UrbanMammal's Profile

Love the dining chairs - they'd be great painted gold with oriental upholstery.

I find square/rectangular containers much better for the fridge & freezer. Australian company Decor (http://decor.com.au/) produces clear plastic containers in an extensive range of sizes. You can find a size that fits pretty much anything (even pastry sheets; olives - with a removable slotted basket; meat - with a removable drip tray; and cakes - with a removable tray to lift them out). They stack beautifully, they're inexpensive, and readily available from your local supermarket or variety store. I sound like an ad, I know, but I just love them.

A wok brush is a good, stiff brush to use for cast iron (and woks!), with the added bonus of being made from natural materials, inexpensive and (at least in Australia) readily available from Asian cookware shops.

My family's favourite Boxing Day breakfast is summer pudding with clotted cream, made in the week before Xmas; but, as I say, we live in Aus, so it's summer @ Xmastime and HOT. And we don't have Thanksgiving of course. We have Melbourne Cup Day instead! And it's usually hot, too (and windy, and rainy: it's Melbourne!)

"2 *cans* refrigerated crescent rolls"? Seriously, you have tinned *rolls* in the States? I can't even imagine how this works. Oh, no, I see, it's tinned roll *dough*. Any suggestions for lower-tech Aussies? We have frozen puff & shortcrust pastry and pastry sheets, would this work? Or could I make a similar dough on the dough cycle of my breadmaker?

There is no way I would ever go to/stay at a party at which I was required to remove my shoes. What, is your floor too good to *walk on*?

Oh, no, I see, you don't want to have to clean up after me: so do you serve all your food and drinks on/in plastic plates and cups? Perhaps you put down paper towel before I sit on your furniture? And I assume there is no way you would let me use the bathroom. Actually, you probably shouldn't serve food or drink: someone might spill it on your *floor*. Or maybe you should charge an entrance fee, and use it to pay for the cleaning?

Asking people to remove their shoes is the height of inhospitality and anathema to the entire idea of giving a party.

I, too, am not keen on the chimneypiece television, partly because it means wasting a feature space and partly because it makes the tv too high - they really need to be quite low to the ground. I'm not being critical, though - you need to do what works best for the space you have and the people who use it - and what do you do with the damned tv, a contraption that needs to be the feature of the whole room when it's on, and to disappear when it's not?

Is that pomegranate syrup I spy on the drinks tray? I've used it for cooking but, pray, to what mixological use do you put it?

My favourite film for colour is Todd Hayes' 2002 'Far From Heaven' - not so much for the interiors (although the 1950s interiors are worth a look) but more for the colour used in the production design - rich autumnal colours that are picked up in particular in the costumes as well as in shots of gardens and trees. Absolutely stunning.

Oh, or for putting the Georg Jensen cutlery set in the dishwasher, which was Not Good for the black bakelite handles.

BTW, this is not limited to our generation: my mother has never forgiven her mother for giving her carved oak lounge and dining settings to the Salvation Army. And replacing them with a vinyl lounge setting. Or for throwing away (!!!) her own parents' magic lantern set ...