I’m sitting outside watching a cardinal flit about the garden, perching on the top of wire trellis that supports the cherry tomato vines. It’s breezy and cool out today, but the sun is shining and I’m barefoot in a t-shirt. The morning is quiet—I can hear far-off voices now and again, and an insistent cheep of birdsong high above me. I left the heavy sliding glass door open to allow fresh air through the screen, and I can hear the gentle ping and clank of the washing machine and the quiet whooshing of the white noise machine coming through the baby monitor from the nursery upstairs.
Read moreBEEF STROGANOFF WITH ZUCCHINI RIBBONS
And just like that we’ve turned the corner into fall. Technically it’s still summer, and I suspect that there will be a handful of hot and humid days ahead, but there’s an indefinable shift in the air.
There’s a hint of crispness hiding behind the heat and sunshine. Images begin to collect and shimmer at the back of my mind, not entirely formed yet, but there nonetheless: freshly-sharpened pencils and backpacks and flannel shirts and steaming mugs of coffee and the cinnamon-y scent of warm apple cider.
Read moreSOUR CREAM BANANA BREAD
Remember small talk with strangers? Cocktail parties and the attendant chit-chat you’d make as you sipped a glass of Chardonnay in someone’s living room, or nursed a too-strong gin and tonic amidst a group of friends at a bar? Dinner parties where you politely conversed with the people on either side, finding out that the man to your left is an accountant who builds wooden canoes in his spare time and that the woman to your right only likes to humble brag about her three children?
Read moreSESAME PRALINE GRAHAM CRACKERS
I tap open the weather app and see a bold red “flood warning” above the day’s hourly forecast. It’s not yet 7 AM—an hour at which the day usually hasn’t declared itself, weather-wise. I step outside into a cloudy, opaque world: fog and mist obscure the street, making the houses and trees and cars appear pale and shadowy.
(I realize I talk a lot about the weather here. Either I should consider a career as an amateur meteorologist, or it’s a reflection of the fact that when you live at the beach (and anywhere really), a sunny day versus a rainy one greatly colors your daily experience. Anyway. Roll with it, okay?)
Read moreCUTTLEFISH INK PASTA WITH CHICKEN + SPINACH
Again, a list. (Don’t look at me like that! This is not a cop-out of a blog post or a sneaky avoidance of any actual writing, nor is it an indication of my brain being not entirely up to forming full sentences. Or is it…?)
Regardless, this is a collection of bits and snippets that I’m excited about—and it’s as much of a way to inspire you as it is a way to remind me about each of these items. If I didn't list them here, I’d probably end up sticking half of them on Post-Its which would get lost in the pages of cookbooks on my bookshelf or hidden underneath a pile of size 6-9 month whale-printed pajamas. Or I’d jot a few of them down in the Notes app on my phone and bookmark some in a random collection on Pinterest—obviously forgetting that I never remember to actually check or open either of those apps.
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