Hi! Woah. I leave for the East Coast to start my Make It Fast (please for the love of ME, pre-order it!!!) book tour in less than 48 hours. My literary agent just called to check in on my mental state and I’ll tell you what I told her— I’m honestly feeling great. I haven’t started packing, but I’ve got a million outfit options strewn about my closet, and I’ll get there eventually. The flights are booked and the hotel reservations are made. It’s go time, baby. I’m also thrilled to announce that I have officially entered phase 5 of the creative process: With my last book, I was firmly still in phase #4 (“I suck”) until the book had actually been published and all of you started to cook from it and share your photos and reviews and love of the book. But with Make It Fast, I hosted a party and gave the book to my friends and family two weeks before pub day! I created an Illegal Bookclub and roped in my friends all across the country to share advanced copies of the book with their communities! And, comically, Indigo (the main Canadian seller of the book) accidentally sent all of the pre-orders like two weeks early, so all of the Canadian What To Cookers out there have had their books for a week now! And Canadians are so nice — they are sending so much positivity my way! So there are a LOT of people out in the world, people who I love and trust, who have already seen it, and cooked from it, and told me how much they love it. Thus launching me into phase #5 (“this might be ok”) a few weeks earlier than my last book publishing cycle. I guess, if I’m being honest, what I’m saying is that I require external validation to feel good about my work? Is that pathetic? I don’t think so. I think it’s a real, honest part of most (all?) people’s creative process. It feels really scary and vulnerable to launch a piece of work that you’ve worked so hard on out into the world. It feels a little bit like dropping your deeply feeling, sensitive, absolutely incredible child off at Kindergarten for the first day of school. Will he make friends? Will the teachers understand how creative and kind and cool he is? Will they be patient with him and let him finish his art project because he really doesn’t like when he doesn’t get to finish his art project? Will the world love him as much as I do? This analogy is not random: I am dropping my deeply feeling sensitive child off at Kindergarten for his first day of school tomorrow, and the jitters and unease of that feel so akin to publishing a book. By next Wednesday when I send this newsletter, Make It Fast will be in your kitchens, if you’ve pre-ordered (have I mentioned I’d really love it if you could pre-order?). I’ll have already been on Good Morning America two mornings in a row (bless them, what an invitation!), spoken with Jenna Bush Hager in front of an audience of you in Brooklyn, yapped with Dan Pelosi in Boston, chatted with Kerry Diamond in DC, and I’ll be en route to Charlotte where I’ll be in conversation with our very own Molly from What To Cook. I am excited, and I am nervous, and just like I’ve been telling my five-year-old, it’s OK to feel both of those things at once. And Phase 6 (“this is awesome”) is just around the corner for both of us. There are lots of other book tour dates — check them all out here! Today’s So Into That is sponsored by FP Movement. We’ve talked about our love for their Carpe Diem shorts many times before (a truly perfect athletic short at a very good price point!), but FP Movement has many more athleisure pieces we love. From Molly from What To Cook: I’m on vacation at the beach this week and have been living in this dress and shorts combo when I’m not in a bathing suit. It’s so so comfy and easy to throw on for beach walks — it’ll also be great to wear on the sports sidelines when it’s 100 degrees outside. I’m a shortie (5’3”) and had to shorten the straps a tiny bit (worth the effort!). We also love these biker shorts with this boxy short sleeve and this oversized long sleeve! * Dr. Becky invited me to plan the menu for a REALLY special dinner celebrating Good Inside Baby on Monday in LA. I got to hang with MALLY K. GOLDMAN and Megan Roup and Elaine Welteroth and so many incredible, smart women who make motherhood safer, more fun, stronger, and more fashionable. The dilly feta salad with feta brined shrimp, flank steak with elote salad, and bbq chicken are all straight from the book! My menu concept was elegant California BBQ and I think we nailed it! PS If you’re in LA, Heirloom catered and they rule. PS because I know you all want to know, Becky is awesome IRL. She is a fellow insomniac romance book lover, she values her female friendships so highly and they come up in conversation all the time (this is always a green flag for me when I meet new people), and she’s just so incredibly smart, insightful, and cool. This is not sponsored but we’ve swapped codes for each other in the past and my Good Inside code still works — you can use code WHATTOCOOK to get 20% off a subscription to Good Inside if you could use a little parenting assist (like with how to get your deeply feeling kid to dread the first day of school less!). * I recently worked with Groundwork to hire a new team member (woohooooo, Meg!) and it was such an incredible experience that I wanted to share. Three in four U.S. workers are also caregivers, and as that caregiving work collides with mid-career years, most end up forced to choose between staying all in at real personal cost or stepping away entirely — becoming a hugely qualified, "off-market" talent pool that's actually eager to work, just on slightly different terms. Groundwork connects people like that with employers building smarter, more flexible teams. In my case, I knew I needed help in a certain space but had no idea how to define the role or find the right person. They sat down with me, helped flesh it out, wrote the job description, sourced candidates, and ran interviews, and took it all off my plate. And brought me the most INCREDIBLE CANDIDATES! Like lights out brilliant women. If you're a small business owner stuck in hiring limbo, or you're job hunting and sick of the LinkedIn black hole, Groundwork is worth a look. * From Molly: A go-to breakfast of mine this summer has been avocado toast inspired by some Caro made for our team last time I was in Carmel. Mashed avocado seasoned with salt and pepper, slathered on a thick slice of GOOD toasted sourdough, and topped with chili crisp, pickled red onions, flaky sea salt, and fresh cilantro. So good. * From Molly: I’ve been slathering on this body oil after time in the sun this week — it’s very luxurious feeling and makes my skin glowy! From Caro: Oh I love this too!!! It really does not make you feel oily at all, it absorbs so nicely. My publishers are dropping a few more advance reader copies of Make It Fast in the mail to some of my media/Internet friends this week, and I told them to save some for WTCers!! We are going to mail three of you a copy of Make It Fast, along with a Butter Pants spatula and a Caraway kitchen timer! To enter to win, comment on this post with the meal you cook most often when you absolutely do not feel like cooking. It doesn’t have to be from scratch! For example, mine has historically been frozen dumplings and peanut sauce, and Molly’s is pasta with Rao’s marinara and frozen meatballs. Comment between now and August 10 — we will randomly select three winners next Tuesday, August 11, and alert them by Substack DM! Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup. 1. salmorejo, 2025 Oooh, this is such a good one. Traditional salmorejo! From José Andrés! If you have boatloads of ripe tomatoes that need to be used up, make this creamy chilled tomato soup. It gets its creaminess in part from blended artisanal bread, so if you have any leftover sourdough from this week’s summer shrimp panzanella, use it here! 2. skillet cheddar turkey burgers, 2024 Juicy, cheesy turkey burgers seared in a skillet and served with a tangy, punchy burger sauce — this recipe (which is an excerpt from What to Cook the book #1!) is just so good. Go classic with buns, or shake things up and make sliders for a party, meatballs for dipping, or crumbled patties in pita for lunch the next day. 3. turkey meatballs with corn butter rice, 2023 These juicy turkey meatballs are packed with flavor, but the real star of the show is the buttery corn-studded rice. It’s sweet, savory, summer perfection. While you’re cooking, double the meatballs and freeze half for later — future you will be thrilled. 4. healthy (or not as healthy…) corn chowder, 2022 Sweet corn gets blended into a creamy, cozy chowder that tastes like summer in a bowl. Keep it light with coconut milk, or go richer with heavy cream — both versions are equally delicious. Make it on a Sunday and thank yourself all week — it reheats beautifully and somehow tastes even better on day two. 5. sheet-pan crispy pork chops with fennel and peaches, 2021 These roasted peaches are iconic — soft, jammy, and caramelized at the edges. Add in sweet, roasty red onions and fennel, plus golden, crispy pork chops, and you’ve got an easy dinner that feels delightfully fancy. The method works just as well with chicken breasts or sausages if that’s what you’ve got. We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for. This is a public episode. If you'd l
