Monthly Archives: November 2015

Found

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Sweet readers… I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this week’s found item and what just may be my favorite book of all time. Love x Style x Life by the effortlessly chic Garance Dore. If you aren’t familiar with Garance, you should be. I’ll admit, I didn’t know who she was until her collaboration with Rifle Paper. But since that fateful introduction, Garance has become a woman I admire from afar. When I learned of her book, I pre-ordered right away. From reading her blog, I knew her writing would speak to me. And you know what, it most certainly does. Below is a brief excerpt from the introduction:

We want love. We want to feel beautiful. We want to be good friends, good partners, good sisters, good daughters. We want to know how to never buy the wrong pair of shoes again. {Sorry to inform you, but you will keep making shoe mistakes until the day you die. So celebrate being alive right now!} We want to feel fulfilled by the work we do, whatever that work may be. Most of all, we want to find our place in this work.

It reads like my manifesto! I had the pleasure of meeting Garance last night at her Boston book signing. Now I’ve been to many a book signing but never one where I received flowers for attending and the author graciously offered me a seat next to her to have a chat. What a night and honor!

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Help

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Help! For the life of me, I can’t seem to pick out a holiday card this year. Might you be able to help? There are just so many choices. My favorites include:

Which one of these would you like to receive from me?

In the Kitchen

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Question: Anyone else having trouble with this whole fall back situation? I’m tired, cranky and seem to be craving two things: Halloween candy and carbs. To help curb one of these cravings, I decided to make a pot of my go-to fall risotto Monday night. Risotto tends to be a little time-consuming but this recipe all-in-all took about 45 minutes to complete. Not too bad at all. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Butternut Squash and Spinach Risotto

*slight modifications from Ina Garten’s recipe in Family Style

Ingredients 

  • 3 cups diced butternut squash {time-saver: purchase pre-cut squash}
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • Salt/pepper
  • 6 cups of chicken stock {I tend to use a bit more}
  • 1 Tbs. butter
  • 1 minced shallot
  • 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
  • 1/2 cup white wine {I used chardonnay}
  • 1 tsp. saffron threads {the good stuff from Spain}
  • 1 cup freshly graded Parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups fresh spinach

Directions

  1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.
  2. Toss the pre-cut squash with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Roast for 30 minutes, checking at 15 minute to toss.
  3. Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan and simmer on low.
  4. While squash is roasting and stock is simmering, melt tablespoon of butter in a dutch over pan, add the minced shallot and saute till translucent. Add in the rice and allow butter/shallot mixture to coat rice and “toast” for 2-3 minutes. This brings out the nuttiness in the rice.
  5. Add the wine and cook for two minutes. Add is two ladles of stock and saffron threads. Stir and simmer till stock is absorbed. Continue this process until the rice is cooked and begin to take on a creamy texture. Typically, this takes about 6 to 8 cycles. I know it’s close when the rice takes on a creamy texture.
  6. Off the heat, stir in butternut squash, spinach and Parmesan cheese. Mix well and season to taste. For presentation, I add a bit more cheese!

Tuesday Travel

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Bull City. The New South. Home of the Blue Devils. It’s true; Durham is all of these things. Since I’ve never been to North Carolina, I had high hopes for our weekend getaway to Durham and I am happy to report, I was not disappointed!

Stay

We stayed at the hip 21c Museum Hotel located in the historic Hill Building {a 17-story modernistic skyscraper built between 1935-1937 and designed by NY firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, who also designed the Empire State Building}. This is the fourth location in the 21C Museum Hotel family, with the first opening up in Louisville back in 2007. The property hosts a free contemporary art museum, 125 well-appointed rooms and a beautiful restaurant on the first floor. Bonus, the rooms are stocked with our favorite Malin + Goetz products.

Our second choice was the recently opened The Durham Hotel. I’m told their rooftop bar is a must!

Do + See

Truth be told, the impetus for our trip south was to attend the 20th year celebration of the Duke women’s lacrosse program. That’s right. My girl is an All-American athlete whose name is forever etched into the walls at Cameron Stadium. Pretty cool, right? So, much of our first day was spent on campus at Duke. I am partial to my Mount Holyoke campus but have to say, Duke is beautiful. The trees, Gothic architecture, chapel. It’s all quite impressive. I had read about The Nasher Museum of Art but unfortunately we didn’t have time to check out the collection. But, we did get to see Krzyzewskiville, the tent city where students camp out for Duke basketball tickets. Now that’s what I call dedication!

Eat

In recent years, Durham has been named one of the tastiest towns in the South. Although we didn’t get to try every place on my list {Saltbox Seafood Joint and Pizzeria Toro}, we did manage to indulge is some delicious fare.

Cosmic Cantina – Every college town needs its go to Cantina and K swears that Cosmic Cantina has the best burrito. Now while I’m partial to my Bueno y Sano in Amherst, I must admit that Cosmic Cantina is quite good. The staircase on the other hand, beware!

Foster’s Market – A mainstay in Durham since 1990, Foster’s market is a dream gourmet market and cafe with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. I had the pimento cheese sandwich. Delicious!

Monuts Donuts – Yes, I had to find the local donut place! We ordered a half-dozen including plain glazed {perhaps the best glazed I’ve ever had}, blueberry cardamom, chocolate and apple cider. A Durham must!

Cocoa Cinnamon – We never did make it to Cocoa Cinnamon for an afternoon coffee but I really wish we did. On the list for our next visit!

Watts Grocery – A great spot for Sunday brunch serving Carolina classics like grits and big biscuits. My eggs were a little dry but the fresh squeezed O.J. and homemade english muffin made up for it!

For my first trip to North Carolina, I have to say Durham is one great little city. One that has great energy, gracious people and delicious food. While enjoying our final meal in Bull City, K and I joked about retiring to her college town. We shall see about that!

Do Well

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I am so sorry again for my silence last week. I’ve been dealing with a little health issue that I think has finally resolved itself thanks to a daily regimen of four little pills. Good news, I’m on the up and up!

Being home, I tend to do two things. Watch tv and organize my closet. The donation bags are growing. I was excited to find out that Madewell has teamed up with Blue Jeans Go Green to recycle your old jeans. And as an added bonus, Madwell will give you $20 towards a new pair of jeans. A win/win in my book!

I promise to be back tomorrow with a new Tuesday Travel post highlighting what Travel and Leisure is calling the new south. I promise you won’t want to miss it!

Note: Offer good till December 31 of this year!