Design Thoughts

I have a brown living room...very brown as you can see below.  My accent color is a lovely blue-green, but I am feeling really drawn towards pinks and reds and thinking of changing things up.  Maybe using an ikat fabric. I am always drawn to darker rooms, but maybe I'm ready for a change.

So, I'm thinking of adding in new pillows like this one:

I see rooms like this one and think that I should go much lighter.  I love the neutals with the great accents.

Thoughts?

Book I just finished: Sing Them Home

Cover of Sing Them Home: A Novel

I've finished a book a couple weeks ago-- Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos.  I enjoyed Kallos' book Broken for You and had high hopes for this one.  I picked it up because I read an article about the book's editor who was editing it at the time the article was written and said it's one of the best things she'd read in awhile.  So, I really wanted to like this book.  I'm curious what others thought of this book-has anybody read it?  How did you feel about the characters- did you like them?

Recipe of the Week: I hate chicken salad, but...

I had a variation of Tyler Florence's ultimate chicken salad tonight and I really, really like it.  So here's the recipe variation:

1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped


Kosher salt


About 1 cup mayonnaise


1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard


2 celery stalks, small diced


2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves 


2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


Freshly ground black pepper


2 cups shredded roasted chicken meat, roughly chopped


8 slices bread, your choice


4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature


Roughly chop the walnuts and then gently toast in a dry skillet over medium heat until they brown and are slightly fragrant. Season walnuts with salt once they are finished toasting. Add the walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, celery, parsley, olive oil, and salt and pepper, to taste, in a large mixing bowl and combine. Fold in the shredded chicken and set aside while you prepare the bread. Toast the bread in a hot oven until golden. Top with a scoop of the chicken salad and cover with the other half of the bread to complete the sandwich. Serve.

Style File: Charlotte Russe accessories

I wandered into Charlotte Russe at the mall and found cute, trendy accessories for a steal.  This is going to be my new go-to place for trendy pieces that prob will only last a season or so.  Of course, this isn't going to replace Stella & Dot, Banana Republic, J Crew or Sophie's for my fav jewelry pieces, but they're pretty awseome.  Check out the pieces below I found on their site www.charlotterusse.com that are all under $13 and most for $5-$7...

Book I loved: Girl in Translation

I started this book last Thursday and finished it Friday...so you can tell I really enjoyed it.  Heather read this book and posted about it on her blog The One Thing I Regret and I had been interested in it so I had to buy it and read it. I got really sucked into this book- the story of Kimberly "Ah-Kim" and her mother is so foreign to the life I lead, which perhaps make it even more compelling. 

Kimberly and her mother emigrate to New York from Hong Kong.  Their life here is made more difficult by the debt that they owe to Kimberly's aunt and uncle for Kimberly's Mom's tuberculosis treatment and their travel here.  In order to pay off the debt and make a pittance of a living they slave away in the sweatshop under the watchful eye of Aunt Paula.  It is here that Kimberly learns to view life in terms of skirts, as that is what she and her mother do in the sweatshop, they finish the clothing items for shipment.---riding the subway is 100 skirts.   

Kimberly is different from the other children who help their parents in the sweatshop.  She is determined to succeed outside of Chinatown and she is smart enough to make it happen.  She works hard to learn English and do well in school with the small bit of time she has available away from work.  She endures a cockroach infested apartment with no heat and works very hard.  She gets a full scholarshop to an elite prep school, amazes her teachers and endures the jealousy of her Aunt Paula.  She earns a scholarhsip spot at Yale and all the while she teeters between the American way of life and the Chinese. Her choice in the end between escape with her mother from a life of poverty and love seems to be an easy choice as we read it, but in the end I think we see some regret.

I highly recommend this book.  When I read a book like this I am reminded that any hardship that I have endured is not truly a hardship.  I have been given so much and have taken things for granted.  Have I really worked hard? What should I be doing?

The author is telling a tale that must be close to her heart, as she too immigrated from Hong Kong, and this allows her to write a beautiful story.

Style My House: House Beautiful Inspiration

I have been flipping back through House Beautiful magazines and loved a house in the May issue.  I think I want to live here.  I've actually never wanted a lot of white in my house, but the way the colors in the few colorful furniture pieces and art work in the room are amazing!

And I'm totally stealing this idea--I think it would make me quite me happy to have pretty little black and white photographs in my closet. 

View from Liz's Couch: Recipe of the Week: Cheddar Rosemary Scones

View from Liz's Couch: Recipe of the Week: Cheddar Rosemary Scones

Recipe of the Week: Cheddar Rosemary Scones

Image via Wikipedia

I made scones for the first time this week.  I made my own variation of a Barefoot Contessa recipe for savory scones.  This recipe is so easy and the texture of the scone was perfect.  This recipe makes 16 large scones so it's perfect for bringing to the office

Cheddar Rosemary Scones
Ingredients


•4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
•2 tablespoons baking powder
•2 teaspoons salt
•3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
•5 large eggs, beaten lightly
•1 cup cold heavy cream
• 80z bag shredded extra-sharp yellow Cheddar or more if you like
•1/2 Cup rosemary chopped finely
•1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk, for egg wash


Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine 4 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. Mix the eggs and heavy cream and quickly add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Combine until just blended. Toss together the Cheddar, rosemary, and 1 tablespoon of flour and add them to the dough. Mix until they are almost incorporated.


Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it for 1 minute, until the Cheddar and dill are well distributed. Roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. Cut into 4-inch squares and then in half diagonally to make triangles. Brush the tops with egg wash. Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outside is crusty and the inside is fully baked.

Next Book Club Choice- Eat Pray Love

We had a great night last Friday discussing The Awakening by Kate Chopin and I'm really excited about our next book choice Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

The book takes us on the author's post-divorce search for herself--gastronomic adventures in Italy, spiritual pursuit in India and newfound love in Bali. 

A friend gave me this book not long after I got divorced and I think that now I might have a different perpesctive 3 years later.  I am excited to share this book with the girls and then we're going to see the movie that's coming out soon. 

I'm wondering how different the movie will be from the book.  In my humble opinion books are generally better than the movie.  So, let's hope it's not disappointing. 

Style My House: Bar Tray Table

I have been toying with the idea of putting a bar tray table in my living room.  I love the look of it, but ya know I'm not really a liquor drinker.  I have the perfect table for it and a great little spot picked out.  I saw this great pic in Lonny Magazine and got some inspiration.

Mathilda Savitch...little girl not quite lost

I enjoyed reading Mathilda Savitch and yet I didn't.  We find Mathilda in the midst of a very broken family stuck in their grief over the death of their older daughter Helene.  Mathilda is dealing with her grief in her own way and desperately wants her parents to acknowledge her and Helene.  The story is told as we listen in on Mathilda's thoughts and rationale for her sometimes bizarre behavior.  She seems like such a little girl sometimes ...afraid of terrorists that might harm her or her friends and then at other times she makes profound conclusions that seem beyond her age.  As the story unfolds Mathilda goes to great lengths to discover the truth of her sister's death and to get her parent's attention. 

I loved reading Mathilda's thoughts written by Lodato.  You just wanted to keep reading- she was funny. Lodato really tapped into what an adolsescent might think- what they might fear, what would make sense to them. At the same time, the story was a sad one and the ending was bittersweet.  Mathilda seemed lost and searching throughout most of the book and at the end she wasn't quite so lost, but not quite found yet either.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

So, I've been looking at this book for awhile wondering what in the world it was all about...then I finally bit the bullet and bought the book.  I love it! I am so shocked, but the juxtaposition of the serious Jane Austen content that I love and the Seth Grahame-Smith added zombie attacks are fun.  I haven't finished the book yet, but I am reading it as fast as I can. 

BTW, in this book Elizabeth Bennett is a trained fighter who won't be caught dead without her katana sword and delivers quite a beating to an obnoxious Mr. Darcy.  I think that Jane Austen would have approved of this tough, take-charge Elizabeth although I am not sure what she would think of a zombie-filled countryside. 

Bouillabaise at Magnolia's--amazing!

I have declared a new 2nd favorite meal ever--Bouillabaise "BooYaBase" at Magnolia's in Charleston, SC.  My very wonderful and kind parents let us come stay with them in Charleston for a long Memorial Day weekend and took us to one of my fav restaurants- Magnolia's.  I decided to try something new and ordered the bouillabaise.  I am so glad that I did- it was absolutely delicious and now I have to cook it at least once.  It's a delicious fish stew with mussels, shrimp, fish, corn, okra and pot liquor aka the most delicious broth. 

btw- got this pic on the net- none of us has a forearm tattoo :)

I found the recipe in the Magnolia's cookbook for this delicious stew, but there are lots of variations to be found on the interent.  here's one I found on allrecipes.com that serves 12:

Ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 leeks, sliced

3 tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig fennel leaf

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon orange zest

3/4 pound mussels, cleaned and debearded

9 cups boiling water

salt and pepper to taste

5 pounds sea bass

1 pinch saffron threads

3/4 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions

1.Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the onions, leeks, chopped tomatoes, and garlic. Cook and stir over a low heat for a few minutes until all vegetables are soft.

2.Stir in the fennel, thyme, bay leaf, and orange zest. Add shellfish and boiling water; stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Turn up the heat to high, and boil for about 3 minutes to allow the oil and water to combine.

3.Add fish, and reduce the heat to medium. Continue cooking for 12 to 15 minutes, or until fish is cooked. The fish should be opaque and tender, but still firm. Fish should not be falling apart.

4.Taste the bouillabaisse and adjust the seasoning. Stir in saffron, and then pour soup into a warmed tureen or soup dishes. Serve immediately

Elegant Grey Bedroom Inspiration

I love this Thom Filicia designed elegant grey bedroom.  Love it, love it!

I am using this as the inspiration room for Steve's bedroom at his new house.  If you know me, you know how I love a new project and this one has me excited. It will go slowly starting with this paint color.  The paint color is Ralph Lauren Palais Royale, which unfortunately they don't exactly carry at Home Depot anymore.  However, when I went to my local HD they were able to pull up the old info on it and I got a gallon of pseudo-Palais Royale. Happiness.  Paint makes such a big difference so I can't wait for Steve to get this paint on the wall so that we can see how it looks.  I found a great white four poster bed at Ikea, but who knows if Steve will go for it. 

Next Book Club Choice- The Help

The Help is the next book for our book club.  I devoured 400+ page book in two days.  I lost track of all time reading this book.  So, you could say I would recommend it.  It's the story of three women in Mississippi in 1962.  One of these women is the newly graduated privileged daughter of cotton plantation owners and the other two women are "the help".  These women work for the friends of the privileged young woman.  The women's lives intertwine while the civil rights movement is slowly making inroads in Mississippi.  Two black women and one young white girl bucking the system as it is and coming into their own as freer women.  Compelling stuff.  I found myself at times really angry at what was going on during this time period in the South and also, it left me with the question, "What would I have done had I been alive in the South in the 60s?" 

My brother is married...and I'm an old maid ;)

My brother finally tied the knot a few weeks ago and is now settled into marital bliss.  I am seriously happy for him and had a wonderful time at the wedding festivities.  The wedding weekend began with the rehearsal dinner at Public House.  The room was lovely, the couple was happy and the food was delish!

For the rehearsal dinner my mother, father and I stayed up late making chocolate truffles to use as placecards.  I think it turned out beautifully.

The wedding itself was beautiful and the party afterwards was the most fun.