Summer checklist

Homemade jam, a beach read, and maybe let's overthrow the government

Let’s start to define this summer’s vibes by identifying what it absolutely is not. Summer vibes are absolutely not the insanely backwards and seemingly corrupt shit the Supreme Court has been up to lately. I won’t dwell, because that wouldn’t be very summer of me either. But, boy, are they fucking up this whole sunshine-and-the-living’s-easy thing. (Well, they’re fucking up the whole living’s-easy thing, sunshine or not.)

Take a deep breath with me. Look outside, it’s sunny. Give me a sec while I wipe the little droplets from my iced coffee off of my laptop. Let’s get in touch with the little things. Let’s talk about a whole random host of Good Summer Things:

First of all, I have eaten a nectarine-a-day for the last two weeks. Bright, drippy, juicy summer and I shan’t be stopping soon.

Second, I made a playlist called “Summerrrr” (too on the nose?) and I have been listening to it nonstop. It’s full of groovy remixes and bouncy songs from the 90s, 00s, and today.

I took Finn strawberry picking recently and we used 4 of the 8 (yeah, eight) pounds that we picked for homemade jam. It’s divine. To this simple recipe, I added vanilla bean paste. (For my Californians, we went to the totally lovely McGrath Family Farm in Ventura.)

Besides the jam and the nectarine overload, my summer cooking routine has been super basic this year. Lots of simple pastas and lots of crunchy salads. And lots of dry rose—my current favorite bottle is the uber affordable Italian Calafuria.

I went to a Sofreh Brooklyn pop up dinner last week to celebrate chef Nasim’s new cookbook and HOLY SHIT. My fantastic (and super hot) date and I were dancing in our seats and we had to tell the patient waiters not to take our plates yet a number of times. All I could think of was how much I want everyone to eat food like that, explore, find somewhere new in town, eat something different.

If you’re looking for a short, beautiful, inspiring video about grief and love and staying wild, this is it. Amy and her family are some of my very, VERY favorite people.