Good afternoon, everyone,

I hope you’re doing well! Personally, I’ve been doing pretty great. It’s been a wonderful time to be a soccer fan in the U.S. with the United States officially placing first in their group after Türkiye lost to Paraguay. I know I’m not the only fan who has found themselves happily surprised by the U.S.’s performance so far. 

Also, fun fact, for any of you who don’t know: one of the stars of the team, Chris Richards, is from Alabama and a co-owner in Birmingham Legion, Birmingham’s local professional team. Richards has done exceptionally well this World Cup, and it has been fun getting to watch someone local to Alabama compete on the world stage for a sport I love.

Speaking of things that make me happy, last Friday was Juneteenth and I once again spent it in Montevallo volunteering to help run the Montevallo Legacy Project’s booth at the city’s 4th annual Juneteenth Celebration.

There was some wonderful singing, beautiful poetry and an absolutely incredible performance put on by DRUM The Program, a non-profit dedicated to “providing culturally grounded West African drumming and dance education to advance social-emotional learning and community health outcomes.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen DRUM perform, but it honestly never gets old. The music is excellent, but more than that, I always just find it so inspiring. The performance featured numerous young people who had participated in DRUM’s summer programs and the way they played and danced with overwhelming joy was wonderful to see. I work with young people in my primary job, so I really enjoy viewing programs that are succeeding in creating places where young people can feel free, safe and comfortable. 

And of course, after all of that, I got to head home and watch an excellent World Cup match where an Alabamian was a key player on the field. It really just made me feel so proud of the people who call Alabama home. 

Behind the curtain:

Wes and I have been brainstorming on what to focus on with Alabama Spotlight. You can expect some more book reviews in the future, but we also will be diving more deeply into Alabama’s unique and wonderful natural world. 

As someone who loves hiking and backpacking, I’ve always enjoyed swapping stories with other outdoor enthusiasts. So, one of my goals for this summer is to get some podcast episodes where we just sit down and record fun hiking stories with guests. 

If you happen to fall in the category of “someone with fun hiking stories,” then feel free to shoot me an email!

We’ll be working on posting more video content this summer, so if you aren’t already, make sure to subscribe to our social media accounts and YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our work!

The hum and drum

I mentioned in the last newsletter that I’ve been getting into making homemade pizzas. Well, since then I’ve made several pizzas, and I’ve got pictures of a few here. 

So far, my favorite might be the 3 cheese sauceless pizza. The recipe book — the TMNT Pizza Cookbook — actually called for four cheeses, but I keep forgetting to pick up ricotta cheese. My most recent creation might be the one I’ve enjoyed the least. I decided to make a white sauce pizza, and it was fine, but it just didn’t have the same impact as the others.

Tangentially related to cooking, I have successfully started growing an herb garden — after an extremely unsuccessful first attempt that left me with several dead basil and parsley plants — and a week or two ago I got to make homemade pesto from my own basil plants. It was absolutely delicious, and I used it in some spinach and tomato pita wraps, which wound up tasting a lot better than I was expecting. 

I have also started propagating some of my herbs. My new goal is to have a large enough herb garden that I can make fresh pesto at least every two weeks.

I’m getting more comfortable preparing things from scratch that I usually buy, so I recently started making homemade tortillas to use in wraps. One of my cookbooks has a recipe for pita, so I’m planning to make some homemade pita to use for spinach and pita wraps. 

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