Easter Basket

This year, I was lucky to find a basket in the shape of a duck. Not everyone looks out for a duck-shaped basket, but I'm no ordinary bird. Back in January, John and I stopped into an antique store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where I spotted such a ducky basket tucked away on a dealer's shelf. I wanted to transform the green ducky into a sleek black swan, as inspired by a project I had seen before with the exact same basket. I loved Kevin Sharkey's usage of an unconventional (darker) Easter palette using black and rich purples. For my basket, I added my gilded eggs I made a couple years ago. I'm happy with how my swan turned out and I think it'll look great on our Easter table this year.

 

Chicago Ideas Week

In mid-October I was able to attend Chicago Ideas Week (October 17 to 23). A non-profit venture that attracts designers, business people, and celebrities together to discuss how they became successful in their industries. I was able to hear from Tom Arnold talk about his friend David Carr who was a writer for the New York Times. The main seminar I attended was focused on influential entrepreneurs and how they got started. The sold-out presentation at the Palace Theater included fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius XM, and Martha Stewart. 

You can see Martha Stewart's interview here:

My photos:

Anatomy of a Cake

As my friends who know me, they know I like fun projects that are challenging, especially when it comes to working in the kitchen.  For Christmas I was very ambitious in making a 3-layer cake (my first ever!) and combining it with the traditional German Christmas candle pyramid.  Candles emit heat that flows up to a fan mechanism that causes the different parts of the pyramid to rotate.  This idea was translated into a form of dessert, for delicious and show-stopping results!

I had gotten the idea several months in advance and I think it turned out well.  I had a little trouble with the butter-cream frosting, but overall I was very pleased.  The cake itself is gingerbread, and the frosting includes cream cheese and mascarpone.  

Take a look at some photos, that include part of the construction process:

Movie time!:

Everyday

This past year I've taken to cooking more, because I've had the help of a wonderful publication called Everyday Food.  The recipes are so accessible and I've tried so many that I have lots of faith in the recipes produced from it.  Everyone (or at least my close friends) know of my love of Martha Stewart, so it's only fitting that I would be drawn to her magazine about food, in addition to her regular magazine.  

Food is constantly on my mind.  My SideTour blog post I published last week was primarily a promotion for my new private tour venture where I discuss food's relationship with art (or is it art's relationship with food?).  I think about food in its daily meaning, but also in its many figurative, metaphorical, and historical contexts.   

Everyday Food has given me the practical comprehension on preparing food, in a fun yet enlightening way.  Whereas, food for thought continues a more in-depth and sometimes engulfing path. This of course, opens a large can of worms, which hopefully will extend my thoughts into other blog posts.  But to keep it simple, I would just like to expound my delight and gratefulness towards a great publication, which I'm proud of following.  Everyday Food, besides offering a monthly magazine, emails daily videos featuring its editor, Sarah Carey, who has decoded the kitchen into a digestible and inviting process.