Posts filed under 'Beauty'
Three days now of sun… could this be summer?
This is anything but a brag shot situation, because the weeks of rain have left so many damages and weeds, I had to really hunt for shots that I could gulp and show, but having gone out with camera as well as tools, this is what there is.
That’s how you just came into the garden and onto the terrace. I am calling the part on the right “Mint Madness” this year.
Look who’s peeking down at us from on high. It’s the gufo, otherwise known as Tilda.
She has re-entered the kitchen at least twice now by climbing this rose. She won’t come out now because Bear is there and she trusts no cat.
If we look across the terrace and squint a bit, we can see a sea of hemerocallis just starting to toss flowers at us.
We would go down there using these stairs if the roses hadn’t completely closed them off.
A few of the potted things really need to be pulled out to share some of the sun.
And when we go inside we find Tilda has found amusement in picking cherries up by their stems through the net covering the flat. Once they were opened, she tossed them onto the floor and chased them for a bit. I found and washed all of them, except the two I later stepped on. I thought Guinness might be interested in a cat that doesn’t like chicken but likes cherries, but I suppose all cats like to chase cherries.
June 21st, 2008
This is an approved Ascot ensemble. 
Not so very many of us will attend Ascot Week and even fewer of us will attend in the Royal Enclosure. Apparently, however, enough uninitiated types have been invited in the past that the overseeing officials had to introduce new dress rules. If you are to be in the same place as the queen, there are things you cannot do.
I thought the article was mildly interesting, but I thought the Ascot don’ts were hilarious. It made me wonder what these people thought they were attending. Certainly they weren’t at any horse race I ever attended!
If you go to the races and stay in a private box, inside, I don’t suppose it matters what you wear to anyone except the box owner, but if you go to point to point races or stay at course side, you are walking on grass or even mud, there’s little if any shade available. It doesn’t take a queen in attendance to make those clothes funny!
PS/ I didn’t really like any of the clothes shown, but I loved some of the hats.
June 18th, 2008
My column is published this morning. Go read all about those pants!
June 12th, 2008
This is one of the things you might see if you spend time with your cat on the terrace. They come out very late and night and dig holes in the lawn. In a single night a pair of them can destroy over 10 square meters! They never work for the Italian Postal Service.
They always work in pairs. They mate for life, we are told. They are not very intelligent animals, so for life doesn’t mean that long. I have been told several times that hitting one can puncture your tires. I frankly have a hard time believing that.
The above photograph came from a website that should be bookmarked for every lover of Italy. It’s called “Life in Italy” and the “Wildlife in Italy” page lays bare who is doing all that damage to your garden while you sleep. There are insect photographs that instill character and charm into bugs. To be perfectly honest, I have never seen an Italian porcupine looking so laid back and chubby. They always have their enormous spines up when I see them, and then it looks like a tiny creature with an exaggerated hairdo.
Are you feeling well today? If not, have a look here at what is growing in this garden to make you feel better.
Hungry? Here is a recipe made of the familiar nettle — a herb you will find bothers your cat not at all.
Here a claim is made that Italian snails and slugs like red wine instead of beer. Beware of the last photo on that page. You might be willing to sacrifice your plants to that face.
June 11th, 2008
Yves Saint Laurent probably changed your life, even if you never knew it. It was he who precisely removed us from fussy clothing from the Post War period and replaced us in clean, easy clothing that allowed us to move, to work, to challenge the place in which society had put us.
Of course he did not do this alone, but he led the way. In looking at the linked photo album, I realized there was not a garment in there that you couldn’t wear now. (Well, maybe that puffy thing in the next to the last photo, but that looks like something that never got made.) I certainly wore his designs. I wore the boutique versions, to be sure, but also clothes inspired by YSL and made by others. I have to this day a tuxedo suit that will fit me again the day my hips are once more 31″.
For several weeks now I have been pondering the question of why the things we call classics are classics. One hundred years ago those things almost didn’t exist, and yet we call them classical. Almost every advice for older women encourages them to wear updated classics, by which is meant plain trousers, tailored jackets, shirts and blouses, straight skirts and some versions of pleated skirts. Add a coat dress and a sheath or tube, depending on your figure, and that’s what is called a classic wardrobe. Everything on that list was presented to us by Yves Saint Laurent. Without YSL, Geoffrey Beane and Calvin Klein would have to be chefs or florists.
I chose the above photo to represent him, because he looks in it young, strong, capable of everything and I think he’d like to look like that forever. Goodbye, Yves, and thank you for freeing us from petticoats.
June 4th, 2008
I think this collection is worth looking at for several reasons. First, it’s Oscar de la Renta without Oscar, although it isn’t the first collection without him. Second, it may be helpful in terms of making sure what we buy for summer 2008 will still be current in 2009. Third, the resort collections are always interesting because unlike the two big runway collections, resort wear is intended to be bought and worn. It’s designed to be wearable by real customers because the people who tend to need summer clothes in the dead of winter can afford the real thing.
I like these clothes. They are pretty, colorful and wearable by a wide variety of women, and not just anorexic Russian adolescents. I liked these clothes last year when Marc Jacobs presented them… or am I all wrong there? Could I have mistaken that hat?
May 17th, 2008
I’m going to let Linda Grant say it for me, using her sock puppet Stone.
If this man had no other purpose in the world, to me it would be enough to know that no matter how bad I may look any particular day, he looks worse.
April 25th, 2008
This is garlic before it matures and before the papery covering starts to form. It tastes like garlic plus something. It’s very mild and I enjoy cooking chunks of it with vegetables in oil at this time of year.
April 13th, 2008
April 12th, 2008
I wrote this yesterday and it went poof!
Some of the dishes on this menu are already on the blog as recipes. Those that are not are being written and will be published over time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy all of it, and all but one eater were Italian. I consider that a yea vote, right?
Antipasto:
purea di fave secche con peperoni fritti (puree of dried fava beans/broadbeans with fried sweet red peppers)
piccole patate arroste sotto sale con formagino di capra (tiny potatoes roasted under salt with goat cheese)
Primo:
tagliatelle ai carciofi con pecorino sardo affumicato (egg pasta with artichokes and shards of smoked Sardegnan pecorino cheese)
Contorno:
sformato di asparagi (puffy custard of asparagus)
Secondo:
Costolette di maiale ripiene di formaggi (double rib pork chops stuffed with a cheese stuffing)
Dolce:
palline di cocco con due cioccolati (coconut balls with two chocolate ganaches)
jump to recipe
Palline di cocco (coconut balls or cocopuffs to me)
Makes enough for at least 8 people
Preheat oven to 170°C or 350°F (yes, the F temp is higher than reality, but these droop and spread if the temp is too low.)
2 eggs
175 g sugar (6 ounces or about 7/8 cup)
240 g dried coconut (8-1/2 ounces or about 3 cups)
I have been fussing for years about how to use the coconut one can buy here, which is dried and not shredded, sugared or any of the things that are done to coconut in America. I checked, and you can buy dried or dessicated coconut in US health food stores and perhaps the nicer grocery stores. Check out Indian groceries, too, for lower prices. Anyway, at last I found a recipe for using it. I misread one of the directions in a way that made it intriguing to me, so away I went. When I discovered my error, I decided to go for it anyway and I really like the result. If you don’t try this you’re nuts, because it is just about the easiest way I know to please some diners.
In a large mixing bowl, break the eggs and toss in the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat them on high speed until they become thick and almost white. Add the coconut and at low speed, stir it in until it is blended.
Here’s the tricky, cute part. Line a baking sheet (placca) with baking paper. Using an espresso cup, scoop up this coco-dough, about 2/3 full, and press slightly with your fingers, then turn it upside down on the paper, rapping sharply to release the little form. You can place them fairly closely because they should not spread. When they are all on the paper, put them into the pre-heated oven and cook 15 minutes.
If they spread or are not that lovely golden color, your oven is running cool and you should probably get it calibrated. Cook them a little longer this time.
These are delicious. Crunchy on the outside and chewy, damp and slightly sweet inside.
For the two chocolates, choose a good dark chocolate and a good white chocolate. In two very tiny pans put the chocolate and add an equal weight of heavy cream. Over the lowest achievable heat stir the two chocolates and when each is melted and blended with the cream — you can take them off the heat when almost melted and they’ll safely finish melting with no chance of overheating disasters — use a spoon to drizzle streaks and drops on a plate and dip the bottom of each pallina into the dark before placing it on the dessert plate.
Try it. It’s really good and dessert doesn’t get any easier unless you buy it.
April 9th, 2008
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