My ten days in Australia were magical. I had never imagined I would travel there, so apart from the Sydney Opera House and kangaroos, I didn’t hold any fixed images of what Australia might be or mean to me. Arriving without expectations left me open to experiencing each day’s offerings—beach walks, fish markets, Aboriginal art. At each turn there was a friendly face ready to welcome me to Australia and perhaps point me to my next adventure.
My culinary experiences were especially energizing. I tried new foods with “exotic” names like barramundi and freekeh. I ate the best breakfast of my life at Cornersmith in Sydney. Two years on, I think that I am most affected by the creative preparation of foods I already knew. I still remind myself to use ingredients in ways that are new to me, and my Mint Sunflower spread was developed in that spirit.
Inspired by Vladia Cobrodova’s Creamy Mint Pesto, my spread is summer fresh. It gets its creaminess from sunflower seeds and raw cashews. The potency of mint and Parmesan cheese stand up to one another and make for a surprisingly lovely pairing. Baby spinach and parsley round out the flavors. I serve this spread with pita chips and raw vegetables as an appetizer. It also works well as part of a main course that includes other dips and spreads. Thin it out with a few tablespoons of water and use it as a pesto in a bowl of pasta or drizzled over grilled vegetables or meat. Mint Sunflower Spread freezes beautifully and has brightened up many a dreary winter evening when I crave healthy, bright flavors.
Inspirations
Australian cookbooks: Cornersmith and A Whole New Way to Eat
Inspired by Vladia Cobrodova’s Creamy Mint Pesto, this spread freezes well, so consider making a double batch when mint is abundant.
How are you doing with the oppressive heat? Even with the blessing of air conditioning it’s hard not to feel sluggish, isn’t it?
Today I offer you three gazpacho recipes that can serve as an easy, elegant first course at your next summer dinner party. Gazpachos are often thickened with a piece of stale bread or garnished with diced vegetables, but with these three recipes, my approach is different. I aim for thin, drinkable soups. These beauties make a stunning presentation in small glasses—no need for spoons! I do not worry about matching the glassware. In fact, all the tiny glasses pictured in this post come from local flea markets.
If you don’t have a dinner party in the works, a pitcher or two of gazpacho in the fridge can be a godsend during a heatwave. Hydrating and nutritious, soup makes a satisfying afternoon snack or light meal. These gazpachos are best in the first three days, but will keep for almost a week.
My Elegant Gazpacho features bell peppers and ripe tomatoes. Silky Gazpacho has a generous dose of olive oil that makes an especially smooth soup. Red Fruit Gazpacho is a sweet soup whose flavor is heightened by a few drops of black vinegar. Stay cool, stay hydrated, and enjoy!
I’ve been making versions of Daniel Boulud’s gazpacho for almost 20 years. Over time I’ve streamlined the steps, but I still blanch the bell peppers to lessen their sharp bite. This recipe makes a creamy red soup, flecked with basil. Adapted from Café Boulud Cookbook
Adapted from Julia Moskin’s Best Gazpacho
This purple fruit gazpacho is ready in minutes! Its flavor and health are heightened by tangy black vinegar from Japan. Substitute 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar if black vinegar isn’t available.
Outdoor markets and picnics. Quintessential French experiences that join food, fellowship, and nature. Versailles is lucky to have some of the best farmers’ markets in the greater Paris area. So why not take advantage of the abundance and pair a morning market visit with a picnic lunch?
Marketing and picnicking require some forethought. First, check the weather forecast to assure that your picnic won’t be spoiled by rain. Then, think about supplies. I always travel with bamboo cutlery and a few tea towels, so I’m close to picnic-ready in Versailles. Another option is to drop by a local supermarket to pick up disposable cutlery, napkins, and plates.
Outdoor markets don’t take place every day, and they usually shut down in the early afternoon. Versailles’ main market, the Marché Notre-Dame, has distinct sections and schedules: the indoor part operates every day except Monday. The outdoor part runs on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Sunday is undoubtedly the most beautiful market day, with the most vendors selling their produce. The Marché Notre-Dame is a few minutes’ walk from the Château.
The Marché Saint-Louis, held in front of the Cathedral on Thursday and Saturday mornings, is a vibrant part of the Saint-Louis neighborhood, a 10-15 minute stroll from the Château. Although both this market and the Marché Notre-Dame are frequented by locals, I have noticed that the Marché Saint-Louis is more quaint and less crowded.
Once you’ve equipped yourself for a picnic, you’ll need to select your ideal picnic spot. On the Château property, there is dedicated picnic space on the Plaine Saint Antoine, between the Château and Trianon Palaces. Picnicking is also allowed along the lower part of the Grand Canal, closest to the Château. Please note that glass bottles are not permitted in the Park, so all wine bottles will be confiscated at the security points as you enter. Access to the gardens and the picnic area is free of charge, except on Musical Fountains Shows and Musical Gardens Days. Make sure you check the schedule beforehand!
Another picnic option outside of the Estate is the Lake of the Swiss Guards, accessible from the rue de l’Indépendance Américaine.
Versailles Markets
Marché Notre-Dame, Place du Marché Notre-Dame
Indoor market—Les Halles
Tuesday-Saturday: 7:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
Sunday: 7:00 a.m.—2:00 p.m.
Outdoor market—Les Carrés Notre-Dame
Tuesday, Friday & Sunday—7:00 a.m.-2 :00 p.m.
Marché Saint-Louis—In front of the cathedral, Place Saint-Louis
Thursday & Saturday: 7:30 a.m.—1:30 p.m.
Flower Market—Avenue de Saint Cloud, across from carousel
Tuesday, Friday, Saturday: 8:00 a.m.—7:00 p.m.
Sunday: Morning
Spearing the kangaroo, Tommy Mcrae (detail)
Try this. Pull a book from the shelf, open it at random, and let your eyes fall where they will. What words jump out at you? Do they hold wisdom, hope, or even an answer to a question you’ve been pondering?
I often find unexpected messages in this way. It’s always a surprise when a seemingly random chain of words speaks to something that’s been on my mind. The Improvised Life blog features this practice in its Opened at Random posts. In his book on creativity, Phil Cousineau writes about engaging in bibliomancy in a Galway bookstore in hopes of finding inspiration. When messages leap from the page to my heart, I call this reading serendipitously.
As spring was about to emerge, I was yearning to re-ground myself in nature, but it was still too cold to spend much time outside. François Cheng’s meditation on the soul, De l’âme, spoke to my need to reconnect with the outdoors.
“Le lien entre l’arbre et les oiseaux semble naturel. Mais l’alliance de l’arbre avec les hommes est-elle assez prise en compte par nous ? Sommes-nous conscients que nous ne pouvons trouver dans la nature compagnon plus fiable et plus durable ? Cet être debout comme nous, qui depuis les profondeurs du sol tend résolument vers le haut, nous rappelle que notre être tient tout autant de la terre que du ciel” (118-119).
“The connection between tree and birds seems natural. But the union of tree with man, do we consider it enough? Are we aware that we can find no more reliable and durable companion? Like us, this upright being, who, from the depths of the soil stretches resolutely upwards, reminds us that our being holds just as much from the earth as from the sky.”
The Kentucky Derby has come and gone, and today is Mother’s Day. What plans do you have for your garden this year? The harvest of my beloved yet modest patio garden makes its way to bright, summer dishes and iced tea garnishes. The last few years I have made a spot for a gracious, yet spindly rose geranium. Scented geraniums are simultaneously old-fashioned and trendy. My favorite greenhouse sells not only rose geraniums, but chocolate mint geraniums, lime geraniums, and cinnamon geraniums. How to choose?
I usually settle for my standard rose geranium. When I am on my patio, I unfailingly rub a leaf between my thumb and forefinger, releasing a sweet and subtle rose scent. I love my rose geranium for this kinetic and olfactory interaction, and I also love to make rose geranium cake. This generous cake is dense and moist. Thin ribbons of geranium leaves lend texture and a gentle floral flavor, deepened by rose water. I serve this cake with Ceylon teas, which are not too assertive and allow the cake to shine.
This refreshingly old-fashioned recipe comes from Shelley and Bruce Richardson’s A Tea for All Seasons. I have made small modifications. I have found that different brands of rose water vary in strength, so tread lightly, especially when making your glaze. The 1/4 tsp rose water I use in the glaze is conservative. Add more if...
This week’s flames at Notre-Dame de Paris sunk us into collective grief and then unified us in hope, as we learned that much of the structure and most of the art had been saved. Many Gothic cathedrals have been lost to flames, but in their grace we forget their fragility.
Notre-Dame has stood on Paris’ Île de la Cité for the better part of 1,000 years. Having almost lost her, it is both sobering and gratifying to consider the cultural artifacts that last from generation to generation. So little survives: works of literature (many of them fragments), examples of religious sculpture, a little music, sacred buildings in varying states of disrepair. We hold on to these traces of western cultures, but to what end? Might it be better for us to loosen our grip on these tangible bits of our heritage?
Like many other French cathedrals, Notre-Dame de Paris honors the Virgin Mary. The most venerated feminine figure in the Christian tradition, she symbolizes a compassionate feminine power. Divine figures of other traditions represent this same quality—Guanyin and Tara in Buddhism and the goddess Kali in Hinduism, to name but a few. The sacred spaces we erect in their honor frame and focus the universal energy that we attribute to the divine, feminine figures. Sacred spaces help us to access these figures and the invisible power we’ve given to them.
Their energy is eternal though intangible. Do we even need to honor Mary, Kali, Guanyin, and other feminine figures with special spaces? Of course we do. But let us embrace the constantly changing nature of scared spaces. Cathedrals will crumble or burn. The generative emptiness they leave will make way for new or altered sacred structures.
And let’s remember that although places like Notre-Dame de Paris can change the course of our spiritual lives, the protective power of the Virgin Mary is by no means contained within a building. The knowledge that moves from generation to generation is indiscernible to the eye and revealed in the soul. Having grown up Catholic, I have always felt connected to Mary, but not because of a church. The rose is my most personal, profound reminder of Mary. Her flower is recalled in cathedrals’ rose windows, but for me the rose is entwined with family, with a Catholic upbringing, and with womanhood. I see roses everywhere, and Mary’s flower is always sure to unlock the healing, compassionate energy she embodies.
Inspirations
Another magnificent cathedral: Notre-Dame de Chartres
Clearing Space and evening walks
Rewriting a Symphony in Stone, by Summer Brennan
These days, I’m living my best book life. I have short, precarious stacks of books all over the house: travel guides, novels, poetry, cookbooks. I love my books, but I am hard on them. I make copious notations, I stash them in my bag when I’m on the go, and if I sense someone needs my book more than I do, I give it away.
Our winter wasn’t as cold and snowy as some, but it was grey and damp. I spent those months dabbling, skipping from book to book, and rereading a few favorites. If I begin reading a book and I’m not hooked after a few chapters, I set it aside. I spent ten years as a student of literature, and I always read what I was instructed to read. Now I’m more reckless. Sometimes I purchase a book simply because it has a pretty cover. I read more in English. Unfinished books linger. It’s glorious to flit between subjects and genres and to touch so many different books in one sitting.
For this post, I gathered a selection of some recent and favorite reads that might lead you to your next book. Dainin Katagiri’s The Light That Shines Through Infinity has been a steady, insightful spiritual companion that I have already gifted to a friend and that I will reread multiple times. Michelin’s guide to Brittany has had me dreaming about France’s rugged coasts, and Alexandre Maral’s Versailles: côté ville, côté jardin has furthered my research on the Royal City. My cookbook collection is unmanageable, but Emeril Lagasse’s review of Bottom of the Pot made Naz Deravian’s new book on Persian cuisine irresistible.
A few months ago, I embarked on a poetry project with a friend. Each month, we read one poem by Irish poet Eavan Boland. We stay with that poem for a whole month, and then we each compose our own poem that is inspired by and seems to grow from the month’s poem. Writing and sharing poetry terrifies me, but our Eavan Boland project has helped me to go deeper with poetry and to feel brave enough to write my own poems.
If English is my first and most comfortable language, French is my chosen and beloved language. My French winter reads were delightful. I’ve been enjoying random selections of François Cheng’s De l’âme (About the Soul). He unfailingly brings me beauty as he bridges philosophies of the East and the West. In Le camélia de ma mère (My Mother’s Camellia), Alain Baraton, the head gardener at the Château de Versailles, sings the beauty of his mother’s favorite flower. And after teaching L’Elégance du hérisson (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), last spring, I am treating myself to a third or fourth reading of Muriel Barbery’s novel on the beauty of friendship.
Inspirations
Discovering Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca
Thoughts on beauty and grief
More reads on Creative Sanctuary
Photo courtesy of Shelley Richardson
Those who love use their imagination to discover solutions where others see only problems. Those who love help others according to their needs and with creativity, not according to preconceived ideas or common conceptions.
–Pope Francis
Valentine’s Day can be fraught. Although I see the holiday as a sweet reminder to celebrate all kinds of love, I understand the loneliness that can accompany this overwhelming greeting card day. It is difficult to be alone on Valentine’s Day when you feel like everyone you know is sharing a cozy dinner with their sweetheart. I have been in that sad emotional space, but several years ago, I released those feelings of inadequate solitude because they were holding me back.
Love is so much more than chocolate, flowers, and candle-lit meals! We have a responsibility to inhabit love—to be love—each day. Love is a powerfully creative act: “Those who love help others according to their needs and with creativity.” It is a dynamic, ever-evolving energy that moves us through our days. Love involves interplay, cooperation, and patience. It is neither formulaic nor superficial. It is practical, messy, and beautiful. As I have written before, love is our duty and our pleasure.
Love is too abundant, too expansive to be contained in one grey February day. Maybe it is a bit silly to dedicate one day of the year to a concept that is so vast yet so vague, but I am content to embrace Valentine’s Day as a moment to celebrate love and to reevaluate my thoughts on love. This year, I recommit to allowing the energy of love, whatever unexpected or unconventional form it may take.
Do you have a few neglected bottles of liquor gathering dust in a cabinet? Since I like the idea of spirits more than I actually like to sip them, my tiny selection of whiskeys and liqueurs is neglected most of the time. This winter, I’ve decided to get creative with the spirits languishing on my bar cart, and I’m inviting you along for the ride! In the next few months, my Creative Spirits series will provide straightforward beverage recipes made with accessible ingredients. For those of us who aren’t likely to serve stronger alcohols, I will develop recipes that incorporate modest amounts of whiskeys and liqueurs to complement other ingredients in the drinks. This is not a time to pull out your finest bourbons. Aim for reliable middle-of-the road spirits that are appropriate for mixing, rather than your expensive bottles that should be saved for tasting.
Let’s begin with my Maple Pecan Tea Toddy. I suggest serving this as a soothing dessert on a chilly night. I begin by preparing Southern Pecan Black Tea and adding maple syrup, a little bourbon, and finishing it off with a cinnamon stick. Easy as pie. Happy Holidays!
Tiny white chocolate chips add a creamy sweetness to Elmwood Inn’s Southern Pecan Black Tea. I add a touch of maple syrup to this Tea Toddy, which pairs well with the caramel notes of Kentucky Bourbon.
Inspirations
Having fun with iced tea garnishes
Sparkling Apple Spice Tea Cocktail
