Chesapeake Home

Regarded by many to be the country’s most prestigious juried exhibition and sale of fine American craft, the 28th annual Smithsonian Craft Show takes place April 22 through April 25, 2010 in the historic National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

This year’s show features 120 superb craft artists in one of 12 categories: basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art and wood. The artists were selected by a panel of three jurors, who reviewed over 1,300 applicants. This year’s show includes artists from 30 states as well as 46 first-time exhibitors.

Check out the video preview of the 2010 show:

To learn more about the show and to review a full schedule of related seminars and events, visit SmithsonianCraftShow.org.

Two new cookbooks worth note recently hit the shelves—Dishing Up Maryland by Lucie L. Snodgrass and the latest from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living, Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast.

Because Dishing Up Maryland has an obvious local angle, I was fortunate to attend a reception celebrating the book’s release, rub elbows with the author and local book critics, and try some of the delicious recipes included in its pages. Dishing Up Maryland is a cookbook done my way. Mixing food, with local travel and personalities, the book features great recipes, beautiful photos, and also a little light, interesting reading. With a focus on Maryland-style cooking and locally-sourced food, this book balances author Lucie Snodgrass’ own recipes, farm family recipes, and ones from well-know Maryland chefs committed to supporting local agriculture with short profiles of people, farms, and restaurants dedicated to the idea of seasonal, local, cuisine. This idea is reinforced by the book’s seasonal arrangement, through which the recipes are presented according to when during the year the ingredients are in season and can be purchased from local vendors. Some of my favorite recipes featured in the book include: the Chicken Pot Pie with Spring Peas & Carrots, Shrimp Pate with Crostini, and the Arugula Pesto. And those are just the ones I’ve tasted. Later in the year as the ingredients come into season, I can’t wait to try the Zucchini Fritters with Thyme, the Crab and Gruyere Quiche, and the Rockfish in Tomato Saffron Cream Sauce over Rice.

Buy Dishing Up Maryland Now!

288 pages/Storey Publishing 2010

A long-time fan of the Martha Stewart cookbooks, the new book Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast is one of my favorites. For me, many of the enticing offerings presented in earlier Martha Stewart cookbooks were the culinary equivalents of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: fun to dream about but not realistic. Sure there were plenty of great recipes, and over the years, I have tried many (successfully I might add), but most were time consuming and required harder to find ingredients. Culling recipes from the pages of the digest-sized Everyday Food magazines you may have seen at your local grocery checkout end-cap, this book hits the mark with economical, flavorful, healthful recipes that can often be prepared in a half hour or less with commonly available ingredients. Even better, many of the recipes suggest ways to “stretch” one meal into the next—a super time saver for busy cooks. For example, a recipe for Thyme-Roasted Chickens with Potatoes suggests roasting two chickens at once—with a left-over second cooked bird at your disposal making the Green Chicken Curry or the Half-Hour Chicken Gumbo is a snap. A big fan of flank steaks for their lean, flavorful meat, I am looking forward to trying the Spinach-Stuffed Rolled Flank Steak. What I also appreciate about this book is the variety—tackling everything from easy, creative soups and salads, to main courses, breakfast, sandwiches, sides, and deserts while tapping into the best culinary contributions from cultures the world over. Shiitake Fried Rice, Vegetable Lasagna, Stuffed Poblanos, Curried Shrimp, Jerk Chicken, and Pastitsio, are just a few of the global offerings collected in the book’s 384 pages.

Buy Everyday Food Now!

Clarkson Potter Publishers 2010

When I first saw the new Dyson Air Multiplier fan, my first thought wasn’t fan. Soap bubble machine, maybe, but not fan. Regardless of what I thought it might be, it was sleek, modern, and sophisticated looking—and far from ordinary. Then I got to learn a little bit about the technology and check out a unit for myself to see how the bladeless Dyson stacked up against the traditional table top electric fan. I was blown away, pun intended. To keep the unit in market with traditional fans, it tilts and oscillates, but that’s where the points of comparison end.

With a variable speed setting that works like a dimmer switch and evenly increases and decreases airflow velocity, the Dyson fan can produce everything from a gentle breeze to a brisk wind. Using a revolutionary technology, pun again intended, the fan’s airflow is created very differently than conventional fans. The Dyson trademarked Air Multiplier technology, draws air into the unit’s base and amplifies 15 times, producing an uninterrupted stream of smooth air. With no blades or grill, it’s safe, easy to clean and doesn’t result in choppy airflow.

Be one of the first to purchase this new technology.

Miss America 2009 Katie Stam spends time with patients during her visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany. (U.S. Army Photo/Chuck Roberts)

OK, so typically I post my favorite products, places to eat and shop, and design ideas here, but yesterday I got an email from Governor O’Malley and had to pass this great program along.  Apparently, when many of our soldiers fighting abroad are wounded, they are transported from the war zone to regional medical centers like the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany with little more than the clothes they are wearing. Governor O’Malley visited with Chaplain Major Meyners at Landstuhl who told him about the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center, also known as the Chaplain’s Closet, a program that, thanks to generous donors, provides Wounded Warriors with personal items such as clothing and toiletries while they receive care. The hospital cannot and does not solicit contributions, so it is up to us and word of mouth to maintain this program.

For more information on the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center, please click here. For additional questions, please contact the Wounded Warriors Ministry Center.

I know I’m not alone when I confess a deep love for the sophistication of nailhead furniture and home accessories.

It’s one of the few touches that bring charm to just about any style of room, from Old World and traditional to the sleekest, most contemporary spaces.

You can accent a chair, trim a pillow, or add some punch to a mirror: this chic look hits the nail on the head every time.

Click here for a gallery of just a few of our favorites.

Typically, this space is home to some of our favorite finds from around the web (and sometimes just around the corner). Today, it is dedicated to these and much more. For one day, some of our favorite design sites like AphroChic, Design For Mankind, Styleture, and Urban Casita, are committing a blog post to a Bloggers Day of Action for Haiti. As AphroChic founder Jeanine Hayes writes in her post this morning, “Today we use our blogs not just to discuss design and fashion, but to identify ways to help with the relief effort in a country that has been devastated by disaster.”

I urge you to take a look at each of these beautiful sites (and to keep going back—I promise you will be inspired to do so!)

If you are yourself a blogger and would like to participate, please email Jeanine at jeanine@aphrochicshop.com. If you are not a blogger but would still like to become involved, she is hosting a charity auction to help raise funds for relief efforts in Haiti. Items from some of her favorite designers (and ours!) will be up for grabs!

A final note: if an auction isn’t your style, donations of any denomination can be made to The Red Cross, UNICEF, and Yele Haiti. Just click on the corresponding links.

…for the bluehouse Semi-Annual Herman Miller® sale!

From now until December 13th, get 15% off ALL new Herman Miller furniture, from the mid-century modern classics to the modern looks. Plus, bluehouse is offering 25% off all Herman Miller floor models. Also take advantage of free shipping on all of these items.

Get one for yourself or shop for a holiday gift for a friend one of two ways: stop into the store, located at the Shops at Kenilworth in Towson, or head to bluehouseLIFE.com for some online shopping!

Note: Task chairs not included in floor model sale. Floor models will be sold in person only. Free delivery on new Herman Miller pieces in the continental U.S. only. Free delivery for floor models is limited to the Baltimore metropolitan area, and available delivery days may be limited.

Call 410-337-8700 or go to bluehouseLIFE.com for more information.

“Tubes,” a new collection from artists Eva Milinkovic and Kriston Gene of Tsunami Glassworks Inc., are dramatic additions to multiple settings:  the home, the office, the garden…

These pieces not only work everywhere, but their striking forms and vivid colors demand attention in any environment. Shown in a monochromatic grouping here, each item in the “Tubes” series can be purchased individually, allowing homeowners to mix-and-match, or display each piece independently.

Each tube—available in a kaleidoscope of colors—is handmade and one-of-a-kind. Pieces in this collection range from 20 to 56 inches tall. Prices vary from $250 to about $2900, depending on size.

Tsunami Glassworks products are available through Louis Mazor in Baltimore (mazordesign.com or 410-532-1000) and Panache in Rehoboth Beach (302-227-9229).

For this month’s Fresh Impressions, one of the themes we focused on was great host and hostess gifts. We looked around Baltimore and DC for places where you could stop in and pick up a small token of your appreciation to give to a friend having you over for dinner or a party.

One of the selections—although a seemingly quirky choice amid other items on the page—proved especially thoughtful to readers who are pet lovers: homemade organic dog treats made by the Bubba Rose Biscuit Company.

Bubba Rose owners Jessica and Eric Talley began the business three years ago for their love of dogs—particularly their three: Bob, Rose, and Weeble—and a desire to offer other dog lovers healthy, organic treats free of wheat, corn, and soy.

“All our treats are handmade in small batches in our bakery in New Jersey using locally sourced humangrade ingredients from the U.S. All of our meats & eggs are free-range, grain and/or grass fed, hormone, antibiotic and nitrite free. Our products are free of chemicals, sugar, salt, artificial flavors, colors and fillers.”

Jessica and Eric support shelters as well as rescue and adoption agencies through raising money and awareness, and of course—donating treats!

Bubba Rose products are carried in over 175 locations nationwide. We found them at Dogma, a pet boutique in Canton.

Our October/November issue will contain a Fresh Impressions page full of host and hostess gift ideas that you can find in and around Maryland before stopping by a friend’s for dinner…or before the next big soiree you attend.

One item on our list was The Art of the Bar, by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz. (Chronicle Books, 2006). Full of recipes for the unique cocktails these two mixologists concoct at San Francisco’s Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, it’s the perfect gift for hosts who love to serve fresh twists on some old favorites to their guests.

Some are more labor intensive than others, so perhaps you’ll want to save those drinks for special occasions, but every recipe is the delectable result of years of what the book calls “liquid exploration.” In other words, they’re sure to please.

As summer has come to a close, we in the Mid-Atlantic only have a short time to enjoy fresh local figs before they go out of season, so I’ve chosen Hollinger and Schwartz’s recipe for “Fig Thyme” to share here.

Fig Thyme
1 fig, quartered, plus 1 extra quarter for garnish
½ ounce Thyme Syrup (recipe below)
½ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ½ ounces pisco
¼ ounce Cointreau
Sprig of thyme for garnish

Makes 1 drink

In a mixing glass, muddle the quartered fig with the thyme syrup. Top with ice and add the lime juice, pisco, and Cointreau. Shake until cold, and then strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the remaining quarter of fig and a sprig of thyme.

To make the thyme syrup in this recipe, combine 5 to 6 sprigs of thyme (or more if you want a stronger flavor) with 1 cup sugar and 1 ½ cups water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool, strain through a sieve, transfer to a bottle, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Another summery drink recipe found in the book is for Key Lime Pie. As my favorite summer dessert, I though I’d share that one, too. Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie
2 Key limes, halved
½ ounce Simple Syrup
1 ½ ounces Charbay Key Lime vodka
¼ ounce Sylk Cream Liqueur
Liquor 43, or another vanilla-flavored liquor
Crumbled almond biscotti for garnish

Makes 1 Drink

In a mixing glass, muddle the Key limes with the simple syrup to release their juice. Fill with ice and add the vodka and cream liqueur. Shake until cold. Rinse a chilled cocktail glass with the Liquor 43 and strain the cocktail into the glass. Sprinkle the biscotti over the top of the drink.

The Art of the Bar is available at Red Tree in Hampden, at 921 W. 36th Street: redtreebaltimore.com or 410-366-3456