Holiday Greens & Festive Food

In what I hope is now a Holiday tradition with my fellow/former Junior League girlfriends, we ring in the holiday season the Gotham apartment.

We enjoy a memorable evening with laughter, wine, good food, wine, family stories, wine, and well, you get the idea.

I start the planning with the decorations, naturally.  I visit the Greenmarket for plants and natural and organic creations to fulfill my idea of creating a warm, candle-infused, magical evening of good food and  friends.

Greenmarket at Union Square always delivers organic options. The conifers were inspiring to say the least.

The River Garden stand where I purchase my eucalyptus -- and this year's elegant lamb's ear wreath:

I  found charming beeswax candles shaped into angels and christmas trees -- and in gold -- perfect colors to match the kitchen!

All the girls chip in for the food and I plan the menu with Celeste from Marquette Restaurant (www.DiFioreMarquetcafe.com), located around the corner on 12th Street between Fifth Avenue and University Place.  

Celeste is a doll!  She makes the entire catering experience fun, easy and exciting. 

The restaurant is so charming - I think I'm back in France when dining there - and there is art on all the walls.  Heavenly.

Celeste too keeps a file so that she can pull up what the menu was I ordered in previous years.  

For this party, I like to serve a hot soup  -- like fennel carrot -- or this year's no-cream cauliflower.  

I serve the soup in fun, interesting terrines that look like squash, pumpkins, and other winter vegetables that I got from Williams Sonoma a few years ago (www.williams-sonoma.com and www.wshome.com)  Perfect size too.   

I put two or three of the terrines on the buffet kitchen table and use clear glass expresso cups for soup servers - so the guests can scoop the soup into the cups and walk around while sipping the delicious soup. I find this is a very social -- and healthy and delicious - appetizer.  

Celeste and I enjoyed a lively discussion about food possibilities. She knows  how to work with a budget too :)

And she is most creative. For example, I had an idea for sweet potato "cupcakes." 

Celeste and her chefs were able to deliver beyond expectations.  The "cupcake" concept or "caper" :) was not a dessert but rather a side dish or vegetable -- Just a whole lot more interesting and elegant.  Celeste and I talked about how we/she could do this. But in the end, she took the concept and as always -- just ran with it and achieved a culinary wonder!  

We also agreed on a scallop and a crab meat creation with a roasted red pepper sauce. 

I LOVE what she wrote and did with the salmon.  Celeste suggested  poached salmon and a Scotch salmon.  Why, I asked.  What is the difference between the two salmon??  

It is the "look" she instructed me.  She said there is an old saying that "The eyes eat before the stomach." She said it in a much more eloquent way.... But you get the idea. Celeste explained that the two different shades of pink in the salmon is glorious and visual. 

It made me think the seduction of the glamorous salmon, as she explained it, was indeed perfect for us! 

We then agreed on the more, ahem, mundane items, such as the salad with endive, and the cheese platte.

I love a goat, a brie, a stilton and especially this time of year, a cheddar.  

Marquette also provides great baguettes for my cheese fondue that I love to serve at these kind of fetes. It's decadent (who eats cheese like this any more?); goes perfect with wine :) and from my school days and holidays in Switzerland, I embrace the social and convivial experience fondue offers.

I also added our caviar that is, in turn, a gift from our long time friends, the DiMasi's.  They are truly amazing friends and parents ( more about that later). But I get to sing their praises every year with a select few family and friends, as we share the unbelievable good fortune of this spectacular treat.  

And make no mistake. I LOVE caviar more than you can imagine. 

Accordingly, we must offer great champagne to accompany the caviar. 

And god forbid there is any left over - ha - we will carry over to the chocolate dessert.  And this year - I went with the social fondue theme and we enjoyed chocolate fondue with strawberries and dried fruit, including apricots.  

Thank you Celeste. 

And my Tannins.

Glorious, glamorous, memorable evening.

And New York cleans up from Christmas faster than anyplace I know... Too soon...

Coming back into town after New Year's, I saw the trees on the curb for take away.  So pretty.

But they must not realize there is a mulchfest every year the city provides to turn the trees into mulch...

Nevertheless, the trees still look beautiful to me as they await their next chapter:

And the First Presbyterian Church across the street (always gorgeous) is still dripping in wreaths and red  berries.

and our foyer tree (resplendent with decorations and train tracks underneath) came down right after this was taken - and prior to Little Christmas.

What day is that exactly?  I thought it was the 12th...

Cheers.  

You Won!

What are just about the two sweetest words in the English language? 

“You Won.”

The subject line on the email did indeed read, “You Won.”  As I know the sender, Irene Varig, I didn’t fret that the winning notice might’ve been some snarky come-on from a third-world mambo jambo nation offering bazzilions of dollars for a mere small $$ investment…Ha.

No, Irene is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, she is now the East Coast head of the Garden Writer’s Association, she is the gardening columnist for Newsday, she and her talented and wise husband, Harvey, teach journalism at Stony Brook and she produces her own excellent Garden Party blog (I am a Follower).  Whew – she’s busy – and successful!

All good. J

When I read she had extended the deadline for the photo contest, I quick grabbed my trusty Luminex (love this camera) and took some shots to submit…  The idea for the contest is fun and smart and sustainable.  Kudos, Irene – and thank you so much!

And special thanks, also, to Nancy Thomas, owner of “In the Garden,” Highlands, in the Garden State. (www.inthegardennj.com) 

As I mentioned previously, Nancy and her team keep track of my annual holiday decorating greens so when I place the order, we can readily discuss.  Some of the flowers and plants that I add to the items from my garden I like to repeat from year to year. 
At the same time, I like to make the plant ensemble sparkle with new fashions every season. 

This year it was the hypericum berries – in the lime green and red colors that sparked both the Gotham and Garden state floral designs. 

In the Garden just moved to a new locale in the Highlands and as much as I thought nothing could top their original space, (they had great side yards for the annuals and perennials, which is where I purchase a lot of plants for my garden design clients.)

But when I saw the new digs ^:^, I was immediately smitten.

I love it!  It’s bright and big and right across from the town park that hosts a variety of events, especially the Farmer’s Market.  Nancy is a graduate of The New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture (SOPH) www.nybg.org/edu/soph/

    

SOPH’s Director, Charles Yurgalevitch, Ph.D, is a friend (smooch from your Coco, Charles!)  

He has done an amazing job of not only raising the profile of the school and its mission to “educate motivated individuals to become horticulturists of the highest caliber” and to teach the students “about utilizing art and science to beautify our surroundings so that others may and enjoy and live a better life.”  Well said, Charles.  He also worked very hard in early in his tenure at NYBG to garner accreditation for the school – which is a boon for the students – and the school.

Back to Green Decorating
I picked up my green décor “wardrobe” on Friday the 18^th of December in order to complete the “look book” for this year’s holiday decorations in time for a family party that night.

All was in place when I read Irene’s blog about the Unplug contest. I emailed the images to her blog.

And then this week and for the second time this holiday season, it does indeed appear that I truly am

A WINNER! 

I know, I know. There are those who will recall I just wrote that I have two kinds of luck: NO and BAD and so now probably want to shout, “You Lie.”

But it’s true – outside of that atlas booty from the card party, there was nothing. Ever. Nada. 

Perhaps ushering in the new decade it might be a complete course change when it comes to my luck. 

(Just to make certain, I’m not stepping on any sidewalk cracks, nor walking under any ladders or…)

Here is the winner’s page from Irene’s blog announcing the winners of this year’s “Unplug the Holiday’s contest:

And the link to her terrific blog.  Sign on to become a Follower, too!)

http://tinyurl.com/yeb8wt7

Irene Virag's Garden Party

I'm Irene Virag -- a writer, a gardener, a cancer survivor. I think ideas are like plants. They need nurturing to grow. And gardeners share both. So welcome to my blog. It’s all about what’s happening in my garden and beyond.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 02, 2010

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .

Thanks to everyone who entered my "Unplug the Holidays" contest this year. Here are my winners:

First Prize to Leeann Lavin of New Jersey,

who tweaked the holiday color scheme with lime green hypericum berries nestled among rich red roses and carnations.

 go to blog to see the images :)

Leeann also hung her stockings on the arms of silver plant cups filled with roses, carnations and seeded eucalyptus.

But she forgot to take pictures of the table designs she created with kumquats, Peruvian lilies and more hypericum berries surrounded with angel beeswax candles. I would have loved to have seen those.

And the outdoor displays Leeann designed from evergreens, birch branches and pine cones gathered from her yard were buried beneath the snow. You can't get any more natural than that.

The Glamour of Planet Pandora in the Movie, Avatar

“I See You” is the Spirit of Avatar, the movie.

photo credit: Kaena_25

I say, “See this movie.”

You must. Avatar is the top-grossing movie for a whole lot of reasons.

Moviegoers are thrilled by the action, the special effects graphics, or for the love story:  classic and movie-sweet.  (boy, er avatar meets girl, er princess…)

Much has been said about the incredible, groundbreaking 3-D technology.  Wowsy.  I have to admit I did love that – first time I ever saw a “film” in 3-D.  It is an incredible, sensual experience in that you really feel like you are IN the scene – a part of the story. 

Birds and insects and otherworldly creatures seemingly whiz past you or jump out of the forest or flit, flit and float. Like the mountains!

Because you’d literally have to have had the most serious New Year’s Eve hangover to not to know the story of Avatar, I won’t go into any explanation except to say I’ve read that it is a bit like “Dances With Wolves” - and I can agree with that.

Bottom line is that Avatar tells a compelling story. 

The moviemaking is the magic that makes this like no other movie adventure.

Truth be told, we’ve seen the movie twice in two weeks… I couldn’t wait and so caught a first viewing in the Garden State and that cinema didn’t have 3-D capability L

But on the positive side, seeing it straight-up the first time allowed us to focus on the story itself.  And it is still very much a beautiful movie – even without the 3-D technology.  

But!  Seeing it again in the eye-popping 3-D is epic.

Plus you get these cool-looking ray ban-styled glasses!

Not since Wall-E have I witnessed a movie that dealt with the world of plants in such a charming and reverential way. 

And make no mistake; Avatar the movie celebrates the World of Plants and Nature. I’d argue it goes straight to Pantheism.  This is how it should be…

That is what intoxicated me and why I recommend seeing Avatar.  

I was mesmerized by the lush, magical, mystical world of plants and botanical marvels – as well as fantastical animals and birds that inhabit the planet Pandora where the native Nav’vi live.  The plants glow and glitter and dance...



I wanted those scenes to linger, to last longer. I want to live in that world… It is a fantasy come to life…

The Nav’vi’s possess a true reverence and spirituality in the film that is both personal and part of their shared culture.  It’s not just environmentalism or ecology that is on display, (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  But the Nav’vi ethos impressed me as a tender love and respect.  How Princess Neytiri emotes when teaching Jake the Nav'vi traditions captures the sense of harmony they have with nature. They worship their sacred trees and plants.  This is how it should be. 

In describing the head botanist and creator of the avatars, Grace Augustine – (how loaded with meaning is that name?), her assistant says, “She loves plants and botany more than people.”

Works for me.

I’ll leave the discussion of the movie’s supposed religious and political overtones to the countless blogs, tweets and discussion groups.  The technology and movie’s story line are high-octane fodder for postings about discovering and interpreting the hidden and true meanings of the action and dialogue and well, then there are the just plain-vanilla kooks…

Rather, I want to spotlight the sheer magical, transporting world of the planet Pandora – and the world of plants…

I couldn’t help but think this is the way I dream of our world of plants.  The movie made my magical world a visual reality.

To the Nav’vi, Hometree, is the sacred tree.  It looks like a really, really huge banyan – and it’s said to embody their life force. 

Hometree is so incredibly beautiful – I thought of it as the best tree house; lit from within and glowing… and the Nav’vi sleep in hammock-like beds suspended from the Hometree’s branches. 

The Floating mountains are ethereal.  And seemed startlingly “normal.”

 

James Cameron and his writers have incredible imaginations to dream up such captivating images that draw us in and make a place beguiling yet familiar.

Throughout the movie, there are references to the trees on Pandora: their vast root systems, their connectedness to other trees and Mother Nature. 

The Nav’vi from planet Pandora worship tree Goddess Eywa  - she keeps balance in their nature & their lives – she encompasses a collective energy of Pandora’s living things. 

Goddess Eywa’s seeds are called “pure spirits.”  They are a wonder.  And appear as floating, dancing jellyfish (in a good way).  Think of maple seeds swirling to the ground with that amoeba-like helicopter whirly top and feathery, lace-like anchor – think of a teeny-tiny, poetic parasol…

The Holiest place is the Tree of Souls.  To my way of thinking the Tree of Souls is the most glamorous-looking tree -- it is not unlike a weeping willow or weeping cherry tree. 

The Tree of Souls profiles luminous tendrils or branches that resemble dangle earring jewelry.  The tree is the link with Nav’vi’s ancestors and they can communicate with them through their Mother – Mother Nature.

The movie superbly portrays Jake Sulley – the movie’s protagonist, utterly transfixed by a forest’s plant population. I say it’s an epiphany that allows the story to move forward.    Here, the Helicoradian plants that look like layered nautilus shells sort of (one has to hedge with everything when describing anything in the movie as it is so unique as to defy most references).  

Jake can’t seem to take his eyes off these incredible plant creations.  Upon his first experience in the forest on Pandora he touches one and POUF! It drops away from sight. 

You viscerally experience his sense of wonder.  And because his curiosity gets the best of him (which is exactly what the plant world does for most of us) Jake doesn’t walk away. He does what any of us would do – he touches another one.  POUF! And then another one and then another. Pouf, pouf, pouf.  They all retract.  Gone.  You can see the sense of gleeful wonder through his expression. Who among us has not experienced the same spellbinding excitement when seeing what Mother Nature and plants are capable of – in addition to their hypnotic beauty?  

In another notation as part her teaching Jake the ways of the Nav’vi, Princess Neytiri tells him that everything is born twice - that energy is only borrowed and you have to give it back.  How lovely.   For us as humans to help not only deal with death, especially of a loved one …

But also in a more simple, banal way:  Compost ^:^

When the Nav’vi, led by Jake, prepare to defend their land from the Sky People – who are the corporate Earth people, Jake prays to Mother Nature telling her that the earth people killed their mother – there is no more green there…

We hope this is indeed pure movie making and not a prescient cautionary   cause it sure rang true with the audience who uttered a collective muttered aha…

Princess Neytiri tells Jake that Eywa does not take sides; she only protects the balance of life

But she does in the end.

Nature comes to the rescue.

We know Plants produce oxygen – life-giving air.  It’s fitting then that the Sky People/corporate humans can’t breathe on Pandora without the benefit of an oxygen mask.  I had to wonder – because they killed all their trees and green, did they forget how to breathe? A loss of capacity?  Or were they being punished in a way?  They couldn’t enjoy the beauty of Pandora’s forest without a mask to separate them from the true spirits of the plants and trees that connect us to nature.

Here’s to a harmonious relationship with the environment.

In the spirit of the film’s “I see you” insight, I hope people see nature in a better, more sustainable and loving, respectful way – as part of our earth community.

Putting the Green in Holiday Greens

For as long as I’ve had my own home and decorated for the Christmas Holiday season, I’ve always accessorized more with plants and cuttings from the garden than with store-bought items.  I do add to this with lots and lots and lots of candles: pillars, floating candles (snowflakes, hearts) votives and specialty or handmade candles to create intriguing compositions.  For the last five years or so, I’ve used the small LED lights that I buy by the bucket!  (Online purchases once a year, keep me in candle-clover for the rest of the year, including Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Garden parties, Independence Day …)

I usually order from:

http://www.acolyte.com

I put the lights in the bottom of the glass vases – concealing the pulp of the lights in the white or gold glass stones I use, depending on the look I want to achieve.

For several years, for example, I styled the dining table with white and gold. I used Casablanca Lillies and white roses.  Also, in years past I made the living room floral table display with a composition I learned from a floral designer who taught at The New York Botanical Garden. She demonstrated this combination for a New York Times photo shoot:

• 3 - 4 tall vases (I use cylindrical ones)
• 2 Calla Lilly per vase (I stretch and coaxed the stems so that they arch past the next vase’s bloom – think of a wattle fence or loose "M" shape)
• bottom of each vase is filled with water to same height, colored with red food coloring and topped by fresh, floating cranberries.

 Lovely, Dramatic and Unique.

This year I opted for a floral red theme – with silver bells and white “snow.”

I found red glass stones for the table vases (low, pineapple size) and the combination of the red glowing LED lights and the red roses, red carnations and Hypericum Berry, was an especially elegant, festive touch – and an especially nice match with the holiday table linens I got last year.

And I’ve always had our Christmas stockings hang from the sterling silver cup vases filled with red roses, red carnations and seeded eucalyptus.

My Christmas stocking was knit/hand-made by my godmother, Aunt Alice – she made them for all her nieces and nephews.  Even more special after all these years. I love it – especially that angora, snowy Santa beard.

I made my husband’s stocking the first year we were married, as he didn’t have a childhood holiday stocking...  So naturally I had to make a special one for him. I decided on a cross-stitch design.

I look at it now and wonder how I ever made it ^:^ 

I remember when I was working on the “stocking” that first year while traveling to Palm Beach, the airline made me check the needlepoint scissors – which seemed oh-so-ridiculous at the time: way before pre-September 11^th attacks…

Now, I wouldn’t even think of bringing scissors, er, a weapon, on board.

Regardless, the stocking is fun to look at and well done  J   and has now stood the test of time to become a tradition in its own right…

As part of our Holiday home design, I can’t help putting up the paperwhites bulbs, too. I know some people find the fragrance a bit too aggressive – (I think I remember that my friend, the amazing Anne Raver, writing about that in her New York Times garden column:
http://tinyurl.com/om5629  )
For me, they are so associated with the holidays...   
  

It’s part of the tradition.  

Tricky part is knowing when to plant up the bulbs so that they will be in their glory for the holiday parties for all to enjoy...  I am of the mind that two weeks before Thanksgiving works best. 

If you have another experience, let me know?

I studied Spanish in Mexico some years ago and consequently learned about the poinsettia tradition... Do you know of this??

Also, my mother had some issues with the bloom time this year for her amaryllis.  I convinced her to keep the bulbs from last year and they do look like they’ll bloom – but we planted them up in what, late October and they hadn’t bloomed by the 25h …. One or two blossoms looked promising on Christmas day...

What was especially thrilling was to see the jasmine plant boom --first-time ever for me. wow!

Of course, I always have to order the flowers from our best Garden State florist:

“In The Garden” located in the Highlands at their new address, 69 Waterwitch Avenue.

www.inthegardennj.com

Owner Nancy Thomas is not only an amazing horticultural expert, graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture www.nybg.org/edu/soph




Nancy is also a mother, and councilwomen for the town of Highlands.

"In The Garden" sells my Garden Pendant  Collection.

Nancy is always available – she keeps my floral design requests and past orders on file so she can better tell me the quantity of what I did from year to year.

And she got back to me asap via text when I asked her what the name of the the cutting I got: the  Hypericum Berry.

That’s a garden elf, no?!  Thank you, Nancy.

And in a slight departure from the usual tree - I had this idea in my head and then saw a similar concept in a magazine or newspaper - can't remember -- but the point was to use the garden look for the tree.

I wanted to use the garden urn from the terrace for the Christmas tree that we place in the garden room. I'll spare you the details, but the funnier part is when we purchased the tree at the benefit in town and I discovered a 8-foot blue spruce tree (the needles match the floor and...)

So Bill says, "she wants that one.  and can you cut it in half?!"
The guy thinks we're crazy but I get the perfect tree and lots of branch cuttings for decorating!

This year, I also saw the call-out for holiday garden decorations from my friend, Irene Varig (http://www.irenevirag.com/)  the award-winning Garden Writer and Pulitzer Prize Winner. (Irene wrote the most touching and inspirational coverage for her Newsday column following the passing of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s president, Judy Zuk.)

I took a few digital pictures for her holiday garden decor request and submitted to Irene’s web site.

This is the winter view of the burgeoning arbor I designed - (two years in the making...) coral bark -    uplit with solar-powered lights, fronted with red-twigged dogwood, and Lady in Red Hydrangea and red roses as border.  Brilliant in every season -- but have to love the look and design in the winter: red branches against the white snow is intoxicating.  and one's eye is still led toward the harbor beyond...

This wreath is the creative genius of EunYoung Sebazco (www.silverflowerdesign.com)  who works with Duchess Designs.  She is so incredibly talented -- landscape architect, designs and manages NYC public gardens and....!

After focusing on our own holiday decorations, I was delighted to see family and friend’s designs when visiting.  My cousin Jeff and his wife Suzanne are talented gardeners and always have some delight to surprise all. This year, they elected to put their “winter village” around the top of the kitchen cabinets -- what a great design option...

I think you’ll agree it is a natural-looking addition that gives the allusion it is part of the kitchen design.

But the really exciting element for me is their outdoor container garden design surrounding the deck and hot tub.  While they both said they compose the holiday deck designs in order to claim the privacy they need in the winter (sans leaves and seasonal shrubs) so they can continue to enjoy their fabulous hot tub -- hey, no peeking, neighbors!

Greens & Urns Accessorize the Hot Tub

I can't help it -- I'm impressed. It's simply a stunning garden composition.  Imagine enjoying the hot tub surrounded with greens from the garden anointing the urns.
How Glamorous!  What a stylish winter garden spa -- and all curated from the garden -- greens and conifers that add a dash of holiday winter fashion...

Cheers, Darlings!