1. J.Crew cashmere hoodie | 2. Jenny Bird cuff | 3. Tory Burch smart watch | 4. Gucci wallet | 5. Barneys New York hat | 6. J.Crew turtleneck | 7. Target blanket | 8. Jenny Bird earrings | 9. Sam Edelman boots
Once it starts getting cold outside, we’re just as content spending time at home cooking as we are heading out to one of our favorite restaurants — and on those coldest days, few things are better than cozying up inside with music playing as we mix up cocktails and try out a new recipe together. I tend to add a new cookbook to our collection each year to keep things fresh, so I was especially excited to receive a review copy of Pantry and Palate last month. Pantry and Palate focuses on the culinary traditions of the Acadians, the descendents of French colonists who settled in Canada’s maritime regions, through journalist Simon Thibault’s exploration of old family recipes, vintage cookbooks, and folk wisdom. “Comfort cooking at its finest” is probably the best way to describe the hearty meals within, but the cookbook is more than that. Thibault’s notations throughout the book share the history and tradition of the region — and the recipes themselves — adding a welcome dose of soul to Pantry and Palate.
I was able to share two recipes from the collection with you: rhubarb conserves and du bon pain blanc (or, “good white bread”). I haven’t made either yet, but I thought you’d love having these on hand for the upcoming holiday season.
RECIPE | RHUBARB CONSERVES
Makes 4–6 ( 500ml ) Bottles
From the Author
The initials “BL”were written next to this recipe. I’m not sure who “BL”is, but I would like to thank her very much for this recipe. “Soak overnight 2 quarts rhubarb and sugar,”it asks. There were no instructions for how and when to use the citrus, which is used to add pectin to the preserves. I decided to zest and juice the lemon and orange, and then let them macerate along with the rest of the fruit. I’m glad I did, as the smell in the morning was enough of a pick-me-up that I forgot to make coffee. I put the rhubarb straight into a pot to slowly simmer over a couple hours, reducing and thickening it into a tart/sweet jumble that smelled like a cross between poached rhubarb and marmalade. Midway through the cooking, I had a taste, and I may or may not have done a little dance. A note (or two): The original recipe asks for 1 to 2 quarts of sugar. I only used one, as I found it sweet enough. Once the rhubarb starts cooking down, give it a taste. If you think it can handle a bit more sugar, add a 1/4 cup or so, until it gets to the taste you’re looking for. And even though it’s not traditional, a vanilla bean that has been split in half and scraped of its seeds never hurt anyone. When it comes to the citrus fruits, you may want to place them in cheesecloth before you add them into the pot for cooking. It makes it easier if you wish to remove them from the preserves. I keep mine in as I like the slightly bitter taste I get from them.
Ingredients
Instructions
RECIPE | DU BON PAIN BLANC/GOOD WHITE BREAD
Makes 1 Loaf
From the Author
“Du bon pain blanc” is the headnote I find in Rosalie’s notebook. This bread recipe is one of the few that asks for packages of yeast, something that would have been relatively new for a baker of her era. All of her other recipes called for cakes of yeast, which were much more common at the time. The recipe also calls for milk, buttermilk, and sugar, which would enrich the bread’s flavour and extend its shelf life. This enriched white bread reminds me slightly of an eggless challah, or even French pain au lait. It’s a great white bread to eat on its own, as toast, and, perhaps best of all, cut into slices and left out to dry overnight for pain perdu, also known as French toast.
Ingredients
Instructions
Pantry and Palate by Simon Thibault | Target runner (the print is also available in placemats) | Target bowls | Target serving board (similar here and here) | Saint Linen towels
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Excerpted from Pantry and Palate by Simon Thibault © 2017, Recipe text by Simon Thibault. ©2017, Recipe photographs by Noah Fecks. All rights reserved. Published by Nimbus Publishing
I ordered this dress (on sale here) and these boots earlier this week, and provided they both work out, I’m putting my credit card on lock down when it comes to purchases for myself. Everything that pulls at my heartstrings over the next month and a half will find its way to my holiday wish list to we’ll see if Santa is feeling generous! It’s kind of fun to make that switch to the holidays, isn’t it?
Speaking of which, I’m unbelievably excited for the holiday season this year, especially when it comes to decorating our first house. In fact, I’ve already been sneaking decorations out of storage! We have a few projects we’d like to tackle this weekend before it gets too cold; I’d like to put some Christmas lights on the house so we’re not risking frostbite in a few weeks, my parents are going to be here to drop off a snowblower for us, and Dave’s dad is going to help install a garage door opener. I hope your weekend is more relaxing than ours will be!
Weekend Reading:
Five Under $50:
Earlier This Week:
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image via Unsplash
The snow will be flying before we know it, and while I love how a blanket of white makes the holidays feel more festive, I’m not terribly excited about trekking out in it! I typically reach for my Hunter boots. No, they’re not warm and they’re certainly not insulated, but they are waterproof and they’re a decent option for short jaunts when worn with a pair of thick hiking socks. On the more practical side of things, I have a pair of L.L. Bean boots for when I actually need to be outdoors for an extended period of time. (These will be especially handy this year, since we’ll have to shovel and snow blow now that we have a house!) But I’ve been on the lookout for something in the middle of these two. I want something fashion-forward, comfortable enough to walk a couple of miles in, looks cute with both jeans and dresses, and would keep my feet warm. It’s a tall order and I’ve been obsessively searching for cute options over the last month. I finally ordered these to try and thought I’d share some of the others that were on my short list this season in case you’re in the same boat.
ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX
As you may have gathered, we’re not exactly rushing things when it comes to our house. We’ve done a lot of work when it comes to the basics like painting (yet there’s still a ton to do) and refinishing the floors, but decided to ease into it when it came to furnishing and decorating our space. It’s tempting to add every piece we love from, say, West Elm and CB2, and do a quick turnaround that we’d be content with. However, we don’t want our home to look like the brands’ catalogs circa 2017 in a few years.
Sure, we did add a few West Elm pieces to our house (namely the coffee table we already owned, the bar cabinet, nightstands, and the duck lamp), but we’ve been seeking out other retailers as much as possible. We went to a local furniture store to pick out our couch, which is this beauty from Younger. We found our TV console/credenza from an L.A.-based designer on Etsy. We’ve picked up a vintage map of Denmark to frame. We’re also incorporating items we’ve picked up on our travels into our decor — and hope to buy more housewares when we’re traveling now that we actually have a house instead of an over-stuffed apartment! Basically, we hope that by taking our time to collect items we’re both crazy about will create a space that truly reflects our style.
That isn’t to say there aren’t challenges when it comes to creating a space as a couple. Dave and I agree on a lot of items that are Danish-inspired or mid-century modern, but that’s not always the case when it comes to decorations and artwork. After we had our offer accepted on the house this spring, I had the opportunity to work with Minted to choose an art print for our new home. Talk about the best housewarming gift ever! It hit on our design preference of adding a high-quality print by an independent artist to our home, so we were obviously on board. I spent hours scouring their incredible collection of prints from independent artists and came up with a few options for our living room:
Dave hated the direction I was going in and didn’t think a bright, beachy vibe belonged in a house in Wisconsin. While I insisted that it would be nice to come home and feel like you’re on vacation, it wasn’t a strong enough argument to sway him! So, I tasked him with coming up with some that he liked:
I liked some of the prints he picked, like the one of Stockholm, and the color scheme was similar to mine, but they just didn’t resonate with me. I was obviously disappointed, so he told me that I could just pick whatever I wanted and he’d be fine with it. It was awfully tempting to just go with a beach print and call it a day, but I didn’t want to do that. We were picking out a large print and I wanted him to love everything about our living room each time he came home. So, I was prepared to compromise and identified the things that were most important to us: I wanted something that had cool tones and either a beach print or an abstract; he wanted something that was sophisticated and reminded us of a place we’ve traveled to. During these discussions, we decided that we’d love to go with a 44″ square print so that helped narrow our search by size. We found this:
When we came across “Sombras” by artist Lulaloo with our compromise-criteria in mind, we knew it was the one. It had a sophisticated, cool color palette with an abstract design; and it reminded me, at least, of being en route to a destination. I’m actually surprised I liked it as much as I did because the print could come off as a cold, wet winter day. But I actually get a sense of coziness and warmth from the piece, especially of when it comes to the couple toward the middle. We placed the order immediately — before either one of us could second guess it!
When you’re ready to place your order with Minted, you have options to customize your print to your liking and budget:
The print arrived roughly a week later, which was a bit earlier than we expected! Our floors were beginning to be refinished, but I was able sneak the print into the house before the stain and polyurethane was applied to the floors. When we finally unwrapped it, it was even better than we anticipated. It’s well packaged so that the frame doesn’t get damaged in transport. The frame is well made and sturdy. It also comes with a hanging wire on back so that it’s ready to be displayed. I wish you could see the quality in person. I know it’s a gamble to order art online, but Minted surpasses all expectations.
Next week, I’ll talk about how the print works with the other pieces in the living room, along with a few progress photos of where things are at!
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Thank you to Minted for partnering on this post!