"Olive Jar" by Naomi Shihab Nye + Eggplant with Lentils and Pine Nuts

As a food blogger, publishing a post is like extending a hand or inviting someone to the table. After months of reading someone's blog, you feel as if you're getting to know a friend, someone you'd like to sit and have tea with, if only you lived in the same city. We often watch each other from afar, sharing in the joys and frustrations of cooking, writing, and finding our place in the food community. Although we've never met, Elizabeth Winslow from Farmhouse Table has helped me overcome my aversion to eggplant, so I'm grateful I stumbled across her recipe when I did. Elizabeth, if you're reading this, thank you!

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"Hunting the Cotaco Creek" by Charles Gigna + Butternut-Leek Soup from Whole Larder Love

Disclaimer: I was given an advance copy of this cookbook for the purposes of a review. All opinions are my own.

I've just emerged from being transported to a way of life and way of cooking that, living in an urban city, seems almost entirely out of reach. At first, I wondered if I'd be able to connect with the recipes. I don't hunt quail, kill my own chickens, or cure my own prosciutto. But Rohan Anderson doesn't mind if you're a city-dweller. Instead, he's just trying to nudge us all into a direction of eating more locally, sustainably, and getting off the hamster wheel.

"For many of us, life is jammed with rush, noise, convenience, and stress. There is little time left for contact with the natural world... Why are we living like this? Never in our history have we been so well off, yet living such poor quality lives. Is this all there is? Surely not." -Rohan Anderson

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"A Pot of Red Lentils" by Peter Pereira + Sara's Smoky Lentil Soup

My friend Sara wrote a cookbook. It's beautiful, thoughtful, and full of the kind of recipes you've come to rely on from her blog, Sprouted Kitchen. I read it cover to cover the day it arrived, and have since gone back to revisit all the pages I added post-it notes to. You might want to bookmark this recipe for the first cold snap, because it will be here sooner than we realize.

Andrew and I went to the Hollywood Bowl last weekend (it never really feels like summer until I've done that). We enjoyed a picnic in the grass (grilled pepper, onion and goat cheese sandwiches + white bean and zucchini salad + macaroons from Bouchon + a crisp Sauvignon blanc), then found our seats and cozied up to the smoky voice of Diana Krall.

I made Sara's smoky red lentil soup the next day, and Andrew went on a hilarious diatribe about how he doesn't really like soup. But wait. It gets better. (And just for the record, he approved everything I'm about to say, and even suggested that I tell Sara about how this conversation went down.)

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"Attack of the Squash People" by Marge Piercy (Part 2) + Superfood Salad with Magical Zucchini and Walnut Dressing

Today I'm back with Part 2 of the zucchini posts, so I'll pick up where I left off. On the same trip to Hawaii, I also had a moment. You might call it a lightbulb, a-ha, game changing moment, and it's all thanks to zucchini. You might think it was all thanks to kale, but it turns out that kale was hardly the most surprising part of this recipe.

Also, it's safe to say that all of our bodies must be telling us something. As I was working on this post, another wonderful blogger also posted her take on a creamy dressing for kale, and Twitter chronicled our cravings and adaptation ideas as well. I love being in good company this way.

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"Attack of the Squash People" by Marge Piercy (Part 1) + Raw Zucchini Pasta with Basil-Spinach Pesto

The end of May was refreshing in many ways. After celebrating my birthday (and thanks to all of you for such heartfelt wishes on my big "turning 30" post!), Andrew and I jetted off to Maui for a week, then returned to attend the wedding of some dear friends in California's wine country.

We did all the things you would expect on a tropical vacation. We ate fish, drank mai tai's, sought out the softest Hawaiian shaved ice, got a couples massage, went snorkeling in a secluded cove, read as many books as we could, took afternoon naps, and watched the sunset from our wrap-around balcony. Ah, the joys of island time. I miss it just typing these words. After a week or so, as much as part of you is renewed to return to the routines of life, the other part desperately wants to stay another day. Or two.

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