picks vol. 29
what we’re wearing
Cotton stripe, chiffon, and satin — this week's looks are built around the ease of dressing for a long afternoon rather than an occasion.
shop the looks —- [https://liketk.it/68HII].
what we’re sipping
the st. germain spritz
gather:
2 oz st. germain elderflower liqueur
3 oz dry prosecco
1 oz sparkling water
ice
1 lime wheel
fresh mint sprig
create:
fill a large wine glass with ice.
add the st. germain.
pour the prosecco slowly over the back of a spoon to preserve the bubble.
top with sparkling water and stir once, gently.
garnish with a lime wheel threaded onto a cocktail pin and a sprig of fresh mint.
serve immediately.
what we’re making
crudité platter with herbed labneh
ingredients
1 cup full-fat labneh (or whole-milk greek yogurt strained overnight through cheesecloth)
2 tbsp fresh chives, finely minced, plus more to finish
1 tbsp fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 tbsp good olive oil, plus more to finish
flaky sea salt and cracked black pepper
1 bunch asparagus, blanched and cooled
4–6 small potatoes, boiled and halved
1 bunch baby carrots, scrubbed
4 radishes, halved
2 persian cucumbers, sliced on a bias
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
butter lettuce leaves
dill fronds to garnish
method:
stir the chives, dill, olive oil, a pinch of flaky salt, and cracked pepper into the labneh until fully combined.
transfer to a small ceramic bowl.
drizzle with additional olive oil and scatter remaining chives over the top.
arrange the vegetables, eggs, and lettuce leaves on a wide tray or platter, grouping by color and height.
nestle the labneh bowl in the center.
finish with dill fronds throughout.
serve alongside cold prosecco or the st. germain spritz.
what we’re reading
becoming by michelle obama
there is a version of becoming that reads as political biography, and it is a fine one, though that is not why it stays with you. what obama is actually doing in this book is something quieter and more demanding — she is reconstructing, with considerable precision, the process by which a person decides who she is going to be. not who she was born to be, not who the institutions around her assumed she would become, but the version of herself she chose, deliberately, over time.
she writes about princeton with the clarity of someone who understood, even then, that belonging is not the same as being welcomed. she writes about her career pivots, law to public service, ambition redirected rather than abandoned, as a series of calibrations rather than sacrifices. and she writes about the white house years as a woman who had built an identity before she arrived there and was determined to keep it intact. the book is, at its core, an argument that self-authorship is not a single decision but a continuous practice, one that requires, above all, the willingness to keep asking the question.
