Promises kept

I'm proud of myself. My New Years resolution last year was that I was going to read more 'classic books'. I did well, I got through ELEVEN (!) That's almost one a month. Not bad considering most of them were pretty hefty tomes AND I read other more modern stuff in between them. Here's this year's accomplishment, I plan on doing the same next year as well.

Gingerbread

It's not Christmastime unless you make some holiday cookies, preferably gingerbread in fun seasonal shapes. I have a set of cookie cutters I love, all the classics: reindeer, snowman, star, angel, snowflake, candy cane, and, of course, a gingerbread man. I found a recipe that I like several years ago. The dough is very easy to work with, it doesn't stick to the cutting board or rolling pin (my biggest frustration with difficult doughs). It's a Paula Dean recipe that I got from her holiday cookbook years back. I feel a little guilty using it given what a racist she turned out to be, but when you find a good thing you have to stick with it.
Here's how this year's batch came out of the oven:

I decided the next day that they really needed some icing details...but I just couldn't bring myself to get into multiple batches of icing in different colors. One classic color would do, white! The recipe I use calls for corn syrup and vanilla so the icing comes out a nice off-white and it's a nice counterpoint flavor to the ginger in the cookie. Here's how they turned out. Who's going to eat all these cookies now? I only allow myself ONE on my new diet. Oh, well. It's a good thing they last a long time in the fridge.

Candy canes...or "J's"?

It was my birthday this week. My good friends Marcia and Robert invited me to a Christmas cabaret concert featuring a friend of theirs who's a Broadway veteran and club performer. It was a lovely evening of holiday songs. As a gift to the audience we were all given little candy cane lapel pins. I had a "scathingly brilliant" idea to turn mine into a little ornament for my little Christmas 'trinket tree' in the dining room. I attached the pin to a piece of cardboard and added a candy cane themed piece of twine...voila! Intstant ornament!

The whole thing reminded me of this year's "War on Christmas" story: an elementary school teacher in Nebraska banned the students from having candy canes because they are a symbol of Jesus...who knew? They are upside down "J's" which stand for his initial. Additionally, she stated,  "The red is for the blood of Christ, and the white is a symbol of his resurrection." Silly me, I just liked the peppermint taste!!

Sag cookies

I saw this charming post on Instagram. A bakery out East has created a cookie that looks like the facade of the old Sag Harbor Cinema. Delicious!

Progress

It's so exciting to see the construction on the fire damaged Sag Harbor Cinema is well underway. I heard that they're aiming for finishing date of Fall 2019. Here's a current picture of how things are looking (there's a scrim photo drop cloth on the facade).

Doggone Christmas gifts

I like to give handmade Christmas gifts, I think they're so much more personal (not to mention affordable!). I've found that people appreciate them more...and they tend to keep them for years after they've received them.
So this year I made two fun things.
My friend Doris loves anything dog related. So I decided to make her a dog shaped cutting board. Last year I gave her a dachshund. When I googled "dog cutting board" I found this adorable shape of a cairn terrier, like Roosevelt's pet "Fala". It came out so cute I was tempted to keep it for myself!

My friends Robert and Marcia are going to treat me to an evening at a Christmas cabaret for my birthday. I wanted to do something nice for them so I made a little cheese board in the shape of their little dog, Jezebel. I added little 'feet' to this one for a little more oomph, they're made out of the wooden caps from Cholula hot sauce! They work perfectly.
Here's the real Jezzie...

And here's her likeness in wood...

Here's a side view...

Stumped

I've been wanting a little side table to put next to the daybed in the craft room...for when I'm up there reading and need a place to put a cup of tea. So when I was looking at the branches the tree cutters left me after pruning the big sycamore in the front yard I had a brainstorm: why not turn one of the logs into a little side table?
It worked out great. In order for it to be more steady so that it wouldn't topple, I added a piece of circular wood on the bottom, then attached some rubber 'feet' so it wouldn't mar the floor.
I love it, and the colors totally match the ones on the bedspread and pillows.

Out on a limb

I have a huge sycamore tree in my front yard. Well, technically it's not in my yard, it's right on the street in front of my privet hedge, so it's not on my property. It's really the village's tree. But over the recent years a few very large branches have gotten perilously close to the house, almost directly overhanging the porch. In my waking nightmares, we'd get some scary hurricane (God forbid), and one of those big things would fall on the house. Would the village be liable for that damage? Good question, who knows? In any event, I decided it might be prudent to have a tree pruning company come and take them down. Plus, I wanted the dogwood tree in front of the house trimmed a little too. I decided to go with Bartlett. They were prompt, friendly, and most importantly, cheaper than a guy my friend Dean had suggested. Based on these pictures, the difference looks sorta subtle, but I still think it was the wise thing to do. A little more light will hit the yard and the house might be a little safer.
Here are a series of 'before and after' shots...

I asked the pruners if they could chop up some of the limbs into firewood. They said fine and it wasn't any extra cost. I ended up with a nice little pile of logs. I think I'm going to turn one of them into a little side table. Stay tuned for progress on that.

The cutting edge

I've posted about my love for making cutting boards in different shapes before. I saw an interesting idea the other in a thrift shop: a cutting board had a painted edge. I thought I'd try it on one of mine. I took a round one I quite like and painted the edge a teal blue, a color I've used a lot in the kitchen. I think it turned out nicely.

The bird feeder candle holder

I was walking back from the grocery store in town the other day and saw a cardboard box filled with a busted up old wooden bird feeder. Someone was obviously throwing it out. It looked promising, like I might be able to put it back together but my bag was so heavy I had to come back 20 minutes later and grab it. If it was there it was meant to be mine. And it was!

The side corner pieces were angled, and when I tried to re-assemble it, things were too difficult. I decided to scrap the corners and use an old piece of wood I had lying around the basement to make straight sides. It worked nicely. 

I painted it with a teal color, a shade I used on one of the porch tables, and it's now a great candle holder, a "pagoda" of light for lovely evenings on the porch. :)

Sweet August corn

The corn in our part of the country is at peak this time of year. So sweet and so good you can cut it right off the cob and eat it raw, there's no need to grill or saute it.

Here's some that I de-silked and ready to cut. I place the cob (sans husks) upright in a big bowl and slice down the kernels on the side, that way all the loose kernels end up right in the bowl, a good chef's trick.

So I had my eye out for some nice corn salad recipes. I found two great ones. 

the first used cucumber, feta cheese, tomato, parsley, and a oil and vinegar dressing. Really delicious.

The second was a corn and pasta salad that avocado, cherry tomatoes, basil, and an olive oil/lemon dressing. Also, just great. I ate on them both for days, it's the taste of summer!

Jaws rocks

I could write a dozen posts on my love for the old movie "Jaws". It has to be in my top 5 favorite films of all time, I've seen it more times than I can count.
One of the things I love isn't even in the movie itself: the iconic poster image (used originally for the Bantam paperback edition of the novel on which the movie is based) of the great white shark coming up from the depths to attack a girl swimmer. So much visceral messaging is packed into this one image...horror, sex, doom, nature, vulnerability, etc...while also being just a great graphic.

So I had the idea the other day to create my own homage to the poster on a rock. Yes, a rock. I'm always looking for craft opportunities and, well, this seemed like a fun project. And it was. I found a good sized flat specimen just right for painting the image. I love the way it turned out.

Now, the only person I know who's a bigger fan of "Jaws" than myself is my friend Ron. When I posted this picture on Instagram he commented "How much?" I knew he would love it. So then I decided to make another rock as a house warming present for he and his boyfriend, David. They've recently been re-doing their guest cottage in East Hampton and the decor is decided nautical. This little 'object d'art' would fit in nicely. 

On the back I decided to inscribe it with a quote from the movie uttered by the feckless mayor, "'Amity', as you know, means 'friendship'". Well, they loved the gift, and Ron totally understood the quote was meant sincerely. 

The hutch

Sometimes the light in the Hamptons is so pretty. Often I'm sitting in my dining room sitting on the little settee next to the dining table and I love the way the light looks streaming in. It's the room that has the most windows and doors so it's very bright. I was sitting there the other day and snapped this picture of some hydrangea from the yard sitting on the yellow hutch. I liked all the greens and off-ochres of the objects in and around the piece. Lovely.

Pooltime

In the Summer, there is no better place to be than at the ocean or in a pool. Even better is when the pool isn't yours so you don't have to pay for all the installation and upkeep for only 2 months of use!
Thank God I have a great friend (Dean) who has the perfect pool in the perfect yard at his house in Settler's Landing, a lovely enclave in East Hampton. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but in fact I'm going there today (on the most glorious weather day of the year) for a BBQ. I'm bringing my favorite recipe of Texas potato salad. Stay cool everyone!

Carrot Salad

All of a sudden it hit me. A major hankering for carrot salad. And I had never really been a fan of this dish in the past.
But I remember that good ol' Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, had a recipe in one of her old cookbooks.
I found it and, as usual with her recipes, it was very easy and flavorful. Boy, was it good. She uses fresh pineapple chunks, golden raisins, and a little sugar for sweetness. To make it my own I added some diced delicious apple. Terrific. I "ate on it" for 3 days along with hot dogs I made on George Foreman grill, a long ago gift from my parents. It was 4 days of Classic Summer Eatin'.

Wok on the wild side

I've been thinking about getting a wok for some time. In fact, I said to myself that I would get one the next time I came to the house, probably at TJMaxx in Bridgehampton, they'd maybe have them cheap.
My favorite cookbook, "Dinners in a Dish or a Dash", that I've blogged about before, has a whole chapter of stir fry recipes that I've never tried. I had my mind made up, now's the time to get wokking!
Well, it just shows that if you put out the positive energy then you will get it back in kind.
As I got off the bus the other day, the weather was beautiful walking to the house. As is the custom in this village, people put things out on the curb, sometimes with a "FREE" sign attached, that they want to get rid of. There in front of a house on my walking route were two big cardboard boxes of stuff. Dishes, vases, old books...and, lo and behold, A NICE WOK! It looked nicely made and well-used. I actually liked that it had some age on it. I plucked it right up and brought it home.





Scoured it (I know this isn't especially advised but I wanted to make sure it was somewhat sanitized), and oiled it.



The first dish I made was a flank steak stir fry with carrots, zucchini, and brown rice. YUMMO.



It worked nicely right on top of my gas stove grill but I ordered a wok ring from Amazon (just $6!) and it came today.



Now I'm ready for my next creation.