More than just a meal

Hi! Elizabeth from my political exile here. Two things up front, no I am not really in political exile. When I started to write my blog, my exile was metaphorical. Lets just say I am a San Francisco girl born and bred. Before our move to Argentina my husband and I were growing a family in Fairfield County, Connecticut. And while there was a whole lot of feeling misplaced both politically and culturally for me, political exile is definitely hyperbole. And I am happy to report I am feeling a lot less in exile these days. Secondly, and probably obviously at this point, I am not the author of a design blog. Unlike Paul, I am not a highly skilled professional with exquisite taste. I am simply a lurker, addicted to house porn who today is sharing some observations about living the lifestyle of an expat.

My husband and I planned this move abroad, unlike most of what happened in our married life (including some of the children). Early in our marriage we wrote down "move to a foreign country for 2 years when kids are in school" as one of many goals we had. In 2004, after four kids and several business iterations later, we made our move to Argentina. We actually built a matrix to determine where in the world we would move. While Vancouver Canada, Spain and New Zealand were finalists, Argentina won! It had a fabulous family life, great weather, skiing, fishing and our kids (and maybe us) would become fluent in Spanish.

Fast forward more than 5 years. We are still here and what keeps us here is the fabulous family life. While there are other elements of life here that you could call unreliable, chaotic, or plain crazy, the trade off is a really mellow, close and sharing family life. The weekends are restful and relaxing and full of good food. Even the most A-type working people make room for a family life on the weekends.

The asado epitomises the Argentine way of looking at life. Asado means basically barbecue in Spanish. But an asado is so much more.

Its about 1:30 in the afternoon in a Buenos Aires suburb. It's a Sunday and there is a slew of family and good friends in the backyard. Lots of kids, boys mostly kicking a futbol (soccer) and the girls doing what girls do. There are babies for everyone to fawn over, women, men and even other teenagers here celebrate the baby as a true blessing. Grandma and Grandpa are the most special. They have the place of honor at the table.

The women are in the kitchen (typical!) helping prepare all the side dishes: roasted vegetables, potatoes, and fresh salads while the asador directs the other men to drink lots of red wine while he manages the meat on the parilla which is a real grill with real wood fueling the fire, no sissy Webers found here. There is a lot of meat. Some things look a little weird and its better not to ask what they are, but they are delicious. There is melted provoleta cheese bubbling in a cast iron dish on the fire.

The choripan is ready. Choripan is one of the best combinations made with bread and meat . Little pieces of crusty french bread (the pan) envelops a juicy(or is it simply fat?)chorizo sausage. It is so good. The kids love choripan. They all stop what they are doing and rush to the parilla for their choripan fresh off the grill. Now it is time to sit down. More red wine all around. Morcilla and mojellas are served first. Morcilla is a blood sausage and they can come is all sorts of shapes and sizes and flavors. Mojellas are the equivalent of sweetbreads. They have been butterflied and cooked until crunchy.

About one hour into the meal the big guns start coming off the grill. First its the matambrito de cerdo (pork). Its the rib meat without the rib. A great cut especially with a simple honey marinade.
Then the cow parade starts: asado de tira, which are short ribs that have been cut in a funny way, they have a ton of flavorful meat, colita de cuadril is like a tri-tip, then a tapa de asado, which despite the fact it is rib cap (??), is quite delicious, ojo de bife is the rib eye cut. If you are still hungry you can have some of the lomo (tenderloin) that is being cooked for sandwiches for tomorrow. There are a lot of sides, creamed spinach, french fries, roasted vegetables and fresh salads but none of that can even begin to compete with the meat. Needless to say there is more wine.

There is dessert. A guest will always bring a gooey cream infused pie or cake. The gooey part is the dulce de leche, milk reduced to sugar goo. But the centerpiece is the ice cream. The ice cream has been just delivered by the family's ice cream store of choice. Figure 1 kilo for every 6 people. This ice cream is creamy and comes in a multitude of flavors. If you are hosting Argentines you have to offer dulce de leche ice cream along with favorites Chocolate Africano (dark chocolate, not very PC), Crema Americana ( more or less vanilla but very creamy) and Frambuesa. There is strong coffee and more wine.

Its taken you 4 or 5 hours to eat and drink all of that. Its a marathon of eating but at the pace of a turtle. It's so comfortable, relaxing, family centered and so Argentine. Unless of course there is a futbol game to watch, because there is nothing relaxing about that.






Before I go, many thanks to AsadoArgentina.com for use of its images of all that wonderful meat and its a great blog to visit if you want to learn more about the asado. And thanks to Paul for the opportunity to talk to the readers of his blog.

COUNTERTOP COUTURE

Hi crowd, it's Karin (and Mouse!) of Beautiful Bones Design sitting in for Paul while he's off somewhere just lovely. And we're not. Although tempting to take our "We only had a staycation" envy out on him, we'll resist and stay on topic with more great kitchen wisdom. But.. this is the voice of a girl and a dog who wear matching jewelry, so a little fashion has to play into the topic as well.

You know the expression "It's not the clothes you wear but how you wear them?" Well it's the same with kitchen design. Materials only make the difference if you know how to parade them, play with them, and, ultimately, push them to your best advantage.

So let's stop thinking what comes next after stainless steel. Because the answer is more: More stainless steel, more wood-stain cabinets, and more stone. Knowing this..Can we be as innovative as the Romans? or Corbusier? Some of the greatest contributions to architecture, after all, owe to rethinking the most traditional materials. The art lies in the application.

So let's take a closer look at the most commonplace kitchen materials, one at a time.

WOOD

Wood is easily cut, carved, pierced and joined. So why not manipulate the same wood in different ways, as seen in this highly textural kitchen by Jim Livingston of Livingston Kitchens in Deer Park, Illinois? Lattice work, decorative aprons and baroque corbels are lively layers when harmonized with the same wood stain.

Grain is another consideration. The less seams, the stronger a grain's graphic impact. Try matching long expanses

of grain from surface to surface, as seen on this zebrawood island by Zack Simmons of CKS Design Studio in Durham.

Or consider how distinct grains can be artfully combined with shape and volume, as on this complex edge profile by Craft-Art wood countertops.

MARBLE

Anyone with deep pockets can impress their neighbors with a huge slab of beautifully veined marble. But who would think to bookmatch smaller slabs into a butterfly pattern? The cost of the material is often less and any extra installation time minimal. But as Bethesda MD designer Bradford Creer proves in this marble-clad kitchen, the return makes a one-of-a-kind pattern out of a naturally varying material.

Now up the ante a bit more. Marble isn't quarried by the slab. It comes in blocks that can be cut into several slabs of the same grain.

Karen Williams of St. Charles of New York shops this way, always on the hunt for blocks of stone that can be cut into slabs of different shapes and thicknesses and installed one luxurious layer over another.

Combine the potential of nature and technology, and you have Stile Artistic Design who create intricate inlays of aluminum in marble using laser-jet technology.

STAINLESS STEEL

As restaurants have known for years, this cool industrial surface is virtually impenetrable, easily cleanable, and therefore both safe and hygienic for use on hardworking countertops and appliances. But why lay it flat only? It can be quilted (as seen in 1950s diners), woven in strips, or manipulated in more painterly ways as seen on the Coquille hood by Cheng Designs. Here a 16-gauge stainless steel is hand burnished with a ribbon finish that brings hard steel the look of streaming water.

Another cool option is to juxtapose machined steel with its thermal opposite—natural, warm-stained woods. The pairing is even more striking in the kitchen below, another by St. Charles of New York, where the choice to wrap wood cabinets with a steel toe kick makes every use of the material appear purely decorative.

And speaking of decorative, the ever-practical stainless steel sink is also available with couture touches. Among the many new customizations offered by Elkay is a new etching technology. Choose a greek key border design or your own monogram—however the surface is etched, its smoothness (as well as durability and longevity) remains the same.

Some may say what's old is new again. Cliché or truly unique, even when using the most common materials, the choice is up to you.

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For the Greater Green

Hi everyone! Saxon Henry here. For my guest-post, I’m going to turn an old adage on its ear. Though there is great truth in the caveat “while the cat’s away the mouse will play,” my homage to Paul’s terrific blog is a bit more like “while the cat’s at play, the mouse doesn’t stray,” as I’d like to mention the importance of sustainability in the kitchen. With 41.5 percent of a home’s energy consumption centralized in the kitchen (according to the U.S. Department of Energy), going beyond Energy Star appliances, compact florescent and LED light sources, and water-conserving faucets is becoming increasingly necessary if we want to be truly “green.”


Cabinetry companies with eco-friendly features like non-toxic paints and lacquers, and heavy metal-free compositions for fewer emissions are more plentiful than they have been in the past. A great example is ALNO, whose cabinetry was used in the Healthy Child, Healthy World green home in Austin, Texas.


Another segment of the Kitchen & Bath market that is making a commitment to green practices and materials is the tile industry. Ceramic Tiles of Italy’s contingent of manufacturers was early on the scene with state-of-the-art facilities that allow for sustainable production. Products of the organization’s companies have received some important certifications, from the prestigious European Union’s Environmental Management Program (EMAS) and ISO 14001, which mandates guidelines dictating limitations on pollution and energy consumption during the manufacturing process.

Examples of the certified products are Casalgrande Padana's Granitoker and Pietre Native collections, which received both certifications; the company’s Marte tile, which received an EMAS; and Caesar's More, Feel, and Glam collections, which received the ISO 14001 certification.


One of the best examples of stateside companies making a dynamic commitment to sustainability is Trend USA. The company’s entire Trend Q Collection has just received Greenguard certification for Schools and Children, which represents the strictest standards for low VOC emissions. Trend Q has actually received one of the lowest emission rates in the industry with a total VOC emission of 0.012 mg/m3. The collection of 49 colors contains up to 72% post consumer recycled content, which is integrated with glass from recycled beer, gin, and water bottles, copper infused Aventurina, and mother of pearl. Trend’s FEEL collection, which comes in 12 colors and a variety of patterns, has a minimum of 80% post-consumer recycled glass.

Brazilian manufacturer Eliane has brought EcoStone to the U.S. The porcelain tile contains 60-percent post-industrial recycled raw material, and is manufactured with a sustainable process that reuses 90 percent of the water, and nets energy savings of up to 50 percent each cycle. EcoStone won the 2009 Fritz Muller Award for being the first ecological porcelain from Brazil. I featured the company on Design Commotion this month, as Eliane’s CEO Edson Gaidzinski will accept the award on August 31.

Summer’s end is approaching fast and we’ll all soon be spending more time in the kitchen. Wouldn’t we breathe a little easier if every material used in constructing our environments were considered so seriously? In case this post feels a bit preachy, I’d like to point out that there’s no need to sacrifice beauty and style when going green, as the images I’ve posted here illustrate.

Great Spaces

My name is Leslie Clagett, and it's my pleasure to contribute to this terrific blog while its author, Paul Anater, is taking a well-deserved break.

Being the middle of August, I have the impression that even those who are madly passionate about things kitchen and bath are taking it easy right about now. [Am I right, Paul?] So instead of a roundup of products or a trend forecast, I'll make this a pictorial post: Here's a portfolio of a few of my very favorite spaces, and the people behind them.

History Recrafted

Period Pastiche

Modern Update

Noir

Room for Reflection

If you've liked what you've seen, please come visit my blog, KBCULTURE, for more. By the way, one of the above kitchens is mine—take a guess, then click to find out which one it is.

Have a lovely day, and thanks for reading.

P.S. I tweet, therefore I am.

Comfort Food: Fried Mice

Hi everyone! Melody here. I had this post all written up and then visited Paul's website to find everything all fun and sun and booze! Fabulous posts! I waffled on not following suit, but figured that I'd spent too much time writing to relegate it to the trash bin. Read on...



I was born in 1970 and grew up in a small town near Lancaster, PA, not at all far from Paul’s childhood home. Cue the violins...it was the stereotypical Irish household as brought to the American consciousness by Frank McCourt, consisting of all its requisite elements; a bombastic, selfish, alcoholic father, a depressive mother and three ragamuffin little kids. I was the oldest ragamuffin. It wasn’t nearly as bad as McCourt’s situation though. Our home’s first floor wasn’t perpetually flooded with sewage and I never suffered from debilitating conjunctivitis brought about by coal dust.

Not one to spend any money on anything other than himself, my father didn’t deign to even supply his family with a reliably heated home. Our house was largely heated by this (ignore the man in the foreground, a friend of the family having a beer. It’s the only picture I could come up with):

An old Sears and Roebuck cast iron cook stove. Believe it or not, that’s what I learned to cook on and what we used until we moved to a more modern home when I was sixteen. We had an electric stove as a backup, but that was kept in an unheated summer kitchen and was mostly used during the warmer parts of the year. My parents bought the iron stove for $25 at a public auction when they purchased the house in 1973. Twenty-five dollars to install a heating system!? Not bad strategizing for a crazy bastard!

We had another wood burning stove in another room of the house that supplied little heat for the upper floor. And I do mean little. It didn’t matter anyway, because by the time morning rolled around the fire had long since gone out. Getting out of bed in January took Herculean effort…but when I finally did get dressed under twenty pounds of blanket, steeled myself to exit my warm cocoon, and worked up the nerve to make a frenzied dash to that beloved old cook stove, oh, what exquisite relief. Pleasure like that is hard to come by in these days of perpetual comfort.

Needless to say, I was never the first one out of bed. And I also did my best to ensure I wasn’t the first one home from school in the wintertime. I’d try and hang out at the neighbor’s house until an adult came home and built a fire. That plan didn’t always work out and safety was not a concern, so many times at eight and ten years of age, I’d find myself playing caveman and starting a fire. Unfortunately, we never managed to burn the house down.

I doubt many people alive today have cooked over a fire in cast iron pots unless they’re camping or “rouging it” (it really makes me laugh when people tell me about their camping weekends and how cold it was and how they cooked their dinner over a gas stove. Hah! I hope you’re not trying to impress me!), but at one time in my life that was an everyday occurrence. And as insane as this sounds, I actually miss it. My mom never cooked anything more complicated than roasts, stews and pies, but for some reason apple pies and beef stew made with the most simple of elements – iron and fire – tasted so much more real and authentic than anything I’ve had since.

If I find myself failing mentally and get desperate enough for times gone by, I can buy a brand new wood-burning cook stove from Heartland Applicances:

Maybe kitchen fancier readers will know these are available, but I’m not terribly well-versed in the field and could hardly believe it when I ran across Heartland’s website. I had no idea such things were still manufactured. They have one with a little more modern styling, still wood-fueled:

If I was single, had an enormous kitchen, won the lottery and had plenty of backup cooking power that doesn't take 45 minutes to come to temperature, I’d buy one of those things and use it with aplomb just for old times' sake. Here's the old style for modern kitchens



available in gas, electric, or dual fuel. A more realistic and fitting version might be this one


with a hint of retro that would look smashing in our current house. I had never heard of Heartland Applicances before searching the web for information on wood-burning stoves, so if anyone has any information or opinions on their products, I’d love to hear about it. How my tastes skyrocketed from a $25 second-hand stove to a $7000 luxury range, I'll never know.

I look back on that stove with great fondness. After all, it kept us alive in more ways than one and, in all honestly, was not a bad experience despite what one might think. To this day, the smell of burning wood in the fall fills me with with an overwhelming sense of contentment and pleasure, no doubt a vestige of growing up dependant on it. I liken it to an experience of my favorite natural history writer and scientist, Bernd Heinrich. He and his family lived deep in Hahnheide Forest in northern Germany for several years after having fled their native Poland when the Russian Army invaded. They subsisted on whatever they could find in the forest and one of the things that kept them alive was the consumption of fried mice. To this day, Heinrich occasionally waxes nostalgic and indulges in a dinner of fried field mice at his Maine cabin.

While I have absolutely no right to compare my childhood to that of a pauper in Ireland and a wartime refugee, I like to think that when I fire up our fireplace this winter and make a Dutch oven dinner, I might understand, just slightly, what Dr Heinrich feels when he eats those fried mice.