Good morning! Today is The Weekly Recap #100, that’s pretty cool! I started writing these newsletters to share recipes and all the random food knowledge I have in my brain but I never imagined I would be here. It feels great and I still enjoy doing it each week. Thank you for subscribing, reading, and cooking with me!!
Next week Marco and I have a group of friends coming to visit Kansas City. We have three days of planned activities at our house and around the city. This is our way to make up for some lost time, share this city we live in with our friends from back home, and fill our beautiful home with people we love.
Our weekend is busy and we have a few coordinated caterings to make things easy but I wouldn’t miss out on this opportunity to cook for my friends! At the same time, I don’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen away from my friends. So I have done a lot of planning. I have a detailed list of what to make and when to sneak in the prep. My requirements are that everything I am making needs to be fast or something that can be made in advance.
Friday will be spent on a boat floating and fishing. When we return home in the late afternoon, I’ll have a few hours to make dinner and get ready for our evening out.
My plan is to fire up the grill when we walk in the door and hop in the shower as it heats up. Once I’m out, I can throw on some chicken thighs for a quick grill and a skirt steak which literally takes 5 minutes. Back inside I’ll brush the chicken thighs with tangy honey to make my Tangy Honey Grilled Chicken and top the steak with chimichurri. Both sauces can be made and will have been made in advance earlier in the week. I’ll pull out a big Sugar Snap Salad that I also assembled the day before and dress it right before serving. Done, done, and done.
Sunday we will have everyone back at the house for a good ol’ midwest party. We have a BBQ drop-off scheduled to feed everyone but I will make a few dishes to lighten up the meal. It’s been hot here, like summer hot, and very humid. I love melon salads for snacking on hot days so I’m making two! Watermelon + Tomato Salad and another simple Melon Salad with cantaloupe, herbs, fish sauce, lime juice, and chilis. Labneh Onion Dip with LOTS of crudité is a must for dipping. That takes some time but I can do it first thing in the morning to get it out of the way.
The last meal I’ll make is brunch on Monday morning before everyone heads home. My go-to to feed a group is a frittata. A dozen eggs, any vegetables you have on hand, and 25 minutes are all you need. Need to feed more people? Make two.
The final thing I am planning to prepare this week is a big batch of Strawberry Cream Cookie dough. The cookies will get portioned and can hold in the fridge for a few days. Anytime we are in need of some fresh baked cookies I can pop them right in the oven. So there is a ton of prep that will go into this upcoming weekend but if I can get through the whole checklist, the actual meals should be a breeze. I’m so excited!
Tangy Honey Grilled Chicken, Sugar Snap Salad, Watermelon + Tomato, Labneh Onion Dip, and Strawberry Cream Cookies are all past Kitchen Club recipes. They have been unlocked for everyone to view and try this week. If you enjoy them, maybe become a paid subscriber and join The Kitchen Club for more?!
Yesterday we finally were able to go strawberry picking (one of our favorite spring activities) and we brought home a whole flat of ripe berries. Our upcoming Kitchen Club recipe is Strawberry Shortcake with Black Pepper Corn Meal Scones! I’m doing the final test using all these berries right after I send this out. 😋
Per Jennie’s request, my long-time subscriber and internet friend, here is the link to my awesome cow bucket hat!
What Kitchen Club subscribers made this week…
Before Lifestyle Influencers, There Was ‘Martha Stewart Living’ *The magazine is done and I’m actually sad about it 😥
Ina Garten Is Giving a Food Tour of Paris on Instagram Right Now — Here Are Some of Her Favorite Spots
The Utopian Promises and Novelty Cheese of a Discount Grocery Store
Salty-Snack Chocolate Fudge with Pretzels and Crushed Potato Chips *From Jessie Sheehan’s new book, Snackable Bakes
Potato Salad With Spicy Green Goddess Labneh And Lobster 🤤🤤🤤
Ty Haney created Outdoor Voices straight out of college…super interesting conversation about the rise and takeover of the company.
This video is bad, hard to watch. If you ever experience a grease fire do not swing it around or use water. Turn the stove off and cover the pan with a lid or a sheet tray to smother it. You can also pour kosher salt over it. The only problem with that is you need a lot of kosher salt close by. Better yet keep a fire extinguisher on hand.
Inspired by the video above, everyone needs at least one fire extinguisher around! I actually have multiple big ones in my house. One upstairs in the hall next to the kitchen and one downstairs in the laundry room. At least get one of the slim affordable ones to keep in your kitchen.
I have a friend who had a grease fire while frying chicken and prevented her apartment building from burning down all because she had a little fire extinguisher under her kitchen sink.
Here is a behind-the-scenes shot of my window set up for photos. Ollie sometimes comes and helps get the right shot.
P.S. 🔥Easy Summer Grilling🔥 starts June 1st!
Xx M
Congrats on 100! And wow, this is the first I’m hearing about Martha Living ending. Maybe she’ll be joining Substack!