Newsletter Takeover with Cookbook Author Alexis deBoschnek
Plus Shrimp with White Beans, Tomatoes, and Olives
Stories from Catbird Cottage is made possible by you all, and especially by you, my wonderful paid subscribers. Each subscription helps to keep me going, providing the ability and freedom to create delicious, meaningful content. Other ways to support? You can purchase my books via my website. I am so grateful you’re here.
April was an absolute blur - please forgive me for the lapse in sharing here! I drafted two posts and had to temporarily shelve them to properly focus on two BIG projects:
Prep for my father’s 80th birthday event, which came together, including a 100-page bound book produced by yours truly, without a hitch.
We are also neck-deep in a very ambitious house project - moving a room and building a new bathroom…
This, on top of sowing seeds and giving the gardens a thorough refresh and needed spring momentum, it's a LOT.
I’ve also been hard at work planning a host of delicious events IRL (!!) here in the Hudson Valley. I will be announcing the first in the series in my next newsletter - stay tuned!
In the meantime, I am excited to share that none other than Alexis deBoschnek is guest posting today. She has a beautiful - and an uncannily similar - vision for food, and I hope you’ll love her post. Alexis’ book To The Last Bite came out just a little before mine last spring. It is a beautiful and smart book on how to use up everything in your kitchen. Who doesn’t want that?
Alexis also writes the newsletter, Side Dish, which you should check out if you don’t already know it. In addition to being a talented cookbook author and recipe developer, Alexis is a lovely human and kindred spirit. It’s so nice when you find more of your people…. Take it away, Alexis!
Hi, everyone!
My name is Alexis deBoschnek and this week Melina and I are swapping newsletters. I’ve been a fan of Melina’s for years, but we didn’t actually get to meet in person until this January when she came to my house for a visit. You know that feeling when you meet someone and you have instant chemistry? That’s how I felt with Melina. There was an instant understanding and feeling of intimacy. Our approach to cooking, gardening, and to the natural world felt abundantly clear.
Like Melina, I’m a cookbook author and recipe developer. I grew up in the Western Catskills, and after 14 years in New York City and Los Angeles, I made my way home where I’ve settled down with my partner, Ryan, and spirited goldendoodle, Ruby. My first cookbook, To the Last Bite, came out in April and is a bit of a love letter to this area. Growing up the idea of sustainability wasn’t just a catch-phrase, but a way of life here. My mom gardened, we had chickens, we shopped at the markets and farms around the corner from our house. In my twelve years of working in food media I saw that while there was a real desire for people to be more sustainable, they didn’t actually know where to start. I thought I could use my background of growing up in a rural area, combined with my knowledge of food, to create a cookbook of recipes that would all connect together — like those Choose Your Own Adventure books — to inspire people to be more conscious and cook more efficiently in the kitchen, with beautiful, inspiring recipes, of course. If you're interested, you can buy my book here.
I thought I'd give you a taste of what my newsletter, Side Dish, is like. I send out an email (almost) every week, which generally focuses on an easy, accessible recipe. Today I’m sharing a recipe for shrimp with white beans, tomatoes, and olives. It’s a classic combination, and one I turn to often when I’m not sure what to make for dinner. Having a bag or two of shrimp in the freezer and canned beans in the pantry means this dish is an arms reach away at all times. Better yet, it comes together in under 15 minutes.
If you'd like to subscribe to Side Dish for more recipes like this, click on over here.
Shrimp with White Beans, Tomatoes, and Olives
Serves 2 to 4
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 cups cherry tomatoes
One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup pitted green olives, smashed
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
¼ cup parsley, roughly chopped
Directions
Add the olive oil to a large pan over medium high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the shallots and tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are golden brown and the tomatoes are starting to blister, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the cannellini beans and olives and cook, stirring occasionally, until the beans are warmed through, about 5 minutes.
Add the shrimp, garlic, rosemary, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are bright pink and cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and parsley and stir to combine. Serve immediately.
Though it has been rainy, chilly, and downright gloomy *for nearly two weeks straight* here in the Hudson Valley, there is change in the forecast, hallelujah! I get giddy thinking about returning to the gardens after all this rain, seeing the emergence of old plant friends (or their considerable growth since I last checked in).
That has meant the wild and lovely hairy bittercress (cardamine hirsuta) has enjoyed an extended season, and I’m not mad about it. As within A Year at Catbird Cottage, I incorporated its peppery leaves and flowers in a recipe over on Alexis’ newsletter. It turned out sooo good. Look for a post next week with more springy things….