Kristin van Ogtrop's Blog, page 397

Money Rant of the Week: On Vacation

I'm on vacation this week, so I've put a moratorium on ranting. At least in my life, anyways.

 

But I'd love to hear what you're fired up about. Anything travel- or trip-related? Perhaps we share some headaches and we can rant together.

 

Let me hear it. Sound off below.

 

Arrivederci!

Go To Bed With Jonathan Adler

"Go to bed with Jonathan Adler", his words not mine! I swear! The Jonathan Adler bedding collection is quite colorful and fun just like the designer himself.  From pink flame to grey Hollywood, he has some great choices for you, your teenagers, your guest room, your hotel... you can easily pull of a mod bedroom with his fancy linens. Check them out below...

His new bedding is 100% Cotton Percale, 400 thread count, and has lovely embroidered details. It will be available later this month so keep watching his website for details! So go ahead, hop in the same with Jonathan Adler... his bedding is sure to give you happy dreams!

(images: jonathan adler)

Thank You to Those Who Cooked Along With Us

Even though we wrapped up our October month of dinners blog last week (and we're already talking about Thanksgiving), we wanted to take a second to thank a couple of dedicated cooks, Alesya and Jenn, who spent the month making all 20 recipes and blogging and tweeting about it.

 

Here are some of the photos they took of their meals.

 

Aleysa's Photos:

 

Day 2: Penne with Tomatoes, Eggplant, and Mozzarella

 

 

Day 7: Lamb Meatballs with Couscous and Feta

 

 

Day 9: Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa

 

 

Jenn's Photos:

 

Day 6: Curry Shrimp and Snow Peas

 

 

Day 8: Red Currant-Glazed Chicken with Spinach

 

 

Day 10: Ravioli with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

 

 

So here's to you, Alesya and Jenn! We enjoyed having you both cook along with us.

 

Finally, a List I Can Get Behind: The 100 Greatest Cult Restaurants in America

Every year, dozens of publications and critics and "foodies" come out with a list of the Top 100 Restaurants in the World, or the Top 50 Restaurants in the U.S., or some variation on that theme. Inevitably, those lists feature high-end, ultra-expensive restaurants that mere mortals like myself can rarely (if ever) afford (Over $400 per person for a meal at Masa in NYC? Um…I'll wait until I win the lottery, thanks), and/or restaurants in far-flung places that I haven't traveled to yet, like Slovenia, Finland, and Macau (I know, I really need to cross some of these places off my destination list).

 

So I was happy to see that Poortastemag.com just came out with its own list: The 100 Greatest Cult Restaurants in America. But what exactly is a "cult" restaurant? They're defining it as the following:

 

- Having a highly devoted customer base, divided between locals and tourists
- Stellar and unique food
- An almost unbearable wait
- Not too many multiple locations
- Cheap—less then $20 per person for a meal

That sounds right up my alley (well, except for the long waits—that's actually one thing I can't stand). But everything else makes sense. My only other issue with the list is that the top half skews very New York/Chicago/Los Angeles/San Francisco, but hey, no list is definitive. I've tallied up my count, and I've hit 21 of them—more than I thought. I won't bore you by listing them out, but the majority are in NYC (no surprise there), with some randoms thrown in, like Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken in Memphis (absolutely the best fried chicken I've ever eaten) and the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Driftwood, TX (a must-visit every time I go to Austin).

 

 

 

The open pit at one of my all-time favorite cult restaurants, the Salt Lick. Here's where they cook amazing sausages, brisket, and ribs (and their peach cobbler á la mode is surprisingly fantastically good, too).

 

Check out the top 100 cult restaurants, then tell us what you think of the list. How many have you been to?

(image: saltlickbbq.com)

Great Holiday Gift Idea: Dollie & Me

 

Long gone are the days when we played with dolls, but when I came across this company--Dollie & Me--I instantly wished I was a little girl again!

 

 

The idea is simple AND fun: A beauitful doll that shares the same outfit as it's owner.

And the price is just right: $29.99 for the doll and a set of dresses (1 for "Dollie," 1 for "Me") for $48!

 

And little fashionistas will rejoice since there are daywear, eveningwear, outerwear and even pajama ensembles. Adorable!

 

I'm confident that any little girl in your life would be thrilled to open one of these up for the holidays. Don't you agree?

 

 

 

Click HERE for the whole collection.

 

 

 

A Reader Question: D.I.Y. Highlights for Dark Hair?

We recently received a question from reader Helen W., after our article in the November issue about coloring your own hair: Dye-It-Yourself Hair Color. Our beauty and health director Didi Gluck, helped out with an answer:

 

Q: Hi! I have black hair, but have longed for DIY highlights. I've tried Loreal Haircolor for Dark Hair but are there any other options? Thanks!

    —Helen W. via Twitter

Dear Helen:

Dark hair can be tricky to highlight on your own. Either the streaks don't show—or they show up orange. To avoid orange tones do not, under any circumstances, simply dump blonde hair color onto dark hair. Instead, turn to a highlighting kit (Revlon, Clairol, and L'Oreal make them specifically for dark hair). It comes with the tools to separate your hair into highlight-width sections—and more importantly, the chemicals it contains (ammonia and peroxide) are the right strength to lift dark pigments from hair.

Another suggestion: Pick an all-over color in a tone two to three shades lighter than your hair that's labeled "ash," "smokey," or "beige," (example: light ash brown), and weave it carefully through random strands of hair, suggests Marie Robinson, color director for Clairol; hopefully this will break through the darkness.

Yet another approach, suggested by Gina Gilbert, a colorist at the Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon in New York City, is to see a specialist at a salon who can bleach streaks for you. Bonus: After bleaching, they can seal in your color and soften your hair with a professional glossing treatment.

    —Didi Gluck

 

 

Do you have a question for our beauty editors? Leave it in the comments below.

 

Your Home's Purpose

My good friends Craig and Brittany live in a one-bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C. They refer to their place as a "dinner party concept." The entire main living space is set up for a grand dinner party, and nothing else.



When you walk in their front door, all you see is a giant dining table that seats 16 people. There is a buffet that runs the length of the table, which houses elaborate serving trays, dishes, glasses, and ephemera to spark conversations. On the other wall, in a recessed cove, is a traditional stereo system. At the far wall of the main space is a DJ setup with a couple turn tables and record storage.



You won't find a couch, coffee table, television, or other living room furniture in their main living space. As Brittany explained, "We love cooking. We love having friends over for dinner or to play board games. We have no need for a traditional living room, but a significant need for a magnificent dining hall."



A "dinner party concept" is not for everyone. It's particularly not for my toddler, who would destroy the items housed in my friends' buffet in mere minutes. However, I appreciate the fact that my friends know how they use their space and have designed around it.



Most houses have three standard purposes: 1. A place to retreat from the world, 2. a place to recuperate, rest, and nourish our bodies so we can have enough energy to face the world, and 3. the place where we store our personal possessions. Beyond these three purposes, we get to decide what purposes our homes serve.



Is your home a place where your extended family gathers for holidays? Is it a place where children can explore their creativity? Is your home also a workplace or school? Is your home a cocktail party location?



When you know your home's purposes, it's much easier to clear the clutter, organize your possessions to best serve those purposes, and keep items out of your home that don't facilitate those purposes. Think about how you use your space to help keep the clutter out of your home. Maybe you have a "dinner party concept" in your future?

How to Start a Debt Diet

I appeared on Good Morning America today in a segment that featured Leah West, a Massachusetts mom of three that I am coaching. Leah was divorced seven years ago and since that time earned her bachelor's and master's degrees, leading to a good job in health care administration. She also ended up with more than $82,000 in debt, mostly student loans.

 

We started out focusing on what Leah values most, and talked about how to arrange her finances to reflect those priorities. We zeroed in on just a few manageable goals to set her finances on the right path. You can view the segment here, and check out my tips for Leah here.

 

After the segment aired, I received an email from a viewer, the mother of a three-year-old who has been put on bedrest due to complications with her second pregnancy. She earns most of the family's income, and her disability coverage doesn't replace 100 percent of her salary.

 

"We are now panicking about how we will survive while I am on disability with a mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit card bills," she wrote me. "We also have a three-year-old who was just recently diagnosed with Autism and he has a lot of needs that are not covered by insurance at all. We have tapped out our savings and are now living on paycheck to paycheck with my husband's salary." 

 

Her situation underscores why it's crucial to eliminate revolving debt and build up an emergency fund equal to three to six months of your living expenses. You never know when a medical situation or a layoff can strike. Take it seriously -- no revolving debt, period. (That includes car loans -- I save up the cash and buy used cars.)

 

How do you do it? Try eliminating a few expense categories entirely for a period of three months -- eating out, clothing and cable (ask the cable company to put your service on vacation mode). Put any extra income you can find toward debt paydown -- whether it's a raise, freelance work, a bonus, a tax refund, selling items on Craigslist or eBay, even something as small as a product rebate. (Even saving your change in a jar and using the cash to pay down debt at the month's end helps.) Or make a radical change, such as splitting the rent with a roommate, renting out a space in your home or selling a second car.

 

Once the debt is eliminated, try setting aside 1/12th of your expenses each month (so if you spend $3,600 a month, save $300). By the end of the year you'll have one month's emergency fund. Stay the course, toss in any extra income you can find, and you'll build a rainy day nest egg before you know it.

 

If your finances are out of control and you're getting deeper into debt every month, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at nfcc.org.

 

Have you gone on a successful debt diet? What strategies worked for you?  

 

 

Mural Painting, Real Simple Style

Every year New York Cares, a volunteer organization in New York City, organizes a day of service called New York Cares Day. This year, it fell on Saturday, October 23rd, and our team comprised of Real Simple staffers and members of BE@T (Black Employees at Time Inc.) were out in full force to paint three murals at P.S. 346 in East New York.

 

I'm happy to give you a glimpse of the amazing work that our staffers did to transform these areas of the school. And also to give a big thank you to Olympic Paint and Lowe's Home Improvement in Brooklyn who donated all the paint and painting supplies (brushes, dropcloths, stir sticks, etc.) for our project.

 

Here's our team ready to begin:

 

 

We started with three "nooks" in the hallway like this.

 

 

And we ended up with these three murals.

 

Under the Sea

 

Letters & Numbers

 

Changing Seasons

 

 

Last but not least, a huge thank you to our senior designer Jessica Weit who planned and designed all three murals. We couldn't have done it without her!

 (photos by Kenneth Goldberg and Don Kinsella)

Must-Have Thanksgiving Dish: Baked Brie from Fresh 365

Now that it's November, we're in the mood to talk Thanksgiving on Simply Stated. Between now and Turkey day, we've asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share their must-have Thanksgiving dishes (aside from turkey of course). So check every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to see what will be on their holiday tables this year and for years to come.

 

Baked Brie by Erin from Fresh 365

 

 

To me, this baked brie is more than a recipe. It holds the memory from five Thanksgiving's ago, when family and friends gathered to celebrate my husband's proposal (and my acceptance!) from the previous day. I remember the warmth from my parent's wood-burning stove, the champagne toasts, the pure happiness radiating from our families who were looking forward to a wedding, and the baked brie my mother served.

 

Simply prepared, and warm from the oven, Thanksgiving is no longer complete without baked brie! The recipe below is my favorite version, but feel free to change up the herbs or add chopped nuts, to your liking.

 

Baked Brie
serves 4-6

8 ounces brie cheese round
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey)
1/4 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Place brie on a baking sheet.
2. Pour maple syrup over top, and add cranberries. Sprinkle with thyme and orange zest.
3. Place in oven, and bake 25-30 minutes, until brie is soft when cut.
4. Remove from oven, and carefully transfer to a serving plate.
5. Serve immediately with crackers.

 

Kicking off our Thanksgiving recipe series is Erin Wolczik, the blogger behind Fresh 365 where she focuses on vegetarian recipes and beautiful food photography. During the day, she is a designer based out of Boston.

(recipe and images courtesy of Fresh 365)

 

What is your must-have Thanksgiving dish?