winter tabletop

Something pretty for a mid winter pick-me-up. David Austen roses from Oakleaf in Highlands and Private Gardens of Georgia. 

two books for gift giving

Hi everyone!

Time to start the holiday season with some gift ideas.

Our daughter works in advertising at the digital magazine Apartment Therapy and its sister site, The Kitchn. The Kitchn released its first cookbook this fall and it makes a wonderful present for a new cook, a young couple or anyone wanting to reorganize and update an outdated kitchen with modern recipes, design ideas and equipment. It is so much more than a cookbook. 

Here is the description of the book by authors Sara Kate Gillingham and Faith Durand....

"The Kitchn Cookbook is not just a big collection of recipes (as much as we love them). Half of the book is devoted to all the other things that make cooking so essential and engaging, like principles for organizing your kitchen effectively, and the best tools to buy. We include 10 real-life kitchen tours, from sleek and modern to worn-in and friendly, and we offer tips and natural solutions for keeping the kitchen clean and tidy.

Only after your kitchen is ship-shape do we dive into food. We talk ingredients — meat, seafood, produce, pantry, and beyond — and we include 50 essential techniques for developing your own cooking skills and learning how to cook without recipes.

The 150 recipes are of course a big chunk of the book — but they're not just recipes brought over from the site. There are some perennial favorites, retested and rewritten (watch for some new flavors of that famous banana ice cream!), but most of the recipes are all-new, offering you healthy, homey cooking with little splashes of elegance."

It is stylish and practical with inspiring photographs throughout, I highly recommend it. Also their daily email updates are fun to receive, always great ideas and recipes. You can purchase The Kitchn Cookbook here on their site, also available at West Elm stores here and all the regular book sellers.

Next up is Inspired by Tradition/The Architecture of Norman Davenport Askins. It features fifteen homes by Atlanta architect Norman Askins. Known in the South for his traditional residential designs, he designed the remodel of our cottage 10 years ago and we are working with him on some ideas for an addition.  

It is a beautiful book! His architectural styles are quite varied. A Caribbean inspired home on Sea Island, GA

a mountain home in North Carolina

his in-town Italian villa in Atlanta 

and many more. The details in his designs are inspired and make each home unique. Here are just a few of my favorite images I took from my copy... the book has beautiful interior design and garden inspiration as well.  

This is such a pretty work space.

A perfect mountain porch.

 The most cozy warm mountain kitchen...

He uses metal doors in a traditional sunroom.

I love how an alcove becomes an elegant dining room in this Atlanta bungalow.

Photos from The Kitchn, West Elm, Norman Askins and my iPhone.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

this week...food and books

 I made Ina's Blueberry Crumb Cake from her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. It was delicious, more like a coffee cake because it is not too sweet and has a thick crumb topping. Too much topping we thought, overwhelms the moist yummy cake below. Seemed like half cake, half topping.

Next time, will make much less topping. I used a springform pan to make releasing the cake from the pan easier.

We tried her Mustard Roasted Fish recipe from Back to Basics. Very tangy and good, everyone liked it. Much richer than our usual grilled fish. The color was kind of blah and unappetizing. The food stylist made the fish look prettier for the book. Made her Roasted Potatoes in the oven at the same time. Same method we all know for this dish. Used a separate plate for the salad, this would have been prettier with some green on the plate.

I have been receiving beautiful books in the mail. In January, I go though my Amazon Save for Later cart of book titles. I add them whenever I hear of a good one throughout the year. I then purchase several after researching for the best prices and narrowing down the list. Once they arrive, I ration them, reading through them very slowly to savor each one. It takes me months to go through them. 

I have just started Martha Stewart Entertaining, A Year of Celebrations that was published in 2011.This book is huge and gorgeous! It is the new version of her amazing first book Entertaining that is full of beautiful ideas and does not seem dated.

Each page is a visual treat.  Her gardens, her homes, her collections of every kind of tableware, glassware, etc. the presentations, the recipes, the serving ideas, it is all quite astounding! I am loving this book! 

I also purchased her Martha Stewart Gardening, a Month to Month Guide book which for some reason came without the cover but here is a page from it, equally as pretty as her Entertaining books.

 Here are a few others I bought....

And my husband was sweet to order Carolyne Roehm's Flowers and surprise me after seeing it mentioned on the blog.

These books will keep me company throughout the winter, simple pleasures.....

resolutions

Have you thought about your new year's resolutions? I have started to jot down a few, some trivial and some meaningful. A fun one I have decided on is to cook my way though some of my favorite cookbooks in 2013. 

For the last few years, I have been a creative cook, creating meals from what needs to be used in the fridge or freezer, not thinking to go to my cookbook collection. When reorganizing the shelf the other day, I realized that so many of them are being ignored.

This year, I will try to get through most of Ina Garten's cookbooks. I love Ina's recipes (and her pretty homes). Her recipes are always delicious and her cookbooks are filled with beautiful photography. I have used her first one, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook the most, bought it years ago when it first came out. It is full of bookmarks and stains.

I will blog about my journey through Ina's books, a la Julie and Julia and post about any yummy discoveries here and there. What are some of your resolutions this year?

  Happy New Year!

perfect gift for a gardener

Carolyne Roehm, master gardener and lifestyle author's newest book is titled Flowers. It is filled with over 300 photographs she took of the flowers in her own gardens. She talks about the book, her home and gardens here...

Purchase Flowers here.

paris v new york

Penguin Books has just published a book of the collection of clever illustrations by Vahram Muratyam with visual comparisons of the two great cities.

Also comes in a cute gift box of postcards. Buy both on Amazon here.

images: paris versus new york blog

decorating with books

Cote de Texas, design by Joni Webb

It is fascinating that as technology eclipses the need for bound and printed books, built in bookshelves, the art of stylishly arranging bookshelves and using books as accents in a room are more popular than ever. A few examples from favorite designers.

Velvet & Linen, design by Brooke Giannetti

Velvet & Linen

 Velvet & Linen

Emily Henderson

Gillian Lanyon

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard

Meg Lonergan

Kips Bay Show House, New York, 2010

Real Simple

unknown source

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

Colette van den Thillart