ROYAL HOLIDAY giveaway! And some summer product and snacking suggestions
Hello! We're smack in the midst of August, which still feels like the middle of the summer to me, even though lots of kids (and grownups!) are already back in school. But summer lasts until the beginning of October here in Northern California, so I'm going to do my best to enjoy it as long as it lasts. But before I forget, I have one last event this summer: people of Georgia, see you at the Decatur Book Festival! I'm SUPER excited to go to this; it'll be my first event in Georgia, and by all accounts it's a fantastic book festival. Just look at this list of authors attending! My panel, On Love and Design, is on Sunday, September 1 at 1:15 pm in the Historic DeKalb Courthouse; Nita Brooks and I will be chatting about our books and lots of other things. I can't wait to see you there!
Speaking of enjoying summer: if you, like me have always hated wearing sunscreen because of either the white cast or how it irritates your skin or both, I have a recommendation for you! I recently started wearing SuperGoop sunscreen, because people promised me it didn't do either of those things, and I doubted them, but they were totally right. It doesn't feel too thick or greasy, blends in normally on my skin, and doesn't make me break out like lots of other sunscreens do. It's expensive, so if I'm doing a full day in the sun I save it for my face and neck and use other stuff for the rest of my body, but it's perfect on my face/hands/arms for every day. And after a family member had skin cancer a few years back, I've been trying to be a lot better about sunscreen (that really brought home to me that those of us with plenty of melanin in our skin are not immune to skin cancer). Supergoop has a variety of types; I've been using the Everyday Sunscreen, but have heard good things about the Unseen, their moisturizer, and their setting spray (I do not recommend the setting powder, I tried it and returned it to Sephora, it's a pain in the ass to use). Go protect yourselves!
Part of the reason I'm determined to make summer last until October is that I have another book coming out on October 1! I'll be doing some fun events for Royal Holiday that you'll all find out about soon, but right now I have some advance copies of the book in my hot little hands, aren't they beautiful?
Here's a little bit about the book itself, along with an excerpt, and here's where you can preorder it! It's about Vivian (Maddie's mom, who you met in The Wedding Party) and Malcolm, the Queen's Private Secretary, who she meets when she accompanies Maddie on a trip to England to style a member of the royal family at Christmas time. It has castles and scones, Christmas trees and mistletoe, fireworks and tiaras, and I can't wait for you all to read it. If you want to read it early, hit reply to this email and tell me so before noon pacific time on Tuesday, August 20th! This offer is open only to newsletter subscribers (and U.S. only, sorry about that!), so if any of your friends really want to read Royal Holiday early, forward this email to them and get them to subscribe (this email is going out on Friday August 16th, but I'll send it out again over the weekend/on Monday to any new subscribers so they can reply, don't worry).
It has been very hot in the Bay Area this past week, so as much as I want to make pie today, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a huge batch of this salad/salsa/whatever you want to call it and eat it for days. I've been making this for years (and sent out the recipe for it in a very early edition of this newsletter), and I love it a lot. You can bring it to a party and serve it with chips, you can put it in a bowl and eat it as a meal, you can serve it along side grilled steak or salmon as a great side dish. And it takes very little time to throw together and you can avoid your hot kitchen. Play with the amounts as you see fit, none of them are set in stone (sometimes I double the tomatoes and avocado especially).
Corn, Tomato, Avocado, and Black Bean Salad (or Salsa)
2 ear of corns
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, or 6-8 regular sized tomatoes of any kind
1 avocado
1 can of black beans
1 jalapeno, diced (optional; add more or less of this depending on taste and heat level of the jalapenos)
The juice of one or two limes
2-4 tablespoons 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 jalapenos, 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! This keeps in the fridge for a few days, so is a great thing to bring to a party or picnic. Sometimes I add some crumbled feta at the end (especially when I'm eating it as a salad) and that's great too.
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
Find me elsewhere! Facebook Instagram Twitter
Buy The Wedding Date, The Proposal, and The Wedding Party and preorder Royal Holiday!