I did not want to sit in front of a computer last week.
I have spent a lot of time looking forward to September. September, in theory, is my exhale: after 18 months of All This Shit, I will finally have two kids in in-person school. My excitement to return to work, to tackle projects, to REST - it is visceral. My cells thrill at the thought of this reprieve. I am so hungry for this change that I could cry. (I have.) And yet, that word: "theory." It is feeling a lot (a lot a lot) as though the start of school year and the return to chillier weather will be ushering in more hard work, an autumnal call-to-arms as we continue to try our damnedest to keep our most vulnerable safe. I have never stopped worrying about the pandemic; I never thought that fall would mark the beginning of its end. I was just counting on a change of pace. And I know I'm not alone. I know a lot of you, children or no, feel it, too.
But with the looming threat of school closures and the potential return of The Sourdough Era also comes a shift in perspective: I thought this last month of summer would be my home stretch, when really, this might be my vacation. There may come a day in November when I long for what I have right now: a sense of safety in seeing friends and family, the luxury of outdoor spaces, a relatively lessened anxiety at sending my daughter to preschool every morning. So for now, I'm opting to spend the rest of August soaking up what I can, as emotional fortification against whatever lies ahead for all of us. I know that Butter. just got started, but for the rest of this month, you'll see a lot less science and a lot less text; just a few recipe cards each week. Less computer time, for both of us. School starts back up in September in more ways than one. We'll finally get around to the science of pasta and the series on retrogradation, and I have a guide to soups & stews & chowders already written, just waiting for cooler weather. We'll also do one on pies in time for apple season, and in a few months, one on cookies. There's good stuff coming. I just want to focus on other good stuff for another week or two. I hope you do, too.
Also, this: I hope you're not cooking much right now, anyway. It's August. It's too hot to turn on the oven and too sunny to be stuck in a grocery store. The best of late summer doesn't require much work anyway, so I hope you're eating yourself sick and tired of ripe cherries and juicy peaches, sliced tomatoes, fresh corn just barely warmed through. Fry some bacon and pick up some of the good bread, and that's dinner, repeat repeat repeat. For the nights when you can't manage even that, get some takeout: if there really is more Hard Work ahead for all of us in the face of this pandemic, our restaurant friends are going to feel it, too, and they could probably use the love right now.
The recipe I'm sending over today isn't at all seasonal, but it's a good one to have in your back pocket for when all of the above fails: an easy pantry meal that comforts to the core. I'm a big fan of pasta that can - and should - be eaten with a spoon. When you're buying ingredients, double up: some for now, and some for later. This is the recipe for weary nights, whatever the season, whatever the cause. xo.