From fashion to food to furnishings, Tangerine, the “living reflection of a dream”, is Pantone’s color of 2012. Perfect for an accent color or statement pieces, it’s a hue we love to wear and use in our interiors.

Pair of Brass Low Chairs with Asian Motif





Rolex Steel Oyster Perpetual Date c.1978 Custom “Tangerine” Dial



Pair of Natural Tangerine Calcite Cluster Lamps



Tangerine Tartelettes

EAT as the French do! You’d be hard pressed not to eat well while there–from the patisseries and boulangeries, to the roadside stands selling just picked fruits and vegetables and local oysters–there’s no shortage of ways to indulge. And indulge we did with the famously sweet Charente melons, foie gras mouse, handmade sausages, yellow teardrop tomatoes, and the most amazing looking and tasting yellow onion I’ve ever seen, which all made for a delicious lunch.



Oysters! Oysters! Oysters! My idea of heaven, eaten steamed or raw, we tried every variety we could get our greedy hands on.



This snapshot is just a small portion of a seemingly endless table filled with the most incredible pastries, breads, cakes, meringues, and pies I’ve ever seen. We started at this end where we marveled at this amazing feat of a pastry….



…And ended at these football-sized meringues. We took home huge bags filled with everything we couldn’t say no to; half of it was gone by the time we made back to the house. We even invented a new favorite dessert with the coffee flavored meringue that involved salted carmel, chocolate/toffee crunch, and homemade coffee whipped cream. There was a fight over the last spoonful…!



They grow the most perfect bulbs of garlic, shallots and onions…almost too perfect to eat.



One of our favorite late afternoon activities is to go foraging in the hedgerows near the house for blackberries, wild fennel, and Mirabelle plums–which we turn into jams, cobblers, flavored simple syrups (the fennel simple syrup is a favorite for a refreshing afternoon cocktail), and sorbets depending on what strikes our mood. With such abundance it’s easy to make something new and different every day. This year the blackberries were especially wonderful…I don’t think I’ve ever eaten more blackberries as I did in those two weeks.

We love going to the Brooklyn Flea most of all for the delicious food vendors. Our first stop is always the LIDDABIT SWEET table to stock up on our absolute favorite sweet--their Beer and Pretzel Caramels. Made with Brooklyn Brewery’s Brown Ale and East India Pale Ale combined with crunchy chunks of salty Martin’s pretzels folded into a creamy caramel, well it's pure bliss. We try not to over indulge, but it's hard! One just isn't enough.
Another treat we can’t resist is their King Bar–a candy bar layered with peanut butter nougat, brown sugar-brown butter cookie, banana ganache, and then dipped in milk chocolate. If a trip to the Brooklyn Flea isn’t in your future, you can order Liddabit goodies at www.liddabitsweets.com. We promise, it’s worth every penny!

Brunch is one of the best ways to hang with friends. During a delightful outside eating fest this weekend, I had one of the best bloody marys courtesy of McClure’s pickles. With a pickle brine base and plenty of garlic, their concoction is good enough to drink sans vodka. Get a quart-size jar of your McClure’s Bloody Mary Mix sold for $8 at Brooklyn Flea and mcclurespickles.com.

Before the new year, we walked the One of a Kind show here in NYC. There was definitely a plethora of ahem, interesting, products. But just as we were about to leave, we spotted a gem, Morris Kitchen’s Ginger Syrup! Tyler and Kari Morris, the adorable Brooklyn brother-sister duo behind Morris Kitchen, started bottling the potent stuff after falling in love with ginger on a trek through the south of France. To use: add a teaspoon to club soda to make your own ginger ale, spice up a cup of tea or make our favorite summer cocktail, Ginga Fizz! (more to come on that later) You can find it at Marlow & Daughters or Urban Rustic.
Bottling syrup is not the only thing these talented siblings do, they also host an organic supper club. We are dying to get on the next guest list!