It's June 21, and two and a half months of summer stretch ahead. I see it in freeze frames: snapshots of picnics and hot, sweaty runs and cases of grapefruit La Croix seltzer water. Can you picture it? What's the perfect day?
Read moreSPICED LAMB & SWEET POTATO TAGINE
Some days feel a little off-kilter. Nothing you can put your finger on. The shower doesn’t get hot fast enough. It’s cloudy when you’re wishing for sun. You look at the clock too often, acutely aware of how long it takes to get from 2:30 to 2:40.
Other days are the opposite. You catch the subway seconds before the doors close, every time. You feel buoyant and chatty: The cashiers all smile at you. Your coffee tastes better than yesterday. The pear sitting on your kitchen counter has ripened perfectly, dripping juice down your fingers when you eat it outside in the sun.
Read moreOATMEAL COOKIES
How was your weekend? Are you slightly sunburned, and sticky with aloe gel? Are your shoes gritty with a fine dusting of sand? I'd like to think there was excellent music (I'm thinking Bruce Springsteen and the Lumineers and some country because #mdw #america as the kids say), bare feet, and iced coffee. That you pulled your denim shorts out of the bottom drawer where they've been all winter, and ate a bowl of blueberries for breakfast, and went to bed an hour too late after drinking too much tequila and laughing so hard your abs hurt.
Read moreBEST BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
I stand with the refrigerator door open, lazily surveying the contents. There’s a very old rind of Parmesan in the crisper drawer (who put that there?!). A bag of baby spinach threatens to wilt, droopily, from the corner shelf. I take note of a handful of pistachios, a half-gallon of milk, and a lemon. A few strips of bacon are nestled up top next to a carton of eggs.
I reach for the most delicate-looking ingredients, the ones about to take a turn towards overly ripe and ready.
Read moreTHE BEST SALADS
Let's have a quick chat tonight. Specifically, let's talk about salads.
If you've been following along with me on Instagram (of course you are, why miss out on such wit?!), it's possible that you think I subsist on large slices of chocolate layer cake and cookie crumbs.
That is decidedly not the case. I do love a good dessert, and I do have a wicked sweet tooth.
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