Neha Leela

Restlessness led me to book an impromptu weekend in the city of light.  I’m armed with my journal and books for endless amounts of brasserie idling.  I maintain a continued faith that remnants of years of french might salvage my dignity at the sunday morning food markets and I continue to entertain my flea market fantasy of rummaging through bins of vintage hermes scarves.

Beyond the gourmand and the Goyard, there’s a sepia-toned simplicity, femininity and elegance to Paris that I can’t wait to be enveloped by.

(image via thefrenchmouse)

When I was six, I handed my father a rock in lieu of a father’s day gift.  Inspired by a design and craft book, I had full intention of covering it with shreds of origami paper to make a colorful paperweight.  So I handed over this gift, with the heavy caveat that when and if I found the materials I would create the perfect addition to his office.

I was very clear then that homemade meant heartfelt, but I like to think I’ve come a little ways in handing over suprises without quite so many stipulations.

Though we may be through the height of the holiday gifting mayhem, as a special thank you to some of the most wonderful and generous family and friends in my life who help make the holidays what they are,   I wanted to offer a particularly sweet post-Christmas treat.

Festive Fruit & Nut Bars

For the base:

2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 tspn baking pwdr, 1/4 tspn salt, 2 sticks of softened butter (i never claimed it was a healthy), 1 egg, 2 tspns vanilla

Preheat oven to 375, coat a 9 by 13 pan with butter and parchment, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt), and beat in a separate bowl sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla. mix dry and wet ingredients until smooth.  Spread evenly over the prepared pan and bake roughly 25 minutes until golden.  Cool for 30-45 minutes.   In the interim…

For the topping:

4 tspns corn starch, 4 tsnps sugar, 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, 1 cup diced abricots, 1 cup chopped dates, 3/4 cup crushed pecans, lemon zest to taste  (replace nut with pistachio or almond and dried fruit to your liking)

Stir corn starch and sugar in sauce pan, dissolve in orange juice, toss in dried fruit and bring to a simmer over medium heat while stirring often until the compote binds together ( when complete, you should be able to take the stirrer and spoon to the side some of the mixture without the liquid seeping back).   Stir in nuts and zest in a separate bowl and pour evenly over cooled crust.   Bake again for 10 minutes at 350, until the fruit sets, the crust becomes a deeper golden but the gloss and shine of the fruit still remains.

After removing from the oven, I let it sit for 20 minutes before cutting into bars with an oiled knife and layering them into gift boxes.  Line whatever box you use with parchment to avoid seepage of all that butter (shhhh).

Keith Lockhart reminded the audience at the Pops last evening,  that historically there are supposed to be 12 days of Christmas.  Thanks to modern day frenzy, we’ve condensed celebration to a day or two.  I hope you and yours are keeping the sweet spirit for as long as you can.

Whether you attend midnight mass, open one present on christmas eve, top your tree with a family heirloom or travel to tropical paradise year after year, I’ve come to realize that  for those of us lucky enough, holiday is our way of rooting ourselves in the familiar.

Christmas comes at an opportune time; after a year of change and on the brink of another, we can ground ourselves for a night and a day in some sort of consistency.

My family does not do midnight mass, and the extravagant tree has been replaced as I grew older with  candles and clusters of vintage ornaments.  But every year we have the same oatmeal pancakes with Williams Sonoma vanilla bean maple syrup.  Its not about heavy indulgence, because frittatas or stratas wouldn’t suffice.  Its about the eagerness of awaiting something special that signifies something larger.

Wishing you a day marked by tradition, whether large or small.

Beyond the enthusiasm and helpfulness of their product development and education team who are our hostesses on this trip, I am floored by the space. The campus cultivates a sense of spirit, endless energy and buoyancy.

The training rooms which we were in for most of the day are equipped for conversation and open-mindedness; when white boards are rolled out, you get the inevitable “this must be where the magic happens” feeling.

Most impressively, the cafes, buzzing with t-shirt clad employees in colorful chairs, were best described by a colleague as a “grown up pre-school cafeteria”, except with an assortment that would make Whole Foods proud — I enjoyed persimmon with pomegranate, wild rice tossed in balsamic with grapes and walnuts, which I topped with butternut squash, a creamy potato leek soup and an orange infused panacotta (Yum!).

Its no wonder Google avenue oozes animation and intellect.

image credits: Marie Claire

When I started my first blog (Simply’s predesseccor – My Cuppa’ Tea- now, extinct) in 2007,  it was not only to entertain my journalistic fantasy  but to leverage the social web for its true purpose and namesake.  Though My Cuppa’ Tea eventually fizzled,  I still maintained my eagerness to meet other  design and style obsessed and food and travel enthusiasts and did so quite succesfully through other digital means, Yelp and Twitter — not to mention, the real world.

I decided this year to re-start the blogging adventure with the same hope as before. Last night marked my first opportunity since starting Simply to meet other Bostonian bloggers in person.

Red Plum, a savings and deals site that spans home, beauty and gourmet, used the square shaped 4th floor of the Liberty Hotel  to lead Boston based lifestyle writers around a line up of affordable holiday gift and decorating inspiration.

We started the evening on a sweet and bubbly note with a sommelier led tasting with Andover-based Wine Connextion. Tablescapes came next and Ikea alleviated my typical disdain for Sandra Lee-esque table tops with a festive decor that was simple and tasteful.  My favorite of which was their use of  woven ratatan placemats, earthy ceramics topped with a  starkly contrasting white faux Lily, tied together with a handwritten tag to make this arrangement welcoming and elegant.  

The rest of the setup showcased stationary, scents and other stylish goodies for gifting.  Among those that caught my eye, was the  2009 collection of notecards from my  long-time favorite in letterpress design, Linda & Harriet.

While noshing on mushrooms swathed in puff pastry, salted lamb and brie doused in lavender chutney (did I mention the bubbly?), we talked  blogging, social media, fabric, brunch spots and must-reads. Lots of thanks to Red Plum and Starving Artist, The Clean Plate Club, Petey Pumpkin and Annelise Normand for the conversation and celebration of the things we love.

I woke up with that odd feeling: an emotion that explanation doesn’t do justice but is aggrevating enough that I wanted to alleviate it  to recover some semblance of a productive morning.  Shockingly, no amount of adding items to my cart on Jcrew.com, scavenging through ebay or finding new favorites on etsy helped, while still wrought with fretfulness in bed.  So I moseyed to the kitchen, eying the ginger snaps, overlooking the oatmeal and finally settling on a comfort food that I could version to feel like a smart start to the day.  Note: I almost doused tapioca with grated white chocolate and blueberries, but instead opted for maple and nut to be more seasonally and breakfast-hour appropriate.

Happy Sweet Saturday.

Maple & Almond Tapioca Pudding
1/2 cup Tapioca pearls (if you have time, soak prior in 2 cups of water and drain before using)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup half & half
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tspn salt
1/2-1 tspn vanilla
1/2 tspn nutmeg
slivered almonds/maple syrup to taste

Add tapioca to a sauce pan with water, half & half (or milk), salt, sugar and beaten eggs.  Mix and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until thickened (15-20 m).  Add nutmeg and vanilla in the last 5 minutes.  After removing from heat, divide among teacups or ramekins and swirl maple syrup on top and sprinkle almonds as desired.  Chill if preferred.

If only this was always the case.  The weekend behind me,  after madly swiffering and lugging boxes of leftover Oktoberfest off the roof, I was consumed by mild dread for tackling the fridge of leftovers.  But alas cleanout turned to cupcakes, when I couldn’t bear to part with the pot of cider, that had been adoringly attended to with cloves, nutmeg, all-spice and cinnamon for my weekend fall festivities.

Knowing fully well I’m utterly incapable of making the cider doughnuts that I crave every autumn (i’ll leave that to the experts), I went for the next best thing that cider, sugar, eggs, flour and spices could be.  Add this to the lengthy list of reasons fall is oh so sweet.

Spiced Cider Cupcakes

(adapted from Coconut & Lime)

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 2/3 cup flour
2 cups traditional apple cider (mine was spiced prior to taste)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 tspn salt, nutmeg, all-spice, vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, mix butter and sugar. Add eggs, beat well. Add the baking powder, salt, nutmeg, all-spice and vanilla. Stir. Add the flour and then mix apple cider. Fill each lined cup 3/4 way full. Bake 25 minutes.

Under the guise of being “healthy”, in lieu of frosting, I used a liberal dollop of strawberry rhubarb jam to add a sweet topping.

Woke up to signature september crisp chill, so it felt only right to celebrate with a butternut squash and green apple inspired lunch on the roof for one of my friends to kick off an afternoon of pampering in the city.

I made a creamy butternut squash soup with with crusty baguettes and a side of a green apple & walnut salad. I love having the mums and root vegetables on the table to evoke even more autumnal bliss.

We just finished up and are off for an afternoon of salons, shopping and south end exploring; Hope everyone is having an equally savory saturday!

Butternut Squash Soup

1 can of butternut squash puree (I cheated, I know)
2 tblspns of butter
2 cups of chicken broth
cumin, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup each diced carrot and onion
1/2 cup half & half

Heat butter in large pot. Cook carrots and onions for 3 to 4 minutes. Add butternut squash puree and stir. Stir in chicken broth and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg & cumin. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Stir in half & half and cook and continue to simmer for 15.

Apple & Walnut Salad

Fresh greens ( I choose spinach)
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1 apple
Balsamic vinagrette, to taste

Place spinach, walnuts, apple, and cheddar into a bowl. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette, and toss.

Lured in by the attractive storefront featuring a vintage bicycle, complete with basket chock full of pastel packages, I made my first stop at Hotel Chocolat, a newcomer to Newbury street.  

After refraining from asking for seconds when we were greeted with the samples, I  took in the shelves of gorgeous parcels of milk and dark shock-oh-lah that touted eclectic combinations like “raspberry and prosecco” or “chili and almond”.  

Thinking it would be a challenge to make an exit without racking up a bill, I was thrilled when I found an aqua box with “Vintage Buttons” in traditional typeface across the front.  It might as well have had my name stamped on there as well!

The Story… We researched old buttons from the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s and became so absorbed that we brough our own collection.  Insie you’ll find a selection of buttons that best highlight the great skill and artistry that was put into the humble button.

Thoughtful, pretty and swathed in chocolate, their goodies make for the perfect hostess gift, sidetable decor or just a tasty treat.  If you’re in the neighborhood, pop in! (Hotel Chocolat, 141A Newbury Street between Clarendon & Dartmouth)

The lavender season was behind us, the remnants of sunflower fields was rather dismal, a bit of rain hampered my overambitious plans of biking but eight days and six pounds (oops) later I can’t say I mastered it (sorry Jules), but I can certainly say I thoroughly enjoyed the art of French cooking.

And it truly is an art.

Preparation begins at the markets, which we reveled in visiting – basically planning our village hopping around local market days. The high-pitched falsetto of vendor’s greetings invites you to all but stick your nose into (I may have come too close to their disgust) the colorful arrays of sels de mer, seemingly ornamental artichokes, oriental red tomatoes, crusty baguettes and candied fruits.

I imagine each of these women who were scampering around me, returns to a kitchen like this one, that I fell in love with. Our hosts took pride in their kitchen; making it not just a workstation but ofcourse, a work of art. Lilies to add cheer, crisp white crockery – the more chipped the more charming – liberally displayed behind rustic, bold cabinetry. Scattered lovingly, vintage cake platters and brushed silver trinkets to showcase love and use.

And that charm, grace and effortlessness continued to the table making simple concotions look so sweet. Breakfast didn’t need to be omlettes, waffles or pancakes to look extravagant – a basket of sliced baguettes and croissants with perfectly portioned dollops of jellies hand spooned into compote jars and yogurts ladled into ceramic jars looked equally decadent.

Each of the villages where we stopped seemed like the set of “its a wonderful life” with an endless series of boulangeries, patisseries and charcuteries embedded into cobblestone streets. But each was home to a distinct and different delight – the perfect fig (Nice), the crispiest creme brulee (Aix-en-Provence), my first experience with cod– laden with creme fraiche and swathed in puff pastry (Rhone), a pomme tartin that was heaven (Rousillon) and a crepe soaked in raw cane sugar and dusted with cinnamon (Uzes). Yum! Now resumes mastering the art of creating that at home.