Welcome to mama eats, a twice-weekly newsletter inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. This week’s post, a week of meals, is free to all readers. I try to provide as much free content as possible, however, this newsletter is a labor of love and I am a busy mother to three. If you have the means, and find value in what I share, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which also gives you access to the growing archive of posts older than a month.
Hello friends, happy Saturday morning, the last weekend of June! We’ve got a very hot week slated ahead of us this week and we are in full summer mode- I wake up early every morning to make coffee and fling windows open and do any steamy or oven cooking while it’s still cool-ish out so as not to heat up the house mid-day. I usually do something like cook a pot of beans, boil potatoes or pasta or farro to use later in cold salads, or bake a tart or cake or foccacia/bread. This means part of the cooking is done, and most of what I need to do later is assemble- summer produce is so good for needing minimal intervention to taste incredibly delicious. For example, I had my mom over for lunch yesterday, and I made a savory tart in the morning with sauteed zucchini/red bell peppers/potatoes, steamed green beans. When it came time to serve, I made a quick salad with little gem lettuce/tomato/cucumber/a handful of torn basil leaves dressed simply with olive oil, red wine vinegar, s+p. We had one of those small watermelons you see pictured above, which came in our CSA box this week and are unbelievably sweet, for the perfect dessert.
This week, I read Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. I’m still processing it a bit, but I really enjoyed it. She’s an Argentinian writer, and this was a short little novella that, like its title suggests, is a little weird, a little stressful, a little feverish. It’s one that gets in your head- I couldn’t stop reading it- and is partly a commentary on the environmental toxicity from soy farming in Argentina. I have also been re-reading Elevating Childcare by Janet Lansbury- I do it periodically as I find it such a good one for parents of babies and toddlers interested in respectful (not permissive) parenting. It’s super short yet impactful.
Here’s James’ library book haul this week: Whistle For Willie, Firefly Home, The Rock From The Sky, and two babybugs (a little thick-paged magazine for babies, Carmela used to get these from her great-aunt and they are perfect for this 2-ish year old age). Our library visit is such a cherished part of our week!
Here are just a few things I ate this week, that I remembered to take photographs of:
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In food this week, we’ve got a lot of tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, and some corn! Local corn and watermelon is here, and it’s glorious. We’re also finishing up our glut of apricots from our tree, so there’s a few apricot treats too. Mainly, I eat them out of hand, make tart, or roast them with some crumbled amaretti on top.
the meal plan:
Sunday: friends over for dinner: burrito bowls with black beans, cumin roasted veg, cilantro cashew cream, pickled jalapeños, fresh pico, guacamole; apricot tart
Monday: bulgur salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion… it’s the panzanella recipe, but using cooked bulgur instead of bread. garlic and olive oil sauteed green beans on the side.
Tuesday: tomato green bean salad with chickpeas, feta, and dill; sourdough
Wednesday: pici with tomato garlic sauce; garlic sauteed zucchini with marjoram (scroll to the end of this post for the recipe)
Thursday: out with friends for our town’s annual firework show/picnic dinner
Friday: pizza night! dough recipe here. One topped with sauteed zucchini and their flowers and mozzarella, one topped with shisito peppers, corn, mozzarella, and basil. Tomato, chickpea, red onion salad on the side (dressed with basil vinaigrette.)
Saturday: corn chowder with chile and lime, tortilla chips and pico de gallo on the side
weekend bake: apricot chamomile cake
weekend breakfast: gf whole grain waffles with honey roasted apricots, pistachios, and coco yogurt
midweek treat: frozen coconut lemonade
cocktail: super cold and dry prosecco, with some ripe peach sliced in to eat after it’s drunk
Leaving you with a perfect poem for summer. I hope you have a lovely week with (hopefully) a little time off to relax. Thank you for being here and reading and sharing, I adore you all. Till next week xx A