Thanksgiving weekend menu...part 1.

Thanksgiving Greetings,

You might be surprised to read this but I am not cooking a Thanksgiving turkey this weekend.
I hosted a small dinner party for friends...
the family brunch to follow another day...

Upon the guests arrival we sipped on lemon drop martinis

munched on tapenaude,
hummus,
carrot sticks,
cucumber slices,
Red Leicester cheese and crackers.

At the dining table we started with a cocktail of fresh shrimp atop a bed of torn romaine lettuce, served with a lemon wedge and a dollop of seafood sauce,
for the main course baked chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese topped with red pepper pesto,
sauteed green beans, chanterelles and button mushrooms gently braised in butter,
and crispy oven baked potato slices.

Red and white wines were offered as well as sparkling mineral water for the designated drivers.

Dessert was a rich chocolate mousse served in ramekins upon which I popped a few fresh raspberries.
I love the marriage of raspberries and chocolate.

Freshly brewed orange pekoe and spearmint tea capped the evening off...
we sat and chatted....the range of conversation ran the gamut...
topics that were near and dear ever so close to our hearts...
there was a comfortable sharing of intimate tidbits of life with trusted friends.
Not surprising, eldercare issues were a common thread linking us all.
Tears welled up in my eyes...threatening to spill...and glancing the faces of my most cherished friends I knew it was going to be alright.

Our children, grandchildren, real estate ventures,  stock market, business, travel and work...all took  the stage as we related the poignant, sometimes troubled, frequently funny diaramas that define our existence.
Owning and embracing our paths as they curve and weave through every day life...not always the happy endings or outcomes that we might wish for, but grateful for the fact that we are alive and able to feel deeply, the sometimes raw emotions that move and shake us to our very core.

The Arts and Crafts English Westminster clock chimed to remind us that it was it was the Cinderella Hour...
we all stop and look at each other...
plans are in place for tomorrow...
it's Thanksgiving weekend...
one couple are off to their oceanfront home on a Gulf Island and have an early ferry to catch,
the other couple are expecting 21 for dinner...
our guests took their leave and depart...

As an experienced Hostess...I would like to share one of the things that I feel is of utmost importance...
Spend as much time with your guests as you possibly can...prep ahead and make dishes that are easy so that you do not have to be in the kitchen too long.

I do not like to make a lot of noise rattling around in the kitchen either...I like to put away any food that might spoil and stack the dishes but do not spend much time in the kitchen in "tidy mode"...
I have a butlers door which I could close but I do not have a butler....if I did, I would have to say dear Jeeves please clean up but be as quiet as a mouse as we do not live in a very large house.

I wait until after my guests have departed before loading up the dishwasher and scrubbing any pot and pans...
Mr. HB assists and we have a recap and a nightcap before heading off to bed.

The exception to this "rule" would be an "all family get together" where we gals roll up our sleeves and get in the kitchen together to laugh, chat and share a little bit of local gossip... there are secrets shared and we often catch ourselves as we divulge information about our spouses...
supportive hugs are given freely...
tears have been shed, health issues have played a role...cancer has touched our lives several times...
all seems as it should be when we go through the motions of homekeeping and domestics...


We put the first of several loads into the dishwasher, package up dinners for the Moms to take home....
this might surprise you to know that this is penultimate quality family female bonding...
Humble Bungalow Style

Hugs from the Hostess.

Thanksgiving weekend...hostessing in the Bungalow

In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on October 11th...
we have a long weekend as the holiday is on the Monday.

A busy weekend is planned here in the Humble Bungalow...
and as the Hostess,
you know that I love to entertain friends and family.

I have a small dinner party for friends and a family brunch scheduled.

I have started by setting the table for the dinner, and making the dessert.
I find that if I do a few things ahead that I am more relaxed and can have some time to freshen up and get dressed before company arrives.
Mr. HB is in charge of drinks and wine...
I do food and flowers.

Thanksgiving officially reminds us to embrace gratitude and family...to celebrate, and to give thanks.

I aim to be mindful of these every day...

The Humble Bungalow has been the hub of family gatherings for many years,
(and curiously, it's the smallest venue in the family)

Our Moms,  children, and grandbaby Isla will be here...my sister's partner is golfing in Rancho Mirage and she is alone so she cancelled her scheduled riding class to join us.

I'll be absent from the blog arena for most of the weekend...I might pop in and see what others are doing, maybe leave a comment or two...but I think my apron will be on 24/7 and I'll be playing around with food and serving up some dishes to some very special friends and family.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Hugs,
Leslie

Guest Post: Remodeling California Ranch Houses

I am honoured and delighted to welcome Lisa from a mid life of privilege here as a guest in the Humble Bungalow.


Hello all. Lisa here, from Privilege. Where I write about style, some anxiety, and the raptures of living. All from a High WASP perspective, with my tongue very firmly in cheek. I try not to be a jerk.

High WASPS are funny about their houses. One of our more pronounced quirks is that we prefer what one might call 'authentic' house style. In other words, indigenous forms, where design takes inspiration from location and architectural history. As the Hostess described yesterday in her story of how the Bungalow came to be. Heritage status can be a wonderful thing.

For example, my Aunt Eve lived in the School House in East Aurora, New York. It had been, in fact, a one room school house of the sort common in early America. My mother's family's house on Cape Cod was, well, a Cape Cod. My father's family lived at 740 Park Avenue, an apartment building so native to New York privilege that someone wrote a book about it.

I have inherited, or absorbed, this bias. In my opinion, if you build a house it ought to at least attempt to speak the local architectural idiom. If you remodel a house, you should honor the original design.

Here in Northern California we have several indigenous styles. The Arts and Crafts bungalow (as seen in the Humble Bungalow), the Spanish mission style, and, in my neighborhood, the California ranch. Which looks something like this, in its original form.


Or this. Perhaps not found on actual ranches all that often, but built by the thousands in the 1950s, to cover acres of Northern California countryside. The architecture responded to our climate and lifestyle - no basement, no attic, an attached garage or carport for the cars that took us to all those shopping centers on all those long roads.


But these houses were built in 1953. By now, almost every one in my neighborhood has been remodeled or replaced. High WASPs have an opinion about which were done well, and which were not.

A brief aside. It's rude to say mean things about other people's houses. However, I need to illustrate my point. Therefore I've taken these photos as faux Polaroids, in the hopes that no residence is recognizable. If I have failed, if one of these houses is yours, I apologize. Please feel free to come and point fingers at the scraggly tomato plant in my front yard. I pronounce it open season on the Privilege[d] raised beds. I hope that suffices.

However, I cannot help but believe there are ways not to remodel a house.

My particular pet peeve above. Random windows. Windows don't make a house special, on their own. This little ranch has been subverted by multiple arches. I didn't even show you the circular portal. Unnecessary. Unfitting. Unattractive. (As is High WASP snobbery, when I let it show, but I am making this as true as I can. I do not know if it matters.)


Trying to remodel a classic derivative - the ranch - into another classic derivative - the mission - doesn't make much sense either. Particularly painting siding orange to resemble stucco. And using obviously artificial roof tiles to resemble old Spanish clay.

OK. Again, my apologies. Let's move on to more pleasant matters. Some remodels, when the original design is beautiful and comports with modern taste, do well to explore the original territory. But treading the 1950s California Ranch path too closely will lead you straight to Jetson-land. Plastic bucket chairs and all. Which in a groovy pad in Brooklyn might be quite, um, groovy. Here it would make one feel just a little too Stepford Wife-ish. Whether one is in fact man or woman, by the way.

Witness below a tasteful alternative to historical recreation. We shall call it Simple Modernization. Add a new front door, with redwood grain, and expand the 1950s side panel window with glass block. Put in simple dual-paned windows. Replace your cement path with brick. There's brick in the neighborhood already. It's OK. Not too historically irrelevant. And rip out those water-hogging azaleas and replace them with neat, structural grasses.

Let's say you need more space. Do you build a second story and cover the facade with mock Tudor beaming? I hope not. Just build a bigger 'ranch' house, with a porch. We shall call this, Cast A Wider Net. OK, sure, the porch is more characteristic of Oklahoma ranches than California, but good enough. Good enough.


However, my favorite way to remodel a ranch is to tie in the classic 'modern' idiom*. The people below went all sort of Mies van der Rohe on the left, and all rustic wheelhouse on the right. The porch beams are clear-stained, knots left showing. The key here is an overall grace of proportion, creating a palimpset, a layering of then and now, that remains a pretty house, with pretty flowers out front. We can call this, Modernity, Then And Now. Or, frankly, you can call it whatever you want.


For, when all is said and done, house styles come and house styles go. My father's New Jersey family home was a red brick mansion complete with carriage house. Built by dry-goods-turned-banker money, for a newish wife. Georgian without King George, if one is charitable. Were it still standing I'd probably think it beautiful, now. For all we know, today's McMansions may be the next era's nostalgic design classic. Hipsters may snap up brass door lanterns, octagonal windows, and gold-chunked brown granite counters, and cart them off to next year's Brooklyn. Stranger things have happened. I think.

*It's interesting, is it not, that "modern" is to date a timeless idiom implying an undated modernity? Someone more expert than I, feel free to weigh in.

images
Large California ranch image via Wikipedia
others by me

The Humble Bungalow beginnings...

This is the background of how we came to live in our Humble Bungalow....the beginning.

Early in our marriage we dreamed of living in a nice area of town and of one day owning our own home.
As luck would have it, we had the good fortune to find and rent a large Edwardian 2 story house with views of the ocean in an old established area close to town. We resided within walking distance to a large city park and small village shops. The rental house had many heritage features and we quickly warmed to it's charms but not to the cold and draughts!

This was at the time my husband was very busy launching his career with an architectural firm and I stayed home to raise our two children. It was such a happy time!
I walked everywhere pushing the buggy with our Golden Retriever Rufus, at my side.
I would choose different routes and look longingly at the wonderful old homes in our neighbourhood. When I saw a For Sale sign I'd look for it in the Real Estate section of the newspaper to see how much it cost. Very few homes were in our price range, with the exception of those listed as "fixer uppers" as our realtor later advised "buy the cheapest house in the best location."

I found our future home on one of my afternoon jaunts....it was a block from the ocean, several blocks from our rental and I thought it looked like we might be able to make it into something beautiful.

This is how it appeared before we took on the restoration!

It had been a rental for many years and was in dire need of TLC.

The house was built in 1912

designed by

Milo S. Farwell architect

A California Arts and Crafts Bungalow

we knew very little about arts and crafts back in 1982

but we learned very quickly!

We visited Santa Monica in California

and purchased a book written by Dr. Robert Winter

also known as "Bungalow Bob"

titled The California Bungalow

he was a pioneer in raising the awareness of the architectural value, 

significance, and importance of Bungalows

from a heritage standpoint.

 The cover has faded from years of sunshine 

as the book sat in the Stickley Brothers bookshelf

( grandmother owned this and she gave it to us when we bought our home)

The restoration and renovations

have taken many years

of research

and work.

We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...

the scope was far beyond our thoughts

and taxed our budget and challenged our energy.

We tackled one room at a time

and worked on the garden in between.

Everything we did had to be in the arts and crafts style

and look as if it was original.

We are proud to be tenants here in the Bungalow

preserving it for the future having applied and received approval for heritage registry status.

It is Serendipity...

What started as a humble home purchase has turned into a lifelong journey

we have met many people along the way who are dedicated to heritage and preservation of old buildings.

We have journeyed to meet experts in the field

and have had experts come here to visit.

Our modest and tiny bungalow

 Summer 2010

What a lovely way to spend a weekend!

A lovely weekend away was just what we needed...just the right amount of travel with lots of walking, a little imbibing, food that was cooked and served by someone else and a wee bit of shopping.
Mr. HB does not adore shopping but he indulged me for awhile!

I went to Hermes!

and purchased my new scent

Voyage d'Hermes

very light 

with a touch of citrus

I saw a lovely scarf worn by the shopgirl

but for some reason I wasn't tempted

now there's a surprise!

We made the obligatory rounds of the bags and shoes

and went down to look for a jacket for Mr. HB

I fell madly for the Armani jacket that he tried on

he looked so handsome in it 

Mr. HB was not as enchanted

I believe it was the $$$$$ factor.

We did find a well made cashmere jacket in charcoal grey that looked every bit as nice

which Mr. HB happily purchased.

Are these not divine?

no shoes for me though...

I have another purchase in mind

Lovely granddaughter Isla

is growing up so fast and needs a chair of her own

and Grammy wants Isla to have what she needs

we drove to a large baby store

and picked up this modern chair

if you ever watched a cartoon show called

The Jetson's

 on TV 

this would be the chair that they would have in their home in space!

I had one martini with 3 olives...I ate one before capturing this image.

the next few images are not in order

and show some of what we dined on over the past few days...

Mushroom Bisque

Bruschetta and salad

Strongbow cider for me and a beer for Mr. HB

Spicy Thai chicken drumettes for Mr. HB

Pasta and meatballs for Mr. HB

Clams and pasta for me

The diet starts tomorrow!

Our hotel 

The bridge we crossed to get to the baby store

a room with a view

ocean glimpse

the sun was out

looking east

looking west

Voyage d'Hermes

a litte something pour moi

Gap wool vest meet Debbie Kay

I am back in the Bungalow sipping my tea

content to be home

rested

relaxed

I hope that your weekend was fun.