FOJ Mood Board
Simple Grilled Surf & Turf with Salsa Verde, Ina's Flag Cake, The Turkey Cheddar Pepper Crunch, and more
Hi friends!
We are officially 1 week away from the summer Super Bowl, Fourth of July! I wouldn’t consider myself the most patriotic person, especially in this political climate, but I’ve recently fallen back in love the Fourth of July holiday. In my teens and early twenties I would always be working - in retail, restaurants, then private cheffing - and it was always the busiest (and most miserable) day of the year. Last year was the first time I had the day off in almost a decade. I’ve since started to repair my jaded relationship to the day by embracing nostalgia and channeling salty beach days on Nantucket as a kid.
I had been so looking forward to hosting my first July Fourth celebration at my new house out in the Hamptons. Unfortunately, construction is still underway so we’ll have to wait another year. Not to fear, I will still be celebrating the holiday with family out in Nantucket (not complaining!!), so I wanted to share with you some inspo for a low key-ish July Fourth.
What I’m Wearing
I realized that about 80% of my summer wardrobe is red white and blue coded, so I guess that makes me an expert in this category. Shop some of my favorite pieces on ShopMy here and on LTK here!
What I’m Cooking
My family has a very casual approach to celebrating the fourth. We’re almost always on Nantucket, and it’s one of the busiest weeks of the year. Getting a restaurant reservation is impossible, so we cook all of our meals at home. Breakfast usually consists of toast with butter, blueberry jam, and flaky salt. I also love making a smoothie on hot summer mornings to cool off after walking the dogs.
For lunch we always pack sandwiches for the beach. My go to has always been curried chicken salad on portugese bread. I like using Ina Garten’s recipe when making it from scratch, or buying a big tub from Bartlett’s Farm or Something Natural. Last summer I developed a sandwich recipe that I have named the Turkey Cheddar Pepper Crunch, and let me tell you it is the best sandwich I’ve ever had.
For dinner, a go to of mine is a simple surf & turf with a bright and herby sauce. See below for the full recipe! Ton drink, you can’t go wrong with a classic Nantucket Blue. Or be a little extra and whip up a batch of the cult favorite CruCumber cocktail from the restaurant Cru in Nantucket.
Then for dessert, if I’m being honest with you I’d normally do an easy berry cobbler of sorts. But in a perfect world I would have the time and energy to prepare something like Ina Garten’s Flag Cake.I made this recipe for the first time last summer and while the recipe isn’t inherently challenging, I some how managed to screw it up not once but twice. No fault to the recipe, both of my failures were truly a result of my own actions (getting the time and temperature of the bake wrong). Once I got it right, it was the best cake I’d ever made. 10/10 would make again.