New newsletter, summer snacks, and book sales!

Friends! Welcome to my new newsletter (I’ve creatively named it “The Jasmine Guillory newsletter”) — I’ve switched over to Substack from tinyletter! You shouldn't see any major changes, other than now it looks prettier and there’s more fun stuff we can do here. I’m still figuring everything out on this end, but I’m looking forward to exploring all of these fun new tools. I’ve pulled all of my old subscribers and old newsletters into Substack too, so you should be here and be able to find old newsletter here. And please let me know if anything looks weird, and I’ll try to fix it!

I can’t believe Party of Two has been out for over a month now! It both feels like it came out last week and that it’s been out forever! Thank you all so much for your kind notes and reviews about the book! Reviews online are so so valuable, and I appreciate all of them! One quick note: I’ve heard from a handful of people who had books with missing pages — I’m so sorry that happened! That should be fixed for all future printings. If this happened to you, check in with the place you got it (I think so far it’s just Amazon who got those copies) and they should send you a new copy!

Oh and here’s fun book news: the e-book of Royal Holiday is on sale right now, for $2.99 wherever you buy ebooks! If you’re in the mood to be cozy in July (or August, since August is tomorrow, how did that happen???) with a story about Christmas in England and falling in love, grab a copy, and tell your friends. ALSO, the paperback of Royal Holiday will be out on a perfect day in October, and it has a beautiful purple cover so you can preorder that now if you wanted it in paperback!

If you missed it, this piece I wrote for The Cut about my daily writing habit came out last week! Their whole series about writing was really great, and one thing I liked about it so much was the variety of experiences and opinions different writers have about writing and publishing; it really shows how there is no real right or wrong, it’s just what works for you, and there are so many different ways into this industry and this world.

I have two recipes for you this week, one that I’ve been making for years (and have given out more than once already in my newsletter) and one new to me that I made this week. The first is especially for you if it’s hot where you are and you don’t want to stomach the idea of turning on your oven, and the second is for if you’ve never left the baking phase of this pandemic (or if you’ve cycled back in).

I’ve been making this salad, or salsa, every summer for a long time, and I’ve made it once or twice a week for the past month. It helps that my cherry tomato plant is super prolific right now, and full of tiny, bright orange, perfect tomatoes, but even if it wasn’t, I would be buying cherry tomatoes in bulk so I could make it. It’s so easy and perfect and even actually good for you, and makes a great snack with chips, or lunch, or side to go along with something grilled for dinner.

Tomato, corn, black bean, and avocado salad (or salsa)

2 ears of corn
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, or 6-8 regular sized tomatoes of any kind
1 avocado
1 can of black beans
1 jalapeño, diced (optional; add more or less of this depending on taste and heat level of the jalapeños)
Cilantro, chopped (also optional, for you cilantro haters out there)
The juice of a lime
2 or so tablespoons of olive oil
Salt to taste

Set a big frying pan on the stove and turn it to medium high. Cut the corn off the cob (I do this by snapping each cob in half and then cutting down with a chef's knife on each half), and toss the corn into the frying pan with some salt and toast it on all sides until it's a little blistered. When it's done, let cool in the pan for a few minutes until you're done with everything else. NOTE: if your kitchen is too hot for this, just skip this part and use the corn raw! While the corn is cooking, cut your cherry tomatoes in half (or dice your regular size tomatoes) and toss them in a medium size bowl with salt and the lime juice. Dice the avocado and toss it into the bowl with the tomatoes. Drain, rinse, and dry your black beans and add them to the bowl, along with the jalapeños and cilantro, if using. Add the corn to everything along with the olive oil and mix well. Taste to see if you need more salt, and enjoy!

And now for your baked good portion of the newsletter. I’ve baked at least something probably every week since we went into lockdown, but amazingly, it took me until this week to finally bake banana bread. I know, I know, everyone else did this in March or April! I bought bananas then, and then when they got ripe enough for banana bread, I was too stressed that day, so I put them in a freezer bag and tossed them in the freezer. But this week I was hunting through my freezer for something different and saw those bananas and pulled them back out, so I finally made my banana bread. BUT, this was banana bread with a twist, since when I’d defrosted my bananas they’d lost so much volume that they weren’t substantial enough for the recipe I wanted to try. So in a real burst of pandemic “let’s try this and see if it works, because I don’t want to go to the store” energy, I shredded a few zucchini I had on hand from my garden, let that drain, and tossed it in with the banana. It worked, and was delicious! So if you want your baked goods with some hidden vegetables, or just, like me, have some banana and also some zucchini, try this.

Banana/zucchini bread (with thanks to Smitten Kitchen)

1 stick (or 1/2 cup, or 4 ounces/115 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup (190 grams) packed light brown sugar
2 cups (18 ounces or 510 grams) (or so, see note) combined mashed banana and shredded zucchini* (if you’re using all banana, this is about five ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 2/3 to two cups (200-240 grams) flour
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts (optional)
2 tablespoons (25 grams) raw or turbinado sugar (on top)

Notes: The combined weight of my banana and zucchini was a bit less than in the recipe, but the volume was a little more, so I went with it, and it worked! I also decreased the flour about a quarter a cup to account for this.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 6 cup (9x5 inch) loaf pan — the size of the pan is important here, because this batter fills up the pan. If your pan is smaller, scoop out some and make a muffin or two on the side (but don’t forget to put sugar on top of the muffins too).

Melt the butter, then add to a large bowl. Whisk in the brown sugar until it’s smooth, and stir in your mashed banana and shredded zucchini. When that’s smooth, whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Sprinkle the surface of the batter with the salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, and baking soda and baking powder, and whisk until everything is very well blended into the batter. Then add the flour and nuts (if using), and fold gently into the batter until everything is combined, but don’t overmix!

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan — it’ll come pretty close to the top of the pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with the raw sugar, you want to cover the top completely, don’t hold back, it makes an amazing crust.

Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine was done at just about 53 minutes; if it’s all banana, it takes a bit more time, but check on the early side). Take out of the oven when a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean.

Let cool, and if you want to be indulgent (and who doesn’t, these days?) spread with butter. Enjoy, for breakfast, teatime, or whenever you need a baked good (which, again…is all the time, these days).

Have a good weekend!

Jasmine

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Buy The Wedding Date, The Proposal, The Wedding Party, Royal Holiday, and Party of Two!