August 26 2013

Packing List

I’m packing for my niece’s wedding back in Idaho and making a list of all the things besides clothes that I need to bring along – the wedding gift, cords for my kindle/iphone/camera, the book I borrowed from my sister-in-law and maybe a jar of the August Bright nectarine jam I made a few weeks ago as a thank you for lending me the book.  Then I read food blogger David Lebovitz’s list of what he takes for a weekend away in order to be a good guest.  The list includes frozen cookie dough, crisp topping, two types of salt, tinned sardines, a coffee maker, a vegetable peeler, a saucepan, a cookie sheet and a cleaver.

OK, I’ll pack two jars of jam.

How ’bout you? What do you pack in order to be a good guest?

Posted in Style, Sustenance | 1 Response
August 23 2013

Friday Things Considered: The Peru–What?–Edition

Some days you wake up with plans to meet a few work deadlines, maybe figure out a new recipe for the rapidly ripening tomatoes on the counter and then somehow, by the time you’ve fallen into bed that night, you’ve bought plane tickets to Peru. Yesterday was one of those days.

I’ve never been to Latin America, but our girls spent several summers volunteering there for Amigos de las Americas and our son spent two years in Peru serving as a Mormon missionary. Families often pick up the missionaries at the end of their stints and travel around the country with them.  But when our son finished his mission in January he needed to scoot right back to start a new semester. We made plans to go back later. Someday.

Then late yesterday afternoon I found an exceptional promotional fare from SFO to Lima in my mailbox and before the day was done we’d purchased tickets to travel there after the first of the year.  Estupendo!

My mother-in-law always says there are 3 phases to experiencing travel — the anticipation, the actual trip, and the memories you enjoy later on.  Already I’m well into Phase 1.

Here are a few other things that surprised and delighted me this week:

Wouldn’t it be romantic to fill a wall with one of these giant peony paintings?

Now here’s a helpful To Do list.

And this video made me want to go visit Beatrix Ost’s magical country estate. After I go to Peru.

Happy Weekend!

 

Posted in Shelter, Spirit, Style | 1 Response
August 22 2013

White in August

I hear that kids are heading back to school this week. Which means, I suppose, that summer is over. Did it ever really begin? Work proceeds apace and my time away has been dictated by family obligations. Thinking about gearing up for full bore fall productivity makes me long for a stretch of emptied out days that never really materialized this summer. Like journalist David Shribman I’m wondering whatever happened to the “idyll of idleness?” The closest I’ve come was a day this week photographing “white” as part of Susannah Conway’s August Break photo challenge. Here’s a bit of what I saw.

I spied creamy melons at the supermarket

 And chalky fire hydrants dotting my neighborhood.

I found alabaster in the shimmering West Elm light fixture over my dining room table

And frost on the watch band near my bubble bath nails.

I took in the speckled bone surface of a serious sphinx on my early morning walk in the cemetery

 And the lacy ivories of the wedding dresses that live at my house.

All those shimmering shades of white proved nearly as restful as an afternoon on a sandy beach letting the sound of the waves wash away my many-hued concerns. Even if you’re already back in the thick of things, try looking for the white in your August to find a bit of that idyllic summer you almost missed.

 

Posted in Shelter, Style | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
August 19 2013

Light in August

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ~John Steinbeck

Posted in Shelter, Style | Leave a comment
August 16 2013

Friday Things Considered: The Bee Problem Edition

I feel bad about the bees.  You’ve  probably heard that they’re dying inexplicably (no? then read this story.)  The bee-pocalypse means not only less honey but also diminished pollination which effects many crops including almonds, avocados, blueberries, cherries, grapes, peanuts, onions and even cotton.

How can this beeeeeee?

And even more importantly, what can we do?  One suggestion is to plant bee-friendly flowers in our gardens and forgo pesticides. That means planting bee-friendly flowers that haven’t already been laced by pesticides in our gardens.  Also, choosing plants that thrive where we live so we don’t need to use extra pesticides to keep our gardens looking good (I know,  a relative term.)  I love watching those busy, busy bees bustling around my garden and I especially love the fruits–and vegetables–of their labor.  I want to help.  Don’t you?

Here’s some other buzz from this week.

1. Did you know it was the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birthday this past week.  Here are some of Child’s best quotes.

2. If I had small children at home still, this family home in Amsterdam would be an inspiration.

3.  Now if I were more disciplined  I’d be inclined to live in this black and white cabin in Denmark.

4. Never one to shy away from color, Lisa Frank talks about her Day-Glo world.

5. Pleasure, Flow & Meaning - three things that can bring you happiness (this and the video above via Swiss Miss).

Have a Bee-utiful Weekend!

Posted in Shelter, Style, Sustenance | Leave a comment
August 15 2013

Economic Indicator

Judging by the size of this year’s September Issue, it looks like the recovery is well underway.

Posted in Style | Tagged , | Leave a comment
August 09 2013

Post-Vacation Comfort Food

I don’t know about you, but after I’ve been on the road awhile I crave getting back into the kitchen. Too many treats and too many meals on the fly have me wanting to make something familiar, preferably something that emphasizes fruits and vegetables.  So over the past few days since we returned home I’ve made some vegetable-tofu curry,  stewed garlic lentils with walnut cream sauce and a killer blueberry nectarine cobbler.  In lieu of my usual Friday Things Considered recommendations this week – no time to peruse my Feedly feed while I was gone  - I’m passing along two recipes.  One is the quick & easy cobbler taken from the Oakland-East Bay Junior League’s cookbook California Fresh Harvest. And the other is my mom’s recipe for new peas and potatoes. We enjoyed several batches of this spud country side dish while we were in Idaho. Comfort food of the first order!

Blueberry Nectarine Cobbler

 

Batter

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

Fruit Filling

3 cups fresh blueberries

2 cups sliced, peeled nectarines

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour the batter into a shallow 2-quart baking dish, tilting the dish to coat the bottom evenly.  Combine 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix well.  Add the milk, stirring just until blended; the batter will be lumpy.  Pour into the prepared dish; do not stir.

For the filling, toss the blueberries and nectarines with the lemon juice and cinnamon in a bowl until coated.  Arrange the fruit over the batter.  Sprinkle wiht 1/4 cup sugar; do not stir. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.  Serves 6-8.

 

Portia’s New Peas and Potatoes

 

New potatoes

Butter

Flour

Milk

Minced dry or fresh onion

Peas, fresh or frozen

This is best made with new potatoes that are still sweet.  Boil whole if the potatoes are small or cut into small pieces and boil until not crunchy.  In the meantime make a white sauce with butter, flour, minced onion and milk.  Add peas just at the end.

 

Enjoy!

 

Posted in Sustenance | Tagged , | Leave a comment
August 08 2013

Home Again

Hello again.  I’m just back from Idaho after reunioning with my family.  As our numbers swell, it gets trickier to house all the Looslis.  But this time we were lucky enough to bunk at my grandparents’ farmhouse, recently renovated by my dad’s sister Carol and her builder son Brett.   We woke to the view of the sun rising over the Tetons outside grandma’s windows and spent the days boating on the Snake River at the family cabin or horseback riding at my mom’s house on the main farm.

On our way out of town I swung by my great-grandfather Dimond Loosli’s ranch to take a look at the old weathered barn. I left feeling like I’d filled up some internal reservoir of sacred spaces, renewed to venture afield again knowing that my family’s homes still stand.

Do you still have access to the homes you grew up in and around? Does it ground you to return to them?

Posted in Shelter, Spirit | Tagged , , | Leave a comment
July 30 2013

Hole & Corner

I’m a magazine junkie.  Ever since I was a kid growing up on the farm I’ve loved opening my mailbox and finding news from the outside world.  Then it was Jack & Jill, now it’s World of Interiors, House Beautiful, Elle Decor and the New Yorker.  Well, and Bon Appetit and People and EW and Vogue and Wired and Time. Oh, and O. My daughter says it’s only us and doctors’ waiting rooms that are keeping the publishing industry afloat.

Even if my mailbox overfloweth, I still like to look through a good newstand now and then for new-to-me periodicals.  This weekend browsing at Issues off Piedmont Ave. in Oakland I discovered Issue 1(!) of Hole & Corner, an oversized British magazine about “craft, beauty, passion and skill”—with heavy emphasis on skill.

H & C is filled with artful images of tools and profiles of real-life cheesemakers, cobblers and lady tailors.  The text includes words like “bedsit” and “pensioner” and other Britishisms that are vaguely familiar but charmingly foreign. There’s a tour through a Straw Museum. Need I say more?

Billed as an antidote to publications that are all about style with little substance, Hole & Corner is, as defined, a place to get lost in.

In case Hole & Corner is not available near you, check out their daily Tumbler feed -  http://holeandcornermagazine.tumblr.com/ 

Posted in Shelter, Spirit, Style | Tagged , , | 1 Response
July 26 2013

Friday Things Considered: The Half Blue Skies Edition

Just as I was about to drive off from the Googleplex, I noticed this unusual cloud formation where the sky seemed to be cut in half.  One side was a nearly cloudless blue, the other a gauzy panel that reached almost to the ground like a cloud curtain half-drawn over the summer sky.  Seemed like the perfect image to capture where we are right now–at the end of our time having a child with us (again), vacation happening soon, new work opportunities around the corner. And looking at both sides of the sky–one clear, one cotton candy cumulus–I couldn’t tell you which side I prefer.  They’re both good, just different.  Like most phases of our lives.

Here are some other atmospheric things I spotted this week:

1. Fancy fun embroidery to spark up a child’s room.

2. Pink pillow paintings would be dreamy in my bedroom.

3. Food typography - who knew?

4. Warm wood kitchens challenge the ubiquitous all-white kitchens.

5. Thinking it might be fun to turn some Instagram pics into paintings.

Happy Weekend!

Posted in Shelter, Spirit, Style | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kathryn Pritchett

writes about Things Elemental — where we find shelter, why we connect, what sustains us and how we strut our stuff.

  • follow me