Though we had a warm winter and spring, the start of summer was pretty mild (read: 80 degrees) here in North Cackalack, but sometime in the past week, whoever’d forgotten to turn the heat on all of a sudden remembered the error and cranked it up to high. From about mid-June through September, it’s imperative to head east til you reach ocean as often as possible, and I took this creed to heart this weekend and we made our way down to Emerald Isle on North Carolina’s Bogue Banks. I’ve been making an effort to turn off – really disconnect – from the various media pulling me in different directions on the weekends, and I’m proud to say I somewhat succeeded at this the past couple of days by making almost zero plans, spending more time with my nose in a book than looking at a screen, and ticking some items off my summer to-do list.

Working on my summer to-do list with this week’s sangria – pear basil (made this recipe but subbed pear for peach)





