Happy September, dear readers. How are you celebrating the last few weeks of summer?
In-between busy and somewhat overwhelming weeks, Caleb and I managed to make it to the beach. I watched the sun sink below the horizon while the sky turned into sherbet. This little stretch of sand — Indiana Dunes — is my favorite spot to getaway too. We camped on the beach for six hours. By the end of the day, we had sandy skin, wind swept hair, and full hearts.
Market haul
The rain poured Saturday morning, and thunder shook the town I live in. So, unfortunately, there was no market this weekend. Instead, I'm resorting to Kroger and some eggs from a farm I visit 5 miles away. What I did make room for on the blustery Saturday morning was a stop at my favorite bookstore. The first Saturday of every month is book swap day. A blue cart is rolled out onto the porch, and it’s the whole take a book, leave a book concept. With umbrellas and ran jackets, Caleb and I parked the car at the curb and ran into the cozy little bookshop. I swapped a Jojo Moyes novel for a book where writer’s celebrate their favorite bookstores. I am content with this.
What's on my plate
Most of what I've eaten these past few weeks can be summed up in turkey sandwiches or eggs on toast. But when my partner and I went to Indiana Dunes we had a special treat. Before we left, I stopped by the farmers market and picked up these gorgeous first-of-the-season apples. They were a delicious treat to eat while watching the waves wash up against the sand.
Along with apples at the beach, and too many turkey and cheese sandwiches, I crave comfort food. After a rough week that left me somewhat deflated and tired, I went home on Friday night and did what I do to calm my anxiety. I roasted a chicken.
A roasted chicken will always soothe a worried, anxious heart. The process is relatively simple, actually. After preheating the oven to 400°F and unpackaging the chicken, I take a small bowl from the cabinet and toss in a blend of spices (the same spice blend I talk about in my first newsletter). Then on a lined baking sheet, I message the spices into the bird until my shoulders drop and I am more at ease. I tie the chicken's legs together with a piece of string to ensure the thighs brown evenly. Before I pop it in the oven, I drizzle olive oil and a splash of lemon over the bird until it glistens in the kitchen light. If you feel like it, you can chop up an onion into rings and place them around the chicken, but that is only if you have the energy and an onion on hand. All you have to do next is pop the baking tray in the oven and let it roast until your apartment starts smelling warm and your stomach rumbles with hunger. (But if you are looking for a specific time, Google likes to say to cool a chicken for about 20 minutes per pound. Mine was about four pounds, so I cooked it for 80 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, insert it in the thickest part of the chicken's thigh, and if it reaches 165°F, you are golden.)
Another thing you can do to drown out the ranging sea is to build a blanket fort and hind under it for the evening. While our chicken was roasting in the oven, Caleb and I rearranged my living room furniture and built a blanket in the middle of my living room floor. It felt like I was 8 again, and I took everything a little less seriously. While I couldn't sit up straight, the world melted away for a while, and I could breathe. I have a collection of VHS tapes, and we chose to watch Rebel Without a Cause. We stayed up until 1 a.m. watching James Dean and Natalie Wood with their teenage dramas while tearing apart and eating chicken with our fingers under floral blankets propped up with chairs. It may not have solved the problems, but it was a soft place to land for a while.
It is now Sunday, and I have leftover chicken in my fridge. What is good with cold leftover chicken? Chicken salad, of course. This recipe was easy; I threw everything into a bowl, eyeballing the measurement, and tore the chicken with my fingers before whipping it up with a rubber spatula. Chicken salad between two pieces of bread, sparking water, and open windows is my kind of late summer Sunday afternoon.
Recipe box
Baking is the one thing that always makes me feel grounded when the world quivers. Looking in the fridge one evening, I saw an abundance of blueberries that still needed to be used. One of my favorite things to bake with blueberries is muffins.
These are from the New York Times Cooking website, but there are many recipes for blueberry muffins. I encourage you to explore and bit and see what you find. Choose the muffins that speak to you.
Published
"Delicious and nutritious: Behind the concession stand" - My second blog for the Historic Artcraft Theatre is published! I got to talk to some lovely people who remebered Mrs. Irene Petro, the popcorn lady who worked at the theatre for nearly 30 years. If you like heartfelt stories, go give it a read.
Things I am into right now…
This Instagram account about all things Nora Ephron and her movies. (When it gets close to fall, I obsess over everything cozy and warm... like You Got Mail and pumpkin spice. Call me basic.)
This poem about September.
Franklin has a new knitting shop -- The Knitting Otter! I am so excited about getting cozy new yarn for a winter project.
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See you next week!