Last week we had two couples over for a quiet dinner. It was a spontaneous invitation and there wasn’t much time to plan, so I used the simplest china, linen, silver, and glassware. For flowers, I found some pale green zinnias, seasonal and not expensive, and spread them down the table in a series of different-sized glass vases. The china and glassware were from Crate and Barrel, but the napkins were vintage linen with a big embroidered “B” on them. […]
Serves: 4 Prep time: 45 minutes For the guacamole
Serves: 4 Prep time: 40 minutes
Mexican food is deeply complex, rich food that employs unusual pairings and exotic flavors, and, for me, it is profoundly, almost spiritually, satisfying. When I was in college, I studied for a semester in Puebla, where the specialty was mole poblano, a chocolate and chili sauce that is often served on poultry. I thought it would be disgusting, but it was startlingly different from anything I had ever eaten before, like food from another planet. I loved the experience of […]
As the season turns, late summer flowers give way to seeds, pods, and other floral features of variable textures – all of which I’m itching to work into more natural floral arrangements. There’s nothing like a few branches of ripening blackberries or a branch of crabapples tucked into a fall bouquet to make it pop. There are so many varieties of fruiting plants available now that can’t be found at other times of the year. The first arrangement features two […]
