Who Knew?

Frank Bruni has a sense of humor!

The Greening of the Home

I spent much of my youth in a house that was, for the majority of the 80s, a construction zone of sorts. My parents fell in love with the beautiful piece of land that the house sat on, the tall trees that surrounded the house, and the picturesque creek that ran through the front yard. They seemed to be so entranced by all of this in fact, that they didn't notice the house.

They didn't notice that one of our bathrooms (bright orange!) doubled as a hallway, they didn't notice that the master bedroom was on stilts in lieu of an actual foundation, that the rest of the house needed a new foundation and that birds would occasionally make their way inside through some passageway under the eaves. But they did notice that the place was a lovely 1920s craftsman bungalow and that it had the potential to be a beautiful home. Or rather, I suspect, they noticed everything and felt that the potential outweighed the immediate negatives (in the end, I this was most certainly true as their house is one of my favorite places to be).

So they went to work. There were periods of being overrun with contractors (when the house needed to be raised and a new foundation poured, for instance), and periods during which my dad spent every waking hour not spent at his office working on the house. My sister and I were occasionally enlisted to hang sheetrock and shingles, although I'm not sure how effectively we lightened the load as we were both under the age of 10 at the time.

It was during these periods that I learned to love hardware stores. As my dad often made three or four trips to various shops on any given Saturday, I ended up spending a lot of time in them.

So I was quite excited when I began to hear about a new store that had opened on the Bowery devoted to green home improvement and household items called Green Depot. For several weeks, each and every time I was in the vicinity of the Bowery, I would scan the area for any sign of the place, but for some reason could never find it. Finally, after reading an article about it in the New York Times last week, I actually looked up the address and successfully navigated my way to the establishment's front door.

The location actually has quite an interesting history, as documented on a column towards the front of the store.

It was once a branch of the YMCA, then studio space for artists (Mark Rothko among them apparently), then a den of vice, then landmarked and now a LEED certified retail destination. Ah New York, such history, such dynamism!

Green Depot is part hardware store (finishes like environmentally conscious floor coverings and countertop materials are in the back, items like levels, paint and hammers are up front), part household supply store. Everything is non-toxic and otherwise green. They even stock an entire baby line of non-toxic furniture, clothes and toys. But surprisingly, the whole vibe is quite relaxed and welcoming. The staff is friendly, I detected no composting zealots, and the prices are pleasingly low.

The shop stocks all purpose spray cleaners, window cleaners, floor cleaners, dish soap and the like, all for $4.95 or less for 32 ounces. And you can refill empty bottles at the store's bar o' cleaners:

They stock green packing products, including more different types of twine than I can remember coming across in my whole life, varying sizes of boxes and a biodegradable alternative to bubble wrap.

And there is a whole section in the front carrying those wonderful little items that you never knew you needed but once you lay eyes on can't seem to live without. Mold testing kits (I have had mold paranoia ever since the great bedroom ceiling leak), drinking glasses made of recycled wine bottles, intriguing books (I may have to pick up Green Apple, a green guide to New York next time I'm there), more twine and these fantastic cloth buckets:

What would one use a cloth bucket for? Who knows? But don't you just love it?

There are loads of items like these, none of them are prohibitively priced and all of which are at least nominally practical, which I believe gives one absolute dispensation to purchase at will. So go ahead, green yourself silly.

Sale Alert!

Remember One Kings Lane? Well go there immediately, John Robshaw's lovely bohemian pillows and table linens are on sale!

This Week's Bathroom Bouquet

I absolutely adore fresh flowers, and get a particular lift from them when they are positioned on my bathroom sink. Two weeks ago it was a brilliant bunch of tulips from the farmer's market. Sadly, they were a bit short lived, but that is par for the course for tulips I believe. Although I have heard that putting a pin through the stem just below the bloom extends the life a bit, so I will have to give that a try next time around.


Last week it was pale green roses from a bodega on Sixth Avenue, which were surprisingly long lived, and this week, it is a bunch of Green Bells of Ireland.


I picked them up at the Dean & Deluca on 85th and Madison on Saturday, and they are still going strong, drawing up a vase full of water each day.

They are perhaps odd, but I love that the bouquet is a bit unkempt looking. It reminds me of an English country garden, and the green is a little different, a nice break from the nearly saccarhine hues of tulips. It has inspired me to make a trip to the flower market to scavenge for unusual blooms and green matter.


Perhaps then I will at least have a shot at recreating the great arrangements of Cas Trap and Remco van Vliet (their company, Van Vliet & Trap, is the official florists for the Metropolitan Museum). I mean just look at this:

photo credit: Martha Stewart

Something to aspire to at least.

Bloomin' Cheese

Although I will always love my Saturday mornings at the Greenmarket, my level of devotion waxes and wanes with the seasons.  It is infinitely less fun to wander among the stalls in the bluster and the rain (this past Saturday, for instance), than it is when the sun is brilliant and the city is sparkling.

However, I do drag myself to the market most weeks, even when the vegetables are predominantly root and the apples are months old, if for no other reason than the fact that Ronnybrook Farm shows up each and every week, and I am totally enamored with their utterly perfect milk.  And their rich, fat filled butter, and their exquisitely piquant yogurt.  It is perhaps pretentious of me to insist on drinking milk that comes in a glass bottle and that costs $2.25 per quart ($3.25 if you don't bring the bottle back for your $1 deposit), but I love it, and I put my dairy habit in the same category as my fresh flower habit:  frivolous yet absolutely necessary.

So imagine my delight when, in the downpour that nearly killed my Saturday, I spied this little beauty:

Ronnybrook has dipped their toe into the cheese-making business!  

And, true to the claim, it is a soft, bloomy rind Camembert.

And it is quite something.  The texture can be described as nothing but unctuous.  Buttery seems to be the cliche descriptor when camembert is involved, but I must say that it does seem to be quite appropriate to this particular version.  I also hear mushroomy, which I don't taste much in this one...rather it seems tangy, perhaps a little tiny taste of ash?  But earthy, which I hear a lot as well, perhaps covers the taste more appealingly.  And it seems like one of those things that would make an intense (perhaps too intense) red wine transcendent when the two are paired. 

Regardless, how luxurious does this look:

And for $5.25, it is most certainly one of those wonderful "little luxuries" that we also can (and should) indulge in at the moment.

The Blog Omnibus

After consuming the majority of Paul's Bourbon Creme cookies [English version of chocolate Vienna Fingers, in case you were wondering] while he was in Dubai, I made Deb from Smitten Kitchen's chocolate wafers as a replacement. They were twenty times better than what I was replacing!

Dorie Greenspan gives us a wonderful non-coffee warm morning [or all day] drink option.

Michael Ruhlman debuts his rather revolutionary book Ratio, and shows us how it works here.

Hollister Hovey slays me with a source for fabulous and well priced glasses (perfect timing, since I am in need of a new pair, and can't bring myself to pay $400 for the frames that my eye doctor carries). I'm leaning towards these in tortoise...thoughts?

Emma from emmas design blog has found the most perfect dining room ever.

Jen Bekman at 20 x 200 has found yet another piece of art that I am inexplicably obsessed with.

Ulla inspires us all to go to Iceland.

Pithy and Cleaver recommend an affordable source for good vanilla beans (at last!).

Japantown

Sunday was the most beautiful day in recent memory (since those glorious days of October, oh so long ago) and I couldn't help but take the Sunday papers up to Central Park for some outside time and to enjoy the nascent buds on the flowering trees.  I apparently was not the only one with this idea.

Half the city was up in the park, making for a very jovial atmosphere.

But at a certain point I had to admit that it really wasn't as warm as I wanted it to be, and that my time outside reading in the sun had actually left me exceedingly cold.  So I opted for a stroll around the Upper East Side, which, despite my populist tendencies, I absolutely adore (west of Lexington, at least).

Everything is just so beautiful, so perfect, so luxe, so well kept, that it makes me feel as if all is well in the world.  Ironic I suppose, since I imagine there are quite a few banker/hedge funders behind those limestone facades these days who would disagree.  But then I suppose that is the beauty of being on the outside looking in...I can live in blissful ignorance without knowing any of the ugly back stories.

And thus I can enjoy, unencumbered, the fabulous collection of cut flowers at Dean & Deluca (the Madison Ave location does a better job of creating the illusion of perfection than the Soho location I think):

And look how stunning the multi-colored roses just outside the store are!

It only seemed right to finish off my afternoon with another place that makes everything look perfect--my favorite Japanese grocery store, Katagiri & Co.

This tiny store on 59th Street carries what seems like every Japanese item there is.  Of course, I have never been to Japan, nor do I know too much about the cuisine, so I'm sure that I am the wrong person to ask when it comes to understanding how extensive the inventory really is.  All I can tell you is that to me it all feels very exotic.

The miso section alone is rather impressive:

I counted twelve different types of miso.  And also spied some fertilized chicken eggs.  At $8 per dozen I took a pass, but I must say they've been on my mind all week, so I may have to splurge the next time that I'm there.  Does anyone have any experience with them?  Are they delicious, or is there no difference?

The noodle and tofu section is equally well stocked:

Sadly no handmade noodles or anything, but there are plenty of packaged fresh noodle options and clearly loads of different types of tofu.

But the piece de resistance?  The fish, oh the fish!

Sadly, they are imprisoned in styrofoam and plastic packaging, but the pieces are stunningly beautiful nonetheless.  A bit like a box of jewels I think.  I picked up a lovely piece of salmon (only $2.50!  I will admit it was rather small, but it certainly sufficed for my dinner), sauteed it in my grandmother's cast iron skillet and draped it over my soba noodle soup.  Lovely, and I felt oh so virtuous.

I came home with quite the bag of loot:

And everything was perfect.