The other day, when gearing up to serve the yummy Barefoot Contessa turkey meat loaf, I wanted something new to serve alongside. Yes, I still made mashed potatoes and spinach, but I also served up the best cooked carrots — honest. The recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated, and it’s super easy; takes 15 minutes. Basically you saute carrots in a pan with some chicken stock, butter, honey, fresh thyme and then squeeze on some lemon juice before you serve. Our friend Deborah was over for dinner, and confessed afterwards that when she heard we serving carrots thought to herself, “Oh no, now I have to pretend I like carrots.” But these were so good, she had two servings and asked for the recipe. So there! Eat your carrots! — Angela M. Click through to the next page for recipe! (more…)

There are a few cookbooks that I turn to again and again for foolproof dishes. One of them is, without a doubt, the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. It’s chock full of staples from roast chicken to chocolate brownies. Among many excellent dishes, my favorite is the turkey meat loaf. It’s so simple: A saute of onion, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, chicken stock and thyme is added to ground turkey mixed with eggs and bread crumbs. Lather the top with ketchup and bake slowly at 350 for an hour and half. I served with basic mashed potatoes (though I wish I had made the parmesan mash from the cookbook) and honey glazed carrots (those were so good, they nearly stole the show. I’ll give up that recipe next week!). Click through to this Food Network link to see the whole turkey meat loaf recipe. — Angela M.

P.S. This recipe makes a HUGE five pound meat loaf. I cut it down by a third and it worked well.

Not that we need to give you a reason to buy luscious gourmet chocolates, but Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and the kind folks over at coco-luxe.com are offering Shelterrific readers a 15% discount off their adorable truffles until the end of May. Each one is flavored to remind us of a childhood favorite dessert and features a cute little drawing like gingerbread men or mint leaves or banana splits to match. Comfort food in a chocolate — heaven! To get the discount, enter SHELTER during checkout for the discount. Click here to go to the Coco-Luxe site.

Sometimes you just can’t get enough of an animal you love. Dollmaker Yi Li, better known as Cornflakegirl, can craft a custom, miniature plush version of your beloved pet. The plushies above are of our friends’ chihuahuas Dee Dee and Pickles. Our friend Jessica says, “The detail is so uncanny that I think these plushies make Pickles and Dee Dee a little nervous.” Visit Cornflakegirl’s Etsy shop for more information. –Mary T.

For me (and, I believe, Angela, too) it’s wall decals — I’m seeing them too many places, and they strike me as a decorating trend that is going to be up there with avocado refrigerators soon. If you’re like us, you surf a lot of home decor sites. So is there a decorating trend that you’re getting tired of seeing? (And if this sounds too pessimistic, next week we’ll ask which trend you can’t get enough of!) –Mary T.

These Schmaltzy Craftsy pincushions really caught my eye, appropriately enough. Jen Segrest’s designs, many of which are featured in the recent book Pretty Little Pincushions, include everything from her hilarious “Creepy Eye” bottlecap pincushions to sweet cherry blossom and “Thoroughly Girly Tomato” designs.


Her attention to detail is so great and her designs are so incredible, I want a bunch of them, even though I barely sew. You can admire them on Jen’s Flickr page, too. Or, of course, purchase a few of your own at her Etsy store. –Mary T.

P.S. If Jen’s name sounds familiar, perhaps you’ve met her at one of her many other design-related endeavors: Very Big Design, Pixeldecor, Medieval Beads and OHIKEA.

So I finally purchased Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure, thinking I would be a late joiner to the 2008 Spring Cure. I’m reading through the book slowly, and there’s a lot of discussion of how important it is to make your bedroom feel like a sanctuary. While TVs aren’t explicitly mentioned (well, maybe they are eventually — I haven’t read it that closely yet) there always seem to be to be news stories on how bad it is to have a TV in the bedroom. Of course, not everyone feels this way: witness “Hi-Can, the Ferrari of Beds” — it pretty much is a TV! We don’t currently have a TV in our bedroom, but I confess: I love to watch movies in bed. What about you — TV in the bedroom, or banned from it? –Mary T.

Above image from Apartment Therapy.

There haven’t been many movies out recently that had enviable decor (can’t imagine any of you are rushing to steal ideas from There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old Men), but a film opened this past weekend that has wallpaper lovers swooning: Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day. It stars Frances McDormand as misplaced nanny who lands a job as personal secretary for a glamorous actress, played by Amy Adams — but design junkies would argue that film’s true star is the decadent 1930’s apartment created by production designer Sarah Greenwood (who also did Atonement’s lavish mansions). With tufted slipper chairs, silk wallpaper, and mirrored side tables, it’s enough to make any girl swoon. To read more about it, check out this little piece in The New York Times. And, be sure to weigh in on our mega-post, What’s Your Favorite Big Screen Home Decor?

Apartment Therapy had a nice little post on what designers collect. Angela collects antlers and refrigeratorware. I’ve developed a thing for vintage Pyrex. (Somehow I’ve just noticed the amazing site Pyrex Love! Such great photos, like the one above, and such great info.) So what do you collect? Share with us in comments, and include links if you have photos online. (If no photos online, feel free to contact letters at shelterrific dot com.) We may feature some of your fine collections in a future post. –Mary T.

Here’s a recipe for those of you serving a crowd on St. Patrick’s Day — though I actually made this back in January (P.I. time — pre-Isadora) and froze half of it. Ironically, it’s “Mom’s Beef Stew” from a book called Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook. (I’m not sure what it says about me, that of all the recipes in the book, I picked out the one that was ‘Mom’s’). It’s amazingly easy, if you have a slow cooker handy.

First, place chopped up potatoes and carrots at the bottom of the cooker. Then coat two pounds of boneless beef chunks in flour, paprika, salt and pepper, and brown it in a skillet. Transfer to the meat to the slower cooker, and add in chopped onion, celery, mushrooms. Stir up, leaving potatoes and carrots on the bottom layer. Add in a mixture of beef broth, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and cloves. Tuck in a bay leave or two and some parsley sprigs. Cover, and cook on low for eight to nine hours. Right before you serve, stir in some frozen peas and cook for fifteen more minutes. We served our stew over mashed potatoes. Talk about a comfort food hitting home! This dish did the trick.

I’m sure there is a way to make this without a slow cooker — simmering in a dutch oven on the stove for three or four hours? Does anyone know? Click through to the next page for the full recipe! — Angela M. (more…)