Trail Mix
A handful of links
I took a walk this morning to get bread at my favorite bakery and let my mind wander. It felt so good to move my body and get out of the house. Early September is always the time of year I find myself missing New York the most, but I also love the subtle changes in temperature and light, the way the leaves crunch now more than fold. And how this time of year always feels like a new beginning, full of promise. It’s delicious to find myself reaching for a blanket at night, to marvel at the faint, blackish tinge to the sunlight that streams across the sidewalk at dusk now and to feel hunger for a new assignment. For now, I’m trying to pay more attention to the things online and off that delight me. It sounds stupidly simple and yet it’s eluded me for a long while.
Here’s what’s caught my eye recently:
It’s Peter and the Wolf season.
With the big kitchen project ongoing, I like to distract myself from the mess and noise by contemplating things for the new kitchen. Do you use a salt pig? And if so, for coarse, fine or flaky?
Thanks to Lauren Collins’ peerless newsletter, I am suddenly desperate to see the Empire of Sleep exhibit at the Musée Marmottan Monet. Will this finally be my chance to experience the new train connection between Berlin and Paris?
A magical glimpse into Barnaba Fornasetti’s world.
I met the artist Sarah Illenberger at a friend’s dinner party the other night and spent a while admiring a watch-like object on her wrist. Turns out it’s her Slowlex, cast in silver (and gold-plated) from a particularly beautiful snail Sarah observed at her house in Tuscany one summer. So witty, elegant and special.
Patricia Lockwood has a new book out soon (I smashed that preorder button so fast) and the New Yorker has an excellent accompanying profile.
Orkney summer. Inject it into my veins.
Did you know that zucchini is a nutritional powerhouse?! In season, I eat them almost daily—choose ones that are as small as possible and very firm. Boil in salted water, dress with olive oil and flaky salt if you’re in a rush and if you have one minute extra, add chopped parsley and a peeled garlic clove to the bottom of the bowl with the oil and salt before dumping the hot zucchini on top. Mix and let sit for a bit before eating: the clove infuses the zucchini with flavor, there’s no need to eat it.
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and have to increase my Omega 3 levels. Canned fish to the rescue! I brought back many tins of my favorite anchovies from Italy to eat on toast, this is excellent and crowd-pleasing (and a bit faffy, you can just use canned tomatoes) and can confirm that canned mackerel is, in fact, much tastier than canned tuna. (I’m also taking two supplements, one vegan, one with fish oil.)
After 30 years, I’m finally singing in a choir again and it makes me so happy. This is one of the pieces we’re working on right now.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone.
Hey, I wanted to tell you that after you recommended Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins, I went on a deep Atkinson dive. I had always meant to read Life After Life but hadn't for some reason. Anyway, I read Life and then A God and then read all the Jackson Brodie books. I read Behind the Scenes at the Museum and just finished Shrines of Gaiety. It's been a Kate Atkinson summer thanks to your recommendation! I absolutely love her. She's a genius.
Canned mackerel is a revelation! My favourite way to eat it is with minced garlic, lemon zest and juice, chopped parsley, chopped capers, a few chopped cherry tomatoes, Calabrian chilli and lots of good sea salt and olive oil, microplaned Parmesan if you don’t mind being a little sacrilegious- all mixed well in a large bowl before tossing in hot pasta with a little pasta water. Heaven.