There are people who are next-level hosts, who delight in having loads of people over for themed parties with impressive spreads of food and build-your-own cocktail bars. Then there are people like me—introverts with small houses and zero aptitude for creating classy place settings. This is where the low-key cheese party comes in.

We timed our trip to Seattle exactly right: mid-July 2021, post-vaccine but before the delta variant's spread. Crowds and indoor dining didn't concern us, and it was perfectly acceptable to wander around unmasked in Pike Place Market eating cherries. Two months later, I'm already nostalgic about it.

This is my ninth annual summer roundup post, and a couple of months ago, I thought it would be easy to write—a straightforward essay about my triumphant return to normalcy, including a trip to Ireland...

I go to the Minnesota State Fair for many reasons: nostalgia, the live entertainment, the livestock, the educational exhibits, the display cases full of prizewinning knitwear. But mostly, it's about the food.

Despite its proximity to Seattle, Bainbridge Island has a low-key feel, with a small downtown neighborhood and plenty of green space. It's a great place to relax and decompress, and our visit to Bainbridge Island was one of the best parts of our trip to Seattle.

When I first subscribed to a CSA, I tried to track down a recipe for every type of produce we got in our share. However, the produce in my CSA share doesn't always exactly line up with a recipe—maybe I only have one zucchini instead of three, or twice as many green beans as the recipe calls for. That's where CSA meal templates come in.