Cafe life

Sometimes you just need to sit down and catch your breath. Where better than a cafe with a well-stocked bar


in exquisite Beaux-Arts surroundings


and its own permanent art gallery - quality art everywhere you look. Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires is a landmark, it may be a little touristy but the architecture is spectacular. The only question is: do I need an espresso or a G&T?

Can I go back to BA, please?

You know I'm not one to whinge or moan but
1) Today the car wouldn't start so I got a guy to come jump it. It started for him but of course when he left it died again. They're coming to tow it first thing tomorrow but they have to call me two hours prior to that to verify my address and make sure I still need it towing. They will call at 6 AM!@! I will try to be pleasant but there are no guarantees as I explained to the third person I spoke to at towing assistance today.
2) As the animals are still on vacation I had the carpets cleaned yesterday so they'll be stain-free for the Solstice Party on Sunday. They missed a huge chunk and I didn't notice it until late last night. They are coming back to re-do the spots which means it won't be dry before the puppies come home and roll on it. Grrr
3) I made three batches of ice cream for aforementioned party, Cointreau and Candied Orange Peel, Dulce de Leche (with the real stuff from Argentina) and Bourbon. Two froze but the last looks like Bourbon sauce, not ice cream, so I'll have to wait for the bowl to chill to redo it. That means going to bed late tonight or making it when towing assistance wakes me up at 6 AM!@!
4) We ran out of both vodka and gin before we left and I was on my way to the liquor store to restock when the car stalled. I need a stiff drink right now.
5) It's going to snow again
I want to go back to sunny, stress-free Buenos Aires. Please.

And then there was food

Argentina is famous for its grass fed beef. I love it because it doesn't cause all those internal issues that corn fed meat can do (wind, gas or heartburn or whatever your particular affliction may be), and frankly, it just tastes better. Parrilla or grilled steaks, are available everywhere and in huge portions but our favorite turned out to be mollejas or sweetbreads. These were simply cooked, as all parrilla is, just seasoned with salt and pepper and served sliced with wedges of lemons on the side. Succulent and exquisite, without the addition of the usual cream-based sauce, they were very light. Just a simple watercress salad and a cubierto of bread, it made the perfect meal. We also tried the famous asado made in al asador or the embers of a charcoal fire, just like the gauchos cooked it, and ate the offal and chevito, baby goat, with a little chimichurri and a lot of Malbec.
But it's not all about the beef in Buenos Aires, the Spanish and Italian influences mean great desserts, too. As in Belgium, coffee is accompanied by a little sweet something, or even three somethings as in the photo above- a chocolate, a tiny biscuit and sliver of cake. And like in Europe, an entree is an appetizer not the main course. Hurray for logic and food heaven.

Buenos Aires: Cocktail time

Sadly inflation hit BA in the early 2000's so the $5 cocktail is now a $10 cocktail, but that didn't stop us hitting the bar every evening, especially as drinks come with great nibble - chips, almonds, cheese, savory biscuits and smoked salmon appetizers. That held us until dinner time, which as in Spain, tends to be served around 10 pm. Really, though, who needs dinner after all that? Well, we do, of course. Anyway, here's my favorite

The Plaza Bar Tango Martini

2 oz. Gin
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
Pour into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake and serve.

The most refreshing Martini I've drunk. The barman also invented a new cocktail for me which was very tall and pretty and pink but rather more Verity's thing as it was reminiscent of a Mojito but gin based:

2 oz. Gin
Simple syrup
Mint
Pink grapefruit juice
Muddle the mint into the sugar. Add ice cubes, gin and top with pink grapefruit juice. Stir and serve.

Buenos Aires

And that's only a tiny part of it. There was giant carp and cute kittens, parrilla and asado, Malbec and martinis, art and architecture, polo and poverty and about six weeks worth of blog postings. I have a wee bit of jet lag right now so expect more later. For now, I can direct you over here to look at these guys. Swoon. They breed 'em beautiful in the southern hemisphere, no?

Flying South

We're heading south for a few days. Florida? Nope. Mexico? Keep going. Farther. Not there yet. It's a long, long way. So far that it will be summer when we get there.
We won't actually be flying American. This 1968 AA advertisement is purely so you can marvel at
a) the fab mod cape that was part of the uniform
b) the iconic Saarinen Tulip chair the model is curled up in (I'm sure that wasn't a comfortable pose)
c) the inappropriate sexism of the concept
I'll post as and when I can, but as the hotel we will be staying at has one of the best bars in the city who knows how lucid I will be?

Light Up the Turtle

Honestly, would you ever light this? It is so detailed and turtle-like I couldn't bring myself to do it. Turtle candle from designer Sophie Labayle Mitchell. Get it at moss online, also available - hot tropical frog.

Snowfall

Sunday morning. The first snow of the season fell last night, but it's already melting away. We only got an inch or so but the plows were out anyway at 3 am. Our guy correctly assessed we didn't need plowing out, so we saved those lights a least for one day.

Lighting Up

The landscape lighting has been a trifle temperamental since we moved in. It seems constantly being jumped on by squirrels and cats, kicked by landscapers, and knocked over by tree surgeons and snowplows was more abuse than the lamps could take. In places the cable had been completely severed. Although we've re-coupled, duct-taped and generally mended all the parts, it had got to the point that only on fully moonlit nights was it safe to venture down the paths. We finally assessed the risk of serious injury to ourselves or visitors versus the cost of a new system and invested in a set of low voltage lights for the driveway and added a couple of new lamps to the set on the front path.
The dogs were very serious about getting the job done right. Sadie oversaw every lamp connection, leaning on The Guy a couple of times to remind him to screw the bulb in before moving on to the next spot. This is a pretty simple system to install, and even taking time to bury the cable it only took a couple of hours. The downside is that once the lamps are clipped into the cable they cannot be moved and one lamp (on the corner of the path, of course) wouldn't work. We have no idea why that one lamp isn't cooperating but as it snowed last night it will be a while before we can investigate further. And really, will it matter? A few feet of snow, a couple of visits by the snowplow, a falling branch or two and by Spring we'll probably only have half the lamps working again.

Polly in the Pachysandra

Polly where she is happiest, outside in the yard keeping the world safe.

1968: Advertising

So you think the American car design missing the mark is a recent phenomenon? Look at these 1968 ads for the Chevelle and the Alfa Romeo Spider and ask yourself: which one makes your heart beat a little faster?

Etro is 40, too

This fabulous Rose tote is part of Italian Fashion House Etro's 40th Anniversary Collection. It was fleetingly available at ideeli, but sadly sold out fast. The paisley print leather bag with neon green or fuchsia pink accents was really quite restrained for the company which is better known for its quirky accessories and over the top style.

On the White House Holiday Menu

"In the weeks leading up to the holiday, the Bushes will host almost daily parties with some 22,000 holiday cookies, 250 coconut cakes, 600 pounds of asparagus* and 700 gallons of eggnog."

600 pounds of asparagus? Since when was asparagus festive fare? There is an asparagus season where I'm from, it's called May. Call me peculiar but if there's one thing I don't associate with the holidays, it's pee smelling like asparagus in the morning. Gingerbread, maybe, or eggnog, but not a vegetable that inspired this piece of piss-taking on wikipedia: Green asparagus is... the primary source of nutrition for inhabitants of the Atomium in Brussels.
As if that's not strange enough, can you imagine what dishes they are making with the following ingredients*?

Grapefruits 3,000
Pounds of Asparagus 600
Pounds of Cheesy Stone-Ground Grits 300

Secret family recipes, anyone?

*Fun Facts On the 2008 Holiday Season At The White House

Wildlife at the Bar

Stylish and adorable. Just the thing to go with all that alcohol, although these guys have such haughty expressions I think they might be judging me if I used them for their intended purpose.
Black shot animal glasses with carved pewter heads from Goody Grams via Generate.

Hangover: Cause and Cure

It may not amuse everyone but I think it's worth a post. This is the door of my freezer: half-empty bottles of alcohol and lots of ice packs. What else would you need for the holiday season?
Why, full bottles, of course.

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