A May Menu

From a week with family in Massachusetts. Simple, satisfying, and easy to veganize.

Hello! Please forgive the late letter; I’ve been feeling a bit overextended lately. All good things, but still, stretched thin. I’m spending the week with my family in Massachusetts, celebrating a series of happy developments for our clan.

This summer, my parents are moving to Vermont and beginning a new chapter, which also means that they’re both saying goodbye to their current schools. My dad is leaving the boarding school where he’s taught English for the past twenty years, and my mom is concluding her time at a public elementary school where she teaches fifth grade, and where, unsurprisingly, she’s become a beloved fixture.

Mom and Dad's classrooms. So proud of them.

I’m feeling inspired to write more about my hometown — a boarding school campus — and the experience of growing up there, surrounded by students and teachers, my parents included. Stay tuned for that, I suppose. But for today, it’s regularly scheduled Dish programming: a monthly menu for paid subscribers.

This particular menu came about after inviting friends over for dinner (hi, Karps!), one of whom is vegan. Since it’s May and strawberries are in season, I wanted to celebrate spring produce, sourced from the delightful Spring Brook Farm in Littleton, Massachusetts. And given our company, I aimed to design an inclusive menu that everyone could enjoy — with optional cheese here and there for the omnivores at the table. From what friends tell me, it seems that most people’s issue when determining what to cook is that they go blank when it’s time to decide. At the risk of sounding obnoxious, on most nights, I find that I have too many ideas for what to cook, so constraints like a dietary restriction or a particular craving for an ingredient are actually useful decision-facilitators.

Anyway, this is how what I’m about to share came about: spring produce + vegan = this menu. There will be potato-rosemary pizza, colorful farro salad, garlicky greens (always), and the only dessert that matters at this time of year: strawberries and cream.

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A May Menu