August '23 Newsletter

 

Hello and Happy August!

A two week heatwave has finally ended here, and we’re back to lower humidity and cooler evenings, which feels nice for a change. I’ll take a heatwave over grey and rainy winter every time though. I’ve been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, soaking in the late summer warmth, swimming in various bodies of water, walking on the beach and on wood paths, and cooking outside. I’ll be doing even more of those things now that August is here, which always marks a bittersweet beginning to late summer.

This month’s class is all about classic summer salads that utilize juicy, sun-fed produce and don’t require much cooking. I make a potato and zucchini salad, a simple coleslaw, and a raw and cooked tomato salad.

Seasonal Pleasures and Other Things

⁕ I recently made this Italian Buckwheat Cake with the addition of cherries, and it really hit the spot. For the buckwheat flour, I just ground some raw buckwheat groats I had on hand into flour in my Vitamix blender, and it worked out perfectly. Look for the vegan version of the recipe in the recipe description for the one I used. I also reduced the amount of sugar by 50%, a default step I take with most sweets recipes, as I like my desserts minimally sweet.

⁕ It’s eggplant season, and my mom’s marinated eggplant recipe is a weekly occurrence in my kitchen at this point. So good!

⁕ For any fellow crafters/sewers/knitters out there, I cannot recommend Purl Soho’s free patterns page, where they share tutorials for some of the most tasteful DIY projects out there.

Wishing you a joyful August,