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It has taken three Aprils and nearly as many Mays for me to feel like I’m getting the hang of living in Britain, for it to feel like home. Along with the obvious (time passed, friendships formed, residence herein), uncountable little things contribute: bookstore selections, snack aisles of grocery stores, television program(me)s.
Cover image is a screenshot of the Barbican website: Hyde Park, London (1953) by Cas Oorthuys is currently on view as part of Strange and Familiar.
In today's special post, my wicked smart sister Carolyn explains the ins, the outs, the whats and the whys of homemade kombucha! Read on for her method, her madness, and how to bring up a baby SCOBY!
The kitchen is the most beautiful, brightest, best-smelling room in my house. Like a good Dutch flower painting, all stages of life are on display. It lends itself perfectly to A Grazing Lunch, one of the great pleasures of an unruly kitchen - or simply of being home at lunchtime. But sometimes there's cause to work a little harder, to knead too.
This month (and maybe a bit longer, if we like how it feels) we will be tying on our apron strings (and double belting in a cool, official way), putting on our Mario Batali- approved kitchen clogs, and making our way, one sticky page at a time, through our favorite cookbooks. We'll also be compiling a list of what we like to listen to when we put water on to boil, thinking about how kitchens really feel to us, and trying to wrangle in a couple Traveling Lights as far as our cooking kit is concerned (or rather, finally letting my cup measure have its day in the sun).
In other words, it's KITCHEN time.
I was lucky enough to spend an intermittently sunny & dismal morning at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London last week, where Woodman’s work is on view through this weekend. I’m not sure whether my babe or I loved the show more. Not that there is anything childish about the work, but that Woodman deals so tantalizingly with the visual equivalent of sugar, for babies: her obsession is with creating and confounding surfaces.
An easy way to feel rather proud of yourself, especially while desperately trying to get a child to eat solid foods from a spoon, is to make something nice that you actually wouldn’t mind eating yourself. Because, oh yes, there will be leftovers. But hopefully not as many as you fear.
