Thanksgiving

Goodness this month has flown by, and I've been neglecting my blog! Plaid Pomegranate is cooking Thanksgiving for family and friends this year. We found some tasty recipes in the November issue of Bon Appetit. On the menu is Crab & White Bean Brandade (essentially a spread) and toasted baguette slices with California sparkling wine while we are waiting for the turkey. The main meal sides: Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Currants and Roasted Chestnuts, Cranberry Sauce with Candied Grapefruit Rind and Mint, Glazed Pearl Onions with Bay Leaves and Port Reduction, Mashed Potatoes with a Healthy Amount of Butter & Cream, and Texas Corn Bread Stuffing. We are drinking Malbac with the turkey. We will finish with a Pumpkin and a Pecan pie.

I just did the flower arrangement for the table. I used a matte brown flower pot I bought at The Gardener, in Berkeley. (A wonderful store.) I bought two different types of chrysanthemums from the grocery store. And from my yard, I braved the rain, and clipped some hydrangea leaves, some red leaved branches, and rounded the entire piece with a vine. And, voila! I snapped a few (dark, I'm sorry), photographs. We will be using Wedgwood "Nantucket" plates. (I love this set. Perhaps, one Christmas I'll get the tureen that looks like a Nantucket basket.)


This year's table will be clean, modern and casual. (Though Plaid can never be too casual.) We will use my wedding silver, Lunt "Modern Classic," steel grey linen napkins, a dark brown linen tablecloth, horn napkin rings, horn salt & pepper shakers, and white ironstone serving pieces. I bought the boar's head tureen a few years ago, I couldn't resist. He will be making an appearance, as well. Happy cooking!

Depictions of Chinatown

As the daughter of an artist, I cannot imagine blank walls. Art needn't be expensive, mind you. It's also helpful to have artistic friends or relatives with extensive collections- and limited wall space. My father-in-law gave me this wonderful 1920's oil painting of San Francisco Chinatown for Christmas a few years ago . I am a fan of all things Chinoiserie and wish I could go back in time to Shanghai in the '20's. I'd have a blast buying up furniture and silver.... alas!

This spot in Chinatown was depicted quite frequently between 1920 and the early 1950's. Artists must have lined the street with their easels. I started to look for other Chinatown pieces. I found the more abstract oil painting in an antique store. Given the style I suspect it was done in the 1950's. I found the etching with the heavy wood frame on ebay. And a family friend heard of my quest, and recalled he had an extra copy of a print his father-in-law had received as a member of a Pasadena artist society. I had it matted in red and framed in gilt bamboo. I found a wonderful oil painting done in the '20's at an antique store in Petaluma, but unfortunately it was in the hands of another avid collector.

Not to worry, I'm also scoping out souvenir items from the San Francisco World's Fair. So much to collect.... so little time.

"Mad" about silver rimmed barware

We were catching up on the first season of Mad Men, when much to my surprise, Don Draper was drinking his typical afternoon, in-office cocktail out of a very familiar glass. My father-in-law gave us a set of six silver rimmed low balls, and later a set of silver rimmed cordials. I found a punch bowl with 16 more silver rimmed low balls on Ebay a few years later. They are fantastic for parties. Thanks Mr. Draper for inspiring me to bring them out of the cupboard!

Knotty Pine Room

We have a very small room just off our entrance hall we needed to turn into a guest bedroom. It has an awkward three doors and two windows. The room was too small for a double bed (without keeping one of the doors closed), yet we needed to accommodate two guests at a time. We decided to put in a trundle bed. The night stand is a set of nesting tables. We have a wonderful needlepoint luggage rack we topped with a wicker tray and use as a coffee table. The side Victorian chairs and Moroccan side table can easily be moved into the living room to make room for the second bed.

The knotty pine was a bit intense for us, though very appropriate for our 40's era neo-Colonial house. We painted one wall a warm cream, and the trim around the room dark brown. We opted to leave the existing blinds white. The room has a very fresh, yet classic look now. I used a navy quilt stitched coverlet, and a pair of monogrammed linen pillows I ordered from a boutique in Savannah. I had the chairs reupholstered in blue & white chintz. The side table we lugged back to the US (in pieces) from our honeymoon in Morocco. We hung the pictures in a staggered formation similar to a room I saw in Domino Magazine. It's a great space to lounge in and enjoy a cup of tea or a good book!