EAB Designs

Oh How Sweet!

The Spring 2012 issue of Sweet Paul Magazine was released last Friday.  I've been saving it to enjoy over a leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning.  Based on a few peeks, this issue is as inspiring and beautiful as the previous ones.  To view the online digital issue, click here.  I've also read that a printed version will be available for sale at Anthropologie. Enjoy your weekend!

My Dreams for a Potager Garden

 

 

I have long dreamed of planting a proper potager, or kitchen garden.  One of my favorite places to visit when we travel are beautiful gardens.  Whether it's the formal gardens of Paris, or country gardens in the English countryside;  I am most happy roaming pea gravel paths lined with boxwood and perennial borders.  Here in Virginia, there is so much inspiration to be found - with visits to the kitchen gardens of Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello and Mount Vernon, as well as historical gardens in nearby Georgetown and Leesburg.  So after years of dreaming, I'm excited to actually start designing our very own potager. The past couple of weeks, I've been borrowing a long list of books from the library filled with loads of information.  The above is my weekend reading.

 

A few years ago, we installed this raised cedar bed for our herb garden.  (You can read more about that here.)  The kitchen really is the heart of our home and there is nothing like heading outside to gather what you need.  My plan is to add three or four more cedar beds, in the same dimensions as this one and plant them with vegetables and a cutting garden.  While I initially had every intention of installing them this spring, I had to be honest with myself and realize that I truly want to take more time to design our potager and educate myself on vegetable gardening.  I'm looking forward to sketching all the details and purchasing supplies.  The planning and anticipation is such a fun part of the process and I don't want to rush ourselves and end up with a design we wish we would have done differently.  

So with that in mind, our goal is to have the design completed and the beds installed by the fall. We have some very large shrubs and boxwoods to remove in order to take advantage of an area with full sun, so we have our work cut out for us.  I can't wait to begin!

By the way, if any of you are interested in starting your own vegetable garden, Manuela of a Cultivated Nest has started a weekly "Vegetable Gardening 101" series.  She is always so kind to offer lots of advice and inspiration, not only about gardening, but about also home decor and celebrating everyday life.  It's always a pleasure visiting her blog.

Beautiful Brioche

I wish all of you could visit me right now, because these brioche just came out of the oven and my house smells like a Paris boulangerie.

I do love making bread, but brioche was always something I thought would be difficult - until yesterday when I decided to have a go at it.  It's a bit more difficult than baking a traditional sandwich bread, but mostly it just takes more time as the bread has to rise a number of times and then be left overnight before you can bake it off.

Here's my brioche on the left, after resting overnight in the fridge, and then being shaped into balls and placed in the brioche tins.  The brioche, on the right, has risen about 90 minutes and is ready to bake.

When my husband got home last night I told him I made brioche dough and I needed some brioche tins to bake them.  He happily drove me to Sur La Table after dinner and we purchased the last 12 they had.  I tell him everyday, but I truly do love that man!  And how did I repay him?  I baked the brioche before he got home and devoured not one, but two of them!  I couldn't help it - see how good they were?

The brioche recipe came from "Around my French Table" by Dorie Greenspan.  (I also made the cauliflower soup recipe which was equally delicious.)  The brioche will only stay fresh for about a day, so the rest will be made into a bread pudding - another favorite dessert of ours.  Let me know if you try any of the recipes from the book.

Favorite Christmas Gifts

I received the most thoughtful Christmas gifts this year, and thought I would share just a few of my favorites in my next couple of posts.

It's always the little things that make me the most happy - like these long-handled wooden tasting spoons I received. Beautifully made from six different woods, they will be perfect for taste-testing all of the winter soups and sauces I'll be preparing in the weeks ahead.

 

My sister gave me (and each of my girls) this fun diary, Q&A A Day / 5-Year Journal.  Each day of the year has a writing prompt and space for you to jot down a short answer.

An example of some of the questions are:  "Who inspires you?"..... What's the most creative thing you've done recently?...."What did you wear today?.....If you had to move to a new city, where would you move?"  I think it will be great fun to compare your short answers from one year to the next and also for my girls and I to share some of our answers as well.

Records & Reading

Does anyone remember the part in the movie "Little Women" when Jo, upon completing her novel, ties up her manuscript and tucks a flower into it?

Well, I didn't write a novel, but I did finish working on my business tax expenses for last year.  Here they are in chronological order, categorized, and entered into an excel spreadsheet.  It's a little summary of all the work I've put into my business last year, so like Jo, I tied my expense receipts with a ribbon, inserted a piece of boxwood (no fresh flowers around), and left it in my sweet husband's office so he can prepare our taxes. To reward myself, for a job well done, I took extra time off to read this novel.

 

Actually, I found it hard to put down and finished it in less than two days.  I loved it and was happy to hear it was made into a movie which will be premiering in August.  "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, a wonderful story filled with unforgettable characters.

Favorite Gifts

I would much rather read a well-loved classic than a new novel, and when Penguin books came out with their new collection of beautifully embossed classics, I instantly fell in love.  This Christmas, my youngest daughter gave me my first of these books, "The Secret Garden" to begin my own collection of favorite titles. My oldest daughter gave me this beautiful glass calligraphy tray, which I have secretly admired for quite a while.  I adore both gifts and feel so loved they know me so well.  Another favorite gift, sent from my Mom in California, was a box of "Nuts & Chews" from See's Candies.  I must admit, I think I ate three quarters of the box all by myself and thoroughly enjoyed every bite of that yummy caramel and nougat!

My Much Loved, and Well Used Cookbook Collection

My cookbook collection holds not only wonderful recipes, but many cherished memories as well.  For amongst the shelves are books given to me by my mom - a favorite being my "Lemons" cookbook filled with beautiful photographs and unique recipes all of which use one of my favorite ingredients - lemons!  I also have several books which my brother gave me.  Having lost him a few years ago, at a young age, I cherish every inscription he wrote in each book.  Like my mom, he always selected the perfect book to give to me.  Of course, the books that my husband and I bought together when we were first married bring me right back to that special time.  Many of those recipes have also become my girls' favorites.  They love to cook and bake and you'll find a few titles of their own here as well. We have a great organization system, and believe it or not, a book rarely gets put back in the wrong place.  Our only worry is the day our collection outgrows the beautiful bookcase my husband built.  From the look of the titles on our Christmas wish lists, it won't be long now.

Great News for Barefoot Contessa Fans

I am a huge fan of cookbook author Ina Garten, and happily confess that I own every one of her fabulous cookbooks (all six!).  Her recipes are easy, elegant and ideal for entertaining or family meals.  So, it's no surprise that I was thrilled to hear that her next cookbook will be released in October.

  

With a collection of six cookbooks, I found I was spending lots of time having to go through each book when I was looking for a particular recipe.  That was until I discovered she has a combined recipe index, listed by category, directing you to the cookbook where you can find each recipe.  As Ina would say, "How great is that!?" I printed it off straight away and it has been a lifesaver!  I thought I'd pass along the link in the event there are other Barefoot Contessa fans out there who do not know about this wonderful resource.  You can find it here.  Now if only I could move to East Hampton and have Ina as my neighbor.

Product Photography

Sometimes taking pictures of my jewelry and home accessories, is just as fun as creating it.  Although I own photography lights and photo tents, I usually prefer shooting in natural daylight.  First thing in the morning there is a wonderful soft light that streams through our front windows.  Perfect for photo taking!  In the late afternoon or early evening, I often take pictures outside on the front porch which by day's end is shaded and an ideal place to capture the perfect light.

I've always admired vintage manuscripts and architectural drawings and often use them as backgrounds in my pictures.  I recently purchased a wonderful book, The French Archive of Design and Decoration, which has the most beautiful sketches, designs, patterns and samples of ceramics, wallpaper, textiles, furniture and tableware from the 18th to the early 20th centuries illustrating the evolution of French design. I just ordered the The English Archive of Design and Decoration as well and can't wait until it arrives.  (I purchased both titles at Powell's and Amazon for under $20 each.)

 

I love studying the beautiful pages for inspiration, and you will often find many of them in the background of my pictures.  

On my nightstand..

     

I placed two books on hold at the library and they both arrived on the same day.  So hard to decide which I'll read first... Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, or Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.  Which would you choose?

Just finished reading...

     

I have to thank Jen at The Cottage Nest for recommending The Matchmaker of Perigord, by Julia Stuart.  I just finished it last night and loved it.  It's a charming and humorous story of the eccentric characters who live in a very small rural village in France.  Getting to know each of them was a pleasure, as well as reading all of the detailed descriptions of food from their gardens, pantries, stove-tops and picnic baskets.  The novel's style reminded me of some of my favorite foreign films, such as Babette's Feast, My Life as a Dog, or Cinema Paradiso.  I would love to see this story made into a movie - I'd be one of the first in line.