The Slow Simmer
20,000 subscribers. To celebrate, paid subscriptions 20% off this week only
This weekend, we hit 20,000 subscribers here on Substack. It’s been a slow simmer, much like today’s new recipes.
Before we get in to the recipes (which are really, really good), I want to acknowledge this milestone. When I started this newsletter in August 2023, I had no idea if anyone would actually want to read long-form written gardening and cooking content from me. I’d built this community on short-form video, and Substack felt like a leap. I wanted a place to dig deeper ~pun intended~ to teach things that don’t fit in a quick video, and to tell the stories behind what I grow and cook. The fact that 20,000 of you are here, reading, cooking, gardening along with me, means more than I can really express.
To celebrate this milestone, I’m opening up 20% off annual paid subscriptions for one week only. Here’s what paid subscribers get:
The most popular posts are my monthly gardening guides. These are full planting calendars, seed starting schedules, and what to do in your garden each month. These are the posts people tell me they screenshot and reference all month long. You can find January and February here.
Full access to the archive. Every post I write goes behind the paywall after two weeks. Paid subscribers can access everything, anytime. My most popular posts of all time are:
The garden chat is a private community space where we share what’s growing, swap tips, troubleshoot together, and celebrate harvests.
I also send out exclusive content like behind-the-scenes posts, honest cost breakdowns, recipe development notes, and things I only share with this inner circle.
This offer runs through March 1st.
I made a bone broth (aka beef stock) this weekend that I can’t stop thinking about. The secret is a tin of anchovies rubbed onto the bones before a second roast. I know. It sounds like it shouldn’t work. But the anchovies caramelize into this sticky, savory crust and dissolve into the broth over a LONG, lazy simmer. The result is the deepest, most complete-tasting beef bone broth I’ve ever made. It doesn’t taste fishy at all. It just tastes more like beef than beef bone broth usually does. I’m calling it Anchovy-Roasted Beef Bone Broth, and once you try it, you won’t make bone broth any other way.
Then I took eight cups of that broth and made Pasta en Brodo, stuffed pasta simmered in parmesan-laced broth with nothing else to hide behind. It’s one of the oldest, simplest dishes in Italian home cooking, and it’s only as good as the broth you start with. Which is exactly why I’m giving you both recipes today.
The Anchovy-Roasted Beef Bone Broth is a weekend project, mostly hands-off. The Pasta en Brodo is a 20-minute dinner that makes you feel like you’re being hugged. Together they’re the kind of cooking I love most. Something slow that becomes something effortless.
You can always find my recipes on my website at carmeninthegarden.com.
love love love!