Three Things

Simple summer cooking, an A-plus host gift, what I'm reading and loving

Greetings friends, and let me just say how delighted I am that you all shared my enthusiasm for last week’s Orzo Salad. To quote reader/commenter Kathleen: “This was amazingly delicious & my fav thing I’ve made thus far this summer.” I happen to agree, and it’s proving to be one of those recipes I have to pace myself with, because I really don’t want to get tired of it. This week’s bonus recipe for subscribers will be a gorgeous summer-forward soup that is the very definition of easy-breezy. Sign up now if you don’t want to miss it.

One more bit of housekeeping before we get to this week’s Three Things: I wanted to remind you that Dinner: A Love Story is not just a newsletter, it’s a website with a pretty home page and a well-organized Recipe Index where my recipes live forever. Please keep this in mind next time you are searching aimlessly through your email inbox thinking, I know I have Jenny’s Crispy Fish Sandwich with Viet Pickles somewhere…

And now, your Three Things…

1. This Week in Summer Dinners

Simple cooking is the best cooking. By this point in my life, I hold that truth to be self-evident, and I’m sure you do, too. It’s an especially easy philosophy to embrace this time of year, when, for instance, you might pop a sun-warmed golden cherry tomato in your mouth straight from its little green cardboard market box, and it’s so good that you say to yourself “Wait, that’s what a tomato tastes like? How did I go ten months without tasting a real tomato?” Summer produce, at its best, practically yells at you to stop interfering with its deliciousness. Don’t touch me! Don’t sauce me! And it’s easy to oblige because who wants to do heavy lifting in the summer? Or even any lifting, which is where I am right now. As I recover, I am really leaning into being cooked for and I’m not going to lie: I like it a lot. Here are a few no-recipe recipes that have been prepared and served to la principessa this week:

Barbecue Turkey Burgers with Grilled Shishitos, Oven Fries, and Cherry Tomato Salad: Mix a spoonful or two of your favorite barbecue sauce into ground turkey or chicken (or beef, but beef doesn’t really need the assist), shape into 4-ounce-ish patties, and grill for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway. (Since it’s turkey/chicken and not beef, you don’t want it to be undercooked — better to err on the overcooked side.) Surround the patties with a dozen or so shishito peppers then grill and toss until charred, about 4 minutes total. Serve burgers on potato buns with ketchup, mustard and pickles. For the oven fries, slice russet potatoes into wedges as shown (10-12 per potato depending on size), coat with a little olive oil, sprinkle with paprika, onion powder and cayenne, and bake on a foil-lined sheet for 15-20 minutes at 425°F until crisp and golden. Serve with halved cherry tomatoes that have been tossed with a tiny bit of balsamic, olive oil, and sea salt.

Grilled Maple-Soy Salmon Bowls with Cukes, Green Beans, and Pickled Onions: In a small bowl mix together maple syrup and soy sauce using a 1:1 ratio. (We used 2 tablespoons of each to glaze a one-pound salmon filet, which served two.) Grill salmon filets over medium-hot coals, flipping halfway, for about 10 minutes total, or until flesh feels slightly firm but not hard. As you cook, brush the surface with the maple-soy mixture. Serve salmon with rice that’s been drizzled with rice wine vinegar, and top with sliced fresh cucumbers, cooked, trimmed green beans, and pickled red onions. As you can see from the photo, we didn’t have any fresh herbs on hand (it looks so naked!) but I’d suggest adding chopped chives or cilantro.

Mixed Fruit Cobbler: As loyal readers know, it’s not officially summer until one of these comes out of the oven and gets smothered with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. It’s a good recipe to have in your back pocket when your summer fruit looks like it’s on its last legs.

And finally — I’m not completely useless — I ventured into the kitchen this week to tinker with a vegan corn-forward creamy pasta sauce (above), and you’ll have to wait for that recipe while I retest it one more time, but in the meantime, here’s something adjacent: Spaghetti with Corn, Tomatoes, and Basil which you can also find in my Pulitzer-Prize winning book The Weekday Vegetarians. OK, fine, it did not win a Pulitzer, but I’m pretty sure it’s because it was an unusually competitive year.

2. Always the Right Gift

I believe it was the venerated philosopher Dorothy Gale from Kansas who once said, “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire, I won’t go looking further than my own backyard.” Wise words we’d all do well to remember when trying to come up with a host gift or a get-well gift. Because, really, what is more special or more you than something from your own backyard? Our friends Dan and Jenny recently sent us this bundle of local artisanal goodies from their home in Alaska — locally made jam and chocolates and smoked sockeye (not shown: homemade sea salt from Kachemak Bay!), none of which I’d ever be able to find in New York. I’m sure you could fill a small box with the equivalent from your hometown. Actually, I’m curious: Tell me where you’re from and what you’d put in that box?

I realize this concept is not revolutionary, but as I sit here eating my breakfast toast with Alaskan wild blueberry jam, I felt an urgent need to remind you: There’s no place like home! Especially your home.

3. Mini Book Report: Something Old, Something New

I spent most of my weekend doing what you see up there, sitting on a chair alternately reading, napping, and administering eye drops (don’t ask!), which reminds me that I have two books I need to tell you about. The first you’ve probably heard of: You Are Here (2024), by One Day’s David Nicholls, about two strangers, both recovering from tough divorces, who reluctantly join their mutual friend for a nearly 200-mile hike through the English countryside. I’d put it in the “unexpected romance” genre, and though the premise sounded a little gimmicky to me, Nicholls’s writing — especially his dialogue — is so clever and funny, and I found it to be just the right speed for summer…or for someone on bed rest craving vicarious adventure. On the other end of the spectrum, there is Switzy, an exquisite novel by Emma Cline that’s not out for a few weeks, but is available for pre-order. You’ll hear more about it then (from me and likely a lot of people*) because it’s not a book so much as an absolute feat. For over 300 pages, Cline takes us inside the mind of David, a retired executive suffering from Alzheimer’s, as memories and moments of intense regret come in and out of focus. It’s dark and darkly funny, but propulsive and stays with you off the page, making it impossible not to question what matters in your own life. I’ve never read anything quite like it.

*just this morning it was longlisted for the 2026 Booker!

Have a good week,
Jenny

P.S. I am loving this new Substack feature that scans my newsletter for AI-generated writing. Of course, I know I’m always going to get the above message (measuring the email you just finished reading) but I like that readers can now do the same thing: To check whether a Substack newsletter is AI-generated, open it in your Substack Reader, click the three dots, and select Scan for AI text.

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A slam dunk again! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Jenny doesn’t know me, but her words and recipes have shaped my family’s life and eating. And now, she has done it again, with this incredible cookbook. I have made more than 20 recipes from the book (”our favorite kale salad” truly is a favorite for us now!) and it has made me think about eating and cooking in a whole new way.” Amazon reviewer “cookingandtravel” on my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians, shown here with its sequel The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple.