Seth Boyden’s charming video, An Object at Rest, has changed the way I view the nearly two dozen rocks and stones I use around my space.
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Rocks are Useful and Sparkle with Poetry and Art
Knowing how a long lineage of artists and writers have used rocks and stones in their work expands my pleasure in those I collect for their beauty and endless uses…
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Miracle of Transformation: An Easy Way to LactoFerment Foods at Home
Having tried and failed with my own lacto-fermentation rig, I found a tool and two books that made for satisfying success in my fermentation experiments.
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Rocks and Stones Make Endlessly Useful Tools and Beautiful Objets
A personal compendium of the pleasures and uses for rocks and stones, with John Cage and Mary Oliver…
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found rocks as book ends, candle holders, still-life…more
We are BIG fans of using found rocks as utensils. Rocks hauled home from beach or forest have become paper weights, doorstops, toilet paper holder “bricks” for our bricked-chicken recipe, even a prop to keep a cactus standing upright. They float around the Laboratory; if not in a direct use, they make lovely still-lives. Wary…
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stylish makeshift toilet roll holder (made of rocks)
Since moving, we’ve realized the insane number of details that comprise “a life”: where is a good dry cleaner in our new neighborhood, what to use for hooks for towels until we find ones we like?…it is endless. We’d bought a nice-looking toilet roll holder only to discover to discover that it would be “a…
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painted stones for home a la max ernst
We’ve long been a fan of keeping found rocks and stones around the house. They make visually wonderful “sculptures” and they have many impromptu practical purposes, to keep a door from blowing closed, act as bookend, smash garlic or spices or weight a butterflied chicken cooking in a skillet… Images of Max Ernst’s painted stones…
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tree trunks and rocks as display cases + stools
This artwork by Marlo Pascual reminded us how great a big rock can be to display stuff, especially this carefully balanced photograph. Perfect. It called to mind the boulders Russel Wright used to prop up a red-painted sideboard
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more rocks in the kitchen: for steaming greens and…
If you pile a bunch of washed and stemmed greens like chard or spinach or kale in a shallow skillet with a few tablespoons of water, cover them and set over high heat, they’ll steam just fine without a proper steamer; most of the water evaporates by the time they’ve become tender, so they’ll be…
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rocks as doorstop (sculpture)
I’m a big fan of rocks, which I haul home from the beach or country to use in various ways around my apartment, for Chicken Under a Brick Rock, or keep the air conditioner from rattling. They make beautiful, rather elemental doorstops. They’re also wonderul to look at with no use at all, piled up…
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The Bathroom As Incubator of Ideas
The bathroom is the one place where I find mindfulness overrated. It is a lovely place to read, write, draw. Look at all the way it can be an incubator of ideas.
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How to Do Almost Nothing on Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day weekend is the real start of summer in our minds. And our minds are full of ideas for simple pleasures and ramblings, whether home or away.
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Fried Chicken Italian-Style: Chicken Under a Brick (or Rock)
The Italian technique of panfrying a chicken with a weight on top yields a bird with an utterly crispy skin and succulent flesh in less than half an hour. It works for all manner of poultry.
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Dry-Brined Butterflied Turkey: A Short Roast to Perfection
The combined techniques of dry-brining and spatchcocking (butterflying) makes for a quick-cooking turkey with moist tender flesh, crisp skin, and a good deal less than the usual anxiety.
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Clarifying Questions to Start Every Day
Over the past few months at Swiss-Miss, we found two related ideas that really hit home and made us think hard about what we really want.
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Books for A Good Night’s Sleep
Want a good night’s sleep, or help falling asleep? Reading a relaxing book really does help to shift your mind out of the day. Recently, our friend Merete Mueller told us her strategy…
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Celebrate The Splendid Table’s 20 Years of Food Inspiration
This weekend marks The Splendid Table’s 20th anniversary show. Lynne Rosetto Kasper launched the famous radio food show with a conversation with Julia Child about the 4th of July which you can listen to here. I am THRILLED to be included on the roster for this special show (talking about fresh cherries), along with Mario Batali (talking…
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Practice: Quiet
A friend recently told us about her practice of taking an occasional day of silence; she shuts down intrusive electronics like her computer, tv, phone, and goes through the day without uttering a word. The neighbors in her smallish town know that when she wears a button saying “Honoring Silence”, they need to do just…
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Collected’s Fritz Karch: the Pleasures of ‘Hunting and Gathering’
Creative director/editor/stylist Fritz Karch’s official bio begins:”he became an active collector at age eleven and has always been an ardent believer in the benefits and pleasures of hunting and gathering.” Recently, he collaborated with Rebecca Robertson on Collected: Living with the Things You Love, a tour of fantastic, often eccentric collections around the world, and an entry IN to your own creative collecting.
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Mortar and Pestles to Buy or DIY (and Ones Not To)
Recently, Jim Dillon asked me to recommend a good mortar and pestle. It is a fine request as they are incredibly useful, yet misunderstood tools. I’ve been mentally panning most of the mortars and pestles I see for year because of their ineffective —yet often beautiful — design. So here are some mortar and pestle basics,…
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