Happy Mother's Day

I spent a lovely Mother's Day. My mother had sent me a yummy sounding recipe from Dr. Andrew Weil a couple of days ago. I knew that this is what I had to cook for her on Mother's Day. So for lunch I cooked today Dr. Weil's orange glazed salmon fillets, asparagus risotto, roasted beets, feta and spinach salad and for dessert crepes Suzette with strawberries.
Like every year I also made a card for my mom, which you can see above. It was interesting to try and bring some more dimension to my cards. It took me a while to figure out how to construct it and reminds me a bit of a pop-up book construction.
In the morning my daughter presented an amazing drawing to me, that you can see underneath. True to her beautiful pen and ink style she created another mysterious picture that reminds me of situations in a dream.
We also had a wonderful time in the kitchen together. She helped me cook the Mother's Day lunch and entertained me with cool music from her iPod. I wish all Sundays could be Mother's Day... days filled with the creativity and sensuality of making art, cooking food and enjoying each others company.

New Year's Eve

Having a blast at the Church of Frank Sinatra New Years Bash!


With lovely Aimee


The hosts with the most: Fabulous Marci and Aaron


Last but not least: our dear friend Mr. Lucky

I stayed out on New Years Eve till 3:30 in the morning (that hasn't happend in a long, long time -like 15 years or so) Aaron and Marci , of the Church of Frank Sinatra threw a fantastic party. I wore a vintage dress that my dear friend Catherine gave me for my birthday last year. Mr. Lucky was there as well - he always shows up at the best parties. I really enjoyed talking to Aimee and her friend Scott. My kinda people, with whom you can converse about everything under the moon - from science (what are nutrinos and will the newly built giant particle collider in Switzerland solve this mystery) to fashion (Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the DeYoung and how vastly influencial YSL was on Jean Paul Gaultiere); Super fun...we came home at 4:00 am and I went to bed with my lipstick still on.

Christmas Dinner

We are a happy family

The Dinner table on Christmas
Lovely Nana Beate, Valentina and Christine

Belated I am posting pictures from our wonderful Christmas dinner, which was attended by my wonderful mom Beate, my Papa Paolo and our friends Christine and Chris. I cooked a German Sauerbraten , Semmelknoedel (German Dumplings) and Rotkraut (German Sweet-Sour Red Cabbage) and a Lentil Pate (for Chris, who is vegan). Now Sauerbraten is something else: A 5 pound eye round roast gets marinated in red wine, red wine vinegar, sugar, cloves, mustard seed, crushed Juniper berries, garlic, bay leaves, parsley and lemon for 8 days!!! Every day I turned the meat in the marinade. By the end of the 8 days the meat turned really dark. The marinate is cooked with the meat in a clay pot for 3 hours and what emerges is a black, very flavorful kinda sweet and sour gravy, that is absolutely delicious over the dumplings. After wine and dessert we sat in the living room listening to old western/cowboy and obscur 1920's songs and sang along. Blissfully silly and relaxing!

Angel of celebration

My favorite project this Christmas was making clothes for my wooden Santos doll, turning her into an angel and setting her up on our sideboard. I used beautiful German crepe paper and gorgeous gold and silver Dresden papers, that I bought at Castle in the Air, to create her outfit. I sewed real lace on the bottom of her crepe paper skirt with the help of my sewing machine and used pins and glues to keep all the other trimmings in place. Vintage keep sakes, like the brocade table cloth and cherubs used to belong to my grandparents. The gorgeous dark red Amaryllis came from my favorite flower shop Freshly Cut, opposite Monterey Market.

Christmas at our house

Our living room with tree and fireplace decoration


The dinning room with flower arrangements by my daughter and me. The ever changing decoration on the sideboard features flowers and wooden Santos doll

Woodland Fairies on Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we did something new: We brought out the woodland fairies to grace our sideboard. In the past years the fairies had a steady gig in springtime. They would frolic on a rather big tray that was covered in grass, miniature daffodils, crocus, rocks and even had a little pond for them. Sometimes a small birds nest and miniature easter eggs could be found in their habitat too. This spring though we didn't bring them out and left them to rest up in their box. Wondering what to do for Thanksgiving decoration Valentina and I had the idea to bring them out into a woodland scene. Thank god, because a bored hedgehog was waiting in the basement to be put to use and gladly accepted to be ridden by fairies. Two flower arrangements sporting 3 different kinds of berries were quickly made and the table set to go. Friends and family came over to share dishes and indulge in turkey and pumpkin pie. For entertainment we made shadow puppets , but more about this tomorrow....

Window Stars

2 weeks ago I visited Ms. Searle's 7th grade class and brought in an art project that was connected to their learning about historical Islamic culture. We made paper stained glass stars, trying to replicate the beautiful and intricate geometrical patterns found in the mosaics of Islamic architecture. We talked about how their very advanced creation of patterns and arabesques was connected to their religion and the flourishing of science, particularly mathematics. This is another example that proves how close art and science are.Often people don't put the two together and actually think of art and science opposed to each other.
I also liked this project, because it is perfect for the holiday season without being traditional or leaning towards any religious holiday symbols. Its just festive and can be used by anybody.