Three corn-forward recipes, three books worth your time, and a week worth being grateful for
First, I want to say thank you. Your prayers and kind comments this week meant more than I can say. My MRI went well, though getting the contrast in was another story entirely. Several attempts, a bit of a mess, and finally a new tech who got it sorted. I may be a wimp when it comes to needles. But the results came back with nothing abnormal, and I said thank you to God and moved on with my week. So, truly, thank you for caring.
It has been a quiet one here. Slow. I have been out in the yard pulling weeds, researching the next project for the house and the back garden, and, yes, I have already started thinking about Christmas. We have so much travel and so many commitments in the last few months of the year that if I do not get ahead of things now, December will arrive and find me completely unprepared. Fall is coming, friends. This morning when I left for my walk at 5:45, it was still dark. It did not get light until just after six. I loved every minute of it.
Today we are heading to the lake to paddleboard, then to the club for lunch, and tonight we will go listen to a band with my siblings. A proper summer day. This weekend there is the farmers market, and after that, I am not entirely sure. I like it that way.
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Friday Food
Corn is having a moment in my kitchen this summer, which you will notice if you scroll through this week’s picks. When it is this good, this fresh, this sweet right off the cob, I want it in everything. These three recipes are exactly the kind of thing I want to eat right now.
First, Bill has been eyeing Seared Sea Scallops with Smoky Sweet Corn Puree from Carol over at From a Chef’s Kitchen. The scallops get a golden crust from smoked paprika, then land on a velvety corn puree made with bacon, cream cheese, and fresh summer corn. It comes together in about thirty minutes and looks like something you would order at a restaurant. This one is for the seafood lovers in my life. I will happily stand nearby and admire it.
Next, Faith at An Edible Mosaic has a Mexican-Inspired Warm Garlic Butter Corn Salad with Cotija that I cannot stop thinking about. Sweet corn tossed in garlic jalapeño butter with cotija cheese, red onion, cilantro, and a creamy smoky dressing. It is inspired by Esquites, the salad version of Mexican street corn, and it is the kind of side dish that upstages everything else on the table.
And from Tieghan at Half Baked Harvest, this Grilled Street Corn Salad with Avocado Mayo is as good as it sounds. Sweet grilled corn with spicy jalapenos, smoky paprika, chives, basil, cilantro, and feta, all served over a whipped avocado mayo. It doubles as an appetizer, which means it is perfect for everything happening on summer weekends right now. Just add a margarita or your favorite lime cocktail.Â
Something Sweet
Creamy, sweet, tangy yogurt whipped cream with fresh summer berries. An easy and delicious no-bake dessert for hot days.
Read, Watch, Listen
Workplaces look for cheaper AI as ‘tokenmaxxing’ fades as a corporate fad
The Real Reason Flight Attendants Greet You At The Airplane Door
The #1 Exercise Everyone Should Be Doing—Even Beginners
Should You Toss The Whole Pint Over One Moldy Blueberry?
How working out at the gym replaced the home improvement project
France Joins a Global Move Toward Restricting Social Media for Children
Airport Lounges Are The New Luxury Layer In Travel
Books On the Wish List
Three books this week that could not be more different from one another, which is exactly how I like my wish list.
Catherine Wilson’s How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well is a philosopher making the case that Epicureanism is not an excuse for overindulgence but rather a framework for a good life. Reason, respect for the natural world, reverence for the people around you. Wilson takes the ancient wisdom and applies it to the problems we are still wrestling with today, from how we take care of ourselves to how we think about politics and justice.Â
Miranda Spieler’s Slaves in Paris: Hidden Lives and Fugitive Histories. In the decades before the French Revolution, enslaved people fled to Paris believing it was a place of liberty. What they found was far more complicated. Spieler follows their paper trails through manhunts, courts, and clandestine lives to reconstruct vivid portraits of men, women, and children from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean.Â
Elizabeth Day’s One of Us is not the sort of book I typically read but a friend recommended it. When the eccentric daughter of a powerful political family is found dead on a beach in Bali, the ripples move through decades of favors and secrets and ambition. A brother on his way to becoming Prime Minister. A best friend seeking revenge. A wife who has begun to suspect her gilded life is a cage. It has been described as a mashup of The Wedding People and Succession.
Outfit of the Day
Yes, it is still hot but my inbox is flooded with pre-Fall and Fall finds not to mention it is back to school season. Today’s outfit is classic, jeans, a button down shirt, blazer and loafers. The blue shirt and the loafers are on sale this week.
That is my week, friends. A quiet one, a good one, and one I am grateful for in ways that are hard to put into words. I hope your weekend has something in it that makes you glad you showed up for it, whether that is a farmers market find, a good book, or a bowl of corn salad eaten standing over the kitchen counter. All of the above counts.
Find me on Instagram and Pinterest for more in between posts. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings!Â
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