The mansions among me

I currently rent in a pretty nice neighborhood. It's where the historic post office is landscaped by the garden club. It's where kids go to public schools that rank tops in the whole nation. It's where stay at home moms leave their youngest with the nanny and take their Mercedes SUVs to yoga at 9 am. It's where you settle down on your rectangle of land near a small park, take the train to the city a few times a year (or daily for work), and make friends with your local pizza shop and sushi bar.

I live among mansions:

your typical street

just a mansion on the corner here

and another one

this one might technically be a castle

plantation not included

three stories (or is this eight) is quite normal

tall house

getting repetitive now

i can't make this shit up

of course not everything is ginormous

i mean, come ON

same house as above, different angle

same house as above, the outdoor living space

You might think living around all this opulence can kinda get to you. Make you feel small, poor, and worthless. Make you feel like wealth, for you, is hopeless.

It can.

Until you redefine wealth, of course. 

You should be so lucky

There's this place down the street, Lucca's, that makes this cheeseless pizza (that's right), that blows my mind every time I eat it (that's right). The first time I ordered it I was on the sick side... you know that kind of sick where dairy just does not do. But you're tired, and you need NUTRITION- no muss, no fuss, easy-to-eat nutrition that, if at all possible, inspires hunger.

Lucca's cheeseless pizza to the rescue!

It's got a thin, crisp crust, covered with thin strips of chicken that you barely even know are there, and then it's piled high with broccoli, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, red onions, pine nuts, and garlic. Add some hot red pepper flakes and it's like the all-solid version of chicken soup for the soul.

At least my soul.

What's your "feeling less than optimal, help me eat well" food, I wonder...

P.S. Votes so far have suggested miso soup and sushi, and straight-up homemade chicken stock, defrosted from your expertly-stocked freezer.

Fritters and flatbreads for the win

My cookbook challenge is alive and well, despite not yet completing my June mission or writing up May's meal. But that's what this post is for. May's meal. It was a while ago now, and my memory immediately turns..

to..

mushrooms.

via

At this time my cookbook of leisure was Plenty. Plenty is filled with beautiful recipes, so it was hard to narrow it down. I was in the mood for something kinda challenging. Something with a little pizzazz. My belly wanted the caramelized garlic tart, but I happened to be using May to experiment with eating less cheese, butter, and milk. Ultimately I ended up making an entry from the grains category, yogurt flatbreads with barley and mushrooms.

I also made a spin on the leek fritters in May.

In choosing these recipes I was able to learn about 3 new things! - flatbreads, fritters, and barley. It's simply awesome (and simple) to make fresh flatbreads and crispy delicious fritters. I think I need to paint those recipes on my wall or something. I like that you can really vary them in a million ways.

The barley was kind of a miss for me, but so was the general texture of the mushroom and barley combo. Mushrooms can overwhelm me occasionally. Made exactly to recipe, this might have been different. Delicious nonetheless.

June I'm thinking homemade crème fraîche. Dairy and me... we're cool.

Bragging rights?

There are only a few blogs I check out on a regular basis, and the blog of stylist Emily Henderson is one of them. I like her voice. I like her spunk. I like her message, let's get weird. Yes, Emily. Let's.

And when she solicited reader design questions the other day, I was ready. First, my question:

Hey there,

I could use a small collection of "go-to" interior paint colors. Every now and then a designer will say that they ALWAYS go to this pale gray, or everything matches THIS green-tinted taupe, or THAT is their go-to hallway color.

I don't have the home to paint yet - but when I do, I imagine a fresh paint job will be the first thing that happens. Help me to make those decisions be easy and timeless.

Thanks for asking.

I emailed this in the exact day she posted the request. Less than a month later, I see this:

Wouldn't you just love to know if you were the reason for something like this? How many people requested the exact same thing? How many requested something similar? She surely has thousands of daily readers -- how many saw that post and responded with a question at all?

I'll probably never know the answer to these questions. I will, however, have a list of go-to paint colors :)