io

The heat’s been brutal this summer but we still gotta eat! If you’re like me, heat might suppress your appetite, and the last thing any of us want is to sweat over a hot stove and oven when it’s already boiling outside. Here are some of my favorite hot-weather recipes to keep hydrated and fed with when the weather is unbearable! (All recipes should be un-paywalled).

NYT’s best gazpacho (lives up to its name!!)

Persian cold cucumber soup (if you like tzatziki you will like this!)

Eric Kim’s cold noodles with tomato (infinitely riffable Korean flavor profile — for a creamier and less brothy take, try these cold sesame noodles too)

Vietnamese chicken and herb salad (this is an excellent time to get a rotisserie chicken so you don’t have to turn the oven on)

Radish sandwiches with butter and salt (and in a similar vein, if you dig this flavor combo you should try this Polish cottage cheese dip on some good rye bread or even crackers)

It’s still a little early in the season, but you can never go wrong with a BLT (or, if you don’t eat bacon, try this tomato furikake sandwich in its place)

Infinite iterations of pasta salad! You can use anything you got but here is a template I like.

Assorted dense bean salads. This back pocket canned salad is a weird combo of jarred ingredients but it slaps, this hoagie-inspired one is super satisfying, and cowboy caviar is a classic for a reason.

Poke bowls! Canned tuna mixed with some kewpie mayo and sriracha is a budget-friendly riff on the usual ahi and makes everything taste like a spicy tuna roll, but use whatever proteins you like, this is more of a loose template.

“We decided to make the most of a quiet afternoon by ringing some Manx Shearwater chicks. With over 15,000 pairs on the island, most with a single chick down a single burrow, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was an easy, straightforward task. But the burrows which the Manxies excavate can be deep and awkward, and a few inconsiderately placed rocks and right angle bends in the tunnels made finding the chicks an epic task. Some of them are becoming quite fat but still have another 25 or so days left in their burrows before they make their first flight. The grey down which covers their body like a giant fleece insulates them well from the damp conditions in their burrow. We take wing length measurements as well as weights and this allows us to calculate their age and how well they are being fed. This particular chick is around 50 days old, and weighed over half a kilogram!” © Richard Brown

i HATE self-censorship for a lot of reasons, but being in crisis work makes it even more frustrating. who are you censoring for? like i am being so fr, WHO are you censoring for? have you even thought it through? people who have been raped know that they have been raped. if someone attempts suicide or is grieving someone who did, saying "sewer slide" isn't going to protect them from any of the feelings. a murder victim's family isn't going to feel better bc you said "unalived" instead of murdered. if anything, it's just extremely invalidating and othering. it's saying "what happened to you is so bad that i won't even say the word," which is NOT trauma-informed care. you are not protecting survivors/victims when you self-censor. the ONLY things you protect when you self-censor are the puritanical ideologies that are being encouraged by rich fascists who want your money and obedience

and yes, that includes your favourite

"but its their living, they cant make a living if they dont censor themselves on the platforms that demand it"

i have no respect for anyone who prioritises a bag over CENSORSHIP. every single time your big favourite youtuber, rottenmango, swoop, whatever/whoever, hits us with "self exit" "unalive" "SA" "grape" they are actively participating in and encouraging the rampant censorship surrounding the english language. it doesnt matter if they preface it with "and ugggh guyssss i HATE that i have to do this but...you know. youtube." THEY STILL DO IT

i watched a rottenmango video yesterday where drug use was mentioned. EVERY THIRD WORD WAS FILTERED OUT, and it became so unbearable i had to abandon it. i physically cant stand it. everyone who censors themselves with this shit is a huge part of the problem, and the ones with the biggest audiences are the root of it. ffs this could all be OVER if everyone just decides, right now, THIS INSTANT, to just stop babying the english language and use the words they should be using instead.

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!

the comment...

the commenter's blog...