Fine Art Daily

2012-01-17T06:34:00.003-05:00

January 17, 2012

I am getting ready for my trip so I rummaged through the Way Back Machine for today's image. This was the last time I had to bundle up, when the Pouting Princess and I spent a week walking through London.

2012-01-16T07:03:00.002-05:00

January 16, 2012

I am getting ready for a trip to the vast frozen North in a couple of days and have had to address areas of my wardrobe that are simply not adequate for 15°F. I have dug out the turtlenecks and some sweaters last worn in London and a pair of wool trousers, but the only socks I seem to possess are white gym socks! Luckily for me Marshall's did not disappoint, and I have a couple of new pairs of Argyles to keep me toast-oasty warm for the few days I am away.

2012-01-13T12:32:00.002-05:00

The Cold has been making the rounds here at our house, and I hope you manage to avoid it. If your throat starts feeling a little sore, go out and corral a few boxes of Kleenex (I’m not kidding, I went through 3 120-tissue boxes all by myself) and get this vat of stew out of the fridge. Leave it bubbling on the back burner so everyone has something to eat while you are incapacitated. And now that my germs have moved on to Best Beloved and I am reasonably healthy again, I am anticipating one of those great cook’s perks: sampling the Guinness while I prepare the stew. Some people prefer red wine, I know, but there is something heartening about stout. If stout doesn’t cure you, chicken soup and penicillin won’t stand a chance, either.

Restorative Beef Stew
2 pounds beef, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes (use beef chuck or similar)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
2 cups potatoes, chopped
2 pint cans of Guinness
1 quart beef stock
4 fresh thyme sprigs
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 cup coffee (this is not for the faint-hearted)
Splash of olive oil
Salt and pepper
In a large stock pot, heat up a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Add the beef and brown for about 5-7 minutes.
Once the meat is beautifully browned, add the garlic and other vegetables except for the potatoes and cook until they caramelize and have a bit of color. (About 8-10 minutes)
Add all the liquid, the whole sprigs of herbs (bundle the herbs together with some string for easy removal) potatoes, some salt and pepper and reduce the heat to a simmer
The soup should have small bubbles rise on the sides of the pot for 1 hour or longer until the meat is fork tender.
Serve with a fresh baguette and some creamy grass-fed cow organic butter. Guinness on the side. A salad if you insist. And remember, “Guinness is Good for You.”

“I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.”
- Brendan Behan

For a giggle, watch these Guinness commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wUnPWiIBBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQDjynOzgCk

2012-01-12T06:24:00.003-05:00

January 12, 2012
One pitfall of working from home is that the leftovers are always in the fridge, singing their siren songs of enticement.

We celebrated The Tall One's birthday last week with the ritual baking of the Boston Cream Pie. Gentle Readers will know that I do not channel my inner Food52 or Julia Child for these delectable symbols of love and the passage of time. Instead, I buy the best damn cake mix I can find, and bake the batter in a spring-form pan, cool, cut it in half and slather a whole package of French Vanilla instant pudding on one half and top with the other.

The topping is when artistry and skill come into play: the Ganache. The whole reason for Boston Cream Pie is the quivering pleasure of the rich taste and waxy texture combination of the dense dark chocolate ganache, compared with the vanilla custard-y creaminess of the filling which has begun to soak into the body of the cake. Sigh.

And then tell me you could resist the arias of inveiglement that come streaming out of the fridge every time you poke your head in for an innocent and perfectly legit celery stick or dill pickle. Sigh. But resist I did, and sent the Boston Cream Pie to the office with Best Beloved, with thanks to his co-workers who polished off every crumb. 12 days into the New Year. I still haven't made those new files, but I haven't caved and eaten dessert either.

2012-01-11T07:01:00.003-05:00

January 11, 2012
What are you going to have for lunch today? A peanut butter sandwich? Maybe a grilled cheese? Left-over pizza? Sonny's Barbecue?

Last week The Tall One came up with this combo - roast beast, turkey and lettuce on whole wheat toast, with lashings of chipolte sauce and a side of pepperoni pizza. Earlier he had a dozen pizza rolls to whet his appetite and to sustain him through the arduous business of sandwich construction, and then some fudge to follow.
And two hours later he was back rummaging through the fridge!

He did call to report he ran 10 miles yesterday, so I guess I can't really mock his meal choices, but I should stand back in awe, and make sure I do not inadvertently block his path to the kitchen.

2012-01-10T06:58:00.003-05:00

January 10, 2012
We are almost 2 weeks into the new year, and I am still following my new year's resolutions - except that I haven't made new files for some of my work OR gotten the Christmas decorations off the dining room table yet...

But I am sticking to my diet resolves - and that might have been easier when The Tall One was still home, munching his way through his vacation. Maybe this is why people watch all those cooking programs - so they get the vicarious thrill of the food without actually eating any of it - virtual virtue!

This is the rest of his breakfast that started off with two Flying Biscuits as an appetizer: the Egg-Stravaganza. He had sausage, bacon, two eggs over easy, a bowl of cheesy grits and a plate of French toast drizzled with raspberry sauce and soaked in something our waitress described as tasting like, "melted vanilla ice cream." He concurred. He also drank a tall tumbler of OJ and a flagon of water. (Have I mentioned yet that he is almost 6 feet, 4 inches tall, and is skinny as a rail? Also - his idea of a little exercise is to pop out of the house for a 6 mile run over both the bridges...)

This is the description from the menu: Egg-Stravaganza...
"Two large farm fresh eggs served with our chicken sausage, crisp turkey bacon, creamy dreamy grits, plus whole wheat French toast topped with raspberry sauce and honey crème anglaise."
http://www.flyingbisuit.com

2012-01-09T06:25:00.003-05:00

January 9, 2011
And a very happy Monday to you all!
We brought The Tall One back to university this weekend after a he spent a happy month eating us out of house and home. The amount of fuel he needed every day was just astounding! Rafts of food! Pyramids of food! Huge container vessels of food! Yesterday we found a charming restaurant for breakfast in Gainesville - The Flying Biscuit. They were prepared for stoking his furnace. I have never been to spot where a breakfast appetizer was served, and I think it is a jolly good idea. After we placed our orders a colorful platter of fluffy, light-as-air biscuits arrived at the table. I don't think the butter had a chance to melt as they disappeared. We cannot recommend this spot too heartily. Tasty food, friendly staff and snappy graphics - a veritable culinary hat trick.
http://www.flyingbiscuit.com/

2012-01-06T08:40:00.002-05:00

January 6, 2012

I love the holidays! All the presents and surprises and baking and the wonderful smells of the Christmas tree, cookies and the simmering glogg. I love the visiting children, home from college, who bring viruses and pestilence from the gelid North. I love the cold that The Pouting Princess brought home to me. Nothing says loving like a wheezing sneezing cold! I’ve plowed through about 4 boxes of Kleenex and a vat and a half of chicken soup and I think I am finally on the mend. Winter colds are inevitable, luckily you might only have to wait yours out for a couple of days on the sofa with a fat cat and a good book, sipping lemonade and eating Saltines, napping fitfully. There are many helpful and tasty recipes floating around the ether, ripe for the picking.

Rummage in the Pantry Chicken Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chicken, in bite-sized cubes (I hope you are using organic chicken from Chestertown Natural Foods!)
6 cups chicken broth or stock
2 cups cooked rice
Salt and pepper
Chopped fresh parsley, strictly for decoration

1. Heat a large pot or a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter. When melted, add onion, celery, and carrot. Sauté until onion is clear and carrots softened. Add garlic, sauté for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add chicken. Stir and cover. Cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add cooked rice. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Serve with Saltines.

4. Go back to bed

“In January it’s so nice,
While slipping on the sliding ice,
To sip hot chicken soup with rice.
Sipping once, sipping twice,
Sipping chicken soup with rice.”
--Maurice Sendak

2012-01-05T06:22:00.002-05:00

January 5, 2012
One of the windows I love peering through is at Paul, the divine bakery, in Covent Garden. On a dark, cold and wet afternoon there is nothing quite so sunny and uplifting as a tart with brilliant, glazed strawberries. Luckily, one supposes, I am not in London, and cannot give into the temptation of this sweet siren song, and will I will stick to my New Year's Resolutions for another day. Paul is a pâtisserie nonpareil.
http://www.paul-uk.com/content/whats-news.php

2012-01-04T06:55:00.003-05:00

January 4, 2012
Happy New Year! It is a brisk morning and we are about to layer up for the day. As I am sure everyone is still keeping up with New Year's Resolutions, here is a virtual treat for your eyes; gleaming, sparkling berry tarts. I was listening to an old Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me yesterday and one theory they were debunking hilariously is that you can curb your appetite by thinking about tasty foods. Imagine Professor Harold Hill's Think Method. Now let's apply that to our workouts. I hope you manage to visualize some very slimming thoughts today!

Here is the link to the WWDTM, with guest Dave Barry: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/31/144508683/humorist-dave-barry-plays-not-my-job

2011-12-16T07:17:00.004-05:00

If you are entertaining over the holidays, or have wayward college students wandering into the kitchen at all hours demanding more food, or even if you are going to be visiting family or friends over the holidays, it is a good idea to have some easy peasy breakfast recipes on hand that you can whip up with the minimum of fuss, or trips to the grocery store.
We always have day old French bread (in fact we have a collection of French bread in the freezer – we will never starve) and it always seems a sin and a shame to pitch it, so this is a delightful and economical way to be frugal consumers. And Best Beloved loves the added kick of the rum on these festive mornings…

Weekend French Toast
Serves 4
1 cup milk
1 pinch salt
3 brown eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 generous dollop rum
1 tablespoon brown sugar
8 1/2-inch slices day old French bread

Whisk milk, salt, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, rum and sugar until smooth. Heat a lightly buttered griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side for a couple of minutes, until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup and powdered sugar. If you add some raspberries and whipped cream it will remind you of the Belgian Waffles from the World’s Fair in the 60s. Childhood bliss!

Here are Amanda and Merrill from Food52 preparing Weekend French Toast. http://www.food52.com/blog/796_weekend_french_toast

Something new this year is the Food52 app for iPads. I have just downloaded my copy and haven't had a change to explore it fully, but it looks as if it is going to be a big help to me this year, considering we have an extra week of entertaining (and feeding) the Tall One. I can always use good, well-tested tips of the trade. Here is a handy dandy video from the Food52 app, with life-saving info on making simple, perfect gravy, so pay attention! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJmapev0pc.

Also in our Christmas Cornucopia of Necessary Foodstuffs are
Sausage Balls!

The Tall One loveslovesloves these. Of course, he is a tall, lanky, long drink of water and can afford the calories. The rest of us will have to get by smelling the blissful clouds of temptation…

1 pound ground sausage (we like the “Hot” variety, just for a little morning kick)
3 cups Bisquick
4 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
(We are never certain how many this recipe serves, but it seems to keep a tall someone very satisfied…)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet with miraculous parchment paper. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. (Living as we do in the South this might be as close to making snow balls as we come this year.) Form into 1-inch balls, shmushing the balls so they hold together. Place the balls on the cookie sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. They should be golden brown. If you are the fussy sort with lots of spare time on your hands you can turn the balls halfway through the baking time. Drain on paper towels and stand back. They are excellent warm for breakfast, but the Tall One can attest to their delicious qualities cold, right out of the fridge. We bake them the day before Christmas and re-heat in the morning.

The folks at Food52 also have some clever breakfast ideas up their sleeves, and I have included their links below. You can always whip up a batch of cornbread for dinner, and repurpose it in the morning – it never lasts long around here. And while I will not share the Roman Punch with the visiting undergrads, I will probably enjoy a cup or two of its cheer when we are gathered around the Christmas tree, playing with our new gadgets and toys.

food52.com/recipes/1799_perfect_pancakes

www.food52.com/recipes/8195_doublecorn_corn_bread_with_fresh_thyme

www.food52.com/recipes/7635_nineteenth_century_roman_punch

“When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.”
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-15T07:03:00.003-05:00

December 15, 2011
Miss Morning Glory and I share a fondness for Beatrix Potter characters. This is Hunca Munca, from The Tale of Two Bad Mice. Wouldn't she be a welcome addition to any household, bringing her own broom and dust pan? But watch out, she just finished tossing a dollhouse, because there wasn't real food in the larder. She's there to cover her own tracks. She's not as kind as the mice in The Tailor of Gloucester, who finish the detailed embroidery on the Mayor's new waistcoat on Christmas Eve, all except for one buttonhole that needed a cherry colored twist of silk thread. Those cheeky little animals!

2011-12-14T06:24:00.002-05:00

December 14, 2011
Miss Morning Glory couldn't resist showing me a few of her Nutcrackers. She has some handsome, traditional loden-green-suited German Nutcrackers that came from the Black Forest, and this unusual and beguiling creature. She feels less strongly about tree rats than I do, but this does exude a little Squirrel Nutkin charm, and I bet its cast iron jaws provide very powerful cracker action.

2011-12-13T06:22:00.003-05:00

December 13, 2011
This is our Nativity this year. We have very democratic and catholic views of who might have been present at the birth of Jesus. We are not quite sure how this ensemble first came about, but tradition is important during these tumultuous times. We are embracing jolly.

2011-12-12T06:42:00.004-05:00

December 12, 2011
We are starting to feel a little more festive. The Tall One has been fetched home and we have resumed the feedings every 2 hours. I can't tell now if the new Fresh Market is going to be a curse or a blessing. Yesterday he had been home only 24 hours and we were already making our second trip there. And it seems that their Peppermint Bark is a necessary food group for every meal...

We ventured across the street yesterday for a visit with Miss Morning Glory and the War Lord. They had set out some admirable holiday decorations they have acquired on their world travels. I was particularly taken with this fulsome little group of penguins, who were perched on the edge of a bookshelf. This crèche of perky birds provided a rakish contrast to the serious tomes arranged behind them. It is too bad there is no ice nearby.

2011-12-09T06:37:00.002-05:00

December 9, 2011
It's Food Friday!

The famous test kitchens at Spy World Headquarters have been a veritable beehive of activity this week. There has been a flash mob of publishers, editors and artists flinging flour, dropping cookie sheets, confusing baking soda with baking powder all in the name of research. We have been baking Christmas cookies and holiday treats of every variety – particularly those that we remember from childhood. Dave Wheelan and Andy Goddard have revealed a few of their secret family recipes. We’ve gone through quite few glasses of milk testing these recipes, because we want to be sure you have only the very best to leave out for Santa this year. Don’t forget the carrots for the reindeer! (Organic from Chestertown Natural Foods are preferred, or so we have heard from some of our reliable sources.)

Andy’s Pfamous Pfeffernuse
The recipe is actually MFK Fisher’s. It makes quite a bit, but the cookies keep forever and the recipe is easily halved. The dough is quite stiff, needs strong arms, and as Fisher says…”perhaps should not be planned for the dark of the moon.” I have no idea of quantity – but I imagine this will feed a small army of elves.
These should be made a week or two ahead of time and put in tightly closed container with a few slices of apple in each to keep cookies from getting hard. This is one cookie that actually tastes better over time, and nothing like those awful store bought things.
1 pint corn syrup
1 pint dark molasses
½ pound (2 sticks) butter, melted
½ cup lemon juice, preferably fresh squeezed
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 scant teaspoons ground cloves
2 ½ pounds all purpose flour (half of a 5-pound bag!)
½ pound citron, or some kind of candied fruit
½ pound unblanched almonds
Rind of 1 large or 2 small lemons

Warm syrups together, add butter and lemon juice. Place in large bowl
In separate bowl, sift baking soda and spices with flour, add gradually to liquids.
Put citron, almonds and lemon peel in food processor- pulse gently, do not pulverize! Add to flour mixture.
Blend thoroughly. Should be very stiff, add more flour, if necessary.
Let the mixture stand overnight in cool place with plastic covering.
In the morning, roll the dough with your hands into marble-sized balls, and place on well-greased cookie sheets.
Bake 350°F for about 20 minutes
If you wish to glaze them, roll them in glaze while warm and place separately on waxed paper, let cool and place in tightly closed containers. Otherwise let cool and place in containers.
Glaze
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoon boiling water (keep more handy to correct consistency)
1 teaspoon vanilla – optional
Melt all in double boiler and keep hot

Here is another one of Andy’s favorites from M.F.K. Fisher. (They apparently are both fond of molasses)

Brandy Snaps
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
½ cup molasses, light or dark depending on whether you want delicate or strong flavor
½ cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Sift flour
Combine molasses, butter and sugar – heat until sugar dissolves.
Place liquid in large bowl, add lemon rind and juice, flour. Mix well.
Drop by teaspoon on greased baking sheet , leave plenty of room for cookies to spread.
425°F oven for about 5 minutes
While still warm, loosen cookies and roll over wooden spoon handle.
Makes about four dozen.

These are recipes that have been pried from the Wheelan Family Archives. Please devour them with great joy and thanks!

Delicious Bars
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup softened butter
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg, separated
1 ½ teaspoon water
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 6-oz. package chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Grease 13” x 9” baking dish. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder. Cream butter. Add ¼ cup white and ¼ cup brown sugar, and mix until very light and fluffy. Add egg yolk, water and vanilla. Thoroughly mix in flour mixture. Spread evenly into baking dish. Cover with chocolate chips. Beat egg white until stiff; gradually add ½ cup brown sugar, until meringue consistency. Spread meringue over chocolate very gently. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cut into bars while warm. Cool in baking dish.

Surprise Crackles
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup softened butter
1 cup sifted flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Confectioners sugar
Melt chocolate and butter together over low heat (or in double boiler). Cool to lukewarm. Sift flour, salt, baking powder; set aside. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla to chocolate mixture, and mix thoroughly. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture. Dough will be soft. Chill overnight, or until you can shape into small balls. Roll balls in confectioners sugar to coat completely. Place on greased baking sheet, 2-3 inches apart. Bake at 350°F on center rack of oven for 10-12 minutes.
Use ½ teaspoon dough for 7 dozen cookies
Use 1 teaspoon dough for 4 dozen cookies

Ho-ho-ho!

“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.”
-M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

2011-12-08T06:47:00.003-05:00

December 8, 2011

December 8, 2011

Helpful hints for decorating for the holidays using items from or your favorite local nursery and hardware store:
1. Buy a $9.99 Leyland Cypress
2. Buy a large, shiny galvanized bucket $9.99
3. Buy a $1.99 string of white lights
4. String light in the cypress
5. Put on table in foyer
6. Add candy canes (from the grocery store)
7. Enjoy the smell of the cypress, remembering to water every day
8. Celebrate the holidays
9. Transplant cypress into back yard - thus improving your carbon footprint, your landscape and your real estate values
10. 2012 - buy another Leyland Cypress, put in shiny bucket, add lights...

2011-12-07T06:47:00.003-05:00

December 7, 2011
One of the few benefits of not having my Christmas elves under foot at this time of year means that I can exercise a little restraint in displaying holiday decorations. This army of Nutcrackers started out innocently enough. The tall fellow in the middle came to us from Germany one year. He is a quality kind of chap, although the Pouting Princess gnawed on him a little when she was teething, so he is showing his age, as are we all. The others came to us in waves of neighborly generosity, bestowed upon us by our old eccentric next-door neighbor, who decided we were collecting Nutcrackers. This is a perfectly adequate number of Nutcrackers to celebrate the season, as I am sure you would agree, although the Swedish modernists are probably shaking their tortured heads. What you don't realize is that there is a large Rubbermaid container back up on the shelf in the laundry room, full to the brim with about 2 dozen more Nutcrackers! Our neighbor was an avid bargain hunter, and each year on the day after Christmas she stalked her prey at the post-Christmas Walgreen's clearance sale. And thus our burgeoning collection was born. Merry Christmas, Nancy. Thanks for the memories.

2011-12-06T06:18:00.003-05:00

December 6, 2011
As we deck the halls a little bit more every day I notice a certain glee that I enjoy. Everyone has different Christmas tat that no one outside the family can really appreciate. Martha would be appalled by our quasi-pagan objets d'art, which have been culled from our travels and from Pier One. Minerva wears a caplet of Dollar Store holly leaves (no Santa stocking cap for her this year), Mary and Joseph are frankly stunned to be in Florida, the Roly Poly Santa still bears a sizable dent from the year the Pouting Princess decided to bowl him down a hallway, and the reindeer are skittish and ready to depart on their big flight. We do not have a color theme for our holiday - just cheerful and smile-making memories that get hauled out of their boxes every year. Ho-ho-ho!

2011-12-05T06:25:00.003-05:00

December 5, 2011
'Tis the season for parades of all sorts. Friday night was the Stuart Holiday Parade, and Saturday night was the Boat Parade. Who knows what today will bring? Ho-ho-ho!

2011-12-02T06:55:00.003-05:00

‘Tis the season! Holiday baking for cookie exchanges, Christmas gifts, entertaining and don’t forget the Cookie Walk on Saturday at Christ Methodist Church! Be there sharply at 9:00 so you can get the best pick of the sugarplum cookie visions. (401 High Street, Chestertown) Charles and Camilla are bowing out of the festivities for a while - silly reasons like the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics are coming up. I imagine they will come calling again in February, just when the weather here is divine.

I am trying to simplify this year, as I say at the beginning of each Christmas season, and very shortly thereafter we are generally wading through my complications. I don’t have to help with a Holiday Pageant this year, there is one positive!
My baking assistants are off at college, so I do not have the extra hands to set up an assembly line mixing dough, rolling the dough, cutting cookies, baking, cooling and decorating. The thought is just exhausting! Instead, this year I will bake luscious bars, which are generally simple, satisfying and completely sinful.

I always do fudge, which became a holiday party staple during my sojourn at the local newspaper. I love it because it tastes deceptively dense and complicated, as if I had stood for hours over my warm Aga, with a fistful of exotic free-market cocoa beans, brandishing my trusty candy thermometer. I am sorry to disappoint, but this is the easiest recipe I know that requires more than peanut butter, a knife and a slice of bread.

Foolproof Fudge
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
Dash salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Line 9” x 9” pan with parchment paper.
Melt the chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in heavy
saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Spread evenly in the pan. Walk
away. You can chill it for a couple of hours – I do not suggest cutting it until it is
quite cool and firm. Last year I jazzed it up with some rum-infused vanilla, and
our true blue letter carrier, Ron, mentioned especially how much he had enjoyed
this year’s batch. So you can probably experiment a little bit with other liqueur
flavors.

Our friends at http://www.food52.com have a recipe for Millionaire’s Shortbread which sounds divine. Best Beloved and the Tall One spent some time gamboling around the hiking paths of Scotland this summer, and developed a predilection for Scottish shortbread. Wait until they try home-baked, with generous lashings of chocolate and caramel.

http://food52.com/recipes/6932_millionnaires_shortbread

My mother never uses cake mixes; they offend her New England sensibilities. She would never even consider Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix, although I can assure you, it is a very fine product; many a box has migrated through our kitchen. When I was growing up my mother baked brownies made from scratch, and they were equally delish. These were from my grandmother’s secret family recipe, written down on a faded and thumb-printed index card. It was a family treasure, kept in a little wooden box in the pantry. A secret family recipe? Ha! Like most family secrets this was life-altering in its cunning and simple deceit – our Secret Family Recipe was pretty much verbatim the recipe on the back of the Baker’s Secret Chocolate box! Except that we left out the nuts.

Helen Foley’s Secret Family Brownie Recipe
4 squares Baker’s unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
Heat oven to 350°F.
Line 9” x 9 pan with parchment paper.
Bake 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not over bake.) Cool completely.

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/bakers-one-bowl-brownies-54515.aspx

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because
the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
-Roald Dahl

2011-12-01T07:10:00.003-05:00

December 1, 2011
Rabbit, rabbit! Tibbar, tibbar! And a happy first day of Advent. Let the decorating begin!

2011-11-30T06:24:00.003-05:00

November 30, 2010
The studio dried out yesterday, many thanks to Gentle Reader well-wishers!

I was able to go ahead with one pre-Advent chore, just don't rat me out to my children, who have been raised in a household that does not decorate for Christmas before December 1. (We also have a strict rule about singing Christmas-related songs - only in December...)
I am not going to get all Martha-y on you, but this is an easy and rewarding assemblage, without using expensive, obscure or hard-to-find elements. I bought a box of paper white narcissi bulbs at Home Depot for $5.00 this weekend. Yesterday I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 3 bags of green glass marble-y stones. At home I put the marbles in the bottom of a glass ice bucket that I had bought at St. Mary's Crackerbarrel Thrift Shop a few years ago. (And what a find it was! While it is no Dale Chihuly, it is blown glass. I got it for a song, a mere $2. I saw one like it in a swishy, glossy shelter catalogue recently for $39. Triumph!)
I filled the vessel with water, up to the top of the marbles, and then nestled the narcissi bulbs on top. (For neophytes, the bottom of the bulbs have a little ruffle of roots, the top is pointy.) And now I have set it on the dining room table, waiting for the race of green to begin with the ensuing white cloud of perfume. I never get it right, though, even after all these years. They will either bloom in 3 weeks, or for New Year's Day...
An experiment this year is in the blue and white container behind the ice bucket - I am attempting to force lily of the valley pips. I ordered the pips and have covered them with good dirt and water them and whisper encouraging words. Who knows? Maybe they will be our Christmas morning surprise!

2011-11-29T06:33:00.002-05:00

November 29, 2011
We have to use the Way Back Machine this morning, I'm afraid. There was a Domestic Crisis here yesterday - the water heater failed, massively, and poured out several dozen (or so it seemed) gallons of water that seeped merrily into the studio. The War Lord gallantly instructed me in the ways of turning water off at the street, Mr. Bishop eventually staunched the flow and installed a new heater, and Best Beloved rode in to help calm me down, because I saw the whole studio floating away again. What a day. But we are drying out nicely, and have super-duper hot water! Let's hope for a milder, less-fraught Tuesday.

2011-11-28T06:13:00.003-05:00

November 28, 2011
Welcome back from your Thanksgiving break. Here are some autumn flowers to help you ease back into your work routine. Best Beloved just hauled out the recycling, and I am sure the neighbors will note the prodigious quantity of wine bottles, which will shock and amaze, and perhaps affect real estate values...

2011-11-23T07:00:00.002-05:00

November 23, 2011
While you sit in your cubbie today, consider the finer points of dessert, whipped cream and the many tasty treats ahead of you tomorrow. And read this essay by David Plotz, from Slate Magazine, and you will realize that the mathematical pleasures of dessert are too numerous to count. Gobble, gobble!
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2011/11/_20_guests_19_pies_my_mother_s_demented_glorious_thanksgiving_baking_extravaganza_.html

2011-11-22T06:26:00.003-05:00

November 22, 2011
We continue to be amazed by the sheer volume of food consumed by the Tall One. This stack of pancakes flew off the plate in nanoseconds. It's a good thing there were another dozen warming in the oven!
This was a basic Bisquick pancake recipe, but I added a dollop of rum vanilla that I got from All Spiced Up in Historic Downtown Stuart. It made a huge difference in the pancake outcome. Thanks, Ana! http://www.allspicedup.net/

2011-11-21T06:35:00.003-05:00

November 21, 2011
We have been quite preoccupied with food this weekend. The Tall One is home, and had his inaugural foray into The Fresh Market, where he was quite overwhelmed with all the goodies available. He happily munched his way through the store, sampling fresh pineapple chunks, apple cider and a chicken wing! Thrills! He also picked out an assortment of desserts to bring home: a box of shortbread, a brace of cannolis, a dozen raspberry stuffed pillows and this cupcake. Oh, to be tall and rail thin!

2011-11-18T11:20:00.001-05:00

It’s official. The countdown to Thanksgiving has begun. I ordered our fresh turkey yesterday from our new and fabulous Fresh Market, rather than buying a frozen Butterball injected with heaven knows what at the grocery store chain. Don’t procrastinate like I did!
Every year we have Thanksgiving challenges. I try to follow an idealized checklist that I picked up at Williams Sonoma years ago. It is a slim pamphlet, really; greasy and flour-y and well dog-eared: A Chuck Williams Thanksgiving 1994. (That must have been the year we had twenty [plus kids] to a big outdoor Thanksgiving Feast.) It lists fixings that “typical” Thanksgiving dinners include, but they didn’t count on my persnickety bunch. Here are some of Chuck’s course suggestions: Crostini with Black Olive Spread (with cocktails), Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes (heresy!), French Carrots with Cassis, Fresh Green Peas with Mint, Ginger-Pear Cranberry Sauce. I am afraid to reveal to you that we are Ocean Spray canned cranberry jelly folks, and we like to see the grooves from the tin can on the jelly in our relish dish.
Now an avowed pescatarian, two Thanksgivings ago the Pouting Princess forgot her newly-minted vegetarian status and poured a ewer’s worth of turkey gravy over her mashed potatoes, which had also been made with chicken broth. Now she is more vigilant. We will have to use vegetable stock for the potatoes, and if she doesn’t hunt and gather some tasty organic roots to roast, then we will have to slip a piece of fish into the oven, at the critical moment when the turkey is resting on the kitchen counter, and when I usually remember to bake the rolls and steam the green beans. (No Campbell’s Mushroom Soup-base casseroles here!) We laugh at the number of Thanksgivings when I have forgotten the beans altogether. Perhaps it is the sacramental wine…
Chuck Sonoma assumes that we will eat Baked Chestnut-and-Sausage Dressing. He suggests we prepare the fresh breadcrumbs the night before, when I will be supervising silver polishing. We will have two stuffings, one with sausage and Pepperidge Farm breadcrumbs and lots o’celery, and one with tofu, I fear. And no oyster stuffing, though I hope it will be on many an Eastern Shore dinner table.
In the links below there is a lovely, helpful article about dishes you can prepare in advance of the big day. Usually I don’t mind cooking all day on Thanksgiving, because we eat around six o’clock, so we can enjoy candles and more wine. (Note to self: buy dripless candles this year. Two years ago as the Pouting Princess was scarfing down those turkey gravy-doused potatoes, listening to our well-tippled guest badgering on about some obscure foreign film, while the eight candles in the chandelier dripped rivulets of molten wax onto the good tablecloth, the ancestral silver and into the all-important glasses of wine…)
I was also glad to read the article Will I Kill My Family If I Cook the Stuffing Inside the Turkey? We have always cooked it separately, fearful of a rogue salmonella colony. Now perhaps I can eliminate at least one crusty baking dish that requires a hearty scrubbing.
We are trying something new this year: the children are going to contribute one dish each to the meal. Chuck Sonoma thinks that Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake would be an excellent contribution to a relaxed holiday meal. I live with savages who do not like Pumpkin Pie. They are positively un-American. The Tall One’s offering will be a Key Lime Pie, a tasty treat he learned to love this summer. Will it be Thanksgiving without our customary Flourless Chocolate Cake? Undoubtedly. We still don’t know what the Pouting Princess will prepare. She floats in Wednesday night, so we shall be surprised.
No Food Friday next week. I will be busy making Pilgrim Sandwiches. I hope you have a wonderful, fattening and convivial holiday!

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”
Calvin Trillin

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/what-can-i-prepare-before-the-actual-day-of-thanksgiving/?emc=eta1

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/thanksgiving-countdown-flaky-pie-crust/

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/on-the-question-of-gravy/

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/can-you-suggest-some-easy-side-dishes-that-will-break-up-the-monotony/?emc=eta1

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/will-i-kill-my-family-if-i-cook-the-stuffing-inside-the-turkey/

http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2011/11/thanksgiving-stuffing-family-t.html

2011-11-17T06:22:00.003-05:00

November 17, 2011
I finally made it inside the Hemingway house on this latest trip to Key West. The furnishings are a little peculiar historically, surely he didn't have a 1950s television credenza in the living room? Still, I like to visit places where people have done their work. (Nothing quite tops the thrill I felt when touring Edward Gorey's little house on the Cape, though!) I climbed the wrought iron stairs to Hemingway's aerie study (so Parisian) to be ignored by this multi-toed cat who was enjoying a bath on the chaise in the middle of the bright, airy room. The cats have carte blanche to roost wherever they wish, while the humans must heed the many admonitions not to sit on any of the furniture. Eventually I did park myself on an iron bench in the garden, to drink some water and to observe the wide variety of folks on their own literary pilgrimages.

2011-11-16T07:01:00.003-05:00

November 16, 2011
There is something on every corner in Key West: historic, pink, green, gingerbread, chickens, cats, Hemingway-related, sunset-oriented - you can take your pick. I thought our friend Mimi would love this place. It's pink and green, with touches of gingerbread and a smackeral of cute.
In Stuart today the Arts Council is starting something new, which should become a nice weekly sunset ritual: http://www.martinarts.org/news_events/waterfront_wednesdays.html Come on down to the Sunset Bay Marina & Anchorage to see art, mingle with other art aficionados, enjoy some music and the sunset. It's free and starts at 4:00!

2011-11-15T06:24:00.002-05:00

November 15, 2011
Here is one of the many colorful residents of Key West, which seems to be a very animal-friendly town. The chickens and roosters mingle with the parade of tourists and locals and the ubiquitous cats, which almost outnumber the visitors at the Hemingway house. I didn't see as many dogs, just one sad-eyed Basset hound, whose owner was stringing leis on Duval Street, near Margaritaville. The dog was perhaps down-at-the-mouth because it was wearing a lei, and probably would have preferred being on walkabout with the chickens.

2011-11-11T07:03:00.003-05:00

November 11, 2011

It’s Food Friday, when we normally prepare a meal with our perpetual houseguests, Charles and Camilla, but they are out of town this week, so it is just the two of us. Which is always cozy, especially when it seems to get dark so early, and we are turning the lights on by 5:15. Candles with dinner should make our Roasted Duck Legs even more of a cool weather treat.
It’s hunting season in Kent County, although I believe there is no duck hunting until next week. Charles will be glad to be back for that, I’m sure. We are using store-bought duck legs, but I imagine wild duck would be an even better idea. This sounds so exotic, but it is easy, and we can read by the fire while the duck takes care of itself.
We considered a couple of different approaches, and in the end decided to roast the duck on a bed of potatoes, so we would have a crispy side dish, redolent with duck fat. You can omit the potatoes and opt for a more traditional bed of cabbage or greens. We were just looking forward to a one-dish meal, and warm roasted potatoes answer a cool weather yen.
This is one of Nigella Lawson’s recipes, so you know it is sinfully delicious.

Roasted Duck Legs and Potatoes
2 duck legs
2 baking potatoes or 1 pound other large white-skinned potatoes
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
On the stove, heat a small roasting pan and sear the duck legs, skin-side down over medium heat until the skin turns golden and gives out some oil.
Turn the legs over, and take the pan off the heat while you cut the potatoes into 1-inch slices across, then cut each slice into 4. Arrange these potato pieces around the duck legs, and sprinkle some fresh thyme over the duck and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper, before putting into the preheated oven.
Cook for two hours, occasionally turning the potatoes, to get them nice and crispy.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/roasted-duck-legs-and-potatoes-recipe/index.html
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_duck_confit/
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/warm-duck-and-cabbage-salad

We had a tasty, modestly-price California Syrah, and didn’t miss Camilla’s clattering and constant need for more Champagne in the least! We were going to poach some pears for dessert, but in the end just opted for some slices of room temp pears over some rich vanilla ice cream.

“The perils of duck hunting are great – especially for the duck.” Walter Cronkite

2011-11-10T06:29:00.002-05:00

November 10, 2011
This Red-tailed Hawk was another guest at the Paws for a Cause event we attended on Saturday. Talk about a gimlet eye!

2011-11-09T07:04:00.004-05:00

November 9, 2011
Also a guest at the Paws for a Cause this weekend was this handsome bird. He is a Northern Crested Caracara. And he was shameless, eyeing my camera with coolth as enviable of many a runway walker. He was sleek and stylish, and he knew it.
The Caracara came originally from Cuba and migrated to the Southern US.
Visit the http://www.hsapl.org or your own Humane Society to learn more about adopting.

2011-11-08T07:21:00.002-05:00

November 8, 2011
Here is one of the satisfied kitty denizens of the Caring Fields Animal Sanctuary in Palm City. It was the perfect afternoon for warming cat toes and surveying the passing crowd. A lot of imagination and carpentry skills went into building the cat cottages. The cats are enjoying the sunshine and the respite. Visit the Hobe Sound Animal Protection League to learn more about their spay and neuter program: http://www.hsapl.org.

2011-11-07T06:01:00.004-05:00

November 7, 2011
Miss Morning Glory drove us out into the wilds of Palm City Saturday afternoon to attend Paws for a Cause, a fundraiser for the Hobe Sound Animal Protection League, held at the Caring Fields Animal Sanctuary. And what an afternoon it was! We toured the ultra cute cat cottages in the sanctuary, admiring the clever sleeping platforms, cubby holes and enviable nooks and crannies that make the rescued cats feel safe and at home. Then we trolled the silent auction and had lunch under the big tent. Miss Morning Glory was enjoying her pulled pork sandwich until our luncheon companions arrived. I believe her name was "Moo", although I might not be spelling it correctly. Her people were strolling around with her on a leash, along with her canine companion. There was quite a gathering of unusual animals. We saw goats, a bun bun, hawks, guinea pigs, an owl and a baby alligator.
To learn more about HSAPL, visit their website: http://www.hsapl.org.

2011-11-04T07:07:00.002-04:00

It’s another Food Friday, where we prepare something delicious with our perpetual houseguests, Charles and Camilla. Charles is a big fan of organic farming, as you might know already. When we were out on a field trip earlier this week we found him in an organic gourmet shop, cooing gently to a basket of glowing heirloom tomatoes. We hustled him along, but only after he had purchased a colorful assortment of late season Brandywine, Boxcar Willie and some lime green Aunt Ruby’s tomatoes. As delightful as it would be to just sit on the back porch and eat these beauties like apples, with the juice dripping down our chins, we needed a little more structure to our meal.

As we get into the holiday season we will be baking more, with precise measurements and accurate oven temperatures. But it’s too early to start worrying about the symmetry of perfect piecrusts or the science of Potatoes Anna, dusted with shaved truffles and fleur de sel. (Really, Boxcar Willie tomatoes with that salt? Maybe at the palace, but not here, and not tonight.) Simple, hearty, eat-with-you-hands food is our mood tonight. And something everyone can lend a hand in preparing. It’s going to be a lovely weekend, with no hint of last week’s snow and gales, so we will go with something tried and true and easy to improvise: Bruschetta.

It’s simple to embellish, or a breeze to edit, depending on what you might have in the fridge and your pantry. This is one of our reliable crowd pleasers, the recipe for which we no longer have to scour through the cookbooks.
It’s nice to start with a baguette or a loaf of hearty peasant bread, but if you have great local bakers like Against the Grain, Magnolia Bread or Highfield Bread Oven you can never go wrong. We’ve got the tomatoes already, and there is garlic, plenty of fresh basil and olive oil at home. Charles likes crumbled feta cheese on top of his bruschetta, Camilla prefers a light dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and so they bicker a bit. In the end we will have the feta, and Camilla will choose the wine.
Camilla, who is very fond of all the smart folks at Slate.com, just read a great article about cheap wine – a new concept for her.
Click here for the link
She thinks we should try a variety of modest little wines with dinner instead of her customary Prosecco or Veuve Clicquot. The more the merrier, and much merrier we shall be.

Directions:
This is very tricky-woo – so pay attention.
Cut the baguette/bread into slices (I like cutting the bread a diagonal)
Toast the slices under the broiler (Best Beloved suggests lining cookie sheets with parchment paper for easy clean up)
Allow slices to cool
Rub each slice with a big chunk o’garlic
Drizzle each slice with olive oil (watch out for Charles here, he is known for his excesses)
Put a few basil leaves on the toasted, oiled and garlicky bread
Chop up a couple of the nice fat heirloom tomatoes, removing the seeds
Spread tomatoes over the basil
Top with crumbled feta cheese
Pop the bread back under the broiler until the cheese sizzles
Voilà!

You can add some balsamic vinegar, fresh Mozzarella, goat cheese, onions, thyme, black pepper, radicchio, pesto and you should try Merrill’s ricotta with lemon. Fabulous.

We ate our repast out on the back porch, wearing sweaters while swigging our excellent cheap wines, schmearing the olive oil and dripping bits of tomato. Messy, convivial and deelish, a simple peasant meal.

“England and the English as a rule they will refuse even to sample a foreign dish, they regard such things as garlic and olive oil with disgust, life is unlivable to them unless they have tea and puddings”
-George Orwell

Some other links to whet your creative appetite:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tomato-Red-Onion-and-Basil-Bruschetta-242473
http://www.food52.com/recipes/4718_bruschetta_with_ricotta_honey_and_lemon_zest
http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/snapshots/a-spread-of-bruschetta/

2011-11-03T06:35:00.004-04:00

November 3, 2011

Too many coincidences to ignore this cosmic nudge - I am going to try to grow garlic. At home. In pots. Soon, joining the thriving pots of chives, pepper (down to just a singleton - I think a bunny had an early morning nibble on the other), sunflowers and beans, will be a couple of containers with garlic. My friend Nancy, who has a proper flower and vegetable garden, was telling me about her plans to plant garlic. Then Miss Morning Glory told me about her never-ending quest for mole eradication - she dropped garlic cloves down the mole holes in attempt to drive them over the bridge to an Italian restaurant in search of garlic knots. The moles are still burrowing around under her putting green front lawn, and now she has garlic sprouting up all over the place! And then I found this posted on Twitter earlier this week. Easy peasy. Soon I can invite my own herd of moles over for spaghetti and garlic bread one night...

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2OEPF8/www.organicauthority.com/organic-gardening/how-to-plant-garlic-fast-and-easy.html

2011-11-02T05:42:00.003-04:00

November 2, 2011
And was it just a coincidence that "The Birds" was on TV last night? I think not... When I went on my little foray to Port Salerno the other morning I drove down the twisty and tree-covered Old St. Lucie Boulevard. There is a section of the road marked "Otter Crossing". I always look for these alleged otters, but have never seen one. This trip afforded a muster of wood storks, however. And what hulking beasts of birds they are! They were easily over three feet tall, hanging around the drainage ditch. And they were probably smoking cigarettes. Later that day I drove over to the grocery store on Hutchinson Island and standing in the water by the edge of the golf course were another half dozen, lurking and looming storks. These are not the storks in the Vlasic pickle ads. One of their pals was a roseate spoonbill who seems to have taken up residence. All of the birds were gone when I passed on my way home. There the finches and the wrens were having a high old time feeding on something in the grass. Sieges of tiny little birds twittered madly and busily. While the cats slept in their private puddles of sunshine...

2011-11-01T07:06:00.002-04:00

November 1, 2011
Rabbit, rabbit! (Or tibbar, tibbar, tibbar for the select few!)
Happy November!
I found myself in Port Salerno yesterday morning and had a little walkabout. It was a quiet morning here, which won't last much longer. The snowbirds are starting to come back. And are we surprised? I think not. I hope every Northern Gentle Reader has electricity!

2011-10-31T07:41:00.002-04:00

October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Here is your almost green calendar for November. After your feast of treat or treating goodies tonight you can start planning your Thanksgiving dinner!

2011-10-28T08:08:00.004-04:00

October 28, 2011

It’s another Food Friday, where we are preparing a meal with our perpetual weekend houseguests, Charles and Camilla. There is a lot going on in Chestertown this weekend and Charles and Camilla are anxious to attend as many of the festivities as they can. They didn’t have any time to shop and graze at the Farmer’s Market, so we are using some store bought ingredients this week. But we are keeping everything very simple; just a few ingredients to toss together to make a memorable meal. We are returning to our favorite meal – grilled steaks. (Charles is learning how to master the grill, which is always an amusing sight, since he likes to wear an apron, too. Imagine him decked out in hibiscus blossoms…)
When her children were young, on Cook’s night off, Camilla would make dinner. She experimented for years and mastered a e a few specialities. She could easily prepare a simple roast or omelette du fromage or Spaghetti Bolognese. Tonight Camilla is whipping up steamed artichokes, with melted lemon butter, one of her signature dishes. And of course, we have already baked the Apple Crisp with Sultanas, in honor of Downrigging Weekend.
Camilla washes the artichokes carefully, mindful of the very sharp thorns. Then she cuts of the stems, and trims the less attractive leaves and the thorns. She doesn’t want Charles to cut his fingers, because he has plans to watercolor down by the water tomorrow. He loves plein air painting, and he has been eyeing all the tall ships that are docked at the historic seaport.
We used two big old pots and vegetable steamers, with enough water to just cover the bottom of the steamers. (Measure accordingly, we had 2 artichokes per pot. We need to get a bigger pot so we stop borrowing the neighbor’s whenever we steam lobsters…) Then we turned up the heat to produce a lively boil, and sat out back, testing the Prosecco for about 45 minutes.
We melted a stick of butter, and squeezed into it the juice from 2 lemons for the avocado dipping experience. With grilled steaks, green salad, artichokes and an amusing California Cabernet we were fed and relaxed and ready to enjoy a lively Fall weekend. (Charles got all giggly about eating with his fingers, and dipping the artichoke in the aromatic, lemony butter. Or maybe it was the Cabernet?) In any case, it was a delightful meal.
Here are a few links to Downrigging Activities: the Artworks Gallery Opening and Open Studio Tour, Halloween Parades, the Quilted Treasure Show, the Eastern Neck Island Paddle and Band Concert. Oh, and to recipes with actual measurements. Camilla tends to be little vague about those details.

http://sultanaprojects.org/downrigging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUWxjvRe7cU

http://www.chestertown.com/weekend.php

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

http://www.noveleats.com/sidedish/steamed-artichokes-with-lemon-butter/

http://localfoods.about.com/od/preparationtips/qt/steamingartichokes.htm

http://www.food52.com/recipes/4443_steamed_artichokes_with_eggless_basil_mayonnaise_dip/3

2011-10-27T08:23:00.003-04:00

October 27, 2011
Here is another craft to divert you from checking Facebook for another few minutes, your own feral cat, which will ward off the office bore who likes to stop by and regale you with tales of derring-do... Now you will be known as a cat person.

2011-10-26T06:34:00.004-04:00

October 26, 2011
Good morning, Gentle Readers. You have been advancing with admirable speed and dexterity. Today you will be cutting, folding and pasting without adequate adult supervision. This is a little goodie bag. You can blow it up to be any size you like. Trim the bag out, noticing that dotted lines are used for both the long fold across the bottom, and for the cut marks. It is easiest to make your folds first, and cut last. Instead of using an ivory Martha-esque folding tool, I find using the side of my thumb or a large paper clip quite easy. Cut the small slits and fold the bag together. There is a small over lap on which you can spread a little glue, or if you are office bound, use Scotch tape. I think it is pretty self explanatory. Don't forget to seal the bottom as well, or the treats you are doling out will end up on the front porch, with disgruntled little trick or treaters looking askance at your paper craft skills...

2011-10-25T06:28:00.003-04:00

October 25, 2011
Here is another little time waster that will make you feel much more creative than spending half an hour on Facebook this morning. It is slightly advanced scissor work - I did not include the dotted line for you today, and you need to cut out circles and add you own string if you want to wear this mask. Plus, there are 2 slits you need to cut so the nose projects outward. And then you will have your own pumpkin head mask! You too can look like Charlie Brown. (There is also a little measurement to show you when you have blown it up to the correct size - a 1-inch mark.)
And a very happy birthday to Victoria!

2011-10-24T05:46:00.003-04:00

October 24, 2011
A very happy Monday to you! Here is a craft so you can start decorating your working space for Halloween. It is a great way to chew up a few minutes after your first cup of coffee. And this is easy - it just requires scissors and Scotch tape - no bone folding devices à la Martha. Not on a Monday.

2011-10-21T06:56:00.002-04:00

It's Food Friday!

October 21, 2011

This is the weekend, when we enjoy sharing the cooking responsibilities with our perpetual houseguests, Charles and Camilla. We have been astounded by nature’s autumnal bounty, and have been gawping at the beautiful and lustrous piles of apples at the Farmers’ Market.
Next weekend is Downrigging Weekend in Chestertown, a busy time for everyone. And Charles has come up with a fabulous dish, that will be fast and easy to prepare so we won’t miss out on any of the festivities. Plus it will use local, seasonal fruit (which helps to assuage our oh, so many guilts) and it will celebrate the Sultana. Charles has pulled out a recipe (he won’t say if it’s an old family favorite) for Apple and Sultana Crumble. Look, the sultanas are almost the same color as the schooner! Who would have guessed? And Charles, being a Navy man, has a fondness for Sultana. http://www.sultanaprojects.org/thefleet.htm
We send Charles and Camilla downtown to the Farmers’ Market to procure the ingredients for the crumble, while we take stock of the wine cellar. It’s probably time to lay in some more Prosecco for Camilla. She will not be rolling out pie dough this week, so we need to keep her occupied. We dare not ask her to peel the apples…

Apple and Sultana Crumble
Filling:
6 cups peeled and cored apples, chopped
½ cup Sultanas
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Topping:
¾ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ pound chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a large mixing bowl, add the apple pieces and then scatter the sultanas like rosebuds. Mix the cinnamon and the sugar together, and sprinkle over the apples. Now sprinkle the lemon juice over everything. Toss briskly. Put the apple mixture into a deep pie pan, spreading it evenly.
Combine the dry topping ingredients in another bowl, adding the butter, and mixing it coarsely with a spoon or an electric mixer. Now scatter the crumbling crumble mixture over the apple filling.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream, or homemade Devonshire cream if you’ve a mind to. Personally, I can’t wait.

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.”
-Jane Austen

2011-10-20T06:10:00.003-04:00

October 20, 2011
Here is the Fine Art Daily Pepper Farm. It's not exactly a rolling landscape, with a sweeping mass of swaying greens, but we are hoping for a few red peppers, that might not cost $3.99 a pound which is the current price at the grocery store. It is humble and modest, like us! (27 days left on The Fresh Market countdown!)

2011-10-19T06:47:00.004-04:00

October 19, 2011
My office mates are the cats, who want to be waited on hand and foot. They loll on the floor under my chair, feigning sleep, waiting for my concentration to waver so they can act out their melodramatic mime pieces about imminent starvation. They are pills. This squirrel, however, showed pluck and tenacity. It was calmly holding onto an oleander branch in the middle of a gale yesterday, happily chowing down on the bird seed that it was filching boldly from the bird feeder. One's cats could take lessons, one thinks.

2011-10-18T06:34:00.003-04:00

October 18, 2011
Welcome to the Fine Art Daily Coleus and Hydrangea Farm. We are rooting new lovelies for the containers and for the side yard. The rain overnight has surely urged the newly planted beans and sunflowers to think about sprouting. And we are enjoying the subtle feel of coolth in the air!

2011-10-17T06:14:00.003-04:00

October 17, 2011
It's planting time, here on the suburban container farm. My Gentle Northern Readers are trying to outwit the squirrels while planting fall bulbs, I am trying to wisely use the many containers out on our back porch. Right now we have a larger planter that is spilling over with basil and thyme, with a lovely, heady aroma whenever I brush past it. There is a single, sadly picked-over catnip plant on a high shelf so the cats don't ambush it. Otherwise there are some fool hardy geraniums that made it through the summer, and some coleus cuttings that I rooted on the kitchen windowsill. Yesterday I planted two sweet red pepper plants in an antique cement planter, some green beans in a blue pot that is next to a roof support, so in a few months when the vines are climbing fast and furious I can explain to Best Beloved that we are dining on the freshest beans possible. I also planted a container with chives; they should be a nice patch of green, and we can use them in the kitchen, too. Outside, on the east side of the house, in the hydrangea bed, I planted some sunflower seeds, and some more beans. The sunflowers will look nice against the side of the house. And the beans will have actual topiary frames to climb, so I might look like an actual gardener, if one doesn't look too closely.
And while I miss daffodils dearly, I have been able to root hydrangeas every year. One of my best bushes comes from one of Sandy Fogg's hydrangea in South Dartmouth, MA. Yesterday I took 3 cuttings from it, and stuck them in jars of water on the windowsill. This is my version of fall planting.
Have a happy Monday!

2011-10-14T07:02:00.002-04:00

October 14, 2011

This is the night we like to get together with our perpetual weekend guests, Charles and Camilla, to have a pleasant evening of cooking together. Charles is pretty giddy about this recipe. He found this week’s taste treat on Food52, one of his guilty pleasures; Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Galette. I’ll put a link to the recipe at the end.
Camilla likes to think that she has a deft hand with pastry, so we will let her have a go. Charles loves watching her wield the rolling pin. Best Beloved makes sure that she is well-supplied with Prosecco…
We picked up some of our ingredients at our local CSA, so be sure to visit your own, or remember to go to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday. Everything is so fresh and abundant right now; squashes, pumpkins and apples are positively teeming at the Markets. Fall is in the air. We bought the butternut squash, fresh thyme leaves, garlic and the fresh ricotta, Parmesan and Fontina cheeses that we needed for the Galette.
Charles commands the garlic – the recipe calls for 10 cloves so you know this is an important task, crucial for the success of the dish. First he roasts the garlic cloves, and once they cool, he mashes them into with the ricotta cheese. This will be the underlying foundation of the Galette.
The folks at Food52 have a great little slide show that shows how to assemble the Galette, with helpful reassurances that appearance doesn’t matter, so if your pastry is a little wobbly (pace yourself with the Prosecco) it will still taste delightful, and people will ooh and ahh, just like we did.
It is a seasonal delight, one that you can bake without Camilla’s help. I plan on buying a pre-made pie crust at the grocery store the next time I want to bake it…
Bring on the Prosecco!

“It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”
- Julia Child

http://www.food52.com/recipes/7329_butternut_squash_and_roasted_garlic_galette
http://www.marthastewart.com/275653/butternut-squash-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide

2011-10-13T07:01:00.003-04:00

October 13, 2011
On a short street, tucked away in Chestertown, near the Court House, you can find Lawyers' Row. These tiny offices look as if they could have been on a planet visited a long time ago by the Little Prince. The tiny doll house-sized buildings defy Disney-fication, yet are completely adorable. Add this to your walks through town and perhaps you'll find Gringotts Bank at the end of the block.

2011-10-12T06:56:00.003-04:00

October 12, 2011
Hebbe, the shameless hussy of a fountain in Downtown Chestertown, had best think about covering up soon. She presides over the weekly Farmers' Market and this weekend she will be the locus for the kids to participate in a coloring contest for the Chestertown Waterfowl Festival. "Duck, Duck, Draw" starts at 11:00 A.M. So while you are browsing through the beauteous and nutritious, locally grown produce, stocking up on Eve's Cheese and buying some ceramics, stop by the fountain and see what the newest generation of artists is creating. http://www.hebbesgarden.com/

2011-10-11T06:44:00.004-04:00

October 11, 2011
If your internet ever goes out while you are in Chestertown, here is the place to be. Not only can you surf the web to your heart's content, you can catch up on the local news and gossip. See and be seen. And there is the fabulous mural by Susan Richards Kilmartin - View of the World from Chestertown. Stop by Play it Again Sam the next time you are in town. 108 South Cross Street.

2011-10-10T06:56:00.003-04:00

October 10, 2011

Happy Columbus Day! Some of you happy cubicle dwellers have today off, but alas, I do not. I am very busy with lots of projects and oodles of deadlines. Which do not prevent me from letting my mind wander off to places that I would rather be. This a a view of Chestertown from the bridge, with all the menacing truck traffic from Route 213 thundering past right behind us. The Eastern Shore is a delight in the Fall. There are myriad wedges of Canada geese flying overhead, the cornfields are golden in the sunlight and the Bay ripples in the breeze.

2011-10-07T06:43:00.002-04:00

We are always looking for new and simple ways to jazz up our weekend staple: steaks on the grill. Our perpetual houseguests, Charles and Camilla, are not very fussy eaters. They like simple foods that we can prepare together in the time it takes to enjoy a convivial cocktail, or two. Surprisingly, our homemade Béarnaise sauce is easier to prepare than the Knorr powdered mix, which is good in hurricane emergencies, when all of the household cooking is done on the grill, but otherwise we prefer the homemade variety. Sometimes, even Charles and Camilla like to break out of our stodgy suburban routines, and try something au courant and edgy.
When Best Beloved fires up the grill and gets ready to sear our steaks to perfection, as is his wont, Charles is learning how to make compound butter. Camilla is splashing the olive oil around again, as she dresses the salad and tests the wine…
We used the snappy Butter Up article in the most recent Bon Appétit magazine as our inspiration, but fudged a little bit, because quite honestly, we did not have Nori Sesame, or Porcini or even Chipotle-Lime in the house. We are big believers in seeing what treasures the fridge might hold and what our humble container garden is currently producing. Luckily, we had lemons and fresh Cabot Creamery butter in the fridge and a cascade of fresh thyme spilling over the planter box. Charles took the kitchen shears out to the planter and snipped a small fistful of thyme in a gingerly, loving fashion.
Even though Charles loves chopping with the big cleaver we persuaded him that it would save a little time, since the steaks were about to hit the grill, to toss all the ingredients in the little food processor. He added half a stick of salted butter to the thyme, and as much zest from the lemon as I could scrape off – about half of a teaspoon. Then he whirled the mixture around for 30 seconds or so, until everything looked completely blended. Then Charles scraped the butter mixture into a little glass bowl, and set it in the fridge to chill until the steaks were done.
Then we sat down to dinner, with crispy hash browns, Camilla’s salad, a knob of lemon-thyme butter on each steak and some divine red wine. We have a new weekend taste treat. Yumsters.

(We make hash browns according to the recipe that Ruth Reichl has written in her book Garlic and Sapphires, based on those she enjoyed at the Palm Restaurant. These are so good that the memory of what our family used to refer to as my “Hash Blacks” is fading from memory…)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sauce-Bearnaise-101870
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/10/herb-lemon-zest-butter

“The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, `It was the best butter, you know.’”
- Lewis Carroll

2011-10-06T07:03:00.002-04:00

October 6, 2011
41 days and counting...
Here is another argument for The Fresh Market - not only can you bag your own unsalted cashews, string beans and Lady apples, you can bag up a pound of red jelly beans, if you like. Or a half pound of gum balls. Or an one or two ounces of chocolate lentils. You do not need to wait for Halloween to indulge. Bliss is just around the corner!

2011-10-05T06:39:00.003-04:00

October 5, 2011
Lest you think that The Fresh Market is a dour, earnestly and pedantically organic twigs, sticks and steel-cut oatmeal kind of place, consider the swirls of perfection in the bakery section. Think about these glazed, vibrant tarts and look at your morning bran muffin. Which would you rather eat, really? And cupcakes? I know New York foodies are telling us that cupcakes are passé and that pies are the new trending baked goods, but I say balderdash! Pshaw! Show me the cupcakes! 42 more days...

2011-10-04T06:57:00.002-04:00

October 4, 2011
I have heard from 2 reliable sources that The Fresh Market will open its doors in Stuart on November 16! Hooray! Soon we will be able to roam through carefully arranged pyramids of avocados, lovingly positioned regiments of asparagus and towering visions of glistening red tomatoes. A feast for our eyes, and more vegetables and fruit for the children to ignore.

2011-10-03T15:57:00.003-04:00

October 3, 2011
Sorry for the delay. Lots of driving yesterday...
This week is a paean to The Fresh Market, which is going to open its doors in Stuart soon. We cannot wait for the big day. (A temporary sign has gone up, and the facade is being stuccoed...)
While visiting with The Pouting Princess, Best Beloved and I did some valuable field research, as you know we are wont to do. We wandered through The Fresh Market in Jacksonville, oohing and ahhing and remembering when. (Back before the PP was a glimmer in our eye I illustrated ads for The Fresh Market's first store in Greensboro, North Carolina. We remember the place and the people fondly...)
This was a lovely seasonal display as we walked in to the store. Nothing like some funky pumpkins to get one into the swing of Fall. You might be clinging to the last vestiges of Summer, my New England Gentle Readers, but we are ready for a change! There was a nice little nip in the air in Jacksonville, too, which helped. We wore blue jeans and walked through Memorial Park along the river, which looked positively Mediterranean. People were practicing tightrope walking! That is something that we do not see every day. Exotic and unusual, under dappled light with a hint of a breeze.
http://www.quantumtour.com/entity/memorialpark/

2011-09-30T07:21:00.002-04:00

September 30, 2011
Here is your nearly green Fine Art Daily calendar for October! Have a wonderful weekend!

2011-09-29T06:30:00.002-04:00

September 29, 2011

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.”
– Paul Theroux

2011-09-28T06:41:00.002-04:00

September 28, 2011

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
– Mark Twain

(Pack snacks! Twiglets are best.)

2011-09-27T06:30:00.002-04:00

September 27, 2011
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”
– Bill Bryson

2011-09-26T06:35:00.002-04:00

September 26, 2011
We read the New York Times Travel section assiduously every week, which gets us to thinking about putting on our traveling shoes and hauling voluminous valises down from their dusty perches. Just imagine the places you could be visiting this week!

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
– Jack Kerouac

2011-09-23T07:26:00.004-04:00

September 23, 2011
It's the First Day of Fall!
Charles and Camilla love our quaint Colonial customs and our rustic foods. Charles quite adores a slice of apple pie when the weather turns a little chilly. He likes it warm, oozing with tart fruit, with a slab of good English Cheddar. But Camilla and I like a little whipped cream for topping, and none of your non-dairy, non-fat, whipped chemical toppings. She prefers a nice lashing of clotted cream when she is in the UK, which is divine, but not available here. Luckily for us, the clever folks at Food52 have come up with the perfect compromise, a whipped cream that you can make ahead, and it will keep its lovely, airy whorls and peaks. Give it a whirl! Thank you Amanda and Merrill! http://www.food52.com/blog/2553_nancy_silvertons_whipped_cream

2011-09-22T06:42:00.001-04:00

September 22, 2011
"I've never known anyone yet who doesn't suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around... We're all eight years old again and anything is possible. "
 -Sue Grafton

2011-09-21T06:53:00.001-04:00

September 21, 2011
"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. "
-P. D. James

2011-09-20T07:02:00.002-04:00

September 20, 2011

“On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels . . .”
-Charles Dickens

2011-09-19T06:33:00.001-04:00

September 19, 2011

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”
-Emily Bronte

2011-09-16T07:18:00.003-04:00

Like the guys on Car Talk, we have had a little bit of a summer sabbatical from Food Fridays. (Click and Clack take a break from their weekly Puzzler feature during the summer.) And Charles and Camilla have been away, so we haven’t had any quality kitchen time, plus Camilla isn’t sure how her new dog, Beth, will do in a confrontation with our cat, Hoover, affectionately referred to on our street as The Thug. Draw your own pictures.
But in light of the cooler temperatures overnight, and a sudden primal urge to bake we are sharing Nancy Taylor Robson’s sinful Apple-Cheese Muffins with you. They are so good you will run up to the nearest apple tree and shake down a few to add to your batter. Thanks, Nancy!
Enjoy the weather!

Nancy Taylor Robson's Apple-Cheese Muffins

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) sweet butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup rolled oats
1 large tart apple
2/3 cup grated sharp cheddar
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
¾ cup milk
1 or 2 large, tart apples
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream 4 tablespoons butter and ½ cup sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir into butter-sugar mixture. Stir in oats. Chop tart apple into 1/8-inch dice and add along with cheese and nuts. Gradually stir in milk, mixing lightly. (Rule of thumb when mixing muffins is 50 strokes tops, less is better and a little un-mixed is OK). Fill well-buttered muffin tins 2/3 full. Cut remaining whole apples into 12 thin slices same diameter as the muffin tins; brush slices with melted butter and coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Top batter in each muffin tin with 1 apple slice. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar evenly over muffins. Bake for about 25 minutes.

You can read Nancy’s weekly Sunday Cooking column in both Spies: http://www.chestertownspy.com and http://www.talbotspy.com, and like us on Facebook, too! We are so modern!

2011-09-15T06:52:00.002-04:00

September 15, 2011
Say what you will about meringues, there is nothing quite so refreshing as a Madison Avenue storefront filled to the brim with tulle. Lovely.

2011-09-14T07:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry. Toooo much work yesterday, so I never got around to FAD. This was in the pile on the drawing table, so I thought I would give you a tantalizing thought of Fall. Cool breezes, tumbling leaves (that someone else will rake, naturally), autumn fashions (blue jeans, hurrah!) and healthy color in your cheeks. Autumn is just a week away. Take heart!
And a very Happy Birthday to Sidney!

2011-09-13T06:45:00.003-04:00

September 13, 2011
We pushed through the crowds near the Plaza Hotel and the much-photographed Apple Store on to Central Park, while clutching our restorative fruit smoothies. After seeing War Horse we were never going to be able to look at horses in the same way. We gazed sadly at all the working horses pulling folks around the Park, and then started our own slow canter through that greensward.

2011-09-12T07:57:00.004-04:00

September 12, 2011
It's Fashion Week in New York. Everyone is flocking to the tents that have sprung up at Lincoln Center. We just watched The September Issue, which has made me realize how ordinary my life and wardrobe are. Boring tailored shirts. Sadly suburban capris. Where is the texture? Where is the color blocking? What about my accessories? Sadly, my pearls just won't cut it in New York.
In New York the more extraordinary sights present themselves swiftly. This nun rode past us on a cross street as we hiked up Madison Avenue. Nice splash of yellow bicycle frame. Simple black shoes. Perfect accessorizing: bicycle helmet. Even the mannequins look on with approval.

2011-09-09T06:56:00.003-04:00

September 9, 2011
Not quite a Food Friday today, because we are still rhapsodizing about our short sojourn to New York City. The Pouting Princess and I walked all over on our first day, getting our city legs, learning the rhythms and pace of the pedestrians, when to jaywalk, all while dodging packs of foreign tourists clutching bags from impossibly expensive and exclusive shops. (I hadn't quite realized that my love for Ferragamo was not unique!) We stumbled down the West Side, past some cute and appetizing bistros before we arrived at Lincoln Center, where we stopped for a few minutes to rest our sore paws. And across the street we saw P.J. Clarke's, home of deelish burgers. Happily Clarke's also whips up admirable light-as-air fish and chips for the pescaterians among us. We were seated in a window, which was open to the passing world, with cool breezes and an interesting flow of walkers. I bought PP her first legal beer and then we dove into the onion straws like a pack of dogs.
We eavesdropped madly on the couple sitting next to us - not a true couple - but an older theatrical producer trying to impress his young dinner partner with tales of his friendship with Tennessee Williams. We could hear her eyes rolling back in her head! Luckily, we were distracted by the folks passing by that we did not offer any unsolicited advice...
Kudos to P.J. Clarke's for a very tasty meal, with excellent service. The waitstaff were attentive without being obsequious.
http://pjclarkes.com/lincoln/

2011-09-08T06:49:00.002-04:00

September 8, 2011

Not everyone was having a fine time when the Pouting Princess and I ventured north on our New England/New York City tour. Miss Minnie, shown here, was less than thrilled that we were occupying her space. Obviously she had other issues, and our poor choice in vacation reading matter really couldn't have been what rankled her so. Otherwise, why would she have her sunbath while sprawled on our important issue of People Magazine - Kate's Style Secrets? I don't think Louie would have judged us so harshly. Our apologies, Minnie. And we hope your foot has finally healed!

http://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2011/08/people-magazine-special-issue-kates.html

2011-09-07T06:31:00.003-04:00

September 7, 2011
This is our new friend, Louie, from Rowayton, Connecticut. A very affable fellow, Louis is. He was gamboling around a little park by the Historical Society when we ventured by to look at the water and the boats as the sun was starting to go down one evening. He posed, unselfconsciously, and even sampled some snackums proffered by other folks who were having an early al fresco supper. Life as a dog in Rowayton was very good.
There was a very nice garden that the Pouting Princess and I toured, as well as a picturesque gazebo. We saw a huge seagull sitting on a nearby dock - it was surely the size of an albatross crossed with an eagle. Amazing! Louie paid it no mind.
http://www.rowaytonhistoricalsociety.org/

2011-09-01T07:23:00.002-04:00

September 1, 2011
Rabbit, rabbit! (Or, for Mimi, "tibbar, tibbar, tibbar!")
Here is your nearly green calendar for September. Have a great Labor Day Weekend, you cubicle dwellers!

2011-08-31T07:41:00.003-04:00

August 31, 2011
More views from MOMA - now there is a book title. How does anyone get anything done in New York City? I guess the moody introspection is best left to the tourists who briefly swoop in and out. Just look at all the windows. This is a small corner of Midtown. Where would you want to live? Surely someplace with a balcony, a copper roof, north light, a view of the park, with French doors, a doorman, sky lights, on a quiet street, near a good deli, close to the subway, with dim sum just around the corner. Some would argue for Starbucks, I would opt for a nice neighborhood bar, with outdoor tables and a tolerance for dogs, near a good news stand. All within a nice brisk walk of acres of Monets and fields of Van Goghs, with a soupçon of Hoppers. Oh - and near enough to Lincoln Center that we could watch the black-clad members of the various orchestras loping to work, toting their instruments, preparing to pour their hearts out into the starry night.

2011-08-30T07:15:00.004-04:00

August 30, 2011
We were trailing a large Italian family, who boisterously embraced all the art at the Museum of Modern Art, as if the paintings were their old friends. I had that feeling, too, because it has been years since I walked through this cathedral of art. It was hard not to smile when I saw the Rousseau "Dream". Except that the wretched child ahead of us was allowed to touch the painting! No alarms went off, no swift merciless museum justice dealt this boy with undoubtedly sticky fingers!
We tried to shake the family, but perhaps it was inevitable that every few minutes they turned up in the gallery where we were breathing deep the fumes of magnificence, willing the paintings to touch our souls. Why then did I take every opportunity to look out the window? Here I was in a room knee deep with Monets, and I peered out the window, wondering if the view across the street held as many mysteries. Look at the Grecian urns in the windows. Was it an annex of the museum? Was it a personal collection or a dusty restoration room? Was John Keats still alive, as posited on Slate's Cultural Gabfest last week? How the mind drifts when confronted with so much beauty in one small building.
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5056&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

2011-08-29T07:07:00.003-04:00

August 29, 2011
We are so glad that our trip to New York was a couple of weeks ahead of Irene's! Windows make perfect frames. We weren't always the tourists looking up, sometimes we looked out. This view is from a library in the Condé Nast Building. It looks like the perfect place to leaf through back copies of Vogue.

2011-08-26T07:08:00.002-04:00

August 26, 2011
Here is a West Side flower stall to get you into the Friday spirit! Nothing like some fluffy hydrangeas to make the day brighter.
For our Northern Gentle Readers, good luck with Hurricane Irene. Stock up on batteries, charge your Kindles, buy some peanut butter and bring in the flower pots. Be careful out there.

2011-08-25T07:00:00.003-04:00

August 25, 2011
The Pouting Princess and I walked from Central Park and Strawberry Fields past The Dakota. A casual, Gentle Reader might suppose from this illo that I was mooning on about London again, but it is part of the decorative fence around The Dakota. The architectural details of the building were sublime. And somehow it seems appropriate that the exterior was used for Rosemary's Baby.
Coincidentally, Leonard Bernstein once lived here, and today is his birthday...
If you would like to read some more about The Dakota: http://nymag.com/listings/attraction/the-dakota/

2011-08-24T07:02:00.002-04:00

August 24, 2011
On the West Side we found more to see. There were food carts, food trucks, fruit and vegetable stands and flower stalls galore. Each was stacked and arranged with gleaming precision, in color block arrangements that would make Mondrian chortle with camaraderie.

2011-08-23T06:20:00.003-04:00

August 23, 2011
The Pouting Princess and I went from suburban car drivers to passionate pedestrians during our visit to New York City. We walked everywhere. We started at Grand Central Station, paused for early refreshment at the New York Public Library, some Fifth Avenue Shopping, lunch at 4 Times Square (a totally wonderful visit to Condé Nast), bounded up to MOMA on 53rd Street. Then we crossed back over to Fifth Avenue to wade through more oceans of tourists (where did they all come from?) up to East 57th to our hotel. We took 5 minutes to drop our bags and to test the comfy bed. We washed our faces and walked back to 59th Street. We considered having a drink at the Plaza, but thought that our time was better spent at this cart, getting restorative fruity smoothies. And we were rewarded when this woman with her groovy tote bag came up to stand in the queue.
Onward we pushed. A meandering walk through Central Park, around The Pond, past the baseball fields, up to Strawberry Fields. Then we walked west to Lincoln Center for dinner and an evening of theatre. Empowered by the wonderful War Horse we felt buoyed for our trek through Columbus Circle, back to our East Side hotel. Who needs a car?

2011-08-22T06:56:00.003-04:00

August 22, 2011
We are back from vacation. We enjoyed many an adventure during the past couple of weeks. The Pouting Princess and I flew North to enjoy a few days in Manhattan and a few days in Connecticut. On our first day in New York City, having experienced a typical daily commute on the train from Rowayton, we had coffee (and Diet Coke) and bagels sitting in the cool shade on a terrace at the New York Public Library. We toured the exhibit at the NYPL, and were thrilled to discover Virginia Woolf's walking stick, and the tiny and impossibly crabbed handwriting in her journal, e.e.cummings's typewriter, a signed, first edition copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or A Modern Prometheus, illustrations from The Wizard of Oz, a letter written by Jerome Robbins and a surprisingly chunky lock of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's hair. And this was just the beginning of our day! Visit the NYPL site to see some of these thrilling literary talismans. http://exhibitions.nypl.org/100/exhibition

2011-08-08T06:05:00.002-04:00

August 8, 2011
Gentle Readers,
I am taking the Pouting Princess off on a New England tour with a few days of research and fact-finding in New York City. We will post some photos along the way on the Fine Art Daily Facebook page, but otherwise will be engaged in good works, tourism and being en vacances. While we are gone, please stay cool, read a good book and eat your vegetables!

2011-08-05T07:03:00.001-04:00

August 5, 2011

“A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables."
-Gertrude Stein

2011-08-04T07:03:00.002-04:00

August 4, 2011

“Summer's here
I'm for that
Got my rubber sandals
Got my straw hat
Drinking cold beer
Man I'm just that I'm here
It's my favorite time of the year
And I'm glad that it's here, yeah”
-James Taylor

2011-08-03T06:27:00.001-04:00

August 3, 2011

“Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?”
-Rupert Brooke

2011-08-02T06:36:00.002-04:00

August 2, 2011

"Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity."
-John Ruskin

2011-08-01T06:43:00.001-04:00

“Money not spent on a luxury one considered even briefly is the equivalent of windfall income and should be spent accordingly." Alice's Law of Compensatory Cash Flow
- Calvin Trillin

2011-07-29T06:58:00.002-04:00

July 29, 2011

"Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen."
-Leonardo DaVinci

2011-07-28T06:45:00.001-04:00

July 28, 2011

"A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours."
- J.B.Priestly

2011-07-27T06:32:00.001-04:00

July 27, 2011

"We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings."
-Erma Bombeck

2011-07-26T06:11:00.002-04:00

July 26, 2011

"What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my period of grace."
-Ellen Goodman

2011-07-25T06:37:00.001-04:00

July 25, 2011

"I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be."
— John Cheever