Three Things

Easy summer eating, cheery outdoor dinnerware, vacation reading round-up

Greetings eaters and readers! We have just returned from a mini family vacation in Maine, and I think it’s safe to say that once you find yourself eating clam and lobster rolls and fries and haddock chowder while sitting on a harbor-side, buoy-strung wharf with AC/DC on the speaker (I know you know the vibe!), I think you can say that summer has officially arrived. On the drive there, we listened to “Thursday,” the new George Saunders short story in The New Yorker, and an old episode of Things That Go Boom featuring Samin Nosrat, who is never not inspiring, especially when she’s talking about the centering, therapeutic power of cooking. In other news: Tri-State Area readers: Please join me in Darien, CT on Thursday (yes, the day after tomorrow) for a talk with none other than Hetty Lui McKinnon, author of the new, wonderful Tenderheart. (Remember way back to last week when I was obsessing over her Cabbage Carbonara-ish?) The event is at Barrett Bookstore in Darien and each ticket includes snacks (Hetty snacks!) plus a signed copy of Tenderheart. You can register here. And now your Three Things!

1. It’s Not Summer Until We Eat…

How would you finish that sentence? The list is long for us, but we managed to check off three major boxes this past week — besides the aforementioned fish roll enjoyed waterside. First there was warm Triple Berry Pie with ice cream, which was store-bought, but really reminded me of the one I am about to embark on baking all summer long. (The recipe is from my 2016 book How to Celebrate Everything, but you can also find it in a 2021 dispatch back when my newsletter was just a baby!) Number 2: Grilled Salmon, which is of course, the Best Salmon! The color, the flavor, the char that dances so wonderfully with an herby yogurt sauce or, even better, this bed of spicy avocado sauce. (Don’t even have to turn on the oven for that one, just the blender.) I love how dramatic and colorful it looks. (Grilled salmon also ups the tasty ante considerably on Salmon Salad, of course.)

Lastly, I’m adding a new one to the ever-growing list: Salt and Vinegar Campfire Potatoes, inspired by a little seafood shack in Maine that offered a spray-bottle of malt vinegar at the condiment station next to the ketchup. I’m not sure if it was meant for the fried fish or the fries, but we decided on the fries, British pub style, and then lost our minds. At home, we made the dish our way, pan-frying thinly sliced (< crucial!) unpeeled red potatoes in a 1/4-inch of vegetable oil in a cast iron pan set over the grill, tossing them every few minutes, then shifting the pan around to different heat zones on the grill to prevent burning. (You can of course do this on a stovetop over even medium-high heat, but where is the summer fun in that?) When the potatoes are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes total, remove to a paper towel lined plate or bowl to drain. Remove towel, then spray or douse with malt vinegar and sea salt.

2. Speaking of taking it outside…

Food52 has been promoting the Thomas Fuchs melamine dinnerware line all week and if I weren’t so busy downsizing and selling my entire outdoor dining life, I would 100% order those plates! The only forseeable problem would be: Which colors? The lemon-gray? The tangerine-melon? The cheeriness level is off the charts.

3. Summer Reading Report

I was at a little farm stand in Maine, perusing the fiddleheads, when I heard another shopper trying to convince the woman at the register to read Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese. “You won’t believe the way this guys writes about surgery!…And love!….And history!” he said with spilleth-over enthusiasm, and I couldn’t help but scream across the sugar snaps, “I am reading that book, too! And all day I’ve been looking forward to getting back to the house so I can sit on the dock chair with it!” Then he grilled me: I just finished! What part are you up to? What is happening? Did you read his first? I recognized that feeling of loving a book so much that he wanted to stay in its world for as long as possible. (I can tell, 60% of the way through, that 736 pages of that world will not be long enough!) In the course of the conversation I learned he was an English teacher, and at a certain point everyone in line at the register was all “What’s the name of the book again?” It was so great, and I guess the interaction wasn’t too what-are-the-chances?, considering the book is an Oprah pick and Verghese’s previous novel was a ginormous success, but still, we chatted about books and writers and the tragedy myth of the death of humanities, and the whole thing was just very heartwarming.

ANYWAY! Besides Verghese, here’s a quick run-down of what else the family tackled on that dock pictured above that absolutely begged for reading (and gin-and-tonic-ing): My book editor husband’s pick for non-work reading (always a big deal!) was The Land Breakers, by John Ehle, a novel set in Appalachia during the late 18th century, and recommended by a book-loving friend of his; For Phoebe, a few graphic novels and Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld, the ultimate feel-good summer read; Abby finished a Daniel Mason novel called North Woods (coming out in a few months that you will be hearing SO MUCH MORE ABOUT) and, as mentioned last week, started in on Pulitzer-Prize-winning Demon Copperhead, the modern day David Copperfield which tackles the opioid crisis in the most personal, human way possible.

Phoebe in Alaska, Summer 2014

For those of you with younger kids, thought you might like to revisit some past summer reading posts I’ve written and assigned throughout the years:

Summer Reading for Science Lovers (Teens and Adults) 2021

Kids Books to Love and Get Lost in (Tweens & Teens) 2022

Reading What Your Kids Are Reading (Tweens & Teens) 2019

Summer Reading List for the Whole Family (All Ages) 2018

Kids Audiobooks for the Road Trip Or Wherever (Grade Schoolers) 2015

And lastly, How to Raise a Reader.

Thanks for reading,

Jenny