Every September, I feel the urge to snuggle up on the couch with either a glass of wine or a cup of tea, and start watching the Gilmore Girls again. Each time, my husband sighs but by season 2, he’s hooked and making me wait to watch the episodes together. What can I say, I really did marry my soulmate.
When Netflix announced the four-episode revival, I was ecstatic. We planned a full marathon to make sure we’d finish the whole series right before the new episodes came out. As a bonus, my wonderful husband also made a playlist of all the crucial episodes to watch the day before the new episodes aired.
When Netflix announced that they would turn coffeeshops around the country into Luke’s Diners, I dragged my kind, patient, and very pregnant friend with me to go check it out. We stood in line forever, basically just to get a cup of coffee with a Luke’s sleeve on it and to take a picture with a giant Luke cut-out. Was it worth it? Yes, absolutely.
To prepare for the revival, I had to find the right food to enjoy. Anyone who’s ever watched the Gilmore Girls knows that food is a character in itself in the show. Just like the city of New York in Woody Allen movies. Of course, there was a long list of things we could eat but we had to be strategic. We had 4 90-minute episodes to watch and we needed to make sure we’d pace ourself.
Episode 1: Popcorn, Party-mix, Coffee, Homemade Pop-Tarts
We started the day slowly with a healthy breakfast of coffee and crunchy snacks. I feel like it would have been a Lorelai-approved breakfast of champions.
In the middle of the episode, I pulled out the homemade pop-tarts I made specifically for our viewing event. When you realize that pop-tarts are really just pie crust filled with strawberry jam, you think to yourself: a) they are super easy to make, b) this really isn’t a nutritious breakfast, and c) I don’t care how unhealthy this is, it’s so good! Of course, I made themed pop-tarts with our favorite bad boy’s name on them.
Episode 2: Chinese Dumplings
The Gilmore Girls famously ordered massive amounts of Chinese food from Al’s Pancake World. While ordering Chinese food felt like too much of a commitment considering everything we wanted to eat, we bought some steamed vegetables dumplings at the grocery store, for a simple nod to a very Gilmore food.
Episode 3: Thanksgiving-Leftovers Nachos
The Gilmore Girls are notorious for all the leftover food you’ll find in their fridge. As the revival aired the day after Thanksgiving, our fridge was filled with cranberry sauce, Brussel sprouts, and shredded turkey breast. We used these items to make our skillet nachos, topped with abundant layers of brie and mozzarella cheese.
Episode 4: Red Wine and Carrot Cake
While this was not pictured, we took a break before the last episode to get some wine at Kroger. Although I was completely full, I couldn’t continue watching without snacking on something so I also bought a huge piece of carrot cake to end our viewing day.
What I learned during our Gilmore Day is that it’s much harder than it looks to eat junk food all day long! But then, would I do it again if more episodes were announced? For sure, I would! 🙂
The Hungry Quebbie 