Three Things

Crispy fish sandwiches, summery tostadas, empty nest hobbies

Jun 24, 2025

Greetings eaters and readers! It’s a scorcher in New York today, which means I’ll be spending the morning a) plotting how to get back to my brother’s Long Island patio with an icy gin and tonic in hand and b) figuring out a few low-lift dinners that require minimal to zero use of the oven, i.e. chill, in every sense of the word. This past Friday, we snagged two seats at the Cafe Lux bar* for dinner and spied a Cold Carrot-Coconut Soup on the menu, which is exactly the kind of chill I’m talking about. I’ll probably try this lovely take from Jeanine over at Love & Lemons, but it’s also possible I’ll pivot to Chilled Buttermilk-Pea Soup with Shrimp (five ingredients!) or Hannah Che’s Cold Vermicelli and Cabbage Salad. (It’s been too long!) Stay cool, friends. Here are your Three Things.

*Pro tip for my New York neighbors: Go after 7:30 when the pre-theater crowd pours out of the bar in droves.

1. Refried Bean Tostadas: Summer Edition

Here’s something that might surprise you: I use my own cookbooks constantly. Not so much for the line-by-line instructions, but to remind myself of the recipes that I’ve loved enough to wrap up between two covers for posterity. (To me, there is still something so much more permanent about Things in Print.) I stay mostly true to the basic recipes as written, but I usually end up off-roading with ingredients depending on what I have in the fridge and what’s in season. This is what happened last week, when I was craving Refried Black Bean Tostadas (page 98, The Weekday Vegetarians, and also here for subscribers). These are in regular rotation in my house for many reasons, but first and foremost because I almost always have a can of beans in the pantry and a pack of tortillas in the freezer. For this night, I pickled some red onions and sliced an avocado as usual, but then decided to add a new topping: A little snap-pea-feta-corn concoction that transformed it from a basic pantry meal into something more fresh and summery. Here’s the how-to for that concoction, in case it’s not completely obvious: Cook trimmed snap peas at a low boil for 2 minutes, then, using a slotted spoon, scoop them out and plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking and preserve their bright green color. Add an ear of corn to the same pot of simmering water and cook about a minute. Remove to the same ice bath, and slice off the kernels once cool. (Cooking the corn is optional; kernels are fine and sweet uncooked, too.) Toss the corn and snap peas with a handful of crumbled feta, finely minced scallions, and a simple dressing made with red wine vinegar, olive oil, kosher salt and plenty of black pepper.

P.S. Two more MVPs from The Weekday Vegetarians: Zucchini Pizza (page 38) and Pizza Bean Salad (page 66), another good option for this 100-degree Tuesday because it’s a pure assembly job — zero cooking required.

2. Crispy Fish Sandwiches with Viet Pickle

Pan-fried fish sandwiches have long been a staple on my summer dinner table, usually topped with a classic dill slaw or pickled onions or both. But last week, I was feeling rebellious (or maybe just bored — this is what qualifies as exciting lately) and decided to swap out both of those for Andrea Nguyen’s Viet Pickle, or Do Chua, the sweet-and-sour daikon radish and carrot condiment that is a staple in Vietnamese cooking. The Do Chua is good with virtually anything — alongside grilled meats, rice bowls, and on top of sandwiches and bánh mì — and took my usually predictable fish dinner to the next level, especially when paired with a thin layer of spicy mayo on the sandwich bun. P.S. The potato salad with green goodies (shown in photo) is coming soon, hopefully before the 4th. I just need to test it for you one more time!

Pan-Fried Fish Sandwiches with Spicy Mayo and Viet Pickle (Do Chua)
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Dals Crispy Fish Sandwiches With Do Chua

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Please note: The Viet Pickles don’t take long to make, but they need at least one hour in the fridge to brine. It will yield more than you need for this recipe, which is a good thing, trust me. Recipe makes 4 sandwiches.

P.S. I had been planning on serving the fish sandwiches to some friends for a weeknight dinner, but a series of unfortunate events got in the way, and at 7:00pm I found myself staring at two pounds of grey sole wondering what to do with it all. I ended up packing two small fillets (uncooked) for my mom, who I was seeing the next day, then cooked the rest to turn into fish cakes for the freezer. That one is always a winner 🙌 .

3. Hobbies and Immersive Joy

Since becoming an empty nester, it seems like every few weeks, I’ll be lounging around on the couch, far down some time-sucking digital vortex, before I chuck my phone across the throw pillows in frustration, turn to Andy and say, “I need a hobby.” He’ll usually respond by laughing, then ticking off all the things I do that bring me joy — cooking, reading, exploring my “new” city, hiking, seeing friends — but the line between work and pleasure is kinda blurry with some of those, and, like most people, I resent the way scrolling still somehow becomes my default recreation. Plus: Did you read Anne Helen Petersen’s amazing newsletter on hobbies back in October? Even though the point of the essay was to liberate us from the idea that there is a “right” way to spend our free time — almost always tied to productivity or keeping up with others’ expectations of us — what stayed with me was the joy she gets from taking care of her dahlias in the garden. The kind of total immersion joy where she doesn’t even notice the hours are flying by. (Trying to avoid the word “flow” here!) Do I have that in my life? Do you?

This does feel like a popular topic among my empty nest and soon-to-be empty nest friends. Many of them are searching for hobbies to fill the void — time or otherwise — their kids have left behind. Many others, like me, just want put down their phones and spend more time outdoors or in the real world with real people. Or they crave making things with their hands. (To that end, I am really looking forward to this book.) In just the past few weeks, I’ve spoken with a woman who took up rowing on the Hudson River — she had never done it before, but got up to speed through a Learn to Row program. Another friend is becoming more committed to volunteering for causes that have always been important to her, specifically gun control; another took up needlepoint, another has been tap dancing (!) for the past year, another is journaling first thing in the morning, and yet another just joined a midtown-Manhattan squash program after not playing for over 30 years. I’m curious, have any of you discovered total immersive joy through through a newfound hobby? I’d love to hear about it if so.