Mini-Ep 424: Theme Parties and Air Fryers
Doree and Elise hear from listeners about *that* Ninja Fryer, a music alternative to Spotify, how Elise hosts so many parties, and some great holiday Costco and Trader Joe’s recs.
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever 35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise (00:16):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree (00:21):
And this is a mini episode, the last of 2024 where we hear from you. We share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability. But please remember, we are not experts. We are podcast hosts and we always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and or mental health professional as needed. Gosh, I love
Elise (00:42):
The mini apps,
Doree (00:43):
Which are
Elise (00:43):
Essentially our listener Mailbags. Yes. Thank you so much, listeners, for all your pause the pod moments that have then led you to text us, leave us a voicemail or email us because it's really what makes these episodes so great.
(01:00):
And as we are in this time of reflection, I just want to reflect and thank you all because these have been so much fun. We've gone down so many fascinating and compelling rabbit holes this year that you all have really driven, like the corn pasta. Dory recommended that corn pasta recipe, which so many of us made because it rocks, it's delicious. And then the dish towels, one of the callers called in asking for good dish towel res. And now we have a pile of dish towel res, like a lot of great wrecks, and they're on our shop and in our holiday guide, in fact, because they were so fun. What else do you remember from this year? There've been more free bowling incidents,
Doree (01:44):
Free bowling and free mugging Trader Joe's hair serum has been a hot topic.
Elise (01:48):
Yes. Or hair oil. Which one? One was I supposed to get? Yes, I know listeners like both of them. Listeners, there's some of you who like
Doree (01:58):
Both, but some don't.
Elise (02:02):
There's been my quest to find non witch, which some of you all have found in the wild.
Doree (02:08):
Oh yes, yes, yes. We've gotten non witch sightings from across the country.
Elise (02:15):
And of course, what makes these many episodes great have been so many of your tales of growing up and growing older and your relationships with your loved ones. And we've gotten to talk to you about so many of those. So
Doree (02:28):
Are you feeling reflective? I'm kind of in a reflective mood.
Elise (02:32):
Yes. I generally am, except that it is the last week of school before break, and so this is the time of year where we need to get everything turned in or returned or there's a holiday concert like Luna's been playing ukulele and we have to go see her ukulele show and Issa is in the dance company and she has the dance recital. So there are to get through, but I am very excited. I have a white elephant party to go to, so I'm still trying to figure out what to bring. And then I'm crashing my friend's company holiday party tonight, which is going to be great. I've always wanted to be a wedding crasher and just meet complete strangers and it's is kind of close. It's not my company.
Doree (03:20):
Right. It's funny you bring that up because later in the episode we have a question slash comment related to this.
Elise (03:28):
Oh, I didn't even know that in advance. It's always a surprise to me. Okay, fantastic. Always
Doree (03:38):
A surprise. Yes. My Mahjong game I think is going to do a white elephant, so that'll be fun. Yes.
Elise (03:49):
Do you know what you're going to bring?
Doree (03:50):
I don't yet. Last year it was, well, we have to clarify. I think I remember last year there being a big discussion about whether we were doing funny gifts or actual gifts. You know what I mean?
Elise (04:05):
Oh yeah.
Doree (04:06):
Is there a theme? I believe last year we landed on actual and I got ordered, or maybe we did it as a secret Santa. I don't remember. But I remember getting Mahjong themed stuff off Etsy.
Elise (04:21):
Oh, okay.
Doree (04:22):
And I don't think I have time to do that this year, so I need to rethink.
Elise (04:30):
I'm sure you have stuff in your stash though, because you said the whole idea of white elephant, you're not supposed to buy anything. Totally.
Doree (04:37):
What's
Elise (04:37):
Totally stay in the circular economy.
Doree (04:39):
Yes, we will stay in the circular economy. Someone who I play Mahjong with sent me that Gucci mahjong set that I talked about in the gift company. It's on back order apparently.
Elise (04:54):
Wow.
Doree (04:55):
Also it says that it's decorative, so it's a $23,000 Mong set that you can't even play.
Elise (05:10):
That's a no for me dog. Is that what some people have too much money? Some people you had a
Doree (05:17):
Podcast about this called too much money. I did. I did do a podcast about this. RIP Too much money.
Elise (05:25):
Yeah, some people have too much money. I still really want a Chloe ring. That bananas ring I put in the holiday gift guide Patreon edition. It is expensive. Yes, yes,
Doree (05:37):
Yes. And
Elise (05:37):
It's part of a category that's only in the Patreon edition, like the cheapest stuff from luxury brands or something.
Doree (05:44):
Yes.
Elise (05:45):
And it's just really cute. So that's still on my wishlist, but I realize it's sort of ridiculous and I always lose my rings anyway, so not great. It's just like I never buy expensive sunglasses for this very reason because my sunglasses are all over the place. Who knows where they're, and so I only wear cheap sunglasses that I'm given as swag or come with some promotion at the mall.
Doree (06:08):
Yeah, totally. I mean that changed for me when I started wearing prescription sunglasses.
Elise (06:19):
Oh, then you had to care. Yeah,
Doree (06:22):
But I buy them on, I buy direct, which is very reasonable and I can't tell if it's a chicken and egg thing because I just throw them in my bag. I don't really take care of them. I think partly because I'm like, these are cheap and then they end up breaking. But I'm like, if I had taken better care of them, would they have broken? But also, I don't know. I don't have the mental capacity to put them in a case. It's very strange
Elise (06:53):
With sunglasses. I do this with my actual glasses too because each year, because of my insurance, I have one free pair of glasses each year. And so now over the past four or five years I've accumulated glasses and now I'm leaving them at parties and stuff and I never hear about them again. Okay. I guess those are gone.
Doree (07:14):
Oh boy. We're a mess. I mean, it's a good thing we don't live in a rainy climate because can you think of how many umbrellas we would each be losing?
Elise (07:23):
This is why I'm in favor of the Japan idea of communal umbrellas where you just leave umbrellas outside of an establishment and you grab any umbrella you want and then you leave the umbrella you used at the next establishment and other people can grab it if they want. And it's just like there's a pool of umbrellas that are just out there in the mix for your taking and use.
Doree (07:45):
I love that. What a brilliant advanced society. Community Minded. Yeah. Advanced society. Oh boy. Well, Elise, we got a voicemail that I actually want to play before we take a break.
Elise (08:03):
Okay.
Doree (08:04):
It is related to my lament about both my Spotify wrapped and just the state of Spotify in general
Elise (08:13):
Because they messed up their algorithm. We think
Doree (08:16):
That AI has messed up their algorithm and it's no bueno. Okay, here we go.
Listener Voicemail (08:23):
Hey guys, this is Kristen. I'm listening to your December pop Rex and I had to pause pod and call. I've been a big fan, never done this before, but you all complain about Spotify. I don't know if you guys have sought out anything different from Spotify, so I'm obsessed with which a lot of us get in, listen to it in the, and there are so many different stations on there. Listen to new music. I listen to All Nation and other stations where I feel like I can get hear new music and it totally stitches that part of me that wants to hear and try new things. And then I can switch over to Lithium and listen to and alternative from the nineties. So I love my SiriusXM. Highly suggest trying that. It's a really great way to hear new music. Alright, so happy holidays guys.
Elise (09:24):
Thank you for calling First Time Caller. I love it. Admit, I sort of forgot about SiriusXM. Oh really? It's so funny because my SiriusXM tie-in is I just got my alert that my Sirius XM trial is ending in my car.
Doree (09:38):
Oh.
Elise (09:38):
And it's like yours is going away. Do you want to keep it? Do you want to subscribe? So I'm like, I don't know, but now maybe I'm going to get talked into it.
Doree (09:47):
Maybe you've just been influenced.
Elise (09:49):
Yeah. Did she know? Did the caller know that my Sirius XM trial was ending?
Doree (09:57):
Yeah. Matt used to have Sirius in his car and he hasn't in a while. That's an interesting, that is an interesting suggestion. Yeah, it's a
Elise (10:08):
Workaround.
Doree (10:09):
Yeah. I'm not intrigued. Alright, before we take a little break, just want to remind everyone you can call or text us at (781) 591-0390 and email us at Forever 35 podcast@gmail.com. That's how we put together the mini app. So the more questions and comments you guys send in, the more content we'll have for the mini episode. So please do that. And then our website is forever 35 podcast.com. We've links there to everything we mentioned on the show. We're also on Instagram at FE 35 podcast. We have our newsletter at fe five podcast com slash newsletter and you can shop our favorite products at shop my us slash forever 35.
Elise (10:56):
Yes. Yes.
Doree (10:57):
And we will be right back. We'll be right back.
Elise (11:08):
Alrighty,
Doree (11:10):
We
Elise (11:10):
Are back with some texts. Yes. We're back with some text messages from you all.
Doree (11:16):
Would you like to read said texts?
Elise (11:19):
Okay, well I will take one. I'll take this top one
Doree (11:22):
Here. Great
Elise (11:24):
Text. Oh, it's numbered. It's numbered Text one. Elise, you have officially turned Forever 35 into the best podcast to get good ideas for theme parties. How do you have the time and energy to throw and or attend so many parties? Maybe I just dislike people, but I can hardly handle throwing my kids' birthday parties. Kids' birthday parties are a whole thing. So first of all, for my work for kids birthday parties is I usually host kids parties. Parties at the plug and play type places. The ones where you just pick a bowling alley or scooter's jungle or whatever those jumping zones are where it's like you just book the time and bring in the cake and then everything else is taken care of. But where do I, what was the question?
Doree (12:11):
How do you have time and how do you come up with ideas for your parties?
Elise (12:18):
I love getting together with people. This is part of just a function of my personality. Maybe my Enneagram seven ness, but I don't know. I love a theme party. I guess I just like to host things in general, not just podcasts. And I dunno. I guess one of my approaches is I don't get too precious about hosting. My house is never really ready or perfectly clean. I just have people over. And so one thing is just to not stress out about it too much beforehand. Nobody really cares if anybody deep cleans your house before you're hosting. And then often I do a lot of last minute things, so not having to dread it because it's really far off. That's another approach. Alright. The second part of the text is Dory f the East Coast in December. I'm from Buffalo, but moved to Tucson in 2008. I refuse to go from nice weather to shitty weather in the winter all while fighting holiday traffic and managing cranky. Are we there yet? Kids? Where is the reward in that? I think that was a rhetorical question and I agree. I live in LA for a reason.
Doree (13:30):
It's true. It's true. I appreciated this note. So thank you. Thank you listener. Okay, let's see. We got another text here, Elise. The comment about needing to frame a backlog of artwork that is me. I have a trove of photos and artwork that I need to frame, but it always falls to the wayside because of the time and money commitment to make it more embarrassing. I'm actually curator, so I work with and see art all day, but alas,
Elise (14:06):
Oh my gosh, I feel so seen because you also have this problem and you work in art.
Doree (14:14):
So funny.
Elise (14:15):
I feel very validated and seen by this between the last time we talked about this and now Dory was very kind to send me a wreck for a local frame shop. So I really want to get motivated to do that after my New Year's Eve party. Speaking of throwing parties.
Doree (14:30):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you're seen by our listeners. Okay. We got another text someone wrote in pause the pod. We have the ninja air fryer you're talking about on the pod today. We were air fryer skeptics, but after I set our toaster oven on fire, whoops, we decided we'd try an air fryer only if it could also replace our toaster oven too. It was hands down the best purchase we made last year, we probably use it several times a day. Wow. Several times a day. That's amazing. And can confirm it does everything perfectly and absolutely is a great toaster. The fact that we can flip it up is so helpful because it's pretty sleek too. I'm sounding like a ninja employee at this point. I swear I'm not. It's just the best kitchen appliance.
Elise (15:24):
So it's not just an air fryer, it's an air fryer and a toaster
Doree (15:28):
Oven. Yeah. So remember when this came up, I was like, is it one of those all in one gadgets that does everything sort of mediocrely? I don't want to buy something to replace that will also replace my toaster. That is a bad toaster. So that was my request from our listeners. Is this good? So the thing is I'm seeing different, different, which one is it? Exactly what I'm wondering. So many products. This is what I'm wondering. So I see the ninja double stack, two basket, 10 quart air fryer with smart thermometer. There's also a ninja air fryer pro XL six in one with ninja pro chef wireless thermometer. There's some portable air fryers.
Elise (16:27):
Well for those of you all who air fry and need air fry things, I'm just going to combine the Costco recommendations portion of the show with a response to this text, which
Listener Voicemail (16:36):
Is
Elise (16:37):
The shrimp tempura in the frozen section of Costco is excellent to air fry.
Doree (16:42):
Wow. Okay.
Elise (16:45):
Yeah. So Dora, I think that the universe is telling you to just
Doree (16:49):
Get one of these. Okay, so here's the thing. This six in one, one says it does max crisp air fry, roast, bake, reheat and dehydrate. So that one is not a toaster. Oh wait, maybe this one. There's the six in one, the foreign one. I don't know.
Elise (17:19):
Listener, you're going to have to text us back with a link to the model that you were talking about here.
Doree (17:24):
Oh wait, it might be this one. The all-in-one multi cooker oven and air fryer, the ninja combi, the only all-in-one multi cooker oven, air fryer, and so much more.
Elise (17:35):
14
Doree (17:36):
Functions.
Elise (17:37):
Amazing. I didn't even know they were that
Doree (17:39):
Many comedy meals. Crisp combi bake rice, pasta, sear saute, steam bake toast, pizza, slow cook proof. So air fry and broil.
Elise (17:49):
This is why you would use it so many times in one day.
Doree (17:52):
Oh my god, it has
Elise (17:53):
14 functions.
Doree (17:54):
This thing does everything. That's amazing. This would be great if you had a kitchenette or something and you didn't have a full stove and oven situation. You could just get one of these and it would be like you can do everything in it. Oh my goodness.
Elise (18:14):
Make a multi-course meal with your kitchen appliance. With your single kitchen appliance. Love it.
Doree (18:20):
I would like to hear which model of Ninja Air fryer you actually own. Because I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed. Okay. We are going to take another little break and we will be right back.
Listener Voicemail (18:37):
Alright,
Doree (18:44):
We are
Elise (18:44):
Back. We are with another text from you all. This one has to do with vanishing Costco products, which we have discussed. I asked an employee on my last visit about a couple of my regulars and was told they have rotated out, but will likely be back around the new year. Apparently a lot of fridge and freezer stuff gets temporarily discontinued around the holidays to make room for seasonal foods. Alright, I buy that. That makes sense. Will Matt's breakfast sandwiches come back? Sounds like maybe not.
Doree (19:20):
I don't know. I hope so. He really liked them.
Elise (19:25):
I'm mainly excited that Kirkland Brand is now branding dog.
Doree (19:32):
Totally.
Elise (19:32):
And now
Doree (19:33):
I my dog, we talked about that on the last episode, right?
Elise (19:35):
Kirkland Brand.
Doree (19:37):
Yeah, I did see the spinach fed wrap that they had at Starbucks that they had at Costco that Matt liked. They had one at Trader Joe's, but it was like four 50 for one and the Costco ones were so much cheaper. Before I forget and then we can go back to Costco, I just wanted to mention that the voicemail we played at the top of the show about Spotify, I'm realizing was a conversation we had on the pop culture episode, which is a Patreon exclusive episode. So if you want to get in on all of our pop culture chatter, you can do that at patreon.com/forever three five.
Elise (20:19):
Yeah, we have a pop culture running chat each month that is started when we release our episodes at the start of each month where we just kind of gab about what we're consuming in culture, movies, film, tv, theater, if you've seen any of it lately. And then music. So it's a good time. Or even tiktoks, we talk about viral tiktoks that we've been shown in our feeds and it's at the start of each month on our Patreon.
Doree (20:52):
Alright,
Elise (20:53):
Before we close out, do you have any recommendations for us in this now semi-regular segment of the mini episode in which story brings us her Trader Joe's Rex?
Doree (21:04):
Well, I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and I was just very pleased to see all of the holiday themed merchandise. Henry really likes the pumpkin mini cones as we have discussed. And those are fall item and they've been replaced by the peppermint mini cones, which he does not. He does not peppermint, so that is a problem. But they did have yesterday, one of my favorite dessert items, which are the Trader Joe's, the mini chocolate mousse desserts. Have you had these? They're so good. Oh, maybe they'll buy a bunch of them. They come in a box of six and they're little mini chocolate MOUs cakes. I would say the diameter is probably the size of a dollar coin. And then they're just mini cakes and it's the perfect amount of very rich chocolate. And I had gotten them and then they disappeared for a while. Speaking of things that disappear and when I went yesterday, they were back,
Elise (22:18):
Oh, I could buy six boxes and then plate them for my party. Then you have 36 of them on
Doree (22:25):
A serving class. They have a little very thin plastic wrapper around each one. So when you pick them up, you're not picking up just like a thing of moose. You know what I
Elise (22:37):
Mean? Yeah, yeah. Okay. This is a great idea. I'm going to load up on Costco and Trader Joe's
Doree (22:42):
Things for the deck of ball. Yeah, definitely should because there's some good stuff there. Alright, well that brings us to the end of our show and the end of the year. We're going to be selecting some of our favorite episodes to replay over the next couple of weeks. So thanks so much for listening. We will talk to you again in real time, I guess in the new year.
Elise (23:05):
Yeah, have a happy holiday.
Doree (23:06):
Yeah, bye.