This week has had a balance of hot and temperate days. On the days that are cool for the summer months, I’m trying to take advantage of the absence of heat and cook some of the foods I usually avoid in stifling weather: this week, it was brownies, last week it was cauliflower cake. On the hot days, we’re having simple pastas, lots of summer produce, and grilling a little bit. We’ve also had the chance to introduce Charlotte to some of the water parks and this weekend went to the neighborhood pool for the first time. She loved it but was also a little nervous at times, attaching like a tree frog in our arms while learning to splash and explore.
Here’s what I’m eating and reading this week:
Weekly Menu Plan (in case you need ideas and inspiration)
Sunday: Steak tips with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Penne pasta and pesto sauce with pan-seared chicken
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Cereal and leftovers (an exhausting day, we basically punted on dinner)
Friday: Tofu, farro, and vegetable bowls (which were fabulous… recipe to come)
Saturday: BBQ chicken and caramelized onion pizza with broccoli & kale slaw, dessert of cream cheese brownies
What I’m Reading & Loving This Week
The disastrously weird column by David Brooks in the NYTimes and the internet’s response.
Toddlers “dressed up” and photographed in food.
On not accepting compliments on “the hustle.”
On striving for different kinds of popularity.
Title: The Heirs
Author: Susan Rieger
Date: 2017
Format: hardcover
Picked up as an easy summer read, this book turned out to be much more enjoyable and absorbing than I anticipated. Yes, it was a light, easy read (I finished in the span of a weekend, technically in just one day, though I chipped in to my precious sleep time to finish). And yes, it’s about scandal among New York’s wealthy elites. But it also isn’t just that. The first few chapters certainly started out a bit predictably, but as the book moved along, it became more interesting and layered than I anticipated. The cast of characters was wide and well developed; there weren’t cookie-cutter heroes and villains. Family dynamics and relationships took center stage and people were allowed to be both wonderful and flawed. I wasn’t bored to tears reading about five wealthy sons living in the city. Instead, I liked the story, the central scandal didn’t feel like the central plot driver but an undercurrent humming along in the background.
I didn’t have any sections or quotes worth pulling here, and while it’s probably not showing up on a college syllabus in the near future, the book itself is worth considering as a late-summer read.
Note: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
