Week 30 / Summer Journal Week 5

Greetings from the land of mantra-induced positivity, where I am not reading too many headlines. I felt a bit grumpy this week. Part of it was the heat, and part of it was the unknowns and everything being out of my control. What can you do? Stay cool and in the present. And wonder, "What if things end up better than I expect?"

Just relax

I gained my first nephew by marriage this week, and while I wish I could have been there to celebrate, I did not regret my decision to stay home. I am finding that the fewer situations I put myself in that cause me to make tough virus-related decisions, especially around loved ones, the better...as painful as it is to not see them.

Turkeys do not social distance

Workouts this week were tricky as I tried to do them before the house got hot, but I forgot to adjust my alarm to get up early for them. I felt tired, weak, and a little nauseous and ended up doing yoga instead. This was a good decision.

I did myself a favor and purchased some home office stuff. My body is not cut out for sitting on a piano bench and hunching over a laptop for 8+ hours a day, turns out. I also bought a window privacy film for my office window that looks out at my neighbors' piles of crap on the side of their house. It's supposed to produce rainbows when the sun shines through.

Window in question to the left, not pictured. Let's not talk about my own piles of crap.

Recipes

I'm hitting my stride with the summer produce. The big excitement this week in the CSA box was fava beans! I have never found them around here for purchase but, as a lover of lima beans, and big beans in general, I'd always hoped to try them. They are tasty and super fun but only if you're up for the process. These beans are well protected by a big, thick pod as well as individual membranes around the beans. To remove these easily, you need to blanch them. Or, as we did the first night, grill them. On the second night, I shelled them and added them to pizza with bacon and pecorino. On the third night, I sauteed them with braising greens and leftover bacon and a squeeze of lemon.

I also used up the last of our zucchini and pattypan squash by making zucchini cornmeal cakes (like fritters), served with garlic yogurt and mint chutney. I made hummus, too, as another way to eat more veggies.

With the three peaches I had, I halved Bon Appetit's latest recipe for peach and sesame crumble. It was/is incredible. I will make this crumble topping again.

When it gets hot, I send most stuff to the grill, and that includes bread. One night we had chicken that had been marinated in a za'atar/lemon/garlic/paprika/parsley concoction, which was perfect with the grilled yogurt flatbread I love so much.

And I used some carrot tops to make a chimichurri that we've put on pretty much everything (eggs, pizza, shrimp, potatoes).

And Joel made a makeshift choripan: grilled chicken andouille sausage, sliced lengthwise and plopped on a brioche bun with an herby/spicy mayo, crispy hashbrowns and fresh tomatoes (we only had a few cherry tomatoes, but it was fine). A perfect meal for Friday night.

Watching

Holy wow, I want everyone to see the documentary "Father Soldier Son." It was produced by the New York Times over the course of ten years, following a father and his two sons through the father's deployment to and return from Afghanistan. (Here's the Netflix trailer.) It is heartbreaking, but in a completely different way than I expected. It's something we've continued to talk about all week, and a family I will likely continue to think about for a long time, wondering how they are doing.

Reading

I tore through the majority of Where the Crawdads Sing on Saturday night, and will probably finish it today. I needed a good story.

Listening

I listened to Taylor Swift's new album and didn't mind it.

Making

I received a load of fabric on Tuesday and have cut out the pattern for one of the tops I plan to make. It's fun to see new material take shape! With any luck I'll have a new item in my wardrobe by next weekend, as long as I can carve out some time for working on it after my workday.

And both knitting projects, the sweater and the sock, are easy patterns for TV watching, so I'm having a hard time deciding which one to work on. There's no wrong decision.

I was also thinking, would it be dumb to start on that other Christmas stocking I planned to do last year? Maybe.

A final note:

This week, a creative person I follow on Instagram, Elise Blaha Cripe, shared this thought (I'm paraphrasing): I can't always clear my head, but I can at least clear my desk. Here's to clear spaces for new ideas and projects.