July: Subversive Picks From Placid Suburbs

Call them irreverent or maybe slightly naughty. Here are some things that have been on my mind as of late.

First this jar from Jonathan Adler. Trust me, that's not the cheekiest pick in this pottery collection. And if I need to explain to you what dolls are, than you need to look for "Valley of the Dolls."

I am thinking for bobby pins on the dresser -- or paper clips at the office.

No offense to fans, but I will not be reading Fifty Shades of Gray. Ever. But if you are looking for a subversive read this summer, Arthur Schnitzler is your guy. Schnitzler is closely linked with Freud and his books were torched in 1930s. Naturally he wrote in German. His writing is just as shocking today as it was nearly a century later. Remember Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut? Yes, that one is based on Schnitzler too.

Hands Around (Reigen) A slim volume is a series of ten dialogues, making a full circle.

I am a big fan of Mrs. Lilian's unapologetically decadent blog - and her bright cheery designs. Her recently released Cocktail Swatchbook quickly landed on my Amazon wish list because it is ever so cool and easy to follow even after your second cocktail. Don't be surprised to find one in your stocking this season, my boozy friends.

Mojitos and Juleps and Cosmos, oh my.

You might also like May's bookish selections and June's summer favorites.

June: Summer on My Mind

Summer, sweet summer. I have been so preoccupied that I have quite neglected Klatch. So time to make up with June picks filled with summer memories.

For starters watermelons, the bright red ripe goodness. To this day I remember my cousin, seven or eight at the time, slinking away from the kitchen table after one too many slices and trotting towards the lavatory. Only this year, for the very first time, did I attempt to elevate watermelon to new heights.

Turns out a splash of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt, black pepper, and some chopped basil turn watermelon into summer party worthy side dish. Many recipes call for mint by the way, which does sound so very refreshing, but there is no mint to be had in my scrappy little herb garden so Basil genovese it was. Grapefruit chunks added a nice burst of acidity. Don't believe me? Check out this watermelon salad from Marcus Samuelsson.



The Merchant's Wife - 1918 painting by Boris Kustodiev

 Around here we are fond of books, reading them and about them. And summer books are like a burst of warm moist air that hits you when you leave air conditioned building. Sure, you could stick with tried and true, like Georgette Heyer. Or you could try Jasper Fforde poolside. Fforde's Thursday Next saga is terribly clever, with word play and books within book references. A book lover's book. Where else does a heroine befriend generic characters, hop around literary classics (in them that is), and has a kid fluent in Lorem Ipsum? Check it out.



The Well of Lost Plots - this one was one of my favorites! Thursday Next hangs out in the well of Unpublished Books, fights grammasites and eavesdrops on gossip about Anna Karenina.


Lastly, let me leave you with a wine pick. Vino Verde, usually Portuguese, isn't a serious wine, it is crispy and effervescent. Perfect just out of the fridge, a bust of freshness on a hot day. And at $6-7 a pop, surly you cannot afford NOT to stock up. Gazela or Casal Garcia are sure picks (despite the garish labels).

Chilled on its own or with food, crisp and refreshing.

• Check out other wine picks

February Assortment: Taxidermy to Fine French Wine

Here are a few recent topics of interest, perhaps more non sequitur than usual.

First taxidermy. The word conjures either meth lab or a Victorian parlor. Paxton Gate, a store on Valencia in San Francisco we recently visited, is more of the latter. The shop is chockfull of mounted butterflies, fossil samples, beakers, and, yes, stuffed animals. Sure, some things are a bit on the creepy side (say mice skeletons dressed in the doll sized period costumes), but overall it is like stepping into a cabinet of curiosities.





Framed butterflies, Paxton Gate's less morose offering.  Yes, one came home with me. Photo from Paxton Gate.



Paxton Gate runs a children’s outpost a few doors down, mostly thinking child’s toys and books. On the walls there were a few specimen of plush mounts. I have my eye on a certain monkey and a couple bears in the toy room.



I am thinking this will be just the right finishing touch for the playroom. Photo from Paxton Gate.



I do not write nearly often enough about wine. To restore justice behold this lovely chardonnay from Mâcon Villages. The villages, 43 of them, are in Mâconnais in Burgundy but that’s not important. What is important is that Burgundy’s whites are glorious, chardonnay grape at its best, unlike the trampy heavily oaked version passed off as chardonnay. So please get yourself a bottle to sample.



Photo from my kitchen, just before the bottle was polished off.



For years I've been planning to buy a proper trench coat. No ruffles or vampy spikes. Simple and clean. Not too short, not too long. Not sure why it took me so long, but now this one is on is way from the good people of J.Crew.  Once the package arrives in 3-5 business days, I will be set for spring.

Photo from J.Crew.

A few recent posts:

• January Assortment: Downton to Heirlooms
• November Medley: Sonia Delaunay to Sylvia Plath

The Daisy Buchanan of Wines

Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

It is time to revisit the noble topic of wine and it would be a grave omission indeed to let November pass without talking about Beaujolais Nouveau. Every year, precisely a week before Thanksgiving Day, known world over as the third Thursday in November, the first Beaujolais is released just mere weeks after harvest. Is it a marketing ploy? Sure, but so what? In these gray November days any occasion for merriment is as welcome as a ray of sunshine.

So back to Beaujolais (even saying it just rolls off one’s tongue!). Here are some vitals. It’s French from Beaujolais in Burgundy. Made of Gamay grapes Beaujolais Nouveau will please even the staunchest white wine drinker because it’s tasty and not at all serious, like the Gatsby’s Daisy - young, attractive, shallow, and tarted up with a new colorful label each year. Conveniently it is very nice with a turkey and at $10 a bottle will keep your family gathering jolly. If you are grabbing a bottle chances are it is George Duboef so no guess work there.

Beaujolais Nouveau at the Klatch homebase: 11/17/2011

Word of warning, don’t let your Beaujolais linger, by spring it looses its charms so bottoms up! And go for the "special cuvee" you see above with a pink label rather than the yellow one here, it is a little more interesting.

Wine Robot

It's been a while since I've written about tasty wines and last weekend's trip to Middleburg, VA afforded me with excellent material.  For uninitiated, when in Middleburg one might imagine that fox hunting and horse riding is business as usual. It is also in the middle of Virginia wine country.  A shining beacon of the main street was the sleek Tasting Room...

The main feature of the small and sparse tasting room is a large contraption, a wine-dispensing robot. The impressive Italian machine uses nitrogen to block oxygen from wine. Think wine-loving rocket-scientist set loose. Armed with a wine-card we circled the Wine Robot like sharks, making our picks.

There is so much to love about red wine, nothing compares, except maybe a great white wine.  And Italians do a good red wine - it is hard to find its equal, except maybe French.  And Argentina.  Oh, Spain too.  I digress....

This Barbera (excuse me, Paolo Scavino Barbera d'Alba) left an impression. A big bowl of juicy cherries. And it tasted extra special, thanks to the nitrogen.

I promise, more wine posts to come soon and mark your calendar for Beaujolais Nouveau celebration in November.

Cheeky, Ridiculous, and Absurd Wines

Speaking of delicious wines, it is Friday night and I am sitting with a glass of Cupcake Wine Red Velvet blend in hand (I admit, it is indeed velvety). Do creative wine names make you cringe? Or do wines with catchy labels make it right into your shopping basket?

There is certainly a range, from clever to cheeky to naughty to downright gross. Zinfandels seem especially prone to creative, somewhat subversive names (I have it on good authority that 7 Deadly Zins - or any red zin from Cali - will do ample justice to grilled meat.)

Zin Your Face – I imagine this one isn’t about subtle flavors.

These two next here both Chards, California Mad Housewife and French Fat Bastard, together would make a terrific wedding gift, no?

I am digging the retro vibe of the label, she really looks deranged!

Whoever thought that bodily fluids are just the thing to sell beverages? Amazingly, Cat’s Pee on Gooseberry Bush is a very accurate description of a Sauvignon Blanc.

Have you ever?  Even the frog seems puzzled by his fate of gracing the bottle.

Yep, that's Sauvingnon Blanc all right.

Photo sources - 7 Deadly Zins: Winelog.net, Zin Your Face: Odee.com, Mad Housewife & Frog’s Piss: www.myhumors99.com, Cardinal Zin & Fat Bastard: Winelabels.org.

Dreaming of Tuscany

I confess, when it comes to cooking I am a fly-by-seat-of-my-pants sort of cook. When to my great surprise my herb garden continued to prosper, I needed inspiration to maximize the newly found bounty. The answer: Tuscan White Bean and Kale soup.

The name alone transported me to a place where Chianti flows freely….

…marks of Etruscan civilization are at every corner….

…villas are basking in glorious sunshine and names of towns, like Cortona, roll off the tongue…

Photo: Traveltuscany.net

But I digress. Back to the soup. After perusing Epicurious for inspiration, here is my very own version:

Step 1: Soak a bag of humble white beans in water for a few hours. Or overnight. Whatever works. Before cooking, rinse the beans well - trust me, that is an important step that should not be omitted.

Step 2: Sautee onions in a soup pot with some veggie oil, just to soften. (Carrots would have been nice here too, but I wasn’t about to go to the shops!) Add the beans and pour stock. It’s a soup so you will need a lot of stock, veggie or chicken. Homemade stock is nice, but any low-sodium stock will do the job. Bring to a boil and lower the heat. Add a bit of salt if needed

Step 3: Pour some Chianti or similar beverage (in a glass or a paper cup, not into the soup pot). Sip. Refill as needed.

Step 4: While the beans are cooking, it’s time to tackle the kale. Wash the leaves well, cut out the rough stems, and chiffonade the curly greens. Add kale to the soup when the beans are nearly cooked.  Continue simmering.

Step 5: Harvest some herbs from your garden and chop up the leaves. I used a lot of sage and oregano with just a tiny bit of lemon basil. Add the herbs to the soup towards the very end of cooking.

Now, slice up some crusty bread and serve! If the soup is only ‘meh’ and bland, add more salt and herbs. Or some lemon juice to brighten it. Or add some Chianti will rescue it (still in the cup, not in the soup). Simple peasant food at its best!

An Ode to Groovy Wine

There is more to Austria than singing nuns and tasty pastries. And I don’t mean certain state’s former Governator.

Grüner Veltliner (get it, Groo-Vee?) is the best thing yet to come out of Hapsburg territories. And despite the unfortunate nickname it is anything but hippy-dippy. It is graceful, fragrant, the color of pale straw, more of a socialite with street cred than flower child.

Best part? Grüner is a fool-proof risk-free gift for any party. You’ll be hard pressed to find a truly terrible bottle, at least I have not ran across one yet. It’s exotic (even has two dots over the U!) but easy to drink even for committed pink zinfandel drinkers (eww). Grüner plays nicely with most foods. And it’s red-white-and-eagle cap makes it easy to spot.

Red-White-and-Eagle

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