Good morning! Today we have for you:
You can find me in a deck chairIn a recent conversation about vacation preferences, someone asked me if I was a beach person or a mountain person. I said I was a shaded-deck-with-a-view person. As long as there’s a comfy chair to sit in, a vista to contemplate and a cool drink to sip, I’m happy out in the country or by the shore, preferably in a place where I can invade the kitchen. Because vacations are even better when I can cook. I especially love cooking with a friend on vacation because the chat is as fun as the chop. Although you don’t need two people to make Mark Bittman’s chicken kebabs with turmeric and chile, an extra set of hands will make the recipe fly. Which means we can be sitting on that deck, enjoying our meal in minutes. My summer dream come true. Featured Recipe Chicken Kebabs With Turmeric and ChileAlso on the menuTomato risotto: Apropos of the World Cup, David Beckham makes a mean risotto, at least according to Gordon Ramsay (you can read more about it in this article in The Athletic). This tomato version by David Tanis would go beautifully with chicken skewers (or meat or fish ones). Green bean salad with dill pickles and feta: You can make Ali Slagle’s salty, creamy salad a few hours — or even a few days — ahead, so it’s at the ready for lazy summer meals. Limonada: And for something cooling to sip on a deck, this tangy, frothy drink is a classic summer beverage in Brazil. Made with whole limes, plenty of ice and sweetened condensed milk, Gabriella Lewis’s recipe is a little miracle on a very hot day. Reading and eatingThis isn’t usually a space for cookbook talk, since cookbooks are by nature more about the recipes than the text. But there are exceptions, and “How to Eat a Peach” by Diana Henry is one of them. Yes, the book has 100 truly excellent recipes (including roasted cherries with cardamom cream, and duck with turnips). But it’s the prose that I come back most often for — genuine and heartfelt without sentimentality, well-researched and insightful and as funny, smart and thoughtful as you’d want in a friend. Because books I love are always like friends. Diana named the book after a story involving a sliced ripe peach dropped into a glass of Moscato at the end of a summer meal in Italy. Its perfect simplicity is similar in spirit, I think, to David Tanis’s peach and berry Macedonia with sparkling rosé. It’s something to eat and sip simultaneously while you read.
What are you reading? Let me know at hellomelissa@nytimes.com — I’m always looking for my next great read. That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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