Guest Editors - CLOTH & KIND

Deconstructed Kitchen: Guacamole

May 21, 2013

Guest edited, prepared & photographed by Bonnie Berry

Deconstructed Kitchen: Guacamole | CLOTH & KIND
This time of year, when things are starting to really warm up, there’s nothing better than a cold Corona paired with fresh tortilla chips and guacamole…and for the young ones, guac is a surefire way to get the kids to eat avocados! Here’s a basic, but really good recipe from My Abuela’s Table - a fresh and beautifully simple Mexican cookbook by Daniella Germain.

Deconstructed Kitchen: Guacamole | CLOTH & KIND

GUACAMOLE
My Abuela’s Table by Daniella Germain

INGREDIENTS
3 ripe avocados
3 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of red onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
1 small chili, chopped (optional)

PREPARATION
Peel avocados and mash well in a bowl.

Add olive oil, salt and pepper and combine well.

Add the tomato, onion, cilantro and chopped chili (if using).

Store in the fridge.

Deconstructed Kitchen: Guacamole | CLOTH & KIND
I though the olive oil taste was a bit heavy (and I LOVE olive oil). Next time I make it I will use only 2 tablespoons. I will also add lime juice and garlic because I missed them. But overall a solid guacamole recipe. Also, she recommends you save the avocado seeds to put in the guacamole dish until you are ready to serve it because it will stave off the browning. I tried this and it did not work at all. My husband Josh gave me a scientific reason it would never work and I admit I just smiled and feigned comprehension.

Deconstructed Kitchen: Guacamole | CLOTH & KIND

What’s your favorite way to prepare guac?

CREDITS | Guest edited, prepared & photographed by Bonnie Berry. Archer Napkins and Caribe Tablecloth courtesy of John Robshaw – thank you so much, John!

Categories: Deconstructed Kitchen, Food, Guest Editors, Kitchen Linens, Savory, Tabletop

4 Comments

Deconstructed Kitchen: Grilled Steak & Sweet Potatoes with Bacon-Sesame Brittle

May 7, 2013

Guest edited, prepared & photographed by Bonnie Berry

There is something about Gwyneth Paltrow that makes me want to hate her. She is just too perfect. So when she came out with a cookbook two years ago I balked at buying it. But buy it I did, and boy am I glad. It is a great cookbook, especially for families. There are a couple of recipes that have become standards for us. Then she came out with a new book a few weeks ago and I bought that one too. The timing was perfect. I had just finished an elimination diet and have found that I do better eating less dairy and grains and more protein and fruits and vegetables. And this cookbook delivers on that score. So I made the grilled steak and it was delicious. The four of us were practically fighting over it and that included the kids. It is a pricey piece of meat, but so worth it for a treat every once in a while. The first time I made it, I grilled it and that is how I would suggest you make it if you can. The dish pictured below was done on the stove a few days later because we ran out of propane (go figure!) and although it was yummy, I missed the caramelization that seems to magically happen on the grill. Oh, I also have a thing for sweet potatoes and when I saw this Bon Appétit recipe it had me at bacon. So make them together or separately, just make them… And I will continue to try not to hate Ms. Paltrow, if for no other reason than she is helping me feed my family well.

GRILLED STEAK WITH MELTED ANCHOVIES & ROSEMARY
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Four 6-ounce pieces of beef tenderloin, at room temperature
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
8 good-quality anchovies
Leaves from a leafy sprig of rosemary – very, extremely, super-finely choppe

Preparation:
Rub the steaks all over with just enough oil to coat and season generously with salt and pepper. Let the seasoned steaks sit for at least 5 minutes before cooking.

Make sure your exhaust fan is in good order if you’re cooking inside, then heat a cast-iron pan or a grill over high heat.

Place the steaks in the pan or on the grill and cook until nicely charred on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes, then flip them over. Cook until the second sides are nicely charred, another 2 minutes. This will give you medium-rare steaks. Cook them longer if you prefer your steak more well done.

Remove the steaks to a warm plate or a cutting board and let them rest of at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the anchovies and cook, stirring with a spoon, until they dissolve into the oil. Add the rosemary and cook for just 1 minute to let it bloom and lose its woodsy edge.

Slice the steaks, spoon the anchovy mixture over them, and sprinkle it all with a bit more salt.

Dig in immediately.

TWICE-BAKED SWEET POTATOES WITH BACON-SESAME BRITTLE
Makes 8

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch-wide pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
6 medium sweet potatoes (6–8 ounces each)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons white miso* (fermented soybean paste)
1 2/3-inch piece ginger, peeled, finely grated (about 2 teaspoons)
2 1-inch pieces scallion (dark-green parts only), thinly sliced lengthwise
*White miso, also called shiro miso, can be found at Asian markets and Amazon.com.

Preparation:
Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Cook bacon in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered and bacon is starting to crisp. Transfer bacon to a sieve set over a small bowl; reserve drippings.

Return bacon, 1 Tbsp. drippings, sugar, and sesame seeds to same skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar turns the color of milk chocolate, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to prepared baking sheet and use a spatula to spread out evenly; let cool. Break brittle into shards. Can be done 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400°. Place sweet potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast until tender, 45–55 minutes. Let sit until cool enough to handle.

Slice potatoes in half lengthwise. Working over a large bowl, scoop out flesh from 8 halves, leaving a 1/2-inch-thick layer inside skins. Place potato halves on same foil-lined baking sheet. Scoop flesh from remaining 4 halves; discard skins. Mash flesh with a whisk; add eggs, butter, miso, and ginger and stir until mixture is smooth. Spoon or pipe filling into reserved skins. Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover and chill.

Bake potatoes until the tops are lightly puffed and golden brown, 30–35 minutes (potatoes will take longer if they’ve been chilled). Top potatoes with bacon-sesame brittle and scallions.

I skipped the whole skin presentation thing. It looks beautiful, but frankly it was too much work for me. So I just put all of the potato flesh (mixed with the eggs, butter, miso etc) in one big casserole dish and baked it like that. It was delicious.

PHOTOGRAPHY & STYLING Bonnie Berry | RECIPES It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow & Bon Appétit

Categories: Deconstructed Kitchen, Food, Guest Editors, Savory

1 Comment

Provenance: Toran

April 25, 2013

prov-e-nance \ˈpräv-nən(t)s, ˈprä-və-ˌnän(t)s\
noun. the place of origin or earliest known history of something.

Guest edited by Jacqueline Wein, Tokyo Jinja
Provenance: Toran | Guest Edited by Jacqueline Wein | CLOTH & KIND
IMAGE | Antique Toran via The Textile Museum of Canada

A number of years ago I spied a charming doorway textile at the home of a dear friend. Clearly Indian in origin, it was a rectangular banner with small fabric flaps hanging down and tiny mirrors embedded in the pattern. She told me it was a toran, a hand embroidered and embellished door hanging, traditionally made in Gujarat, on the coast of Northwestern India. My fascination with them grew and over the years I have continued to keep an eye out for them.

The word toran (or torana) itself originally referred to sacred gateways in Indian architecture, with roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, like this pair of 12th century sandstone ones in Vadnagar, Gujarat. It is easy to see the connection between the embroidery of the fabric hangings and the detailed stone carvings, as well as in their function to welcome both the gods and people. Decorative toran also play a role in holidays like Diwali and Holi or at weddings and celebrations as they are believed to be auspicious and lucky. The doorway blesses every person that walks under it, showering them with an abundance of love, prosperity, health and happiness. While the heavily embroidered ones tend to be regional to Gujarat, toran in other forms are popular throughout India. In the south, green mango tree leaves are threaded together and hung across the door. In Northern India, marigold flowers are strung together and used the same way. The small flaps that hang from the fabric versions are meant to represent dangling leaves and flowers.

IMAGES | Torana Arch via Vadnagar, An Ancient City & Marigold Garland via Mitai and Marigolds

Often times toran are used in spaces other than actual doors to represent a passageway. This welcoming example from Sibella Court‘s Nomad book beckons one to enter and cozy up for a restful nap.

IMAGE | via Nomad: A Global Approach to Interior Style by Sibella Court

The Kutch region of Gujarat is particularly well known for its embroidery techniques, with specific tribes and communities having their own particular style. Shisha, which is the Indian word for little glass or mirror, is the most distinctive technique in which small mirrors decorate the textile, being held in place by a framework of overlaid embroidery stitches. No glue is used and the mirror is not threaded through or attached in any other way. It was believed that the mirrors had the power to ward off evil spirits by trapping or confusing the evil eye. While many of the other decorative stitches, such as the chain stitch, are universal, shisha work is unique to the Indian subcontinent. It comes as no surprise to me that women are solely responsible for these creations and that motif and patterns are not copied or written down, but instead passed along orally.

IMAGE | Antique Kutch Embroidery Toran from NovaHaat.com

Base fabrics and threadwork include cotton and silk and pieces over 50 years old may also have beadwork in addition to shisha work. Motifs are varied, from very naturalistic animals to very stylized patterns and geometrics. Mismatched patchwork is also part of their charm. Museum collections have toran from the late 19th century, but most of the older pieces available on today’s market are mid-20th century. Invariably, the vintage pieces have some damage – in my mind, patina – and there are also many newly made toran available as well, although the details and quality of the silks doesn’t match that of the older pieces. The decorative possibilities, in particular for children’s rooms, are obvious. They make charming valances or would be perfect fronting a bed canopy. Some toran are as long as 30 feet and I have seen them draping the edges of party tents as festive adornment.

IMAGE | Antique Kutch Rabari Banjara Toran via EthnicIndianArt

In modern-day interior decor, toran can be used in a quite literal context to embellish the threshold, as in this rituously joyful, over the top Indian themed space that was featured in Marie Claire Maison.

IMAGES | Bollywood Boudoir via Marie Claire Maison & Vintage Toran via IndianBeautifulArt.com

But they are also incredibly sweet when taken completely out of context and used in ways you might not expect like here, hanging over a kitchen nook in floral designer Nicolette Camille‘s Brooklyn apartment. This toran also defines and elevates what would normally be a rather simple kitchen.

IMAGE | Nicolette Camille‘s Brooklyn, NY home via Design*Sponge

Perhaps best of all is when toran are part of a truly global design aesthetic. In Maryam Montague‘s Marrakech master bedroom, featured in Elle Decor, this toran-like textile used as a window valence mixes happily with decorative items from many nations, including France, Mali, and Morocco.

IMAGE | Maryam Montague’s Marrakech master bedroom via Elle Decor

Have you used a festive toran as decoration in your home, or do you have something else to share with us on this topic? If so, we’d love to hear all about it. Please leave a comment below or email us at info(at)clothandkind(dot)com.

ABOUT PROVENANCE | Provenance offers a scholarly nod to the history of iconic styles in textile & design and is guest edited by Jacqueline Wein of the blog Tokyo Jinja. Previous Provenance topics include: Kasuri & Kuba Cloth.

Categories: Bedroom, Embroidery, Flowers, Guest Editors, Magazines, e-Zines, Magalogs, Multicolor Textiles, Provenance, Vintage & Antique Textiles

17 Comments

Curated: Sally King Benedict

April 17, 2013

Guest Edited by Tami Ramsay

Artist Sally King Benedict creates works that are a beautiful confluence of drawing and painting and that speak graphically in a visual language of color washes, abstract forms and intersecting lines. When creating, she does so unselfconsciously, with obvious freedom and spontaneity, and with a palpable openness, even when being observed. There is a purity to her work that is deeply rich and playful. There is no serious staring at the canvas or paper, no long contemplative moments before maker and medium meet. She glides effortlessly between several different works in progress, instinctive in her movements, dripping paint on this one, crushing charcoal on another, enjoying the fresh air on the back patio of her Atlanta studio where the light is dappled and the surrounding garden is lush and dreamy. She works with multiple brushes in hand at once, her cache of Japanese calligraphy brushes equally at home beside her hardware store bristle brushes that have been trashed by repeated scrubbings across her canvases. Like waves lapping the shore, she is easy come and go with her process, in a comfortable creative rhythm. If there is tension there, it is hidden behind her inherent effervescence of spirit, a quick and contagious Cheshire cat-like smile and fairy laugh.

MOSS, 40 x 40, 2013 | Hidell Brooks Gallery

Benedict’s creative roots run deep, back to her childhood in Atlanta, GA, where she cut her milk teeth in a home that firmly encouraged all manner of creative ilke. “I have been painting and drawing and making sculpture ever since I can remember,” she said. “It always came naturally to me.” It didn’t hurt that she was literally submerged in world of modern art by her parents, whose collection included works by Todd Murphy and Dennis Paul Williams. “My mom worked for her good friend Doug Macon who owned a contemporary art gallery in Atlanta in the 90s,” she said, “and Doug was always encouraging me to be creative.” It was this type of upbringing, one that relished whimsy and creative wit, that encouraged Benedict’s color outside the lines approach to self-expression and helped map the course to her current vocation.

She went on to study studio art and painting at the College of Charleston in South Carolina under Cliff Peacock as well as printmaking under Barbara Duval. “This duo shaped my practice as an artist for sure,” Benedict said. “I learned something important from every bit of criticism they handed me.” After college, Benedict stayed in Charleston for several years, met and married her husband George, and enjoyed storied success as an artist, her paintings snatched up by collectors and gracing the pages of national and regional magazines. A phenomenal selection of her works are currently for sale at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, NC, but if you can’t make it there, good things come to those who shop online. Her website has an enviable bevy of new works up for grabs in her studio. Benedict has also recently collaborated with Serena & Lily and you can expect to see her original works on paper and canvas as well as signed limited edition fine art prints of her work through their Art Collection, which will be available in May. Stay posted and we’ll let you know as soon as they are available so you can make haste and break out your plastic. In the meantime, enjoy an exclusive sneak peek of three works that will be offered by Serena & Lily in their Art Collection.

TOP | Brown Edge Paper, 10 x 13, paper, 2013
MIDDLE | Aquatint, limited edition print, 2013
BOTTOM | Abstract Gold, 20 x 24, canvas, 2013
All three, and others, will be available exclusively through Serena & Lily‘s Art Collection starting in May 2013

Admittedly, Benedict has been largely influenced by Abstract Expressionists like the great Helen Frankenthaler, a pioneer in Color Field painting, and Richard Diebenkorn, arguably one of the most influential and prolific American modern artists of the 20^th century, as well as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell and David Hockney. As such, she dallies part in figurative and geometric abstraction but there is something uniquely fresh and singular about her eye, her particular spin on abstract imagery. Her color sense is recognizably Benedict, her use of flax Belgian linen panels washed in her favorite hues of black, blue and white are a trademark and highly collectable. The subjects in her face paintings are partly abstraction and cubism, but again, in signature Benedict style, often appear well fed, cherubic, and echo Ziggy Stardust with geometric cheeks, blocky neon eyebrows and noses out of joint.

GREEN BROW, 12 x 16, 2010 | guache and oil pastel on linen board

SWEET CHEEKS, 24 x 24, 2013 | acrylic, gouache, ink, charcoal and oil pastel on linen

Her sumi ink paintings are an altogether different subject. Historically, Japanese sumi ink painting verges on the mystical and is believed to capture the unseen with an indelible inked brush stroke, one that cannot be changed or altered—you know, like deep metaphors for life. Let’s just say Benedict’s sumi ink works are rooted in more of a I’ve got no idea how this is going to end up kind of mysticism. She starts by moistening the Arches Rives BFK paper with water, loads her Japanese calligraphy brush with sumi ink and then, in a series of instinctive, broad strokes, water and ink react resulting in a crazy radial ripple effect, a squid ink like plume of subtle shading and tonal variation, that morphs and changes continually until the paper dries. Then for good measure Benedict grabs some charcoal and random pastels, crushes them into small bits and throws all that on the moistened paper. It’s this kind of approach to art that really excites Benedict. “I love seeing how different liquids and pigments take to different surfaces,” she said. ”It’s a constant science project in my studio!”

And speaking of fairies again, Benedict has an endearing lightness of being, much like Peter Pan, who knew that the real trick to happiness was to keep the best of the child you were at heart, without forgetting when you grow up. Is it her lightness of constitution, her ebullience, that drives her creative vision and makes her art so desirable and lust worthy? At the very least, it certainly lends itself to her emphatic embrace of motherhood to her nine month old son River. Benedict has most definitely grown up but it has only sweetened the deal for her artistically. “My entire being is better with a baby,” she said. “I no longer take time in the studio for granted. I feel like he has turned a light on within in me that I never knew I had.” That said, her days are delightfully filled with lots of painting, laughing and playing with her family. Her perfect day? “Sunny, 75 degrees….road tripping with my husband and baby boy…..final destination: Duryea’s Lobster Deck, Montauk.” My guess is that wherever she is, Benedict is always at play in the color field of her making, picking flowers and making daisy chains with a mischievous grin on her face.

IMAGE CREDITS | Artwork images provided courtesy of Sally King Benedict. All other photography by Tami Ramsay, shot on location at the studio of Sally King Benedict in Atlanta, GA.

Categories: Art, Creative Work Space, Curated, Guest Editors, Interview, Shopping

12 Comments

Anatomy of Flora: Spring II

April 10, 2013

Guest edited by Tami Ramsay

My memories of the early years of my marriage to Robert are in so many ways tied to the garden we first created together. Our first home was a tiny cottage, built in the early 1930s originally as a mother-in-law suite for another home, in the historic Cobbham neighborhood in Athens, GA. The original property, a wide and deep old pecan grove tract, had been divided at some point in the past to separate the main house from the cottage, leaving the lion’s share of the land to the latter. When we acquired the cottage, built from field stones collected from local terraced farm land, it was barely visible from the street, obscured from view by seventy plus years of unbridled overgrowth. It had literally become a beast of the southern wild. We cut our teeth the hard way clearing away tenacious invasives like bamboo, ligustrum, potato vine, and Chinese privet along with enough liriope to fill several dump trucks. The experience turned us into gardening snobs in the process and thus we decided we would only grow natives plants, or highly prized imports, in our new garden landscape. We were young and in love and childless and had time to be haughty, and ridiculous, about such things.

We had many gardeners who influenced our choices but we made most of our decisions based on the native plants propagated and sold at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia spring plant sale. One of our first purchases was a Flame Azalea above, or Rhododendron calendulaceum, a deciduous native plant that can be found in abundance in the wild of the southern Appalachians. We took great pride in choosing this variety of azalea for our garden, over the more common, albeit gorgeous, other azalea varieties found in our Piedmont region. It was more about plant selection then and less about the simple beauty. What I see now, 14 years after we first planted it, is how those upright branches give way to orangey-coral clusters of vase shaped flowers and the stunning silhouette it casts against a crystal blue sky.

One of the reasons this property so appealed to us was our discovery of a stone walled sunken flagstone patio with a tiny pond, long forgotten and abandoned, which was nestled beneath a canopy of old growth dogwoods and pecan trees. As we unearthed the patio and its perimeter beds, we discovered the peeking heads of southern shield fern fronds (Dryopteris ludoviciana), another native to the southeastern United States, buried under deep leaf mulch. We also found the non-native buttercup english ivy (Hedera helix), starting its tentacled climb up the craggy patio walls, an across the pond visitor that earned its stay by being just too freaking cute with its miniature variegated creamy yellow and chartreuse green leaves. Gathered together unselfconsciously in a vintage medicine cup above, against the stunning backdrop of Katie Ridder‘s Moonflower wallpaper, this floral triumvirate of flame azalea, hairy fern shoots, and ivy just takes my breath away. And I couldn’t care less about the horticultural pedigree.

My current garden now includes only plants that make me happy. I certainly have lots of natives but plenty of the plants in my garden are simply visitors to the area that tolerate the climate well. I avoid invasives like the plague, but will invite just about any other plant to my garden so long as a brush past it makes me stop and smile. And, of course, if it looks good in a vase.

IMAGES | Floral styling, arrangements and photography by Tami Ramsay