Summer recipes worth making, three books for the nightstand, and everything else I found this week
Friday is my favorite day of the week. I know plenty of people who would argue for Saturday, and I understand, but Friday has always held something for me that Saturday cannot quite replicate. I wake up with a with anticipation, a sense that something good is just ahead. I clean the house first thing. Every room. The vacuuming, the tidying, the fresh towels. If the house is clean on Friday, I do not waste a perfectly good Saturday morning doing chores, and Sunday is wide open for rest and for doing exactly nothing.
It has been a full week around here, and as much as I would love to spend Saturday morning doing nothing at all, I am heading to a ladies open house. I am always a little nervous walking into a gathering where I do not know many people. It is just how I am wired. But I have also learned that the nervousness almost always turns out to be completely unfounded. You find a familiar face, or someone introduces themselves, or you end up standing next to the one other person in the room who would rather be talking about books than making small talk, and in the end the afternoon is delightful.
In the meantime, I have recipes and books and links to share. Let us get to the good part.
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Friday Food
Three summer recipes to add to your summer rotation.
First up, the Caprese Pasta from What’s Gaby Cooking, and it is exactly what summer pasta should be. Heirloom tomatoes get grated into a bowl, seasoned and left to sit, and when you toss in the hot pasta it becomes a silky, bright sauce without a single minute on the stovetop. Burrata goes on top. A heap of basil. This is the kind of dinner you can make on the hottest evening of the year without breaking a sweat.
For a night when the grill is already hot, the Hot Honey Chipotle Chicken Tacos from How Sweet Eats deserve a spot in the rotation. The chicken gets coated in chipotle chili powder and hot honey before it hits the grill, and the result is that combination of smoky and sweet that makes people ask for the recipe. An avocado salsa goes on top and keeps everything fresh. Jessica says she could eat this every day. Having read through it, I believe her.
And if you want something that preps beautifully and tastes better as it sits, the Zippy Orzo Summer Salad from Pinch of Yum. Rotisserie chicken, orzo, fresh dill, sweet corn, cucumber, and a bright lemon dressing. Goat cheese goes on top and somehow makes everything feel a little more special.
Something Sweet
This week I shared my latest no-churn ice cream creation, cookies and cream, but if you prefer something a little chocolaty why not try Chocolate Mocha Cookies and Cream Ice Cream.
Read, Watch, Listen
Ten things from the internet this week worth your time.
‘This isn’t freedom’: anger, anxiety and tears as Iran’s internet flickers back
‘It’s become something of a craze’: influencers spread news of healthy French cheese
This Is Usually the Shortest Line at the Airport, According to Science
3 buttons that don’t actually do anything
Gardeners Say This Viral Mosquito Bucket Actually Works
On the Nightstand & Wish List
Happier Here by Amy Gail Hansen. Maggie Brodbeck is a museum curator and food historian who has been running on fumes for years, too busy for her daughter, too busy for herself, too busy to cook a real meal even though food is her life’s work. Then she gets an unexpected invitation to her estranged great-aunt’s Wisconsin farm, and everything slows down. The aunt, Alice, turns out to be one of those rare people who shares your exact rhythm, and the farmhouse turns out to hold a recipe box that opens up generations of family history. There is also a pastry chef named Brady, because of course there is. This is the kind of novel that makes you want to find a farmhouse of your own.
The Museum of Second Chances by Jo Leevers. Every morning before the rest of the Cornish village wakes up, Evelyn Silver walks the shoreline and gathers what the tide has left behind. Broken cups, lost trinkets, forgotten things. In her small Museum of Maritime Curiosities, each one finds a home, because Evelyn believes every forgotten thing deserves to have its story told. At the heart of it all is a fragment of old lace, found pinned to her blanket when she was abandoned as a newborn, the one mystery she has spent sixty years hoping someone might help her solve. This one has my whole heart.
June Baby by Shannon Garvey. Ruth loses her mother to cancer at seventeen and her father sends her to Block Island with nothing but a name: Diana Beckett, a famous photographer. What she finds there is a summer full of beauty and writing and her first real love. Ten years later, another loss and a discovery she was not prepared for sends her back to reckon with everything she thought she knew about that summer and about herself. This is Shannon Garvey’s debut and it has been getting the kind of attention that makes me move a book to the top of the pile.
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.
What I’m Wearing
Blue and white is my favorite color combination. This week I paired a blue sardine sweater with a pair of white jeans. Then I added a pair of sandals and a tote. A classic summer look that will take you from days at home to lunch out or a concert in the park.
Outfit separates below, simply click the images.
Have a lovely weekend friends. I hope your Friday feels like the beginning of something good. Whether you are heading out tonight or settling in at home with a glass of something cold, I hope the weekend is exactly what you need.
Tell me this: are you more of a Friday person or a Saturday person? And do you clean on Fridays, or have you found a better system?
You can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Come say hello.
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