Migas with Chorizo

Plus: Red Hook Lobster Rolls, Your Gardening Advice!, and Garlic Mustard Rosemary Chicken Thighs.

Hey everyone,

Thank you all so much for your congratulations about the novel! I’m still in a state of total shock about the whole thing. It’s one thing to complete a 330-page novel, it’s another thing to actually sell it. I’m so excited for you to read it in the Summer of 2025!

In the meantime, you still have a chance to hear all about it early in the Fall of 2024 because there’s still room on my trip to Puglia. Here’s the brochure with all the details:

Puglia Adam Roberts Brochure

1.13MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

And get this? The prices have officially lowered from:

€6900 per person (double occupancy)

€7800 per person (single occupancy)

To:

€5200 per person (double occupancy)

€6000 per person (single occupancy)

I know that’s still a lot of money, but if you can swing it, I’d love to meet up in real life and experience Italy with you! Send an e-mail to minchillitours@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Now let’s talk about migas.

I found myself with a surplus of tortilla chips and some Mexican chorizo and decided to whip these up for breakfast.

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There’s actually not that much to it, but the results are stupendous. I even typed up a recipe for you on the ol’ blog, so have a click and let me know what you think.

Yesterday, I took a walk to Red Hook to pick up some plants for our front porch (more on that in a sec) and did a quick lunch detour to the Red Hook Lobster Pound.

One of my favorite things about living in New York again is that you can stroll in so many directions and have so many different experiences. This is one experience I plan to experience again and again:

A Maine-style lobster roll on toasted brioche with French fries on a beautiful day in Brooklyn? It doesn’t get much better than that. (I used to have similar experiences at Brooklyn Fish Camp, RIP, and Pearl Oyster Bar, RIP).

From there, I continued on to the Chelsea Garden Center:

My mission? To turn my bleak porch into something pretty for the spring:

What I didn’t realize was that this little trip would forever transform who I am as a person.

As in: I LOVE GARDENING!

I came home with bags and bags of soil and a trowel and gloves.

I dug up the old dirt that was in the planter by the door, put in all fresh organic potting soil, added a little fertilizer (Holly-tone), then planted these beautiful “fruit punch classic coral” perennials:

I also brought home a “honey butter” rhododendron, plus herbs which I planted in my empty pots from the earlier picture (rosemary, thyme, and mint).

I watered everything and I’m monitoring the sunlight. Right now these guys aren’t getting a lot of direct sunlight, so I may have to move them.

I have some questions for you gardening types:

• If I love being out there, what else can I do in my front yard in a NYC climate to keep myself busy “gardening”? I was thinking of planting some seeds for more herbs in more pots: Dill? Cilantro? Chives?

• Can you grow tomatoes in a pot? Chilies? Do you start from seeds?

• Do you have a favorite book about this kind of gardening? Urban gardening, I suppose? I’d love to read more about it.

• Besides watering, what else should I be doing with my plants? What is the verb “gardening” once everything is planted and watered? Just futzing around pulling off dead leaves?

Please sound off in the comments!

Finally, I made a scrumptious dinner last night that seemed kind of fancy but was really easy:

The key was this Lidey Heuck recipe for baked chicken thighs. You marinate bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for 30 minutes at room temperature in a mixture of olive oil, Dijon, chopped rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper. Then you roast them at 425 for 30 minutes and they come out perfect.

I also threw some vegetables in there (carrots, cauliflower, beets), did a quick couscous with toasted pine nuts, and made a salsa verde by pounding garlic with cilantro and parsley and then stirring in olive oil and lemon juice.

That’s Winston with his new haircut. He looks cute, no?

Let’s look at some links:

• The home of the $29 hot dog is no more (Eater NY);

• Mary’s Fish Camp is no more (Eater NY);

• When your restaurant cancellation fee costs as much as dinner (NYT);

• Cool fruit art! (via kottke.org)

That’s all for this week, folks….

See you back here on Monday.

Your pal,

Adam