shared, the intentions we instilled and the lessons we learned.

The 25 stories below bring us to a total of 404 new pieces of content for the year; none of which would have been possible without an incredible community of editors, experts, PR reps, and readers.

If you’ve clicked on any links, subscribed to a print magazine, added a ❤️ to any social posts by myself or any of the brands I contribute to or acted as a source, thank you! The media industry is in a tricky era, and your support and engagement means the world.

Despite the fact that there are a lot of uncontrollables in the media world these days, I still have so much hope for the field and for true, trustworthy human stories. I’ll be back next What’s Good with a retrospective and reflections on 6 full years of freelance writing, including the top lessons I’ve learned along the way—that I think might relate to other career areas, too.

For now, I’m delighted to share some exclusive recipes, food trend predictions, travel guides and sustainable, holistic health tips as we tip-toe closer to the new year.

• SHAPE: Dietitians Agree, Eating More Might Be the Secret to Your Strongest Year Ever

• SHAPE: Dietitians Explain Why Protein Is the Key to a Stronger, Leaner You

• Better Homes and Gardens: The Best Wine Pairings for Popular Christmas Cookies, According to Sommeliers

• Better Homes and Gardens: The Biggest Wine Icks, According to Sommeliers

• Better Homes and Gardens: 2025 Food Trends You’re About to See Everywhere

• Better Homes and Gardens: The Surprising Reason Why You Should Eat Lobster in Winter, According to the Pros

• Better Homes and Gardens: 7 Travel Snacks a Food Writer Always Packs (and 1 to Never Eat on a Plane)

• Better Homes and Gardens: Brie Brittle Is the Holiday Appetizer You Need to Try

• Better Homes and Gardens: Million Dollar Sugar Cookies Might Just Be Our Most Decadent Recipe Yet

• Better Homes and Gardens: Start a New Tradition By Adding Colorful Cuccidati to Your Holiday Spread

• Better Homes and Gardens: These 4-Ingredient Cloud Eggs Are About to Become Your New Favorite Breakfast Recipe

• Better Homes and Gardens: Chicken Fricassée Is About to Become Your New Favorite Sunday Dinner

• Better Homes and Gardens: Forget Pigs in a Blanket—Your Next Party Needs Figs in a Blanket

• Southern Living: The 10 Best Southern Desserts Of All Time, According To Chefs

• Southern Living: 9 Items You Should Actually Store In The Freezer, According To Chefs

• VERANDA: 5 Key Insights About How Wealthy People Are Buying Art Right Now

• VERANDA: How to Spend a Perfect Long Weekend in Lodi, California

• RCI Magazine: Bucket-List Holiday Experiences Around the World

• Peloton: 10 of the Best Foods for Muscle Recovery, According to Dietitians

• Peloton: 11 Hydrating Foods and Drinks to Help Keep Your H2O Levels In Check (Besides Water)

• Allrecipes: Giada De Laurentiis's 2-Ingredient Pasta Recipe Is Leaving Fans Divided

• Allrecipes: Matthew McConaughey Makes a 'Wheelbarrow Full' of This Recipe in His Basement Every Christmas

• Allrecipes: I Asked 4 Chefs for Their Favorite Fast Food Chicken Nuggets, and McDonald’s Didn’t Make the Cut

• Allrecipes: I Asked 3 Chefs for Their Favorite Fast Food Fried Chicken Sandwich, and Their Pick Was Unanimous

• Allrecipes: I Asked 4 Pro Bakers for the Best Butter for Cookies, and One Brand Dominated the Vote

---

What to Celebrate..

2024 Superlatives

‘Tis the season for year-end “best of” lists! To spice things up and allow for a quick read this bustling holiday week, I decided to do a speed round recap of the people, places, things and topics that inspired me over the past 12 months—and I hope might educate, entertain or inspire you, too.

Including stories I’ve published, hotels I can’t stop raving about, scrumptious restaurant dishes that I dream of revisiting and the songs I’ve had on repeat, read on for a look back on 2024 and a brief peek ahead to 2025.

If you’d like any more details about the items listed, feel free to comment and I’d be delighted to answer any questions! And I’d love it if you’d choose a category (or a few) and chime in with your recommendations and raves.

10 Published-in-2024 Stories to Revisit if You Missed Them

1. Travel + Leisure: Des Moines Is More Than Corn Fields and the State Fair — Here’s What We Love About This Midwest Capital

2. CNN: New Cookbook Encourages Cooks to Follow Charts, Not Recipes

3. Better Homes and Gardens: You Might Be Surprised What Those Black Flecks in Your Vanilla Ice Cream Are

4. Better Homes and Gardens: I’m a Long-Time Food Writer, but I’ve Never Been to the Cheesecake Factory—Here’s What I Thought

5. Better Homes and Gardens: These 8 Hotel Gardens Are So Beautiful, They're Worth the Trip Alone

6. Peloton: How to Prevent Bonking During Your Next Endurance Run or Ride

7. VERANDA: An Art Curator Helps Us Decode the Secret Story Hiding on Your Wine Label

8. VERANDA: How to Spend a Perfect Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona

9. Southern Living: 6 Best Father-Daughter Getaways For Every Kind Of Dad

10. Eater: The 36 Best Restaurants in Des Moines, Iowa

9 Folks to Follow on Instagram (if You Don’t Already)

1. Jackfruitful Kitchen for plant-based recipes that don’t feel like they’re missing a thing

2. Undiscovered Sunsets to fuel your wanderlust

3. Annie Brees for body-positive words of wisdom

4. Nina Ruggiero Curtis for travel tips, trends and sneak peeks into exclusive hotels and experiences

5. Liz Lidgett Gallery for art advice and a curated selection of paintings, sculptures, photographs and more to consider adding to your collection

6. Anj Portrait Studio for photos that will add so much joy to your feed

7. Eat Your Words for wise reminders you didn’t know you needed

8. Sift + Sprinkle to keep up with dessert trends and swoon over her latest beautiful bakes

9. Eden Iowa for skincare tips, self-care product recommendations and overall good vibes

8 Favorite Hotel Stays of 2024 I’d Recommend to Anyone

1. Southall Farm & Inn in Franklin, Tennessee

2. Ambiente in Sedona, Arizona (take a peek inside here)

3. Castle Hot Springs in Morristown, Arizona

4. The Court in Seaside, Florida (tour the rooms and property with me!)

5. Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri

6. The Loren in Austin, Texas

7. The Global Ambassador in Phoenix, Arizona

8. The Graduate in Minneapolis, Minnesota

7 Best Bites of the Year

1. Mixed Paella with chicken, chorizo ​​sausage, shrimp, clams, mussels, chimichurri and saffron rice at Terra Plata in Seattle, Washington

2. Meaty Wood-Fired Pizza with butternut squash sauce, sopresatta, and roasted broccoli at Jacob Schroeder’s Plant Life Pizza Picnic in Van Meter, Iowa

3. Grilled Branzino with muhammara, sumac yogurt, pomegranate molasses Nido in Austin, Texas

4. Three-Layer Almond Cake by Jess Robertson of Oak Park in Des Moines, Iowa

5. Italian Sub Hummus with pita and crudités at Olive+Oak in St. Louis, Missouri

6. David’s Squash Soup with vadouvan, maple labneh and banana bread croutons at The Webster in Iowa City, Iowa

7. Warm Grain Salad with mixed greens, farro, caramelized carrots, pickled vegetables, basil vinaigrette and grilled shrimp at Table 128 in Des Moines, Iowa

6 At-Home Workouts I Return to Again and Again (Listed From Toughest to Chillest)

1. 30-Minute Full Body Strength Challenge

2. 30-Minute Plank, Press, and Push Up Challenge

3. Quick Power Arms and Legs Workout

4. 30 Minute Full Body Endurance Workout

5. 20-Minute Stretch for Mobility

6. 20-Minute Full Body Stretch

5 Des Moines Gems I Try to Introduce to Everyone

1. Noce

2. Rose Farm

3. Ballet Des Moines

4. Grade A Gardens

5. The Cave

4 Investments I Don’t Regret

1. Solawave 4-in-1 Skincare Wand

2. Ninja Creami Deluxe (ICYMI, here’s my go-to recipe and my top 5 tips to use this appliance)

3. Columbia Women's Apres Arson II Winter Long Down Jacket

4. Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand

3 Most-Streamed Songs on Spotify

1. “Stargazing” by Myles Smith

2. “Northern Attitude” by Noah Kahan and Hozier

3. “You’re On Your Own, Kid” by Taylor Swift

2 Instagram Quotes That Still Stick With Me

1. “You grow into the woman your younger self would run to for protection.”

2. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

1 Word I Hope to Channel in 2025

1. Trust

---