Hi, friends:
Has it been hot enough for you? This past week, with temperatures rising into the 90s, has felt very familiar to me as a native Miamian. The difference is, in Miami, central AC is ubiquitous. Here in the Valley, people love their box fans. Well, now I do, too.
I also found other ways to cool off: swimming at the D.A.R. and celebrating National Ice Cream Day with a cup of Moose Tracks topped with rainbow sprinkles. I order rainbow just to avoid the whole “jimmies” thing. (Apparently jimmies are chocolate sprinkles only.) It’s one of those New England-isms I’ll never quite get used to, like “grinders” for subs.
I love seeing movies on sweltering summer days, and my husband Addie and I both want to catch “The Big Sick” while it’s at Cinemark at Hampshire Mall. After reading Steve Pfarrer’s cover story on Chester Theatre Company, I also want to check out their offerings: “Skeleton Crew” wraps on Sunday, but next up are the plays “Every Brilliant Thing” and “Folk.”
“I’d been up to Chester five years ago to write about the theater company when two supporters refurbished a house and gifted it to them for administrative space,” Steve says. “They’d previously used various rented spaces in town for their office. I’d also written short previews of some Chester Theatre plays. But this was the first time I got a close look at the program.”
He also shadowed artistic director Daniel Elihu Kramer for the story and reports back: “My impression was that this guy is super enthusiastic, and he seemed like he really loved what he was doing.”
Columnist-farmer Caroline Pam also clearly loves what she does. She wrote about her long-held affinity for garlic in this week’s “Friday Takeaway,” and I might just have to get her recipe for pasta aglio, olio e pepperoncini.
Finally, Nina M. Scott is back this week with “Tasting Circle,” starring her recipe for gazpacho. Whenever I think of the Spanish soup, I remember an interview I once did with the young actress Vanessa Hudgens (then of “High School Musical” fame). At the time, she was probably in her early 20s but had already been around the world for her movies. Still, we all have our gaps, and hers was gazpacho. She ordered it at a posh New York restaurant, tasted it and returned it to the kitchen, telling the waiter that her soup was “cold.” I gently explained to her that it’s supposed to be.
Anyway, what better way to cool off than with a hearty bowl of chilled summer soup? You could also go see Art Maker Anne Beresford’s prints on display inside Forbes Library or, if you’re up for a drive, head to MASS MoCA in North Adams to catch Booker T. Jones and his band play outside under the stars. “A perfect summertime show,” as “Tuned In” columnist Ken Maiuri puts it on page 4.
Whatever you decide to do, have a great weekend!
Brooke Hauser