Snacking cakes, grandma pizza, and catio plans

Here's what's happening in August

On The Cusp is about becoming the next version of ourselves. That means experimenting with the breadth of our interests, exploring the depths of anything that captures our imagination, and learning to embrace uncertainty along the way.

Welcome! This is letter #56.

When I inherited my mom’s belongings, I found myself with boxes full of handwritten letters: ones my grandfather had written home during World War II, and ones my mom had sent her parents throughout her life.

Recently, I opened one at random and found a letter dated July 19, 1971. My mom was sixteen, in the middle of a trip to the nation’s capital.

She’d just returned from hearing Gerald Ford speak—he was the House minority leader then—followed by a two-hour (!) chat with her congressman. I learned of her plans to see Ted Kennedy at a committee hearing the next day, and read superlatives about the diverse group of people she’d met there.

If they hadn’t been captured in a letter, these details would have been lost to time.

Suddenly, I found myself wistful for an era I hadn’t lived through myself: a period when our daily experiences had a paper trail—one that was less ephemeral than a text message, and more sincere than an Instagram caption.

As I spent an afternoon clipping my favorite canceled stamps from these envelopes, I decided to start writing my own chatty letters here: the occasional Friday postcard, where I could share a more immediate, intimate look at my daily life.

On that note, here’s what I’m building, eating, reading, watching (and more) in August!

In my infinite wisdom, I’ve roped myself into a DIY construction project—the likes of which I swore off back in March. Friends, I am building a catio.

It all started when my boyfriend and I began taking our indoor cats into the backyard. Their tiny harnesses and leashes were too cute for words! We’d been charmed-slash-influenced by the “adventure cats” plastered all over Instagram and YouTube, and figured they’d perceive their walks as a special treat.

In an unanticipated turn of events, this “treat” only served to embolden our once-docile pets. They started crying at every door and window, no longer satisfied by their paltry fifteen-minute walks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to sic them on the resident bird and squirrel population, or trust them to navigate busy streets safely.

Cut to today: we’re in the middle of building a paver patio outside my office to serve as a sturdy, level base for a 6’ x 8’ catio.

A month ago, if you’d asked me how a paver patio gets built, I would have been stumped. Paver patio fairy, maybe?

Now, I can tell you exactly how the magic happens, and have a giant mountain of dirt and a metric ton of supplies from Home Depot to prove it.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll whisk away the dirt this weekend, the pavers will go in, and Project Catio will soon be underway—something that will require me to rent a pickup truck and learn how to use a miter saw. Keep us in your prayers!

Last year, I worked with fabulous running coach Nora Lyman to prepare for racing my first 10k. I don’t have any race plans on the horizon—and thus no need for a coach—but recently, I started missing the structure and accountability she provided.

Enter the VDOT Adaptive Trainer. I can plug in my mileage goals and training days, and it spits out personalized, perfectly-paced workouts that sync to my ancient Garmin watch. (Working with Nora taught me to enjoy speedwork, something that’s much easier to do when your watch prompts you with all the necessary information about your next interval.)

If I decide to race again, there’s no substitute for a coach-athlete relationship. But in the meantime, the Adaptive Trainer has worked wonders for my running motivation.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anna Raskind, author of the fantastic newsletter Celebrating Setbacks.

You can find our interview right here—and don’t miss Anna’s separate piece reflecting on our conversation. Anna is one of the most thoughtful people I know, and her introspective post-interview reflections are always stellar.

I assumed that my pizza-themed Depth Year would consume my finite energy reserves for making and thinking about food. That assumption was incorrect!

I’ve become obsessed with listening to cookbook podcasts while I run (two favorites: Salt + Spine with Brian Hogan Stewart and Clea Wurster, and Everything Cookbooks with Andrea Nguyen, Kristin Donnelly, Kate Leahy, and Molly Stevens).

And as I started cooking through Pizza Night, I was inspired to pick up other cookbooks again, too. Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Cakes is a favorite, and I’ve made her berry-ricotta cake and buckwheat-banana cake in recent weeks.

Gotta fuel those miles somehow; may as well be with cake!

And four years after America’s sourdough craze, I bought a jar of King Arthur’s sourdough starter and learned how to feed it. I’ve been making homemade English muffins with my sourdough discard, and hope to make my first loaf soon.

If you’re trying to avoid the sinkhole of mid TV, allow me to introduce you to the Criterion Channel. It’s the streaming service that, for me, has replaced almost all other streaming services, serving up new and thoughtfully-curated “collections” of excellent movies each month. I loved their Neo Noir collection in July (Out of Sight and L.A. Confidential were favorites), which means I’ll probably binge their Vacation Noir collection in August.

And while I adore the Olympics, I have not loved the Peacock app. That said, we found the Hoof Dreams equestrian documentary on Peacock—it’s about three female Olympic hopefuls in the mixed-gender sport of three-day eventing—and it was well worth the price of admission.

Julia Moskin’s food reporting is consistently top-notch, and her piece on the reinvigorated tradition of “family meal” in restaurant kitchens was no exception. If you love reading about creativity, camaraderie, and connection through the lens of food, this article will stick to your ribs.

After long days spent hauling 50-pound bags of paver sand, it’s probably not surprising that my book choices have trended in the opposite direction: light and fluffy. A Perfect Vintage is hitting all the right notes, not just for the romantic French countryside setting, but also because I love author Chelsea Fagan’s financially transparent videos about how she wrote, self-published, and marketed her first novel and got comfortable investing in her writing career.

Last but certainly not least: are you following along with my year of pizza on YouTube? Here’s this week’s installment of the In Depth Cookbook Club! ⬇️

Step into my kitchen, where I’m making the Grandma Pizza with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage (p. 234) and the Spring Caesar Salad à la Speedy Romeo (p. 236) from Alexandra Stafford’s wonderful cookbook Pizza Night.¹

Last week, Ali gave this project a lovely shout-out (followed by a wildly helpful roundup of pizza must-haves) in her newsletter, Pizza Every Friday. Thanks, Ali!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. What’s captured your imagination lately?

Warmly,
Maddie

1. If you buy Pizza Night through my Bookshop.org affiliate link, you’ll be supporting this video series! That’s because each purchase made through the link earns me a small commission. All opinions are honest and entirely my own, regardless of affiliation.