The Olympics are starting! Loving the idea of muddling up some cachaça tonight and trying one of these three recipes for Brazil’s national cocktail, the caipirinha. I showed some favorite Olympic clips to Hudson yesterday, hoping to get him excited about some of the events, and found myself feeling all emotional. It really is amazing to think of how much hard work and big dreams come together for these athletes in these weeks.
Will you be watching the games?
By Anna Smith of Annabode + Co.
When my husband and I moved to Denver from DC, I remember eagerly looking forward to the day when we could finally have an actual dining room. The teeny tiny house we were leaving behind had what we affectionally called a dining “corner” opposite the kitchen, a space about four feet wide where we could just squeeze in a little table and some chairs. So when we were ready to convert the living room in our Denver fixer-upper into a separate dining space, I couldn’t have been more impatient!
Today it’s about 90% finished—we have yet to install a new front door and window trim—but it’s my favorite room in the house. When Ashley asked me to share it, I thought it would be a good excuse to chat about dining rooms in general and specific do’s and don’ts when it comes to decorating them (most of these tips still apply whether you have a separate dining space, open floor plan, or a smaller-scale apartment). So without further ado, here are my Five Steps to Designing the Perfect Dining Room:
1. Choose items that are to scale.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but it can be hard to remember when you stumble on a piece you really love (especially if it’s vintage) or if you’re trying to stretch the function of a smaller room. The larger the room, the longer the table you should have–and vice versa. For extra-small or corner spaces where you don’t do a lot of entertaining, consider a round table which is easier to navigate around and takes up less space than one with corners. And please, no more bar height tables! They’re simply not comfortable for you or your guests—and unless your home moonlights as a restaurant, they’ll end up looking out of place.
Pay attention to scale when it comes to your chairs, too. Most table heights are about 28-30″; you’ll want your chairs to be at least a few inches taller, with seat heights at about 18″. If you chairs are shorter than or meet the table height they end up looking tiny, and if the seats are higher your legs will be uncomfortably squashed at dinner (too low and you’ll have your chin in your food). Mid-century furniture tends to be lower to the ground and smaller-scale, so if that’s your jam then just be mindful. And if you have a larger space, high ceilings, or an open floor plan, tall-backed chairs can be great for separating the dining area but can cramp a smaller room.
by Grace Poser of An Earthy Feast
Back in grade school my sister and I would spend entire summers with my grandmother in Germany. We have many fond memories of that time, but the highlights were definitely baking with the fruits of the season. My grandmother had several berry bushes and a few fruit trees in her little yard. The biggest, most generous one was a zwetschgenbaum, or prune plum tree. Prune plums (they’re also called Italian plums) are smaller than the typical plums we find at the markets here; plus, they’re less juicy, a little less sweet, and intense with plum flavor, which makes them perfect for jams, cakes, and tarts. I couldn’t get my hands on any prune plums for this recipe; but my taste-testers agreed that the black plums I used here were just as delicious. This plum tart was a weekly thing during those last few weeks of summer when the tree was ripe with fruit. I’ll be sure to make this again at least a few more times before summer’s end.
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