Good morning. How I’m hoping it will go today: light wind from the southwest, sun high in a cloudless sky, low tide around 2 p.m., a striped bass slipping along the creek where I’m staked out and inhaling the crab fly I’ve put right in front of her with an effortless cast. How it will undoubtedly go: hard wind from the east, sun blanketed by dark clouds if not sheets of rain, and some problem discovered that will keep me off the water anyway.
A failed sump pump in the basement? Dead battery in the truck? This season’s tracking poorly for me. Luck is spare on the ground.
I’m determined to enjoy the holiday weekend all the same. I’ll make spicy grilled shrimp (above) if it’s even a little bit warm; I’ll slow roast a bo ssam if it’s not. These bring pleasure to even the most bummed-out of revelers. I’ll make waffles for the holiday morning, then steam some eggs for egg salad sandwiches for lunch. And I’ll make a fresh ginger cake, just because. Who can feel bad about that?
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Spicy Grilled Shrimp
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As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
Mark Bittman’s recipe for farro niçoise steers into the nutty excellence of the grains, pairing them with a powerfully lemony vinaigrette alongside the salad’s usual accompaniments of flaked tuna, hard-boiled eggs, green beans and tomatoes. That’s a nice dinner.
Tuesday
Here’s a chowder-inspired shrimp ramen from Kay Chun that’s perfect for the season, with spring radishes and snap peas. Clam juice amplifies the sweet brininess of the shrimp while caramelized miso brings the soup a bacon-y depth. Oh, man.
Wednesday
Tejal Rao adapted the British cookbook author Anna Jones’s recipe for one-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and kale, and it’s a weeknight wonder. You cook the pasta with the tomatoes, which break down into a thick, starchy sauce, and then add the kale to wilt. Maybe a couple of anchovies, too, and a pinch of red-pepper flakes? I think so, yes.
Thursday
You don’t need a flattop griddle to make Melissa Knific’s new recipe for chopped cheese, the classic New York bodega sandwich. But if you have one, it’s the perfect vehicle for short-order cosplay and improvisation, “the Ocky way.” Either way, I’m betting chopped cheese is a dinner you’ll make a lot this summer.
Friday
And then you can head into the weekend with Melissa Clark’s new recipe for pizza al taglio, the classic Roman pizza, here made on a sheet pan with an easy, no-knead crust. I’m putting artichoke hearts on mine.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with the price of tea or the scent of a fresh persimmon, but Geoff Edgers has a nice read in The Washington Post on Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, together again.
For the London Review of Books, Thomas Jones visited the British Museum to examine the exhibition “Legion: Life in the Roman Army.” He zeros in on “a single red woolen sock, from about the third century A.D.,” and it’s delightful.
What is a mother tongue, and can you lose it over time? Madeleine Schwartz, an American who grew up speaking both English and French, has been living in France for years now. She fears for her English. “I missed the variegated vocabulary of New York,” she wrote for The New York Times Magazine, “where English felt like an international, rather than a globalized language, enriched with the particular words of decades of immigrants.”
Finally, our Jon Pareles turned me on to Beth Gibbons’s latest, “Lives Outgrown.” Here’s “Reaching Out,” from the album, spooky and propulsive: “You said you will, you said you won’t. You can’t tell if you don’t.” Listen to that while you’re cooking and I’ll be back next week.
