Living Well

Cocktails, Downton Abbey and Linens

January 15th, 2012 15 Comments

Thoughts from Sally: During last week’s Downton Abbey segment I was taken by Lady Mary Crawley’s comment to Sir Richard before dinner, “You see that having a cocktail before dinner has not reached the countryside yet.” It made me wonder when the cocktail was invented. Do you know?

Here’s Mathew with Lavinia, not Mary :(

I’ll bet if cocktails HAD made it to the countryside at Downton they would have been served with cloth napkins.

I was rumaging around in my linen drawer the other day and found my cocktail napkins. Real, made-out-of-cloth-ones. These have been saved from obscurity by virtue of having been passed down to me, from my mother and my aunt. My mother taught me what these were when we were downsizing my aunt’s house. I might have been confused by their size, as to their purpose.  They are actually a little bit bigger than a coaster. So I asked my mother, “What are these for?” Thus my education.

One of my favorites is this little natural linen with fringed edges. They are about 5″ x 7″, including the fringe. It’s fun to get them out for small parties, because these days most people are used to paper napkins.

linen cocktail napkin

I think it is fun and festive to serve cocktails on a footed tray. Here are my favorite cocktail napkins on my favorite footed silver tray.

Love this Rococo style silver foot:

Another Fun set of cocktail napkins are from the 1950′s, the era when cocktail parties were so popular and chic. Look at the embroidery on these – each one with a different cocktail and its name!

They are made out of simple linen, like a handkerchief linen, and are each about 5″ x 8″ long. Notice the little hand rolled and stitched hem. So cute. Here they are on a tray, ready to serve our guests.

And last, but not least, another of my favorite color: yellow. These little napkins are big enough to put in your lap, if you are carrying an hors d’oeuvre plate, but folded they are only 6″ x 6″ including fringe. Aren’t they cute? I love them for their fringe and their engaging color!

Here they are with champagne flutes, ready to entertain with style.

Now, your task: take a look in YOUR linen drawer and see what you come up with! One of my readers was inspired by my last linen blog post to get out her linens and use them again! Way to go!

Until next time,

Holiday Traditions: Part 1 – Luminaria Street Lighting

December 19th, 2011 26 Comments

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago – Sally and several neighbors came up with the idea of a lighting our neighborhood streets with luminaria for an evening during the Holiday Season.  It took a little negotiating with the city, in particular the fire department, but eventually everyone agreed that it was a capital idea and well worth doing. Over the years through rain, sleet, snow and rain ( Do I sound like the mail man or what???) it has become a neighborhood tradition.  This evening, the weather was superb – encouraging me to sneak out to snap a few pictures.

The luminaria is very simple to assemble… one white paper bag filled with a little sand and a votive candle.

Place the lumineria about 10 – 12 feet apart at curbside. (Much easier done during daylight hours…)

 

Lighted streets in the neighborhood.

 

Can you see the remnants of sun set?

 

Have a wonderful week!

Merry, merry!

An open invitation to fellow bloggers and readers to a virtual food and wine pairing & tasting on December 29th.

December 16th, 2011 10 Comments

Last Thursday, I spent a delightful evening with Jo-Ann Ross talking about wine, creativity and design. To me, these three topics are intertwined on many levels and in ways that I can not clearly explain. You see, there are certain wines, and I can not predict when it will happen, where the smell and/or taste of the wine transport me someplace else. (See earlier post here.) It’s hard for me to put into words – those smells and tastes – but some times, emotional impressions and images flash across my mind. Or a thought/question is triggered that takes me someplace I otherwise never would have gone and I will end up sitting in front of my computer exploring the thought/question.

On an impulse, I suggested that we do something Sally and I did with a friend about this time last year – a progressive tasting to see how a wine changes as levels of complexity are added to the food we are pairing it with. I grabbed a bottle of Roederer Brut Premier champagne that was chilling in the fridge along with smoked salmon, capers, a sweet onion and a package of stone ground wheat thins.

 

What we did was progressively add ingredients to the crackers between sips of champagne. The sequence goes like this. Sip of champagne, cracker, sip of champagne, cracker and salmon, sip of champagne, cracker, salon and capers, sip of champagne and finally cracker, salmon, capers and sweet onion, sip of champagne. After each sip of champagne, I described my visual impressions. What was so amazing is how dramatically those impressions changed as we went through the progression.

Here’s a sampling of what I “tasted”… Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words…

Champagne: The wine was bright, fresh and slightly acidic. It made me want something slightly salty.  There was the smell of brioche on the nose. It felt like summer. A sunny bistro with cobblestone streets, a horse and buggy ride around Central Park and oysters on the half shell came to mind…

 

 

Image Source Unknown

 

Cracker and champagne: The earthier aspects of the wine came to the fore, soft and subtle.  I felt I was sitting at the edge of a of salt marsh in the early morning or in a light filled  Gustavian interior.

Image Source Unknown

 

Image from Classical Swedish Architecture and Interiors by Johan Cederlund

Image from Classical Swedish Architecture and Interiors by Johan Cederlund

 

Cracker, salmon and champagne: WOW!!! Suddenly I was sitting on a porch listening to Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring – replete with sweeping vistas, the Great Plains and purple mountains majesty.

Creating a New Old House, by Russell Versaci

 

 Photo by Michael Forster, Her Majesty

 

Photo by Michael Forster, October in the Tall Grass

 

Image Source Unknown

 

Cracker, salmon, capers and champagne: With the additon of capers to the mix, I immediately thought of New York City – sleek, slick, a modern racy interior. But then again, maybe the sophistication of Soho loft?

 

Mindel & Associates, October 2010 AD

 

Mindel & Associates, October 2010 AD

 

Laura Zarubin – Designer,  Elle Decoration UK Edition, November 2009

 

Cracker, salmon, capers, onion and champagne: Who would have thought onion would be the binder that brought it all together! (Much like in design where a subtle tweek will snap a whole room into focus.) Suddenly it was as though a concerto was playing, with all sections in perfect balance, Fanny Mendolson perhaps? I was transported back to France - to a country villa, a Dutch master painting with oysters and lemons popped in to my head…

Town & Country, issue unknown

 

Town & Country, issue unknown

 

William Claesz Heda

 Such pleasure and wonderful conversation all from a few simple ingredients! Classic!

And now I have a proposition for all of you. I’d like to extend an open invitation to my fellow bloggers and readers to try this exercise and post your impressions on Thursday, December 29th. (Maybe do it with some of your Holiday guests.) It’s fun, festive and stretches your mind and senses. I’d love to see/hear what you tasted and “saw”.  Let your imagination run free! Sally and I will try something else and share our flights of fancy, too. I bet they will be totally different.

Merry, Merry!