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New Home, New Life, New Grill

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I’m in Boulder! I live somewhere again. It’s so nice to live in my own space with my own friendly things around me.

I’ve been here a few weeks and so far so good, though unpacking boxes and furniture that were in storage for a year was like opening up a wrinkled dust bowl. Which doesn’t even make sense, but there was dust. And wrinkled everything. And I didn’t have internet for a week and a half. I realized that I’ve never moved from one house to another like normal people do – I’ve always flitted off to somewhere random and left everything at my parents’ house for months, or gave all the furniture to Goodwill because it wasn’t worth keeping and then just bought new stuff. Does having nice furniture that deserves storage space mean I’m a real grownup now? So I had to do things like buy a lightbulb for every single lamp, and discover all the shoes and coats I stored for a year and forgot about, and buy so many clothes hangers and organization bins I think I’ve kept Target in business for at least another month. Normal moving has got to be simpler, right? You just put everything in a truck, and then it comes out of the truck an hour or a day later and everything is just the way it was when you put it in? That sounds so lovely.

In the spirit of a new place and new things – and also of being out of New York City and therefore in a normal place where there is, amazingly, outdoor space – I have a tiny patio and I love it! So I bought a gorgeous outdoor grill for it. When I lived in New York, I moaned a lot about how so many recipes require grills and my grill pan was just not getting it done, and grilling is just not practical for anyone in NYC who isn’t Bobby Flay? I’ve joined the ranks of all those annoying people with space for grills. Sorry guys. But IT’S AWESOME.

When I was debating whether or not the grill was worth the money, I remembered that my Aunt Loren told me she uses her grill all the time, even in the winter, because it cooks things quickly, easily, and there are no pots and pans to clean. I figured, ok, if I use it year-round, it’ll be a good investment. So far, I’ve not cooked anything on the stove in five days, and it really does clean up in 5 seconds flat. This will be a wintertime staple, I do believe.

I’ve been making homemade turkey burgers like its my job, and I’ll put the recipe up one of these days but I think its a fairly standard recipe that no one is going to flip out over. And so is the following one, really, but it blew my mind so I’m sharing it. Grilled peaches.

Everything you’ve heard is true. They are GOOD.

Turn the grill on to medium-high heat (mine went up to about 400 degrees with the lid down). Wash the peach, dry it, cut it into quarters. Spray or brush high heat canola oil on them so they don’t stick to the grill or burn. I hear butter works too.

Sprinkle a liberal amount of cinnamon on them, and then a dash of nutmeg and/or cloves, and a dash of salt.

Grill for 4-5 minutes on one side and 3-4 minutes on the other side.

Eat.

I can imagine all sorts of variations on the theme – balsamic syrup, vanilla beans, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, cognac whipped cream, cinnamon cognac whipped cream…..

Finally

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I got rid of the evil hacker. It took multiple customer service reps from my excellent web host, Just Host, and I had to change the theme of my website. Apparently it had a lot of security holes in it and that’s why it kept getting hacked. Ugh! The site will look like this for a while – it’s not my former gorgeousness, but it’s not too bad. At least the content is there (looking on the bright side – my poor molested BB&B!).

So, if you are reading this, thanks for coming back. I am moving in the next few days, so I’m not going to be posting again right away, but as soon as I get settled I am really looking forward to writing some fun posts and party ideas.  See you soon!

A Girl in the Garden Tea Party

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I LOVE high tea. It makes me ridiculously happy. It is the girliest of parties, requiring floral teacups, pink jams, tiny sandwiches, and outstretched pinky fingers. It is also a great cocktail-type of party to throw, due to the aforementioned tiny sandwiches. Add some champagne and everyone will be as ridiculously happy as I am about tea parties.

There is even an entire book about tea parties, written by Susannah Blake, and I don’t know anything about it except that the cover looks gorgeous. I want to go to there.

A walled garden just begs for tea to be served within it, doesn’t it? A civilized table set amongst the wildness of ivy climbing the walls and flowers growing amok.

There is tea served in the garden in Kamala Nair’s new book, The Girl in the Garden, which arrives in bookstores June 15. And that’s all I’ll say – now you know there is a garden, and tea is poured within it, and you still know nothing about who drinks it or why. Plot twists, you are safe with me!

For book clubs or friends who just want an excuse to get together, a tea party at any time of day would be absolutely lovely. An evening tea party, with champagne and cupcakes, would be gorgeous; or go the traditional afternoon route for a bit of girly weekend fun.

A tea party is easy to put together, also. I quickly searched Martha Stewart and found the yummiest twists on the classics:

And then there are the obvious: cucumber and butter (or cream cheese, or mayonnaise) sandwich, egg salad sandwich, and chicken salad sandwich.

YUM.

photo by: teenytinyturkey on flickr

For something fun to add to the sandwiches, any of these fancy potato chip appetizers would play on the typical overly fancy foods usually served at tea parties.

Don’t forget cakes or cones with clotted cream and a nice jam or two. You could make the scones (here is one of Martha’s recipes) or I personally feel fine about buying them, if you have a bakery near you that makes them.

Brew a little tea and you’re all set for a grownup tea party and The Girl in the Garden.

No Kitchen = No Fun

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I have been pondering why I haven’t been writing here since I got to Oman. I haven’t particularly wanted to write. I have the strange sense that a part of me has been cut off and left in America, and I’ve somehow lost the dinner party part of my life without intending to.

At least it's pretty here

I hardly cook here. I love cooking for dinner parties because I love thinking about fancy recipes, who I will serve them to and in what atmosphere, and then actually making the fancy meal I’ve concocted in my head. I can’t do that here because I’m staying in someone else’s house, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to take over her kitchen. Unfortunately, domestic peace means limiting my cooking to heating up pasta sauce from a jar or making a quick stir-fry. I hate this reason, but it is what it is.

So, I’ve been thinking up ways to inspire myself without being able to actually create any of my ideas. I don’t know how to overcome this little problem except to come up with ways the ideas can be useful eventually.

A friend sent me a gorgeous meditation on creating for the sake of creating, and I highly recommend reading it for anyone who struggles with their creativity – which is all of us, right?  How to Steal Like an Artist

Luckily for me and my need for a purpose before I feel like coming up with fun dinner party ideas, my friend Kamala Nair is coming out with her debut novel, The Girl in the Garden, quite soon. I have already written about it here and here, as I’m sure you’ll all remember and I’m also sure you have all pre-ordered it so you can have it in your hot little hands earlier than than the non-pre-order slackers. Well done. You’re all bi-winning. [Oh what? Charlie Sheen jokes are already old? Nerds!] The Girl in the Garden will be in bookstores June 15, and will be positioned at the front of Barnes & Noble stores starting June 21, which is a VERY big deal, by the way! It will also be featured on the Bookishreadingclub.com site on the Starbucks Digital Network from 6/28-7/12. There won’t even be any books available by June 29! Aren’t you glad you pre-ordered?

Look at how gorgeous her website is: www.kamalanair.com

Parties simply must be thrown around the theme of her book! I’m going to be writing about some gorgeous ideas I have. Well, to be honest, this book is so evocative, parties can’t help but be gorgeous. Book clubs will particularly find these ideas useful, but anyone can use them – you don’t even need to tell your guests about the fictional inspiration if you don’t want to (but DO, because her book is really really good).

I am also getting excited about going to visit my dad and stepmom and stepbrothers soon, and having people to cook for and a kitchen to cook in! So expect some menus related to family home cooking, with a little gourmet thrown in of course.

So there you go. For the next month or so, look out for Girl in the Garden-themed recipes and party ideas. I can’t wait for you to all read it, and then you’ll really understand the ideas and all be desperate to throw gorgeous parties full of glamour and mystery and definitely some romance for good measure.

Life Temporarily Taking Over

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Extremely accurate rendering of my desk

My life is becoming crazy busy for the next few weeks, so unfortunately there’s an equal and opposite reaction on BB&B and posting will be slow for a little while. I promise to come back with a lot of interesting new ideas and adventures, as I will be traveling soon and am so excited to tell you all about it!

In the meantime, I’ll be thinking of more elaborate ways to celebrate Kamala Nair’s debut novel, Girl in the Garden, and will have menus, recipes and design ideas coming soon. {See my original ideas here}

Girl in the Garden just got a glowing blurb from the amazing author Thrity Umrigar:

Kamala Nair has crafted an evocative, passionate, tragic novel about love, loss and the terrible cost of family secrets. An impressive debut.
–Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Space Between Us

Did I mention Girl in the Garden is coming out June 15? Did I mention that it has a Kindle edition, if you’re into that sort of space age technology thing? Did I mention you should pre-order it at its amazingly low pre-order price?

You should. Click here.

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