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, another Saturday is here. I wonder how your week went, and how your summer is going? Is it hot where you are? Here we’ve had a lovely start to the summer, weather-wise: we haven’t had many over 100F days, although today is supposed to be one. We went on our much-cherished annual cherry and berry picking outing with our dear friend, and came home absolutely loaded with the most delicious blueberries, which we’ve been scoffing by the handful. I froze some of them, but I hope to go back once more to fill the freezer. They’re so much better than store-bought frozen and less waste, too.
The garden has been enjoying the warm days and relatively cool (for us!) nights and everything is so happy. I harvested the first couple zucchini and my cherry tomatoes are almost ready, too. Thai and Genovese basil are taking off, and the apricot and plum trees are loaded. Such a gift to enjoy this abundance of food lovingly coaxed out of the earth with my own hands.
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This week I just finished the fourth, and final, novel of the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante, The Story of the Lost Child. I’m definitely feeling the post-book blues and have not been interested in reading another book yet (have been watching Sex and the City, lol). Do you get that feeling? Of a small death and the grief from missing the characters and setting that you’ve immersed yourself in? The last time I felt it this strongly was last spring, when I read the book Still Life (excellent, by the way). I think I’ll loll around in this feeling a bit more before moving on. I just realized that the new Rachel Cusk book, Parade, which I pre-ordered from The Avid Reader in spring, is ready to pickup. I always love Cusk, so perhaps that will see me through. I’ll update you next week. In small child book news, find our library haul for James this week below. As always, I’d love to hear recommendations of books you’ve loved lately (for any age!). And if you missed it, Tuesday’s newsletter was a summer reading list full of recommendations:
This week in food, there’s lots of simple meals centered on fresh summer produce, whole grains, and legumes + treats made with stonefruit and berries. There’s gnocchi, panzanella, a plum cake, and even an ice cream. Summer food, front and center. Also, here’s a few meals enjoyed this week that I remembered to photograph:
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the meal plan
weekend prep: soak and cook cannellini beans, bake sourdough, boil wheat berries
Sunday: foccacia, cut into squares and split in half, to fill with zucchini stewed in olive oil with garlic; alongside a chickpea, cherry tomato, basil, avocado, red onion salad dressed with balsamic vinegar + olive oil
Monday: wheat berry salad with chimichurri dressing; leftover stewed zucchini, warmed with cannellini beans mixed through
Tuesday: summer minestrone with the leftover cannellini beans, green beans, tiny pasta (prob. ditalini), cherry tomatoes, red onions, garlic, and basil + sourdough
Wednesday: pan fried gnocchi with tomatoes and radishes ; french lentils boiled simply in salt water, then tossed while still warm with good olive oil, a touch of red wine vinegar, and fresh black pepper- and a bit of fresh chopped marjoram or oregano if you have it.
Thursday: spiced couscous, cherry tomato, and herb salad- will add the leftover french lentils from the day before, too, to rounch out the meal
Friday: pizza night; dough here; one with pesto, zucchini, and feta + one with tomato, basil, and mozz // simple green salad with the sweetest tropea onions and cucumbers, marjoram vinaigrette (something like this: 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp good red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, a small garlic clove, smashed into a paste, a scattering of chopped marjoram, a tiny dollop of dijon mustard to emulsify everything)
Saturday: panzanella with any stale leftover sourdough, chickpeas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, basil, olive oil and red wine vinegar; pepperonata (olive oil stewed red pepper and tomatoes) on the side
weekend bake: gf almond and plum cake (our plum tree is just ripening this weekend)
midweek treat: roasted cherry cardamom ice cream
weekend breakfast: blueberry banana breakfast bread
cocktail: cherry gin smash
I hope you have a beautiful week filled with love and good food. Leaving you, as always, with a poem- I think of this one often in summer. xx A
A Day Is Vast
A day is vast.
Until noon.
Then it’s over.
Yesterday’s pondwater
braided still wet in my hair.
I don’t know what time is.
You can’t ever find it.
But you can lose it.
Jane Hirschfield, COME, THIEF (Knopf, 2011)
Thank you for another lovely newsletter!
For books- I just finished All Fours (still processing this book, not sure if I would recommend it or not) and am anxiously awaiting from the library Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
My son just re-fell in love with Sato the Rabbit, such a cute book series
It has been cooler this summer with some actual rain, which has been great for the garden.
I just finished reading the vaster wilds and am nearly done a life's work. I loved the vaster wilds.
No menu plan for me yet this week but that tofu pudding looks amazing! What a nice treat.
Thank you for this lovely missive.