0:11
# 416: Hello Saturday!
Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video and checking out my new kitchen arrangement for video teaching and broadcasting! And be sure to take advantage of the 50% Off Sale Celebrating My 5th Substack Anniversary!
0:32
dinner, sorted: peach glazed meatballs with basil orzo
Funny thing. Every week when I sit down to write these newsletters - I always want to give you a little life update but I realize I have actually no idea what I did all week. So I always go look at my iPhone photo album to remind me. But this week was literally just Reggie and food. Which means I was either too busy actually living to document it and I just can’t remember… or I’ve been working my caboose off. Probably both. Either way, nothing too exciting to report. Yet.
ANYWAYS. Today’s recipe was a journey. What started as a sheet pan situation migrated to the stovetop, we evolved from rice to orzo, and then from a creamy base to herby. And finally the corn - brilliant in theory but cut after testing confirmed it just didn’t belong here. Shocking, I know. But I’m really happy with where we landed, and I will say: I am completely sick of meatballs right now. Only because we ate about seven variations of them this week though, and I wouldn’t have kept going if they weren’t worth it. Trust me.
I also truly love peaches but they go soft so fast and I’m constantly disappointed. This is the perfect cure for this to use the ones you didn’t get to in time.
Fair warning: this is not the most gorgeous dinner (she was tough to photograph). But sometimes the flavor does all the talking!
peach glazed meatballs with basil orzo
TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes
SERVES: 2-4
browse all my kitchen tools
peach ripeness: you want them ripe enough to soften and release juice into the sauce. If yours are firm, add an extra splash of stock and cook the sauce a little longer. If less ripe, you also may need to add more honey, so trust your gut and your tastebuds.
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2:33
June in My Kitchen
To say June has been hot in France would be an understatement. I've eaten more chilled cantaloupe over the past few weeks than I have in any summer of my life. I've been getting up early to bake and test recipes before the heat settles in. Spending the rest of the day with the shutters closed and the AC working overtime.
This week I've been testing a new blueberry tart. Three tarts in, I've settled on the size and perfected the crust pre-bake. Just one more little tweak to the filling, and it'll be ready to share next week. I'm also working on a churned pistachio ice cream that's wonderfully creamy, deeply nutty, and exactly what I want to be eating right now.
A quick question for you: do you use an ice cream stabilizer to help homemade ice cream keep its texture for a few days, or do you simply enjoy it the day it's made?
Speaking of ice cream, I had two scoops (boules) of citron-basilic in town today and I must say mine’s better. Creamy very lemony and I steep my dairy with basil instead of adding in little chunks. If you have a bunch of basil sitting on your counter, I’d highly recommend giving it a try this weekend. Lemon basil ice cream is currently at the top of my Sunday activities.
Thank you to everyone who made one of my recipes this month. Every bake, comment, photo, and kind message means so much. Your support is what keeps my little kitchen full of creativity and inspires me to keep sharing new recipes.
And if any of this month’s recipes catch your eye, I’d be so grateful if you clicked through to take a look. It truly makes a difference.
Cherry pie is exactly what I think about when someone says summer fruit pie. A flaky all butter crust, thick cherry filling, a lattice top and a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review: Absolutely delicious! Thank you so very much for sharing this recipe! I have been living in Sicily for many years and May is when beautiful, fresh, delicious cherries start being available. I had lots of them and I remembered that I used to eat Cherry Pie back in Brooklyn, where I was born and raised by my obviously food-oriented Sicilian parents. So I decided to make it going by your perfect recipe!
Comfort food and warm, happy memories of my childhood… made my day Jenn! 😊
New recipes added to the Two Cups Flour Blog!
Jumbo Blueberry Crumble Muffins (updated)
What have you been up to lately?
Have you taken any fun trips recently?
Tried a new recipe that you can’t stop making?
Started a new hobby or found a favorite summer tradition?
Hit reply and or leave a comment. I genuinely love reading your emails and getting a little peek into what life looks like for you.
Wishing you a beautiful weekend filled with good food, good company, and a little time to slow down. And of course air conditioning!!!
~Jenn
Source:
5:49
Your June 28 meal plan is here.
Friends, this week’s plan has been one of the most fun ones to put together in a while. For one of the dinner recipes, I’m excited to share one of my favorite recipes recently. It went up on the blog a few days ago and I have not stopped thinking about it since I made it—crispy fries topped with seared ribeye and a mango chimichurri sauce.
Lunch for the week is a steak salad with no lettuce, making it perfect for meal prep since it won’t get all soggy and wilty. For the other two dinners, we’ve got some boneless, skinless chicken thighs marinated in blended coconut milk, sambal oelek, ginger, garlic, and lime, then grilled until charred. And a brand new salmon salad with crispy baked quinoa, cucumbers, edamame, avocado, and a creamy bang bang sauce.
Breakfast is a delicious baked oatmeal that takes 35 minutes on Sunday and then requires zero thought for the rest of the week. So many exciting recipes this week and I can’t wait for you to try them!
Below you’ll find everything you need—the recipes, the grocery list, and a few tips to make the week run smoother. This week’s plan includes:
1 breakfast
1 lunch
3 dinners
1 snack
Click into any recipe below for the full recipe.
8 servings | Prep: 15 min | Cook: 35 min
If you’re looking for the perfect way to jazz up a typically boring breakfast, then look no further because this recipe is it. Introducing my Easy Lemon Blueberry Baked Oatmeal, a delicious, fluffy, simple twist on the classic oatmeal recipe. By combining rolled oats with just a few simple ingredients and baking it in the oven, it becomes a fluffy, cake-like treat that is anything but boring!
tips & swaps
Fresh blueberries give the best result, but frozen work fine — no need to thaw them first
The lemon zest is what makes this taste bright rather than just sweet — don’t skip it!
Drizzle with a little honey or almond butter right before eating for extra richness
Keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze individual slices for up to 2 months
Can easily be made vegan with a few substitutions
👉Get the full recipe.
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8:16
Scientists discover what triggers belly fat as we age
Aging may trigger the appearance of specialized stem cells that supercharge the body's ability to create new belly fat. The discovery reveals a potential biological driver of middle-age weight gain and a promising target for future anti-obesity treatments.
8:41
Expanding Who We Mean By "We"
On June 14, the Committee for the First Amendment staged a concert called Rise Up! Sing Out! at New York’s historic Town Hall. The show celebrated the five freedoms of the First Amendment—speech, press, religion, assembly and petition—by weaving music and spoken word into a single evening.
The event was streamed live, and organizer Justin Krebs rallied churches, synagogues, bookstores, comedy clubs, libraries and community groups to host viewing parties. Those gatherings popped up in about 1,500 spots across every state, Hawaii and even a hall in Paris, ranging from beer gardens to church basements.
At the live venues roughly 30 000 people watched together, and the video has since drawn millions of views on YouTube. The audience response was enthusiastic, with many noting the shared energy of the night.
The program featured a mix of actors, activists and musicians—Lily Gladstone, Julia Roberts, Joy Reid, Rev Adriene Thorne, Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Hussein Rashid, Tessa Thompson, Robert De Niro, Ayo Edebiri, Wilson Cruz and others—under the production of Rob Nanus and Bruce Cohn, direction by Schele Williams and script by Bess Kalb.
10:06
Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Jose Baselga
I just finished reading Theo Baker’s engaging book describing his freshman year at Stanford which culminated in toppling the president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne (MTL) for data manipulation in at least 5 papers with suboptimal effort to correct the record.
First, the book reminds me of Bad Blood — about the Theranos scandal. It's a quick and engaging read and I commend the author.
Second, the book raises many issues about science that are worthy of further discussion. Because I have so many points (20). I will number them.
1. I am persuaded by Theo Baker that MTL has a problematic research history. Papers at multiple institutions have replicability issues and data/ image manipulation problems. It's hard to know what MTL knew and when. At worst, he is complicit in active fraud. At best, he slow rolled appropriate corrections. I personally lean towards the former, but the truth is unknown.
Scientists should be scrutinized. Scrutiny should be proportionate to the claims they have made (bigger discoveries will get more scrutiny bc that drives more research) and scrutiny should happen equally across the board. You can't just audit University presidents. You should audit all people, and if you have to triage, start with those who make big claims. MTL is one.
People should be punished for wrongdoing.
MTL went down because his work provided raw images. Raw data lets third parties find errors. Most of science hides the raw data and provides only tables and figures summarizing the data. If all raw data were provided, I bet 60, 70 or 80% of research would be found to be untrue, manipulated or fraud. This is compatible with the abysmal reproducibility rate across many fields documented in a series of papers. This is compatible with Ioannidis’ famous thought experiment paper on why most research is false. This is compatible with our work on medical reversal. And this is compatible with my read of tens of thousands of papers over 20 years. This is in contrast with Mr Baker who believes that MTL was exception to the rule. He is the norm. Scientists are engaging in massive manipulation, selective reporting and outright misleading research. At times, they fool even themselves. MTL isn't the lone drug dealer at your college, MTL is the drug dealer heading up the cartel. Some will argue that others aren't as intentionally deceptive. That's like saying it's not stealing bc you didn't know it was someone else's. The weaknesses of science and unwillingness to reform is well known. Now more than ever.
MTL is faulted for being too ambitious. Sadly this is true for probably 99% of Stanford or Harvard professors. You don't get the job without ambition. You won't survive.
Ironically being a university president and being a scientist have nothing to do with each other. MTL’s science misconduct led him to resign a political— and not a scientific— job. Now he is back in drug discovery. Probably it was less risky to have him fundraise for Stanford.
A person like MTL will have lots of enemies. Enemies will use anything to take MTL down. I wonder who weaponized Baker against him. Who was the first anonymous tip in 2022?
Journalism is motivated by taking down individuals and not solving systemic issues. Bad science is a systemic rot. Knocking out MTL doesn't solve the issues. Journalism loves stories about people. They don't love the messy reality that people operate according to incentives and move in herds.
The book reminds me of Jose Baselga. Baselga was physician in chief at Sloan kettering. It is no secret, he and I had our disagreements, but what is less well known is that we interacted frequently since I was a fellow and I quite liked Jose. He made me laugh. Baselga had someone report him to Charlie Orenstein (reporter) for failing to disclose all his payments from pharma in papers. And the allegation was broadly true. It was also par for the course. Oncology was (and is) overrun with faculty taking money from pharmaceutical firms and then recommending those products— even for off label and disputed uses. The field has never done anything about this other than token disclosures. Disclosures, which, by the way, have been shown to be ineffective at mitigating bias. Baselga made a mistake but so many others have made it as well. Instead, someone who has an ax to grind reported him. Journalism pounced. Eventually he resigned and moved to AstraZenica where his salary increased dramatically. Sadly a few years later he would die from Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. Now, a decade later, none of the systemic issues have been changed. It may even be worse. It many ways it's just like MTL. Instead of reform, we pick one prominent scapegoat and slaughter them.
Separate from MTLs research issues, he supported the censure of Dr. Scott Atlas who was opposed to cloth masking, school closure and lockdowns, but made the unforgivable mistake of once touching Donald Trump's hand.
15:50
Re: Camp: A Few Notes
Dear Parents,
We are so excited that your child will be joining us in just a few weeks at Summer Sunshine Sleepaway (aka Get The Kids Out of My Fucking Hair for Two Months) Camp.
We have a full roster of enriching arts programming, sports, entertainment, fun and excitement planned for them while they unplug and reconnect with nature over the next eight weeks!
But first, a few logistics.
Please read this letter and its Appendices and Addendums in its entirety, preferably in one sitting not interrupted by your kids, your aging mother’s doctors, your editors, your dating apps, or your noisy cat who apparently wants to be fed again. Silence those notifications and set some time aside for yourself! (We recommend three to seven hours).
FORMS
Please login to your CAMPMINDER account and fill out all forms. If you don’t have an account yet, registration takes approximately 60 days and requires a unique four-step verification process, so get to it!
Yes we know there are 113 forms and that they have to be signed by both parents and notarized and that you filled all of these forms out last year, but practice makes perfect! Persist.
The “Favorite Things” form is new this year – this is our way of preparing to greet your child with fond memories and we have found that it helps tremendously in the event of homesickness. The form requires 10+ favorite things (at least one per year since birth), plus first words, and any related childhood traumas around Disney movies with deceased parents. We want to make sure we don’t have any tears or tantrums!
The Medical Form must include all allergies and food aversions. Fears, whether realized or not, should be indicated under “Potential Triggers.”
Once all 113 forms are filled out, notarized, and signed in blood, please make 37 copies of each and scan them individually into CAMPMINDER. Bulk scans will not be accepted.
Camp Forms (all 113) must be submitted by May 5th or your camper will not be permitted to attend camp. (Your deposit and all payments will be kept though).
We realize that the labor of filling out forms (and packing and labelling all clothes, see below for more on that) will fall onto the camper’s mother even though she has a demanding full time job at which she is paid ½ of what her male colleagues make, and that she also carries all the invisible labor of the household – cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, medical appointments, fixer of nightmares, finder of missing retainers, airpods, and earrings, and that she also takes care of her aging mother, but we know you will make time to fill these forms out in a timely and careful manner!
CLOTHING AND PACKING LIST
Please refer to the attached packing list in Addendum D3 – all campers must come with 14 pairs of every piece of clothing: tops, shorts, tops that appear to be dresses, socks, underwear, and bras that appear to be tops. Yes we realize you will have to go to Target and empty their multi-pack section but do what you must. We will only do laundry every 14 days and you don’t want your child wearing dirty clothes now do you! You do not!
Every piece of clothing must be labeled with first and last name; gender identity, preferred name, and pronouns. This includes socks too. We realize the label may be larger than the sock but you’ll figure it out.
Labels must be uniform size and we prefer these from Camp Labels R Us (click here for 10% off 200).
Towels and sheets and pillows are not provided. Please pack two sets of sheets, two towels, and one hypo-allergenic pillow.
Our beds are longer than your average bed so you need to purchase custom made sheets from this website: Expensive Sheets for Camp That Your Kids will Never Use Again.
Stuffed animals and comfort items are encouraged. Please refer to Appendix C2 for a list of permitted stuffed animals. Endangered species are not permitted. Come on people.
Emotional support pets are not permitted. Last year we had an incident with little Tommy’s emotional support hamster and we can’t really talk about that here but take our word for it, leave them at home.
ARRIVAL AT CAMP
Please plan to arrive at camp between 10am and 10:17am on Monday. We value efficiency and punctuality! Early arrivals and latecomers will not be tolerated. You need to set a good example for your campers!
If you arrive late, you will be escorted to an alternative drop off area a few miles down the road where you can sit quietly in your hot car and think about your mistakes and why you can’t seem to do anything right.
You can accompany your camper to the bunk and help them “set up” their cabins.
21:09
Opinion: Supreme Court ruling on Roundup points to a confusing difference between the law and science
When the Supreme Court handed Monsanto a major win in Roundup litigation on Thursday, the headlines sounded like a scientific event: a case about whether Roundup causes cancer.
But Monsanto v. Durnell did not settle that question. The court held that federal pesticide law preempts a state failure-to-warn claim when the Environmental Protection Agency has not required a cancer warning on the product label.
21:46
Pfizer’s Seagen bet sours further; China debate continues to heat up; and more
Pfizer’s recent investment in Seagen is looking shakier than they hoped. The latest earnings call showed Seagen’s pipeline, especially the antibody‑drug conjugate in late‑stage trials for solid tumors, isn’t moving forward as quickly, and Pfizer’s expected revenue boost from the partnership is being revised down. The data come from a single Phase III study that missed its primary endpoint, so the impact is limited to that trial rather than the whole program, but it does temper expectations for near‑term growth.
In China, the conversation around drug approvals is heating up again. Regulators are tightening the criteria for fast‑track pathways, especially for foreign‑origin biologics, after a series of post‑marketing safety concerns. Companies are now required to submit more extensive real‑world evidence, which means longer timelines before patients can access new therapies. The shift is modest in scale—just a few extra months for most submissions—but it signals a more cautious stance from the authorities.
Other headlines this week include a meta‑analysis of cardiovascular outcomes for a new lipid‑lowering agent, which found a small but statistically significant reduction in major events across five trials. There’s also a brief update on a gene‑editing trial for sickle‑cell disease: the Phase I/II study reported acceptable safety so far, but efficacy signals remain early. Finally, a reminder that the upcoming conference in Boston will feature a panel on AI in drug discovery, though the agenda is still being finalized.
