celebrations Archives - Page 2 of 15

Write Guest’s Names On Their Glasses (And Save Your Sanity)

One of the simplest, hottest tips for holiday entertaining can be done with what you’ve got on hand and will cut down on busy work and stress.

Classic Chicken Liver Pate + An Artfully Lightened Version after Michel Guerard

My Classic Liver Pate, deeply enriched with butter, cream and cognac, makes a divine and satisfying appetizer or hors d’oeuvre. For those that don’t want such richness, I came up with a lightened version achieve with the same luxurious effect.

Bob Dylan’s Blessing

Bob Dylan’s 1970’s classic, Forever Young, is in essence a blessing, perfect words for clinking glasses in a toast this Thanksgiving Day and for celebrating a 100th birthday.

pioneer woman with wild turkey, helvetia West Virginia

Improvised Life’s Thanksgiving Toolkit

If you’re still wrapping your head around pulling Thanksgiving dinner together, here is our toolkit of Improvised Life’s best ideas from Thanksgivings past.

Halloween: Inspiration, Scary Stuff, Song

Suddenly, it is Halloween, one of the strangest and most magic days of the year. If it snuck up on you, here is just the thing:

As Life Gets Longer It Gets Shorter. Celebrate!

Every person who ever lived feels Time. These days, the general rule when turning a big number birthday is to freak out. But there are other routes to take…

Spring Breakfast: A Perfect Boiled Egg with Toast Soldiers

This Sunday, we’ll celebrate Spring and Easter with a simple, of-the-season breakfast: soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers, and good coffee, inspired by Ellen Silverman’s Girl with Egg. Here’s how to make perfection out of something so simple.

Valentine’s Day Practice (Jenny Holzer + Yoko Ono)

We’re thinking alternative ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day…

Serious Comfort: Cream Biscuits (3 Minutes to Assemble, 12 to Bake)

Cream biscuits are really really easy to make, and SERIOUSLY divine. We figure they are the perfect weekend pleasure and will provide serious comfort during this challenging time.

Saying NO to Holiday Gift-Giving Guilt (Mira Keras)

Despite all pressures and temptations, this year I will not be buying any Christmas gifts this year; I’ll use other strategies to show my love.

String Light Wreaths, Trees and Freeform Decorations

Terrain’s circular displays of their holiday lighting made us think “wreath” and gave us lots of ideas. Just coil the lighting (using a form if necessary) and tack it to the wall. There are all sorts of iterations of lighting made into wreaths, decorations and wall trees.

Food Gift: DIY Chocolate Shards or Slabs with Surprising Flavors

Shards of chocolate embedded with surprising flavors and crunchy elements make terrific gifts for much less cost than pricey “artisan-made’ chocolates. Here’s how to make them.

Happy Thanksgiving from Improvised Life (w Pablo Neruda)

Along with our wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving we offer the perfect poem, best read aloud.

Two Cranberry Sauces, One Complex, One Simple

Although I’ve had many cranberry sauces in my food-wandering days, I am partial to cooked ones that exploit cranberries’ best qualities: an abundance of tannic red-fruit tartness and pectin that releases when the fruit softens to form a thick, jammy sauce. Here are two favorites.

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.

Pumpkin Stars!!! (Happy Halloween from Improvised Life)

What could be better to celebrate Halloween than with cosmic “pumpkin stars’ recently discovered by NASA? (Video link here)

Instant Costumes for Uncertain Halloween Parties

Arriving at a Halloween party in full costume when no one else is is kind of a drag…as is NOT wearing a costume when everyone else is (downer). How to dress for a Halloween party you aren’t sure if people are going to be in costume or not? Mira Keras found inspiration in member of the…

Kitchen Gold: Red Wine Essence

One of the most extraordinarily extravagant and extraordinarily delicious sauces in my repertoire is Red Wine Essence. Because it will keep for months in the fridge, the powerful sauce is my secret weapon to call upon at any time I want to transform simple foods into complex dishes.

Fragrant Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Thyme

The idea of an olive oil cake always sounded better than any I ever tasted in restaurants. But that IDEA was so enticing, I decided to try my hand at creating one. The result was a lovely easy-to-make cake without an overtly olive oil flavor; rather, the oil makes for a delicate texture and underpins the…

Thin Lacy Cheese Crisps (You Made Those?!!)

Years ago I learned to make the classic lacy cheese crisps of Friuli Italy called frico, one of those miraculous creations that LOOK really difficult to make, but aren’t. They are the perfect hors d’oeuvre with cocktails, and inspire improvisations; their delectable uses are legion.

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