Hi friends!
After taking a week off to live in the moment and enjoy my best friend’s wedding, I’m so happy to be writing to you all again. I’m not exaggerating when I say writing these little love notes to you is the best part of my week, and while there’s no way I could have squeezed in writing a newsletter during all the wedding festivities, I really did miss it.
The wedding, of course, was fabulous. Fabulous might actually be understatement. It might have been the best weekend of my life— and it wasn’t even my wedding. We started the weekend off right with a welcome fiesta at Cafe Ole, where the margaritas were flowing and my hand never left the chip basket. The next day, we showered our gorgeous bride, Juliana, at her bridal luncheon, where I became wildly obsessed with these purple champagne coupes. Did I try to take one home? Yes. Was I unsuccessful? Unfortunately, also yes. And can we just pause to take in Juliana’s pink dress?!? How is someone so freakin’ perfect?!
Friday night’s rehearsal dinner at ol’Vine left me stuffed to the brim from overeating short ribs and consuming one-too-many old fashioneds. I am a straight sucker for speeches, so to no one’s surprise, listening to all the wonderful, hilarious things about my friends left me teary-eyed. They even had someone rolling cigars during the dinner, which felt like my world was coming full circle given that Friday marked six months since my dad’s passing, and there’s nothing that man loved more than a cigar. I took one, not for me, but to hold onto for my dad— and I do recognize that that’s really weird and not at all logical, but I still did it.
The wedding and reception itself was breathtaking. How could it not be when it was at The Mayo Hotel? And put together by Nicole Allen Events! My sincerest apologies go out to the Mayo employees who had to deal with the wedding shenanigans all weekend.
My favorite part was that every detail embodied Juliana and Saxon’s love and personalities — from the guestbook being a white bass, to the floral dance floor, to the live band, whose rendition of Dua Lipa’s Levitating had the crowd screaming… okay, it was me. I was the one screaming… It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. There’s truly nothing more special than seeing your best friend marry her lifelong partner — and it’s even better when you can genuinely call her partner a friend. Congratulations again to my dear friends!
And because I haven’t stopped thinking about the wedding and Juliana since leaving Tulsa, I thought this week’s newsletter should be a recipe originally introduced to me by sweet baby J. There’s several to choose from because Juice is a kick-ass cook, but this week, we’re sharing one of her originals— Cape Cod Salad with Brown Sugar Spiced Salmon.
Juliana first made us the cape cod salad when we were seniors at KU, and looking back, it was probably the only green thing we were eating at that time. Kinda concerning. We’ve since started incorporating more greens into our diet (thank god), and this staple salad has remained a consistent go-to. Even four years later, we’re still not sick of it— and we eat it every single week. That’s saying a lot.
Throughout the years, we’ve modified Ina Garten’s original recipe to better match what we want from an arugula salad. We’ve swapped out the blue cheese for feta— something we always have at the house. We added scallions because who doesn’t love scallions? Sometimes we’ll use dried cherries instead of dried cranberries because we’re freakin’ daredevils. And lastly, the salmon — the salad definitely doesn’t need it, but after you add it, you’re going to want it.
Eventually, you’ll have this recipe memorized like we do— and I hope every time you make it, you think of Juliana, who deserves all the credit for this recipe — and a standing ovation for getting a dozen college girls to eat anything other than pizza.
Here’s what you’ll need for the salad—
3-4 pieces thick-cut bacon — I like getting the hickory flavored bacon from the butcher counter, but get whatever flavor your heart desires
5 oz arugula — one package like this
1 granny smith apple, diced
2-3 scallions, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
5 oz crumbled feta cheese
For the dressing, the ingredients are—
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Zest of half an orange
Juice of half an orange
2 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt and pepper
⅔ cup olive oil
And for the brown sugar spiced salmon, you’ll need—
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 8-oz salmon fillets
Let’s start with the bacon and salmon. If you prefer to grill your salmon, ignore the salmon spice rub, and instead season with salt, pepper and lather with olive oil before grilling. You can follow the grilling instructions from Foodie Crush.
To bake the salmon and bacon, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cover the bottom of a rimmed baking sheet with foil, and place a baking rack on top. Lay bacon slices on the rack, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until you reach your preferred level of crispiness. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, chop bacon into bite-size pieces.
Line another baking sheet with foil. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper. Place salmon on the baking sheet, and evenly distribute the sugar-spice mixture over the fillets. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness and desired doneness. Set aside to cool. We typically make this rub in advance and keep it in the pantry. This quantity will make way more than what you’ll need for four servings.
In a large bowl, toss together the arugula, apple, cranberries, scallions, feta and chopped bacon.
For the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, orange zest, orange juice, mustard, maple syrup, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. To make sure your dressing is emulsified, start by whisking in the olive oil drop by drop. Once the mixture begins to thicken, you can continue to add olive oil in larger streams until everything is completely combined.
Toss the salad with the dressing. Top with the salmon fillet, and chow down.
For what’s been giving me life this week, it’s been recouping from the wild wedding weekend by getting plenty of snuggle sessions in with Greta. She’s officially giving us teenager vibes— giving zero fucks about squeaking a toy during your meetings or any regard for personal space. We took her to a doggy bday party on Saturday, which is something I never thought I’d type out, but ended up being fun as fuck. There’s very few things cuter than pups in bday hats.
It was breaking up the monotony of the week by doing a taco night with friends— thank you Eli for the idea. It was falling in love with my new high-top sneaks, which you will see on my feet every day from this day forward. It was watching The Theory of Everything — a movie I can’t believe I hadn’t seen before given how close it hits to home. While some moments cut a little too deep for my comfort levels, it was also really validating to feel so seen. And lastly, it was going to an Asian grocery store on Saturday, and stocking up on all things spice/chili related. We’re taking the idea of hot girl summer very literally over here.
Wish I was with you,
Maddie