Getting press is exciting but “getting” press is fun. Thinking of places that might like linen cocktail napkins and guest towels (fun), contacting people you don’t know who have interesting jobs (fun), and hearing back from them (super fun), seeing your items in a magazine (thrilling), hearing from perfect strangers that they like your stuff (rewarding).

I love the internet because it is a dream come true, really; since i was young I wished I had a library in my home and didn’t have to go out to the library..how amazing that it happened! Speaking of not going out…I love not going out…I could live in a cave (a very chi-chi cave) but I think things are about to change. I’m moving in 2 weeks to Durham, N. Carolina after 30 years in California so Butterfly will be going on vacation from July 14th-July 31st while I dig my way out of boxes.  It already seems like a place where neighbors see neighbors, where you mix and mingle, where opportunity to connect lays down right in front of you and you’d be a fool not to be open to it.

Also, beginning to work on a couple of new linen items: placemats and table runners. When I have samples they’ll go up here. If you need either of those it would motivate me to get those projects going and I’d give you a reduced price in gratitude.

Eric and I had a fun art smackdown yesterday. We wanted to come up with guest towels to coordinate with the Indian Flower cocktail napkins so we took an hour to come up with sketches. He won; we used 4 of his designs and 2 of mine. Eric goes off to grad school at The Art Institute of Chicago when I go off to Durham. I don’t know how I’m going to get along without him.

Indian Flower Cocktail Napkins and coordinating Guest Towels

That’s all she wrote.

Susan (left) and Dr. Jane, two of the characters I hung with in Durham last week. Susan’s husband Michael had happily joined us for the fabulous farmer’s market and then Parker & Otis for great coffee and breakfast but had reached his limit when the conversation turned to haircuts.

Jennings took over P & O two years ago and somehow managed to make it feel like it has been there for twenty. Coming from LA, I almost dropped my socks when I paid $5 for 2 eggs, bacon, fruit, and a big cheddar biscuit (wish I had photos of that, but I was too busy eating it!).

Three dudes from Durham, hangin’ at P & O. They were just so … “dude-ish” … I had to include them.

Back to my pals: Susan is a top Merrill-Lynch advisor whom I’ve known since grade school. Here’s what an A-type personality she is: she gets up 7 days a week at 4:30am so she can exercise and be at work by 8. It’s no surprise she’s tops in the country. She earns it the hard way … work, work, focus, focus. She’s also got one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever encountered.

Dr. Jane lives 2 doors from Susan & Michael and is my new Durham friend. Like everyone I’ve met in this flourishing town she is warm and welcoming. I think Durham is the new Austin but not near as hot in the summer.

Headed back to LA, the airport was crawling with kids.

1. Get in your head something you want to cook and eat.

2.Read a bunch of recipes, write down all the stuff you need to buy at the grocery.

3. Say, oh hell, I’ll just roast them in olive oil and salt; what could go wrong…

I was going to make stuffed onions. All the recipes had a different method for removing the center of the onion where the stuffing would go. Cut a half inch off the tops, cut a bit from the bottom so they would sit flat, poach, boil, cook halfway..All I did was peel the skins off, cut off some of the top and bottom, then rolled them in plenty of olive oil and sprinkled with Maldon coase sea salt, put them in a 370° oven and basted them a couple of times, for about 35 minutes. Turned the oven down to 350° and turned the the onions over. Much to my surprise when I opened the oven door 25 minutes later the centers had popped up, so cute and how easy it would have been to pull the roasted centers out, put in a stuffing and put the little hat back on top or use the roasted goodness as an ingredient in the stuffing. But I ate them out of the pan standing up in my kitchen, happily.

I’ve been 30 years in California and am moving to North Carolina in July. It’s got my mind refocusing on things like…visiting Baltimore and the American Visionary Art Museum for the first time..visiting New Orleans more often to see mom…and hiking and canoeing, especially canoeing. Peter Doig’s canoe paintings are so lush. So, all this canoe talk made me think of my favorite camping recipe…

Bring a box of Bisquick. Break a branch off a tree and
using your pen knife scrape off the bark until you get to the green part. Add water to Bisquick. Form dough around bottom of stick.

Cook over campfire. It will contract and fall easily off stick. Fill with jelly. Eat. Be a satisfied outdoorswoman. Lets call them Jelly Sticks.

Today we’re taking inventory for all of Butterfly’s garments and it seemed like a fitting time to share some images of our latest models. Ezra looking good in Chicago!

Ready for his closeup, Noah from Texas sports this tee with attitude.

I might have to make this shirt in an adult size for Eric who can’t stop eating my chocolate chip cookies and downing cartons of milk. After reading this article from the NY Times I baked the best ones I’ve made in 40 years of baking! Read the article or in a nutshell, here are the secrets:

•let the batter rest 24-36 hours

•make them big enough to get 3 textures; crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside, and toffee-like in between.

•salt, yes salt.

Instead of frying or sautéing or poaching, do what chefs do.

Heat the oven to hot, like 450°.

Heat olive oil and canola oil till hot in a skillet that fits the fish.

In a plastic bag or dish mix plenty of salt and pepper and a little flour and coat the fish patting off all excess so there’s just a thin coating. Cook skin side down first until crispy and brown (the skin becomes really delicious and crunchy). Once the skin gets really crisp it’s pretty easy to flip. So flip it and brown the other side then put the skillet in the oven and cook through. (USE A METAL SKILLET, NOT TEFLON). The amount of time in the oven will depend on the thickness of the fish.

What’s great here is the simplicity, one-dish cooking, and that the flavor of the fish really comes through. This is a good thing when fish is fresh; not so good when less than fresh.

Now for some toppings.

JUST SIMPLE
I love to chop tons of parsley (lots of Vitamen K, good for bone health), a bit of garlic, coarse salt, a squeeze of lemon juice, bit of Olive Oil.

VARIATIONS ON JUST SIMPLE:
•Add a couple of anchovies (soaked in milk for 15 minutes then patted dry)

•Add capers and lemon zest

•Instead of lemon add a Tablespoon or 2 of good Balsamic Vinegar with the same  amount of Olive Oil.

•Add finely chopped walnuts.
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Other  toppings

•Saute sliced almonds in butter. Add chopped parsley a second before you pour the almonds over the fish.

•This is more work but it’s great…core and halve red peppers. Toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper (don’t wash bowl). Roast in a 450° oven on a cookie sheet until darkened and black in places. I like to line the sheet pan with parchment paper so there’s no clean up. After roasting, put peppers and accumulated juice back into the bowl and cover with foil.  Peel when cool or refrigerate and peel next day using all the roasting liquids in bowl. Purée with bit of fresh garlic, a touch of Smoked Paprika (La Chinata), and a bit of Balsamic Vinegar. (I buy Villa Manodori Balsamic Vinegar and use it like a miser. It is so delicious but exorbitantly priced. I would never cook a drop of this stuff.) Add a touch of Olive Oil and salt if you think it needs it.

Lately I haven’t been sleeping or thinking about baby tees, cooking, marketing ideas, exercising, health, friends, painting, or blog posts. All I think about is politics. Today I went on a retreat back into the rest of my life.

I cooked Balsamic Roasted Butternut Squash Polenta from Michael Chiarello’s Tra Vigne Cookbook. The recipe title in the book is Soft Polenta with Variations. I first tasted it at Kazi’s house on the night our cooking group (The Saucy Spoons) all cooked from this book. It’s dangerously delicious, especially good in the Winter months. Getting a bunch of good cooks together to make recipes out of the same book really tells you a lot about the author and his/her cooking..and if the recipes were well tested.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Heat oven to 350. Any winter squash will work but i love Butternut. Peel and cut into 1″ chunks and put into a bowl. Make a mixture of Molasses, Balsamic Vinegar, salt, pepper, herbs (I used fresh rosemary and dried marjoram; fresh sage is what the recipe called for). Melt some butter till it’s lightly browned. Take pan off heat so you don’t get spattered and add the Molasses mixture. Put back on stove and cook a couple of minutes to meld flavors. Pour over the squash and toss. Place on a baking sheet and roast till very tender, 30-45 minutes. Toss a couple of times during the roasting. Let squash cool 10 minutes then puree in food processor. I usually freeze half the puree for the next time I want to make this dish.

Make polenta using cream or half & half as a portion of the liquid. When polenta is cooked through but still moist, mix in the squash puree. Then mix in grated Parmesan cheese. Serve with a drizzle of Truffle Oil (I didn’t have any and it was still divine without it.)

I love smooth foods like this and creamed spinach is another favorite. This recipe reminds me of the one we got at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in New Orleans, back when there was just the one and only Ruth Chris Steak House and franchising a restaurant was left to the hamburger crowd.

My Creamed Spinach

Cook spinach, frozen or fresh, briefly. Squeeze all the liquid out.* Chop. Bring heavy cream to a boil. Add chopped spinach along with salt and a bit of grated nutmeg. Stir in some room temperature butter. Nobody said it was diet food!

*Save the spinach liquid and add it to eggs to make green eggs and ham. Or cook it down to a near glaze and add back to the spinach.

And then there is my cousin Lisa Pulitzer’s divine spinach casserole; you’re going to love this if you make it.

Picture of Lisa and Sylvie

Lisa Pulitzer’s Spinach and Artichoke Casserole for a Crowd

4-5 boxes of frozen chopped spinach

1 stick of butter

bacon fat if you have it

1 package of cream cheese

Some sour cream or heavy cream

parmesan, about 1/3 cup or more to taste

3 Tbsp lemon juice

bit of garlic

2 cans of artichoke heart bottoms

1 teas. Coleman’s dried mustard

1 bunch of scallions (white bottom part)

Put spinach in a colander in the sink and let defrost.
Pour very hot water over spinach.
Squeeze like crazy to get out as much water as possible.
Chop and saute scallions.
Place all ingredients (except buttered bread crumbs) into food processor and puree.
Put into a buttered casserole dish.

Buttered Bread Crumbs

Heat some butter then add fresh breadcrumbs and brown lightly.
Scatter breadcrumbs over the top of spinach and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.