Weekend Recs #11: Juicy fruit and a late-summer soundtrack

Plus: The Jonas Brothers are back.

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This is Weekend Recs, a weekly send of ideas and diversions for your downtime. Not subscribed yet? Here you go:

Editorial note: Alisha is on maternity leave. How exciting! In the meantime, Downtime is edited by Aliza Abarbanel.

Hi friends,

It’s Aliza here, filling in for Alisha as she begins her maternity leave through the fall. Alisha and I have been busy working on lots of great content that will be rolling out on Downtime over the next few months, and I’m excited to be sharing my weekend recs with you alongside a stacked roster of guest writers too.

In case you don’t remember me from the Girls’ Night In days, a brief introduction: I’m a writer, magazine editor, and occasional podcaster based in Brooklyn. I go feral for summer, so right now, I’m dedicating as much downtime as possible to reading in parks (currently: The Idiot by Elif Bautman), eating watermelon covered with Tajín (and, okay, some sand) on the beach, and finding the best piña colada in NYC (so far, Connolly's in the Rockaways). Read on for some tunes, TV, and tomato recipes to power your weekend. It’s a pleasure to be here with you. 💛 —Aliza Abarbanel

Four ideas for your weekend…

• 📺 How To With John Wilson

  • A new season of this loveable oddball comedy is rolling out HBO now, and if you haven’t watched before, it’s a great time to get into the series. The premise: Documentary filmmaker John Wilson wanders the streets of New York City capturing strange and sweet footage that becomes the basis for wide-ranging episodes that riff off a theme, like How to Be Spontaneous or How to Find a Public Restroom (important!). Bonus: Each episode is a manageable 30 minutes, perfect for an end-of-night watch. 

• 🍅 Recipes I made this week that you should make, too:

  • Peach chia breakfast shake. Amy Chaplin’s recipe for a cooling, creamy breakfast is perfect for using up any stone fruit at risk of going bad. 

  • Tomato furikake sandwich. Just when you think tomato season can’t get any better, Eric Kim adds a sprinkle of umami-packed furikake to lift the iconic summer sandwich to new, savory-sweet heights. I added bacon and arugula to turn it into a BLT—maybe the best decision I’ve made all summer. 

  • Herby, cheesy corn salad. It’s not summer until I make Andy Baraghani’s ultra-flexible recipe: peak-season corn, plus a shower of whatever herbs, nuts, and cheeses are on hand. The next-day leftovers are even better. 

  • A very good green smoothie. No formal recipe, but I blended 1 part frozen spinach to 1 part frozen mango/banana with the juice of one lime, a good nub of grated ginger, a pinch of salt, and two teaspoons of Golde’s citrusy new yuzu matcha for a gentle buzz. Chia seeds on top. 10/10, will make on repeat until oatmeal season. (No, I won’t admit fall is coming just yet.)

•  🎵A late summer dinner playlist 

  • Last August, I got together with some friends and hosted a dinner party with corn in every dish. The evening wasn’t complete without a sunny playlist to match, and I’ve been looping it as August rolls around again. It starts slow with Buena Vista Social Club and old school Aretha, then transitions into Rosalía and a bit of dancey disco. Perfect for cooking, eating, or powering through the 4 p.m. slump. 

• 📘 No Meat Required

  • A new book from writer

    Alicia Kennedy
    chronicling the cultural and culinary history of plant-based eating in the U.S., from farm communes making tempeh in the ‘70s and vegan punk cafes in the ‘90s to Impossible Whoppers at Burger King today. Alicia is one of my favorite food writers, and her perspective is enjoyable whether you’re a vegan, omnivore, or somewhere in between .

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A grab bag of links and reads worth sharing with the group chat.

Image: Vanity Fair

• How to help victims of the Maui wildfires [Hawai’i Public Radio]

  • A list of in-person and online actions to support people affected by the devastating hurricane-fueled wildfire, plus how to verify charity legitimacy.

• So How Exactly Are the Jonas Brothers Going to Play 5 Albums Every Night? [Vanity Fair]

  • ICYMI: Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas are following the Taylor Swift/Beyoncé playbook and breaking out their entire catalog in a tour spanning from 2007 until now. Here, the three brothers explain how they’re making it happen. 

• How Cooking Videos Took Over The World [New York Times] *gift link*

  • Wow, the New York Times graphics team must have worked overtime on this one. A luscious, sprawling, engrossing article detailing the rise of cooking videos from 1940s TV to TikTok.

• 5 Tips To Become a Kid’s Favorite Adult [NPR] 

  • A useful read for anyone gunning to become the favorite auntie/neighbor/godparent/occasional babysitter (read: me, and maybe you too?), partially sourced from the academic and author Rachel Cargle.

• Summers Hottest Sneakers Are For the Girls [Elle]

  • Long live the girly sneaker!

🌼 More fun fluff…

A surprise visit from a late 2000s electro pop fave // First “girl dinner,” now “girl math?” Curious what y’all think about this… // An end-of-summer read on queer love, community, and being a sexual assault survivor. // If your love language is sunflowers…🌻 //

Links continued below…

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