Easy and indulgent

Stone fruit season, a fresh baba ganoush recipe, and #teamconnie

Teahouse is a newsletter about home, travel, and community. Here you’ll find renovation documentation and destination inspiration alongside a curation of things I’m creating, consuming, and coveting right now.

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Few things make me whip a U-turn faster than a roadside Palisade peach stand. They could sell the exact same product at Whole Foods, but in my completely rational mind, fruit exchanged for a couple of crumpled bills on the side of the road just tastes better.

This month flew by. We took a quick trip to Detroit to do some housekeeping on our rental properties, which was immediately followed by a long weekend in Montreal for my friend Jen’s bachelorette. Summer feels like it’s slipping away all too quickly, so I’m leaning into things that are easy and indulgent before the season turns.

1. 🍑 This tomato, peach, and burrata salad is the perfect hot weather girl dinner. I love Annie Lucey’s fuss-free, seasonal recipes, and her recipe riffs (AKA easy ideas for making something your own) are my preferred way of cooking. That corn pasta is next on my list!

2. 🍆 Ottolenghi’s baba ganoush is all I want to eat right now. I cannot get enough of this fresh, Lebanese-style version of a traditional aubergine dip. It’s the best to have on hand for an afternoon fridge-raid snack with a sliced baguette or toasted pita. We skipped the pomegranate and didn’t feel like it was missing anything.

3. 🍒 Cherry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream is worth the sacrifice to your summer bod: After a tremendously unsuccessful backyard 2022 growing season, we didn’t bother with a garden this year, but the one time of year I get to harvest some “homegrown produce” is when our sour cherry tree out front ripens. This Epicurious recipe got rave reviews a few weeks ago, served with a barely melty scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

4. 📺 Teen romance “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Prime Video is living in my head rent-free. Sixteen-year-old Isabel “Belly” Conklin spends every summer at Cousins Beach with her mom’s best friend Susannah and Susannah’s two teenage boys, Conrad (#teamconnie) and Jeremiah. Cue the love triangle, set to a Tay Swift-heavy soundtrack that hits so good it feels like the songs were written for the show. I can’t put my finger on exactly why TSITP has such a hold on me and every grown adult, mid-thirties female friend I’ve recommended it to… it might be that momentary escape into the sweet nostalgia of being a teenager without, you know, actually having to be a teenager. The season two finale just came out—time to binge if you haven’t already dipped your toe in the water. 

5. 🎧 A recently discovered pod: Hilary Kerr’s “Second Life” is kind of like a “How I Built This.” Except with a higher percentage of badass female founders and a relaxed girl-chat vibe. Particularly loved this old episode with

   Megan Alida Strachan
   , CEO and founder of jewelry company Dorsey.