behold, a new Monday email format

After a month of free-for-everyone Monday emails, the paywall is going back up — and I’m also toying with a change in format. Something about the “three best bites” concept started feeling a bit self-indulgent, and I got tired of the sound of my own voice (or whatever the written equivalent of that might be). I want these emails to be a bit less cumbersome and a bit more practical, and this new format is what I landed on.

If you love it, tell me. If you hate it, tell me. That’s the beauty of Substack: I’m my own boss, and I can turn this thing on a dime.

Oh, and one more programming note: Paid subscribers are about to get a few more emails each month. Maybe some of you have noticed that the past two weeks, the main newsletter has been an essay, and those essays have only been tangentially related to food. They reminded me how much I love writing in that format, and my brain is swirling with ideas. I’m also trying to actually buckle down and write a novel, and I think these essays are helping me unlock some of those skills.

To be clear: Everyone — paid and free subscribers — can still count on a food-related newsletter that will land sometime between Thursday morning and Saturday morning each week. The essays will be in addition to those newsletters, and they’ll only come once or twice a month. If you’re here for the food and nothing else, there’s a really easy way to opt out. Just go to the Grazing homepage, click on the menu in the upper right-hand corner, and then select “Manage subscription.” From there, slide the little toggle next to “Essays” over to the left.

… this spicy Thai pork tenderloin salad. I left out the cucumbers and forgot to buy a red pepper, and it was an utter delight. Lately, I can’t get enough of pork tenderloin. It’s such an easy, nearly foolproof dinner option.

… these sweet potato biscuits. I made them last year, and I’ve been craving them for most of the past week, so I’d better get my act together soon and actually bake some.