Pineapple & Coconut

Love it or hate it… most people feel pretty strongly about these two flavors especially combined  this combination is a favorite of mine.   I know it’s not really in vogue or very chic right now but maybe that’s what makes it cool.  It’s more of a forgotten oldie but goodie, like the Back Street Boys (ok, maybe not) but look how good it looks in a footed glass dessert bowl.  Come to think of it I’m not exactly sure when dessert was the hot thing, but I know I’d like some.

Ingredients

• 1 24 oz. + 1 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained but juice reserved
• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 14 oz. cans of Cream of Coconut, divided
• 4 Tbs. canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut, divided
• 2 cups evaporated milk

Instructions

In the bottom of a 6 qt. slow cooker that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, spread the drained pineapple to cover the bottom.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla, 2/3 cup of Cream of Coconut, 1 1/3 cups of the reserved pineapple juice, oil, and 1 cup of the shredded coconut, until well-combined. Spread the batter over the pineapple in the slow cooker.

In a small saucepan, heat the evaporated milk and all of the remaining Cream of Coconut until it is boiling. Once the mixture boils, pour the liquid over the top of the batter in the slow cooker, but do not stir.

Cover the slow cooker and cook on low heat for 3-4 hours, or until the cake portion is cooked through and the edges are golden brown. (A knife inserted through the cake in the middle will come out clean of batter, but may have some sauce from the bottom of the slow cooker)

In a small skillet heated over medium heat, toast the remaining coconut, stirring frequently, until it turns a golden, toasty brown. Once coconut is toasted, remove it from the heat immediately so it does not burn.

To serve, scoop down through the cake to the pineapple/sauce layer, and spoon a portion into a serving dish. Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream and some of the toasted coconut.

Don’t forget the vanilla ice cream and toasted coconut for the top!

WHITE KITCHENS

Hello and thanks for stopping by to see what I’m going on about these days.  For me a white kitchen is always the best, most chic, timeless choice a home owner can make when remodeling, building or up-dating.  It’s just fresh.  And, who doesn’t want a fresh and clean kitchen to prepare food in? to spend time with friends and family in and to use as the nucleus of the home.  I know I do.  I know it so much that I’m not only planning for a summer-house I don’t own yet… I’m even collecting things I plan to use in said summer-house.  What you might ask? How could I possibly be buying things for a house I don’t own?  Well… I’m in love with this white kitchen that has antique wooden boxes as the upper cabinets.  And so when I was faced with choosing things from my father’s workshop that I wanted to keep, I chose many beautiful wooden boxes, some with metal corners or trim work, that will someday grace the walls of my white kitchen in the summer-house I don’t own yet. Crazy maybe… But I’ve got a large basement, some great things to remember my father by and a vision I can execute the minute I buy the little house by the sea of my dreams.

I get that an all white kitchen can run the risk of feeling drab or uninteresting or lacking in warmth, but there is an easy way to make sure you don’t create an “operating room”or the “refrigerator interior look”… it’s simple.  One merely needs to add texture and warm tones via wood floors, butcher block counters, lighting and other “warm” elements.  Life enters a space once its been designed and installed, I tell clients not to rush the embellishment phase because things have a habit of simply collecting, it’s just reality.  the point: you don’t need to add a decorative strip into your back-splash, because once the toaster, coffee maker, plant, spices or what have you come back to, you don’t really want or need the 1/2″ band of mosaic back there.  Better to make an impact with broader strokes.  Big lights, a fancy range, stylized chairs around the island… choices like those take ordinary to extraordinary.

  

Oly

There are a hand full of companies that produce a line of furniture that offers so much good and pretty furniture.  Oly consistently delivers on quality, design and updatedness without feeling like their pieces have a history.  The styles tell a story and what you choose basically creates the ending, your beautiful room.  I find their pieces also mix well with many other styles, pieces  add an updated and glamorous touch and depending on what you choose to mix together to possibilities are endless.    You know how much I love white on white.  well this livingroom grouping delivers on.  The woven raffia side panels on the settees adds depth and texture, and is a good foil for the polished metallic framework on the coffee table and sideboard.   They had me with that chandelier.

I’m ordering this bed for the shop.  I love it.  this is the type of piece you make room for.  Maybe I need it in my life?  someone needs to get this bed asap.  I really even like the pale pink they show it with.  

My Day Off

 

I am especially lucky to have Mondays off from my typical work day.  The Interior Design business; paperwork, installations and the balance of client/office time morphs into something completely different, something more personally creative, almost introspective on a day off.  And eventhough I snuck in a tiny bit of client time most of the day was spent alone, arranging shelves, gardening, induldging and maybe a tiny bit of napping!  So, as I start to unwind tonight I thought I’d send out what a typical day off looks like for me.

 It started with a commute (about 15 minutes) to a Clients for a quick rug install.  We flipped a few rugs around the house to freshen up other rooms while updating the living room “off the kitchen” (vs the living room” off of the front foyer”, through the “tween” room and bar.  Shes a great lady and I have fun with her, we debate and collaborate to find common ground between us and when we find it, we buy what ever it is we are in agreement on.  The Ascot rug from Asmara Rugs in Waltham, MA is a beautiful addition to the relaxed space that’s affords comfortable reading spots, coffee cozy spots and a snuggle up spot.  We agreed on this rug after she had the chance to have it brought into the home.  This Asmara Rug was definitely love at first sight.

Not going to lie… I had cake for lunch, torte actually.  It was Mother’s Day leftovers, it was calling my name, I had to taste it.  I made a semi-sweet torte with pecan and cookie crust for Mothers Day and I was so happy that there was actually a bit of it left over for today.  It is SO rich that one 9 ich spring-form pan ( and 2 lbs. of chocolate) produces enough torte to serve 20 people.  I served it with homemade (of course) carmel sauce.  Here is the link I used…simplyrecipes.com

 

If I had known I was going to post this topic today when I was planting rose cuttings in the hopes of propagating them.  A client gave me these after I had complimented her healthy rose-bush, so vital in the ocean air, and pretty too.  A small pink rose covers the canopy, Cecile Brunner? heirloomroses.com If I don’t kill them I will plant them to climb the columns on the front porch.

And one of me proudly presenting my torte to the family.

Typography Cakes! – Borrowed Blog

This is too cool not to share… I found an image of this neat trick on Pinterest, it was originally blogged by asubtlerevelry.com and I’m dying to try it!  Boy or Girl, or a name or someones initials would be good words to use…don’t be afraid to try this!

The only thing better better than cake, is a cake that can talk! Why not surprise the guest of honor at your next party with this creative typography cake? It clearly expresses why you are celebrating, in a fun and festive way. These cakes are perfect for the slew of graduation and birthdays coming this month. HIP HIP HORRAY!

To make the cake you will need; 1 box cake mix, any flavor (we used white), edible dough (any color), mini alphabet cookie cutters (these will vary in size, make sure they are small enough that when your word is spelled out, it will fit in your pan), a 9×5 loaf pan (or any cake pan in which your message can fit; a bundt pan is a fun one to use), rolling pin, and confectioners sugar.

Take your edible dough and knead it into a workable, pliable consistency. Then sprinkle a little confectioners sugar on a clean surface and roll out the dough to your desired thickness. Cut out the shapes of the letters you want to use in your message. For the cake in this tutorial, I used a whole package of edible dough and cut out the letters Y and A to spell YAY.

Make cake batter according to instructions on box. Grease your pan and pour enough batter in the pan to cover the bottom. Take your cut-out letters and place them in the batter, spelling out your word or message. Repeat this until you have crossed the length of the pan. Make sure the letters are lined up and straight.

Place the rest of the cake batter into a measuring cup (or piping bag if you want to really be careful) and pour batter slowly over the top of the letters, until they are covered and you have used up all the batter.

Bake cake in a 350F oven for about 40 minutes; check for doneness with a toothpick. Allow to cool before using a sharp knife to slice into the cake and reveal the surprise message.

This cake is a part of our creative cake series. Produced and photographed by Athena Plichta under the creative direction of Victoria Hudgins for A Subtle Revelry.

 

Hello Again

It’s been a while.  I’m sorry.

I’ve been distracted by, I’ll admit it, Instagram.  It’s so narcissistic and a bit voyeuresque… but for a kid with a little ADD, it’s great.  I still troll design sites, blogs, retailers, vendors, and manufacturers of blog worthy design.  I have a desktop full of images I had intended to say something about over the course of time I have been neglecting this blog.  So here is a deposit of chic white rooms, with black and natural wood tones dominating the aesthetic.

I do love a clean and serene environment but damn if I don’t fill up every table top with birds nests, twigs, stones form trips to beautiful beaches and do-dads I pick up along the way.  These rooms for the most part have a un-designed design to them, intentionally “thrown together” creating an environment that is comfortable, feels organic, and is beautiful to experience.

 I should mention two things: There is not really anything new about black and white in design with the exception that it seems to go along with the quirky anti-design design and feels current and clean and edgy.  2. Black and White was the strongest trend to come out of High Point ( the furniture and lighting and home show in North Carolina).

The rooms shown here are curated, found objects, collections… each item chosen for it’s color, texture, shape value and  visual weight.  A balanced room dosen’t feel like a museum, or shed for that matter.  Don’t over do the amount you decide to display or live with.  Less is typically more (unless however, the pieces used in the simpleset of vingettes must be of stellar quality beauty and form.  Put your best feet forward kids!

A Parisian Time Capsule – Borrowed Blog

    

This “discovery” isn’t so new anymore and  has apparently been passed around from Facebook, to Apartment Therapy to soulpancake as well as most recently Messynessychic.com  I just saw it for the first time the other day so I thought I’d pass it on to you…hope you enjoy it as much as I did…

 A Parisian apartment left untouched for over 70 years was discovered in the quartier of Pigalle a few summers ago and I’ve been meaning to share the pictures with you. Time to unlock the vault …

The owner of this apartment, Mrs. De Florian left Paris just before the rumblings of World War II broke out in Europe. She closed up her shutters and left for the South of France, never to return to the city again. Seven decades later she passed away at the age of 91. It was only when her heirs enlisted professionals to make an inventory of the Parisian apartment she left behind, that this time capsule was finally unlocked.

The team that had the honor of opening what must have been a very stiff old lock for the first time in 70 years, likened the experience to ‘stumbling into the castle of sleeping beauty’. The smell of dust, the cobwebs, the silence, was overwhelming; a once in a lifetime experience.

There is a further twist to the story. In the apartment a painting of familiar style was discovered of a beautiful woman in pink. One of the inventory team members suspected this might be a very important piece of treasure. Along with the painting, they also found stacks of old love letters tied with colored ribbon.

With some expert historical opinion, the ribbon-bound love letters were quickly recognized as the calling card of none other than Giovanni Boldini, one of Paris’ most important painters of the Belle Époque. The painting was his. The beautiful woman pictured in the painting was Mrs. de Florian’s grand-mother, Marthe de Florian, a beautiful French actress and socialite of the Belle Époque. She was Boldini’s muse. And, despite him being a married man, she was also his lover. The art world went a bit nutty for the whole story and the painting was later sold for $3 million at auction.

What I find so intriguing about this story is not so much the discovered painting and the revelation of a love affair between a great Italian painter and the beautiful actress in an enchanting era, but more the story of Mrs. de Florian and why she stayed away from Paris for so long.

What kept her away even after the war? Was she running away from someone or something other than the Nazis? For all those decades, her rent on the elegant apartment in a flourishing city had been faithfully paid, but it was left to freeze in time. It all sounds like the perfect mystery…