Late Summer Friday Servings

Happy Friday on this very fine late summer day, friend! I hope you had a really good week, whatever that means for you. We still have a few weeks left before the berries disappear and everything turns into pumpkin and cinnamon, so that’s where my head is right now, trying to get as much summer eating in as I can before it’s gone. As you may know, I’ve been away for a little bit, which was very much needed since these past eight months have been a wiiiillld ride. I took some time to rethink what happened and came across an old screenshot from Christmas showing 7K followers on Instagram. Fast-forward to now: almost 500K of you across platforms… I still haven’t completely figured out how to structure my day or adapt to this new job, but I can tell you it’s been such a joy. I’m loving developing recipes, going to the market, getting more into seasonal produce, and, most of all! being in touch with you. If anyone has good tips on how to organize yourself better when you’re newly self-employed, I’m all ears. Lol. Oh…. and I’m desperately in need of a new series to switch my brain off after these busy days. Or a really good book. What am I currently missing ? Hit me up!!

S| I’m currently knee-deep in recipe testing. Not only for Substack, but for other projects too. And listen, I know how much it sucks when creators keep talking about this BIG THING they can’t talk about yet… but I think you can already imagine what it could be…. ja, I’m equal parts excited and sh**g myself.

A| Made these halloumi and peach skewers for my cousin’s 30th birthday party last weekend. We had some hard meat eaters there, but I knew I wanted something fresh on the table. And since it’s still peak Peach season I thought of these grilled halloumi, juicy ripe peach skewers and they were gone in minutes. Even my uncle went in for another one. And that says it all.

L| Loved spending some quality one-on-one time with my daughter. Even if that meant Aristocats and popcorn for dinner. At least it contains a solid amount of fiber!! And turns out, kids don’t remember the perfectly balanced dinners anyway. But she’ll hopefully remember this evening.

T| Something I thought about this week… I came across this Reel from Subway Takes with Anna Babs saying that content creation can be a form of pollution, comparing it to throwing a plastic bottle into the ocean. And that… really hit me. Especially since I started creating myself. So I promised myself, once again, to stay true to my values and to why I’m doing what I’m doing. I don’t think every post has to change someone’s life, but I do think every post adds something to the internet, and we carry some sort of responsibility for what we put out into the world. I adore so many creators, and I’ve learned so much from them over the years. But I think we can all relate to that feeling of closing an app and feeling a little worse than before. Just turned down a collab request from TEMU. I mean… come on.

I hope the things I put out leave you feeling a little more curious, a little more capable, or simply inspired to cook something good for yourself.

Enjoy your weekend & See you on Sunday for bang on Feed her needs recipes!

Xx, Raquel