My Beautiful Mother’s Day Dinner

Best Mother’s Day Dinner E-V-E-R, cooked by my son Alex

Seafood Heaven ~ with lobster, shrimp, steamers, and salmon

ROCK ON MOMS!

To all the beautiful, hard-working and hard-loving Moms, daughters, best friends, grandmas, and aunts ~

Happy Mother’s Day! and 

 

ROCK ON !

My Mom in Central Park (I think it is Central Park) with her four babies

Liv and I in hats from my hat collection

Alex the way he used to hug me when he was little, until he almost broke my ribs

 

 

Liv on the Schooner Lannon from last year’s GMG Rum and Cigar event.

Get Ready for Spring!

Cherry Blossoms

Cincinnati is typically about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of us in spring bloom power.

This past weekend my dear sister-in-law, Amy, remarried a super great guy, Arnold. The reception was held at the Cincinnati Country Club where we also stayed for several nights.

 

Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata)

The early spring flowering trees were in full glorious bloom, including hawthorns, magnolias, and cherry trees, and all looked luxuriously lush and brilliantly fresh–

Get Ready!

Liv and Alex

Snapshots from Chelsea and the High Line

Chelsea Market

Liv and I had lots of fun shopping the flea market and shops at Chelsea Market the afternoon that I left.

Adjacent to the market is an entrance to the High Line. Don’t you love the chaise idea? They are really comfy and relaxing.

The architects of the High Line intentionally left little patches somewhat wild to show what the elevated rail looked like after years of disuse. The rail had reverted to a a native wildflower garden, which then became the inspiration for much of the park’s plantings!

Enough!

We met leopard-wearing fashionista Kira at the Blue Bottle Coffee shop on her way upstairs to a photo shoot at MILK Studios. She was showing us her ballet moves, which she does with her eyes closed. When we asked why, she said it is because she has not yet studied ballet, but dreams about someday becoming a ballerina, and that is why she has to dance with her eyes closed as she is only “dreaming.”

Here’s My Dreamer

There is nothing like spending time with your daughter and I am so looking forward to our next visit. I hope it’s not too long a wait!

Snapshots from Brooklyn and NYC

Snapshots from visit with my darling daughter Liv

We walked and took the L everywhere and Liv showed me some of her favorite spots in Williamsburg and surrounding neighborhoods.

184 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn–gorgeous waterfront residential building and one of the few adaptions of Egyptian Revival Style to modern commercialism in the United States.

We saw the fabulously fun and playful Gutai group at the Guggenheim, which is an exhibit about the Japanese avant-garde Postwar artistic movement led by Jiro Yoshihara.

Liv snuck this photo of Atsuko Tanaka’s famous Electric Dress at the Guggenheim (read more about the Electric Dress at the bottom of this post).

Juliette Restaurant Williamsburg

Liv’s record producer friend always recommends the best restuarants. Next door to the utterly charming Juliette Restaurant is the hipster restaurant “egg,” and with an hour long wait for brunch, we decided  to take Dave’s advice and go with Juliette. We were more than delighted–French cooking at its most delicious, from Brittany owner Thierry Rochard. I’d love to go there on a warm spring night and enjoy starlight dining on their roof garden.

Dutch Pancake with lemon zest, blueberries, and creme fraiche

Jeff, the manager, at Juliette Restaurant

More photos of  my trip to Brooklyn to follow.

Atsuko Tanaka wearing her Electric Dress

To Read More About Atsuko Tanaka Electric Dress

Hello from Brooklyn

Visiting my daughter Liv in Bushwick-love her and love NYC!

Yikes! Only Five More Days Until Christmas!

Orange Wine and Tapenade

Making Christmas cakes and orange wine and wrapping, and more wrapping–getting my boxes ready to ship to family and out-of-town  friends. I hope their gifts arrive before Christmas! Too much Christmas-making to write a brand new post. Orange wine is one of my favorite recipes to prepare at this time of year and I posted this same recipe last year. Try it. I guarantee, you will not be disappointed. My daughter loves orange wine and during the holidays I also make another of her favorites, which is tapenade (so easy) and the two pair beautifully. Spread a thin layer of  tapenade on home-baked crostini and serve with orange wine before dinner.

Tapenade

1/2 cup black olives, pitted

6 anchovy fillets, cleaned, rinsed, and drained

1 1/2 tablespoons capers

1 garlic clove peeled and crushed

juice of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons olive oil (more may be needed)

freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped basil

Place all ingredients, except for the basil, in the blender and blend on high speed for a few seconds. Push down with a spatula and add more oil if too think. Pour into a bowl and check seasonings; if too salty add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Add basil and cover. Will keep for approximately ten days.*

Crostini ~ Slice thinly on the diagonal best quality French or Italian bread. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake in 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes. Flip the bread slices and drizzle a tiny bit more olive oil and salt and bake an additional 3-4 minutes. Optional, add a very slight sprinkling of freshly grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese, after flipping, and prior to baking the second time.

Orange Wine

Orange infused wine, or vin d’orange, is a warm weather Provençal aperitif, but I never remember to make it during the summer months, only during the holidays. Although, when drinking it, I like to imagine sipping orange wine from a garden somewhere (anywhere!) along the Côte-d’Azure. Vin d’orange is marvelously easy to prepare and makes a much appreciated holiday host/hostess gift.

Over the years I’ve experimented with the original recipe, which was, to my way of thinking, much too sweet—add more sugar if you like a sweeter aperitif. I think you will find this concoction intoxicatingly fun, light, and aromatic. I hope your family and friends enjoy as much as do mine!

12-15 Clementines thoroughly washed and cut in half

3 bottles modestly priced dry white wine

1 Cup sugar

½ Cup Courvoisier

Long strips of orange zest

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl combine the wine and Clementines, gently squeezing each half to release some of the juice. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 5 days. Save the empty wine bottles and corks; wash and remove labels. You will need a fourth empty bottle.

Remove orange infused wine from the refrigerator and squeeze any liquid remaining in the orange halves into the large bowl. Discard oranges. Add the sugar and cognac, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Strain through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Pour wine concoction into wine bottles. Insert a strip of the zest into each bottle and cork. Chill the wine for one week. Serve neat or over ice. The vin d’orange will keep for 6 months when chilled. Makes approximately 4 bottles.

*The tapenade recipe is based on Mirelle Johnson’s classic Provençal cookbook, The Cuisine of the Sun (Random House)

Lucky Mom!

Our son Alex loves to cook–this is what I came home to–melt-in-your-mouth steak dinner with some sort of fabulous mushroom, onion, butter, garlic, tomato reduction. Lucky Mom that I am!

Alex’s Steak Dinner

Dog’s Diary and Cat’s Diary

Sent via darling daughter Liv–

Birthday Fun ~ Talk About Spoiled!

Last Saturday for my birthday my husband Tom treated me to a beautiful and fabulous dinner at Duckworth’s. The following morning I met my Good Morning Gloucester friends for brunch at Passports–talk about spoiled–Duckworths and Passports are two of my very favorite restaurants and two of the very finest restaurants on the North Shore.

I had only my iPhone camera with me at Duckworths and don’t like the way most of the photos turned out–too little light for the iPhone’s tiny  image sensor .

Nicole Duckworth’s Fabulous Desert ~ Gingerbread with Marscapone and Poached Pears 

Brunch at Passports

Joey and Susan  -Fujifilm x100 photo

Susan and Paul -Fujifilm x100 photo

Ed and Rick  -iPhone 4S photo

Donna and Greg  -iPhone 4S photo

Greg and Joey  -iPhone 4S photo

Happy Birthday to Our Son Alex

My beautiful son, born on the first day of spring, during a snow storm, March 20, 1993.

Alex, on his first day of college this past September. I don’t have too many recent photos of Alex; he was in the camera shy stage for all his high school years–although lately I am getting the feeling he doesn’t mind so much his Mom with her cameras.

Best friends favorite breakfast of bacon and chocolate chip pancakes and strawberry smoothies ~  Shaffy, Alex, Sam, Mike, Cam, and Andrew 2006

Alex and Liv August 2006

I am so blessed

My darling daughter is home from grad school for a few days during spring break. I adore her and we just have the best time together. iPhone 4s photo ~ Liv and Rosie

My husband Tom gave me a new iPhone for my early birthday present, while Liv is home, so that she can show me how to use it. My previous phone, a fossil from the Stone Age (as my son Alex often referred to it as) was not fun to use. When Siri started talking to us, I was just on the floor laughing in amazement.

iPhone 4S photo

Valentine Greetings!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Liv and Alex

Enough with the Photos Mom!

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

 

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

 

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

 

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

 

Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

 

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

 

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

 

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.        -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Our daughter Liv posted this poem on her blog Boston to Brooklyn. The sentiments expressed befit our times equally as well as when Tennyson wrote Ring Out, Wild Bells in 1850.

 

Jonathan Dove (1959), the contemporary British composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music has written a beautiful arrangement to Ring Out, Wild Bells, performed in this video by the Antioch Chamber Ensemble.

 

Home for the Holidays

Both our children are at last home for Christmas! Read Liv’s “Home for the Holidays” post at her delightful blog “Boston to Brooklyn.”

Live writes: The Christmas spirit runs strong in our family, mainly due to our mother’s dedication in making our home a joyous and decadent celebration of the holidays. No room in the house is left without some unique Christmas decoration and our abode smells of paper whites, clementines, and pine needles for the entire blessed month of December. I’m finally home for the holidays after my first semester of graduate school, and nothing makes me happier and more relaxed than being surrounded by Christmas joy and familial love. Read more, with lots of photos, at Boston to Brooklyn.

 

Liv Hauck iPhone photo

Miss Rosie Money Penny

Our sweet pooch Rosie, looking none to pleased with me… I wonder why?

Christmas Whimsy

Vintage Christmas Decorations ~ snowflake, cupcake tree, circus Noël, nutcracker frog prince, and music box Santa.

Happy Holidays!

Santa Baby

Santa Baby, slip a sable under the tree, For me.
been an awful good girl, Santa baby,
so hurry down the chimney tonight.

Santa baby, a 54 convertible too,
Light blue.
I’ll wait up for you dear,
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight.

Having fun photographing Christmas decorations around the house. My husband Tom made this cardboard Santa for me –that year Santa was bearing a jewelry box with a very pretty ring…

Think of all the fun I’ve missed,
Think of all the fellas that I haven’t kissed,
Next year I could be just as good,
If you’ll check off my Christmas list,

Santa baby, I wanna yacht,
And really that’s not a lot,
Been an angel all year,
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight.

Santa honey, there’s one thing I really do need,
The deed
To a platinum mine,
Santa honey, so hurry down the chimney tonight.

Santa cutie, and fill my stocking with a duplex,
And checks.
Sign your ‘X’ on the line,
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Come and trim my Christmas tree,
With some decorations bought at Tiffany’s,
I really do believe in you,
Let’s see if you believe in me,

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing,
A ring.
I don’t mean on the phone,
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight,
Hurry down the chimney tonight,
Hurry, tonight.                                     -Joan Javits and Philip Springer

“Santa Baby” was originally recorded by Eartha Kit with Henri Rene and his orchestra in New York City, 1953.

Vin d’orange

Orange infused wine, or vin d’orange, is a warm weather Provençal aperitif, but I never remember to make it during the summer months, only during the holidays. Although, when drinking it, I like to imagine sipping orange wine from a garden cafe somewhere (anywhere!) along the Côte-d’Azure. Vin d’orange is marvelously easy to prepare and makes a much appreciated holiday host/hostess gift.

Over the years I’ve experimented with the original recipe, which was, to my way of thinking, much too sweet—add more sugar if you like a sweeter aperitif. I think you will find this concoction intoxicatingly fun, light, and aromatic. I hope your family and friends enjoy as much as do mine!

12-15 Clementines thoroughly washed and cut in half

3 bottles modestly priced dry white wine

1 Cup sugar

½ Cup Courvoisier

Long strips of orange zest

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl combine the wine and Clementines, gently squeezing each half to release some of the juice. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 5 days. Save the empty wine bottles and corks; wash and remove labels. You will need a fourth empty bottle.

Remove orange infused wine from the refrigerator and squeeze any liquid remaining in the orange halves into the large bowl. Discard oranges. Add the sugar and cognac, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Strain through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Pour wine concoction into wine bottles. Insert a strip of the zest into each bottle and cork. Chill the wine for one week. Serve neat or over ice.

Vin d’orange will keep for 6 months when chilled. Makes approximately 4 bottles.

Dear Readers, There must be a southern Italian equivalent to vin d’orange? In Italy they make something entirely different, also called orange wine. Italian orange wine is made from white grapes that have been left to ferment with their skins, treated in essence like red wines. These wines may macerate for days or even months, which gives the wine color shades varying from rosy pink  to amber cider to vivid orange, however this is a different process than wine infused with oranges. Please write if you know of an Italian version of the Provençal aperitif or some similar deliciously fun fruit infused wine recipe.

Christmas Tree for Liv

My darling daughter, away at graduate school, is missing home and missing especially Christmas-making. She called last night to request a snapshot of our Christmas tree. My wish for Christmas was that both Liv and Alex could come home for Christmas.  Alex we knew for sure would be home (if for no other reason than he misses home cooked dinners) but Liv started a brand new job with a crazy schedule and is mired in papers and finals.  I learned yesterday that she will be traveling home on the 21st and son will be home Thursday of this week. Happiest of moms am I!

Click any photo to see slide show

Chocolate Amaretto Truffles

Chocolate Amaretto Truffles

Mini muffin baking cups or petit four cups

2 ounces. Baker’s sweet German chocolate, broken into small bits

6 ounces Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

¼ C. Disaronno Amaretto liqueur

2 Tbs. strong coffee

Few drops almond extract

2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

½ C. pulverized Jules Destrooper almond thins (or Anna’s, or any super fine, thin cookie)

Confectioner’s sugar to taste (approx. 1/2  cup)

 ½ C. Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder for final powdering

Melt sweet chocolate bits and semi-sweet chocolate chips over a gently simmering double boiler. Whisk in liqueur, coffee, almond extract, and vanilla. Whisk vigorously, over gentle heat, a few minutes more until mixture is shiny and smooth. Gradually add the butter by tablespoons. With a wooden spoon, beat in the pulverized cookies. Beat in sifted confectioner’s sugar, to taste. Remove the pan from the double boiler and place in a bowl of ice with water. Stir until well chilled and firm enough to form into balls.

By teaspoonful, gather up a gob and form into a rough, truffle-like shape. Roll in cocoa powder and drop into frilled paper cup.

Makes about 22, depending on size. Refrigerate in an airtight container. They will keep for several weeks or they may be frozen. (Very) loosely adapted from Julia Child’s Chocolate Amaretti Truffles The Way to Cook Page 485. To vary using orange liqueur: Replace Amaretto with Grand Marnier or Cointreau, replace almond extract with lemon or orange extract, and replace almond thins with thin gingersnaps (Anna’s, for example).

Holiday Magic or Several More Reasons to Shop Small Not Mall

During my mad rush Tuesday morning to shop for our Thanksgiving dinner, I first stopped in at Alexandra’s Bread to pick up several loaves of their freshly baked bread. Knowingly, I had placed an advance order because the bread at Alexandra’s is so super delicious they are often sold out. I not only needed baguettes for dinner Tuesday evening, but for our fondue dinner planned for Wednesday evening. It is our tradition to serve fondue on Christmas Eve and to the kids, fondue symbolizes warm- and cozy-holiday-fun-dinner; they now request it for “Thanksgiving Eve” as well.

Alexandra’s Bread

I next popped into Pearl’s to see if Sue had any fondue forks. Pearl’s is a wonderful vintage everything shop at the east end of Main Street. Fondue forks are designed with extra long, heatproof handles and I needed several additional forks for our guests. Sue did not have any fondue forks, but Deb, the meter attendant who was, very fortuitously, standing at the counter chatting with Sue, mentioned she just-so-happened to have a set at her home that had not sold at her recent yard sale. Deb said she’d be happy to deliver her forks to Pearl’s and Sue very graciously agreed to be the go-between. I bought them sight unseen for ten dollars.

Next stop was Abacus Computer and The MacDaddy, across the street from Pearl’s and several doors down from Alexandra’s Bread. Their tagline is “Your PC and Apple Repair Service Specialists.” I explained to Frank that my daughter was arriving Tuesday night and was only staying for a few days. Could they possibly squeeze in a look at her laptop to see what was wrong? Yes, no problem, and requested we bring in the computer promptly at 10:00am Wednesday morning.

The following morning Frank and Thad looked it over and thought perhaps they could repair and have it back to her by that afternoon, even though it was by no means an easy fix, needing a new hard drive, along with various other problems. WOW—you don’t get service like that at the big box stores, as a matter of fact, at the Apple Store in NYC, the salesperson told my daughter her laptop was unfixable and not to waste their time.

Next stop was Pearl’s, where we picked up the most gorgeous boxed set of wooden handled fondue forks, circa 1960—very Eames looking— and far more elegant than the forks we had planned to use. Thank you Sue and Deb and thank you Holiday Spirits!

Elegant Fondue Forks

More Holiday Magic—later that afternoon, Abacus Computer and The MacDaddy called with the good news Liv’s computer was ready for pick-up. Cleaned and repaired, it is working perfectly. Thank you Frank and Thad and thank you again Holiday Spirits for working your Holiday Magic!

Aloha and Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

A Thanksgiving column for you–about the sublime rose ‘Aloha,’ for which I am most thankful. Even more so, I am thankful for my family—our son Alex is arriving home from college this afternoon, then later in the afternoon, my dear mother-and father-in-law from Cincinnati, and then darling daughter tonight on the train from NYC. I count my blessings each and every day, but I am especially grateful that this Thanksgiving my husband and I can share this most special of holidays with our family. I hope with all my heart you have a joyful Thanksgiving.

Warmest wishes, Kim

P.S. Programming notes ~ Two specials that I produced are airing on Cape Ann TV this week and they are The Butterfly Garden at Willowdale Estate and The Greasy Pole Fall Classic (see previous post re Greasy Pole schedule).

Program schedule for The Butterfly Garden at Willowdale Estate airing on Channel 12, Cape Ann TV:

Monday, November 21 at 8:00 pm

Tuesday, November 22 at 2:30 am and 10:30 pm

Saturday, November 26 at 8:00 pm

Aloha Blooming Mid-November

Rosa ‘Aloha’

The French have a beautiful sounding word for a repeat flowering rose and, without doubt, the most remontant rose that we grow is ‘Aloha.’ Embowering our front porch pillars, she welcomes with her fresh-hued beauty.‘Aloha’ begins the season in a great flush, followed by a brief rest, and then continues non-stop, typically through November, and in one recent, relatively mild autumn, into December. I like her so very much that I planted a second and then third and they are all three sited where we can enjoy her great gifts daily.

‘Aloha’s’ buds are full and shapely, and colored carmine rose with vermilion undertones, giving us a preview of nuanced shades to come. She unfurls to form large, quartered, and subtly two-toned blossoms, initially opening in shades of clear rose-pink with a deeper carmine pink on the reverse, or underside of the petals. The blossoms are long lasting, fading to a lovely shade of  pale coral pink. And the petals fall loosely, never becoming balled clumps. With luxuriously long stems and shiny emerald foliage, ‘Aloha’ also makes a divine cut flower.

Oh, and I can’t believe I am several paragraphs in and haven’t yet mentioned her fragrance. She not only welcomes with her great beauty, but also with her potent and dreamy scent. I’ve often heard ‘Aloha’ described as having a green apple fragrance, but find that description only partially accurate; the scent is really much more sophisticated, with notes not only of fresh Granny Smith apple, but also the warm sensuous undertones of the old Damask and Bourbon roses.

Passers-by may think she looks a bit peculiar, ruining my color scheme with her fresh-hued cluster of pink amongst a tumble of drying stalks and seed heads in the beige and brown hues of late autumn, but I don’t mind—to be welcomed by her scent on a cold November morning is simply to be welcomed by a gift—and ‘Aloha’ is a rose that just keeps giving and giving and giving.

I first took note of Aloha, arching along a split-rail fence and growing in the path of drying winter winds and sand. A rose that can withstand winter along the Cape Ann seashore is a rose worth noticing. I asked the owner of the garden if she minded if I took a cutting and she very graciuosly allowed me to take several (see Chapter 14, page 117, in my book Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities on how to propagate a rose from a cutting).  ‘Aloha’ is one of the easier roses to propagate and I soon had several viable plants. I kept one and gave the rest to friends. Roses grown on their own roots are far superior to those grown on a commercial rootstock. The grafted joint is susceptible to disease and damage. Not only that, in the case of a very severe winter, the growth above the graft is often completely destroyed. The growth that returns in the spring is that of the rooting stock, not of the originally desired rose.

‘Aloha’ was hybridized by Eugene Boerner in 1949 and is in the class Large Flowered Climber. Her parents are the Climbing Hybrid Tea ‘Mercedes Gallart’ and ‘New Dawn.’ Although classified as a climber, the versatile ‘Aloha’ is easily grown as a shrub. The foliage is vigorous and leathery, and rarely visited by pests or disease. ‘Aloha’ is the parent or in the ancestry of many gorgeous roses and has contributed greatly to the development of the David Austin roses.

Roses seen in paintings by the old Dutch masters are the Damask, Bourbon, Gallica, Alba, and Portland roses. Hybrid Perpetuals were derived to a great extent from the Bourbons. Hybrid teas are a cross between the winter-hardy Hybrid Perpetual and the tender, yet repeat blooming, Tea rose; hence the winter-hardy and repeat blooming class called Hybrid Tea. These were cross-pollinated with large flowered climbers, culminating in roses that inherited what are considered by rosarians to be the most desirable qualities—that of repeat flowering, strong fragrance, strong stems, hardiness, and disease resistance.

‘Aloha’ grows vigorously in full sun or a very light bit of shade. A compact climber, she is ideal for planting alongside porch pillars and fences. It is easier to train the canes to grow up a porch pillar or to arch along a fence when they are young as the canes become stiff with age. After the first flush of flowering, deadhead and remove any weak or twiggy growth. Pruning is not mandatory for flowering because ‘Aloha’ blooms on both old wood and on the current season’s growth, however, I like to prune again lightly at the end of the growing season, to shape and to remove twiggy growth. In early spring fertilize and lightly prune yet again, removing any dead winter damage (usually minimal). ‘Aloha’ is not prickle free; be mindful to plant where she won’t create a nuisance (I should heed my own advice, although if planted in a heavily trafficked site she is very easy to keep in check).

Because of her ease in culture, remontant habit, arresting fragrance, and seemingly endless variations in color from within each flower, I would have to say ‘Aloha’ is in my top ten category of favorite roses, if not top five. If you have a rose that you cherish—a rose you grow, or perhaps one you recall from childhood—please write and tell me what it is that you find lovely in your rose.

Aloha (left pillar) Early June

Aloha Late June

Rolling Stone Magazine

Great gift idea ~ The November 2011 issue of Rolling Stone is, as typical, bulging with timely, interesting, and well-written features–check out Florence and the Machine, George Clooney (cover story), and a great article by Rolling Stone’s political correspondent Tim Dickinson on how U.S. tax policies have increased economic inequality. Link to hear the  Terry Gross interview with Dickinson on NPR.

Every member of our family loves reading Rolling Stone. I purchased a subscription for our son for Christmas about five or six years ago and then we would all go searching for it in his room after he had finished reading the latest issue. Of course it’s available online, but nothing equals curling up with (the physical manifestation of) a good book or magazine–besides, it gives your eyeballs a break from the computer’s glare.

Upcoming Programs

Happy Columbus Day!

The gorgeous weather coinciding with the long weekend is a gift and I am trying to enjoy every spare moment, spending time with my family along with taking advantage of the added opportunity to film more “B” roll for video projects. While photographing at Good Harbor Beach late in the day yesterday afternoon two Monarchs heading south flew past. There is a little passel traveling through Gloucester this weekend, along with a host of yellow sulphurs. Look for the butterflies on asters and seaside goldenrod.

I am delighted to tell you about several of my upcoming fall programs:

Wednesday, October12th, 6:30 Lexington Field and Garden Club  Annual Meeting at the National Heritage Museum ~  The Pollinator Garden

Thursday, November 3rd, 10:30 Amherst , NH Garden Club ~ Butterfly Gardening

Guests are welcome to attend!

Getting ready to make the fabulous Ken Duckworth’s Lobster Risotto!

Warmest wishes,

Kim

Fresh off the boat lobsters from Captain Joe and Sons

A Cat’s Map of the Bed

Hilary B. Price cartoon via daughter Liv

Tom Hauck Letter to the Editor Published in Time Magazine

Mom Liked Him Best

In response to last week’s featured story in Time Magazine, “Playing Favorites” by Jeffrey Kluger [October 3], husband Tom Hauck’s letter is published in this week’s issue:

I empathize with Kluger. But extrapolating his experience to all families is conjecture, not science. I am one of three siblings as well as a parent. I cannot remember one instance of favoritism shown by my parents to any of their children. Likewise, my wife and I love both of our children equally. Really, we do. For a black eagle, only one skill is necessary to survive–the ability to hunt and kill–so parents have every reason to favor their more robust offspring. But humans can survive and thrive using any number of skills, including reasoning, social skills and creativity, so your comparison is flawed. It’s entertaining to speculate about favoritism, but please do not call it science.

Thomas Hauck, GLOUCESTER, MASS

Duckworth’s Bistrot

Ken Duckworth  graciously shares his recipe for the most divine lobster risotto!

Nicole Duckworth

Friday night we celebrated my husband Tom’s birthday at Ken and Nicole’s fabulous restaurant, Duckworth’s Bistrot. Located on East Main Street, which runs along Gloucester’s working inner harbor, it is a mere 100 steps from their front door to ours, although whenever entering Duckworth’s, I feel transported and am reminded of the lovely bistrots dotting Parisian neighborhoods and seaside ristorantes along the Amalfi coastline. Cosmopolitan, yet neighborly, with its intimate and inviting atmosphere, Duckworth’s is my and my family’s favorite restaurant for special occasions—birthdays, anniversaries, graduations—truly any celebration gives reason to call for a reservation!

Crispy Polenta with Grilled Portabella Mushrooms

After

Grilled Sea Scallops

Chef Ken Duckworth draws from myriad influences, American and international, and the ingredients are pure New England. Captain Joe & Sons supplies fresh lobsters daily, the shrimp is wild caught and from domestic waters, and produce, eggs, and cheese are provided by local farmers. Changes to the menu are made day to day, depending on the seasonal availability of ingredients, although there are several dishes that are nearly always on the menu including Ken’s beautiful fruits of the sea stew, the crispy polenta and portabella mushroom appetizer, and my all time favorite, the lobster and vegetable risotto, with sautéed greens. All the desserts are made by Nicole Duckworth and with notice, she is able to create made-to-order cakes for special occasions.

Dan, Andy, and Michelle

Very Chocolate Cake

Andy, who also works in the kitchen, was our waiter Friday night, and over the years we’ve gotten to know Dan and Michelle. The staff is one of the reasons why a night out at Duckworth’s is always joyful experience. Thank you Duckworth’s for making my husband’s birthday so delightfully delicious and enjoyable!

Andy

Duckworth’s Bistrot | 197 East Main Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 |(978) 282.4426 | Google Map 
Serving Dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 4:00 to 9:30 P.M. – Reservations Recommended
.

Duckworth’s Bistrot Lobster Risotto

Lobster Sauce (yield 1 qt)

6-8 Med lobster bodies split in ½ lengthwise

1 large yellow onion, medium dice

2 carrots, med dice

4 ribs celery, med dice

4 fennel stalks, med dice

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

pinch of saffron

¼ cup tomato paste

zest of 1 lemon

½ cup brandy or cognac

1 qt milk

1 qt lt cream

salt/cayenne

4 oz butter

For sauce

• Melt butter in heavy casserole, add lobster bodies and sauté for about 3 minutes on both sides. Remove bodies leaving remaining butter and liquids in pan.
• Add all vegetables and cook until slightly caramelized
• Add bay leaves, saffron, zest, and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes
• Add brandy/cognac
• Return bodies to pot and add milk and cream
• Bring to simmer and refrigerate overnight
• Next day return to heat, bring to simmer and reduce to sauce-like consistency
• Stain thru sieve pressing bodies and vegetables with a ladle
• Strain again thru chinois and season with salt and cayenne

Lobster risotto, serves 4

½ cup small diced onion

bay leaf

1 ½ cup Arborio rice

3 cups chicken stock or water

4 one pound lobsters, cooked and picked, meat cut into chunks

3 tbsp butter or oil

For risotto

• Bring liquid to simmer in pan
• In another pan melt butter, sauté onion until soft. Add rice, stirring until rice is thoroughly coated and slightly toasted. Add 1 cup of liquid and cook until absorbed. Continue on low heat adding ½ cup of liquid at a time until rice is al dente.
• Fold in lobster meat, any blanched vegetables you like and about 2 cups of sauce. Stir until everything is incorporated.
• Check seasoning
• Remaining sauce can be frozen or kept in the refrigerator for about a week.

• Let me know if you try Ken’s recipe, either at home or at the restaurant. You will find yourself in epicurean heaven, I promise!

Vermont in the Aftermath of Hurricane Irene

Our son Alex came home from Green Mountain College, located in Poultney, Vermont, during the long Labor Day weekend. He was under the misguided assumption that he would be able to return to the college by public transportation. Only a week after Hurricane Irene had struck that simply was not the case. Typically what is a four hour drive each way, and a drive I am capable of accomplishing both ways in one day, took closer to eight hours each way, over a two day stretch, because of the impassable roads and torrential rain.

The grim reality of mile after mile of the mass destruction created by wind and water was overwhelming. The drive was harrowing and at every turn I imagined our lives ending in a violent crash. Based on road closing notifications I thought we had pre-navigated a safe route; west on Route 2 across Massachusetts and then north on 22 through eastern New York. Not all road closings had been posted! GPS was of no help at all as it is only capable of rerouting travelers to the shortest route and for much of the drive over desolate backcountry roads cell phone service was unavailable. We made it to the college at around 7:30pm. With the continuing downpour and utter loss as to how to navigate home in the dark I found a lovely inn (with the help of a local convenience store attendant) further down the highway in Fairhaven. A true beacon in the storm, The Maplewood Inn, was closed for business after the long weekend. Paul, the proprietor, was kind enough to answer my knock and open his door. After a night’s rest and fabulous home cooked breakfast prepared by Paul, I headed home, with driving directions thoughtfully supplied by Paul, based on the Vermont Transportation Department’s latest road closings. Unfortunately, additional detours had been created from the previous day’s storms.

Driving the back roads through the Vermont countryside would at some point in the future be a beautiful experience and I very much look forward to revisiting these roadways. Route 140 takes you winding through scenic farmland and the lushly gorgeous Green Mountains. Tuesday however it was drizzling rain and if you were not paying close attention every single second, your car could easily plunge down a ravine as huge chunks of road are washed away, with only orange cones denoting the lack of pavement. Thank goodness for comic relief–I nearly drove smack into a road closed sign and a friendly minister pulled up beside my car, asking me directions! We decided to venture the closed road only to come across a delivery truck stopped where the road had vanished. Fortunately, the truck driver was familiar with the area and he gave us excellent directions to get to the main highway. Both the clergyman and I followed him convoy-style to the highway. Thank goodness for blessings, small and large.

Mile upon mile of decimated cornfields

As the rain began to clear, I was overcome with a desire to photograph the unfolding landscape, but for the most part it really wasn’t safe to stop along the road. Because of the recent rainfall from tropical storm Katia, the rivers and streams were again frightfully swollen. I also did not want to obtrude in the face of people’s tragedies or get in the way of the National Guard and relief workers. As desperate as I was to find Interstate 91, I turned off the road into what appeared to be a vacant parking lot to stretch my legs, outside the town of Chester. It wasn’t a parking lot any longer. The raging river that ran alongside the lot and fields had ravaged the adjacent cornfield, great swaths of pavement had buckled, and the chain link fencing was a twisted and contorted mass of metal.

Parking lot

Click the above panorama to see full size. The flattened corn stalks on the left shows the flood’s path through the cornfield.

The damage to Vermont’s developing agriculture industry is beyond measure. Because of the fear of microbial contamination, every bit of fruit, vegetable, corn, and soybean touched by flood water has to be destroyed, and any crops growing below ground will, on a case by case basis, be examined for viability. Many of the organic farmers will have to be recertified (a lengthy process) and many fields will never again be used for agriculture because of the gargantuan boulders and prodigious stone debris deposited by the flood. I saw half-houses along river banks, the other half having been torn away, thousands of great trees with colossal and unwieldy root balls laying across riverbeds, streams, and alongside highways, and miles and miles of impassable roads. The photos were taken from a single site and are only mildly representative of the destruction in the wake of Irene.

Joe Garland

On my way to photograph the wildflowers and butterflies on Eastern Point I would often pass a couple so very obviously much in love, walking hand in hand along the shore road between Raymond’s Beach and Eastern Point Lighthouse. After perhaps the twentieth time passing by, I introduced myself and asked if they would mind posing for a snapshot. We began chatting and they asked what was it I was photographing. I mentioned the books I was writing, about garden design and butterflies, and the great numbers of Monarchs encountered, in the meadows and sleeping in trees. Joe became very animated and asked to see the Monarch trees–he had lived on Eastern Point nearly all his life and hoped to see this phenomenon one day. Of course, I would be delighted. We made a time to meet again to look for Monarch trees and to photograph.

Joe and Helen Garland October 2006

Joe and Helen became fast friends to Tom and I. Helen and Joe’s insight and wisdom helped me enormously during a challenging time with launching my first book.  I remain forever grateful for their assistance. Joe’s interests were varied and his was a brilliant mind. He wrote the most thoughtful blurb for my book–an author is expected to collect several blurbs, but Joe’s was so beautifully written, I only wanted his on my book’s jacket. And it was Joe who urged me to contact Carol Gray at the Sawyer Free Library about having a photo exhibit at the Matz Gallery. All of us who have been graced by Joe and Helen’s loving kindness will sorely miss Joe. Our thoughts and prayers are with Helen.

In Memoriam ~ The Garland family and the City of Gloucester welcome everyone to a celebration of the life of Joe Garland, Gloucester’s historian, writer, and civic-proponent who died August 30th at age 88. The all-volunteer event will take place on October 1, 2011, at 1 p.m. in the center of town at 65 Rogers Street, the harbor-front property formerly known as I4-C2.

Moving Days (Part Two)

Alex Goes to Green Mountain College, Vermont

We headed up to Vermont bright and early last Saturday morning, after first depositing Alex’s girlfriend Katherine, a senior in high school, at the train station. Both are committed to making a success of the coming year, but I know they will miss each other terribly.

Lots of farewell dinners-view from the Lobster Pool Restaurant, Rockport

The day was gorgeous, with no sign of  pending Hurricane Irene–besides, I thought, she is not coming to Vermont, anyway. We saved our appetites for the Trap Door Bakehouse and Cafe, with its spectacular view overlooking Quechee Gorge (see preceding post). The sandwiches and homemade pastries are simply divine–I had the Escargot–a beautiful confection wrapped in a spiral of almonds, cinnamon, and so many raisins spilling out I had to eat the breakfast pastry from it’s wax paper bag.

Quechee Gorge, Vermont, day before Hurricane Irene, from the Trap Door Cafe Overlook

We arrived at 11:00 to much waiting in line–leaving Alex there while I took Tom on a quick tour of the grounds. It was his first glimpse of the school and I think he was impressed with the beauty of the campus and the fact that it is meticulously maintained–not always the case with the many small colleges we toured. We briefly looked over the organic farm, which is entirely student run. Alex loves the outdoors and was drawn to Green Mountain for its environmental studies program and outdoor adventure education leadership program.

By mid-afternoon, Alex was moved in and we were told it was time for parents to leave. He is going to be sorely missed and all the qualities that I love in him–his sense of humor, charisma, kindness, consideration, wit, and intelligence, I hope serve him well while endeavoring to meet new friends and on this adventure into higher education. I am looking forward to parent’s weekend, not too far off, in late September.

Anticipating the long drive home, we had asked the proprietors of the Trap Door Bakehouse to recommend a restaurant in Woodstock. Without hesitation, they suggested Melaza. The Caribbean inspired dishes were superb. I sampled the coconut-crusted shrimp from the tapas menu and mixed green salad with yucca, artichokes, and olives. Tom was raving about his chicken, but neither of us can remember what it was called. Ironically, our waitress urged us to stay overnight in Woodstock, to avoid Irene, because her brother had been evacuated from Newburyport.

The light was warm and luminous as we departed Vermont and the mountainsides were aglow with great fields of tall goldenrod, brilliantly illuminated by the low slanting rays of late summer sun. I am overjoyed for our son and hope with all my heart he will find happiness, where ever his dreams may lead.

Canada Goldenrod (Solidago altissima, syn.  Solidago canadensis)

Moving Days (Part One)

Liv moves to Brooklyn to study voice and opera at NYU Steinhardt graduate program.

The Dreamer

What more could go wrong this month? Both kids totaled a car each and my best camera was left outdoors during a monsoon (saving that tale for another post). Mmmm, let’s see–oh yes, an earthquake occurs while moving Liv into her new apartment in Brooklyn. Although, I could look at as “every cloud has a silver lining,” or in the “glass is half full” vein–with both auto accidents, neither child was maimed or scarred, nor did either child injure another.

Tuesday morning we awoke at 5:oo and were well on our way by 6:30. The trip to Brooklyn was delightfully uneventful. After unloading the car and exploring the neighborhood, we headed over to Ikea for mattress and bookshelves. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were surprised to see hundreds of Ikea staff, clad in their unmissable bright yellow polo shirts, milling around the outside, and with faces buried deep in their cell phones. As Tom tried to pull into Ikea underground parking a furious fellow came charging over animatedly demanding “what are you doing.” Tom replied “parking.” The fellow informed us that an earthquake had occurred. We all three just looked at each other in disbelief and said to ourselves what more can go awry this month?

While waiting for the fire marshall’s ‘all clear’ to allow the store to re-open, we had the opportunity to explore the Erie Basin Park adjacent to Ikea Plaza. The Erie Basin Park is a waterfront walkway and park, and museum of sorts, dedicated to the former use of the site, which was a place with giant berths where mending of great ships took place. The enormous tools, cranes, bolts, and compass are displayed as sculpture and the exhibits are interactive and playful, yet formidable in the way they speak to the great history of the shipping industry.

Erie Basin crane formerly used to move great ships

Ikea remained closed so we drove back to Brooklyn to formulate an alternative plan for locating a mattress. Tom recalled seeing two Ikeas within driving distance of Brooklyn on Googles’ maps and Liv’s friend Dave recommended lunch at the very charming and classic Niçoise restaurant Pates and Traditions–with the most fabulous waitress and dessert–crêpes with homemade chocolate and cream, fresh pears, and almonds.

 Crêpes Helene 

We then headed to the Ikea in Elizabeth, NJ, where we became stuck in a two hour, gridlocked traffic jam at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. We finally gave up and were fortunately, able to turn around. By this time, the Ikea in Brooklyn had reopened. We just made it there by 7:30, in time to do all our shopping before the 9:00 closing time, otherwise Liv would have spent her first night in her new apartment on the floor. After assembling bed, bookcase, and lamps, we didn’t get back on the road to Gloucester until after 10:00–of course we got lost trying to navigate the parkways out of Brooklyn and arrived home nearly twenty-four hours later. A very long day–our bed has never felt so luxurious as it did that early morning.

The glass really is half-full and we are counting our blessings. Our daughter is living her dream!

Pates Traditions Restaurant

Moving Days (Part Two): Alex Goes to College, see next post.

Rockport High School Prom 2011

Pure joy to see Alex and friends on their way to prom. We hope a great time was had by all!

Alex and Meylang

More photos…

Cat’s Eye Sunglasses

Everything old is new again–it’s a girl-thing in our family–we just can’t get enough of those cat’s eye sunglasses! Looking through family snapshots inspired this posting. I wish I could locate an old photo my mom has of she, my two sisters, and me in our matching leopard print bathing suits, with coordinating cat’s eye sunglasses…

My mom in her cat eyes, guessing 1964, Central Park with brother Billy in the stroller, sisters holding the stroller, and me in front.

Me, twenty years later, at a friends opening on Newbury Street and wearing my Alain Mikli’s

Liv in her new sunnies-she convinced me to purchase a pair, too. Beautiful vintage-inspired “Annette” cat’s eye sunglasses by Corrine McCormick.

Alex to the Culinary Institute and Liv to NYU Steinhardt!!!!!!!

My husband and I are so very blessed…

I count my blessings everyday, but nothing, absolutely nothing could possibly have given me more joy than to see both our children heading this fall to their dream schools–Alex to the Culinary Institute of America and Liv to NYU Steinhardt graduate program. I am going to miss my darlings every single day although, knowing they have created these wonderful opportunities for themselves and are both pursuing their dream educations, proud beyond measure.

Liv, Alex, and cousin Hannah at Grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary

Alex is graduating from high school in only a month. He has spent the last four years, now in his fifth, earnestly and indefatigably learning the business at local restaurants, from dishwasher to cook. Liv, with her usual initiative, began studying with a wonderful voice teacher at NYU last fall. It is not an easy trek to the Big Apple, via the insane Fung Wah bus, and all in a day’s time in order  to make it back the following day for work–especially in the blizzardiest of winters!

As an added plus, the CIA is located in Hyde Park, New York, and Steinhardt in Manhattan, a mere one hour and fifty two minutes apart–again, we are so very blessed!

Alex did not receive an acceptance by email, just the usual snail mail package, but here’s Liv’s email from NYU:

Dear Olivia,

I am delighted to inform you that you have been accepted into our MM degree in Vocal Performance concentration in Classical Voice for the Fall 2011 semester!  Official notification is in the mail and should arrive to you shortly.  Congratulations!

Liv Unearthing Old Family Photos

I think I’ll poke around and have a look, too. Love the matching polka dot outfits, which I designed and stitched–when did I have the time do that!? I made her dress and mine in the last photo, too. And saving them all so my granddaughters can have fun vintage clothes shopping in Grandma’s closet, just as I did in my Mother and Grandmother’s closets.  I love my girl! xo Mom

More photos at Dessert or Disaster

When parents text

Daughter Liv is flying home tonight from graduate school vocal auditions. We’ve missed you honey! xox

More hilarity from Liv:  When Parents Text

 

Damn it, my Mom is on Facebook filter

Damn it, my Mom is on Facebook filter: I have recently joined Facebook. Without the help of my darling daughter Liv I think would have been completely lost in trying to navigate. Thanks honey! xo She forwarded this hilarious video from SNL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9L7gahli1M&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

 

Loving Our Sons and Daughters

Dear Friends,

A week ago a young man from our neighborhood and a childhood friend of our son’s died in a fatal car accident. Our hearts are breaking for his mom, younger brothers, dad, extended family, and friends.

Within our community and among my children’s circle of friends, this is the third such horrific death of a young man, in as many months.

Hold your sons and daughters. Tell them everyday how much you love them and why. Choose your battles to be few and far between. Try to help them as best and in as many ways as you can to see beyond their immediate teenage travails and anguish. Help them imagine the beautiful adult they will grow to become as they will know in their hearts that they are well- and greatly-loved and well- and greatly-appreciated.

There is nothing more shattering than a vibrant life ended prematurely and nothing more punishing than a life lived longer than that of your child’s.

And know, too, that there is randomness to death, no matter how hard you love your sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters.

In loving memory of my brother Bill

Hilton Netherland Plaza

Race Street Entrance with Brass Torcheres Flanking the Porte-cochère.

Notes About the Cincinnati Netherland Hotel Plaza and Carew Tower

I find it extraordinary that the plans for the Carew Tower and Netherland Plaza Hotel were announced in August of 1929, the foundation begun in January of 1930 and the project completed by January, 1931, not only because of the lightning speed in which this opulent monument to Art Deco design was constructed, but because the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 occurred several months after the project was first announced.

The financing came from the Emery family, which had made its fortune in Cincinnati’s stockyards. John Emery hired designer Walter W. Ahlschlager and Colonel William Starrett of Starrett Bros. & Eken of New York. William Starrett at that time was arguably the standard bearer of building first class buildings. Starrett Bros. & Eken are most famously known today as the builders of New York City’s Empire State Building. (For more information about William Starrett see The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark by John Tauranac, Scribner, 1995).

The Carew Tower and Netherland Plaza were designed to be what Col. William Starrett termed a “city-within-a-city.” By the time Emery brought him to Cincinnati, Starrett had written of his urban vision in his seminal book Skyscrapers and the Men Who Build Them (Scribner, 1928). Due to traffic density, Cincinnati was ranked the third most congested city in the U.S. Part theoretical and part practical, Starrett’s solution to the increasing density and street level congestion in American cities was an untried, mixed-use skyscraper complex—a city-within-a-city. Although the concept was new at the time, Emery was willing to risk his fortune, believing that the combination of department store, shops, offices, and hotel would invite downtown residents, workers, and visitors. The Carew complex was the first experiment in the design, construction, and development of such a concept and it inspired other mixed-use complexes such as Rockefeller Center, which was completed in 1934.

Emery’s vision for Cincinnati led to bold financial moves. He had approached the bank to underwrite his city-within-a-city project but because the concept was so novel the bank declined. Emery sold all his stocks and securities. The plans and the financing for the building complex were in place when the stock market crashed. Had he left his stocks and securities tied up in the market, he would have lost everything. The construction project became one of Cincinnati’s largest employers during the years after the Great Crash, creating over one thousand jobs.

The Restaurants at Palm Court

The Palm Court was once the main lobby for the hotel. Egyptian, French, and Greek influences abound and are transmuted into an eclectic vision of Art Deco design. At the far end of the Palm Court is a ram’s-head fountain with a breche marble ziggurat-shaped surround, guarded by two strikingly handsome seahorses, crowned with lotus-shaped lights.

George Unger, a talented theatre designer during the 1920s and 1930s, is credited with the majority of the interior design work. Although myriad mythological figures are found throughout the hotel—the ram, dolphin, seahorse, and mermaid represent protection for travelers—the variety of Art Deco images and forms were adopted not so much for their for their symbolic attributes, but for their dramatic visual effect.

Carew Tower Ceramic Arches

Detail of Ceramic Rookwood Art Tiles from the Carew Arcade Arches

The seahorse, fountain, and Carew Arcade ceramic tile arches were made at the world-renowned Rookwood Pottery studio located atop Mt. Adams, one of the seven hills surrounding Cincinnati. The magnificent floral arches are located on the east and west ends of the Carew Tower Arcade and are one of the largest installations of art pottery in the world. Because of their highly visible location they are one of the most publicly accessible. The tiles are the work of William E. Hentschel and are based on a repeating motif designed by the French metalsmith and armaments designer Edgar Brandt, establishing a link between Hentschel’s Arts and Crafts movement heritage and Brandt’s influence in the French Arts Décoratifs et Industrials Modernes of the mid-1920s. Although not ever directly acknowledged by the developer, builder, or architect, Brandt is considered the “decorative artist in absentia,” particularly of the Netherland Hotel. The appropriation of knock-offs of Brandt’s signature themes such as the frozen fountains, sunflower patterns, rams’ horns, and antelopes into the complex filled an immediate need for a decorative vocabulary in the massive building on the developer’s fast-track schedule.

 

The wall lighting in the Netherland Plaza was considered ground breaking design because the light bulbs were not visible through the silver and nickel sconces.

Lotus-shaped Light Crowning the Seahorse’s Coronet

 

Preparations Underway for the Grand Christmas Dinner Feast at the Palm Court!

A quiet morning after…

 

Confections created by hotel staff

The Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza is an Historic Hotel of America and in 1985 earned National Historic Register and National Landmark Status.

End Note: Breche marbles are a category of marbles that are of similar composition: the pressure and distortions at the time of the geological formation of the stone created a marble with large elements. See photo below and photo of the ram’s head statue surround.

Christmas in Cincinnati

Christmas in Beautiful Cincinnati

We spent the holidays with my husband Tom’s parents in downtown Cincinnati. Several years ago my in-laws sold their home on Indian Hill and moved to the city, which is located directly on the Ohio River in southwestern Ohio.  They love the close proximity of the new home to their church, offices, cultural institutions, and shops. Surrounded by seven hills, the beauty of the region was not lost on the early German immigrants; one of the oldest neighborhoods is still referred to as Over-the-Rhine. Cincinnati boasts a wealth of museums and performing centers and is a veritable treasure trove of superlative examples of American architecture.

For close to one hundred years the family has celebrated the holidays with an annual Christmas Eve party. The party was originated by Tom’s great grandmother Freida (Mrs. Louis) Hauck in their family home atop one of Cincinnati’s hilltops. Today, members of the “older” generation take turns hosting; this year was my mother and father-in-law’s turn. Comparing family photographs of the gala event from decades past, they have continued with the custom of hosting in the most elegant and lovely of German traditions. Particularly as the family becomes more dispersed with each passing year, the party affords a welcome opportunity to stay in touch.

Gorgeous Table Setting by Janet, my mother-in-law

Super Delicious Cake from The BonBonerie

As guests of my mother- and father-in-law, we were invited to stay at the Westin Hotel, which is located within walking distance of their apartment. The enchanting view from our hotel window:

Fountain Square, Cincinnati, Ohio

In search of breakfast on the first morning after arriving we left the lobby of the Westin, crossed Vine Street and entered the fascinating and fantastical French Art Deco world of the Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel and Carew Tower. We quickly found the luncheonette Hathaways, tucked in amongst the shops, a favorite spot of my father-in-law’s, then wandered the public areas of the Carew Tower, eventually wending our way through the lobby and restaurants of the Palm Court of the Netherland Plaza.

Husband Tom

Son Alex

Blanketed by a cold front, the sun shone once during our entire stay; however, that did not deter us from having a grand holiday. Perhaps the next time we visit my mother- and father-in-law in downtown Cincinnati, the weather will be warmer. I plan to bring you additional photos from the gorgeous Hilton Netherland Plaza—the snapshots in this posting and the following are but a modicum of the stunning design elements found there—as well as more photos representative of the beauty that is Cincinnati.

Batsakes~ Genuine haberdashery, located around the corner from the Westin, well-stocked with fedoras, pork-pies, et al.–custom gold-leaf monogramming, stamped inside the hat brim, is provided with purchase!

Alex

Sister-in-law Amy and beau Arnold

Nieces and cousins Carolyn, Hannah, and Katharine

Rookwood Pottery Overlook

 

Over the bridge to Newport Kentucky to keep son happy with with burger and shake…we miss you Johnny Rockets!

Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! for Holiday Giving

Music to my Ears: The following note is from my dear friend Kate Hines who built a beautiful home on a lovely piece of property—former farmland that borders the lush and fertile Rhode Island coastline. Thank you Kate for sharing!

“I was so inspired reading the section you wrote on hollies in Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! that I went to the local nursery and ordered 2 – a female 6′ and a male 5.’ Now they are mixed in with the evergreen grove to the north of the house. They were costly, a big project but soooooo satisfying! Ill send pix.”

XOXO KH

Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! makes for a very useful gift for the gardener (and loved-ones dreaming of creating a garden) on your holiday gift giving list. Last year at this time Carol Stocker, the Boston Globe garden columnist wrote the following about Oh Garden:

Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!

Boston Globe Best of 2009

For Armchair Gardeners Pining for Spring

“Bleak and snowy outside? These lush reads will have you dreaming green. January and February are the reading months for gardeners trapped indoors. Here are some of the best garden books from 2009. “Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Notes From a Gloucester Garden,’’ written and illustrated by Kim Smith (David R. Godine, Publisher), is a treasure, and perhaps the best garden gift book. Why? Both dream-like and practical, it captures the rapture of a gardener’s journey through her own evolving quarter acre by integrating Smith’s personal essays, hands-on advice, and paintings. I was charmed by her listing of specific scents of favorite peony varieties accompanied by a painted sample of their petal colors…”

Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Written and Illustrated by Kim Smith. Available through your local bookseller, David R. Godine, Publisher, and Amazon.

Homemade Furniture Polish

Be Kind to your House and Garden: Homemade Furniture Polish and More Beneficent Ideas

I must admit I am not the world’s greatest housekeeper. During the warmer months, we manage to keep our home tidy-enough by vacuuming, dusting, and mopping. Very time consuming household chores like washing and ironing curtains and slipcovers, scrubbing walls and woodwork, and polishing floor and furniture are relegated to the furthest corners of my mind. With gardens tucked-in for their winter respite, my thoughts turn to the holiday season and those cozy, nesting passions are reawakened. Cooking for friends and family is my favorite holiday activity, although prior to becoming immersed in the cooking life, I go on a cleaning tear.

Our wooden furniture was looking increasingly neglected, made worse by my mindset that I must go to a store and purchase furniture polish. Shopping for polish at the local grocery and hardware stores only proved frustrating because I could not find a single polish that provided the consumer with a list of ingredients. Furthermore, I had to ask myself why is it that I felt compelled to purchase furniture polish, especially since we already make so many of our own cleaning products from ingredients readily available from the pantry?

After only a very little experimenting the following is a recipe with which I am quite satisfied:

4 parts canola oil (or olive oil)

2 parts fresh lemon juice

2 parts white distilled vinegar

Optional: a few drops of almond and/or lemon extract

Combine all ingredients and pour into a recycled squeeze-bottle container (a plastic mustard squirt bottle, for example). The almond and lemon oil extracts are optional and only added because they smell super delicious. Shake vigorously before each use. Pour a small amount onto a clean, soft cloth (thinly-worn pure cotton t-shirt). Apply in a circle motion. Let the mixture soak in for a few minutes, then wipe and polish with a dry, soft cloth. I have satisfactorily used this recipe on everything from hundred year-old burled walnut veneers to contemporary pieces of fruitwood and cherry wood. Make the polish in small batches and store any remaining for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. Cautiously, first try this formula in an inconspicuous area. I once stupidly poured commercial polish on a lovely nineteenth century writing desk that I had meticulously restored. The end result was a terrible grayish-white hazing in the shellac.

There are myriad commercial cleaning products that can be easily replaced with common-to- every kitchen ingredients. I love to use household ingredients for cleaning because you never come away gagging from the droplets that you invariably inhale as you do with the great majority of toxic and overly perfumed commercial cleaners. For many, I don’t need to extol the virtues of plain white distilled cider vinegar. But, just in case you don’t know of the power of white vinegar for home and garden, the following are just a few of the hundreds of different uses for distilled white vinegar.

We purchase vinegar inexpensively by the gallon and use it in varying strengths to clean various surfaces. A mild ratio of water to vinegar (10 parts water to 1 part vinegar) is ideal for wooden floors (and is also the choice cleaning agent that all floor refinishers I have worked with recommend), and a slightly stronger ratio of vinegar to water makes a fantastic glass cleaner. White vinegar added to the wash is a wonderful whitening agent and deodorizer. I find wonderful vintage linens and tablecloths at flea markets, where they may have been stored in a smoky environment. The smell of embedded cigarette and cigar smoke is easily removed with an overnight soaking of mild detergent and white vinegar. Vinegar also makes a great kitchen deodorizer after cooking a curry dish or sautéing fish. Place a half-cup of vinegar in a shallow bowl or saucer on the stovetop after cooking. You’ll be surprised when you wake up—the vinegar will have absorbed that next-morning-fish-fry or curry odor.

White vinegar has many uses in the garden. We regularly soak all bird feeders in a white vinegar and water solution, with a few drops of dish detergent added. White vinegar is also useful for removing the residue inside flower vases. For vases with very narrow necks, stuff the vase with a vinegar-soaked paper towel. For unwanted weeds growing in the cracks and crevices and between the stone and brick of your terrace, walkway, patio, or sidewalk, fill a recycled spray bottle with undiluted vinegar. Thoroughly wet the weed’s foliage, and also direct the spray toward the base of, with the vinegar and it will typically shrivel and die. Be mindful not to spray on any surrounding foliage, as it too will die.

I recently read that a mixture of two parts white vinegar and one part molasses placed in a tin can and hung from a tree is an effective method of capturing moths. I am planning to experiment with this formula in hopes of capturing a few of the dreadful winter moths (Operophtera brumata) and will let you know whether or not successful. Perhaps with the vinegar/molasses mixture, along with dormant oil sprayed after the moth’s egg-laying cycle is complete, we can at least mitigate some of the damage created, without harming the tree and other wildlife that is supported by the tree.

Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

Amaryllis Hippeastrum

Amaryllis ‘Ambiance’

Dear Gardening Friends,

We have been blessed with a delightfully warm autumn, which has made these last few weeks in the garden a delight. As I am preparing gardens for their winter rest, my thoughts turn to the upcoming holidays and the winter blooms that will make the season all that much brighter. I hope you don’t mind—the following is from the chapter on Coaxing Winter Blooms, excerpted from Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! With our son’s soccer team headed to the state finals, I haven’t had the ability to focus, spare time to write, or accomplish much of anything besides work. We’re all on pins and needles in anticipation of the Big Game!

Warmest wishes and Season’s Greetings, Kim

P.S. Results of Sunday ‘s game: CONGRATULATIONS VIKINGS, the new Division Three North Massachusetts State Champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rockport Vikings 1, St.Mary’s, Lynn 0. Wednesday’s game against the winning southern region state champs will be held in Quincy at 5:00pm. GO VIKINGS!

A Note about Amaryllis

Living in New England the year round, with our tiresomely long winter stretching miles before us, and then a typically late and fugitive, fleeting spring, we can become easily wrapped in those winter-blues. Fortunately for garden-makers, our thoughts give way to winter scapes of bare limbs and berries, Gold Finches and Cardinals, and plant cat-alogues to peruse. If you love to paint and write about flowers as do I, winter is a splendid time of year for both, as there is hardly any time devoted to the garden during colder months. I believe if we cared for a garden very much larger than ours, I would accomplish little of either writing or painting, for maintaining it would require just that much more time and energy.

Coaxing winter blooms is yet another way to circumvent those late winter doldrums. Most of us are familiar with the ease in which amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulbs will bloom indoors. Placed in a pot with enough soil to come to the halfway point of the bulb, and set on a warm radiator, in several week’s time one will be cheered by the sight of a spring-green, pointed-tipped flower stalk poking through the inner layers of the plump brown bulbs. The emerging scapes provide a welcome promise with their warm-hued blossoms, a striking contrast against the cool light of winter.

Perhaps the popularity of the amaryllis is due both to their ease in cultivation and also for their ability to dazzle with colors of sizzling orange, clear reds and apple blossom pink. My aunt has a friend whose family has successfully cultivated the same bulb for decades. For continued success with an amaryllis, place the pot in the garden as soon as the weather is steadily warm. Allow the plant to grow through the summer, watering and fertilizing regularly. In the late summer or early fall and before the first frost, separate the bulb from the soil and store the bulb, on its side, in a cool dry spot—an unheated basement for example. The bulb should feel firm and fat again, not at all mushy. After a six-week rest, the amaryllis bulb is ready to re-pot and begin its blooming cycle again.  Excerpt Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! ~ Coaxing Winter Blooms

Amaryllis ‘Orange Sovereign’

St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms Concert

Our daughter Liv is singing every Sunday at the lovely St. Johns’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms. The music program, under the direction of organist and choirmaster Nicholas White, is divine. This coming Sunday afternoon (November 7th) at 4:00 pm is a special concert of Requiem ~ Gabriel Faure, with chamber orchestra and soloists, featuring the combined choirs of St. John’s Church, Beverly Farms, and Christ Church, Andover. The program will also include Felix Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, as well as his Organ Sonata III in A Major. Barbara Bruns is the organist, with Nicholas White conducting. I hope you will come hear this gorgeous music, with Liv singing!

Vote for Duval Patrick: Tom Hauck letter to the Gloucester Daily Times Editor

A thought-provoking succinctly stated published letter to the editor of the Gloucester Daily Times, in support of Governor Duval Patrick, written by my husband Tom Hauck:

In their attempts to sway Massachusetts voters, Republican candidates, including Charlie Baker and Bill Hudak, offer the seductive elixir of tax cuts as the cure for our economic woes and the way to revitalize our economy. We have heard this merry tune before, and we should know that it hasn’t worked in the past and won’t work again.

“Supply-side economics” states that by lowering economic barriers for people to produce or supply goods and services, the result is economic growth. These barriers to supply are lowered not by investing, but by reducing income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by reducing government regulation. In theory, the result is an expanded economy that leads to an increase in tax revenue.

The Reagan administration was the first to implement supply-side policies. President Reagan promised that the government could maintain expenditures, cut tax rates, and balance the budget. It didn’t happen. Government revenues fell sharply from levels that would have been realized without the Reagan tax cuts. Reagan entered office in 1980 with a $79.0 billion budget deficit. By September 1988, the deficit had ballooned to $2.6 trillion – over thirty times as large. Meanwhile, a reduction in the top marginal individual income tax rate from 70% to 28% helped to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. The theory was that by helping the rich get richer, wealth would “trickle down” to the middle class. This was nonsense. The rising tide did not lift all boats, only the yachts of the wealthy.

Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, was forced to raise taxes to offset the massive federal deficit caused by a recession and low tax revenues. For his courage he was (and still is) vilified by the far-right wing of the Republican Party.

Members of Reagan’s own staff have repudiated supply-side economics. Most recently, in a New York Times op-ed piece of July 31, 2010, David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, says, “If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. . . It is unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.”

Republicans have a recurring habit of wanting to play Santa Claus to the voters. They hand out irresponsible tax cuts like candy at a holiday party. Then the economy sours and the Republicans stand back while Democrats come in and do the dirty work of restoring tax rates to former levels. Once the economy is healthy again, the Republicans howl about the terrible Democrats increasing taxes. It is a tiresome routine that voters should reject on November 2 in favor of realistic, progressive solutions to the challenges facing our state. We don’t need Santa Claus promising unsustainable tax cuts. To elect leaders willing to make tough decisions, vote for Deval Patrick and John Tierney.

Thomas Hauck

Gloucester, MA

Rockport Vikings 4, Whittier 0

GO VIKINGS! Another outstanding win by the Rockport Vikings varsity soccer team. Tomorrow the team plays at Ipswich and Friday is a home game against Pentucket. Keep up the great work guys!

Tom Hauck Opinion Letter to the Gloucester Daily Times

Another great letter to the editor from my husband Tom to the Gloucester Daily Times, September 29th, regarding the upcoming Massachusetts gubernatorial election.

To the editor:

As the November elections draw near, the topic that is dominating our national and state discussion is unemployment. There is hardly a candidate for any office, either in Massachusetts or in any other state, who does not agree that the current national unemployment rate of nine percent is unacceptable. However, there is tremendous disagreement on who is to blame and what should be done to reduce it.

The Republicans, including Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, are offering a familiar menu of tax cuts and business deregulation. The theory is that business, once free of the chokehold of government taxation and regulation, will be empowered to grow and to increase hiring. Everyone who wants a job will be able to find one.

It is a deceptively simple tonic that resonates with many voters. And, as is usually the case, it is up to the Democrats to offer the more nuanced and more accurate assessment of the problem and the solution.

The fact is that companies, whether large or small, are not in the business of creating jobs. This may sound shocking to our Republican friends, but the bottom line is that businesses exist to make a profit for their owners. Making a profit and providing jobs are not identical. In fact, they can be mutually exclusive. An unprofitable corporation that needs to become profitable will cut expenses. Often the quickest and most effective way to do this is to cut jobs. Employees cost money, and the fewer of them you have, the lower your costs. If you need more employees to increase revenues, then you hire them. But they are an expense, just like a new truck or a computer. It is not in the mission statement of any corporation, anywhere, that the goal of business is to create jobs. The mission is to create profits. In the current fiscal quarter, American businesses are doing this very well and the stock market is continuing to rise.

This is one reason why we are having a “jobless recovery.” Profitable businesses aren’t hiring because they don’t have to.

Voters should always suspect the candidate who touts a successful record in business as qualification for elected office. Sure, Charlie Baker “saved” Harvard Pilgrim. He did this by jacking up rates by 150 percent. This scheme to generate revenues the easy way may have worked at Harvard Pilgrim, but it has nothing to do with being the chief executive in government. The mission of government is to help people live better lives. This very different from simply posting a quarterly profit. To balance the state budget, Charlie Baker blithely says he will cut 5,000 state jobs. Where will these people end up? On the state unemployment rolls. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Candidates like Governor Deval Patrick who clearly see the forces that shape our economy know better than to bring simplistic corporate solutions to the vastly more complex world of government.

Rockport Soccer: Seven Wins 0 Losses!!!

The mighty Vikings won a hard fought game against the Tritons last night-Rockport 3, Triton 2. I did not bring my camera last night so the following are random shots from several recent games.

Goalie Keady

#10 Shaffy Roelle

#16 Cam Tibert

#21 CJ and #7 Nick

Alex, Tucker, Shaffy, Andrew

Andrew, Tucker, Alex

#28 AJ

#13 Caden Tibert

#12 Connor Douglas

Alex and Keady