I thought we were going to Paris for our honeymoon, I really, really did. But a few days ago, we were looking at my parent's timeshare book and all the awesome places we can visit, and friends -- we have been swayed.
Now our thoughts are floating to Hawaii, Thailand, Spain and more.
Peter and I like to say to each other, "Whatever we decide, it will feel like the right thing." We say this about a lot of things, like whether we should have sushi or Thai, go skiing Saturday or Sunday, look for a new apartment or stay put, and the answer is usually, "Whatever we decide, it will feel like the right thing." It's a surprisingly reassuring answer. You can do no wrong!
The problem was, we could not decide. The options were too good, and they all felt like the right thing. I can imagine a fantastic vacation in all of those places. They all feel like the right thing. So we put in a bid for Spain, France, and Hawaii resorts, and we may add more to the list. Fate will decide for us! Scary, but kind of fun, right?
Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe, and she enjoyed writing, and published some of her poems. She completed a novella called Fast and Loose when she was 15. But when she was 17, it was time for her "coming out" in society. And when she was 23, she got married to a wealthy man named Edward Wharton. With him, she could enjoy the lifestyle she loved, time to travel and time to write. But the marriage was an unhappy one. Edward did not understand his wife's literary or intellectual interests, and throughout their marriage he drank more and more. Edith was depressed, and so she focused even more on writing and publishing her first book, a book about architecture that she wrote with Ogden Codman Jr.: The Decoration of Houses (1898).
Well, her marriage is certainly not a model for me, but I love her house. And that seemed as good a reason as any to love her and want to hold our wedding reception there.
The house was in shambles a decade ago, having long served as a dormitory for the neighboring Shakespeare and Co. actors. When the restoration team got to work, they decided that they wouldn't try to recreate the home as it would have looked during Wharton's time, but instead honor her avant-garde design sensibilities and decorate the house as she might have during modern times. Hence the leopard carpet.
The three rooms above are where we'll serve dinner at our reception (with most of the existing furniture replaced by dining tables).
Ed. note: A very special post this morning from Peter! Enjoy.
After I graduated from college (almost five years ago – I can’t decide if that makes me feel old or young) I moved into an apartment in Arlington, Virginia with a friend who grew up in Texas. At that point, I was not an experienced hot sauce consumer. I found spicy foods distasteful. But they like spicy food in Texas, and our fridge quickly filled up with salsas and hot sauces that I never would have bought for myself.
Slowly my palette changed. I began to crave spicy food. Like an addict, the more spicy food I ate, the spicier I needed it to be to get my fix. Today, few spicy things scare me.
Julie and I are not on the same spicy food page. Flavors that I find mild she finds very spicy. Luckily, that is a problem that hot sauce was designed to solve. I like to keep three different sauces in the fridge at a time, so I can vary the flavor according to the dish (that’s not weird, right…?)
For a while Julie has been telling me that I would find it fun to make my own hot sauce. I agreed, but never did anything about it. Last week I was picking up a few things at the market and saw a display marked “hot peppers.” My curiosity was piqued. “I like hot things,” I thought to myself. And they had me. I’m not always the discerning consumer I pretend to be.
I bought twenty serrano peppers even though I didn’t know how to turn them in to hot sauce. I also bought two poblano peppers, because the sauce had to have more than one ingredient, right?
At home I chopped up the peppers and a medium onion and sautéed them with a little oil and salt for around fifteen minutes. Julie got home from work around minute seven, and quickly asked, “Why does our house smell like peppers?”
“I’m cooking peppers,” I responded. I’m also quick and witty.
Julie put her face over the pot of peppers and inhaled, a mistake, as it turns out. It sent her into a coughing fit. “Are you okay?” I asked, trying to conceal my delight that I was on the right track to an awesome hot sauce.
She was okay. She did not smell the sauce again.
After the fifteen minutes, I added around three cups of water. I let it all cook for another fifteen minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the water was almost gone, I took it off the heat and put it in a food processor. I added a little more salt and pepper, and some dried basil. I remembered once eating a spicy green curry at a Thai restaurant that had basil in it, so I copied them. I pulsed the sauce a few times, and then added small amounts of white vinegar until it reached the consistency I was looking for.
That’s it. It turned into a tasty hot sauce. My first taste of it was vinegar (reminiscent of a salt and vinegar potato chip), but that was quickly replaced by heat. It was a good heat, not as intense as I was hoping for, but still, nice. For about four dollars worth of peppers, I made enough sauce to fill up an old pickle jar.
Update: Four days later, the taste of the sauce is coming together. The vinegar taste is gone, and the heat was not so immediate. Instead, it is slower and less intense. It creeps up on you. Right now I’m eating it with tortilla chips, and it tastes like a hot salsa. Definitely spicy, but next time I’d like it to be even hotter.Any tips?
Basil Serrano Hot Sauce
You will need:
20 serrano peppers
2 poblano peppers
1 medium onion
Vegetable oil
Water
White vinegar
Dried basil (maybe fresh would be better?)
Salt
Pepper
Sauté the peppers and onion with a couple splashes of vegetable oil, salt, and pepper. Let them cook until everything gets nice and soft, and inhaling their vapors makes you cough. Add about three cups of water, but I’m not sure the amount matters. Cook it in the water over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the water almost disappears, about fifteen minutes. Remove from the heat and put it all into a food processor. Crumple some dried basil over the top of everything, and sprinkle in a little more salt and pepper as well. Pulse a few times, and then add in some white vinegar, a little at a time, until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.
Put it all in a glass jar that seals well. Store up to six months in the fridge.
I'm thisclose to officially deciding that I want the bridesmaids to try to wear silver shoes in the wedding. To me, this seems like a very annoying, little detail that won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. But my Mom keeps saying, "People love direction!"
Do they?
Anyways, here's a little sampling of some fun silver accessories (along with Lilly perfume, because, why not smell good in your metallics, right?).
Everyday, Butternut sends a photographer out on to the slopes to capture a photo of the day. Whenever I see the camera guy, I ski right in front of him multiple times so he can get a good shot. I try to keep my skis parallel, and gracefully hold my fuzzy hood on my head to keep it from flying off in an unattractive fashion.
Honestly, it's quite exhausting.
When we get home from a weekend of skiing, I can't help myself. I always check the daily photo page.
(Do you see where this is going?)
Butternut, why haven't I been in the daily photo gallery yet?! I try to monitor my camera hog tendencies, but I'm afraid I will have to continue showing off until I make the gallery.
I have been a sewing machine this week. Look at this progress.
I have four pin wheel sqaures just like that one, ready to be sewed together into a giant square. Then the mysterious quilting process shall begin!
Let's get a quiet "whoot!" for the weekend. It's been a long week, right? We're going up to the Berkshires and Peter and I are skiing with my little cousins Allie and Matt on Saturday.
Total aside about Allie: she is going to be a flower girl in our wedding, and she is so freaking excited. She got an American Girl doll for Christmas that she named Julie. Julie the doll has a dirty blonde bob and brown eyes. Familiar, no?
