want it now: maple pepper grinder
Our fancy dishes were just put away after holiday entertaining, but already we are fantasizing about new dining time accessories. These swanky pepper grinders from The Pepin Shop bring the reclaimed wood trend to tabletop. Made from naturally fallen branches (mostly from wind storms!), they are rustically gorgeous. Maybe the next time a hunking piece of tree falls in your yard you’ll look at in a new way? Maple pepper grinder, $89.
Related previous posts:
My new paranoia, fear of falling trees
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what i’ve been cooking over the holidays
It feels like the past five days have been a blur of cooking, eating and cleaning. Here's roundup of some of the recipes I've been using over the holiday weekend.
1. Popovers. These are one of my favorite special treats. They’re great for breakfast, served warm with butter, honey and your favorite jams. On Christmas, I gave them the “Yorkshire” pudding treatment, plating them up alongside the main course of beef and gravy.
2. Beef Tenderloin with Port Reduction Sauce. I found this recipe on Epicurious and thought it would be the perfect thing for our holiday dinner. Beef tenderloin sounds fancy, but it’s actually crazy easy. As this recipe instructs, the key is to “dry brine” the meat for about 24 hours before cooking. To do this, simply cover the beef in course salt, and let it sit, uncovered, on a racked pan in your fridge for at least 24 hours. It will look a little dry when you take it out, but trust me the results will be tender and juicy. Before cooking, rub olive oil all over, and then cover in a cracked pepper crust. I also made the gravy the night before, cooking down a sauce of Cognac and port until it was nice and thick.
3. Sausage and Swiss Chard Strata. We had guests sleep over on Christmas Eve and I wanted something easy and satisfying to serve on the big morning after opening presents. The night before, I prepared a sausage and Swiss chard strata from Martha Stewart Living. It’s basically an egg and bread lasagna. First you cook the sausage, then the chard, and then you layer in a baking dish with slices of day-old baguette. Pour a mixture of egg and milk over top so it is soaked thoroughly. The next morning, before baking, I added a layer of grated Gruyere on top and baked it about 45 minutes. It was so delicious. I will definitely do this again — perhaps even for dinner one night!
4. Perfect Pot Roast. We had a lot of leftover mashed potatoes after the holiday dinner, so I decided to make a pot roast to go with them. Really, I was wanted an excuse to finally try Pioneer Woman’s perfect pot roast. It was so easy to cook it was almost criminal! I took out my trusty Le Creuset French oven, and set to work. First, sear a couple of onions followed by a whole bunch of carrots on the stove. Then, brown the chuck roast. Afterwards, everything comes out of the pan and add a little red wine, stirring up with whisk to loosen all the bits on the bottom. Put everything back in the pan, add some beef broth with fresh rosemary and thyme, put the lid on it, and stick it the oven for four hours or so. Let me tell you, those leftover mashed potatoes never tasted so good!
What have you been cooking the past few days? I’d love to hear about it. — Angela M.
want it now: mod gingerbread house
I am always tempted to make a gingerbread house, but never get around to it. Perhaps I’m not inspired by the traditional Hanzel & Gretal cottage style they all have. Well, it looks like I have found my dream gingerbread house, The Modern Gingerbread House. It’s so cute I don’t want to eat it – I want to live in it! With classic mid-century style it comes with a rock garden and garden. Add a few teal and orange gumdrops on the roof, and you’ve got centerpiece any mod homemaker can be proud of. Get the kit at uncrate.com, $80. — Angela M.
thanksgiving round up!
As this Thanksgiving rolls around, we are thankful that is our FIFTH Shelterrific Thanksgiving. We’ve covered our favorite feast from many angles, and thought it might be worth taking a moment to click down memory lane. From the great brine debate to the ultimate one-hour holiday meal, there’s a lot of great advice in these here posts. See some of our favorites, below.
How do you cook your bird?
How do you take your cranberry sauce?
Leftover ideas: sweet potato pancakes
What to do with leftover pumpkin
steal this idea: chilewich’s genius chargers
With the holidays coming up, I’ve been debating all of the various ways I could dress my Thanksgiving table. I always dream of being the kind of girl that uses chargers – they have this way of making a table setting look instantly glamorous and elegant, no matter how ordinary your dinnerware. But really, who has storage space for a set of plates that aren’t really plates, that you use only once or twice a year? Moreover, who has energy to hand wash one more round of dishes at the end of the night?
Leave it to the geniuses at Chilewich to come up with the solution. Their Dahlia placemats look absolutely amazing under even the simplest white dishes. The metallic tone is the perfect touch of glam for a holiday table. And the best part about these beautiful mats? They’re plastic – so they can be wiped off, rolled up, and stashed in the tiniest corner of your kitchen cupboard until next year. Though really, they’re so pretty and polished, I have a feeling I’ll be using these year-round…which is definitely more than I could say for those chargers. Plus, at only $8 each, they won’t break the bank.
I’ll be using them to top a classic white linen tablecloth and set off my white dinnerware from West Elm – with a beautiful red apple on everyone’s plate (these gorgeous candles from DL & Company would double as excellent favors/gifts for your guests, if you’re so inclined) and a few mercury glass candlesticks, this year’s Thanksgiving table will be stunning, with hardly an ounce of effort on my part. –Becki S.
