Party Prep Day Two...

So, my pal and I  were off again, ready to wrap up the food shopping...

His attention is on a squirrel!

After making the rounds at the fish market and the grocery store, we went home to start cooking and building the buffet table.  First on the list, making a floral arrangement.  I went outside and cut some tree branches for fall color, some fading fern, a few hosta leaves, and some coleus.  It's amazing what you can do on a budget -- think outside the box.  I'm sure everyone has a gorgeous arrangement waiting to grace a table, right from their own backyard.

I added the sunflowers I'd bought the day before.

Then it was time to start building some interesting height on the table.  Easy to do -- just grab some sturdy items from around the house, and make sure to put heat protectors on them if you'll be putting hot food there.

Now to add some fabric -- I often get fabric remnants, like this toile, and use them either layered over another tablecloth, or on their own.  This is a great budget-stretcher -- you get all kinds of table coverings for a lot less than a collection of finished tablecloths (and what people notice is the color and pattern, not the fact that it's a piece of fabric!)  Just be sure to have neat edges, or tuck them under.  Next, the flowers and some plates.

The table will end up with several heights of serving plates -- doing this makes your guests feel special, I think.  So much more interesting than a bunch of serving pieces spread out on a table with a small flower arrangement flanked with candles.  Then it was time to start on the dining table (oh, and do a lot of cooking in between all of this!)

Not super exciting,  I must confess I was running out of steam, with the cooking and of course, balancing family life on my day off.  I felt like Kipper at this point...

After following me around non-stop all day in the kitchen, the stress just got to be too much.

Wrapping up a day of prep, I put a pot of mums in the living room for a little fall color.

Ready for my dad's 80th birthday party!  Stay tuned for some photos of the food, and of course, the birthday boy!

Talk to you soon,
Carol

On the Side...Butternut Squash and Crab Soup

As promised in yesterday's post Party Prep with My Pal,  here is my recipe for one of my favorite soups.

Butternut Squash and Crab Soup

5 c water
2 very large butternut squash, with an extra small one
Kosher salt
1 1/2 c light cream (or more, depending on your calorie count, just take some water out)
pinch of white pepper
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp good sherry (not cooking sherry)
one small onion, chopped
1 lb. lump crabmeat (canned is what I use)
Small sage leaves for garnish


Peel and chunk the squash (I use pre-peeled from the market).  Cover it just to the top of the squash with the water in a large pot, add a good amount of salt, and if you need to add more squash to come to the top of the water, do so, or, take some water out.  Just don't use more than 5 c water.  Boil until it comes apart with a fork.  Meanwhile, saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil and a pat of butter.

When the squash is super soft, add the sauteed onion and puree in the pot with an immersion blender.  Blend until the squash, onion and water are silky smooth.  If you don't have an immersion blender, use your blender. Turn the heat down to low.

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt to taste, dash of white pepper, dash of cayenne, and the sherry.  Stir well.  To add the cream to the hot soup, pour it into a bowl, and ladle some of the hot liquid into it to slowly bring the cream to the temp of the soup.  Then add back into the pot.

Now you need to do some taste testing.  The spices here are given in amounts that won't offend, but can easily be adjusted to your personal taste.  Strengthen the cayenne, cinnamon and nutmeg one at a time, or not at all, depending on what you prefer.  Add enough salt, a bit at a time, to ensure that the soup is not flat tasting.   You can also add more sherry.  Just go slowly so you don't overdo anything.

To add the crab, first put it on a plate and pick through it a bit to make sure there are no pieces of shell.  Brake it up into flakes as you add it to the soup.

This makes a huge pot of soup.  I've never halved it, but I'm sure it would be great if you do.  As I've said in other posts, I am definitely not a recipe writer, so I apologize that I leave some of the final seasoning to you.  I am a cook by intuition, risk, and taste.  This is a soup, however, that's pretty hard to screw up, unless you add more than a dash of the pepper!  Enjoy!

If you have any questions, please comment or email, I'd love to help you!  If you make it, please leave a comment on how you tweaked it to make it your own.

For those of you new to this blog, "On the Side" is the occasional sharing of my passion for food and cooking.  Sofas & Sage is named for my love of  Tasteful Design and Tasty Food.  Like a sprinkling of herbs,  the "Sage" part comes in small doses :).

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Party Prep with My Pal

My dad's 80th birthday party is in two days at my house.  Shhh!  Don't tell.  My pal and I are getting ready...

Always in the car on my day off -- Kipper!!

After a drive through the donut  shop for Kip's car-ride treat (a regular expectation!), we head off to get the flowers I need for the buffet table, and to rejuvenate the urns outside.  Gotta have some nice fall color by the front door to welcome guests.

I love using coleus in my summer pots because they keep getting more gorgeous into the fall, and I can pull out the sad summer petunias and add in some mums at half the expense of  doing them all over.

Out with the petunias...

In go the mums and Kip in front of my camera...

My helpful pal waited patiently while I went shopping for a tall glass vase for some height in the party decor.  I found one on clearance for $8, and gathered it with some autumnal-looking toile fabric for the table, and a bit of cabbage for the tablescape, too.

Now for more fun, the start of the cooking.  I love throwing a party! :)  First on the menu is my Butternut Squash and Crab soup. 

See the gorgeous sage from my garden?  You know that's my favorite herb...I only use it as a garnish in this delicately flavored soup.

Stay tuned for the recipe to what has become my favorite (and way too easy to make) soup in my next post.  Gotta run, "there's a party goin' on 'round here..."

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Is There a Surprise in Your Decor?

Kelly Wearstler's  book  Modern Glamour is like eye candy that you can taste.  Her bold use of color and graphic pattern, for which she is internationally known, infuses every sense.  It can't help itself.  You feel the color  in every work of hers.  I won't recycle the images you've seen over and over.  In fact, just Google images of her and you'll see what I'm talking about...

The Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica

But of the many things in this book that inspire me to push my limits and think beyond my Traditional/French/English parameters in my own personal decorating, is her remark, "I love to be caught unaware by a stunning surprise."  Now, you know from my post on Decorating with Plates, that I love the traditional use of them on a wall, in a bookcase, etc.  But Wearstler goes completely out of the box with them in this outdoor space at the Viceroy...

photo: Grey Crawford

Hello...this is an outdoor patio, with wing chairs upholstered in weather-resistant vinyl (unexpected, too).   Who else would have thought of such a dramatic and unexpected collection of plates as art outside??

photo: Grey Crawford

 Isn't that just brilliant?  Love it!  I think every decorator, designer, stylist knows the importance of injecting the unexpected, but Wearstler is a master at the "stunning surprise", indeed.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Motivation 101

What motivates you to be the best you can be? No matter what it is that you are passionate about, what moves you to keep on keepin' on?

I'm a big believer in inventing your own destiny.  Sure, some things in life are a given (like the family that raised you), but I'm of the mind that  just about everything else comes by choice.  Here are the biggest (and best) choices I've ever made, and they are what fuel my passion to be the best I can be...

My man, Ian, and my girls, Sam and Claudia

 There came a point for me this summer, when I said, "that's it!  it's now or never" with this blog thing, and with fine-tuning the course of my life (always a work in progress, and who's getting any younger?).  It really came down to "what am I waiting for?"  After talking about this the other day with a friend, she put a copy of a cheesy scroll-looking paper on my desk, with the following declaration on it...

Every successful person has their moment when they go on record and unequivocally declare:

Today is going to be my day!!

What does it look like when you decide "today is my day?"

• It's the moment when your best vision, values and resolve are aligned
• It's the moment when you fully embrace an awesome future that is vastly different from your past or present life
• It is the moment when you decide to live with purpose and passion and abandon the false comfort of the status quo
• It is the moment when you get honest about what is, or is not, acceptable in your life
• It's the moment when you declare that you will not be held captive by limiting self beliefs
• It is the moment when you declare that you want more control over your time, income, freedom, and quality of life.

And for all of us, it is the moment when you acknowledge what you want from life.
And then, like the signers of the Declaration of Independence, without equivocation,
you do whatever is required to make your desires and dreams a reality.

 From a cheesy looking scroll of paper comes a pretty good message, huh?

When I  had finished my notes for this post this morning, and went about reading my favorite blogs, I came across a fantastic post written just yesterday (weird -- I heard that dodododoo theme in my head as I read it) about motivation by another blogger, Janell Beals, at Isabella & Max Rooms.  I'll pat myself on the back and say that great minds think alike  :)  Janell is a quite brilliant designer and her blog is fantastic.  Click here to read her post "It's Now..." and to pay her a visit. (Thanks, Janell.)

So, what does all of this have to do with design and food, you ask?  Maybe everything,  maybe nothing.  I guess it just depends on how you look at things.  Where do you get your motivation to do the things that matter to you?

Talk to soon,
Carol

Just Kitchens

I have a never-ending love/lust for kitchens.  Maybe it's because I love to cook, maybe it's just because I can hang out in a kitchen for hours on end if the coffee and the company allow.

In my recent post Kitchen Dreaming and A Guest's Recipe, I showed several kitchens that were so ME.  Here are some others, that I thought might be you.  Do any of them speak your culinary language?

Designer: Juan Montoya

Pretty great before and afters, yes?

Designer: Sandra Nunnerley

I love the stone walls, the beams and the dutch door in this one...

Designer: Marc Appleton

Designer: Ellisa Cullman, Architect: John B. Murray

This is (maybe was) Diane Keaton's kitchen.  Love the pairing of stainless with the simple, unadorned feeling, but heaven help the person who has to wipe the fingerprints off of that stainless island :) !

Designer: Stephen Shadley

The one below totally says "home" to me, with its mismatched chairs and warmth.  I want to have chili in here on a Sunday night...(but I wouldn't want to clean the grout in the countertops -- tiled countertops are a definite "no" in this cook's mind)

Designer: Douglas Marsceill

Finally, this kitchen overlooks the waters of Nantucket...

Designer: Victoria Hagan

Which do you like the best?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

What to Do With Wood Trim?

Paint it. 

Unless you are married to my man, have a Tudor, Arts and Crafts style home, or a home with expensive, beautifully crafted moldings.  As I am the one married to my man, and we live in an open layout colonial, I live with pine wood moldings and doors.  It's a man thing, I just know it is.

Better Homes and Gardens

Now, this kind of look  I'm all over.  I love the warmth of it.  The natural wood is purposeful in the design -- I mean really, check out those floors and ceiling beams.  True love there, for me, my friends.  But alas, I'm not talking about this kind of woody wonder.  I'm talking about standard issue casings, chair rails, etc.  It's not that I don't respect my husband's preferences, we're just worlds apart on most of what we like.  Not easy for me as a decorator, and certainly not easy for him, living with me!!  Thankfully, we respect each other enough to make it all work. :)

My advice when wood is the only way -- try to treat it as a trim color.  I've tried ignoring it, and with some cool colors, I've gotten away with it. But generally, earth tones, especially greens, usually look great with natural (sometimes organge-y with age) woodwork.  I used BM Light Khaki  in my kitchen, and it looks fresh, modern, and far more green than it does in this picture! (Ok, a pretty poor look at the kitchen, but I promise a tour of the house in some post down the road :)
 

Maria Killam, of Colour Me Happy, did a great post called "Happiness is...a Happy Wife"
in which she talks about the topic of men and wood trim.  A must read, in my opinion!  I'm convinced there is just something primal about men and their love of natural wood, wood finishes, and non-painted furniture.  Paint, to so many, is simply...enemy.  I suppose I get it, but I'll never get on board (hahaha!).

How about you -- if you have wood trim in your house, what paint colors have you used?

Talk to you soon,
Carol
PS  My disclaimer -- I do recognize that there are men out there who do prefer paint, and women who prefer wood trim.  I just don't come across too many of either in my day!