Ready or Not, Here Comes Summer
Comforting summer recipes, dinner ideas, book recs and the icy summer drink I'm currently craving.
Memorial Day is behind us, school is over or is ending soon. Can I hear three cheers for not having to pack school lunches?
Whether you’re ready or not, summer is here.
I’m not sure I’m ready. I’m still waiting for that carefree summer feeling to kick in, I guess.
I know it’s June and comfort food is usually a cozy winter thing, but I’ve really been feeling the need for comforting food lately.
For me, comfort = bread and pasta.
Luckily, I have several comforting recipes on Kitchen Skip that revolve around bread and pasta and are also perfectly suited for summer.
Shrimp & Feta Garlic Bread
I love this recipe. Shrimp and feta are baked briefly with a swirl of olive oil, butter and garlic with fresh basil on top. Serve with garlic bread to soak up the deliciousness. It’s an easy one-skillet dinner or hearty appetizer.
Tuna and Orzo Pasta Salad
Maybe it’s because my mom packed tuna sandwiches in my school lunch throughout my entire childhood that tuna with mayo is always comforting to me.
During the pandemic days at home, my two kids got hooked on tuna melts for lunch. Again, there was something comforting about canned tuna for lunch (with potato chips on the side, of course).
This simple tuna and orzo pasta salad is perfect for summer. It’s comforting and satisfying but also light and lemony. You can add cucumber or celery for crunch.
Other comforting recipes I’ve been making lately include Instant Pot chicken parmesan pasta, and rice noodles with egg and shrimp and spinach pesto served with slices of toasted baguette.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: Clam chowder (inspired by the easy clam chowder recipe on Damn Delicious). I thought it was good, but the kids were not impressed. Luckily I served garlic bread on the side.
Tuesday: One-pot spaghetti with tomatoes and kale
Wednesday: Simple black bean and cheddar quesadillas. On the side were chips and salsa, shredded cabbage and white rice (I pack leftover rice, beans and grated cheddar in their school lunches the next day)
Thursday: Slow cooker chicken with coconut milk and bell peppers. It turned out okay, but like many slow cooker recipes was a bit “meh”.
Friday was what my kids call “whatever” dinner, when we all forage for leftovers and eat whatever.
Reading
Please note that book titles in this section are Bookshop.org affiliate links. Your cost for purchasing the book is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to me and help offset the costs of running a food blog. When ordering from Bookshop.org you’ll also be supporting independent bookstores.
Cookbooks
I’ve enjoyed flipping through the cookbook Ready, Set, Cook by Dawn Perry. The cookbook has a stock-your-kitchen approach, with lots of tempting recipes for dressings, sauces and snacks. I’m hoping to find time for the Maple Coconut Granola recipe which includes Rice Krispies for an airy crunch. Great idea!
The cookbook also has simple dinner recipes + sides and salads that can mostly be made from ingredients you might already have on hand. I made her 15-minute marinara, which was better than most jarred marinaras at the store.
Fiction
I spent the entire month of May working my way through The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It’s 800 pages of historical fictional that cover the main character’s journey through her family’s past “uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South.”
I just started the The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera which has been a fun change of pace, although not exactly light. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children - among them Petra and her family - have been chosen to journey to a new planet. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet - and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth.
What are you reading right now? I’d love to know!
Craving
Harry’s House (am I the only one who just discovered Harry Styles?)
It’s Been Awhile
I took a hiatus from writing my newsletter because of, well, life. But I’m excited to be back!
I’m especially excited that the Kitchen Skip newsletter is now hosted on Substack. My free newsletter (which you signed up for on KitchenSkip.com) will continue to deliver easy recipes, inspiration and motivation. We’re all in this together!
Subscribing is free. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox (substack newsletters often wind up under the Promotions tab.) Or, you can use the nifty Substack App on your phone, which is how I like to read SubStack newsletters (usually while I’m sitting in the car during my daughter's karate class).
That’s it!
Hope you have a good week,
Jenny
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