Book Sale

Yesterday was the final day of the 50% off clearance sale at the Book Revue and I scored three fantastic finds. Faberge Eggs A Book of Ornaments contains beautiful card eggs to hang on a tree, Ou Est Le Garlic?, basic French Cooking by The Ipcress File author Len Deighton and Formica and Design: From the Counter Top to High Art all for the bargain price of $7.50. While the first book is the most ornamental and the second may prove the most useful, I absolutely love the Formica book.


In the 1950s, designer Raymond Loewy was hired to update the Skylar range and the Boomerang classic (above) is still available in all its retro glory. I know a lot of people have negative feelings about Formica but The Cool House still some of its original 1960's and 70's Formica left - the kitchen countertops, for example, and I'm proud to say that the same product that has served our house for forty years was also used in the decorative wall surfaces of the Queen Mary liner and Radio City Music Hall in the Rockefeller Center, New York.

Nuts!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Perfect Day

Also known as best birthday ever, or the BIG DAY of FUN! Featuring copious amounts of champagne, starting with a Mimosa (Buck’s Fizz ) in bed, followed by


cards and prezzies, and more Mimosa. From far away, via Amazon, came cds and DVDs and is that a new camera? Oh, joy. Now I can annoy every one sending high resolution photos that will clog their email boxes forever. Such fun.
Wait, what's in the package? No, not the economic stimulus salvation package, the red one with the gold bow right there in the photo.


It's a fantabulously gorgeous necklace. The Guy done good.


Phone calls and messages, and flowers from family abroad.


The Guy made Duck Frittata for lunch. There was more Champagne. Afterwards I played around with the new camera.
Part II of fun continued in the city, all timed and planned perfectly by The Guy with none of the memory lapses that dogged past celebrations:
Cocktails at Hotel Iroquois.
Dinner at db Bistro Moderne, Foie gras, Diver Scallops, "Mont Blanc" and a half bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet.
Speed the Plow at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Post-theater champagne cocktail. And then home. We played Perfect Day because it was.
P.S. The big day of fun continues. A big thank you to whoever sent the balloon and flowers in the top shot. They arrived this morning, anonymously!

Tulips

Part of yesterday's Big Day of Fun. Click'em to embiggen.

Solstice Cake: Dried fruit, cognac and patience

Well sure you can make a Christmas cake on Christmas Eve. And in many places you can buy a Bûche de Noël at your local bakery. But if you want to make a traditional cake with sultanas and raisins, currants and dried peel, almonds and brandy you have to start early. The dried fruit must macerate in spirits for 24-48 hours before you can think about adding them to the batter. That allows them to plump up and ensures that when you do get around to eating the cake, in four weeks or so, each tiny bite will be intoxicating, in a really good way.


Because this cake contains 3lb of dried fruit it will take a really long time to bake. Before I mix up the batter I have to prepare the tin so it will insulate the cake from the direct heat of the oven. A layer of greaseproof paper inside the cake tin will help and prevent the cake from sticking to the sides as it cooks.


Now it's time for the batter: 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of soft brown sugar, 3 cups of flour, 3 teaspoons of spices, 1 tablespoon of molasses, the zest of a lemon and an orange and 6 eggs. When it's mixed I add the fruit and nuts and transfer it to that tin. But we're not done protecting the beauty yet, it needs a double layer of paper on top, with a small hole to allow the steam to escape. Then another double layer around the outside of the cake pan, some more paper on a cookie sheet underneath and we're ready to slide it into a coolish oven for 4 1/2 hours.


Four and a half hours is a long time and while the cake is baking the kitchen fills up with those enticing smells of nutmeg and cinnamon, cloves and ginger, cognac and dark rum. When it comes out of the oven, it has to sit and cool and perhaps be briefly admired. Then it must be wrapped in more greaseproof paper, a sheet of aluminum foil, placed in a box and put out of sight again until midwinter. Once a week for the next month I will unwrap it and feed it teaspoons of brandy and then recover it until eventually, a couple of days before solstice, I will ice it, or cover it in glace fruits or nuts, and serve it at last with Wensleydale cheese.

Don't drink, Don't smoke, What do you do?

Get up and dance around - It's Friday afternoon after all.

Gingerbread Blueprints

Remember this? Did it inspire you to make your own, knowing no matter how it turned out it could never be as bad as that one. Perhaps you yearn to build your own home? Why not give it a trial run in relatively cheap gingerbread dough first? Would you choose a modern house, a Cape Cod Cottage or Bungalow style perhaps? There are 12 designs to make your Gingerbread House more personal in The Gingerbread Architect by Susan Matheson & Lauren Chattman, and maybe inspire your home renovations, too. Have fun.

Be Afraid

Hmm, a couple of things caught my attention on the internets this morning. Firstly, I don't know whether to be disappointed or relieved I don't live in Australia. Then there's this eco-streetwalker look that I found deeply disturbing but not really frightening. But this, well, it just scares the poop out of me.

Double Celebration

In February I posted a photo of fireworks with the news that The Cool House had a big birthday to celebrate. I promised a fortieth birthday party, to be held in June because the blueprints for the house date from that month. In the usual way of things here that date got pushed and shoved back until a couple of weeks ago when I realized that Halloween had passed and nothing has been done. At this time of year we are usually planning to celebrate the winter solstice with a few friends, so I thought as we're already planning special food and decorating the home why not ratchet up the festivities and toast the anniversary of Beach House's 40 years as well?


Of course an event this important requires a certain amount of preparation. Before we decorate for the holidays we clean the house thoroughly. This will be the last thorough dusting and scrubbing that some spots will see until the holiday ornaments are put away and the greenery is burnt on January 5th, so I want it to be as good as it can be. We wash the windows so they sparkle to reflect the candlelight at night and let as much natural light in as possible during the day. Once all the housework is done and the guest rooms are ready for partygoers who want to stay over we can start making the house warm and welcoming.


For the solstice, we have a yule log that, at nightfall, becomes a roaring fire and we gather lots of greenery from the conifers in the yard to make wreaths for the front door and exterior lights and a saddle for the mailbox. I place branches of holly and fir into tall vases, and lay juniper branches and more holly on the fireplace surround and credenzas. To make the greenery stand out I add citrus fruits, lemons, limes, satsumas and tangerines, or naartjies, as The Guy calls them, and votive candles. I push cloves into oranges and pile them up throughout the house, and heap more cloves and lightly crushed cinnamon sticks under candles in votives, which makes the house smell great.


And what's a holiday party without scrumptious rich cakes and puddings made with dried fruit and brandy; cookies with butter, spiced with ginger cinnamon and nutmeg, and Stollen? Not only do they taste great but the enticing smell permeates the whole house. We'll toast the winter, and the house, with champagne, dark Trappist ales from Belgium and gluhwein. If all goes well we may even sing a few wassailing songs, too.


This year the party will be more important than ever; we will celebrate not only midwinter but the serendipity that brought us to Beach House, this wonderful creation that has been a home for forty years and provides us endless delight in its uniquely modern design.

Double Celebration: Winter Solstice/40th Anniversary has been entered in the "Home for the Holidays Contest", run in conjunction with Right@Home. This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by SC Johnson’s Right@Home.

A Perpetually Merry Modernist Tree

The Richard Babcock designed Possibilitree from DWR: Limited. Only seven were available and they seem to have been snapped up quickly. DWR:Limited is just what the name suggests - a limited run of items, vintage and modern, with a different one available daily for the next three weeks. Enjoy!

White Bouquet

Happy Monday morning!

Calorie-free Gingerbread House

Do you think I'll make a better Gingerbread House with this holiday card and its stickers?


With luck it may end up like this. Lots and lots of luck, that is. And a steady hand. Hmm, don't hold your breath. I think I'll just send them out.
Available from MoMA at a huge discount if you buy any three packs of cards and are a member.

Cake or pity?

Houseblogs.net is having a Home for the Holidays Contest, with a real live prize, so I was flipping through my photo files to get inspiration for this year's holiday decorations when I happened upon this gem from our first end-of-year holiday at The Cool House back in 2004.
No, a two year old did not produce this monstrosity, I did it all by myself. What's worse, I used a kit. Deeply, deeply sad.
The houseblogs competition ends Wednesday November 19 2008, so get yourself over there quick if you want to enter. Me? I'm off to hang my head in shame.

Impressions of Fall

A little later this year than last, and a little less well-defined, fall has finally arrived at The Cool House.

Remarkable

How fortuitous is it that Richard Fuld, ex-Lehman Bros CEO and chairman and his wife Kathy put their art collection in the hands of Christie's with a guaranteed price of $20 million back in September? The Guardian called this deal "remarkable" because the guarantee ensures that even if the art market has tanked and the auction fails to deliver that much the Fulds will get their $20 million anyway.
The auction, which includes three Willem de Koonings and an Ashille Gorky appropriately entitled Agony, is going ahead as I type.

Streetwalkers

We'd gone to the Moma to see the Van Gogh and the Colors if the Night and the Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting exhibitions but it was Kirchner and the Berlin Street that really thrilled us. This small show, that sadly finished its run on Monday, was a true delight. Depicting Berlin's working women in the years just before World War I, the colors are thing you notice first about Kirchner's art; vibrant pinks and luminous yellow, moody greens and blues. The stylised figures, elongated streetwalkers and their furtive clients with blackened eyes, reminded me both of El Greco and the masked characters in James Ensor's paintings.

Potsdamer Platz, 1914

Danger is here on the Berlin streets, you feel the furtiveness of the figures in the background, but there is also vitality, the women dress alluringly in furs and plumed hats. It's almost like looking at stills from My Fair Lady or mannequins in a department store window.
This exhibition along with other works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner can be seen next at The Brücke-Museum in Berlin, if you are planning a visit to Germany between December 13 and March 15 2009.

11.11.11.

Today is Armistice Day, the 90th anniversary of the end of World War One. Even in this time of war it is difficult to image the trauma that millions went through fighting "the war to end all wars", but if you have lived in Flanders there is a constant reminder in the landscape and the rebuilt city of Ieper.
One of the starkest, most powerful experiences is to visit the Menenpoort or Menin Gate and see the names of the missing 54,896 soldiers inscribed into the walls. No one leaves there unaffected by the sacrifice the mostly very young men made in the name of civilisation. Further out of town there are the Cemeteries where thousands of soldiers are buried and the harrowing but compelling In Flanders Fields Museum that tells the story of The Great War from the perspective of witnesses, both soldiers and civilians, to the misery and horror of Ypres, Passchendaele and The Somme. The war ended at 11 am on 11th of November 1918, and is remembered every year at this time with a minute's silence. Lest we forget.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Game Night: The 1984 version

It seems we needed the game table to motivate us to plow through the boxes of board games we've accumulated over the years.


In addition to four versions of Monopoly - London (twice), Paris and Belgium (in two languages), we also have Catopoly. Cats as real estate, who knew? The other evening we worked our way to Trivial Pursuit Young Player Edition, an old set of qustions from the days when Trivial Pursuit was the Wii of crazes. You could tell what era it came from by the questions: Which two countries are divided by the Berlin Wall? and What type of language is Fortran? and which country by the curious fact that every other question in the pink section was about Kajagoogoo and the rest had to do with characters in The Beano and The Dandy.


Most of us had never heard of Limahl and the biggest pop sensation of 1983, while one of us (ahem) had tried to block the oeuvre from her memory. But we hit on a brilliant solution to remedy this failing. Every time a song came up that we couldn't recall we played it on the youtubes. Oh youtube, how you have enhanced game night and our daily lives.

Buckets of cuteness

Maya and Hermes catching zzzzzs on the dog cushion in my office.

Singing until the end

The incomparable and inspirational Miriam Makeba, or Mama Afrika as she was also known, singing Pata Pata on tour in Brazil, 1968. Miriam Makeba died November 10 2008, after a performance in Castel Volturno, Italy.

Sunday in the Park

After a couple of days of grey November weather the sun came out this morning so we took the dogs to Coindre Hall in Huntington for some exercise.
Beautiful isn't it? We're really lucky to have free and unlimited access to the grounds of the Gold Coast mansions that were previously owned by robber barons, but Coindre Hall is one of the best because it's also an off-leash informal dog park. That's the Coindre Hall boat house in the foreground, Huntington lighthouse in the middle of the bay and Connecticut in the background. Amazingly even this late in the year there are still a few boats out on the Sound.


Here's a short video that covers the dogs' behaviour at the park. They run around with their doggy chums for 5 minutes, graze for ten more and when Polly lies down the visit is over.

Simmering gently today

I'm absolutely exhausted from the emotional tsunami of Tuesday, and the mojito, beer and overloaded nacho party we had while waiting for the results. Anyway, I will be returning to Cool House stories soon. Till then, pop over to the delightfully welcoming Marilyn at Simmer Till Done who bribed me with chocolate-tinis to tell her (and the internets) some fascinating facts about my food philosophy. OK done with the alliteration now.

Global Celebration

YES WE DID


It's a new day for America and the rest of the world.
Change is coming.

UPDATE: It just gets better


HOT!

If you are reading this

I expect you have
a) early-voted
b) voted earlier today
c) are ineligible to vote

If not

GO VOTE

Nature's Bounty

We have visitors over from Belgium who looked at the above plate of apples and walnuts and wanted to know a) why the apples were so shiny and b) what those nuts were. The shiny apples I could understand because apples over there never shine unless you polish them on your sweater. Even though these are organic they look fake. But the walnut thing had me confused for a second, after all they have have walnuts in Belgium, we used to have a walnut tree in our garden. Then I got it. These walnuts have been washed and dried, whereas back in Europe we used to gather them when they had fallen while they are black and softish. Then we were reminded that it is mushroom gathering season in the woods and the Foret de Soignes is full of Portobello mushrooms. Sob. And it is wild game season, too. Grouse anyone?

Seasonal change

The hibiscus may still be flowering but there is a 50% off sale at the nursery so I wandered over there this morning and selected three evergreens, two Russian conifers and a dwarf blue spruce that can overwinter in the big pots outside the garage.


Of course we'd didn't just discard the hibiscus. After the lovely surprise I had when last year's plants flowered again this year I got Sadie The Guy to dig three holes in the same sheltered south-facing spot and plant them. Even if they don't make it through the winter they will probably still flower for a couple more weeks.

Saturday Morning Quote

Today's prize for the most dumb and/or insensitive remark made in this economic climate goes to ex-"Top Chef" host and cookbook author Katie Lee Joel:

“I love real estate. To me, real estate is the ultimate tchotchke. We have five houses; we like our real estate.”
New York Magazine

Most Americans just have to worry about one house, the roof over their heads, but for Katie Lee Joel houses are just collectibles. You can enable her to pick up another real estate ornament by dropping by her book signing tour (if you're quick you can catch her at the Book Revue in Huntington, NY tonight). And with 81,312 homes being repossessed by lenders in September I'm sure they will plenty for her to choose from.

You want to know what kind of tchotchke Katie owns?


Thanks to Domino Magazine you can view her Manhattan townhouse, where she arranges her smaller tchotchkes


Then changes them (and the chairs) out for something more soothing in brown.
And there's more about her Long Island houses over here.

Friday night special: The staying in version

Friday night is cocktail night but as it's also Hallow'een and I really don't want to think of a theme and go sit in a bar dressed up, I thought I'd throw my cocktail on some beef and make Martini Brisket instead. Yes really, brisket and onions in a beefy tomato sauce, finished with vodka, vermouth and olives. What could be better? The ice cold shaken martini that will go in my chilled glass, obviously.
And while I'm happily assembling the ingredients maybe you'd like a little Friday afternoon hiphop with MC Yogi?



Remember Vote for Hope

America

A thought struck me the other day. We've now lived at The Cool House longer than we lived in our previous house on Long Island. The first four years in the States seemed to go by slowly, we learned coping strategies for the huge portions in restaurants but not before we'd each gained five hundred pounds, one of us learned to say watuh so we could get a drink with our meals, and we allowed people to bring coffee and other beverages into our car. In short we adapted. The past four years in this house have simply flown by but in all this time there was one thing that still irked The Guy, there was one image of America he'd gleaned from the movies that had never become reality. He, bless, had thought that anytime a new person moved into the area, neighbors dropped round with pie. Or at least left one on the porch. (I know. He's thinking of 1950s America. Bless again). He'd talked to Americans about this and some had mentioned being given zucchini bread many years ago, but this was in real America not Long Island.

Then on Sunday something happened that renewed The Guy's faith in his dream, his ideal America. A knock at the door, a neighbor bearing a baking dish. Pie? No. Even better, the Awesome Designer sent the Loyal Blog Reader over with Mac 'n' Cheese. Not just any mac 'n' cheese, mind you, but Mac 'n' Cheese with White Truffles. A truly magnificent dish and a gesture that meant so much to The Guy. I swear there were tears in his eyes as he ate it. It might have taken eight years but the spirit of America was embodied in that casserole. Thank you, neighbors.

Now, America, if you'd just get out and vote for Obama on November 4th, you would make my dreams come true, too.

Fall Flavors

OK, it may be autumn but I just got a new paddle for my ice cream maker and I'm in the mood for ice cream. Kind of nuts really - the weather turns chilly and I turn the ice cream maker on but I guess you could always serve it with a steaming slice of pie, right?
Anyway, I have been experimenting with mixes that don't need eggs because no eggs means no cooking and cooling so the whole pocess goes much quicker and, based on the couple of recipes I've made so far, I prefer the taste and the texture.
I was intrigued by this recipe from Jenni Britton of Jenni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus Ohio. It uses cornstarch and a little cream cheese but she does boil the milk. I couldn't quite see why it was necessary so I did some more research and found another recipe that didn't. However, it did call for a whole lot of cream cheese - an entire 8oz package! That's a little too much Philly for my taste. So I amalgamated the two and came up with this Maple Syrup and Ginger Ice Cream to celebrate the fall season.

Maple Syrup and Ginger Ice Cream
2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tbls cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped

Blend cream, milk, cream cheese, sugar, maple syrup and salt until smooth. Churn in ice cream maker and add chopped candied ginger. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze.

Then at the weekend I got in the holiday season with another kind of eggless recipe: Whiskey and Cranberry Sour Cream Ice. This one is based on this recipe from Desert Candy. It turned out to be The Guy's favorite, I slightly preferred the other but I will make them both again and vary the flavorings.

Whiskey and Cranberry Sour Cream Ice
2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup cup sugar
2 tbls maple syrup
3 tbl whisky
I/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Soak the cranberries in the whisky for an hour or so.
2. Blend all other ingredients until smooth. Place in the refrigerator and chill while the cranberries are soaking. Pour cream mix into ice cream maker and add cranberries.
If I were making this again I might add some finely chopped candied orange peel to the churning ice cream to make it even prettier.
There are no photos of the ice cream because it was eaten so quickly so you'll have to be content with the tree that I snapped while waiting for a train on Monday. Pretty, no?

40 years on

Today in the occasional series celebrating the 40th birthday of our house we bring you 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Considered one of the Greatest Films Ever, we attempted to watch this 1968 classic on Thursday evening without the use of psychedelic drugs and we were defeated. It's not that we don't appreciate the metaphors and the message but did it have to take SO. FREAKIN'. LONG?
I actually gave up at the 2 hour mark, yelling "Enough already, I get it at the screen". The Guy, poor fella, who doesn't remember seeing it before, kept saying "Wait, it's nearly over, it must be nearly over". More in desperation than in hope, I think.
For those who can't sit through the iconic movie, or don't have the requisite acid on hand, can I suggest this multilingual site. It explains the movie so you can fake it when challenged by your film buff friends and you save a couple of hours of your life.

Art Deco and All That Jazz

Ok, it was tiny, poorly laid out and badly lit but the Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture 1925-1940 did have a couple of gems: The radiator grille from the Squibb Building in Manhattan, designed by Buchman & Kahn and the gold on glass panels from the grand hall of the SS Normandie. Then there was a tantalisingly short clip of Josephine Baker performing at a French Revue and a steel model of the Trylon and Perisphere at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
It takes almost as long to read the title of the show as it does to go round it, but really the exhibition was a sort of hors d'oeuvre - it left me hungry to know more about the relationship between the two cities in that inter-war period and reminded me to walk down Fifth Avenue soon to look at the beautiful Art Deco facades we have in New York.

Tuscan Village?

So that outing to The Arches went as well as those who know me predicted it would. I came away with a headache, a new-found admiration for the parking skills of my fellow humans and a promise to NEVER, EVER go to an outlet center again. Oh, and no, thanks for asking, I didn't buy anything either.
I knew it was a bad idea when I sat for twenty minutes waiting to get into the car park. I knew I should have turned around and gone home when the sales assistant on handbags at Saks said "Ignore those special offer prices, there's nothing here at that price. I don't know why they're priced like that, I'm waiting to speak to the manager. Oh, but you can take 20% off any handbag"...? But it was when I heard the sound of a German oompah band playing live on the Via Firenze that I knew I'd come unstuck.
Best overheard remark from two shoppers looking over the home decor section at Neiman Marcus: What's the quickest way from here to T.J. Maxx?"

Beach Finds

I never find anything useful or interesting on the beach - an empty beer bottle maybe or an old cracked comb, doggy poop certainly; but not the sea glass or shells that others seem to pick up so easily. The other day, though, I hit the jackpot - an unspoilt clamshell, a bleached white stone and this piece of amber prettiness. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Door Lust

If I were building a house I would design it around this pair of burlwood entry doors. Simply stunning, uniquely modern.
Available from Rago Modern Auctions on ebay

Award-winning Restoration

Saturday is for... total admiration and envy. This Frank Lloyd Wright home in Millstone, New Jersey has been rebuilt by architects Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, who also own the house.


The restoration has been so sympathetic and striking that they won a Wright Spirit Award in the private category from The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which “honors original or subsequent Wright homeowners who have rescued a building or have demonstrated outstanding stewardship in its conservation”. Read the story of the 20 year process that included being flooded twice, and their unique solutions addressing the problem, here.