Assorted Happy Things

"Happiness is an attitude. 

We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. 

The amount of work is the same." -- RL Bond

Happy August!  

There's my bookshelf where I keep my little treasures including these souvenirs from my Paris trip: a print of a painted letter by Édouard Manet to Isabelle Lemonnier from the special exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay, the snow globe I had to smuggle into the airport (seriously, did YOU know they were illegal in your carry-on?) and wooden spools with silk from the 1900s I bought at the lovely Parisian flea market we visited.  I'm searching for happiness now and I've heard the theories about finding it already there inside of you, but in the meantime here are some things that have made me smile recently.  Fortunately for me, it's a long list.

This is my favorite sculpture in the entire world: La Valse (The Waltz) by Camille Claudel in the Musée Rodin in Paris.  Camille was Auguste Rodin's much younger student, muse and then mistress.  When he left her she eventually destroyed many of her works and years later died alone in a psychiatric hospital.  A tragic story, but such a beautiful piece, I really feel the tenderness in the pose.  I found the replica below on Amazon and even though I prefer the more rustic quality of the original I want to keep this near because to me it captures what love should feel like.

And Suzanne sent me an inspiration for what love should be.

[print from Vintage Art Posters]

Here's a glimpse of the Patisserie Pain de Sucre on rue Rambuteau, now my favorite bakery ever.  From the tart with the tiny fraises des bois, the millefeuille, sables, crystallized cilantro and more, we loved everything we tried and went back several times.

More incredible sweets at Ladurée, which gets my award for best packaging ever.  So lovely and so many things to choose from that I'm thrilled that the 1st US location is opening in NYC on Madison Avenue. Does anyone know if the doors are open yet?  Let me know and I'll meet you there immediately.

For my Mom's birthday I brought her some hydrangeas in variegated blues (her favorite color) and a chocolate cake with homemade strawberry jam and cream cheese frosting.

Mila, oh, Mila...she's pretty, but feisty.  I think we're still getting to understand each other, but here was a precious, calm moment.

Tiger, one of the resident cats at the flower market on 28th Street cracked me up with his size and general Garfield-esque demeanor:

and I laughed even harder when I saw this picture of his summer makeover on the Facebook page of G. Page Flowers.

[photo by G. Page Flowers]

There were plenty of sour cherries at the Fulton Stall Market one pretty Sunday morning

for my Sour Cherry Preserves from Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff.  

And I got some tasty pickled strawberries from Anarchy in a Jar at the Smorgasburg the same week my friend Eric brought me Raspberry Red Chile Jam from Heidi's Raspberry Farm in New Mexico.  Yum yum...

And even more yumminess!  Thomas Haas chocolates from Vancouver from Louise.  What great, tasty friends!

And Louise wasn't done, she surprised me one sad day with pretty perfume samples from Bond no. 9, don't they look like little candies?

I love giving presents and it's time to return the favors, so I bought a little kit of Meri Meri baking gift labels from The Brooklyn Kitchen. Don't worry, Eric, I didn't head there without you, they just had a small booth at the Smorgasburg, but not enough canning supplies, so we have to head to the real store soon.

And here's the beginnings of a surprise present: a beautiful Liberty of London craft kit from Purl Soho...oh what will it be...?

I kinda liked the shout-out I did for my July birthday post, so I just want to say thanks to friends who've reminded me to feel extra special lately when I've needed it.  So, hugs to Rachael, Louise, Eric, Aimee, Suzanne, Lee, Seth, Jenny, Meredith, Liz (x 2!), Kerry, and I'm so excited about new friends too!  Vivian, Lisa, Carol (& Carole!), Donna, Stacey & Bill, so nice to meet you all and looking forward to next time.  Most of all, thanks to my Mom for her HOURS of listening to me, supporting me and even staying with me for the past two days, you're amazing and I love you.

A Week of Foodie-ness

Some people object to the term "foodie", but how else can I explain my obsession that has led me to start cooking and baking again?  That's a mesclun salad with blackberries, raspberries and fingerling potatoes with lemon sesame soy dressing.

More berries for triple berry muffins and Lemon Berry Pitcher Punch from 101 Sangrias & Pitcher Drinks by Kim Haasarud of Liquid Architecture.

Food Bloggers: I commend your ability to take gorgeous shots while you're in the middle of everything: I'm either too messy, or forget, so here's a Chocolate Carmalua cake from a recipe by Mrs. Fields cooling by the window, but without the caramel sauce.

I finally found the cord to my rice cooker and made some Korean namool: sesame seasoned spinach, shiitakes and zucchini.

Koru Kate and I had a lovely dinner by the water at Trinity in Hoboken: here's the chicken pot pie and a Panda's Dream cocktail. 

Louise and I had a WONDERFUL dinner at Kin Shop with a delicious menu by Chef Harold Dieterie: my fave was the Warm Sliced Snap Peas with Diver Sea Scallops, Crispy Shallots, Pea Greens & Toasted Coconut. We also had Aquatic Vegetables, Fried Pork & Crispy Oyster Salad, Stir Fried Rice Flakes with Rock Shrimp, Massaman Braised Goat, fabulous cocktails made with house-infused ginger mekhong, guava nectar, thai basil and rum, and tasty Galangal Ice Cream and Calamansi Sorbet...amazing...

Next day I prepped for a lunch for my aunt and her husband.  You can see Mila being very helpful in the background.

No time to iron the tablecloth!

We started with tomato, basil and mozzarella with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I tried my hand at some huge scallops from The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook.  No pic here of the smoked chili cream, but it was quite tasty.

And we finished with Lepore's Home Made Chocolates.

Since I was being a hostess I didn't make it to my parents' trip to Valley Shepherd Creamery but my Dad sent me some pics of baby sheep, alpacas...

and some very nice looking wool.  I want to go back and take one of their cheesemaking classes!

At the end of the day there were some leftovers for me.

And my aunt brought me some pink pasta and a pink spatula she won at a raffle for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Wonder what I'll make with these...we'll see.

Easter Wrapup

Hope everyone had a Happy Bunny Day!  There sure are a lot of baby bunnies in this shop window.

and over at Amy's Bread there were bunny-shaped loaves for sale.

I remember all the years my Mom made this Easter bread out of sweet dough and candied fruit.  I loved the sprinkles and dyed eggs that covered the glaze on top.

She always had great Easter projects: a bunny cake, Easter egg tree, ducky lollipops, chocolate covered peanuts and raisins that we boxed up to give to grandparents, teachers and friends.  I wish I had pictures of all of it, but it's so much harder to sort through prints than to scroll through your digital photo library, but here's one.

This year I had a few projects in mind too.  I started out with 3 sizes of lace doilies from the amazing Boutross Imports in Brooklyn.  Mike and his mother Mary are so sweet that when they sent my package it had candy inside too!

Then I had to find containers that were about the right size to fit each one

because

with a little fabric stiffener they were going to wear them like litle bonnets.

not to make little hats, but when they dried they were little bowls!  Thanks to this Martha Stewart tutorial.

Next I needed to blow out some eggs, kinda messy!  I was really doing more of the pierce-egg-shake-rinse-with-water to get all the yolk out method, but eventually it worked.  The boyfriend tried not to be too horrified when he found this scene on Saturday morning.

and he was also patient enough to help me dye them on our way out the door to enjoy a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend.  This looks like an egg tree, or egg lollipops, but I was just trying to dry them.

Then I cut out designs from some pretty paper napkins

to decoupage the blown out eggs, thanks again to Martha. 

And the Easter Bunny, I mean boyfriend's daughter, left us some cute bunny cards this morning.

and we definitely have more than a few made out of chocolate in the house too.  Not sure those will last too long though...