Life on the farm: FOOD

Food is a really big thing for me here in England. First of all, there is no take out or delivery service nearby so you have to cook. This was a problem for me when I first started coming here age 23 because I hadn't yet progressed much beyond college cooking. With my future husband unable to prepare anything other than eggs, baked beans and toast I had no choice but to go down to the local bookshop and get inspired. That first summer I cooked my way through The River Cafe cookbook, and then onto Nigella Lawson the second summer, Tamasin Day Lewis the third, Jamie Oliver the 4th, and so on. This past summer, along with the rest of the world, I made my way through Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty (much to the delight of my vegetarian daughter), and am now moving onto Hugh Fernley-Whittenstall's "Three Good Things" which is delightfully simple, easy and delicious. You can see I like a cookbook trend. Anyway, this is the way I learned to cook, and mostly only in the summers when I was in England. Every year I managed to convince myself that I would cook more when I went back to New York, but I was always too busy, too stressed or too disorganized.

So now that I am here, my cooking is inspired by my beloved cookbooks, but it really centers around three things: meat, eggs and fresh produce. Where we live in Oxfordshire there are three excellent butchers all equidistant from our house, but in opposite directions from each other. So whichever way I am driving to or away from home, there is always a convenient opportunity to buy an excellent piece of meat. Pork with crackling, leg of lamb, and organic free range chicken are my most frequent purchases.

Then there are the eggs. In addition to our own chickens, my husband's brother and sister, who also live on the farm, have their own laying chickens too. So we are constantly trying to think of new ways to use the eggs. There is no shame about having fried, boiled, or scrambled eggs for breakfast, lunch, or dinner here. My cholesterol must be through the roof!

And finally, the produce. While we won't be able to get our own vegetable garden going until the spring, there are two other kitchen gardens on the farm, and each one could probably feed all three families on its own. So I am always thinking about what is fresh and what needs to be eaten quickly or in great quantity. When I have an abundance that proves too much to cook, I relieve guilt by squeezing them into juice. And if that doesn't happen then the pigs get it, which is fine with me too. But we do have lots of fruit in our garden - pears, apples, all kinds of berries - which has prompted me to search for a baking cookbook. Any suggestions?

The bounty from the kitchen garden.

Leg of lamb, just about to go into the oven. I sliced a very sharp knife into the skin and stuffed a clove of garlic and some rosemary into each hole. While I have always loved that bright green, completely artificial version of mint jelly that Polaner makes in America, I have been won over by a more naturally colored one here in England that tastes a bit more real.

This is the farm stand at my kids' school. They have their own chicken eggs and make their own jam. It's one of the things that won me over when I first visited the school.

My first meal from "Three Good Things" - chicken, tarragon and roasted tomatoes. Easy to cook and totally delicious.

We've had an incredible blackberry season. You know, I never thought I liked blackberries, but eating them straight after picking is delicious! They are much sweeter than any store bought ones I have ever tried.

Lunch is usually a collection of leftovers from previous dinners. My son is a dedicated carnivore and my daughter is a vegetarian, so usually some combination of things I have made for them is perfect for me.

I never get over the wonder of freshly laid eggs. Collecting them never gets boring. 

My breakfast most days of the week. I have soft boiled eggs down to a science. You boil the water and just as its starting to bubble you drop two lit matches into the water (not sure the science behind this but it prevents the cold eggs from cracking as they enter the hot water, according to Tamasin Day Lewis). Then gently drop the eggs in for exactly four and half minutes which ensures the white part is cooked by the yolk is runny enough to dip buttered soldiers (toast strips) into. Salt and pepper are a must.

I never get tired of this kale salad with butternut squash, toasted almonds and clothbound cheddar. If you can believe it, Katie Holmes first told me about it at a Calvin Klein fashion week dinner. It's from a restaurant in NYC called Northern Spy. You can find the recipe online.

It was very very wet here this summer so our raspberries where huge but a little watery. We ate loads nonetheless.

My first ever pie made with blackberries and apples from our backyard. I have to admit that I cheated on the crust - I bought the pastry. It was still delicious, but now that I've done it once, I'll make my own next time.

Sometimes I crave one of my favorite meals from NYC and have no choice but to recreate it. This one is inspired by my favorite lunch from Pain Quotidien.

I was so excited the first time I saw artichokes growing. The whole plant is so beautiful.

More garden bounty.

(My secret treat when I'm in Oxford!).

Life in England: So far

It's been more than three months since we arrived to live in England for our "creative sabbatical" and to be honest I feel like things are just starting to get creative. The summer was filled up with house guests and travel and family time, but now that the kids are settling back into school, I have had some time to find a routine and get a sense of what "real life" will be like for me here. Even though I am really just at the beginning, I already know I am incredibly happy here.

The stark contrast to my regular life in New York City is evident in just about everything I do - taking the kids to and from school, having the time to make three delicious meals a day (now wondering if those size 34 Celine pants still fit...hmmm....), going on hours-long horseback rides, having just a few great friends instead of a million acquaintances, and living amongst animals, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens. There are also the things that take some getting used to - I am terrified at night when my husband is traveling (Blair Witch Project thoughts come roaring into my head), the electricity can randomly turn off for hours at a time, and with all the mud around from the ever-present English rain, it is just not possible to keep anything clean - the car, the house and the bottoms of my jeans are constantly covered in caked mud. I even found caked mud on one of my bed pillows yesterday. No idea how to got there. I also seem to be finding it difficult to adjust to regular car driving - I have run out of gas on a remote country road twice since I got here. Regardless of the ups and downs, family life just fundamentally feels as it should be. Now let's see if it all feels so right in the middle of February when its dark by 3:30 pm and raining for days on end!

This is the view from my kitchen sink. We live in a farmyard, which is total chaos - tractors, hay bales, old equipment, workmen, cars, horse trailers - but our garden is my little patch of calm and beauty. Its the only place where I actually enjoy doing the dishes.

The weather changes so quickly in England, and its typical to have a rainy, cloudy day followed by just enough clearing in the evening to go for a walk and watch a spectacular sunset. When the weather is good here, you have to find a way to get outside and enjoy it because you don't know when you'll get the next chance.

Our garden was so spectacular when we first arrived in June, but by mid-July it was looking pretty much over. It's so sad to think you wait all year for the flowers to be in bloom, and then they last such a short time. Anyway when we arrived back here after being away for most of August, the entire garden had had a late summer revival. What a relief! I must remember to plant more July-blooming flowers in the spring.

Our dog Ginger lives for following us on horse back rides. Sometimes we cover miles and miles, mostly cantering. I don't know how she keeps up. On a recent ride though, I noticed she cut across a field and took a short cut home. I guess she finally found her limit.

I saw this sign at a friend's house (made by her 8 year old) and thought it was so charming. It has now come in handy, as one of our chickens was eaten this past weekend by a Dalmation walking by on the bridle path. If it were up to me I would contain the chickens to the side yard - it would leave them plenty of space to run around. But my husband just loves having them running all over the place, which unfortunately sometimes means them running into the house. Not so charming when they poop on our sisal rug.

Hot air balloons pass over the farm regularly. I'm trying to get my nerve up to do it. I think it would be so incredible to see our part of the world from above. 

The car-boot sales here are incredible! By the way, car-boot refers to the trunk of your car - so its a bunch of cars lined up selling things out of it - kind of like a flea market mixed with a tailgate party. I really loved this military hat with all the pins and I'm kicking myself for not buying it. What was I thinking?

My husband is such a country boy - its hard to imagine that he ever chose to live in New York City for 20 years! He is outside all day here mowing, ploughing, building walls, digging trenches, trimming hedges, weeding, planting, composting, designing outbuildings, etc. And you can't believe the gear he wears to do all these chores. Coco was mortified when he showed up at school in a boiler jumpsuit the other day. He even has a full HazMat get up! When I get enough pictures I just might have to do a post on it. 

There is so much about the English countryside that is completely timeless. This picture of our picnic at a friend's lake just about sums it up.

Last Friday I took Ginger out for a walk and discovered the holy grail of blackberry bushes. Although I was tempted to go at it then and there, I knew it would be so great for the kids to see in all its glory. So Coco and I woke up early on Saturday and picked and picked until we had three huge bowls of them. One bowl got eaten right away, another went into a pie, and the third was given as a present to friends that were having us over for lunch that day.

I love this Pony Club mantra from Coco's camp. The formality in England makes my kids take everything more seriously. It seems to be really good for them. You should see how their table manners have improved since they started their new school. They even eat fruit with a knife and fork!

Nothing makes me happier than to see my kids empowered by the adrenaline rush of being outdoors and able to run free.

The produce here is ridiculously good. Except cherries. The English don't seem to appreciate a firm cherry. Soon I will do a separate post just on food. 

My favorite car-boot sale purchase. Got the whole thing for 20 pounds (30 something dollars!). 

This is the entrance to the farm via the bridle path, which used to be a road. It's my favorite place to ride, mostly because Ginger goes berserk running through the wheat. She disappears into it and then jumps up like a deer, only appearing sporadically. It makes everyone giggle. The reason the pillars are so formal (atypical for a farm) is because our farm used to belong to a very formal house next door. 

Three years ago we moved the tack room. The old one was such a time capsule, decorated with rosettes from Christopher and his siblings' childhood days. It was so sad to see it dismantled. This is the beginning of our next generation rosette wall in the new tack room. 

Coco and her beloved pony Polo. She always wanted to spend more time in England and to me this symbolizes her victory cheer.

Life in England: Have I become a flower child?

So far the thing I love most about England is how easy it is to clear my head when I need a break. Sure I get caught up in my emailing, or distracted by my kids, or overwhelmed by the prospect of starting from scratch on a new book just like I would in my life in New York. But here it is so easy to clear the decks and start again by walking the dog, going out on a ride, or collecting the chicken eggs. My favorite way, however, is to arrange flowers from our garden. I always get a twinge of anxiety when I start because its never obvious which flowers I am going to pick or how I am going to arrange them. Often one variety is in bloom, but there is not enough to make a whole bouquet with. So I have to figure something else that will look pretty with it. This is a challenge for me. For many years I have been a flower minimalist - I like a handful of all the same flower tightly and tidily arranged in a neat little uptight city-girl bouquet. But the country has made me relax. A little. My arrangements are looser and I have learned to mix and match when necessary. I have also come to like the uneasiness I feel as I figure out what I am going to do. I realize that subtle tension is a natural by-product of creativity. It makes the process more engaging and ultimately more satisfying.

At the end of the post you'll see evidence of a late night flower arranging session. This was the evening before Todd Selby came to photograph our house and I was running around like a crazy person all day getting the house in order. I instinctively knew to save the flowers til last - it would restore my sanity in time for Todd's arrival the next morning. And it did.

Trial and Error: Home Edition

I find home decorating to be total torture. The end result is often satisfying, but I am stupefied by the process. Everything I have learned about dressing myself has come through trial and error, but when it comes to dressing your home, mistakes are prohibitively expensive. The biggest mistake I made happened when we first moved to our apartment on the lower east side in 2001. I approached my whole house as I would an outfit, based almost entirely on where my color/print/trend tastes were at at that time. Although it took nearly two years to come together, I was pleased with the end result. For a few months. But as my fashion point of view moved on, my hot pink wall to wall rug and loud African prints began to shout all the wrong things at me. Finally, in the past year, I began to take steps towards trying again. My goal was to be way more classic, with a touch of earthiness. I toned the girliness way down, and added warmth to the more masculine colors with lots of texture - morrocan rugs, embroidered pillowcases, and fur pillows. I only got my bedroom done before deciding to live in England for a year, and abandoning the project all together, for now. Here's a peek at the result:

                                                                                        

A month to go.....

My time in New York is dwindling down, as we are a month away from our year-long sabbatical in England. This week I am heading out to our beach house in Long Island to get it ready for our renters. One of the things I will miss most this coming year is the summer on the North Fork. There is no better mental separation from the work week than arriving at our house late on Friday night and walking down to the beach to hear the waves and see the moon shining on the water. Our house was built in 1949 by the Sardi family - yes, as in Sardi's restaurant. It is classic mid-century modern (with a few less charming 70's additions), but it is not fancy - just about every surface perpetually needs a new coat of paint, the bathrooms could easily benefit from renovation and we haven't gotten around to rebuilding the ugly brick staircase in the front yard. But in fact, it's the imperfections that make the house so easy to enjoy - kids can run through the house in sandy feet and plop down on the couch in wet bathing suits, and it forces me to not to put on my "creative director"cap and try to make everything look exactly as I would want it to. I hope I remember that when I am setting up home in England.