leap! (turnip)

Recently, we emailed a friend-fearful-of-the-future our version of a care package: a handful of uplifiting signs and images about taking risks, leaping, going forward into the unknown, one of our favorite subjects. We had just sent off “Leap And the Net Will Appear” when Cynthia Allen from 50 Years 50 Recipes sent us a link to…

Read More

perfect roast turkey via ‘canal house cooks everyday’ (which we’re giving away!)

With Thanksgiving soon upon us, the debate about whether to brine or not-to-brine the turkey before roasting rages on. We’ve long been a fan of brining, having found it the foolproof method for insuring a moist, well-seasoned bird. Until recently, when two things made us question our belief. Yesterday, on Serious Eats’ Food Lab we…

Read More

book giveaway: ‘canal house cooks every day’

We’ve long been fans of Canal House Cooking, the groundbreaking cookbook series created and published by Christopher Hirscheimer and Melissa Hamilton. We are totally smitten with their latest effort: Canal House Cooks Every Day, a bright red, 385-page tome documenting a year of cooking from Canal House, based on their popular daily lunch blog. The book offers…

Read More

vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have come to terms with the fact that we won’t be able to not stay up late to find out the results of this crazy election. Neither will just about everyone else. So we’ll resume posting tomorrow afternoon (though if you’re really hungry, we’ll have some new facebook postings, including a woman with fab…

Read More

improvising when all hell has broken loose

Since the extent of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation became apparent, we’ve had a hard time writing posts. We’ve wondered “what is there to write about except this, with so many people in trouble?” feeling a fierce cognitive dissonance between the people we know are out there struggling to survive and reports of our nifty Ikea hacks.…

Read More

dept of 2nd acts: tony giglio’s improvised walking sticks

Anthony Giglio, a regular contributor to ‘the improvised life’ — his wine-friendly grape “ice cubes” remain a perpetual hit — recently posted on his website about his dad Tony Giglio’s unexpected, found ‘career’ in retirement. He makes walking sticks, and his story is pure ‘improvised life’: About a year ago my father found inspiration in a…

Read More

creative process: doing this-or-that ‘in your head’

We really love Maira Kalman‘s picture of her worn, old-fashioned boots and it’s simple, insightful, refreshingly real-life annotation. It affirms something we practice many times daily: imagining, fantasizing, trying-on scenarios in our heads that we ultimately will never do because the reality is, well, something we don’t really want to deal with, or can’t deal with.…

Read More

Posts navigation