Summer Garden Party & Grilled Nectarine Pasta
While I've started layering flannels and sweaters, there's still so much summer I want to relive, relish, and share, including this summer garden party
While I've started layering flannels and sweaters, there's still so much summer I want to relive, relish, and share, including this summer garden party
This rosy brunch, a precursor to the COVID crisis, was a celebration of a few of the female bonds in my life. It was a celebration of what makes each of us unique and a celebration of what we share. It was my effort to look at my calendar, and my photos, and my posts to see if my values matched my life. Was I defining myself with work, or was I making time to foster relationships? Was I taking action, or was I falsely relying on "someday" and "sometime?"
As a kid, I was always searching for traditions. I orchestrated (read: made my family suffer through) an annual Christmas play with my best friend, complete with violin and piano solos. There were spreads or ring bologna, cheddar cheese, and soda. As an adult, I’m still searching for traditions, but now I err on the side of prosciutto, smoked gouda, and wine. It’s all too easy to let traditions slip away, to avoid the effort, or to overstress (hi!), but these intentional celebrations enrich our lives.
Welcome to a beautiful dining room, where the fire crackles, and the deep green chairs are extra inviting. Let's cozy in and reflect on Friendsgiving, shall we?
I don't have a recipe for you. Instead, I have a preserved memory for my friends and for myself, but perhaps, I have a seed for you too. Maybe there's an epic seafood boil in your future.
It's about to get a little louder and a little brighter than it typically is in this corner of the web. I am a nuanced human being after all, and as much as I love vintage wood grains, I love a nearly neon, pink, stone-washed jumpsuit and roller skates. But before we fully get this party started, I want to share why this party, this loud, silly, colorfully over-stimulating party was so needed.
I don’t know what big projects are on my horizon, or what the fine-tuning of my career will look like yet, but I know this: I want to make people feel special and celebrated. I want to empower people to feel their value and their contribution, whether it be passing them a microphone on stage or really enjoying the cup of coffee they made me. I want to be part of restoring humanity, which is why I hosted this brunch in honor of my friend, Sandra Villarroel and her organization Worth Manifesto.
Thanks to author Laura Vanderkam, I've begun to look at weekends with more purpose and intention. I view weekends as time I need to cherish in a different way than weekdays, and in that spirit, I sent a text to two of my favorite people, "Brunch on Sunday?"