By Summer is relentless this week. 97 degrees on Wednesday. The window unit in the living room sounds like a dying airplane and the one in the bedroom stopped working entirely, which means we all slept in the living room on Tuesday night like refugees from our own apartment. Chloe thought it was a "sleepover" and was thrilled. Jayden thought it was an excuse to stay up late and was also thrilled. I thought it was the cost of being poor in a city that hits triple digits, and I was not thrilled, but I smiled because that is what mothers do when the air conditioning breaks — we smile and call it an adventure and silently calculate how many Waffle House tips it takes to fix a window unit.
Answer: approximately forty. The repair guy came Thursday. $160. I paid it and didn't cry, which I consider personal growth, because two years ago $160 would have been a catastrophe and today it was a setback. The difference between catastrophe and setback is a dental hygiene degree in progress and a tip jar that never stops filling.
Board exam prep is getting serious. I'm up to 85% accuracy on practice tests. Tanisha is at 80%. We quiz each other on the phone at night after the kids are down — she asks me about periodontal classifications and I ask her about pharmacology interactions and we both get things wrong and we both keep going. That's the whole partnership. That's what we've been since day one: two women who get things wrong and keep going.
Chloe hit twenty books. TWENTY. She marched into the library on Saturday and slapped her reading log on the counter like she was filing a legal brief and Ms. Davis gave her a certificate and a free book (she chose a Junie B. Jones — appropriate, since Chloe has the same energy as Junie B., which is to say: chaotic, opinionated, and irresistible). She was so proud she vibrated. My daughter vibrates when she's proud. It's the cutest and most alarming thing.
I made a cucumber salad this week because it was too hot to cook and because Mrs. Patterson left a bag of cucumbers on my porch (the woman's garden produces enough vegetables to feed Antioch, and she distributes them like a produce Santa Claus). Sliced cucumbers, red onion, white vinegar, sugar, salt, dill. Refrigerated until cold. It costs nothing and it tastes like summer. I ate it standing in front of the open fridge and let the cold air hit my face and for thirty seconds the heat didn't exist and the broken window unit didn't matter and the world was just me and a cold cucumber and the sound of my kids laughing in the living room. Sometimes thirty seconds is enough.
That cucumber salad I threw together was the best thing I ate all week — but honestly, when Mrs. Patterson keeps leaving bags of produce on your porch and the temperature won’t drop below 90, you start looking for every cold, no-cook thing you can make. This veggie dip is the natural next step: creamy, herby, and ready to meet whatever the garden sends your way. It’s the kind of recipe that asks nothing of you except a bowl and a refrigerator — and after a week like this one, that’s exactly the right ask.
Veggie Dip
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes (plus 30 minutes chilling) | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dill weed
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Fresh vegetables for dipping (cucumbers, carrots, celery, bell peppers, broccoli)
Instructions
- Mix the dip. In a medium bowl, combine the sour cream and mayonnaise until smooth and fully blended.
- Add the seasonings. Stir in the dried minced onion, parsley, dill weed, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. Mix well until everything is evenly incorporated.
- Chill. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors come together. An hour is even better if you can wait.
- Prep your vegetables. Slice cucumbers, carrots, celery, and bell peppers into dippable pieces. Arrange on a plate or in a shallow bowl around the dip.
- Serve cold. Pull it straight from the fridge and serve immediately. Keep any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 210 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 3g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 310mg