12.01.09: the dirty dozen, part I {twelve seasonal things}

what a fortnight it's been, internets: mystery illness (that made me miss the pixies show last monday and is yet ongoing, hooray!), our first overnight guests in the new apartment, new blogging work at the office, thanksgiving, risotto-making injuries, the action just never stops. though i haven't been especially forthcoming, i've missed you.

01 one of the big hits at our t-giv table: crack pie, a butter-and-sugar-and-butter-and-eggs-and-butter-and-oats concoction we discovered at momofuku milk bar with jacob and megan. there are no photos of the two crack pies i prepared, for they never really got plated (we ate right from the pie tins); the sugar tremors they induced would've ruined the shots, anyway. i'll make them again, though i'll cut the butter down a bit and be sure i have a few ectomorphs about to bat cleanup.

02 i was also quite pleased with last thursday's edition of no-knead bread, a recipe i've used five times in the last month. i added a few teaspoons of fresh chopped rosemary before i set it out to rise and cracked some sea salt over the top just before chucking it into the oven, and it was glorious.

no-knead bread

it's been reported that joe's pork (for it was a pork thanksgiving) was toothsome as well; as the resident vegetarian with stuffed sinuses, i can't even tell you what it smelled like, but apparently we all had fancy bacon auras for the next few days. oh, ventilation.

03 as we'll be hosting a holiday get-together or two later this month, we've decided to acquire a dining table. a dining table! we've never had one, and are disproportionately excited. it will probably spend most of its life in the kitchen and catch mail and magazines while we eat at the coffee table in the living room, but i feel this is a legitimate grown-up milestone nonetheless. as it happens, we already have dining chairs (a quartet of teak n.o. moller model 84s we stumbled across at a thrift store in chelsea) and we have a fairly good idea of the sort of table we want (something from blu dot's strut line). we're having a bit of an issue with color, though: which, o internets, would you pick (click on the 'strut' link to see the options)? the kitchen-space looks like this, though we'll probably be adding wallpaper at some point and, you know, the rest of the apartment isn't nearly as nude now.

04 speaking of wall-clothing, i spent part of last week's sick day (singular, for i am an idiot) turning toilet paper rolls into a quasi-seasonal wall hanging.

day 111: craftin' like...sue grafton?

bear in mind that i shot the finished project after an unconscionable amount of chloraseptic.

how was your holiday? which table-shade do you fancy? should i spray paint the toilet paper rolls silver? (metallics say 'holiday' to me. i think it's a publishing industry thing.)

9 comments:

east side bride said...

I really want the watermelon to be orange. Can I vote for ORANGE? Sigh. Failing that, I'm afraid I have to vote for slate.

p.s. We never eat at our "dining table" either. It is really more of a collector of dirty dishes.

p.p.s. PAINTEVERYTHINGSILVER.

Ma said...

As much as I love the idea of slate, my vote goes for dark olive for the table (with the chairs esp.)...
And most definitely silver for the wall piece! Excellent job, Lau!

LPC said...

I could probably be quite happy with robin's egg blue - depending on how much view the rest of the apartment has of the table. It could all be sort of Scandinavian. People in cold places are good at house stuff.

baby jo said...

while dark grey is my current favorite color, methinks you have a lot of slate-ish colored things in your home. and as my old roommate said to prevent me from buying a robin's egg blue couch: it's a little shabby chic. bleurgh!

i will eat crack pie. let's make it. also: cardboard is a lovely color. i say leave it.

lauren said...

hmm. the swath of preferences, she is wide.

@esb: orange would've been a contender, as would red, as our all-time favorite wallpaper is...well, hell, the site doesn't seem to have the red/purple colorway now, but the pattern is this.

@ma: we were initially wavering between ivory and slate, but olive and slate are frontrunners these days. hmm.

@LPC: a connection i hadn't considered, but you're right. i think the modern finish could head off what...

...@jo noted could read a bit rachel ashwell. also, jo, you're going to make joe feel self-conscious about being grey. also also, you didn't mention which color you would choose.

Rachel (heart of light) said...

PAINT THEM! Metallic spray paint is one of my favorite (slightly guilty) pleasures.

And my vote is for dark olive. Normally, I'm all for anything gray, but I think the olive would be such a great, unusual table color.

jamie said...

so i read this post after coming home from the tara donovan exhibit, where me and my best friend were inspired to recreate something like this at home. here it is close up.

funny.

and, slate. all the way. [if not, then olive. or *maybe* red]

this might be the first time i have ever disagreed with rachel. but don't spray paint it.

lauren said...

man, i love hive mind. and i'm jealous - that exhibit looks grand! i've never seen her stuff in person.

Jamie said...

If you get a chance, which you will one day, you live in NY after all, GO. Stunning in person.