Esther: Today's dispatch is an act of rebellion somewhat– I have started reading Han Kang's Human Acts, a book that was voted out early in the first round of our book club matchups we hosted on Instagram. My goal is to read it in the original Korean, alongside the English translation. I'm only a few pages along in my dual-language reading project, and I'm not very good at committing to reading books, so we'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed I can stick with it!

Caroline: These days, about 30% of my weekly joy comes from my end-of-week visit to the Union Square Greenmarket, where I buy about 80% of my groceries. I'm trying to keep my money as local as possible, and this time of year is especially fun because all of the good stuff is slowly coming back into season. I've been impatiently awaiting the arrival of strawberries, because I'm tired of apples, but they are very hard to come by right now. Today, I got there early but alas, no strawberries to be found. So instead, I bought this heart-shaped bottle of strawberry wine, which I'm a little terrified to try but am obsessed with because of its charming label and ridiculous bottle. Other new-in-season purchases included peonies, sun gold tomatoes and enough asparagus to include in everything I will cook this week. Maybe next week there will be strawberries. At the very least, it's something to look forward to. 

Julianne: I first tried Deb Perelman's olive oil shortbread with rosemary and chocolate chips when my cousin Hilary brought them to our family's annual Christmas breakfast last year. They were ideal shortbread! The herbal bitterness of rosemary cut through the sweetness perfectly. And who can say no to chocolate chips in a buttery cookie?

So when I found I had all the ingredients, including the fresh rosemary, for my own batch I knew straight away that's what I was going to make. I appreciated that the recipe doesn't ask for butter OR eggs, ingredients that are extra precious in these coronavirus times. My excitement was only a tiny bit dimmed when the whole sheet of shortbread crumbled before I could even slide it out of the pan to slice. My version doesn't look great, and they fall apart if I try to pick them up. But that's where chopsticks come in handy! And they're still mighty tasty. Food52 has the recipe if you'd like to try them for yourself.

Alyx: From what I gather every time I open the Instagram app, we are all discovering new things about our hair. Normally my fiancé cuts my hair, so I don't have the excuse of not being able to see my hairdresser, but for whatever reason it hasn't felt right to cut my short hair or my bangs for the past few months. This is a long-winded way of saying that my hair is a mess and constantly in my face. A couple of weeks ago, I started wrapping my head in a big silk scarf every day, and it's really improved things! For one, I feel more alert with all my hair strapped my skull, and for another, I feel like it makes me look ~cooler~ on Zoom. My favorite way is to knot it above the middle of my forehead, and then tuck in the ends.