Chestnuts and Champagne (or Armagnac, or Ginger Tea)

One of my favorite ways to ring in the New Year is to light a fire in the backyard, roast some chestnuts, watch the fireworks downtown, and have a champagne toast at midnight. If you want to try it, try to get chestnuts that are plump and still feel a bit pliable/moist. Score the paperyContinue reading “Chestnuts and Champagne (or Armagnac, or Ginger Tea)”

Happy Christmas Eve

My decorating theme this year, as I think I’ve mentioned, was Scottish Hunting Lodge. I kind of modeled it on the Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye, an old MacDonald clan hunting lodge that now receives guests and has a wonderful restaurant hung with ancestral portraits, and a sitting room positively swathed in tartan.Continue reading “Happy Christmas Eve”

Ceramics Saturdays: Korean Celadons

Korean celadons began being produced in the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392 BCE) roughly contemporaneously with Song celadons, and that’s not accidental: diplomatic and trade relations between the two regimes facilitated the transfer of techniques for mixing the iron-rich celadon glazes, as well as the kiln structures best suited for reduction firing. Initially, Korean celadons imitated theirContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Korean Celadons”