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Boston Embroidery Hoop Art
I
swoonsmile happily over these pretty earrings and elegant embroidery every time I walk past E.R. Butler on Charles Street. I like the varying textures of the tree with the thickly knotted trunk. That texture combined with the steely butterflies and droplet pearls is so lovely.
Recently I learned that the woman who made the embroidery hoops for the shop is on Etsy, and lives in Boston!
She, Mary Louise, says she was inspired by the changing tree colors in the Public Garden, a spot Lux and I escape to regularly. Look at these pretty options!
I would love make something like this someday, but mostly I would love to pay someone else to do it better and more beautifully than me! These are $45 each. Which color are you drawn to?
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April’s Boston Food Swap
Yesterday I packed up my fourteen bags of homemade biscotti (one recipe from Cook’s Illustrated utilizing instant grits, one receipe from Maida Heatter with espresso and lots of chocolate) and headed to the Boston Food Swap. It was my first time attending this monthly event and it was…probably the most fun I’ve ever had at an event in Boston. Serious.
Despite the rain almost forty people showed up, carting their jars of lemon curd, their recycled bottles of kombucha, their tins of cardamum brown sugar simple syrup, their bags of flourless brownies made with dates and coconut, their jars of pickled ramps…
(both Birgit and I are into packaging…obviously. I used some ribbon from Angela Liguori, a wonderful Italian Brookline-based artist.)
I circled the room tasting everything, quizzing people on recipes, asking for advice on where they found certain ingredients, sharing excitement for our summer CSAs to kick in….
It was a local foodie’s dream date, and the best part is you really don’t have to be a “foodie” in any intimidating sense of the word. Some people brought trail mix, or chocolate covered pretzels, or grasshopper brownies—easy things that everyone loves to eat.
Then we scribbled down our offers on each other’s “bidding sheets” and shortly after that, chaos of trading ensued. My favorite part was learning that the person I hoped to trade with, also wanted to trade with me! Foodie kismet!
Here’s everything I came away with:
Rosemary shortbread, homemade chive cheese, cherry & apple chutney, pancetta, basil mozzarella, homemade salsa….wow!
So! You can google and see if there’s one of these in your town, there probably already is! If there isn’t, would you ever want to start one in your area? What would you bring?
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My Valentine’s Day
Lux and I listened to this all day, like the latin lovers that we are. (on Grooveshark. I couldn’t find it on Spotify, Rdio, or Last.fm. What, no kids music? Come on guys.)
I had a dentist appointment and they gave me a rose. Sweet, but the implication reminded me that I’m there a lot these days (sad but true) and neglecting my first love (my teeth) made room for our new relationship…Or some metaphor like that. When I walked home carrying the rose, people smiled knowingly at me, and I wanted to say, “it’s not as good as you think guys!”
A little vintage ring for me from Joe, from our local antique jewelry shop. With a background of aging roses from a friend who visited over the weekend.
This photo makes the ring look really nice, which it is, but Joe promises that it was not expensive as I have tragically lost rings before and neither of us want to worry about that. I love how the stone looks black but is actually a little red. It’s too big so I need to find one of those little adjustment-pieces that make rings smaller.
a little antique (not really) Scotch whiskey for Joe. He likes peaty stuff from Islay, and I’m running out of new brands to try as I basically buy him whiskey for all special occasions.
While I was at the dentist, Joe took Lux out and bought her a sneaky Sylvester. oh my gosh does she love balloons. And I do too. We had to bring him on our walk to soften the blow of being stroll-ered around. It worked!
In the evening after Joe got out of work, we met him midway to go to a favorite local wine shop that also sells chocolate, olives, eighty-five different kinds of cheese, and salami! On the T ride to meet him, the car was full of people holding bouquets of flowers, fiddling with their ties, or fixing their hair. When we waited for Joe outside there was a feeling of anticipation in the cold air and we watched as couples excitedly met up for the night. One corner of the T station was taken up with a bustling impromptu flower shop. It felt a bit like Christmas eve!
The wine shop was having a very clever wine tasting and oyster-eating event. For $10 you could try three different wines and have a small plate of three oysters. Lots of people were taking advantage of it. I loved how they gave you a slip of paper with the names of the wine, and the cost of the bottle, for easy reference.
Lux spent a lot of her time looking around for other baby friends, to no avail.
We used some Valentines money (thanks Mom! thanks Mimi!) and picked out a german champagne, soft cheese, a salami, homemade crackers, and homemade biscotti. It was all irresistible!
After we got home, we settled in with our snacks, and caught up on episodes of Downton Abbey. Joe said, “wine, cheese, and the aristocracy!” All and all, we barely noticed that we couldn’t go out to a nice dinner or a late night party.
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Angela Liguori Anniversary Party
On Saturday for my weekly baby-free cavort that Joe graciously sponsors (wherein I put Lux down for a nap and sneak away for several hours. This is usually assisted by a bottle of formula too.) I went to the anniversary party that Angela Liguori threw for the one year existence of her studio. I’ve seen Angela’s things in shops around town and one of her products was the first place I could buy bulk red-and-white baker’s twine a few years ago.
It was exciting and inspiring to see a formerly grim storefront in Brookline turned into warm little studio filled with handicrafts. Angela sells simple things that are executed in a perfect way and is a an absolutely lovely person to boot. She succeeds mostly through online sales, this is just her dedicated workspace away from home.
She had homemade biscotti, a table with sugar cubes, fresh milk foam, and Nespressos, and baby glassine envelopes with old stamps to takeaway as souvenirs.
a few things I picked up: a stack of vintage glassine envelopes (love that word, glassine), a bundle of ribbon, and a spool of Italian cotton ribbon.
you can visit her online shop right here. -
Meet the Neighbors
Babies can make late afternoons a little sludgy. So can jobs where you’ve been assigned a computer from the mid ’90s. That might be worse, actually. So reserve your pity for those folks.
anyway, in the sludgy hours between 4-7pm I like to contemplate my new year’s resolutions for 2012. One that I keep thinking about is MEETING MY NEIGHBORS. A nice couple just moved into the apartment next door. From our few brush-bys, when they smile eagerly at me and gesture mildly to Lux, I’m pretty sure they are super nice. Have I introduced myself? no. Have I mentioned that I hope they are settling in ok? no. IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BOSTON WATER THAT KILLED OFF MY NURTURING MIDWESTERN ROOTS? if so, that would explain the hollow echo when I hunt for my empathy.
As an entry point to the intimidating resolution that I have chosen, I have decided we will fill out these door knockers designed by one of my A-list heros: Candy Chang.
You know how text messages are the total shy cop-out to actually calling someone? Well this is the shy cop-out to actually introducing myself. But A-list hero ms.Chang designed them so cheerfully that I just know they will pave the way to a future of sharing mouse-trapping tips, cups of sugar, keys to roof decks, and other perks of city friends.
Candy designed these for Good Magazine, but she made the pdfs available for free on her website.
Anyone else already making lists?
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Boston Jobz tweet and feed
BostonJobz twitter and tumblr tweet photos of businesses that are hiring around Boston. As the telltale Z might indicate, it’s all about the speedy cellphone photo and the gritty upload. And I love it.
From the jumbo Red Sox font to the “Good luck!” at the end of most posts, it’s cheerful, quick, and gets to the point. If you scan job hunting sites for too long it can be hard to see straight, and many of them leave your basic neighborhood jobs off completely.
This is like having a super thoughtful friend who’s all around town, letting you know who’s hiring.
Good job guys!
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a basil grows in beacon hill
Sometimes living in the city can feel like an impossible task.
your car gets towed if you forget to move it on the right day, which is never the day you thought it was.
you’re certain your neighbors see you making oatmeal in your underwear, a lot. Probably more than they’d prefer.
the guys from the restaurant out back gather to smoke pot together and murmor below your window, every single afternoon.
the mice were told the kitchen was available for cohabitation, and signed a lease.
But of course there are reasons we stay. And on top of those, when you overcome a limitation–like, say, no green space to plant in–and contrive a little spot for some hardy basil to give it a go, it really feels like a victory.
I hope these little plants know what they’re in for.
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Boston Farmers Markets
The Farmers Markets of Boston have begun! I’m always forgetting which ones are on what day (checking this site again and again), so I asked Joe to make me a graphic for the fridge.
I thought I would share it here too in case you want it too! It’s sized to fit an index card.
Because I’m downtown, this doesn’t list some of the Cambridge markets (like Harvard).
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Beacon Hill Art Walk: Favorite Artist
Joe and I stumbled out our front door yesterday, late for church, only to be confronted by frolicking art fair on our street. Usually we are on Nantucket this time of year so this was our first encounter with the Beacon Hill art walk.
The best thing about the walk was the free chance to wander in the back alleyways and gardens of Beacon Hill; spaces that are usually blocked off by gates and narrow passageways.
Our favorite artist was Isabelle Abramson’s porcelains. They looked beautiful set out in light dappled courtyard off Philips Street. I particularly wanted a pair of her elegant hole-speckled votives.
Definitely mark it on your calendars for next year if you missed it yesterday.
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An Afternoon at America’s Test Kitchen
It was so fun to find out we won the blog-the-recipe contest. I loved seeing posts from the 50+ bloggers who submitted and meeting a few of them via Twitter and comments. Blogging bakers are obviously some of the nicest people one can hope to encounter in the internet world.
On top of being delighted to win, it was an unexpected perk to get to read the judges’ comments. In typical Test Kitchen style, they took the contest seriously and had several judges from different backgrounds rate the posts. Here’s what they said about our post:
- “Simply put, brevity is the soul of wit, and the vintage-tinged ‘Brief Guide’ photo essay bridges that sexy line between straight-forward utilitarianism and a lyrical portrayal of the kitchen. ”
- “Her opening paragraphs perfectly capture what we do at America’s Test Kitchen, and the photos are great. They illustrate the most important parts of the recipe— and her final batch looks picture-perfect.”
Geez, thanks guys.
I say “we” because my husband Joe was my creative partner for the post and the photographer. So luckily I got to bring one guest with me to the set. It was an easy trip on the T over to Brookline where ATK is based.
All of the ATK efforts–Cook’s Illustrated magazines and cookbooks, Cook’s Country, the recipe testing, the radio show, the product testing, the television show, the website—come out of one relatively tiny space that they’ve been in for years. The kitchen they film the show in is also the actual test kitchen. It’s remarkable to imagine the enormous variety of work and projects that come out of that little space.
Spotted! Chris Kimball. Chris and his partner for each show don’t have memorized lines, they just really know what they are talking about. Sometimes they have to do several takes of a certain shot and they come up with new, better approaches each time. It was amazing to watch in real time.
The crew was so friendly and accommodating even though there was no room at all. I had an eight month pregnant belly to add to the mix, so it was a tight fit.
Joe particularly hoped we would see this helpful guy:
Serious mise en place. Secretly wish we would’ve showed up on Nutella bread pudding day.
One of my favorite parts of the visit was seeing the enormous cookbook library. When you read a recipe that’s been remade by the Test Kitchen, they always reference the dozens of recipes they examined before they began. This is how they do it! They estimate that their library is the largest cookbook library in the United States. It takes up all the walls of the largest room in the office, and is meticulously organized.
The library had just recently gotten in Modernist Cuisine. Now that I think about it, I can imagine the ATK cooks loving the scientific examination of cooking that Modernist Cuisine pursues, but I was still impressed to see it on the shelves. (Also, considering the $625 price tag, I had not had a chance seen it in person yet.)
On the day we visited, one of the recipes they were filming was chocolate pudding.
I don’t even like chocolate pudding, and I couldn’t stop eating this. All the food they make for the show gets devoured almost immediately, by the crew, staff, cooks, extras…everyone takes part in the labor and gets to appreciate the results. I was lucky to get my own bowl.
Everyone we met obviously loved their job and wanted to do it very well. I think you get that vibe when you read Cook’s Illustrated, but it was even better to encounter in person and great to see the inner workings of such a unique company publishing company. Thanks for letting us visit, ATK!
