Hello and welcome to the weekend! We’re getting our little outdoor seating area situated this weekend–nothing makes me happier than having my first coffee outside with the birds and the doggies sitting nearby. Truly nothing! We usually wait for the European Starlings to vacate their nest in a tree trunk cavity nearby to avoid cleaning up couch cushions every other day. Finally, it is time!

I have so much plant-sourcing and planting to do this weekend. I also need to trim the big yew hedges in our front yard. I’m gonna be a busy bee! The weather has been perfect though, I can’t complain.

Hope you have a lovely weekend! A note that I changed the “5 Seasonal Recipes” to “Pinned Recipes This Week.” Just doing a bit more work on Pinterest lately and wanted to connect that to this weekly check-in. It’s still the same–a list of 5 seasonal recipes and some images. Alright, take care!

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. Defending the 30-Minute Meal via Tomato Tomato
2. How the Whole-Grain Trend Went Wrong via The Atlantic (click here for non-paywalled link)
3. The Hospitality Industry is Cooked via Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch on Substack
4. Ghosting Spotify: A How-To Guide via Little Door on Substack
5. The Hottest Snacks on the Market Are … Dates? via The New York Times (gift link)

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. Nigel Slater on Herbs
2. Made a great artichoke asparagus bean salad last weekend! Loved eating it all week with some greens, air fried tofu, and sometimes leftover veg from dinner. You can watch the video here on a desktop browser (even if you don’t have Instagram or are logged out). Used the dressing from this salad.
3. I’m on Rec League! Just having fun over there, nothing too serious ;)
4. Absolutely need cherry coconut sorbet and tahini fudge sauce. I’ve never wanted a dessert more actually!!
5. I am not a prescriptively religious person. I take what I find useful from many traditions and recognize the flawed history of these traditions all the same. Having said that, what I have seen from Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical (titled Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence) has had me nodding my head in affirmation. This part in particular: “It is not enough to invoke efficiency, nor to celebrate the benefits of innovation, if they are built on a chain of exploitation that remains deliberately hidden. If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity.” YES.

5 Questions:

1. Curious what your fave outdoor appliances/accessories are?
   We have a gas grill and a Blackstone, and love both! The Blackstone is essentially a big outdoor griddle, which is especially fun for breakfast foods, stir fry, veggie burgers/smash burgers, fajitas, and essentially anything where a hot sear is advantageous. My favorite accessories are a big fish spatula, tongs from the restaurant supply store (cheap and durable), a big flipper from the restaurant supply store specifically for the Blackstone, a pizza stone for putting directly on the grill (my fave way to make pizza at home), and I still really like the mesh grill bags for doing small cuts of veggies.
2. What is the strangest or most unconventional flavor combination that you enjoy?
   Carrot sticks dipped in roasted almond butter. This is my go-to if I’m feeling peckish around 3pm. I like it better than apple slices and nut butter! It sounds weird but I find it incredibly satisfying. The carrots are a tiny bit sweet and crunchy, the almond butter is roast-y, a bit salty and also a sweet (especially if it’s Logan Petit Lot’s almond butter). I can’t get enough!
3. How do you use the mandoline without fear?
   I recommend getting the cut-resistant gloves that they make! My mom got me a pair at the hardware store a few years ago after I sliced off part of my finger tip! It didn’t require stitches and healed up fine, but it was a nuisance for a few weeks–my husband had to wash my hair at the beginning and other hand-intensive tasks (cooking!!) took me a lot longer. You will have less accidents if the blade is properly sharp. If you have to really push hard root veg or cabbage to get it cut on a mandoline, it’s not sharp enough and the possibility of slipping increases!
4. Any tips for someone who is sick of their staple meals but also lacking bandwidth to make a bunch of sweeping changes?
   I love this question because it happens to me all the time. Changing up your sauce/flavor treatment in a meal like vegan stir fry with noodles from teriyaki to gochujang to peanut sauce or to Thai basil is an easy first move. Swap in a seasonal vegetable in your go-to pasta. Switch out basil in pesto for a more seasonal mix of herbs (I like kale with a smidge of thyme in the Fall and a mix of ramps and parsley in the spring). Change your go-to salad base (massaged kale & carrot ribbons, arugula & shaved fennel, butter lettuce & shaved radishes). If you eat a lot of tofu or tempeh, try a different cooking method (air frying both is life-changing! (air fried tempeh here & air fried tofu here). Lastly, if I have a takeaway/restaurant meal that I really enjoy, I try to parse what made it so enjoyable–was it a sauce or cooking method? How can I “copy and paste” that into my cooking life?
5. I see so many butter bean recipes on here and want to try your latest one, but I can’t find them anywhere. Help!!
   It’s so confusing! Butter beans seem to be popular in Europe, where they are sold/labelled as butter beans. Here where I live in Ontario, there’s a bit of confusion. Lima beans and butter beans are the same bean sold at different stages of maturity. The frozen ones that are still green are what we traditionally know as lima beans here. The more mature, large white beans sold in dry form or in cans at room temperature are butter beans. The bags of dried beans labelled “lima” are in fact butter beans. For canned ones, I buy the Bioitalia brand–usually finding it at health food stores or in the natural foods aisle at Zehrs/Loblaws stores. Eden Foods also sells canned butter beans, but I don’t like them as much.

Pinned Recipes This Week:

1. Quick Vegan Noodle Stir Fry with Gochujang Sauce
2. Sticky Sweet Potato Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce
3. Snap Peas & Carrots Salad with Sesame Lime Dressing
4. Hummus Crunch Salad with Crispy Za’atar Chickpeas
5. Shaved Zucchini Salad with Plums, Herbs & Almonds