ADVENTURES OF THE COOKIE QUEEN

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A while back we got a call at Dolce Mia from Miami mom and entrepreneur , Kisha Holt, looking for our cool retro look for the African American childrens room decor market.  A mother of four, Kisha had scoured stores looking for some hip stuff for her kid’s room.  She came away realizing that there was a need for great looking accessories that would reflect kids of color and decided to start an online boutique for African American children.  With this market in mind, she asked me to create some retro designs for her.  I was excited to take on the task of putting together designs with African American children as the central image.  But, just as this market is underrepresented today, there was an absolute dearth of vintage imagery with African American children so I set about painstakingly changing the flesh tones and features of the images that I had found.  With Kisha’s guidance, the project turned out great – it was just what she wanted and I had fun doing it.

One of the clocks I designed for Kisha is featured in The “O” List in the September 2009 issue of O, the Oprah magazine.  I am thrilled to be an Oprah pick!  Congratulations to Kisha for getting the attention she deserves for her fabulous website – her efforts to create cool accessories for kids of color are being appreciated and acknowledged.

Visit Kisha’s site at www.kishaskids.com to see more of our designs as well as other high style accessories and toys for kids.

This bread pudding I make is an adaptation of a recipe from New Orleans that I have been making for 20 years.  It has evolved based on what I have in my cupboard, my mood and season.  This means that you can modify it too as it is really forgiving!  It’s easy, perfect for a crowd and everyone loves it.

BREAD PUDDING with SAUCE (double recipe because more is better)

2 loaves day old French bread/Challah/dinner rolls – use several different kinds of bread and  it’s yummy
2 quarts milk
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) sweet butter, softened to room temperature
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 – 2 cups dried cherries – or whatever dried fruit sounds good
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup whiskey or rum – or any strong, bright liquor that seems to fit the occassion

Crumble the bread into a bowl. Pour the milk over it and let stand for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12-by-18-by-3-inch baking dish (I use a lasagna pan) with 2 tablespoons of the butter

In another bowl, beat together 6 eggs, the granulated sugar and the vanilla. Stir this mixture into the bread mixture. Stir in the dried cherries.

Pour into prepared baking dish, place on the middle rack of the oven, and bake until browned and set, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

To make sauce, stir 2 sticks (1 cup) butter and confectioners’ sugar together in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until sugar is dissolved and mixture is very hot. Remove from the heat. Beat the remaining 2 eggs well and whisk it into the sugar mixture. Remove pan from base and continue beating until sauce has cooled to room temperature. Add liquor to taste.

To serve, preheat broiler. Cut pudding into squares and transfer each square to a heatproof serving dish. Spoon whiskey sauce over pudding and run under broiler until bubbling.  If you want to skip this step, it still tastes great.

Yields: makes about 20 portions.

LEFTOVERS:  My kids went crazy…I sliced up the leftovers and grilled them in butter like French toast.  Add syrup, fresh fruit, whipped cream, whatever and it is a fantastic breakfast!

I met someone who has met my Sheep Idol standards (there are only two people so far) and her name is Hazel. I met her at the Harvest Fair at our local school (an environmental magnet school on 50 beautiful acres) where she had baskets of gorgeous skeins of wool in a palette to die for. I had my young bottle-fed Buttercup with me and she was very curious about the wool with no sheep attached. Hazel, sinewy, tan and of indeterminate age was communing quietly with my lamb clearly having several lifetimes of experience when it comes to sheep.

Buttercup checks out the fleece bag

Hazel lives on a 1,000 acre sheep ranch called Bodega Pastures near the tiny West Sonoma County town of Bodega. The property is also home to a preschool called Pastures where it is not uncommon to have a bummer lamb recovering by the fire while toddlers run and play along side. The ranch is managed in an organic and humane way so the meat they sell and the wool they gather is of the finest quality.

They say:

We practice natural, ecological, ethical, sustainable ranching. Our sheep live a good life on pasture, eating grass and drinking spring water that flows from high on our ridges.

Along with meat they offer a variety of wooly things such as raw fleece from several breeds, roving, batting, yarn in luscious natural colors and a wide variety of beautiful dyed colors, sheepskin rugs, comforters, quilts and pillows.

A little playful interaction at Bodega Pastures

Visit Bodega Pastures and other Bodega people and projects at www.bodeganet.com

Hollywood: I meant to post this way back when it actually happened. Last September, as I was wrapping up the soap line, I received a call form a “celebrity gift” production manager in response to our press release about our new product. She was putting together an Emmy Awards swag event and was wondering if we would like to participate…we would need to be in LA in 3 days with product. Sure. Pin Up designs? Sure. Let me just wipe the sheep poo off my boots and gas up the tractor.

We quickly made a lot of soap, packaged it and drove to LA in hopes that we would encounter more than just the cast from Dog the Bounty Hunter. It turned out to be a great event, full of TV stars past and present including some reality “celebrities” as well as some “why are you here/famous/still around?” people. Of course, I loved it all because, although I don’t get to watch very much TV, I am shallow, and find myself seduced and fascinated by the whole anthropological aspect of entertainment industry life. Growing up in Santa Barbara had thankfully cured me of any fantasy-based feelings about celebrity but there is something about seeing my old friends form General Hospital that warms my heart.

Soap for celebs to sniff…careful may be habit forming

The response to our soap was fantastic. Every celeb, agent and handler loved it, took some home and wanted to know where to get it. The pin ups were hot with the starlets. Lots of appreciation for the effort to keep things natural and raves about the scents. Since the product hadn’t even hit the market, this was it’s first public debut…not the typical focus group but nonetheless, just the kind of feedback we wanted to hear.

For a more details click here.

“Super Nanny” Jo Frost loves our almond scent	Two really tall VH1 stars who love Horsey Girl soap

I have a friend in the media business, a good friend, and she works for O’Reilly Media, publishers of both MAKE and CRAFT magazines. Both are quarterly and about as innovative and cool as you can get. MAKE is for the growing number of DIY (do-it-yourself) techies – the kind of people who make a camera from chain saw parts in their garage. CRAFT is for the renegade crafter – the hipster who wants to crochet a robot or embroider their skateboard.

So it will come as no surprise that the fabulous Amy Sedaris is the cover star of the most recent issue of CRAFT which features an excerpt from her book, “I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence” on how to make the perfect party cake.

A little nugget:  The cover was shot in New York city by Todd Oldham.  With input from the CRAFT creative team, of course.

My friends at CRAFT have provided me with this nice link so that you can read the cake article.

On to liquor…in the very same issue of craft, there is a Bar Essentials article authored by expert cocktailer, Alex Mountjoy and features many of our favorite cocktail recipes.  Check it out – not only is it informative and entertaining but it has possibly started my career as a hand model.  It features our personal tiki bar and was shot down at the Dolce Mia warehouse using Alex and I as “models.”

Happy Chinese New Year coming up on January 26th. This year, it is the “year of the ox.” The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task or an objective. Oxen know they will succeed through hard work and sustained effort and find no truth or benefit in concocting get-rich-quick schemes. This powerful sign is that of a great leader, one who has an ability to achieve great things.  Hmmm, right on the tail of the presidential inauguration…how apropos. Anyway, every year, my friend Shawn has a great Chinese New Year party and today, I am featuring my Chinese New Year cookies from last year – year of the pig.

They are basic sugar cookies tinted pink sprinkled with pink sugar crystals (before baking).   After the cookies cooled, I brushed on a metallic edible dusting powder, in pink, of course. I use these powders all the time and they are available in lots of colors, even ox! You can order them online from Candyland Crafts. In case you do not have an ox cookie cutter and can’t find a cow, which would suffice, go to coppergifts.com and you will find one there (and much more).

Basic Sugar Cookie recipe:

1 1/2 C. butter
1 1/2 C. Sugar
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
3 1/2 C. flour
2 t. cream of tarter
1 t. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugar well with an electric mixer.  Add eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix flour, cream of tarter and soda.  With mixer on low, slowly add the dry mixture to the butter mixture until well blended.  Roll out to 1/4″ and cut into shapes.  Bake for 6 – 7 minutes.

My love for the canvas accent band brought me straight to the soap shrine. While contemplating what other product might be worthy of the band, the idea of a bar of soap popped into my mind and never left. Interestingly, the evolution of Dolce Mia’s new personal care line began with the packaging.  A reversal of how it typically happens. It was just that I had such great, proven vintage themes to work with…pin up, western, Hawaiian.  Mixing pattern with design accent…hula and bamboo, stamped leather and cowgirl.

I spent the summer developing the product, the soap itself: the formulas, enriching additives, bar shape, bottle shape, colors, scents.  I was determined to stick to a philosophy: naturally derived ingredients, locally made with local ingredients when possible, no detergents, no animal testing, lots of lather, high glycerine, creamy and moisturizing.

It took months to formulate and finalize the inside, the product, so that it matched the quality of the outside, the high end, super stylish packaging.   By September, we had soap that was exactly what we wanted -a luxurious, natural liquid and bar soap available in 8 fantastic scents.

It’s all about the band for me. I began using the bands last Spring on our invitations and thank you cards as an accent – a visual seduction for the consumer – and realized that they are powerful and great looking. We use our giclee printer to print a unique design on artist quality canvas and then hand cut and wrap the band around the stationery box. It added design punch, sales went up and feedback confirmed that the band was here to stay.

“What else can I band?” was my next question and that is how I decided on a whole new product category – soap.

I figured out the perfect retro combination of pattern and image that would look dynamite as wall art. At Dolce Mia, we have always featured imagery from the ’40′s and ’50′s. My image library contains thousands of images in books published as early as the 20′s.

Trains Wall Art

To update our look, I wanted to bring some geometric patterns into the designs. Specifically, I was looking for great ’70′s wallpaper, geometric patterns, and floral fabric to combine with our current retro imagery. I started by ordering several Agile Rabbit books published by Pepin Press that contain stunning images for use as a graphic resource, or inspiration. All the illustrations and patterns are stored in high-resolution format on CD-ROM included with the book. The uses are endless.

Another great source for pattern is on stock photo websites. Fotolia and IStockphoto are two sites that I have used. I search for “vintage wallpaper” or “geometric pattern” and get tons of results.

Lastly, there is the non-digital option of vintage fabric. My favorite websites for procuring great fabric are Make Me Fabric and the eBay store of Majik Horse Fabrics. I find what I like, order it and scan it.

The Gravensteins are ripe and ready for picking so we headed over to the Ernst family compound – 120 acres of forest, orchards, a garden, and an ancient donkey named Pepe. Lisa, my ex-Manhattanite, and very stylish friend, hosted a cider pressing party with her husband, Richard, a Dwell-loving artist and volunteer fire fighter. The potluck started with apple picking and ended with a killer apple crisp and 68 containers of fresh cider. Of course, lots of wine from local producers along with fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Apple Crisp with Dried Cherries & Ginger

For topping

1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
½ cup almond meal
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon salt
1 lb. unsalted butter (4 sticks), room temperature
1 cup almonds (or any nut), lightly toasted, chopped
1 cup chopped crystallized ginger

For Filling
4 pounds Gravenstein or Granny Smith, peeled, cored, sliced
1 1/2 cups dried tart cherries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Vanilla ice cream

Make topping:
Mix oats, almond meal, brown sugar, flour, spices and salt in large bowl. Add butter and rub in until coarse crumbs form. Mix in almonds and ginger.

Make filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Combine apples, cherries, sugar, lemon juice, flour and ground cinnamon in large bowl. Mix to blend well. Place filling in baking dish.

Sprinkle topping over apples. Bake until topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.