Summer isn't over yet, I promise
Forgive me for making a very unsexy product recommendation this week, but I promise, this is a tiny thing that will improve your life immeasurably. I implore you all, right now, to order yourself an extra long charging cable for your phone. I first bought myself one a few years ago, due to a tweet from my friend Sarah (who has recommended many many good things to me), and guys, it makes everything so much easier, and costs like $4 more than a regular charging cable. Still in bed and your phone needs a charge? No problem, you can charge it and also turn over, because the cable is long enough for that. Traveling, and the only plugs in the hotel are on the other side of the room from the bed? Totally okay, the cable can reach! Amazon has a bunch of them for iPhone that are like $12, and I'm sure there are plenty for Android phones too. I ordered this one, which breaks at about the same rate as all other charging cables (which is like once a year or so) and every time I have to use a shorter one, I wish I had my long one around.
It kind of feels like end times right now, right? With earthquakes and fires and three hurricanes hovering in the Atlantic, already destroying a whole bunch of stuff, it feels like a weekend for hunkering down and preparing emergency supplies and/or partying while we still can, all in between panic, and prayer, and donations to anyone who might be able to help people in harms way. Well, if you're planning to do some emergency preparedness (the CDC has some good tips!), I have an excellent book recommendation for you to read in between lining up your bottled water and putting batteries in your headlamps: Bellweather Rhapsody. This book is set in a hotel in upstate New York where a murder/suicide occurred fifteen years before. The weekend the book is set, there's a high school musician competition, the person who witnessed the crime has come to stay, and also a huge blizzard traps everyone inside the hotel. It sounds like a scary murder mystery, but it's funny and charming and about life and love and grief and growing up, and I think you're all going to like it a lot.
It's still tomato season in California, and will be for at least the whole month of September. I HATED tomatoes for the first 25 years of my life; periodically, I would taste them, think "nope, still hate them" and move on. Then one time, I tasted them, and I still didn't like them, but I didn't hate them anymore. And now I love tomatoes, but only in tomato season. Ripe, in season tomatoes taste like a completely different thing than grocery store winter tomatoes, so we've got to eat as much of them as we can. Twice this week I made my favorite tomato season meal for dinner: Panzanella. There are many many different recipes for panzanella in this world and on this internet, but I will tell you how I make it, which incorporates a little from many of the recipes I've read.
Panzanella
5 or 6 good tomatoes (Heirloom, early girl, whatever)
Also maybe 20 or so cherry tomatoes if you want
Red wine vinegar or lemon juice, a teaspoon or so
Olive oil
Salt
Corn on the cob
A red bell pepper or two
A nectarine or peach
Cucumber
Two or so slices or chunks of bread
Herbs: basil and parsley are great here. Chopped arugula, while not an herb, is also delicious
Cut up the tomatoes into bite size pieces, and throw them and their juices all into a big bowl. Add a healthy sprinkle of salt, the vinegar/lemon juice, and a glug or two of olive oil. While that sits around and gets all delicious, cut the corn off the cob and throw it into a hot pan with some salt until it browns a little, maybe two or so minutes, and then add that to the bowl (keep the pan hot). Cut up the red bell pepper, and throw it in the bowl, same with the nectarine or peach and the cucumber. Cut or tear up the bread, and toss it into your hot pan with some olive oil to let it crisp up. While that's cooking, chop up your herbs and throw them into the bowl. When the bread is ready, throw it into the bowl and give everything a great big stir. Eat straight out of your big bowl and be happy that summer isn't over quite yet.
Have a great weekend, everyone! And if you think a friend of yours would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it along.
Jasmine