Quaintrelle Weekender
Heat domes, plan-ahead menus, and margs for one.
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My backside currently looks like Neapolitan ice cream.
I’m incredibly diligent about 50 SPF applied liberally and often, and you’ll note my wide brimmed sun hat that is as stylish as it is practical.
However, it seems I missed a wide swath of skin on my lower back just above my bathing suit, so now a fuchsia pink strip separates the lightly toasted brown of my upper back and the marble white of my buttocks.
The heat dome has finally hit southern Ontario and with it, my FOMO has finally obliterated in the the sun’s blistering, 33°C, feels like 43°C rays.
After a month of warm, but not consistently hot days, Canada Day came with a terrifying scorcher, pushing the humidex into high 40’s temps, so I spent the holiday bobbing around my parents’ pool, sangria in hand, as my mum and I lazily circled each other floating in the current of the bubbling return valves.
Babs and I bobbed out on the open waters of her pool for the whole afternoon, only leaving the nurturing depths of the cool waters to alternately pee and refill our sangria goblets. My dad joined us intermittently to sip a marg between innings of the Jays/ Mets game.
The key, I think, to joyously embracing the lazy quotient of the hazy days of summer is to have everything you need waiting in the wings (or if you’re my dad, the bullpen.)
I arrived early in the morning, the air already thick, toting cooler bags of the day’s provisions.
Turkey burgers (a straight forward and streamlined recipe from Martha Shulman - here’s a gift link if you want it,) rosé sangria, southern German potato salad, the dressing for cucumber salad, pasta salad, and the ingredients for a lemon-garlic marinade for chicken. Babs, for her part, managed to find the energy to thaw some chicken breasts which I would later barbecue for dinner. She really outdid herself.
Lunch was burgers and potato salad. No more effort than firing up the barbie, which in 45°C degree heat and humidity, is more considerable than you think. An afternoon snack of olives, cheese, and tzatziki flavoured crackers (I asked my ma to buy tzatziki flavoured kettle chips because everyone likes them and they seem to be a favourite of my dad’s, but she got confused in the overwhelming labyrinth that is Costco and bought tzatziki flavoured crackers. See what I have to deal with?)
Afternoon cocktails, as mentioned, were sangria and margs, two drinks currently topping the Henderson Summer Leaderboard. Sangria was done that morning, it’s better with a few hours of infusing; and technically margs can also be done that morning, but my ma didn’t juice the limes like I requested, so that was an à la minute process done by me during a brief respite of a wild storm that blew out as fast as it blew in. I also used sudden the downpour to marinade the chicken, as it only needs an hour or so, otherwise the lemon juice makes the texture go weird. Babs, for her part, got off her floatie and took refuge under the gazebo, still clutching her sangria.
Skies cleared and drinks in hand, we returned to the water, bobbing and weaving until dinner.
The grill fired up again, I placed the chicken and bell peppers on to roast. Meanwhile, I showered a fresh shaving of Parmesan over the pasta salad and sliced and salted the the cukes leaving them to drain in a colander. I tossed them with the dressing I brought right before serving.
My ma decided she had enough strength to set the table, lucky me, and dinner was served in 20 minutes. Naturally, everyone complimented Babs on her beautiful table.
Single Serving Marg
1 oz simple syrup
¾ oz orange flavoured liqueur
2oz white tequila (decent quality but no need for top shelf stuff)
1oz fresh lime juice
Salt
Lime zest (optional)
Into an empty shaker, add a teensy-tiny pinch of salt (saline enhances the flavour of cocktails the same way it does in baking)
Pour a bit of salt onto a plate, and if you’re feeling energetic enough, mix it with lime zest. You don’t have to do this, but it’s not that much extra work and it’s really lovely.
Rim a glass with the lime juice and dip the edge of the glass with the salt (and optional lime.)
Into the shaker add the simple syrup, orange liqueur, tequila and lime juice (I like going from sticky to acidic because the leftover sugar and liqueur get washed out of the jigger by the alcohol and lime juice.)
Fill your shaker with ice and shake it like it owes you money.
Add fresh ice to your salt-rimmed glass and strain the marg into it.
This Week’s Big 3
Easy Clean. The obsessives at Cook’s Illustrated do it again with insider’s tips on the no-scrub method to cleaning a splattered meecro-whaavy.
Pack Your Bags. I picked up La Rosée's Anti-Fatigue Eye Contour Stick upon a random recommendation when I was in Paris last year. Holy. Smokes. The French know what they’re doing. This basic pharmacy purchase (I think it was €18?) is probably one of the best I’ve ever made. It took me a few months to notice, but, with committed daily use, eventually I was looking at a photo of myself and realized my under-eye bags were much less noticeable (and I have such pronounced puffiness that I’m planning on a surgery, date still TBD, that is basically liposuction for under eye bags.) My sister is in France right now and this was the only thing I asked her to bring me back. However, a quick internet search shows it’s available at Shopper’s Drug Mart, but it’s still cheaper in France. Natch.
Jane Green. That’s it. That’s the tweet. I tend to girl-crush hard on fabulous women, going down rabbit holes of their lives like my name is Annie Wilkes. I have no idea how it happened, but through a series of leap frogging events, I discovered her through Jo Piazza’s podcast and have been enraptured ever since. Jane’s a best-selling author who, after turning 50 and having a come-to-Jesus moment, cashed in her comfy Connecticut life for a bohemian adventure in Marrakesh (it helps that Marrakesh tops my list of must-visit destinations). She just released her memoir, Rewilding, and I immediately added to cart.
Currently Reading:
The Au Pair by Teddy Wayne This just-released novel is hyped by The New York Times as, “the book everyone will be reading this summer” and I managed to score it before anyone else at the Toronto Public Library! This literally never happens to me; I’m always the schmuck with the 14-week wait no matter how fast my finger fly to the Libby app. Enough bragging. This is a literary thriller about a struggling writer's affair with his family's super-hot Norwegian au pair which spirals into a scandalous trial, forcing him to confront his insecurities and obsession. I’m about 30% in, and I can’t say I’m hooked yet, but it’s good enough that I’ll see it through.
The Weekend Menu:
It’s currently very, very hot, so dialling back the energy expenditure is top of mind with pitcher cocktails, screw cap wines, and no-cook meals.
Last Sunday’s Dinner: Classic Sausage and Peppers
Tonight’s Dinner: Steak tartare and air fryer frites
The Weekend Cocktail: Pimm’s for a Crowd
The Weekend Wine: Soltura Organic Rose, Spain $12
Back on Monday…
The third instalment in my series on how I lost 23 pounds in three months continues with a deep dive into my work out routine. I’ll be sharing exactly what I do and how often I do it. Spoiler alert: it’s not very often and not for very long. That’s for premium subscribers, but if you feel like upgrading for as little as $6 per month, it’s well worth it – if I do say so myself.
Until then –
xo – Erin
Love Babs