Morning Brew - ☕️ Squat jumps

TOGETHER WITH

Hello and happy cocktail hour. I’m writing today’s edition of Sidekick from the Florida Keys: home of the go-with-the-flow lifestyle, the FLUFFIEST key lime pie, and bring-your-own-catch dinner entrées.

— Rachel Cantor

P.S. Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Hot Topic

Giphy

With the launch of Apple Fitness+ and the expansion of the Peloton empire, workout subscription apps have gotten quite the upgrade. But I’m here to tell you, you can still break a sweat with quality classes and instructors without paying a monthly fee. Grab your tomato sauce cans, oat milk cartons, and red wine bottles, and try these free at-home workout classes I’ve been loving during quarantine.

Orangetheory uploads 30-minute HIIT classes to YouTube every day. The music sucks (you should just play your own), but the circuit will ensure you hit every muscle.
Rachael DeVaux: A serious full body sweat with bopping music that will leave you breathless and sore...but you’ll feel that post-workout high.
Georgia Thompson’s IG yoga sculpt will make you feel like you’re back at CorePower.
The NYT’s quick and easy 7-Minute Workout.

Brain Food

Read

It is an indisputable fact that Double Stuf Oreos are and will ALWAYS be the very best pantry snack out there, yet the brand keeps releasing new flavors. Here’s why.
In honor of Nancy Meyers week, here’s an interview with the iconic director and queen of all-white kitchens, turtlenecks, martinis, and matching pajama sets.
2020 summed up in New Yorker cartoons.
How to capture that ~holiday magic~.

Listen

The uber-talented Maggie Rogers is putting out an album tomorrow. If you’re unfamiliar with the down-to-earth singer-songwriter, here’s her song “Overnight,” which is one of my personal faves.
We’ve been blessed with two new Meryl Streep movies this month: The Prom and Let Them All Talk. Here’s your definitive guide to the films (let me know your Rotten Tomatoes score once you watch).
Anya Taylor-Joy of The Queen’s Gambit on lucid dreaming, manifestation, and behind-the-scenes secrets of the Netflix hit on Pharrell’s new podcast, OTHERtone.

Watch

Shout-out to Nigella Lawson for letting me know that I’ve been mispronouncing the word “microwave” for the past 22 years.
Warner Bros. shared the opening scene of Wonder Woman 1984.
In the newly released trailer for the Billie Eilish doc, she learns to drive and admits that she’s still scared of the monsters under her bed. Aren’t we all?

Good Eats

Swalls / Getty Images

One of my most stable recipe relationships is with this Chicken Marsala on the Lighter Side (from “The Skinnytaste Cookbook”). It’s a crowd-pleaser.

Sponsored by Withings

Not your mother’s scale—though she may want one this holiday season.

We speak, of course, of the Body+ Body Composition Wi-Fi Scale, which is oh so much more than a traditional scale and the best way to give your friends and fam the gift of health this year.

Body+ provides a full body composition analysis—fat percentage, muscle mass, bone mass, water percentage—and syncs health data instantly over wi-fi to the free Health Mate app.

Enjoy 20% off Body+ on Amazon until December 24th.

Try It, Buy It

Try It

Sit: If your chair is so low that people only see the top of your head on Zoom calls, it’s time for a new one. Check out these home office chairs.
Eat: Kimchi is the new sauerkraut. In this Eater piece, a master fermenter shares her six steps to making this trendy Korean side dish. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought.
Sing: Yesterday’s workday was completely derailed by Google’s Blob Opera.
Get started: Side Hustle Stack is a gold mine of tools to help you find platform-based work.

Buy It

Stay shady: Sunscreen is like dress shoes: frustrating but sometimes necessary. As a pale gal who burns easily, once I started using the Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen, I was hooked. It’s lightweight, reef-safe, and you can’t even tell you’re wearing it.
Rinse and remove: Not that I’m wearing makeup nowadays, but when I do, the worst part is taking it off. My mom gifted me the Face Halo reusable pads, which are just like a ShamWow for your face. They take off all your makeup with JUST water.

Sidekick's 2020 Gift Guide

Will Varner

Charcoal face masks. Instagram Live dance cardio classes. Self-care Sundays. The Wellness Warrior has their routine nailed down to a tee, and so should you when it comes to finding them a gift this holiday season.

Take a look at my picks for the Wellness Warrior here.

P.S. In the extremely rare case that none of these gifts interests you (it won’t happen), email sidekick@morningbrew.com with some deets about your giftee, and I will hand-select a few gift options.

Eye Candy

A Provençal Life Instagram

The simple pleasures of Provence: the shuttered French doors, the fresh lavender fields, and the never-ending supply of croissants from the local boulangerie. It’s all captured through A Provençal Life, an Instagram account sharing the wanderings of an American living in Provence.

I’ll catch you on Monday, when we’ll be ONLY 4 days away from Christmas (and the release of Wonder Woman 1984), if anyone’s counting.

Your internet Sidekick,
Rachel

Mystery Box

Click for a surprise.

? ? ?

ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP

Follow Sidekick: Twitter | Instagram

Morning Brew - ☕️ Squat jumps

Older messages

☕️ MAction

☕️ Remember Dubsmash?

☕️ Kale Caesar

☕️ Wintour's reign

☕️ Ain't good

You Might Also Like

China's Silk Typhoon, tied to US Treasury break-in, now hammers IT and govt targets [Thu Mar 6 2025]

On My Mind: Diptyque Dupes and My Zara Home Wish List

Why a successful food creator quit her popular YouTube channel

Open Thread 371.5

What A Day: Chainsaw & Order

An important update on our legal strategy to gain access to DOGE records

Unpacking Trump's Address to Congress

GeekWire Mid-Week Update

Longly is the New Bigly

The Looting Of America’s Affordable Housing Fund