Musings on interiors from a self-diagnosed textile addict
The kids just got done dyeing their Easter eggs and they tuned out surprisingly beautiful. The only thing we did differently this year than in years past was to use water with the Paas dye tablets as opposed to vinegar. I’m loving the soft hues. So pretty & springy. Happy Easter!
IMAGE CREDITS | All photos taken by Krista Nye Schwartz using Instagram. Are you following CLOTH & KIND yet? Hop to it.
I seriously love how today’s Deconstructed Kitchen post turned out, in large part because I’m a simple food kind of a girl but also because I totally appreciate recipes that my kids will actually eat (who else is with me?)! Oh, and I had a bunch of fun playing around with the layout and fonts in this post. I’m breaking out of my ‘font mold’ and trying some new ones on for size. What do ya think? Lucky for me, Bonnie made it easy with her wonderful photography (and her cutie pie boys don’t hurt a darn thing either). Enjoy!
KRISTA
Guest edited by Bonnie Berry
I am a huge fan of Ruth Reichl. She has been a writer, chef, The NY Times restaurant critic as well as the editor of Gourmet magazine. She has also written several memoirs, which are hilarious. So when she talks, I listen. She was on Fresh Air a couple of years ago and when she was asked for quick and easy recipes, I immediately stopped what I was doing and pulled out a pen and paper. While I like to make more intensive recipes on the weekend, on weeknights I go for quick and easy. And it is especially hard to find things the kids will tolerate, much less like. So when she said she often makes spaghetti carbonara. I almost fell off my chair. When I was a kid there was nothing I liked as much as spaghetti carbonara. It was the ultimate comfort food. But as I grew older the heaviness of the cream got to be too much. Turns out spaghetti carbonara does not even have cream in it when you eat it in its native Italy. So with bated breath I made Ruth’s dish and hoped for the best. Not only was it scrumptious, but the kids loved it as well and it was super easy and fast to make, with only five simple ingredients. It is now a family staple and we eat it once a week, only the boys call it bacon and egg pasta.
BONNIE’S SAGE ADVICE | Ms. Reichl recommends Nueske‘s brand of bacon. I have never been able to find it locally, but you can buy it through their website. I like Applegate’s Sunday bacon. And if you can get your hands on some fresh eggs from your CSA or from a local farm or farmer’s market, they really enrich the dish.
SPAGHETTI CARBONARA (aka bacon and egg pasta)
Serves 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 small kids
1 pound spaghetti
8 slices of good quality bacon
2 peeled garlic cloves (do not mince them)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano cheese (we like to use Reggiano)
lots of black pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. While waiting for it to boil, pull out a large ceramic bowl and break the two eggs in the bowl and add some black pepper and beat with a fork. Then slice your bacon into .5 inch pieces and peel your garlic (leave it whole). Next you can grate your cheese. When the water is boiling, throw the spaghetti in with some salt. Then in a skillet put in the bacon on medium heat and cook for two minutes, until the fat begins to render. Add the whole cloves of garlic and cook another 5 minutes or so, until the edges of the bacon just begin to get crisp. Do not overcook the bacon, leave it looking a little raw in the middle, but slightly browned on the edges. If it gets too crisp it will not meld with the pasta. When the bacon is done turn off the heat under it, throw away the garlic cloves and check to see if the pasta is done. Once it is ready, drain the pasta. This bit needs to go fast, so have the following ready and close by: the bowl with the eggs, the cheese and the bacon. Throw the pasta in the bowl with the beaten eggs and mix it thoroughly and quickly. The heat of the spaghetti will cook the eggs and turn them into a sauce. Add the bacon with its fat, and the cheese and mix again. Serve immediately with extra pepper on the table. Buon Appetito!
I wanted to share this pretty photo with you all. I took it earlier this week right after a big old snow storm came through Ann Arbor. It was first thing the morning after the snowfall, and I captured this from our front porch. There’s nothing quite as beautiful as freshly fallen snow, is there?…
Especially for the kids who LOVE eating it! School was closed so they enjoyed the day off romping in the fresh snow and building a snowman that they later named Franklin. He’s now half melted and kind of looks like a drunken sailor, all tipped over to one side. All week it’s been the kids’ favorite thing to talk about … ”Has Franklin fallen over yet?”, “How long is Franklin going to last before he melts away?”
The snow day was fun – for sure, but it is now March and this momma, for one, is ready for some warmer weather. Melt away, Franklin. Melt away. Whose with me?
IMAGES | Tahlia after eating some fresh snow | Alex & Tahlia building Franklin the snowman | Instagram
Part of this whole This Is Who I Am thing is that I want to start confessing some things about the reality of my life to you. Don’t get too excited… it’s nothing super juicy, just that I feel an obligation to own up to everyone (especially to other bloggers, many of whom have already made such admissions) about the fact that it is incredibly taxing to write on the blog daily, work my full-time job (which I love as much as my interior design & textiles, just in a totally different way), maintain meaningful friendships, and still be the kind of mom & wife that I want to be. Being a perfectionist doesn’t help things either.
This is not meant to be a woe-is-me sob story. I am honestly not complaining here, because the truth is that I love my life and at the end of each day when I fall into bed utterly exhausted I still think to myself that I wouldn’t change a thing. But the hard fact of the matter is that every aspect of my existence probably suffers a little bit because I am spread so thin and that makes me not so happy.
I know I’m not alone in this predicament. It’s the universal plight of women worldwide, right? We all overextend ourselves and end up feeling guilty about the things that are still on our to-do lists, and the people that we love so much but haven’t managed to call in a couple of weeks, etc, etc. I used to frequently think to myself “if only I could squeeze an additional 2-3 hours out of each day” but age and practice have taught me that even if this was the case, I’d still manage to burn the candle at both ends. I know myself. But I also know this… I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t allow myself time in each of these important and tremendously fulfilling areas of my life. So for now, at least, the answer is living in a state of happy exhaustion.
However, for at least the next week I’m going to temporarily suspend all of the madness because we’re going on vacation! Actually, as I write the final words of this post, we are already on vacation. The photo above of Alex & Tahlia doing their happy dance in the backseat of the rental car as we pulled up to our final destination says it all, and for the following week I belong exclusively to my family. And while we may not be at our personal Home Sweet Home, we are together – without interruption – and that to me is home. No work, no blog, but yes – probably still a little Pinterest & Instagram. I mean, a girl can’t go cold turkey now, come on!
See you all back here in another week, and please come prepared for some wonderful surprises in the form of new columns and guest editors. Until then, wishing you (and me) a little more calm & peace than we may normally find.
Guest edited by Tami Ramsay
During the first few months that my husband Robert and I were dating, we courted, wrote love letters and pined for each other at a distance while he worked in Argentina as a professional fly fishing guide. Upon his return home, when I picked him up at the airport in his bombachas de campo (culotte-like pants he should have left in South America), one of the first things he pulled out of his bag for me was a heart shaped rock and a rock ring. He had found them amongst thousands of other rocks in the bed of the Collon Cura, a river that snakes through one of the estancias nestled within the Patagonia region. Young and passionately in love, it thrilled me that he had brought me momentos from his travels but I was more taken by the coincidence of the shapes rather than their inherent symbolism. You see, he was then and remains now a hopeless romantic and I have been reluctantly shuffling behind ever since.
The truth is, love is difficult for me, for reasons both legitimate and pathologic but best left for the couch. It requires a willing submission to vulnerability that often eludes me. As life would have it, my marriage and children have taught me a thing or two about myself. Although some might still describe me as a recalcitrant romantic, I have been fundamentally changed and undressed by love and am most definitely a softer soul as a result.
In preparing for this post, and sticking to the spirit of the column, I went out to gather what was blooming that could read Valentine’s Day without screaming “Be Mine.” Fortuitously, and almost on cue, I found an abundance of winter blooms that symbolize my juxtaposed experience of love: beautiful but imperfect, strong but soft, enduring but ephemeral.
I love the showy blooms of camellias but they are short lived off the vine and bruise easily. Much like the experience of falling in love. The stiff nature of the Japanese flowering quince can seem inhospitable but then, in a moment of vulnerability, bears the most tender and lovely petals. I can relate. Historically, the Sakura, or the Japanese cherry tree, is a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, of the transience and impermanence of things. Alas, love is wispy, always growing and ever changing. The lunaria annua, or money plant, with its heart shaped leaf, is commonly called honesty, and as you know, there is no love without that. And lastly, the red bud quietly abides most of the time and then, just when you don’t expect it, has a singular moment of passion. You can read into that what you will.
Not just on this day, but often, I remind myself that it is the journey of love–after cresting its peaks and wading through its deep and wide valley – that is the real teacher. Fortunately, I am a work in progress because the lessons of love are never ending.
IMAGES | Floral styling, arrangements and photography by Tami Ramsay
