sorbet all day

 

cafe chelsea at hotel chelsea 

morning, in yellow

sunday,

sounds of seals in the salty air.

a misty, moody morning on the fish pier observation deck.

a salute, a send-off, a song,

before our long drive home. 

Chatham Fish Pier

the mansion and me

life is but a dream...

loving my docent days in this year's comeback Kips Bay Showhouse!

so at home in my own upper west side neighborhood! 

at Kips Bay Showhouse,
River Mansion , Riverside Drive
photo @kayfaye.studiodesign
@yellowhousearchitects
@kbshowhouse

 

how we are feeling....

 on Columbus w 66th...

 

Dr MLK Jr

from the NJ Transit train...

before yesterday we could fly

 

at The MET, American Wing

Peace

at the Jacob Lawrence exhibit, The American Struggle, this vibrant jewel simply entitled Peace stood out to me....

the series demands the viewer's attention to both paintings and accompanying text and given social distancing protocols, requires time and patience to view but is well worth taking in, slowly walking around the room, and then perhaps again, quietly, deliberately, in rhythm with the bold tempera brushstrokes applied by Lawrence to his 30 small masterpieces that lead us through critical moments in our nation's early history as interpreted through the eye of the confident, caring artist...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/arts/design/jacob-lawrence-metropolitan-museum.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/these-missing-jacob-lawrence-paintings-are-finally-in-a-museum--and-theyre-masterpieces/2020/01/23/aec3ffa2-3d21-11ea-b90d-5652806c3b3a_story.html

 

art and artifacts

Our Lady of Paris

it was year ago that the Notre-Dame de Paris fire took place....

i still cannot find a photo of the cathedral from Hermes days or more recent travels but can use some of my quarantine time to search for them.  we always visited pre or post ice cream at famed Berthillon on Ile Saint -Louis. we would typically snap photos in front of the cathedral and often enjoyed a walk through the garden behind it, Square Jean XXIII, which offered an opportunity to marvel at the Gothic architecture from new angles. 

this morning, the news reports:  "The bell Emmanuel, built in 1686 and situated at the South Tower of Notre-Dame de Paris, will ring at 8 pm local (2pm EST), both to commemorate the fire and to be in unison with the French who applaud their care workers at 8 pm everyday. It's the second biggest bell in France after the one in the Sacre-Coeur." abc news 

i will send out an extra cheer from my window tonight. and maybe find a small bell to ring, as well. Paris, je t'aime! 

paris, jardin du palais royal
may 2010

mary had a little lamb

Easter, Ventosa Drive, from our Mary Cooks family calendar

i promised you the Lamb Cake recipe before Easter!

it is in the final installment of the food memoir created for my mom's 70th birthday.
i called the chapter Next Generation and the focus was on all the fun baking and cooking shared between Mary and her two granddaughters, Abigail and Charlotte, and with and for her Butterworth neighborhood of kids, many of whom adopted my mom as their own, and vice versa....

but, i was never able to finish assembling and publishing all the remaining chapters so here it is piecemeal, along with a story about the recipe and cake mold used to bake it. enjoy!!

the story of the lamb cake

mom, about the darling rabbit and duckling and hen shaped butter cookies on the platter with the lamb cake.  do we have the recipe for those in our Cookies chapter?  i think you gave me the cookie cutters when you moved from Ventosa to Mendham!

cookie cutters ...

the recipe, typed for the cookbook 

and, i see the chocolate and marzipan glazed egg cakes in the photo as well but did not come across the recipe. i think you made it with a Dromedary pound cake mix as well, and with Shirley's Chocolate Glaze but am not sure?  perhaps you can refresh my repertoire with those recipes, along with the pastel marzipan frosting, too?

mom's original notes 

mini egg cake molds 

mom, backyard egg hunt for the neighborhood

Ventosa Drive kids taking swings at the pinata...

happy baking! happy memory making! stay safe! xx

baking bread

the recipes that follow are from the Daily Bread installment of Mary Cooks, a food memoir and recipe collection my family created together just over 15 years ago to celebrate my mother's 70th birthday. 

as a child, i loved the Casatielli, though i did not know its formal name back then.   it was my Uncle Richard who offered that detail when he shared the recipe for the cookbook project.  

as at Christmas, my Grandmother Marie made this for her family along with other traditional Italian treats.

to me, it indeed tasted like a buttery brioche and had the added magical feature of the egg tucked beneath the 'cross' of dough in the basket ...  

the Easter Braid was another favorite, with sugar glaze, lemon and raisins flavoring the bread.
this recipe is credited to one of my mom's friends in our  neighborhood.

my mother is famous for her cakes, too.

Easter in our house is traditionally time for the Lamb Cake, baked in a cast iron lamb shaped mold and decorated with marshmallow icing and coconut sprinkles, and for Glazed Egg Cakes, delectable pound cakes with either chocolate or marzipan glaze and decorative rosettes on top.  

i will feature those by the weekend as we move closer toward the holiday. 

wire baskets in my city kitchen along with a butter mold from my mom's collection....

stay home, stay safe. stay connected, 

xx

in pursuit of fashion....

at The MET Costume Institute...

art abstract

at the Biennial, previewing people previewing art... 

Whitney Biennial...