Welcome to Creator’s Digest! This article was supposed to be sent out over this past weekend but I took a mental health day break for myself over the weekend. Anyway, expect two articles today: this one in the morning and the usual Wednesday Creator news roundup later in the day. Anyway, let’s just jump into it. Meet Alexandra Cooper, the 26 year old host of the massively popular podcast Call Her Daddy.

Happy Leap Day! Is this something people say? Either way, let’s use this bonus day to feature a recipe with a bonus ingredient that isn’t on my list of 40. I make the rules so I can break them. The premise of this newsletter is that you can make so many dinners with just 40 ingredients. These are mine. (Show me yours for a monthly advice column.) This constraint isn’t a gimmick: By making more with less, we also waste less food, spend less money, have less clutter in our fridges, and minimize decision fatigue.

Alyssa AmorosoJoin me, Alyssa Amoroso, ex-publicist turned entrepreneur, for biweekly tea spills. With insights into pop-culture, fashion, industry & more, this is an exclusive pass to trends & tastemakers. Subscribe for informed, entertained & empowered updates. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbHBwaWwrKuZqcY%3D

Like so many millennials, my first kitchen role model was Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats. I interned with Serious Eats while I was in college, and I still remember how embarrassed I was when I didn’t put nearly enough Velveeta in the mac-and-cheese Kenji asked me to make—though he was cool about it, quietly dumping in another handful of “cheese” cubes while thanking me for the effort. The team at Serious Eats still sets the standard for thoughtful, rigorously tested recipes, alongside my friends at America’s Test Kitchen.

This week’s cocktail is not the last Bénédictine cocktail I’ll be featuring in this newsletter. But it is the last one I’ll be featuring in this loosely defined series.  Bénédictine is instructive. On its own, it is frankly kind of weird — sweet and herbal and earthy and a little aromatic. It is not quite an amaro, not quite a vermouth, and not quite a c… ncG1vNJzZmibn5i4ta3IpaqwoaSdwLawxKukmqZeqMKjv9OamqRmk6S6cLyOmqVmnZGoxm6wxKWgnKGfqsBuvtieZJudnpqxqq%2FToqWe