A basic cucumber salad with some onion, tomato and vinegar dressing is always great.
This is my go-to summer salad! Chunks of tomato and cucumber with thin-sliced shallot or red onion, salt and let sit for ~20 minutes to release some liquid, drain and add chopped avocado and your favorite canned bean (I like cannellini), dress with black pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
When I was a kid my dad would make ant baits out of boric acid and honey, keeping them out of reach of the dog and being very clear with my brother and I that this was poison. I did the same in an apartment a few years ago to take care of an ant problem, and it worked great. About 2 parts honey to 1 part boric acid powder, I think?
I think the bechamel recipe we use is Samin’s!
You know how when you’re on a voice/video call and the audio keeps bouncing between two people and gets all feedback-y and screechy?
That, but with LLMs.
What my husband and I call “Try Hard Lasagna”: we make a double batch of Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce (non-NYT link), fresh egg pasta, and bechamel. Then those all get layered with mozzarella and parmigianino cheeses into the best lasagna I’ve ever had.
I actually need to do this soon, because I promised a pregnant friend that I’d make her some in disposable loaf pans for easy post-partum meals.
Then I regret to inform you that Sabine has some not so great views on trans issues
My usual go-to for productivity is lyric-less “ambient” post-rock: Explosions in the Sky, God is an Astronaut, the Album Leaf, etc. I’m also usually happy when Spotify starts mixing in some Sigur Ros/Jonsi, because even if there are lyrics I can’t understand them (either because I can’t speak Icelandic or because Jonsi is just making “non-linguistic vocalisations” that just sound nice alongside the instrumentals). This is for when I’m at work doing detail-oriented things or writing. Lyrics or podcasts are too distracting because I focus on the words.
Also like, the US is mostly sending Ukraine existing supplies. They’re “valued at” however many millions of dollars, but the cost to the taxpayer is going to mostly be paying to resupply the US military with what was sent over.