Hello and welcome to our weekly catch up. The rain has been heavy and constant here this week. A little gloomy and cold for spring, but I did get through a backlog of indoor tasks that I had been neglecting. Hopefully I’ll be in the yard all weekend wrapping things up with the veggie garden. Crossing my fingers that I’ll be posting pics of it by this time next week!

I’m trying to fast track all of the recipes for July and August over the next few weeks so that I can mostly take those months off. I’ll still pop in with Saturday Sun every week, but it’s my goal to have all recipes for the summer locked and loaded by the end of June. I’m also in the midst of this massive archived post overhaul–just rewriting some of the posts/recipes for clarity and adding some additional insight where needed. Your comments and reviews are always so helpful and definitely inform this process, so thank you!

One last thing: Earlywood, the purveyors of my favorite wood cooking tools, have given me a special 10% discount code for the US holiday weekend. Just use code LAURA10 at checkout, valid until the end of Monday. Alright, on to our usual links and questions below! If you have a question for next week’s edition, don’t hesitate to email me or leave it in the comments. Take care out there!

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. We Are Thinking About Fitness All Wrong via The Cut
2. Everyone online wants to give you advice. Should you listen? via Vox
3. The 25 Gardens You Must See via The New York Times Magazine (gift link)
4. Bookmarked: Carley Fortune via Downtime on Substack (I just added One Golden Summer to my eReader)
5. The Bezos-Cannestastrophe via Discoursted on Substack

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. Love following @terrencebakes on Instagram and I’m definitely making this chili crisp and green onion no-knead bread ASAP.
2. Might be renewing my Disney Plus subscription to watch Tucci in Italy
3. Planting tons of lavender and sipping lavender cream tea this spring like it’s my job. The goal is to repel mosquitos, attract pollinators, and to just calm the energy down a little bit 😌
4. Milkweed keeps popping up in my gardens and I’m not mad about it. Pollinators (like Monarch butterflies) love it and the flowers are very pretty.
5. If you’ve been coveting my favorite wood spatulas from Earlywood, don’t forget to use my limited time 10% discount code! Valid all weekend to the end of Monday. The code: LAURA10

5 Questions:

1. Would you ever consider posting your blog content to Substack? I follow lots of food creators there and would love to support that way.
   I discussed this with Foodie Digital a couple years ago and at the time it didn’t seem like a great idea for me. I’ve been putting more effort into having my recipes turn up higher in Google search queries over the past 5 or so years. Starting a Substack with the same name and basically the same content would ruin some of those gains. Of course, I could probably start one with just links to new posts that are published here so that folks who are on Substack would have an easier way to follow. But I’d have to call it something different than The First Mess, and then with that I think this might just end up being a confusing venture overall haha. Also with some of the recent commotion about Glennon Doyle launching on and then promptly exiting the platform, it does seem a little cliquey/no new joiners vibes over there. Am I wrong though? Would love to hear insights from you if this topic hits a nerve.
2. Can you talk through your BBQ veggies process–tools, seasoning and cleanup?
   I use a little mesh grill bag more often than not! This guarantees that nothing will slip through the grates and it’s easier to flip all in one go. I chop up the veg, toss them in a big bowl with avocado oil, dash of vegan Worcestershire, loads of spices (whatever I’m in the mood for–really into this blend that I got at Costco recently), salt, and pepper. Then I seal them up in the bag and grill over medium-high until tender. It’s important to pick a mix of veg with a similar cooking time ie don’t combine chunks of potato with something quick-cooking like asparagus. For cleanup, once I turn the barbecue off, I close the lid and let any stuck-on bits burn. Then I’ll wipe with wet paper towels when it’s cooled down. The mesh grill bags do have to be hand washed, but it’s completely worth it in my opinion. I should mention that for grilled eggplant, I always salt it for 20 minutes before cooking and rinse. This recipe offers a good walk through of that process.
3. Favorite non-dairy milk that actually has flavor and not a lot of added ingredients?
   I tried Tache pistachio milk recently and it’s really good! Froths up nice, tastes super nutty, and pretty light on ingredients. Pistachio everything is absolutely having a moment right now and I’m definitely on board.
4. Why do you think some restaurants are still so resistant to good plant based options?
   My guess is that they just don’t sell as well as non-vegan options. In the US, roughly 5% of people are vegetarian and 2% are vegan. Of course these figures are different all over the world, but profit margins are notoriously slim in the hospitality industry and no doubt a big motivator for your average neighborhood restaurant.
5. Any tips for people that don’t like the texture of tempeh?
   Crumble it up super small and cook it in the air fryer like I do with this air fryer tempeh recipe! It’s crispy, crunchy, and loaded up with sauce. I don’t love the texture of tempeh myself, so I’m always crumbling it or slicing it super thin, searing/air frying it on high heat, and then saucing it up.

5 Seasonal Recipes:

1. Actually Grillable Vegan Black Bean Burgers (10 Ingredients)
2. Vegan Dill Pickle Dip
3. Creamy Coconut Couscous with Golden Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas
4. Charred Corn Quinoa Salad with Avocado & BBQ Tahini Ranch Dressing
5. Crispy BBQ Pulled Mushroom Sandwiches