Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Team work at its finest.


Another major shout-out today: My mom and dad did us a major solid last week, and they've totally revamped our outdoor furniture.

My dad spray-painted all of our peeling, woe-begone furniture with a crisp new coat of sage green paint and my mom completely recovered the cushions of the sofa and chairs. They were in a desperate way, so this act of mercy couldn't have come at a better moment.

Now I can't wait to finish that freaking attic so I can finally sit out on my beautiful porch and enjoy a cup of coffee... Just four and a half more walls of paneling to go.

Arghhh!!! 

Monday, April 27, 2015

We're not foolin' around. Much.

We got right to it upstate this past weekend, hammering out more paneling up in the attic ASAP.

Well, sort of. We got literally one panel up when I was like, "Don't you think we should build a rad cubbie to enclose the toilet venting (which for some f-ing reason was run above the floor boards instead of inside the 8" space between the floor boards and the ceiling below...) and then panel it and make a secret door where we can store stuff like luggage until Julian is old enough to discover it and he and his friends can play in there, and if anyone ever breaks into our house, we can all go up to the attic and hide in there like the movie "Panic Room: The Catskills"? And remarkably, instead of John saying,

"That's the worst idea ever. No dice." 

He said,

"Okay. That sounds cool." 

So we put down the nail gun and the mallet, shuffled down to the barn where we discovered, like, exactly the right number of two-by-fours to build a wall (I'm not kidding) and then we went back to the attic and framed out a wall for the first time. Ever.

And granted, a professional contractor might say, "This is not the conventional method for building a wall", which would be a fair point, but actually it looked pretty similar to the conventional method for building a wall, so I'd say we're satisfied.

Unfortunately, that took about 1/3 of the day (God damn a learning curve! It can really eat up your morning!) but we spent the rest of Saturday and much of Sunday paneling, so we still made some solid headway. Not as much as I'd originally planned on, but then-- I hadn't originally planned on building a panic room/cubbie/fort in my attic-- and sometimes you just have to change direction mid-stride as they say. (I swear, somebody says that!)


A major thanks goes out to the many folks who helped make this weekend the (marginal) success it was... To John for not totally shutting down my zan-i-doo plan to panel our entire attic (although he has said, "We couldn't just drywall like normal people...." more times than I care to count.) And an even greater thank you to my in-laws and parents for minding my munchkin and keeping him happy. When he's happy, the whole machine runs more seamlessly. When he's in a funk, the whole ship starts to sink...

And I just can't nail up paneling and bail water at the same time. I don't have enough hands! 

Friday, April 24, 2015

Back to the grind.

Alright, I've had my fun. I slept, I ate, I hung out with my family and played on the beach. I had a glass of rose on a terrace. Enough is enough for god sake.

Let's get down to business. 

All of last week's itinerary is back in play (the flip side of relaxing is not getting anything done, sadly, so there is still plenty of "to-do" remaining up in the attic...) and I'm still excited about painting that vintage light fixture and spray painting my medicine cabinet. Gaw! I'm such a dork. I'm not going to lie. I've been yearning to do those projects since last weekend. It's like I don't know how to relax. Or more specifically, I know how to relax in a very precise context. Essentially, I am able to relax for about one hour after a long day of home improvement or many many productive hours of work. There's a satisfaction that washes over you when you've made a major dent on a project, or better yet-- finished a project-- and for about an hour, I can sit and enjoy a glass of wine while I admire my accomplishments. And then about an hour later, I'm like, "For my next project, I want to..." or "You know what I really want to do???".

It's tragic really. Though it's also very motivating. 

Let's focus on the positive side for now, and we can address my obvious need for counseling once my farmhouse renovation is finished.

Check back in tomorrow to see some photos of our progress. Onwards and upwards!

(And yes. That is me as a kid. Am I the only one that thinks I look like I'm taking that ice cream extremely seriously? Maybe I couldn't even relax back then...)

Sunday, April 19, 2015

What I was supposed to do, and what I did instead...

Okay. Now here's a real confession: 

On Friday morning, I wrote a lengthy blog post all about our plans for the weekend. We were heading upstate to work on our house-- lofty dreams of beadboard wall paneling and spray painting a vintage light fixture for my little downstairs bathroom in my immediate future. (Hang on. Let me get sidetracked for a quick second and tell you about this light fixture. I won it, and like, a zillion other funny vintage ceiling fixtures, tiny brass lamps, and odds-and-ends in an auction for $5.00! It's going to be perfect for our bathroom. Eventually. What I'm going to do with all the other lamp parts remains to be seen...)

Anyway... that's what I was supposed to be doing this weekend. But I didn't. Nope. Didn't paint that light fixture. Didn't panel the attic. Didn't do zip. Bub-cus. You know what I did do?? I hung out. Yep. I'm human. I confess.

Full disclosure: In addition to a genuine zeal for home improvement-- both urban and rural-- a busy interior design company, and an ever-growing enthusiasm for cooking weird food I've never made before--- I also like to nap, eat brunch, hang out with my family, and go to the park. Yep. The jig is up. The horror. The shame.

I LIKE TO RELAX.

I hope you'll all forgive me.

So the conclusion of this post is this... You'll have to wait until later in the week for me to get something accomplished. Because it's been a lovely, lazy weekend in Brooklyn; and I've got nothing but a full belly and a little bit of a suntan to show for it.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Another Fun Pick-Up!

Yep. Tooting my own horn. Yet again. 

I know. It's almost more than you can stand. But I just found out that the New York Times article featuring our farmhouse upstate was published by another fun online design publication-- Domaine Home. And even though I'm supposed to mumble into my collar and not proudly mention it to anyone, I'm throwing all that nonsense to the wind! I'm thrilled to be included and jazzed that the original piece keeps getting so much positive coverage, even months after the article first ran in January.

Ha-zahh! 

Keep the love coming, that's all I have to say!!! 

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks.

If you have eaten in my house, you know that we have kind of a limited repetoir. I mean, we can cook well-- don't get me wrong-- but we stay mostly within a comfortable range of French-Italian-and-American. Oh, and the occasional traditional English delicacy like "Toad In The Hole." I love whipping up a spicy moules-frites or a delicious tomato-y meat sauce, we grill up a juicy burger or a truffle-drizzled pizza almost every weekend-- but when it comes to exploring new cuisines... Well. To be honest, I kind of wimp out. I'm just skeptical. Skeptical of my ability to make it well. Doubtful that it's going to quench my hunger and my palette... That's f#4k-ed up, right? 

Who am I to doubt the deliciousness, the satisfaction, of other cuisines??? 

But I guess I do. 

But I've been shaking things up around here lately. I made a salmon sashimi with avocado and a poached egg two nights ago, and it was off the hook. And looked exactly what it was supposed to look like! And a few nights earlier, I broke into my mom's copy of "Jerusalem" and really got cracking. And I've got to say, "Color me totally freaking mistaken." The spicy carrot salad I made was stupendous. Exceptional. I ate it again for breakfast. I would eat it again, right now, if it was in front of me. 

The Lamb and Beef Meatballs with Fava Beans & Lemon were terrific. Totally excellent. Ate them twice. Two nights in a row. Yep. That good. In fact, the second time I ate them with the aforementioned Spicy Carrot Salad, a Peppadew Hummus my mom had recommended, and then, the coup de grรขs, I rolled out a leftover pizza dough that I had, drizzled that in olive oil, and grilled it to eat as a flat bread with everything. 

Which was awesome. 

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: Even if you get really good at one thing, it doesn't mean you should stop trying to get good at other things. Maybe this is going to be my manta for Spring 2015. I'm going to work on venturing outside the safety of the known and familiar, and give something unchartered more of a shot. 

Because, you know, why not? 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Movin' Right Along...

After spending the latter half of the week wallpapering our little powder room, I jumped directly into paneling the attic.

I'm Not Wasting Any Time!

 Make no mistake, I've got a hair across my a#$ about getting that attic paneled, and I'm not afraid to drag everybody I know into the process. This weekend, my victims were our friends Ty and Ginger, who came up to help with the paneling; and my parents, who took charge of our very demanding two-year-old in the city while we were hammering away up in the attic. We started off slowly on Saturday morning, first swinging by the dump to dispose of the 600 pounds of bricks that had been removed from the house last week (I'm not kidding-- 600 pounds-- thrown into a dumpster, two at a time!) Things went from slow to stagnant when our truck broke down on the way back from picking up the table-saw we were borrowing from our neighbor, and I began to despair...

The day was disappearing before my very eyes and we hadn't even gotten started yet!!  

Thankfully, Ty and Ginger picked us up on the side of the road (Hooray for cellphone service in rural New York!), the tow-truck guy dropped off the saw, and in no time at all, paneling the attic proved to be a speedy process. We actually whipped through the entire first wall by lunchtime, and then carried on working until it started to get too dark to work up there.


At which point, we decided to stop for the obvious: Bowling. Yep, there's bowling upstate.

"So it's pretty much utopia", is what you're probably saying to yourself. 


This morning we got cracking again, and finished up the second wall of paneling lickity-split. Make no mistake, there's still plenty of work left to do, but we're off to a decidedly good start. And let me tell you, as someone who frequently finagles people into helping with projects, it's good to know when to press your luck and when to say, "Let's go bowling." Keeping morale high is crucial. When morale goes out the window, everything goes out the window. 


Words to live by folks. 

Friday, April 10, 2015

Holy wallpaper: Veni, vidi, vici.

So-- let's cut to the chase: This is the first time I've ever hung wallpaper. And according to "a source" I found online, basically I've just broken all of the cardinal rules of wallpapering. In one day. 

Apparently, you should consider the following: 

The wallpaper you install in 2015 may be around much longer than you’re expecting. It’s not at all unusual for a homeowner to keep the same wallpaper for 15 or 20 years. So when you’re in the early stages of planning your wallpaper project, consider the long term. Do you think you’ll like the pattern as much in a few years as you do today? In 20 years, is it possible that the room you’re covering with wallpaper will be serving a different purpose?

Which makes me wonder, will I really like this totally bonkers landscape wallpaper 15 years from now? I think I can actually say with a fair amount of confidence, "Absolutely not." However, I just totally overhauled my powder room for about $120.00 and a day's worth of work, so I guess if I hate it even five years from now, it still worked out to be a pretty good deal. It's roughly six cents a day if I can stick it out until then.

And the next rule of wallpapering that I unwittingly threw out the window: 

The wallpaper you like most may not be the best choice for your skill level. Try to select a pattern you feel confident you can hang properly.

Followed closely by: 
If you’re considering a patterned wallpaper, don’t forget that patterns repeat. While you might like a particular patterned sample, ask yourself whether you’d like to see that sample reproduced over and over across the breadth of the space you’re redecorating. Maybe, maybe not—in the end, it’s a matter of taste. 
Sweet jesus. I wonder if Bob Villa ever saw this wallpaper. It's crazy-time with the pattern and repeat. And lining up the pattern is like a country-style comedy skit. "Is it this barn or is that a covered bridge? Where is the other half of that cow?" "Wait a minute. Are there two different fields with horses in them? Muther-fu#45..." 
Generally speaking, patterns with a repeat of six inches or fewer tend to appear quite busy, particularly in humbly proportioned rooms. 
Do you think my 5' X 5' bathroom qualifies as "humbly proprtioned"? At one point, Jules, the dog, my mom, my dad, and I were all standing in there together. And of course I couldn't resist asking "Just how many Salways CAN you fit into a 5' X 5' bathroom?" Because seriously. I actually have no idea how we all fit. I guess it helped that I was on a ladder and my mom was standing on the toilet. 
Another fancy day upstate. 
So with all of that in mind-- the rule breaking, the zanny pattern, the total lack of experience on my part-- the results of our maiden wallpapering adventure are really quite tremendous if I may say so. The pattern lines up terrifically, it's quite straight, and the "humble proportions" of our bathroom are actually just perfect for a paper so action-packed. 
Make no mistake. We're not finished in there yet. I still need to find the perfect rug for the floor and replace my eyelet shower curtain with something a little less country-bumpkin-cute.  But for about $120.00, this was a pretty resounding overhaul. 
Now onto the attic, which we're starting to tackle this weekend! 

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

So I'm kind of a big deal...

Great news that came as a wonderful surprise today! 

Just in case anyone was beginning to doubt that I'm kind of big deal (the nerve!), the article featuring our farmhouse from the New York Times was just picked up by Country Living, and they ran the piece on their website!! I think that it goes without saying that this was a pretty rad surprise to discover, totally out of the blue, in my inbox this morning... What a way to start the day!


We're so thrilled to have been included in such a huge publication, and so happy to see all the lovely feedback people have been leaving on their site. (What?!? Shared 8,900 times on FACEBOOK!)

Make sure you swing by and leave a glowing comment at Country Living too-- and tell all of your friends to do the same! I'm taking a conquer-the-interior-design-world-one-like-at-a-time approach, so I'm counting on all of you to do your part!!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Part 3: Progress On The House

I suppose I'm taking a two-pronged approach to our projects up at the farm. Or I'm calling it a two-pronged approach, because if I don't, I'd be calling it a mayhem-madness-want-to-shoot-someone-approach. Which is to say that I'm trying to do too many things up there, all at once, because I'm excited about too many projects and want to get them all done, but I'm also not up at the house enough right now to actually do them all. Nor do I have the money to pay someone to do everything. So instead-- I'm basically driving myself nuts in New York instead.

Let's go back to calling it a two-pronged approach. It feels so much more optimistic. 

Here's where things stand upstate:

  • I picked up miles of bucolic landscape wallpaper from the Craig's List lady on Long Island last week. And I mean miles. In fact, there is so much wallpaper, I negotiated the price down by agreeing to take it all. This weirder-than-a-bucket-of-hair-wallpaper is going to be installed in the downstairs bathroom, and I actually planning to take Thursday and Friday off to get this project finished, unless something unexpected transpires. (Which would be foolish to rule out...)

  • I've also picked up the beautiful William Morris wallpaper that's going to be installed in the staircase going from the first floor to the second floor. I've got no timeline on this project, other than knowing it ain't gonna happen in the next couple of weeks. But when you find a good deal on Craig's List, you can't vacillate or you'll find yourself without beautiful William Morris wallpaper; so I'm putting that project at the end of the list, and trying to come to terms with that schedule. Breath in, breath out.  

  • The chimney has been removed from the guest room and the attic, and the totally awesome wall has been assembled to divide the storage area from the sleeping area. We used one of the salvaged antique doors I found last fall (in the burn-pile at a neighboring farm!) and retro-fitted it to fit under the eave of the roof. Or-- to be clear-- the handy chap who built the wall retro-fitted the door. I just explained how. 

  • The same handy chap has built and installed this unfathomably beautiful railing around the stairwell leading to the second floor, so people could stop risking life and limb in the middle of the night, navigating downstairs to the bathroom without falling down the hole. The railing (purposefully) resembles the railing on the front porch, minus the irregular spacing and rotting wood. I am so in love with how this looks, it's almost hard to talk about. 

  • And most victoriously, I've just secured child-care (yay my mom and dad for babysitting Julian in the city this weekend!) and extra labor (yay my friends Ty and Ginger for coming up to the farm for the weekend!) and we're going to start tackling the paneling up in the attic bright and early Saturday morning. I'm so jazzed up about getting that started, and even more jazzed up about the prospect of having it done. 

Keeping in mind that it will take roughly one-million hours to complete this project... So you may just want to tune back in April 2016 to see the final photos!  

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Making Progress, and Cooking A lot...

Okay, my agenda for this blog post is ambitious. There's a lot on my calendar for today, and more over, there's been a lot happening since my last blog post. 

First things first: Happy Easter and Happy Passover. 

I hope everyone is eating a lot, enjoying the long weekend, and feeling the first waves of Spring rolling in. I think I can say with confidence that we're all very ready for Spring. 

I'm ready for growing grass, jean jackets, daffodils, and for the love of god, a little sunshine. 

So as to not overwhelm you guys, I'm going to break this post into parts. 

Part 1: Merry wishes. 

Part 2: The food. (Commencing now...)

Part 3: The house. (To follow...) 

In celebration of Passover, John and I have been cooking up a storm. John found this unbelievable barbecued brisket recipe and it's literally changed my relationship with brisket. You have to make this. Not just for passover. As John's grandfather used to say, "Take this brisket for everyday." It's crazy delicious. 

The recipe is from the guy at Serious Eats (if you don't know this guy, check out his website. He's a master...) John followed the recipe (almost) to a T, and the results were tremendous. The only difference is that we didn't let the brisket sit overnight before serving, because we just didn't have the time. (Or, more specifically, we didn't read the recipe in advance, so we didn't know we were supposed to make it the night before. Oops.) 

First Recipe: Braised Brisket in Apricot-Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

  • For the Rub:
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
  • For the Brisket:
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 whole point-cut (also sold as "second cut") brisket, about 3 to 4 pounds total, fat cap trimmed to 1/8-inch
  • 1 1/2 cups finely sliced shallots (2 to 3 large shallots)
  • 4 medium cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup apricot preserves
  • 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/3 cup roughly chopped dried apricots
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Procedures:

  1. 1
    For the Rub: Mix salt, pepper, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, hot paprika, and mustard powder together in a small bowl. Coat brisket liberally with rub and let sit for at least 40 minutes and up to a day, refrigerated.
  2. 2
    Preheat oven to 325°F. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering. Place brisket in Dutch oven and cook until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Flip and brown on second side, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer brisket to a large plate and lower heat to medium.
  3. 3
    Add shallots, garlic, and tomato paste to Dutch oven. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, about 7 minutes. Add beef broth and scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan. Add tomato sauce, apricot preserves, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, dried apricots, dark brown sugar, molasses, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine. Bring sauce to a boil. Nestle brisket in sauce, pouring in any accumulated juices from the plate. Cover Dutch oven and transfer to oven. Cook until brisket can be pierced with a fork with little to no resistance, about 3 hours.
  4. 4
    Transfer brisket to a large container and add sauce. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight and up to three days (see note above).
  5. 5

    To Serve:
     Preheat oven to 325°F. Spoon off any congealed fat from sauce. Remove brisket from sauce and cut into 1/4-inch slices against the grain. Place slices in a casserole dish and cover with sauce. Cover dish with foil and place in oven until brisket is warmed through, 30 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately.
Second recipe: Personal-Sized Flourless Chocolate Cakes

I don't know about you, but I pretty much love anything personal-sized. I think this goes back to the Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizzas (circa 1990) of my childhood (a luxury we were only allowed when we were at the airport) and they left such an impression on me, that essentially anytime I have the opportunity to make something single-sized, I do. So when I was asked to make a flourless chocolate cake for our passover dinner, I figured, "What the hay!" and also elected to make another six flourless chocolate mini-cakes for a dinner party we were throwing earlier in the week. The recipe I used for the mini-cakes is different from the one I used for the big one, and they actually have significantly different results. 

If you're a fudge-man, go with this version. *If you're making this version, use a spring-form pan instead of a cake pan. That way you can pop it out, and serve it out of the pan. This looks way more professional, so go the distance people! 

If you're a cakey-fudge man, go with this version.  *In John's opinion, this recipe is superior. 

The only alteration I made to the personal-pan-cake recipe was to put them into ramekins instead of glass jars. In my opinion, and in John's as well, this is the best flourless chocolate cake I've ever had. I am going to make this again soon, so if you want to try one, come on by... 

So-- needless to say-- we've eaten a lot this holiday weekend. 

I'm so full. 

Check back in tomorrow and I'll finish up "Part 3: The House".