News From the Nest, June 1
Good Morning, my long lost friends!
It’s been one month sit I’ve sat down to write to you on a Monday morning, and that’s just three weeks too long! My month of May was OBE (overtaken by events), as my dad would say. And as many of you know, the event was trip through Europe.
You can enjoy the quick read about our travels and scroll through the pictures included, or scroll down to the table of contents if you want to get right to today’s featured articles.
I started the trip visiting my girlfriend in northern England, and then I met up with Terry in Paris, where we boarded a train headed to Provence for a week. And what a blissful week. We stayed in the lovely town of St. Remy, in an idyllic Airbnb within the walled city. Mercifully, my high school and college French slowly trickled up to the front of my brain, and it was a fun challenge to try to communicate in the local language. We enjoy traveling and have traveled in Europe before, but every place we stopped on this trip was new to us.
From our base in St. Remy, we visited the Roman site of Glanum, a monastery where Vincent Van Gogh spent some time recuperating and painting, the town of Baux with its Carrières des Lumières (a magnificent underground, immersive art exhibition currently featuring Picasso and Kahlo), and the towns of Avignon, Uzès, and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.
From there, we ventured to Italy, specifically the little town of Varenna on Lake Como. We had a little Airbnb right on the Lake, which was lovely and fun, but could also be a bit noisy, as the local speedboat enthusiasts did their thing on the regular. We enjoyed the very best lasagna twice, toured local gardens, took a ferry to Bellagio, and hiked straight up a steep hill to the Castello di Vezio, an 11th-century fortification. My 60+-year-old lungs and legs were talking to me!
We ended our trip with two full days in Milan, where we toured the Duomo and viewed the Last Supper painting, all truly remarkable.
Throughout the trip, we enjoyed repeatedly delicious meals and perfect weather, with the exception of the heat wave in Milan.
One tip: we used AI, specifically Claude, to help us plan our trip in advance and make decisions during the day. For instance, all our restaurant choices were guided by Claude, who didn’t steer us wrong. And when we had a dinner reservation at a certain location, we asked Claude to help us plan a walking route that would take us by fun boutiques or wine bars. Claude helped us plan our day trips in Provence to coincide with the local markets. As I told my mom, there’s a lot to be wary of with AI, but as it’s here, we may as well use it to our benefit.
Table of Contents
New on the Blog
These Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits are the real deal — crisp bottoms, visible buttery layers, and enough height to make you feel genuinely accomplished. The recipe uses grated frozen butter and a simple folding method to build those flaky layers without overworking the dough. The post walks through every troubleshooting scenario, make-ahead options, and a handful of delicious variations, from jalapeño cheddar to a honey butter glaze.
From the Knit + Crochet Studio
If you’ve ever finished a beautiful knit project only to have it look a wee bit rough around the edges, blocking is the step that fixes that. The post covers all three blocking methods — wet, steam, and spray — and which fibers and project types each method works best for, plus everything you need in terms of supplies. Reader Jacqueline wrote in to say the article finally gave her the confidence to block her own projects after avoiding it for years, which is exactly what we were going for!
Those of us who love to read AND craft, this one’s for you! These crocheted flower bookmarks use embroidery floss and take about thirty minutes from start to finish, which means you could make a whole garden of them in an afternoon. They’re also genuinely inexpensive — a few skeins of floss and a small hook — making them perfect for tucking into a gift stash for the book lovers in your life.
This knit pouf pattern uses chunky yarn and the seed stitch to create six squares that get sewn together and stuffed with polyfill, and a video walks you through the whole process. This Knit Pouf doubles as a footstool or extra seating, and you can customize the color to suit any room — which means it also happens to be a fantastic housewarming or graduation gift.
The Knit I-Cord Trivet uses 100% cotton rope knitted into a long i-cord, then coiled and stitched into a sturdy, attractive trivet that holds up beautifully in the kitchen. The i-cord trivet pattern gets you three trivets from a single $15 spool of rope, which is pretty hard to beat — and the optional faux leather tabs add a polished finishing touch. If you love kitchen knits, the post links to additional trivet and potholder patterns to keep your needles busy all summer.
From the Kitchen
This smoky Jalapeño Cheese Spread skips the pimentos in favor of fresh jalapeños for heat, while Gruyère adds the smoke! It comes together in about ten minutes and is wonderful on crackers or little toasted rye rounds.
Summer stone fruit is arriving at markets, and our Apricot Jam with Thyme is the recipe to have ready when those first apricots appear. The fruit macerates in sugar before it ever hits the stove, which concentrates the flavor beautifully, and an optional sprig of fresh thyme adds a subtle earthiness that makes this jam genuinely special. Full canning instructions are included, though you can also simply refrigerate or freeze it.
Hot days call for no-fuss dinners, and this Thai Pasta Salad fits the bill perfectly. It comes together in about 25 minutes using rotisserie chicken, a rainbow of fresh vegetables, and vermicelli noodles, all tossed in a bold peanut dressing built from peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, Sriracha, ginger, and lime. Reader Rita confirmed the salad works beautifully with glass noodles as well, so there’s real flexibility built right in.
Depending on where you live, plum season is nearly upon us or is here, and this Yogurt Plum Cake is the recipe to have ready the moment those stone fruits hit the farmers’ market. The yogurt gives the cake a gentle tang and keeps the crumb tender and moist, while the plums nearly turn into jam as they bake — which is a very, very good thing. It’s casual enough for a weekend breakfast but pretty enough to serve to company. Peaches, apricots, and nectarines all work beautifully, too.
If you’ve got a sourdough starter living on your counter, put it to work on these Sourdough Bagels. An active starter and an overnight rise build deep flavor, and a honey boil before baking gives the bagels that distinctive chewy, golden crust. They’re a brunch lover’s dream — and if you’re building that Brunch Charcuterie Board below, a pile of homemade bagels is the perfect centerpiece.
If you’re planning a graduation brunch, a baby or bridal shower, or really any summer gathering, the Brunch Charcuterie Board is your answer. The board balances sweet and savory bites with fresh fruit for a gorgeous spread that lets everyone graze and find something they love, and many of the components can be prepped ahead. Load it up with those sourdough bagels, that apricot jam and plum cake, for a table that looks like you worked a lot harder than you actually did!
With grocery prices continuing to climb, our round-up of Frugal Meals that Are Also Healthy and Delicious is as relevant as ever. The post covers 29 budget-friendly recipes — from garbage soup using leftover meat and vegetables to bean and cheese burritos to loaded baked potatoes — along with practical strategies for spending your grocery dollars more intentionally. Spoiler: eating well on a tight budget is absolutely doable, and we’ve got the recipes to prove it.
From the Arts + Crafts Studio
If you live near the coast — or have ever come home from a beach trip with a bag full of shells and no plan — the DIY Oyster Shell Clusters are a wonderful summer afternoon project. The clusters bring natural coastal charm to any space, use discarded oyster shells and a bit of hot glue, and can be made in a single afternoon. The post is the first in a whole series of oyster shell projects on the site, so if you catch the bug, there’s plenty more to explore.
This Goat Milk Soap Recipe is the gateway project for anyone who has ever wanted to make handmade soap but felt intimidated by lye and a long equipment list. It uses a melt-and-pour goat milk soap base along with shea butter and essential oils, so all the complex chemistry is already done for you. Pair a finished bar with a set of those hand-knit washcloths and you have a genuinely lovely handmade gift.
Around the House + Home
Summer is the perfect time to do a seasonal sweep through the house, and the Summer Decluttering Checklist helps you spot the items you’d otherwise overlook — beach gear, warm-weather clothes, outdoor supplies — and decide what actually deserves space in your home. The printable checklist lives in the subscriber library; the password is at the bottom of this email! A quick seasonal declutter now means the whole house feels lighter heading into the busy second half of summer.
With graduation season and summer visitors on the horizon, our post on how to make your guest room truly welcoming is perfectly timed. It covers all the thoughtful touches that tell your guests you’re genuinely glad they’re there — fresh fragrant linens, a luggage rack, a selection of books, extra charging cables, basic toiletries, and even a little snack basket, which reader Astrid suggested in the comments and is such a good idea.
In the Garden
Container garden season is in full swing, and the fourth installment of Container Garden Inspiration and Recipes is packed with specific plant combinations for window boxes and pots across a range of light situations — with plant names, so you can actually replicate what you love at the nursery. It’s a great read to have open on your phone while you’re walking the garden center.
For the vegetable patch, Cucumber Companion Plants covers the ten best neighbors for your cukes and the ones that will cause trouble, alongside a printable companion planting chart for the whole garden. Cucumbers are prone to a surprising number of pests and diseases, and the right neighbors make a real difference in your harvest.
The Flowers for Bees post is a good one to revisit this time of year, when we’re all at the garden center making decisions. Given the ongoing decline in bee populations, a few thoughtful plant choices can make your yard a genuine pollinator haven.
With food costs still pinching, the Best Vegetables to Grow for the Biggest Grocery Savings makes the case that herbs, leafy greens, and peppers are where your garden square footage pays off most. The biggest money-savers are the things you use often, buy fresh, and that spoil quickly — not necessarily the showiest plants in the patch. Click through before you put your last seedlings in the ground.
Some Favorite Finds
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- I am a packing cube convert, and I will never not use them when packing a suitcase. I just lived out of a suitcase for twenty-three days and these packing cubes kept my suitcase organized and my clothes neatly folded. No more tossing everything on top to find the shirt packed at the bottom! You need to consider how to use packing cubes; there are a few approaches. I find it easiest to organize the cubes by clothing type. For example, I pack all my pants in one cube, all my t-shirts in another, all my sweaters in a third, and all my linen in a fourth. The drawstring bag that they come in doubles as our dirty laundry bag.
Whatcha Reading?
Well, it’s the end of the month, which means it’s time to update my book reviews. And actually, since the end of January’s newsletter was taken over by events, I’m covering what I’ve read for the last two months.
For the past several years, I’ve joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I haven’t hit my goals for the past couple of years, but I’ll keep trying! If you need some book titles to add to your reading queue this year, check out my quick and dirty reviews of what I’ve read and listened to here.
I mentioned that I’ve thoroughly benefited from every penny of my Audible subscription. Last year, I listened to all of Charles Dickens’ books while I went about my daily chores and projects. I also credit it with helping me stay on track with my exercise by giving me opportunities to get out and walk so I can keep up with my stories!
If you like listening while you work, here’s a list of podcasts I’ve enjoyed.
Phew! We covered a LOT this morning. Thanks for staying with me and I hope you have found a few things that piqued your interest today.
I’ve got oodles of work to do on the blog, so I’m going to do my best ot ignore the beautiful day outside my windows and buckle down.
I’ll see you next week!
