042. Will Travel For Cheese (Again)

Tomato season + European adventures

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote my first Extra Sharp entry titled, Will Travel For Cheese. It was a cheese travel guide to Paris, and in that moment I realized newsletter formats were the missing piece I needed. I have to give a lot of thanks to Instagram for allowing me to reach so many people, but I’m finding it difficult share anything of deep substance over there with the ever-changing algorithms. Although there’s only around 2% of you that have found your way to this newsletter, I appreciate you for being here as I share my lists, guides, recipes, and musings every week.

some photos from my previous trips to europe

That being said, I am very excited to be returning to Europe next week! Before I dive into my itinerary, I do want to address an elephant in the room (which feels more of an elephant to me, because I bet most of you forgot about this). Earlier this year I was shouting from the rooftops about my guided tour to Normandy. When I was offered this opportunity last year, I truly felt like a bucket list dream was unfolding. However, some things didn’t go as planned and we unfortunately had to cancel the trip. There were a few reasons why I initially didn’t want to bring attention to this. First, fear of failure. I felt vulnerable being the figurehead of this trip, having little to no involvement in the actual pricing and details. So, when we pulled the plug, I felt a bit embarrassed. Second, I take what I post on here very seriously. Even though I usually talk about cheese (a very serious subject, of course), I always strive to be authentic, whether it's about a product I love or something I support. Promoting a trip extensively, only to slowly delete it from every corner of the internet, isn't really my style. But alas, I’d love to try to do something like this again on my own terms (with much cheaper tickets) so I’m back to the drawing board there. In the meantime, you can come along with me for FREE while I document my upcoming trip on social media!

Next week I’m headed to Lisbon, Portugal to celebrate a friend’s birthday. She’s a local and has an itinerary planned out for us, and I’m actually pretty excited to not be taking the lead for once. After that, I fly to Nice, France to check out the Riviera. I’ve never been to the south of France and hear amazing things, so I’m working on crafting a fun little week there. I end the trip in London, England where I have many cheesy experiences lined up, including visiting a friend’s “build your own board” cheese shop and a cheese restaurant on a boat. We can’t forget the bonus activity of the trip, stopping by to see Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium before I head home. You can catch my daily updates on my Instagram stories, and as usual weekly updates on the newsletter.

Anyways, enough of my yapping. Now for the food.

Tomato Season!!!

My farmer’s market is still booming with fresh heirloom tomatoes and I’ve been taking full advantage. Here are two simple, yummy tomato recipes to make this week.

1. Tomato Toasts: This one doesn’t really need a recipe, just slice some beautiful farm-fresh tomatoes and sprinkle with flaky sea salt, mix together fresh basil and mayo, and assemble on toasted sourdough with a pinch of cracked black pepper. Simple and delicious.

2. Hasselback Tomato Caprese: Summer tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, chili crisp and flaky salt. This is a fun way to enjoy those tomatoes while they’re still in season! Check out the tutorial here.

Sweet + Spicy Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad Sunday returns tomorrow, and paid subscribers get a sneak peek! I teamed up with my favorite charcuterie company, COLUMBUS® Craft Meats, to make this savory pasta salad with a hot honey vinaigrette.