GabrielSyme's Profile

My parents have a gorgeous deck in the back that is low to the ground and has been there for 35 yrs. My mother reapplies stain every other year and it's it great shape. No rot.

While I would readily say I "love" to cook, I find cooking each and every day with babies and small children to be an enormous challenge. I often think of later seasons of life and what a wonderful time I will have cooking 10, 20, 30 years from now. At the moment cooking is hard. I agree with Chris Kimball: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/cooks-illustrateds-christopher-kimball.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

We have a silk rug hanging in our dining room and I hung it using clip-on curtain rings and a rod from Target. It's not flush with the wall however. For a cleaner look I've seen rugs that have a heavy-duty velcro sewn in a strip along the top edge and affixed to the wall. This is what I would do but I was unwilling to sew through the hand-knotted silk. I think wool would be very forgiving and allow this.

Love this and tried it straightaway but couldn't get it quite right.Will try again.

Made this tonight. So good. I did use a chicken sausage with apples as I have no access to the variety listed. Added sage from the garden and done. Perfect cool weather comfort food.

"Increasingly rare"? We went to Japan on our honeymoon and know several friends and relatives who live there and I've never been in a Japanese home (traditional or high-rise apartment) that didn't have some tatami mats. Maybe the people we know are just old-fashioned?

We also live in a small university town and I love the community that fosters. We know probably 2/3 of the people within a six or seven block radius. That means that when I stop at the pharmacy for something the cashier asks about my brother who she knows is soon to visit from out of town, and when I get a cup of coffee at the shop next door I can count on catching up on the latest baby born, wedding coming up or have a chat about the book I'm reading. I LOVE it and would never ever ever move.

HENDRICK'S I only like Gin and I much prefer Hendrick's. It's just the best.

We have an old and battered white one we got as a wedding gift. It has some pretty serious battle scars (the clear plastic cover is cracked and bent so we kind of wedge it on so that it will hold the paddle steady as it doesn't fit into the correct grooves any longer. Last week it made iced coconut milk with chocolate chips. Yum. What I wouldn't give for one with a built in compressor though!

I would love to see something like this done with a basement laundry room and a top-load washer/dryer. I can't be the only one still using Mom's old Maytag and I am not willing to trade upstairs space for a cute laundry room.