Home Sweet Home
Celebrations in the Hamptons and 30A
After a week that took me all over, I am so happy to be back in our apartment, with no travel for next bit of time. I had a week packed with excitement and also travel snafus (my flight home was diverted to JFK midair, which added two hours to the journey). I was greeted by Jared, who met me at the subway with a seltzer, and of course, Este, the cat who made me a cat mother.
I’ve had salad and lots of water and as soon as I finish writing this, I’m taking an everything shower. I was so happy to celebrate Erika’s bachelorette and see her favorite place, Seaside. It was relaxing and cozy and full of good food.
Now, let’s dive in.
Something to cook:
We did very little cooking this week with travel but we made some big salads with avocado ranch and avocados. Jared made us tofu rice bowls one night that led to some good leftovers.
At Erika’s Bachelorette, Jessica cheffed it up. She and Gabriela made a gorgeous breakfast of biscuits, scrambled eggs with parmesan and chives and lots of fruit. It was the perfect start to the day.
We spent Saturday night in sharing Erika lore (very fun) and made dinner. Jess made local Gulf shrimp with homemade Old Bay and I made risotto and a salad with strawberries, boursin cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. They also got sourdough at the farmers market, which was delicious.
Cooking more in May is a big goal of mine as my foot heals and I can be on my feet a little bit more so I will share a belated April cooking recap and what I want to cook in May later this week.
Something to order:
In the Hamptons with Tate’s (client), we kicked things off with brunch at Sant Ambroeus, which has delicious coffee and avocado toast. This was our third trip and Sant Ambroeus has been part of all of them. It works!
Then, we headed to the main event at Tate’s Bake Shop, where we get a special look behind the scenes with Fredis, the second every employee. He led us through baking the original chocolate chip cookies and we also saw a cake demo. Eating a Tate’s cookie straight out of the oven is really special.
Finally, we headed to the Topping Rose House, where the team is lovely and every detail is beautiful and thought through. We had charcuterie as an afternoon snack and then dinner at Jean Georges. I had a pesto pasta and the apps, especially burrata and strawberries, were so good. Everyone raved over the lobster too. For dessert, we made ice cream sandwiches with the cookies from earlier, chef’s kiss.
We had breakfast at the hotel and the breakfast potatoes were so so good. I had been looking forward to having them again since last November and they lived up to the hype
In Seaside, we grabbed lunch at ‘drome, where I had a lovely tofu bowl. The fried brussels sprouts are also really good.
For dinner, we went to Gallion’s in Rosemary Beach, which was lovely. Seafood is their speciality but the salads and cocktails were also really good. Jessica and I split the special softshell crabs, something I eat roughly once every two years. It was so fresh and good and came with a jambalaya style rice with okra and tomato.
It rained a bit on Saturday but the pool area was covered so we picked up burgers from Pickles. The veggie burger was good but don’t skip the fried pickles with homemade ranch, delicious.
Something to read:
As it gets warmer, it’s time to think about sun protection. It was pretty cloudy this weekend but I was all ready with my go-to face sunscreen, my UPF sunhat, and this new SPF lip balm that has a nice minty flavor. it’s surprisingly hard to find lip products with SPF and this is a good one.
I devoured this book, Leave Your Mess at Home, on the trip. I first heard about it on this episode on 2026 book trends of Bad on Paper Podcast. It’s about four siblings in a Nigerian family in Chicago and their family is messy, to put it mildly. It’s not an easy read at times (these characters go through a lot) but each character felt so real even when they frustrated me and I couldn’t put it down.
I love Haley Nahman’s writing about motherhood and Sunny’s excitement about being a big sister is very sweet.
The ‘baby of the group’ is 83: How a Pacific Palisades book club remains unbreakable
Getting deeply curious about literally anything else in the world is a pretty good fix for a creative lull. from Kara Cutruzzula
Heydoh, the soy sauce I love, gave us a code! Use ABIGAIL for 10% off. The soy sauce is so much more flavorful than the soy sauce I usually buy and the quality is so high.
We need a better way to think about shopping for longevity. Laura Fenton’s newlsetter is so thoughtful and always makes me think about consumption differently.
A thank you to a kind PA. With my broken foot, I’ve had extra doctors appointments lately and kind people make such a huge difference. It took many years to find a medical team I like and it is worth seeking an alternate provider if you feel rushed, disrespected, misunderstood, or just plain ignored by your team. You’re worth it!
Whenever I’m at a house rental, I think about Dan Pelosi’s guide to being a vacation house mom. It’s hard work to make magic and also lots of fun!
Take care this week and thank you for being here!
xo, Abigail