Last Minute Holiday Shopping Ideas

We are less than a week out from Christmas and if you haven’t already started your shopping yet, you better get a move on it! As a public service, I have a few last minute ideas for your consideration.

One of my long-time favourite places to get last minute gifts is museum shops! Each and every museum on earth (practically!) has a museum shop generally featuring an array of goods which reflect their mission. Our local historical society has re-purposed an old store-front to use for their shop, which features a selection of consigned goods including old silver and china, and some antique furniture.

Does your town have a fun and funky shopping street? Baltimore’s Hampden neighbourhood, close to where I live, is four blocks of small independently-owned shops. I love shopping at these little stores because their merchandise is always unique, and I know that my money is staying in the community, and not going off to some mega-corp somewhere else.

Another great idea, but maybe one that’s too late for this year, is the local craft/maker shows that are so popular. One here in Baltimore, the Holiday Heap o’Craft is held in an old church and is absolutely packed with makers and buyers!

A very simple gift is a few paper-white narcissus bulbs, along with some stones and a glass container. Garden centers and big box home improvement stores usually have the bulbs and you can pick up glass stones and glass containers from the dollar store. In the depths of January and February, it will be nice to have some blooming flowers!

Food is always welcome, especially if you make it yourself. Fellow blogger, Pinecones and Acorns, had a great seasonal recipe which I can’t wait to try out. It’s an easy Cranberry-Apple Chutney, which would be beautiful paired with a soft goat cheese and a box of water crackers, bundled on a fun cutting board. Click the link for her recipe. She also has a few other quick and easy last minute food gifts.

In the past, I’ve made caramels, my father’s lemon curd,

candied grapefruit peel,

and puff pastry palmiers or elephant ears from Ina Garten’s recipe.

Finally, a trip to your local antiques mall or auction house can yield a unique gift or two. I like to pair an great tea-cup and saucer with some elegant teas.

Or a single plate loaded with some good cookies.

Or an elegant knife, paired with some exotic cheeses.

Regardless of what you choose, the main thought is to keep the recipient in mind.

A Bounty of Figs!

Not this little Figue…

It’s been an amazing year for figs, except for my tree, which still hasn’t fruited after three or four years. After a very rainy June and July, much of August and September has been dry, so that’s helped the figs ripen without getting too sodden, making them very sweet. Usually, we get figs closer to Labor Day, but they are much later this year, and my friend expects to have them well into October.

Friends who are overwhelmed with figs are picking about 60 a day, so they have shared their bounty, as you can see above! Of course, I had to pay it forward. I gave another fig-loving friend a dozen, and made my Drunken Fig Jam with the remainder.

I have a recipe I’ve used the past few times, but this time I felt like I could switch it up a bit. Instead of using lemon peel, I used orange peel, paring it into very thin strips with a julienne peeler. You can see some of the peel above. I also used sugar in the raw instead of white sugar and then tossed in a tiny bit of vanilla sugar, too. The original recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of bourbon – I mean, really? What is the point of that??? I used about a half a cup!

This mixture sits for an hour or so to macerate and draw out the juices, and then it’s cooked over a low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally. I do add a bit of pectin to make sure it sets, because I don’t like it to be too runny. I also give it a whizz with my immersion blender to break it up a bit. I serve the jam with a nice goat cheese and good crackers or slices of French bread. It is really marvelous. I might have to beg for more figs!

Mint Juleps for Derby Day

These drinking weekends are coming fast and furious, with the Hunt Cup last weekend and the Kentucky Derby this weekend. 

I am going to a birthday party on Saturday and texted the host to remind him that it was also Derby Day, and we've all watched the race together for the past few years. Should I bring my julep cups and some mint? I knew that he had plenty of bourbon on hand (Maker's Mark is the house brand), but lacked cups. Of course, he replied.

So, I hunted up the julep cups that I now have and began the process of polishing them.

Sad story: my silver cups, one of which I received each year, for a number of years, were stolen right after I moved back to the States, so I just have odd ones from Williams-Sonoma and other places. Unfortunately, Williams-Sonoma is no longer selling the ones I liked.

This year, I actually have enough mint that I can cannibalize my mint plants without worrying that I will kill them. So, julep cups and mint. That's my contribution to the party, because the host said no gifts. 

Here's the recipe, in case you'd like to try it at home: 

Make a simple syrup by boiling two cups of sugar and two cups of water together for five minutes. Cool, and place in a covered container with six or so springs of fresh mint and then refrigerate overnight. Put a few mint leaves and a little bit of sugar in the bottom of a julep cup and muddle the mint and sugar, releasing the essential oils. Fill the cup with crushed ice. My feeling is that the ice that comes out of the fridge is too coarse, and needs to be smaller. Add a tablespoon of the simple syrup and bourbon. Stir to frost the outside of the cup and garnish with a sprig of mint. 

Off to the Races

Ever since I was a child, I've been attending the steeplechase horse races just north of Baltimore. They take place in the spring and fall, and this past weekend was the beginning of the 2017 series of spring races. I was lucky enough to be given a pass for the races, and especially lucky, since it was on Founders Hill, with a great view of the finish line. 

Although the day was overcast, and we'd had more than an inch of rain the day before, the field was perfect for the horses - very soft, with a lot of fresh grass. 

A few local friends, as well as friends visiting from Atlanta, joined me for the races, and soon more friends found us, and we joined forces and food to have a great afternoon.

First up are the pony races with the kids on board. They are lead around the course, complete with jumps, by a field master, and then at the last straight-away to the finish line, they're cut loose to go as fast as they can. It's such fun to see the traditions continue with the younger generations.

You can just glimpse me and my handsome date, just between the two jockeys, who are about 14 years old!

Because it wasn't sunny and warm, only the most die-hard race fans came out to watch, and almost everyone was wearing a version of the same thing: corduroys, sweaters, down or wool vests, barn coats or Barbour jackets and a hat!

We packed a picnic of fried chicken, crudite and some other things, but decided not to day drink as we were headed to a cocktail party after the races. But our friends brought some booze, so we indulged.

The spring card of races continues for the next four Saturdays, and tickets, which are required, can be purchased through the Maryland Steeplechase Association. 

My great thanks to Mike Wharton who did an exemplary job organizing the races for the Green Spring Point-to-Point, and for including me in the day!

Nevertheless…

As you might know, I designed a line of tea towels (you can find them on my Etsy page), last fall. It was a lot of fun thinking about the designs, working them out and then selling them… A lot of them!

A few months ago, I was poking around an antiques store with a friend and spotted a box of old engravings, some hand-coloured, and some not. Probably late 1800’s or early 1900’s. I love looking at these old prints and thinking about what I can do with them. I leafed through the pages until I found this adorable little girl. I knew she would become something fun! She’s a tiny little thing, about 3x4 inches. But she needed a little work before she achieved greatness.

I scanned her in at high resolution, so that I could play with the dimensions and make her bigger without losing a lot of detail. I added an old print of a globe that she could stand on instead of just a simple ball, and photoshopped it so that it would look like she was standing on top of the world.

But the print still needed something. I played around with some different sayings in different fonts, but nothing struck me. I had one towel made up, but it wasn’t just quite right. Then I was listening to the news, and heard Senator Mitch McConnell chastising Senator Elizabeth Warren, and in recounting it, he said, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” I knew that’s what I needed to add to the design to make it work.

I amped up the colour a little, cleaned up a few spots on the background, added a border, and came up with this:

Funnily, when it’s printed out on cotton/linen, the background looks like an old parchment-coloured linen fabric, complete with the small imperfections. It’s really amazing what we can do with digital printing!

The tea-towels are 50/50 cotton/linen and are printed with water-based, non-toxic inks. They are fully washable and can be thrown in the dryer, but I like to hang them on the clothesline. The towels measure about 18x24 inches. A few people I know are buying them to frame for their daughters and grand-daughters. Over this past weekend, I received more than 25 orders for this tea towel, and if you’d like to order one, click here.

Summer Suppers

I love this time of year mainly for the fact that two of my favourite things are in ample supply: Tomatoes and Peaches. As children, we always had plenty of both and they evoke such great food memories of picking and eating tomatoes straight from the garden, and going to a farm and getting bushels of peaches.

To me, there’s nothing better than a simple tomato sandwich. Just white bread, Dukes mayonaise, freshly picked and sliced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. You have to eat them immediately or the bread gets soggy. I could eat these for supper every night during August.

I also love Insalata Caprese, which is just tomatoes, good mozzarella and basil leaves, drizzled with some good balsamic vinegar, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Additionally, if you’ve got a huge bounty of tomatoes, you can make sauces, or do like I do and dry them in the oven until they’re leathery, and then preserve them in olive oil. Simply slice them, put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at about 200*, and leave them for several hours. An added bonus is that your house will smell amazing!

On Saturday mornings, when I work at Halcyon House Antiques, I stop at a farm stand and pick up provisions for the week, including peaches. While they don’t always look picture perfect, they are delicious!

Again, my favourite thing to do is wash them and cut them into quarters or eighths, sprinkle them with a tiny bit of vanilla sugar, and eat them, skin and all. I know that some people can’t stand the fuzzy skin, but if you wash them and rub them a bit, the fuzz comes off.

If I have a couple of pounds of peaches, I love making peach and bourbon jam. I wrote about it here, and think that it tastes amazing on a good vanilla ice cream. It’s fun to make enough to share with friends as a host/hostess gift at a summer supper.

What’s your go-to summer meal?

Off to the Races!

Saturday was the 120th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, and although the day was overcast, it wasn’t chilly and it didn’t rain, so it was all good!

A group of us had each been assigned or chosen something to bring for the picnic lunch, and we all met up to drive out to the race course together. My contribution again this year was pimento cheese. I might have put a tiny bit of extra Tabasco in it, but every speck of it disappeared. We also had fried chicken, quoina salad, potato salad, cheeses and pâté, fresh asparagus, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and of course, cocktails!

One of the best things about this picnic was the gorgeous Martha-worthy arrangement of brownies and lemon bars!

In the background, you can see the collection of tin plates. They are so much more elegant than paper plates and are perfect for occasions like this. I wrote about them here. I have a pretty good collection of mixed patterns, including a few I picked up in England, but my friend has more, and they all match.

As usual, there was a spectacular arrangement of flowers. This spring has been very cool, so there was not the usual variety of blossoms and blooms, but it was amazing, nevertheless. Their creator is no less spectacular!

Our friend Sam, who painted Connor a few years ago, decided to paint our table and flowers, rather than hang out at the staring line. People stopped by all afternoon to see what he was painting. It’s not quite finished yet, so you’ll have to wait for the unveiling.

Just before post time, we headed over to the course to watch the 120th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup.

The course is over four miles long, and they make a few loops around parts of it, coming close to where we were and then riding further out into the property.

Senior Senator won by a nose, after leading for most of the race. It was very exciting.

Afterwards, we headed over to the barns to see the winners, and the runners up. All looked in great shape, and everyone had a great day. Another Hunt Cup in the books!

My Gift Guide: Fabulous Foods

I am incapable of showing up to a dinner or a party without some sort of hostess gift in hand… it might be a dozen oranges, or some gorgeous magnolia leaves in a fun vintage vase, but I feel horrible if I don’t arrive with something.

During the Festive Season, with invitations abounding, the search for food-related gifts is on. I have a couple of go-to gifts that work for many occasions.

At Halcyon House Antiques, we stock Bequet Gourmet Caramels which are just the best caramels I’ve ever had. Their Irish Sea Salt Caramels have a slight crunch of sea salt in them, and aren’t so sticky that they’ll pull your fillings out. And of course, I love anything liquorice!

Confession time: I like to take cookies to parties, but HATE to bake them. So I grab an antique plate, most likely a transfer-ware plate that I’ve found in some thrift shop, yard sale or auction, and throw on a dozen or so chocolate chip cookies from local baker, Otterbein Cookies. Otterbein’s chocolate chip cookies could pass as home-made, but don’t tell anyone!

For special parties, or a more formal occasion, I like to take along a bottle of bubbles. My go-to champagne is Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label. The price is reasonable, and it shows that you know a decent champagne. Put a big pre-made bow on top and you’ve got a very nice present for your hosts.

Another nice present is a jar or two of lemon, lime or grapefruit curd. Lemon curd that my father made was a present that my parents frequently took to parties. You can find it in stores, including Trader Joe’s, and it often comes in a square jar. I would tie an antique spoon or knife on the jar with a beautiful big ribbon. Maybe tuck in a little card saying what to do with the curd – on toast, on ice cream, or on a spoon!

If you make the lemon curd – and it’s actually pretty simple – put it in a nice jar, like my favourite Weck Jar. Here’s a recipe that I’ve used.

Of course, chocolates are always much appreciated. We have a chocolatier here in Baltimore that I really like… of course it helps that he’s very attractive. They’re called Kirchmayr and they specialize in European-style chocolates. Just beautiful chocolate, fresh ingredients and lovely packaging. (Not a great picture of Albert!)

Oh, here’s what the chocolate looks like!

Do you have a go-to food gift for the holidays or for a hostess present?