Being F.R.A.N.K: Volume 1
Happy New Year divas! I am really really excited to hard launch the creation of my new weekly newsletter, Being F.R.A.N.K!
As someone who has in recent years struggled with her follow through on tasks (one of my 2026 goals!) I built this format as a way to hold myself accountable, as well as share and create a glimpse into aspects of my life that feel authentic to the Frankie Sailer brand. My first semester of grad school, I wrote an bio for my website and I self-described as a “jack of all trades, master of *some” and this is that idea coming to life. This was inspired by the weekly R.E.P.O.R.T format on Tiktok, where each letter indicates a category, acrostic style if you will. While I am still ironing out the exact categories, I am excited to share Volume 1!
I started my 2026 feeling content - surrounded by some of my oldest friends and some of my college best friends who I blinked and are now suddenly my friends of nearly 8 years. My favorite way we rang in the new year was through speeches, as well as an accomplishment cake I insisted everyone partake in (shoutout Ally for the cake). I forced all my friends to write and celebrate something they felt proud of this year and while I was excited to learn what they personally wanted to celebrate, the part I loved the most was all of our other friends chiming in with accomplishments they had witnessed for their friends throughout 2025. I feel very lucky to heading into this year with such a wonderful, stunning, unique, successful, talented group of friends. Enough about them, time to talk about me!
Another goal I wanted to implement for the new year was more journaling and reflection, and one way I am choosing to do this is through a word of the month. For January, my word is discipline. I talk about this in my yoga classes as my January intention, but how I am really bringing this to life is through working hard on establishing strong habits in January. With goal setting and resolutions, it can feel like you have so much to accomplish at once, but being more disciplined in your routine and self-care helps build habits that build to these larger goals. (Congrats, you just witnessed how I have been and will be setting my intention for my yoga students all January long. Also, come flow!!!)
When I was talking with my parents over break, I explained it as I feel like my early to mid-twenties were kind of my “post grad” years, but now four years out it really is no longer post grad it is in fact just Life. So this feels like a really big year to woman up and take advantage of my Saturn Returning!
Obviously you can expect that this series will also feature obligatory pet photos. Beautiful portraits of my beautiful daughter and extremely handsome son from the holidays:
Without further ado: Being F.R.A.N.K Volume 1!!!!
F is for Feasting
It has been deeply, brutally, bone-chillingly, eye-wateringly cold in both Chicago and New York where I have spent the last few weeks. So what better dish to make then Stew.
My issue with beef stew is when the idea comes to mind, I am usually already hungry and then I have no patience in the actual cooking process, so as much as I lack patience, I urge you to give yourself at least a 2.5 hour window if you want to make this. The good news is this recipe is pretty hard to mess up.
I used the New York Times Old Fashioned Beef Stew and it was pretty good, but a few notes below:
Unsure if adding the flour to the beef did anything - my oil was spitting quite a bit so I browned them all quickly so it could have been some user error on my part
After browning the meat I first put in roughly 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste and browned it slightly while scrapping off all of the browned bits. I then added the wine and broth. I do think it gave it a greater depth of flavor than it otherwise would’ve had.
I continuously added salt and pepper throughout the cooking process to build flavor (this is a personal rule of cooking of mine: you add salt and pepper as you go and as you taste).
I shortened the cooking times for both the meat and the vegetables solely because I was hungry and impatient, but when I was eating it I left it simmering very low and can confirm it was even better the second day.
R is for Reading
I am currently finishing up As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson, the third book in the Good Girls Guide to Murder series, which is also now a Netflix series. I read the first two while home in Florida for the holidays poolside and they were quick reads with likable characters and a lot of twists and turns.
I found a copy of The Jungle, the unabridged version, and that is my next read. It is a book that comes up all the time in my Food Studies Masters program and being from Chicago I feel like a bit of a poser not having read it.
A is for Adventuring
First adventure of the year was to Accord, New York, for New Year’s Eve with our pals. We hung out, cooked, played fishbowl, had a murder mystery party and nearly every single person left the trip with an excellent thrift find.
I personally left with a pair of brown Belgian loafers. While they did not look particularly interesting to me, of course Duncan (my fiance (eek!!) for anyone new here and clothing expert extraordinaire) found them and freaked out. Because they didn’t fit him, he was insistent I got them turns out I got a pair of $750 Belgian Loafers for 75$. It is a bit unclear to me whether they are mens or womens shoes, and it doesn’t seem like they make this exact model anymore, but I have linked the one on their site currently that is most similar here.
N is for Nonsense
This category is for something random I want to highlight and this week the highlighting category happens to start with the correct letter N, for Nails! Anyone who knows me knows I ALWAYS have my nails done and almost messed up my own engagement for trying to leave my nails natural for one singular week the week before my engagement, even though I have had them perfectly done for the last 3 years straight. Anyways, here are the first nails of the year and the Pinterest image.
If you are an individual who has never gotten your nails done reading these next few sentences will feel like you are reading a different language.
While I used to be a powder/dip girl, I one day had to do tips for some broken nails and my nail girl convinced me to try builder gel. While I am by no means an expert, in my experience, when getting dip powder the nails become extremely solid and if they break they crack quite painfully whereas with the builder gel its more of a liquid setting and it’s more slight chips on edges then full on cracking off the nail. The nails pictured are my real nails, no tips, with builder gel (using a blue light between applications) then black (unsure the specific color she picked it) and little 3D flat silver disks.
Okay moving on!
K is for Kicking It
I don’t really know what I mean by “Kicking It” for this category quite yet, and if you have a better word/category concept that starts with K (shoutout my Scattegories homies) I am taking suggestions.
This week’s Kicking It is dedicated to Sam, the inventor of Song of the Day, SOTD.
Today I am featuring two songs mostly because I have decided I find Dancing on My Own the big sister/predecessor to Party For You. A passing of the torch from one song of a generation (shoutout Girls) to the next. While I attest they are different vibes, they make me feel and want to dance the same way, and think they can be used in similar circumstances in media.
One down, Fifty One to Go!
See you next Sunday ;)
XO Frankie
51 more weeks to bag another shoutout!