Three savory recipes for the Fourth, three summer books, and a week that was equal parts wonder and worry.
What a week. I am not sure where to start so I will start where I am sitting, which is at my desk looking out at the backyard, where there are baby bunnies doing nibbling at the wildflowers and a fawn who has apparently decided that the shade under the azaleas is the best napping spot in Pinehurst today. I am not going to disagree. If I were a fawn I would choose exactly that spot.
The birds left the nest. I have been watching them for weeks and just like that, they were gone. I keep checking the window out of habit. The nest is still there. The birds are not.
Pisa gave us a scare and made an unplanned trip to the emergency vet, which is the kind of thing that turns a Wednesday into a very long day. She is fine. We are less fine but recovering. If you have ever sat in an emergency vet waiting room with one of your dogs you know exactly what that particular fear feels like. I do not recommend it.
We have had visitors, the human kind and the animal kind, as noted above. I have been sharing things on the blog that apparently struck a nerve, because the comments this week have been something. I keep reading them. I cannot stop. There is something about writing something and having people write back and say yes, me too, that never gets ordinary no matter how many years I have been doing this.
And tomorrow is the Fourth of July. America turns 250 years old. Two hundred and fifty. I find that genuinely remarkable. Whatever you think about the current state of things there is something about that number that deserves a moment of quiet wonder. Happy birthday, America.
Now. Let’s get to the food.
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Friday Favorites Food
It is the Fourth of July weekend, which means the grill is lit, someone is in charge of the potato salad, and everyone is standing around the cooler debating which dip to open first. Here are three recipes from bloggers I love — one pasta salad, one appetizer that will disappear before you set it down, and one that was made for exactly this kind of weekend.
BLT Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad by Half Baked Harvest.This one just went up this week and it was made for tomorrow. Buffalo chicken, crispy bacon, fresh cherry tomatoes, romaine, and sharp cheddar, all tossed together with a homemade Jalapeño Basil Ranch that is the kind of dressing you will want to put on everything for the rest of summer. The tip is to wait to add the bacon until right before serving so it stays perfectly crispy, and to keep extra ranch on the side. The kind of recipe that gets eaten before the burgers are even off the grill.
Burrata with Crushed Cherries and Pistachios by Smitten Kitchen. Deb Perelman has done it again. Hot crostini, crushed sweet cherries, crunchy pistachios, flaky salt, and fresh mint, all laid over creamy burrata. This is the appetizer you set out and then stand near so you can watch people’s faces when they try it. Perfect for a Fourth of July gathering where you want to feel a little fancy without any of the fuss.
Mexican Street Corn Dip by Love and Lemons. Everything great about elote, turned into a dip you can scoop up with tortilla chips. Creamy, tangy, packed with fresh sweet corn, with just enough heat to keep things interesting. This is the bowl people gather around before the main event, and it will be gone long before dinner. Make it the day of your gathering, it comes together quickly. Serve it at room temperature.
Don’t forget a sweet treat. This red, white and blue funfetti poundcake is perfect for your dessert table.
Read, Watch, Listen
Doublet earthquake in Venezuela is very rare. Here’s what happened
The Colorado River is vanishing — and the fixes are getting weird
The bohemian Spanish apartment where fashion designer Penelope Chilvers spends her summers
he French are painting their windows with chalk to beat the heat
The US that World Cup fans didn’t expect to love
3 Daily Habits that Keep Holding the Best of Us Back in Life
The largest ‘photograph’ ever made is about to be turned into bread
Books on The Nightstand
Three books for the nightstand — one on the Cornish coast, one moving between wartime Paris and the present day, and one set against the candlelight and intrigue of eighteenth-century Venice. Summer reading does not have to mean light. It just has to mean good.
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel.Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, guided by her mother Annabel’s code of honor: take only from the cruel and unkind, give to those in need. In 1942 Paris, they worked side by side funding the French Resistance, until the night everything came apart — Annabel arrested, Colette’s four-year-old sister Liliane vanished in the chaos of the raid, and an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown gone with her. When Liliane’s body was found in the Seine, the bracelet was nowhere. Seventy years later, it surfaces in a museum exhibit in Boston, and Colette — who has quietly redistributed thirty million dollars in jewels over a lifetime — must finally reckon with what she has spent decades trying not to know. This is the kind of novel I read in two days and thought about for weeks: part wartime resistance story, part present-day mystery, entirely about what we carry and what we owe the dead.
The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker. Venice, 1775. The city is known as the brothel of Europe, a place where masks allow the powerful to do as they like and the powerless to survive as best they can. Marietta and Elena are girls at the Ospedale della Pietà, the famous orphanage and music school, raised together and bound to each other in the way that only childhood friendship can bind people. When they come of age, they are separated by marriage into families that have been at war for centuries — Elena to the head of the Celano clan, Marietta to Domenico Torrisi, whose family vendetta with the Celanos is older than either of them. Tradition says they must never speak again. The friendship says otherwise. A gorgeous summer read that happens to be set in one of the most beautiful and treacherous cities in the world.
One Summer in Cornwall by Karen King. Hattie has inherited half of a dilapidated cottage on the Cornish coast from a great-uncle she barely knew, and she arrives needing exactly what Cornwall tends to provide: air, space, and a reason to stay a little longer than planned. There is a neighbor named Marcus who judges her immediately and is completely wrong about her, which is always a good place to start. What I love about this one is that it is not trying to be anything other than what it is: a feel-good summer read set somewhere the light is extraordinary and the sea is always in the background. Perfect for a hammock, a porch, or a long afternoon when the holiday weekend stretches pleasantly ahead of you.
Looking for more books? Everything I have recommended can be found on My Bookshop. Most are also available from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and on Libby from your local library.
Outfit of the Day
Gingham in the summer is classic. To beat the heat I paired a red and white gingham dress with sandals, bag and sunglasses. That’s it, simple summer stylish dressing.
Do you follow me on ShopMy? You can see all of my outfits, home decor and more on one site.
Click for Outfit Details
Whatever you are doing this weekend, whether you are grilling and gathering and watching fireworks, or whether you are doing none of those things and that is completely fine too, I hope there is something in it that makes you stop for a moment. Two hundred and fifty years is worth at least one moment of stopping.
What is your Fourth of July tradition? The food, the ritual, the specific thing that makes it feel like the day it is? Tell me in the comments.
I hope you enjoyed Friday Favorites! Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings. Follow Pinecones and Acorns on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. for more.
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