Happy Sunday! For those new here: this is The Skinny, a free weekly newsletter designed to entertain and save you time—everyone’s most valued resource—by serving up our signature, curated lifestyle news.

Today’s The Skinny should take less than three minutes to breeze through, and is crafted to help enhance the week’s end with ideas and inspiration. What we’re covering: 

• The salad days of summer: from salads around the world to storage tips and the “world’s best vinaigrette” 

• Spotlight on independent artisans: why handwoven tea towels are top, and the best personalized travel kit for recent grads

• What we can’t live without: frozen coffee pods that melt in your cup

• Sunday sandos with The Skinny: from a French butter & radish sandwich to the “viral chopped Italian grinder”

• Plus: a giant butter stick floatie, walk of shame essentials (and the history of the DVF wrap dress), America’s oldest drinking establishments, meal prep shortcut heroes & “the best vinaigrette in the world”

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Eat Your Greens

Around the world in salads, plus ‘the world’s best’ DIY vinaigrette 

The Skinny: Salads will be a part of our ongoing summer content, naturally, but to get everyone started here are The 14 Most Popular Salads In Different Countries Around The World (via the Daily Meal). 

Below, a salad storage tip from our favorite farmer’s market salad purveyors, a groovy British couple who says things like this (when asked stupid questions like if you should eat radish greens or toss wilted salad): “Um yes we eat it all. We are farmers.” 

According to them, and because Nicole is obsessed with their salad greens: store washed salad in a Ziploc bag (you can put a paper towel in it as well, if still wet) and ensure there is a little bit of air in the sealed bag. “Like a little pillow,” they say. 

For additional inspo, shout-out to a Redditter for this gem and bit of salad wisdom re: how to find ideas beyond food blogs: “I Google salad bar menus and replicate. Not a blog, but there are some beauties out there! Sweetgreen is a tits example.”

Final reminder (again) that there is no need to buy store-bought croutons when it is beyond easy (and so much better) to make your own. Ditto for vinaigrette and here’s the “best in the world” by someone who would know: author Samin Nosrat of “Salt Fat Acid Heat”.

PS: If you missed our “Bruschetta Chic” item on the Hot Tomato Summer phenomenon, you can find it here along with how to dress (and smell like) the aesthetic.

Makers’ Marks

It’s high time to upgrade your tea towel

The Skinny: Sunday is the day to ponder a new hobby, or to put into practice the one you already love, and this week we are talking to weaver Stephanie Gleit. While mastering any art form or craft takes time and dedication, after talking with Stephanie it seems like weaving is on a much higher level: as she says, it is “by far the most complex of all the crafts in my opinion—it would take 10 lifetimes to master.” For Stephanie, it’s the depth and diverse cultural significance of weaving, and the breadth of ways to express creativity, that she loves. 

You can shop all the beautiful items from Gleit Design here, and we were especially drawn to the idea of these shoelaces (above) and the concept of a hand woven tea towel (also, above). As we are among those who appreciate a beautiful and seasonal tea towel, we were excited to learn that these last for years and years and still look brand new (as with her napkins—which we love in Limette for the Year of the Snake). 

Looking at the history of the tea towel, it appears they were first used to dry elegant sets used in high tea—so it is indeed fitting that one should respect the tea towel and not give in to the cheap, mass-produced and throwaway versions that we all probably have in our kitchen.

Sidebar: a friend of Nicole’s in BK says that her in-laws have implemented a strict tea towel hierarchy: one earmarked for dishes, one for hand drying, one for spills, etc. At first, this seemed very extra and ridiculous but, thinking about it more, it’s kind of genius. And a personal pet peeve is visiting someone’s kitchen who doesn’t have a proper tea towel in arm’s reach! 

In more handmade news, you’ll thank us for this Graduation Gift idea that checks all the boxes: personalized, useful & and high-quality (not to mention, beautiful). We’re talking about Tulusa Goods’ Traveler Kit College Edition, which is customizable in your grad’s college colors and designed by our friend Sue who is a creative genius with hand dyed and printed textiles. Pre-stock it highbrow with some expensive travel minis, or lowbrow with walk of shame essentials, e.g.: condoms, Visine, travel deo, mints, comb, spare panties/briefs (because a quick exit is key, and you’ll never find them). 

One-night-stand related: The real reason behind the design of Diane Von Furstenberg’s iconic wrap dress.  

Life Essentials

Regarding those items we can’t live without

The Skinny: We get a fair share of items to test—aka, one of the top perks of this work—and this winter we each received a package of frozen pods from Cometeer coffee. This is the best invention we had never heard of, and that now we can’t live without. As they say: We Freeze. You Melt. Everyone Wins.

These are incredibly fresh, high-quality coffees from specialty roasters around the world (the discovery is part of the fun) that are frozen at peak quality (science behind that, here). Extra bonus: fully recyclable aluminum pods. Pick your pleasure by “just rolling out of bed and adding water,” or for when you have time and/or are feeling your at-home barista vibe, making a hot/cold latte or even something spiked (courtesy of @alwayshappyhour). 

Father’s Day alert! A Cometeer two-week trial (which starts a subscription) is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only will Dad think of you every morning, as he savors the gift of incredible tasting coffee, but he will appreciate the time back each day with coffee is ready in a flash. Dad-specific gift bundles also available!

Pantry Raid

Sunday sandos with The Skinny

The Skinny: Inspired by last week’s picnic item, we are making French radish and butter sandwiches today. They might sound strange to the uninitiated, but trust us on this one (and we’re using the radishes our fave farmer threw in for free as a thank you for Nicole complementing his salad greens). 

Jill made the viral Tiktok italian chopped grinder twice in one week (by popular demand) so we know it’s a keeper (pro tip: go full tilt with Olive Garden Italian dressing). Related, the Italian grinder salad that is kinda like a sandwich.

Last Licks

This week’s newsfeed

• Cheers to history: per the Wine Enthusiast, here are some of America’s oldest drinking establishments, and we’ve tippled at a couple (though, giving this editor a “B-” for not including the Warren Tavern in Charlestown, Boston). 

• It’s National Dairy Month, and “for those who celebrate,” may we recommend this big AF butter stick floatie. 

• According to a survey by Challenge Butter, 90% of Americans do not start a meal from scratch, so easy pre-made/pre-cut shortcuts—like their new pre-measured cubes—are key to success. Can you guess what the No. 1 meal prep shortcut hero is?

• Please, someone invite us aboard the Dolce Vita Express Train, where each carriage apparently has its own conductor.  

• Protein packed tip from fellow newsletter CPG Wire: Danone muscles into the $7B protein shake market with new Oikos shakes flexing benefits like prebiotic fiber, low sugar and no added sweeteners. We’re ofc down with Greek yogurt and flavors like salted caramel, but at $10 per 4-pack, we prefer our own creamy, protein-packed cottage cheese (yes, we KNOW) smoothie: cup of CC, splash of milk or juice, banana, frozen fruit, add-ins like mint or honey, done.

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