Don't answer any emails, just grill these soy-glazed chicken skewers

I like recipes with sprinkles. [View this email in your browser]( [Bon Appétit Newsletter Banner Pink]( If I hear “fire up your grill…” one more time I’ll burst into flames. But yeah, it’s GRILLING SEASON FRIENDS, and the new Bon Appétit grilling issue came out this week with a ton of recipes. 42, to be exact. Everywhere I turn it’s charred this and smoked that and vats of [potato-and-egg-and-bacon salad](. So to embrace it all, I’m sharing my grilling secret weapon, which are [these soy-basted chicken thigh skewers]( courtesy of grillmaster Chris Morocco. I made them on Monday last week. Monday! They’re that easy. The chicken marinades in a soy sauce-brown sugar mixture, which you reduce into a glaze and then brush on the chicken once it’s grilling. The chicken thighs are juicy, the glaze sticky-savory good, and then Chris goes the extra mile: a sesame seed, chive, and lemon zest sprinkle. Sometimes I skip it out of laziness, but it’s super impressive when people are coming over, because it’s chicken sprinkles. In the news [Scratch and sniff stamps are coming!]( The delightful watercolored popsicle stamps will smell like [REDACTED], ugh, they’re waiting to reveal the smell on June 20. Please don’t let it be Santal 33! Since they’re Forever stamps and because I use approx. 5 stamps a year, they’ll have a chance to age like a fine wine in my junk drawer. I’m picturing a million landlords and student loan collection agents pausing to deeply inhale a bent-up envelope, briefly transporting them back to childhood summers at the cabin, the sweet syrup of ice pops dripping down their hands. Maybe I should fix that leaky tub after all, the landlord thinks, smiling at his benevolence. Maybe I should forgive this enormous burden of debt, the loan agent considers. One can hope. My biography just published A new book crossed my desk this week, [The Secret Life of Cows](. It’s a small book, the perfect size for displaying on my coffee table. The cow on the cover appears to be thinking about something petty a farmer once said to her (see page 80, “Cows Remember”). But she’s got better things to do than dwell on it, she’s got grass to chomp on and a blue sky to nap under (page 52, “Cows Make Good Decisions”). The inner lives of animals are exactly what Rosamund Young, an organic farmer in England, specializes in, and if you think you have no interest in cows, you’ll miss out on a little book full of so much more (page 107, “There’s Another Side to Hens”). Unnecessary food feud of the week Do you peel, or shave, asparagus? Adam Rapoport does, and [he feels passionately about this.]( Digital director Carey Polis and other argued that asparagus require so little prep, why bother to peel? Let them be stalky and uneven! An entire meeting devolved into asparagus talk, but the thing is, we only have a few weeks of asparagus season left, so whatever you do, eat as much as possible until it’s gone, when all that’s left is the haunting whiff of spring’s final asparagus pee. Brad Makes BBQ with Rodney Scott Bradford Leone returned from paternity leave (!!) to have his latest episode of It’s Alive, from shoot up to #1 trending slot in YouTube. [Watch it!]( Brad learns how to grill a whole hog with pitmaster (and recent James Beard award winner!) Rodney Scott in Charleston, and the mostly anonymous YouTube fans loved it: Josiah Collins is very observant: “They got that yeti sponsorship. I guess those campfire episodes payed off. ” [THEY DID.] Bela Kellogg knows art when she sees it: “Rodney is the Bob Ross of BBQ ” ShaunRL has a very efficient bro-dar: “Some serious bromance going on in this one. ” Christina Howell turns to the bowl of lettuce in the chair next to her and says to it: “idk why I torture myself like this. I'm a vegetarian but I love brad 😭😭” Panic! In the test kitchen Claire had a minor crisis. Rhubarb is finally in season and people have been making her incredible rhubarb custard cake, but things were... going wrong. And we can’t have that! There were reports that the rhubarb on top was sinking into the cake, and since the whole point is to see the pink stalks on top (we can be shamelessly image obsessed), we needed to correct the recipe. Claire baked the cake SIX more times this week, and even had social media manager Emily Schultz come down to the kitchen so she could observe how a home cook made it. It turns out that if you used a stand mixer instead of mixing the cake batter by hand, it whipped too much air into the batter, leaving the cake too weak to hold up the rhubarb. [Claire basically wrote a New Yorker article about it on Instagram if you want to learn more.]( And we [updated the recipe here]( so you should make it for Memorial Day! I’ve kept this tab open all week I’m not sure what’s more of a signal of summer: white pants, spilled barbecue on white pants, or [this drink in my hand]( (or all three??). [Ad content]( [Ad content]( [Ad content]( GET THE MAGAZINE [Bon Appétit] [SUBSCRIBE]( This e-mail was sent to you by Bon Appetit. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, [bonappetit@newsletters.bonappetit.com]( to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe]( Copyright © Condé Nast 2018. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.