A Winter’s Day in NYC

I had a chance to go up to New York last week, mainly to pick up the print which J. Pocker was framing for me (more about that next week!), and to see some friends, one of whom was in the city from Chicago.

I met my friend who works at Scalamandré for lunch at the D&D building, and then had a chance to look at some of Scalamandré’s new offerings, which are gorgeous! I loved this cut velvet zebra print!

And this zebra print in either brown or black print on linen!

This is the pattern in the curtain at the Metropolitan Opera, except the repeat’s been scaled down from the original 125 inches!

And I loved the wallpapers, too!

Who could resist this cheeky monkey,

or this cute panda?

I was amazed by this woven ikat piece! It looks blurry, but it’s no!

From Scalamandré, we hopped in the car, and took a road trip to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Andrea Brooke has opened the most fabulous store called Grace & Favor, British Design in Brooklyn.

The shop was terrific and had a great selection of objects selected specifically to be unique to G&F. Seriously, how could I possibly resist this?

Andrea works with English artisans to specially create pieces for her.

I loved the woolen pieces from the Cotswolds where my family spent a summer. She had these great pillows in wonderful menswear fabrics, as well as some beautiful throws.

I’ve raved about some of the terrific English wallpapers, and Andrea had the walls papered with some great papers that you can order through her. This paper looks like steel files, this one like a wall of books, and these lovely green birds have a subtle, but glam golden shine to them!

The day was capped off by a great dinner with friends, including fellow bloggers, Reggie Darling and Emily Evans Eerdmans, as well as frequent blog commenter, Magnaverde, and my friend Jonathan, who helps run his family’s company, Rosselli. Emily’s just finished writing the definitive book on Mario Buatta.

At Reggie’s suggestion, we went Keen’s, one of the oldest steakhouses in New York. It’s filled with artworks, many rooms and thousands of pipes which line the ceiling. Reggie writes about it here.

Dinner was a lively affair, and the conversation never stopped for a second. There were connections between each of us that ensured a wide range of topics, lots of laughs and loads of affection!The food was old-fashioned, but delicious! Keen’s has no need for fancy infusions, foams or any of that culinary nonsense. They do steaks and chops and the like, and they do them well. It’s food your father would have eaten and it’s fantastic! The place was packed on a rainy Tuesday evening. It was such a fun day, until, literally, the last 15 minutes, when I looked at my watch at 9:50 and realized that I had to catch a 10:05 train! Luckily, we were close to Penn Station and the train was late, but much panic ensued in the intervening 15 minutes!

Thanks to everyone who helped make it a memorable day! I will treasure the memory of a day spent with friends!

Happy Thanksgiving

I’d like to say how thankful I am for everyone who reads Pigtown*Design, for those who leave comments, for those who e-mail me and for those who just check in occasionally.

I am thankful that I have a great family, loving and supportive friends, a job that is fascinating, a sweet dog, and a good life. What are you thankful for?

Bourbon-Sea Salt Caramels

As I look back, it seems that almost every recipe I’ve shared has had bourbon in it, but I assure you, I am fully capable of cooking without booze in the recipe – and the cook!

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at caramels for a while now, and it was only recently that I started checking recipes. I found a good one in either the November or December issue of Bon Appétit magazine. It seemed pretty simple and it has bourbon! I picked up a candy thermometer at Williams-Sonoma last weekend, and after a quick trip to the grocery store, I was set.

My main worry as I started this was the horrific story that my ex-mate in Wales’s son told me, as he showed me the most gawd-awful scars on his arm. He’d spilled some boiling sugar down his arm and had third degree burns. I can barely type it without flinching and so I was extra careful throughout the process.

It all starts quietly enough, but once sugar gets to a boil, it’s like napalm, and it sticks to your skin.

Gradually, the sugar solution began to change to a deeper amber colour,

Once that happened, I added the butter and milk, and like all of the recipes say, it does boil and rumble a bit.

The one piece of advice I got from everyone was to watch the temperature like a hawk, as the difference between soft ball stage (240*F) and hard ball (260*F) is a matter of seconds.

I added the bourbon and the Maldon Salt and then poured the caramel onto a prepared pan.

After it cooled a bit, I cut it into squares, which I later cut into smaller squares.

To make it a bit easier to cut, I used the butter wrapper to grease the edge of a pizza cutter so it would glide through the caramel.

Then I wrapped each piece in waxed paper. I tried using the parchment paper, but it was too stiff.

I drove around and dropped off samples at some friends’ houses and got rave reviews from all. Of course, I am pretty sure that the next batch I make will be different due to atmospheric pressure and other vagaries of cooking. However, I deem this recipe a big success and plan to make it for the holidays!

On another note, poor Connor has a hot spot, so I had to put him in the cone of shame. Doesn’t he look pitiful?

Happy Halloween!

My friend Megan Arquette did this to her yellow lab a few months ago, and I’ve been waiting to do something similar. What better day to give Connor some eyebrows than Halloween!

He refused to look at me because I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still.

I am such a mean mom. Good thing I don’t have kids.

From our house to yours,

I’m Puttin’ On My Top Hat…

On Saturday night, I was a guest at the Homewood Museum’s Harvest Frolick, an elegant dinner at a historic house museum on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University. The invitation said “black tie or period costume” and since I wasn’t about to get dressed in period costume, I decided to do a twist on black tie. My starting point was an old grosgrain top hat that my CEO had found stuck in the back of a cupboard at our offices. I whipped up a skirt of deep burgundy taffeta and a similar tulle strewn with sparkly bits and added a black cashmere sweater. I had some extra tulle, so I wrapped it around the hat to make it a little more festive!

I thought it was going to be chilly, so was going to add some motorcycle boots and jacket, but it was actually rather pleasant, so I just wore flats and took a burgundy cashmere shawl. We’d had nearly five inches of rain in the three previous days, and the event was being held in a tent, so heels were out of the question.

My partner-in-crime, David picked me up, and to my delight, he also had a hat on!

What you can barely see on my Bosom Buddy bag is the great skull and crossbones!It couldn’t have been more perfect for the evening and the event! And the grosgrain on the bag went perfectly with my topper!

When we arrived at Homewood, the last half mile via golf-cart, we were met by others, some sporting period costumes,

and others in black tie.

The museum had hired actors from the local Shakespearean company to meet and greet the guests, and in each of the rooms, there was either a docent or a musician.

In the parlour, we could see where the museum staff was conducting tests on the paint to determine the original finishes.

As we wandered through Homewood, we saw that many of the guests had dressed in period costume.

The back lawn was tented for the dinner and the dancing, and people took advantage of the break in the weather to stand outside for a bit.

David’s and my hats attracted a lot of attention and people loved trying them on.

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation given to Museum Trustee, Aurelia Garland Bolton who has worked tirelessly on the boards of both the Museum and the University for many years. I’ve admired her grace and charm since I first met her when best friends, my brother and her son, were about 12 years old. She’s got such a terrific sense of style and she always looks effortlessly elegant and chic!She was shocked by this honour, and by the time they finished announcing it, we all had tears in our eyes and and an incredible sense of pride in what she’s done for these two institutions.

But she’s not the only stylish one in the family! Her husband, Perry, pulled together an ensemble in which all the pieces dated from 1909 – they were his uncle’s and he found them in a trunk in the attic of the house where they’d both lived. The most beautiful silk-satin breeches with buckles, black stockings, opera shoes, white tie and tails! He was moving so fast that I only caught one shoe standing still! Very elegant!

After the dinner, there was a demonstration of early 1800’s dancing, including an Irish jig that was far more sedate than any I’ve seen.

The finale of the evening was the cutting of the cake!

Yes, this is a cake! It was a rendering of Homewood House and it was very detailed. The curator of Homewood was the one to make the first cut into it, after a bit of a hesitation!

And it was delicious!

There was also dancing to music more contemporary than the Irish jigs, and I was delighted to see old friends Chick and Mike, in period costume, taking a spin around the dance floor!

Thanks to my friend Stiles for inviting me as his guest! It was a great party and raised some much-needed funds for projects at Homewood!