This summer has been a good one. One for the books, even. Full of travel: I feel as though I haven’t spent a week at home in my own bed in months. I’ve driven a Jeep up into the chilly, rainy mountains of Whistler, taken sunny runs around Vancouver’s Stanley Park, gone swimming in the ocean off the coast of Maine, cried a little at my friends’ wedding in Chicago, eaten sticky buns in Vermont, and tried my first soju cocktail in the fading sunset in Napa.
Read moreFRESH BLUEBERRY PIE
I know this post is a little, shall we say, tardy. Blueberries are starting to fade from the farmers' market, shunted aside by firm, rosy peaches and piles of smooth, sugary-scented nectarines. I know I should stay in the moment, temporally grounded and appreciative of the present, but I can't help but miss them already. Blueberries are one of my favorite summer fruits: perfectly sized for snacking, not overly sweet, and too often overshadowed by sweeter, more seductive options like raspberries and strawberries.
Read moreCRISP-CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
I find chocolate chip cookies inherently comforting, and you probably do too. I like them to have a softer, chewier center with a snappy, crisp edge. Obviously, there aren't enough chocolate chip cookie recipes in the world to choose from, so I’m throwing another one at you! But seriously, you should try this one.
Read moreCOCONUT BEET ICE CREAM
Did I make this ice cream because it's intensely, shockingly pink? Yes. But also because it transported me somewhere else -- to a beach town in South Africa during college. So let's start there.
Getting to the beach from my tiny, narrow-walled apartment in Cape Town was complicated. First, I meet my friends next to the Cocoa Wah-Wah coffee shop on the side of the main road in busy Rondebosch. We peer into the haze of traffic, searching for the white vans that serve as communal buses-cum-carpools.
Read moreFIG TOAST
Growing up with three sisters has many advantages (too many to list here, too many to list anywhere), but one in particular is a three-fold sounding board for remembering excellent things about your childhood. At least one of us can always fill in the blank: a song we used to dance around to in the living room ("I Get Around" by the Beach Boys), the record we'd play on our old vinyl turntable (The Aristocats), which VHS tape had the funny scene of Fred Astaire tap dancing on a sandy floor (Top Hat).
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