domicile

In the garden June 08

In the garden June 08
Originally uploaded by emira

Summer has finally arrived this weekend and after a morning spent at the Farmer's Market, I came home to take stock of what's going on in the garden. Everything from my tomato plants to little bean seedlings are finally taking off and the flowers are plentiful. Most exciting for me? My new white lavender, acquired at this year's UBC Perennial sale, is in bloom. I'm a total sucker for lavender and have several plants tucked around the front, back and side gardens. This new white lavender is by far my new favourite, so delicate and lovely and it seems the bees agree.

The Postmarks

Happy Friday!

Shopping in Brooklyn

Kiwi
Originally uploaded by emira

I've been meaning to write this post for a good two (going on three) weeks now, but since we returned from our New York/DC trip things have been, well a little busy at work and on the book front. That said, I had such a fantastic time blowing my clothing budget in Brooklyn that I wanted to share. So better late than never yes?

I have to say, aside from a truly awesome pair of cherry red flamenco shoes, I didn't find much in New York that I was aching to buy. And while that probably sounds entirely ridiculous, let me qualify that by saying I saw plenty that I would love to buy in Soho, I can't really afford the prices shall we say. And while the discount shopping at Century 21 and the like was definitely something to experience, I can't say it was really my bag. This shouldn't be too surprising really, as my shopping tends to be at small boutiques here at home with a pretty strong bias towards locally made clothing and artisan bits and bobs. So it was that on our last day in NY we took the subway over to Brooklyn to check out the Botanical Gardens and avoid the mayhem that was Manhattan on a long weekend.

Now, I like to think of myself as a bit of a counter culture, consumption wary gal, but when it comes down to it: I can shop. And, to be totally honest with you, as we took that subway over, I was looking forward to the Botanical Gardens but feeling just a little wistful that I'd be returning home from NY with not much more than a pair of flamenco shoes to add to my closet. We had mapped out a few boutiques we wanted to check out in Brooklyn, and as we emerged from the Subway we decided to check those out before heading to the Gardens. Long story short: we never made it to the Botanical Gardens and I completely blew my budget inside of about 4 hours of what can only be described as a hardcore rush of giddy consumer insanity. We did not come anywhere close to taking stock of all that Park Slope had to offer in the way of boutiques and delights, so this is by no means a definitive guide. But, if you find yourself in Brooklyn (or near it) and you, like me, love boutique shopping let this guide be your starting point.

Loom: There are two Looms on 7th Ave. One is stocked to the rafters with knitwear -- James Perse, Splendid, Ella Moss, etc. -- the other, just a few doors down is full of accessories (purses, earings, necklaces, wallets, rings), stationary and other general cuteness. I picked up an Orla Kiely wallet and a very lovely little black clutch here, both of which I'm adoring.

Kiwi: Usually I'm not a pushy salesperson type at all, and don't get me wrong, Kiwi does not have pushy sales people. What it does have is really knowledgeable, helpful staff who know the store's stock like the back of their hands. We spent hours (no word of an exaggeration) in here being waited on by the staff, an experience I've never really  had save shopping at Anthropologie with Alex and which I wouldn't have thought I'd love so much. Our experience at Kiwi began when I told the sales girl I was looking for pants in my size. She suggested I try on a pair that I liked so she could see how pants fit me and then from there just began bringing me things that I never would have tried on my own either because I would have assumed they would look bad on me (wrong!) or due to sizing (women's clothes are so messed up sizing wise and in one brand I can be a XS and a M in another). By the time we were done Lauren and I had tried on dozens of beautiful things: jeans, dresses, silk tops, tanks, tshirts, pants, capris, shoes, and on and on. We were honestly a bit stressed out by the time we had to make a final choice and if money were no object I could have easily decided to discard my entire wardrobe at home and started over. For real.

The clothes at Kiwi are pretty Anthropologie-ish I would say (if that's a thing, but I think you all know what I mean) and they also carry some house-line pieces designed by one of the owners.

Lisa Polanski's: I poked my head into Lisa Polanski's store while waiting for Lauren to finish up at Kiwi. Honestly, given the exterior I did not expect what I found. The shop feeling a bit like going into the backroom of a store, overflowing with shoes, clothes and boxes and despite being a pretty long and narrow store you can only fit about 4 people in it at a time (if you're willing to be very friendly). Lisa however has an incredible selection of what I'll call fashion comfort shoes -- Joseph Seibels, clogs, Terra Plana, Clarks, Privos, etc -- at crazy discounts. And she's got a pretty decent stock collection too. Lisa is also a treat to talk to -- definitely not a part of the gentrification of Park Slope.

Hopping from 7th Ave to 5th:

Eidolon: Eidolon is owned and staffed by women who design and make most of the wares it sells. I picked up a great pair of shoes here (not made by the owners) and Lauren tried on some gorgeous dresses here. By this point I was getting a bit freaked out by the fact that I had bought so much stuff my bag was becoming too heavy to carry, so I cooled it a bit on the browsing.

Flirt: Flirt is also an owner/designer coop kind of a place, though they also sell things not made in-house. We ended up at Flirt after asking a woman in Kiwi where she got the awesome skirt she was wearing. Their website describes the philosophy of the business thusly: "As artists ourselves we always wanted Flirt to be a place for women like us: creative, individualistic, unpredictable, and up for anything!" I'd say that definitely comes through, and we had a great time chatting with one of the owners about the struggles and rewards of running your own show. Flirt has also started up Home Ec classes where they teach basic sewing techniques that look like tonnes of fun.

Cog & Pearl: Ok, by the time we hit Cog and Pearl I was nearly done for. For real. Take a quick look at their website and you'll see what I mean. Cog and Pearl is like an artisan art gallery filled with gorgeous handmade jewelry, pieces of art, books, ceramics and more all which are for sale. That's right: you can take them home with you. If we had started here I would surely have spent hundreds of dollars here. As it was I was freaking out that soon VISA may give me a call out of suspicion of a stolen card on the loose at wee little shops in Brooklyn. I did pick up a ring and a pair of awesome earrings which deserve their own post.

Thoughts on the Pax Wardrobes Anyone?

I'm not sure if it's quite as simple as the influence of that unreasonably dreamy walk-in closet in the Sex and the City Movie, or if it's just that we've finally reached our cumulative breaking point in trying to live with 1940s closets in 2008 (as a pair of clothes horses), but this morning Martin and I reached the closet breaking point and decided it was time to do something.

Since we moved in here three years ago, Martin has actually kept his clothes in Miss P's room closet across the hall from our bedroom, while I have occupied the main bedroom closet. Both closets are small, typical of this era of home, and not particularly awesome uses of space. My closet has a fair bit of room, but a very tiny door, so little of the room is actually usable and well Martin's is in a whole other room, making it not so useful. Plus, as Miss P gets older, she actually wants to use that closet for her own budding clothes horse lifestyle.

So, this morning, we stood in front of the wall where the closet currently exists and began positing how we could rework it. We both agree that ripping out the whole wall and making it into one large and more efficient closet in the way to go. We got out scraps of paper, measuring tapes and past issues of Dwell magazine to figure out how we'd go about making things work. The basic reno problems to solve:

• Once we rip out the full wall to open things up, we'll have a gap of wood (where thh wall once existed) on the floor in need of patching. As long as this is on the inside of the closet, that's not such a problem as it won't be too visible, but still we want it to look decent.
• Because the room is pretty small, and we want to maximize our closet space, we're best to do large sliding doors so we don't have to worry about space for doors to open. Alternatively, we can put a series of small doors in, but hanging a series of small doors in what we want to be a fairly open closet area is not a reno project that Martin's too thrilled about getting involved in.
• And, as usual, it needs to be reasonably priced, but still look good.

Just as we were about to get in the car to head to the hardware store to start figuring out our options for sliding door hardware and such, we decided to check the Ikea catalogue for ideas. We soon decided that we might be best off actually ripping out the walls and setting a Pax wardrobe system right into the removed space and basically drywalling it into place. So, instead of going to the hardware store we darted out to Ikea to take a look and at this point we're pretty sure that's what we're going to do. We can get one of the taller units at 200cm wide and it will basically fill our entire wall. That give us each 100cm of storage (roughly what we each have currently), but hopefully it will give us more usable height storage with the opening up of the closet wall (about an extra 60-70cm of usable height). Now we just need to figure out how to configure the inside, and what kind of doors we want, so if any of you are Pax users, I'd love reviews/thoughts. My questions are:

1. What are your favourite/least favourite inserts/drawers and configurations?
2. Have you tried using sliding doors with a partner? The way this would work, is that Martin and I would each have half of the system and so, if we're both using it at the same time, with the sliding doors we'd not be able to access our full closet (as the doors overlap). In order to access the full closet, the other person's door would need to be fully closed. We're leaning towards the sliding doors for space (though the four small doors would have enough room to open in our small bedroom), but I'm worried we'll end up on each other's nerves.

All thoughts and input are more than welcome. I must have renovator's amnesia, because I'm so excited about hte idea of ripping out that wall right now, I'm tempted to order pizza instead of making dinner and get out the sledge hammer...

Chard, Ricotta and Hazelnut Pasta Sauce

About a year or so ago now an ex emailed me to ask if I still had the recipe for a ricotta/chard pasta sauce we used to make. When I got her email I realized that it was one of those receipes that had completely fallen out of my kitchen repertoire, though I'm not certain why as I absolutely adore it. It was on of those recipes that is so much more than the sum of its parts, the ingredients all coming together in a creamy and decadent coating just perfect for al dente penne rigate or a nice thin fresh papardelle. I'm not usually a fan of creamy sauces, but this one manages to balance decadent with a light fresh taste and to not be too heavy in the belly.

I scoured my cookbooks to no avail, and even asked Lauren (whose cookbook collection I have often familiarized myself with) if she had it. Nothing turned up. After a particularly long day of weeding and trying to get on top of the back garden and veggie squares yesterday, I found myself with a whole heck of a lot of fresh swiss chard in need of harvesting and eating, and my determination to resurrect that recipe was renewed. I tried a search of the web, but mostly came up with ricotta filled pastas, until I happened upon Whipped and there it was (with some slight variations). And so I set to work washing chard, and made a double batch (we still have plenty of fresh and lovely chard in the yard if anyone in the neighbourhood is interested). I brought some of the very large batch over to our new neighbours  with a box of penne, some mineral water and a bottle of organic french wine. They just moved in this weekend, and we're so excited that someone has moved onto the block who doesn't plan to knock the house down and build a monster  house instead. (We're also excited because they seem like really awesome folks and they have what is certainly the coolest and biggest deck on the block and they seem keen to have company for deck parties).

So, after all those tangents here's the recipe for chard, ricotta and hazelnut pasta sauce. (This sauce makes great substitute for basil pesto in the winter months when basil is scarce and pricey, but it's also a perfect way to use up a bunch of spring chard).

Serves 4
1 bunch Swiss chard, stalks removed (about 4 cups chopped)
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I use fresh grated nutmeg, so use a bit less)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts (plus a bit more for finely chopped for on top)

Your favourite pasta shape, I like penne rigate as it clings to the ridges and gets stuck in the tubes. Yum.

Bring water to a boil. While water is getting hot, wash and rinse the swiss chard. Chop in shreds. Saute the garlic in the olive oil for a minute. Add the damp greens and stir until just wilted but still bright green. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. In a blender or food processor, puree with cooked greens with the ricotta until smooth. Add a few extra teaspoons of olive oil if needed to smooth out the sauce. Add more salt if needed to bring out the flavors of the greens.

Cook pasta according to directions for al dente (you don't want it too mushy with a creamy sauce). Toss drained pasta with the sauce. Serve with chopped roasted hazelnuts and plenty of fresh cracked pepper.

More on the Book

Since we got back from New York things have remained busy with the book, which is fabulous, though finding time for life and work is proving increasingly challenging.

We had an interview with a local TV station earlier this week (and another one planned for next week) on Studio 4 with Fanny Kieffer. I have to say, with a past as a media activist and an academic history with media studies it's a bit strange to be a part of the machine. That said, Fanny was a truly awesome interviewer. Either she truly does take the time to really get to know each of her subjects or she's got a killer assistant. Either way, her questions were by far the most thoughtful we've had to date. If you want to watch a clip on YouTube you can do so here. (Sidenote: Boy howdy do I ever sound like a west coaster...).

Lauren has also compiled a list of reviews of the book from bloggers and folks who have emailed us. While formal press is nothing to sneeze at, it's so great to receive personal reviews from people who have sought out and read the book (versus people whose job it is to review books). The reviews have been compiled on our site, if you're interested.

New Bag Love

In our house we've reached a point where we have almost too many reusable shopping bags. In this day and age when one acquires a new cloth shopping bag with every conference and gift with purchase promo it feels like reusable bags are in danger of becoming their own environmental menace. That said, of all the reusable bags we had, I didn't have any of the nice fold-up-really-small fit in your purse kind of variety. For ages now I've been meaning to make one, but when I saw the Flip and Tumble bags on Crunchy Chicken's website I folded and ordered two (one in pretty blue for me one manly black for Martin).

They arrived a few weeks ago and I'm totally smitten. I'll admit I'm totally suckered by the whole K-Way pocket approach (see a Quicktime video of the pocket in action here!) and my design snob self loves the monochromatic palette of the bag/handle combo. And, because it is as promised nice and small I've been keeping it in my bag since it arrived and using it all the time. I kept it in my purse in New York and it got plenty of use there, allowing me to not really need a bag for any purchases (until I went to Park Slope and blew my entire summer clothing budget in one afternoon, as those purchases would not fit in my lovely Flip and Tumble bag). Martin's also a fan of his svelt black/grey combo bag and has been putting it to regular use.

While I'm on the topic of Martin and reusable bags I do have to give one quick shout out to local reusable bag makers BYOB. Martin is a huge fan of their organic cotton deer bag, which he has termed "the stag bag". We use ours all the time for grocery trips, though it doesn't squash up small enough for me to carry it around all the time.

Veggie in New York

We have done some truly awesome veggie/vegan eating since we arrived in New York on Sunday night. Much of that has been thanks to the recommendations of friends (Felicia is a rock star in more ways than one), as well as general internet researching.We're still here for a few more days and I've got a few places on my list I'm hoping to get to, but so far here's my run down on veggie recommendations in New York, for those who are so inclined:

• Peep: (Soho, 177 Prince Street) We ended up at Peep thanks to our lovely hosts for the first part of our trip. Chris and Sara very kindly put us up in their Soho flat for three nights, and helped us find good food when we first arrived. Peep doesn't honestly have the scope of veggie thai options that many places I've been to have offered, but really that's just splitting hairs. The entire back half of their menu can be made with tofu and really I always order green curry with eggplant anyway, so why am I complaining? Peep also managed to fit our request for "good thai food, and flattering lighting". After a day of airports and planes lighting felt like it mattered. The tasty cocktails were a bonus too.
• Bread: (Nolita, 20 Spring Street) Felicia brought us to Bread, so I knew it would be a winner. Bread is not a veggie specific place (neither is Peep) but there were plenty of options to choose from. Predictably, Bread has awesome bread. They also have wickedly tasty tomato soup and a to die for mushroom polenta dish that Felicia implored me to ordered (and rightly so). This is the kind of place with very tasty gourmet paninis (on awesome bread) made with gourmet cheeses and tasty bits. There were plenty of meaty options at bread too, but as a veggie I definitely didn't feel left out. It's a very cute little room too, though Felicia warns of occasional drunk eurotrash. This would be the perfect spot to stop for a lunch break while shopping Soho or Nolita, and made for an excellent Monday night dinner.
• Candle 79: (154 East 79th @ Lexington) We ducked into Candle 79 (they also have a second locations called the Candle Cafe) after spending the morning at the Met. It was a recommendation from our client, who we met with the day before. I say ducked in as this was the day of the rain. All the food at both Candle Cafe's is entirely vegan and absolutely delicious. Truly stunning. Apparently seitan is their speciality. It was really hard not to order dessert.
• Brown: (Lower East Side, 61 Hester Street) Another recommendation from Felicia, though she couldn't join us, so we took our gracious hosts Chris and Sara with us. Brown is also not a veggie exclusive place (and if memory serves may be a bit tricky for vegans as they had a lot of local cheese in things), but was definitely tasty and offered several veggie choices. Their schtick is local food (most of it coming from the Hudson Valley) and organic beers and wines. Brown is a pretty tiny room (I'd say it seats 20) that reminded me very much of being in Europe. Simple decor, excellent light fixtures, high ceilings, white walls. The food was excellent and again turning down dessert was a bit painful.

Tonight we're off to Angelica's Kitchen, which a friend back home literally took my hands in hers while emploring me to visit. Fortunately I only had a small bowl of soup for lunch at Union station in DC this afternoon, so I may be able to squeeze in dessert tonight!

Busy, busy, busy

It turns out all this publishing a book business is rather enough to keep one occupied for days/weeks on end. Between various book related things, and book blog posting I feel like I've barely had time for domestic life, let alone time to blog about it.

Martin, on the other hand, is up to all kinds of housey stuff lately, but sadly he's hopeless at documenting it, and even worse at typing. So some of that will go unrecorded until I find the time to put it together.

Between making my living at the computer and all the book related computer time, I've been trying to spend most of my down time away from the computer. Martin and I have in fact recently taken up a semi-regular habit (say 2-3 times a week) of going to the community centre gym. I'm enjoying it more than I've enjoyed gym-like exercise in the past (I'm typically more of a dance class/yoga kind of exercise girl) and in a further twist of strangeness am actually really enjoying the treadmill. I was always the girl left out running around the track long after everyone else had gone back into the changeroom in P.E. class, so enjoying running is truly novel to me. There's just something about the total contrast between all the sitting and thinking of my normal life and clocking miles on the treadmill that is making me rather happy these days. I've also found that I most enjoy my time at the gym when I've got either comedy (hello hello David Cross!), audio books or language podcasts on my iPod. Today Lauren turned me on to the Stephen Fry podcast (or podgram as he calls them) and I can not recommend a better accompaniment for exercise if you, like me, enjoy a little wit and esoteric commentary with your treadmill time. (Having actually just typed that, I'm going to assume I may be among the very few who do in fact enjoy comedic musings on Victorian era aestheticism on the treadmill, but if you're one of the other few I dare say you'll thank me as you chuckle through cardio).

We're off to Seattle, New York and DC next week on a mini book tour of sorts. If anyone has ideas for recommending things to do, see and eat in New York in particular I'd love to hear it (we're in Seattle very briefly and in DC for not much longer). So far I've been taken by the hand and instructed to eat at Angelica's Kitchen and I've discovered a Seville connected vendor of handmade flamenco shoes that I must stop in on. All other recommendations for beautiful foods, lovely shops and must see locations are most welcome.

Strawberry Kiwi "Mousse"

A few years ago, while visiting my dear friend Kate in Montreal, I stayed in a little B&B that specialized in vegetarian/vegan cuisine. The proprietor was a lovely man and an excellent chef. I was one of the only guests at the time and so I'd often have breakfast with the proprietor and talk gourmet vegetarian cooking and eating over my very tasty breakfasts. One morning my breakfast included a small bowl of kiwi "mouse" which, Philippe explained, was simple chopped kiwis blended with a little bit of sweetener (I believe he used maple syrup) and ice. The result is a very delicately textured whipped kiwi well mousse of sorts that is delightfully refreshing and tasty, and makes a great accompaniment to breakfast (or would in fact be a lovely and simple, light dessert).

When we had our nasty virus last week friends dropped off some kiwis on request, and another friend brought over a box of organic strawberries. When we finally reached the point of being able to stomach food, we were still a little hesitant about solids, so I decided to try whipping up a variation on Philippe's mousse. The result was pretty decent and I imagine would be a great way to get kids to eat more fruit, as well as an excellent accompaniment to a bowl of oatmeal (for us), or would as I say make a nice light summer dessert. And really, the "recipe" (if you can call it that) is just so darn simple.

Strawberry/Kiwi Mousse in the style of Chez Philippe
Serves 2

Peel and roughly chop 3 kiwis
Remove the stems from approx 6-8 largish strawberries, chop in half

Add to a blender with 2 ice cubes and a generous squeeze of agave syrup (I'd say maybe a scant tbsp). Blend.

That's it. The ice is really just to cool everything down and add a bit of liquid, you don't want to add so much that there's actually ice in the mousse (you're not making a margarita). You could drink this, though it's just a bit thick for that and it's positively wonderful to eat from little bowls with a little spoon. If you don't have agave, maple syrup will do, or if it's the height of summer and your berries are very sweet you can probably do without sweetener at all.