It was a month of weather extremes, punctuated by exceptional seafood, successful homemade breads, and sparkling blue hydrangeas.

My wife pays a lot of attention to our hydrangeas. Most years the white ones are present in great profusion, but the bushes of blue ones produce very little. This year, however, the blue ones are outstanding. Why that happens is just another of nature’s mysteries.

Seafood is another matter. We have access to several sources of fresh, high-quality fish and seafood. The highlights included a 5-lb. Spanish octopus, a gorgeous piece of bluefin tuna, fillets of Atlantic halibut. My favorite dishes this time with the octopus were (1) grilled tentacles with sautéed fingerling potatoes and (2) octopus salad with celery, onions, daikon, and tomatoes.

What made the fingerling potatoes so good was that they were first braised with spring onion, shallots, garlic, and white wine. Then they were sautéed and crisped up for texture and flavor.

The block of tuna was about 3/4 lb., so we decided to make Tuna Carpaccio, as shown in one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Venetian Taste.

Here’s what a couple of slices look like:

One of the best, go-to recipes for an easy, delicious dinner is this one for halibut. It’s one of several in our repertoire for halibut, featuring mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.

I made breads twice in June. The first batch was a repeat of a Tartine-style multigrain loaf from a year ago: 80/20 with Rye and Spelt flours making the 20% whole grains.

The other bread choice was a Ken Forkish White Bread with Poolish, which I had made back in October, 2021. The Poolish is a pre-ferment made with 500 g. white bread flour, 500 g. water, and just a spec of instant yeast (0.4 g.). When mixed with the rest of the flour (500 g. white bread flour and 250 g. water) 14 hours later, it produces a tender, sweet white bread with a thin, crisp crust. It’s a good thing that I keep meticulous records with 14 years of bread-baking. These Excel spreadsheets help me learn what worked and what didn’t, and it permits reliable re-runs of the ones I liked best. In the old days I could rely on my memory for that. No longer.