Guest Lists
Celebrations, even simple ones -- which often are the best ones, do take some planning. I often think about a party, the time to have it and then the guests. Of course, I often do the reverse as well, starting with the potential guests and move on to what would be enjoyable and what time of the day.
Guests
I enjoy inviting people who might enjoy each other, simple enough. Yet, I also like inviting people of different ages, backgrounds, perspectives as well. Yet, there is something about politeness and manners that is a common denominator for the parties in our home, with few exceptions. I learned my lesson in inviting a number of people who were friends of friends once when we had a dinner party. It didn't work out well from my perspective, with some monopolizing the conversation, several needing to smoke outside right before dinner, etc.
Yes, I learned from that, but was polite all the way through the evening, but did I repeat those guests? No.
During the Holidays
To invite someone who is alone for whatever reason is not a responsibility for me but a joy, and how I introduce them and keep the conversation going, to include everyone, is a bit like serving food -- everyone can be involved, with a little encouragement. Perhaps another blog can be about dinner conversation, something I have presented as seminars on cruise ships, where you are seated often enough with the same people over a number of nights and the issue of what to talk about comes up, again and again. Yes, that will make a good blog entry, as important as the food we serve it seems to me.
Holiday Wishes
So for the holidays, I wish you a meaningful time, in reaching out to others to create goodwill and peace for all of us.

Time of Day
Personally, I like day time parties, sometimes for brunch but often for a leisurely lunch on the weekends, preferably Saturdays, with friends. Those friends with children are often quite booked up with soccor etc, so then I switch to evenings, not too late either, sometimes starting at 5:30 and ending by 9 or even earlier.
Ending Time
Of course, putting out the cereal boxes, for the next morning breakfast, when you want guests to leave is so unsubtle, but quite frankly, I enjoy a short party, sometimes difficult when you are the host, but still there are ways, even pre-announcing that "to keep the evening enjoyable we are having a dinner party from 5:30 to 8:30 and hope you can come," is my email or telephone message.
Menu
The end of a lovely evening depends on a good beginning, a timely one as well. That's where planning a simple but enjoyable menu comes in. The party should be enjoyable, I always think, by the host as well, so make something you know well or have tried out at least once and don't have too many side dishes or courses.
Perhaps I am going off the topic here but to bring it back, I like to think what would people enjoy eating that isn't too heavy, to complicated, and fits their lifestyle.
I don't go crazy with fixing food for each person on a diet, just try to prepare good, honest food that is well prepared and give small enough portions that those who want more can, those who don't or shouldn't, well hopefully, they won't.
Another thought: I don't apologize for my food, just keep the conversation going, and frankly don't have too many disasters.

December and Holidays
Celebrations
It is the time of holiday parties for work groups and for friends too. Sometimes in excess, the quantity of party events, with the exhaustion of too many people. Some of it can't be helped, just be gracious, kind, and conversational. Yet, part of it can be under our influence too.
A Simpler, more Personal Way
We like to balance the large events and stand-up cocktail parties, with something more personal: lunches and dinners with friends in our home, delicious but easy menus and food.

Here is an entertainment idea, a three course menu, all made ahead:

• with a good home made soup to start (using home made chicken stock),
• then a main course with chicken breasts sliced in 1 1/2 inch pieces, with a simple sauce; vegetables; and steamed red potatoes rolled in chopped parsley,
• all followed by a fruit dessert.

Cooking for Simple Elegance
If all of that sounds difficult, it doesn't have to be, just prepare everything ahead of time, careful to not overcook the chicken and vegetables. The next day serve a lovely lunch or dinner.

Chicken -- I like to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for this presentation. Simply poach the breasts in a simmering liquid of chicken stock, celery and carrot slices, and roughly chopped onion, plus a small amount of white wine.
Once done but not overcooked -- check by cutting into a breast and when the flesh is no longer pink but white the chicken is done --personally, I take the pot off the burner before that point and cover it, to gently finish the cooking --- but the chicken must be white when cut and the juices run clear for it to be cooked thoroughly to reduce the risk of salmonella.

When done and off the burner, the chicken is still steaming and cooking for a while, which is why I take the pan off the burner a bit early, I then add a generous handful of bay leaves and cover completely. Sometimes I do this in an air tight container or if the lid of the pan is quite a good fit, I strain off the liquid and leave the chicken in the pot, add the bay leaves, and firmly cover with the lid. Bay leaves have a lovely fragrance and their flavor permeates the meat, producing a wonderful flavor.
For the sauce, I will use a classic approach. Its not that difficult, just cooked flour in butter, to thicken a cooking liquid:

• First in a sauce pan, cook over medium heat equal amounts of flour and butter, to where the fragrance is one of nuts (this cooking process eliminates the pasty taste of flour) and the bubbly mixture is slightly tan in color.
• Then add a small amount of the poaching liquid, minus the poaching vegetables. With a whisk, beat the cooked flour with the poaching liquid, adding more of it a little at a time, to produces a consistant sauce.
• This mixture, slowly cooked over low to medium heat, will thicken, done when thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, dipped into the sauce and removed.
• Add salt, pepper, perhaps a dash of tobasco sauce, a squeeze of lemon juice to taste, that is, to make the sauce tasteful and appealing --maybe even adding a pat more butter too, if you wish, or a few tablespoons of cream. None of these enrichments will be over the top in calories, since you are adding just a small amount and then you spoon just a small amount, perhaps a tablespoon or so, over the chicken as it is served.

For dessert, I often serve fresh fruit, cut into small pieces, with the juices saved in a bowl in cutting. To this fruit juice add a few tablespoons of a liquor, like Cointreau. This can be poured over the fruit as it is served in individual goblets. A good cookie on the side, and that is enough to end a lovely meal.

I especially like a luncheon party for the joy of friends, with delicious food served in moderate quantity. Laughter and enjoyment are not caloric, over-eating is. So indulge in the former, savor smaller quantities of the later. Its the way to live well, even in the busy holiday month of December.

A Time For Thankfulness and Giving to Others

With this style of entertaining, and preparation ahead of time, we feel more at ease and more inclined to invite others to our home, like the neighbors who just moved in or the lovely older couple next door or the young couple with a new baby down the street.

There is also the opportunity to show our thanks by giving to others, those who are homeless, shut in, in the hospital. Devoting one weekend in December to a good cause is a great tradition. When my son was a child, we did this and somehow we have to continue even as busy adults. New acquaintances invited us to help prepare holiday food baskets for the Salvation Army; we are looking forward to that. I will call the local hospital to ask if there is a day I can give to read to patients there, in memory of my mother who died early in the fall.

What does all of this have to do with living well?

It seems that generosity and compassion are ingredients in living well, with appreciation for life, and being thankful. Perhaps the holiday season is a busy one, but it is also an opportunity time as well.

From us to you: Christmas and spirit filled greetings for the holidays, that tend to be so busy. We will practice being thankful, with compassion for others, and enjoyment of life, and living well.

Happy Holidays!

Roger & Richard

Fall Day in Victoria
Sunny Days and Cool Evenings
The weather is so pleasant this time of year, something I must recognize, even as I know that working internationally means transitions from one climate to another.

Certainly Hawaii is one of a kind, with weather so spring and summer like, year round.
We just came back from there, with a nice project completed for a dear friend, in his 80's who just wanted to have his condominium fresh and new.

We did that, without spending a fortune: adding pillows to a plain but good sofa; a new, round coffee table in a rich dark wood; rehanging art; placing a daybed on the lanai, with a group of pillows in reds and oranges -- smashing with the art piece above, an abstract of the Golden Gate Bridge, also in that distinctive orange coloring.

There was more; yes, we did the whole apartment, though inititally he wanted only to focus on the dining room and the bedroom. We did it all for the same budget as the two rooms. What fun.

Design on a Nickel and Design for a Larger Area
In the first part of the year, we will begin a large project, with regular but not constant supervision. Its a golf club house, in Hawaii, that also will include a restaurant; what fun that has been to design with inspiration from the best architectural awarded restaurants for 2008.

Of course the principle of comfort and relaxation are the same for a good residential interior too.
In addition there will be an executive club, a world class spa -- all with design and supervision by our small firm, just the two of us.

Designers at 8am
We wake up designing, literally. Even before breakfast, there are ideas to discuss, an interesting article to read, and plans to be made. Certainly some creativity goes on while one sleeps, we are no exception. Yes, there is alot of editing of ideas that we read, it seems our nearly forty years in business makes us recognize what is lasting aesthetics as well as practical.

Designers at 6pm
A good day today, with the start of redoing the garden, quite a task, a fun one for me since I enjoy digging in the garden. The landscape installers are wonderful, a husband and wife plus their 21 year old son and a friend of his.

So after a bath at the end of the day which reminds me of swimming in Hawaii, there was dinner to be made. Here's an idea, one I will use later in the week for a dinner party: chicken breasts in a mushroom sauce with red potatoes and broccoli in a vinaigrette.

1. First, I simmered* chicken breasts in a good soup, this one a prepared mushroom soup from Thrifty Foods.

I did add several drops of Tabasco sauce, not much, just to add a bit of zest. Lemon juice would do the same. I am not an advocate of hot, spicy food at every meal, and I wanted this one to be flavorful not spicy but still the bit of Tabasco was right.

*simmer for me is an easy step, with the result of tender and moist chicken, not overcooked. To accomplish this, I do add the chicken pieces to gently boiling liquid, in this case soup, but then after a minute or so, I take the saucepan off the burner, cover the saucepan and let it cook even more slowly for up to five minutes or until the meat is just cooked through, no longer pink when cut with a knife. To me, the little extra effort to cook chicken as well as fish and meats with care is well worth it for tender, moist, and appetizing results.

2. Next, I also cooked the small red potatoes for a few minutes in the same soup, along with the chicken breasts, but finished the potatoes in the microwave, in a microwaveable dish.

3. Then I cooked brocolli in a small amount of water in the microwave for several minutes as well, immediately put the container with the vegetable in the freezer on an empty shelf to stop the cooking, removing them a few minutes later.

I recognize this is alot of microwave steps, and I do prefer to steam or simmer both the potatoes and the vegetables, but after a day in the garden, quick and easy is very nice too.

4. Finally, I put a pool of hot soup on a plate with the rest of the food close together in the center of the plate: chicken, potatoes, and broccoli.

Its attractive to leave alot of empty space around the perimeter of the plate, so perhas you will want to try this plating and menu for your next at home dinner or dinner party. I will later this week and will let you know how it turns out. There is no reason to explain that you are using prepared soup, but personally, I always do if someone asks, otherwise its my secret--- well now our secret, ok?

A Relaxing Evening at Home
When the day is hectic, this one was, with chores, telephone calls, emails, meetings, etc, then the evening at home is a relaxing counterpoint. So today will end and the evening will start just that way.
Simple dinner, with emphasis on being in the garden, then perhaps a bike ride along Beach Drive in Victoria, a few chapters in a book, a conversation about pleasant things, all these together will make for a wonderful evening, for sure.
Choices
There will be times for socializing, eating at interesting restaurants and so on, but those are choices for another time. It does seem that when we have choices, that staying at home is most pleasant, on its own merits.
Living Well
Perhaps having a lovely interior helps in that regard; well that is how we see it as interior designers. We are in so many homes and lives of clients, there is a good sense of how to live well, not necessarily lavishly, but well. More on this another time, since a simple dinner needs to be prepared. Easy enough, and relaxing enough too. I wish the same pleasant summer evening for you.

Summer Gardens
A delight and a chore
That's the way I am seeing our garden at the moment, especially since I spent nearly 7 hours outside prunning and thinning plants. We have a good gardening service, yet I recognize I want the garden to be well trimmed, something a gardener, of the professional and home variety, may be hesitant to do.
Also, it takes alot of work. I can only imagine how Butchart Gardens maintains their property, all apparently before or after the guests arrive. Not me, I work in the broad daylight, suppose I could get up before the sun comes up, but that is not my summer style.
A New Garden Soon
Soon we will begin installation of the new garden--

• There will be a broad walkway up steps, that now has a narrow, right angle approach that is not interesting.
• We will remove the second driveway, its not needed, and it will make a wonderful, expanded grass and planted area, as the entry to the upper garden, with a view across from the sea.
• Then we will be ecological and smart too, by saving hauling expenses and disposal expenses for the concrete; instead it will be used for the foundation of mounds, with great plantings on them.
• Some will be transplanted from the existing garden, but many will be interesting plants brought to the property. This is an approach we use for interiors as well, repurposing items, favorite pieces, and of course introduction of furniture and accessories that enhance and create excitement too.

We have a great collaborative relationship with our landscape architect. More about him in another posting. He's great and so knowledgeable , plus creative. That is a great combination we believe we bring to interior design as well.
So plant something this summer, maybe in a container or pot, easily done, and easily reused next spring.

Summer Dinners
The great taste of fresh fruit and vegetables makes summer meals a delight.
A Menu from this Evening al Fresco
Here's an example, taken from our dinner this evening --

• A simple tomato salad (cut a tomato in half, scoop out the seed and gelatin; then slice in segments, marinate for a half an hour or longer in a mixture of olive oil and a splash of white wine, season to taste with salt and pepper)
• Cold green beans with a vinigrette (2/3 olive oil to 1/3 vinegar plus a generous amount of grainy mustard)
• Barbeque fish or chicken (finished in a barely hot oven so they are cooked through but not overcooked)
• A simple sauce for the fish or chicken of sauteed mushrooms with a few slices of onion, then deglaced with white wine (meaning keep over heat and use a spoon to scrape up the browned bits on the pan surface) , and a few tablespoons of a tomato sauce, like the bottled type used over pasta.
• Desert as a simple fruit compote (sometimes I partly cook the cut up fruit in the microwave for a minute, then serve warm or room temperature) with sliced pound cake or a shortbread cookie.
• As you can see, I use wine to cook with, its fine to drink too, of course, but lemonade on the tart side is also great in the summer as well.

Invitations
Invite a friend, neighbors, its easy enough, especially if you eat outside. The secret of entertaining is to enjoy the event yourself: keep it simple, plan ahead, start cooking on time, and relax and enjoy the conversation. I like to combine hot and cold items, the cold ones I prepare ahead of time, so that makes it easy to concentrate on the rest of the menu. Your guests will appreciate your relaxed attitude and smiles, rather than the frantic efforts to prepare something too elaborate.

Summer at Home

Traveling Close to Home

Its a time for enjoying summer, with bright days and evenings too. Perhaps a vacation, perhaps weekends away, but also at home. So let's celebrate at home, the summer time, as well. Some ideas we are using in our own home and with clients too:

Bring the indoors out -- bring a piece of furniture, a table and chairs, outside for a nice evening dinner. Of course, be careful to avoid delicate fabrics, like silk and furniture that is too heavy to move safely. Yet, there are possibilities, even with a vase, a bowl of flowers, to create an outdoor room to enjoy. Have three meals a day, outside. Invite friends for afternoon ice tea, fruit, and cake.

Bring the outdoors in -- bring a few potted flower pots, filled with blooms inside for a day or two. Open doors and windows, of course, to enjoy the summer, but also bring in a garden chair or two and set them in a sunny indoor spot, use a large, attractive beach towel on them, a small side table, read a book, enjoy a conversation. Play some interesting music, something classical, something soothing.

Update: We are meeting with a new client this week, and that will be delightful to listen and hear about their hopes, dreams, how their lives are evolving so we can use that as a basis to bring beauty, tranquility, and glamour into their surroundings. What fun!