Lindsaycdavison

Hi my friends and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Bonjour les amis et Joyeux "Cinco de Mayo" !

No colorful room for this festive day but a home like I love them. You know I am a fan of Australian designer Greg Natale as I have already shown you several of his great achievements on my blog. Today I wanted to share the images of my Precious room of the week with this feminine and glamorous living room he decorated. A beautiful and sophisticated room that mixes classic and contemporary furniture with taste.

Pas de pièce colorée pour ce jour de fête mais un intérieur comme je les aime. Vous savez que je suis une fan du designer australien Greg Natale puisque je vous ai déjà montré plusieurs de ses superbes réalisations sur mon blog. Aujourd'hui je tenais à partager les images de ma pièce Précieuse de la semaine avec ce salon féminin et glamour qu'il a décoré. Une pièce magnifique et sophistiquée, qui mélange avec goût meubles classiques et contemporains.

I leave you with these beautiful images and you can see the rest of this sumptuous interior right here.

Je vous laisse avec ces belles photos et vous pouvez voir le reste de ce somptueux intérieur juste ici.

Images source Domaine

With a design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, visitors to Wisconsin's Canoe Bay asked for their own versions. The result is the Escape Cabin, 400 square feet, built by hand by local craftsmen, and completely mobile.

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A while back I was discussing something with a Canadian friend in Paris. Until – at one point, she stopped the discussion and said, “Y’know, I’m Canadian. I don’t have an opinion.” And while that may be true, before touching down in Vancouver, I decided to give crowd-sourcing where I should go for dinner another go, since I knew almost nothing about where to go in Vancouver. The only thing I knew was that it was known to have especially great Asian food. And it seemed a shame not to indulge in some of it.

Since my plane was coming near the tail end of the dinner hour, and I had to be up-and-at-‘em early the next morning, I needed somewhere to go that was near to my hotel. After a day of flying, I wasn’t up for wandering around an unfamiliar city in my dazed stupor. And since I only have the barest minimum of free time, I needed to use it wisely – and make sure I didn’t eat any meals that were duds.

For an opinion-free culture, folks on Twitter sure had plenty to say about where to go, although many were eliminated since “near” was the operative word. I also learned that apologizing for everything was another trait Canadians were known for. And as we were lining up to exit the plane and race toward the border patrol area, which is usually a scrum elsewhere, I heard plenty of people apologizing and saying “Oh, I’m sorry” to each other. And letting them pass.

On the food front, a few places kept popping up repeatedly, and looking at a map once I landed, and talking to the nice folks at my hotel, I saw thatShuraku was just a five minute walk away from where I was staying. So that was the deciding factor.

Continue Reading I’m sorry, Vancouver...

[Illustration: Robyn Lee]

Editor's note: Here to answer your dining questions is New York restaurant writer and former SE senior managing editor Carey Jones. Have a question? Email carey@seriouseats.com with the subject line Ask the Critic to submit.

Dear Critic, How do you choose what to order when you're reviewing a restaurant? I've always wondered that. It would seem like you usually can't order the whole menu (at most places, anyway), so what do you pick?

Many a night I've gone to a restaurant with the intention to review. And many a night my dining companions have kindly set aside their menus and let me take care of the ordering. Is there a method to the madness?

Yes and no. Sometimes a certain dish will just call out to you. (If you can read about a thin pressed sandwich of uni, miso butter, and pickled mustard seeds on the menu of New York's Toro and not order it —well, I don't know if we have anything more to say to each other.) But there are other reasons to order, too.

The awesome beef tartare at New York's Estela. [Photograph: Eunice Choi]

If everybody's doing it. Like any other creative enterprise, restaurants are subject to trends, and to plenty of publications, trends matter. So my hypothetical restaurant—let's call it Fork + Spoon—is doing an unusual beef tartare; that's certainly A Thing right now. How does its stack up against my favorites in town right now: Estela's fabulous beef-sunchoke tartare, or Skal's raw beef with littleneck clams?

If nobody's doing it. On the flip side, if a dish looks strikingly original, you can't ignore it. It looks like Fork + Spoon is really into Eastern European flavors? Okay, interesting. That dish has three vegetables I've never heard of? Worth a closer look.

If it sounds amazing. Self-explanatory, no? If a dish leaps off the page of the menu, if it's the sort of thing you eagerly clap your hands for as it's brought to the table—well, order the damn thing.

If it sounds crazy. A foie gras grilled cheese at Chez Sardine. Kung pao pastrami at Mission Chinese Food. I had doubts about both; I ended up loving both.

When a restaurant puts a dish on its menu that's a little bizarre, it tells you something regardless of how it tastes. If it's brilliant, then you get to see what the kitchen is capable of. And if it's horrible? You learn that the chef doesn't necessarily know how to edit his menu (or execute his ideas). Either way, it tells you more than a competently prepared, original dish.

Standout linguine with clams at New York's L'Apicio. [Photograph: Alice Gao]

If it's integral to the restaurant concept. You've got to order pan con tomate and a simple egg tortilla at a tapas joint. You've got to get some kind of pasta at an Italian spot with a robust pasta section. You've got to try the star meats at a barbecue joint. Evaluate the basics before you go off the rails.

If it's nothing like the restaurant concept. A pizza on the menu at a non-pizzeria. Why? Can you really pull it off? A paella on the menu at a vaguely French-American restaurant. Again, why? Knowing whether the kitchen can pull off an oddball dish or not tells you quite a bit about the chef's abilities and instincts.

And don't order the same thing twice... Multiple visits are an industry standard, but even with multiple visits you might not be able to order everything on the menu. So resist the urge to revisit old favorites...

Unless you have to order the same thing twice. If there's a lackluster dish I've heard praise for elsewhere, I'll occasionally give it a second shot; perhaps the kitchen had a bad night, perhaps that was a bad batch of dough. And if there's a lackluster restaurant I've heard praise for elsewhere, I might give it another visit, too. When critically evaluating a restaurant, your opinions are ultimately your own. But researching the current consensus can help you make informed decisions.

Ask Us!

Email carey@seriouseats.com with the subject line Ask the Critic to submit your question. All questions will be read, though unfortunately not all can be answered.

About the author: Carey Jones is the former managing editor of Serious Eats. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Let's explore a May Fifth classic, shall we?

See, I love the idea of queso dip (essentially melted cheese), save for the fact that it's typically made with uber-processed cheese (think Velveeta), which gives it its super-creamy texture. Well, I think uber-processed cheese tastes like melted plastic and I refuse to eat it.

So, I decided to make it better. I make a simple roux, and then stired in creamy, nutty, delicious white cheddar.

I also swirled in a little chili powder and salt. You could certainly customize yours by adding things like chopped chipotle chilies, cumin, or a little fresh jalapeño.

The resulting dip: thick, creamy, cheesy queso that totally beats the fake stuff. Try it on tortilla chips for ballpark-style nachos, drizzled over grilled beef and corn tortillas for Southwest-ified tacos, or even atop a bowl of hot chili. And the best part? It reheats like a dream.

Note: Feel free to use regular yellow cheddar if you prefer.

When I finally killed my low-light, hard-to-kill ZZ Plant, I knew plants just weren't "my thing." In a last-ditch effort to save the rest of my indoor garden, I'm turning to tips and tricks that, the experts say, can save sad-looking plants from certain death. Like watering them with bottled soda water instead of what comes out of the tap.

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From The Kitchn → 10 Gorgeous Blue and Green Kitchens

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This spicy guacamole recipe, with grilled corn and grilled avocado is possibly the best guacamole ever.

“Did you make this spicy guacamole recipe up yourself?!?” asked my friend Tom, with is eyes wide open and a look of awe in his face. I nodded my head, a little alarmed at how intense his reaction was to it. “This. Has. To. Be. The. Best. Guacamole. Ever.” He said, dramatically pausing between each word to emphasis how serious he was. Tom has a habit of being a little drama queen when it comes to…well everything. But when he likes something he’s not afraid to show it. Apparently he really liked my spicy guacamole recipe enough to deem it the best ever. (Jump directly to the recipe.)

I rarely make guacamole, not because I don’t love it, but more because if we have it in the house, AJ and I will eat it nonstop. Like NONSTOP nonstop. I’ve been known to absentmindedly sit down with a book, a bag of tortilla chips and a bowl of guacamole and before I know it, I’m three chapters in and dipping my chip into an empty bowl. It’s a bad situation all the way around, though I tell myself that avocados are good for me (the chips on the other hand…) so I don’t feel too bad about it. Still the amount of avocados I might go through if we made guacamole in our household would be insane if I made it on a regular basis. So I stick to making it for special occasions.

To get the recipe:Spicy Guacamole Recipe, the best guacamole ever

The post Spicy Guacamole Recipe, the best guacamole ever appeared first on Eat The Love.

The new reversible Baking Steel with a baking surface on one side and a flat griddle on the other is one of my favorite bits of kitchen gear. [Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

The new reversible Baking Steel with a baking surface on one side and a flat griddle on the other is one of my favorite bits of kitchen gear. About a year and a half ago, I wrote about the Baking Steel, a product I called "the most impressive home pizza product I've ever tested." That claim still stands, and I've had one pretty much permanently sitting in my oven since that time. But a few weeks into playing around with it, a thought struck me: why can't I use this thing on the stovetop as a griddle?

I tried it, and quickly discovered the reason: searing on a rimless surface = grease dripping all over your stovetop and into your burners.

I chatted a bit with Andris Langsdin, the creator of the Baking Steel, about my issue, and he's finally come back with some exciting news. Meet the Baking Steel 2.0: a 16- by 14- by 3/8ths-inch slab of steel that functions exactly like the original Baking Steel on one side, with a polished finished and grease channel on the other to convert it into a fully functional stovetop (or grill-top!) griddle. I ran it through its paces, and man oh man, does this sucker make the grade. Let me talk you through it.

How it Works

We all know why steel makes a superior surface for baking pizza, right? The key is a material with a high volumetric heat capacity and high conductivity.

High volumetric heat capacity means that if you take two solid materials of equal shape and size—say, a steel slab a 3/8ths of an inch thick and a piece of quarry stone a 3/8ths of an inch thick—and heat them to the exact same temperature—say, 500°F—the one with the higher volumetric heat capacity will contain more energy, despite being at the same temperature. Differences in heat capacity is what gives you burns when you stick your hand into 212° F boiling water, but lets you stick your hand into a 212° F oven with no problem.

And it's the same thing that lets that steel slab cook a pizza in less than half the time it takes to cook on a stone at the same temperature. (You can read up more about the science of that here.)

Here's the thing: what makes it such a superior surface for baking pizzas also makes it a superior surface for searing foods. Thick- gauge and high volumetric heat capacity means that you can sear to your heart's content: Provided you've pre-heated it well, your slab will be able to maintain its temperature for a long, long time. I've preheated the slab to 550° over a burner (it took about 15 minutes to get there), let it sit off-heat for 5 minutes, and it still contained enough energy to put a sear on a steak better than you'd ever get with a cast iron skillet on a burner.

That heat retention means that if you preheat the slab on the burner, you can then throw it under the broiler to sear from both sides simultaneously. Boom, instant steakhouse at home.

I mean, you see that char? Let me show you again. Here you go:

And ok, the money shot. How about this?

This steak was cooked in the style of an old-school New York steakhouse, which means blasting it with heat the whole time to create maximum crusty char. For those who prefer their steak with less of the crusty gray band around the edges, you could always cook it sous-vide and finish it off with a better sear than you could possibly get with any other pan in your kitchen.

I cooked up a bunch of jumbo prawns in the shell and managed to get the kind of smoky char and plump, succulent center that you only get at the best tapas restaurants—the ones that use a thick, metal plancha for searing.

That's because this is essentially a plancha.

It's the kind of sear that just accents the natural sweet flavor of the shrimp. All you need is a dash of great olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle or parsley, and some messy fingers to enjoy.

Back to more red meat:

Remember those Ultra-Smashed Cheeseburgers we made last month? Those ones you smash down with a trowel and scrape up with a razor-sharp deck scraper? Those ones with the crazy crisp, deeply browned, beefiest-tasting crust you've ever had? You can make them in a skillet just fine, but it's a heck of a lot easier on a flat, rimless griddle where you have plenty of space to smash and even more space to give you leverage for scraping.

Yes, you're gonna have to unplug your smoke alarms and yes, your kitchen, dining room, curtains, cushions, sheets, and even all your hard, non-porous surfaces are going to smell like a burger joint indefinitely, but, well, is that hefty price to pay for something that looks like this?

In all seriousness, open the windows and get yourself a couple of strong fans and you'll be in good shape (just make sure your significant other is gone for the weekend before you fire it up for a batch).

Will it Stick?

Straight out of the box, the surface is polished steel—not a non-stick surface. Try and cook eggs or pancakes on it, and you'll be scraping them off with that deck scraper. But just like a good cast iron pan, after a couple of high temp cooks, it develops a black, non-stick patina that gets better with each use.

I tried frying a couple of eggs and a whole mess of diner-style hash brown potatoes (some simple par-boiled potatoes fried with onions in clarified butter) after I'd broken it in with a couple batches of burgers and a steak or two, and the eggs lifted off cleanly, no issues. Pancakes made the grade as well.

Compared to most cast iron griddles, it's far heavier, which means that it's got better heat retention and thus more even cooking. Batch after batch of pancakes and burger after burger, it'll hold steady with very little fiddling around on the gas dials to tune it in. You ever get annoyed with the fact that your round skillets are just slightly too small and completely the wrong shape to fit more than a couple slices of french toast at a time? You can get a full nine at a time on this sucker, with no high ridge, making flipping with a spatula easy.

I wrapped up my testing with vegetables. Searing off an entire bunch of asparagus in one fell swoop was no problem at all, and the stalks turned bright, tender green with nicely charred edges in moments. Big king oyster mushrooms split in half and griddled in butter were one of the tastiest things I've made all month. I've toasted batches of hamburger buns on here with no sticking, and it obviously makes grilled cheese for a crowd a snap.

Dammit, I didn't want to come off sounding like a late night infomercial, but, well, I like this thing. A lot. It doesn't slice, dice, or make dozens of julienne fries, but I'll be damned if it ain't the finest home pizza-baking surface I've seen, and knockout griddle to boot.

Now the bad news: That weight can be a problem. It's heavy; there's no two ways about it. You'll want some sturdy oven mitts or a heavy duty folded kitchen towel to lug it around, and you'll have to be careful—especially if you're moving it while hot—you could easily crush your toe with a little slip. And remember: lift with your knees. (Or is it your back? I can never remember.)

The first couple times I used it, it took a bit of scrubbing and scraping to get the excess browning off the smooth surface, but after I broke it in, it became as non-stick as my trusty cast iron pans. Like any seasoned metal surface, you want to heat it up and rub some oil into it after each use in order to protect it from rust and pitting. You have to remember to take care of it. I made the piss-poor mistake of leaving one of my steels sitting out on my deck near my KettlePizza, fully exposed to the elements for the winter. Suffice it to say, it's not currently in usable condition.

There's no definitive word on price point and distribution yet, but we're most likely looking at sales made through BakingSteel.com and Sur la Table for around $159. It ain't cheap, I'll give you that, and yeah, I can hear those folks in the louder corners of the internet now: I could make this myself for $40, or you could find a slab of metal for free at the scrap heap, and both those things may be true, but I personally don't have access to machining tools and I don't really feel like cooking eggs on something I found at the scrap yard. Besides, this is the kind of sucker that your kids are going to be giving to their kids down the line.

Here's better news: there's a good chance that we're going to be able to get a special price locked in for Serious Eats readers when this thing launches in June. Stay tuned.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

From Slice

[Photograph: Huffington Post/Flickr-BobbyV_]

The Huffington Post recently pulled together 10 highlights from the SubReddit Drunken Cookery, which is exactly what the name implies: the fevered, late-night gastronomic masterpieces turned out by the inebriated. Pizza is an immediately obvious pairing to drunken cooking—it's delicious and quick, most of us keep some basic version of the components on hand, and it's been a classic companion to drinking since time immemorial. The above shot is #2 on their list, topped by deep fried pizza and followed by a pizza quesadilla. Check out the site for the full list!

So how about it—what Frankensteinian pizza creations do you have hiding in your past?

About the author: Kate Andersen is a Contributing Editor for Slice.

While researching my recent article on Dead Horse Bay, I happened to come across a NY Times article on 101 things to love about New York City. Normally, I don’t pay any attention to Best Of lists, but this one caught my eye because it was written in 1976. I think it’s the oldest one I’ve ever seen.

I thought it might be funny, but a lot of it just confused me. Here are some choice selections (for anyone who was living in NYC in 1976, I’d love to hear your thoughts):

101 Things To Love About New York City (in 1976)

1) Being nostalgic about things in New York that were never that great
Ha, I LOVE that people were doing this as far back as the mid-70s…but what NYC time period were people nostalgic for then? The 1940s?

3) Habitually fitting your thumbnail in the Y-cutout of a subway token
Yep, can’t do this anymore. Is there something similar people do with that little angular edge on a Metrocard?

6) The Staten Island Advance
Nothing against Staten Island’s daily newspaper, but why so high on the list?

7) The night they move the jet pattern over another neighborhood
I don’t think I’ve ever noticed this problem. Was this a bigger issue in the 1970s?

8) Dialing 873-0404
Don’t bother trying it – it’s been disconnected – but from the 1960s-1980s, this was the Dial-A-Satellite hotline, providing you with daily information about passing satellites.

26) The worst public image in the nation
29) How everyone else hates New York
30) Hating New York
84) Thinking what New York could be, if only
There seems to be a trend.

34) Alternate side of the street parking suspended
How did one know if alternate side parking was unexpectedly suspended back in 1976? The newspaper?

35) Flipping the change tray in the plastic taxicab divider
I suppose swiping your credit card while watching a clip from last night’s Tonight Show isn’t really the same thing.

36) Austin Street, Queens
I definitely don’t get this one.

43) Page 1,029 of the Manhattan telephone directory under “Ng.”
I don’t get this one either.

46) More movies, plays, and ballet than anywhere else in the world, and not going
Yup.

50) The Parachute Jump in February
What was going on with Coney Island’s Parachute Jump in February ’76?

51) Northern Boulvard
This may be the only time Northern Boulevard has ever made a top anything list

65) The background teletype noise on 1010 WINS
It’s still there!

69) East-siders on the West Side
Exactly what social migration is this referring to?

76) Looking for a place you know on the dirty restaurant list
Now you can just look at the grade hanging in the window

91) The apostrophe missing from DONT WALK
Were there really so few things to love about New York in 1976?

92) Johnny Carson is gone / 93) Chevy Chase isn’t
Ha, #93 certainly dates the list.

You can read the entire thing here.

-SCOUT

I love the little bits of architect gossip that you hear on public house tours. Once, I was visiting a very large, very modern Houston home that was designed by an architect for his parents. The story I heard was that the architect son loved the look of no upper cabinets in the kitchen, but mom wasn't on board. The architect stuck to his guns, until a conversation with mom, where tears might have been involved, forced him to change his plans. Clearly, people have strong feelings on this issue.

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I am likely the last person in New York City to learn about Blue Sky Bakery muffins, and it’s all my fault because I wasn’t paying attention. Why would you, really? Most coffee shops don’t sell muffins worth noting. You can only audition so many flavorless, greasy, tight-crumbed, massive metallic-tasting muffins before not even looking in bakery cases when you go in for your morning fix. Four year-olds, however, are not suspicious — they are insistent. So, one morning over spring break (something you dread when you’re in preschool, live for in high school and college, and I’m sorry to admit, lightly dread again as a parent), when I tried to make the most of our more leisurely mornings with excursions, we got in the terrible habit of splitting one of their fruit-filled bran muffins each morning and by the end of the week, we were so addicted that I had to make them at home.

It’s no surprise that a bakery that takes their muffins as seriously as Park Slope’s Blue Sky does produces such excellent ones. In a video on Serious Eats, founder Erik Goetze notes that “most bakery muffins are made by just going through the motions, either in an industrial factory-type muffin-making operation or whether people are making so many things, they cannot focus on what makes a great muffin,” which he outlines as moist, having a nice peak to it and, ideally, straight from the oven when it’s still crisp and crunchy on top, and when opened, a little curl of steam comes out of it.

... Read the rest of blue sky bran muffins on smittenkitchen.com

---

© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to blue sky bran muffins | 277 comments to date | see more: Breakfast, Muffin/Quick Bread, Photo

  

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a huge fan of Nick over at Macheesmo. His blog is informative, creative, fun and most of all, his recipes are on point…all the time.  His new book is no different. Nick has written an entire cookbook dedicated to helping you use your leftovers, appropriately named “Love Your Leftovers.”

The lay out of this book is genius. Each chapter begins with a featured main dish, say, a roast chicken. Nick gives you step-by-step instructions on how to roast that chicken leaving you with a fantastic meal. Awesome, right? But there’s more…A LOT more. Where most cookbooks stop and move on to something completely different, Nick sticks with that main dish and follows up with recipes and ideas on how to use it left over. Chicken hash, chicken tostada, chicken salad, chicken nuggets. I’m talking variations on variations on variations. I told you…genius.

What you’re looking at here is something out of the baked potato chapter. One of those “Why didn’t I think of that? Why haven’t I ever done this before?” things.  There are quite a few of those throughout the book but this one caught my eye immediately.

It’s so simple. Scoop out the guts of a baked potato, add eggs, cheese, bacon, whatever you want and you’ve got yourself a grab-and-go breakfast boat. I really don’t know if they were intended to be a grab-and-go breakfast as I’m sure normal people probably sit at a table with a fork and knife. But I had no problem taking one these on my way out the door for a quick breakfast all week. No fork necessary.

As you can see, I was inspired and made a paleo version using sweet potatoes. They were equally as delicious. And I think that’s Nick’s whole idea here. Get creative. Be inspired. But most of all, get cooking.

Breakfast Potato Skins (from Love your Leftovers)

Ingredients:
4 baked potatoes
Vegetable or olive oil
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2-6 eggs (see note 2 below)
2 tablespoons cream (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 scallions, minced
Sour cream, for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Cut the potatoes in half and carefully scoop out the flesh. Be careful not to poke through the skin. It’s ok (and delicious) to leave a little layer of the flesh anyway. Nick suggests microwaving them for about 30 seconds if the flesh isn’t coming out easily. I didn’t have to do that but I did use freshly baked potatoes hot from the oven.
3. Once flesh is removed, place the potatoes skin-side up on a baking sheet and brush with oil. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and flip the skins over.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, pepper and cream (if using).
5. Pour some egg mixture into each potato half. Top with grated cheese. Bake for about 15 more minutes.
6. Top with scallions and sour cream if serving immediately. Save the sour cream for dipping if you’re taking these to go for the week. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Skins

Ingredients:
4 baked sweet potatoes
Olive oil
2-6 eggs (see note 2 below)
3-4 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled (or however much you want. There’s really never too much)
Salt and pepper
Scallions for topping

Directions:

Follow the same instructions as above adding the bacon to the eggs mixture.

Notes:

1. I used olive oil and topped mine with greek yogurt because I didn’t have sour cream.  I pretty much always sub greek yogurt for sour cream these days. I also left the cream out of the egg mixture.
2. The number of eggs you use will depend on how big your potatoes are and how full you want your potato skins. I used 6 eggs and filled my fairly large potatoes to the top.
3. Let’s stay connected. Make it Naked’s on:
   • Facebook
   • Twitter
   • Pinterest
   • Instagram

At a bar called 16-Bit in Columbus, OH and they have these coasters.

Can you name all the movies?

I got 3 of 4.

May 1st is both the Fete du Travail (Labor Day) and the Fete du Muguet (Lily of the Valley Day). The latter is a spring celebration dating back to the Middle Ages. Flowers were given by men to women they liked as a form of spring courtship. The Labor Day part of the holiday started much later–and was inspired by events in the US. In the late 1800s, Chicago workers rallied for an 8-hour workday. Not long after, French counterparts fought for the same thing. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. Despite France’s 35-hour work week and 5 weeks of paid vacation mandated by the state for salaried employees, France recently found that emailing and texting for work during “off” hours is a growing problem. The French may have a rep for being lazy and inefficient (aren’t we all, at times?) but the tough economy means that the shrinking number of people with full-time work need to do the jobs of many people. For every French person I know who has abused unemployment benefits and other hand-outs, I also know someone who is hugely overworked in a job that pays much less than it would in the US. (The need for work is, in part, why you will see people selling those flower bunches after today, even though the government only allows it on May Day itself.)

The post May Day! appeared first on .

I love this demonic rendition of the landmark

parislemon:

dascola:

"Come on, George. Loosen up. Swing, man."

Sinatra had a very nice blog theme. Very clean.

A tiny, wearable phone hopes to help you keep your kids in contact, even when they're out of sight. Tinitell is a programmable, voice-activated phone designed to let young kids go and play, while still being reachable. A GPS locator is also visible from a smartphone app.

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Do you want to tell her? Or should I?

In September, voters in Scotland will decide whether to end the union with England and return to independence. NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Scottish Parliamentarian Fiona Hyslop about the vote.

» E-Mail This

(via Marc Johns: doubts and fears and hopes and dreams)

I sometimes wonder if the guest room is, like the formal dining room, going the way of the Dodo. With people living smaller by choice and necessity, an entire room dedicated to overnight guests is a luxury you don’t see as often as you once did. These days, extra rooms tend to be home offices, if they exist at all.

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Name: Meg Shackleton
Location: Cole Valley — San Francisco, California
Size: 1200 square feet
Years lived in: 3 years; Rented

Meg Shackleton is the creator of Margaret Elizabeth designs — check out her recent studio tour. Not surprisingly, her home incorporates many of the elements that make her jewelry line so unique. Color, form, and shine come together in a style that is at once classic and modern.

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All across the country, this year’s soon-to-be graduates are revving up to start their careers. You may be one of them. You’re already thinking about what you’ll do when get into your new position. You’re smart and energetic, and you’re eager to commit both of those attributes to moving ahead. But is that enough to succeed? Unfortunately, no.

Brains only take you so far. Smarts get you through the gate, but everyone in your cohort of incoming hires has the hard skills required to qualify for the position. The fact is, the link between merit and success is forged through soft skills — ones you may not be able to attain on your own.

You need a helping hand, someone to show you the ropes, decipher the unwritten codes of conduct, and guide you through the corporate jungle. You need a sponsor, which is different from a mentor. A sponsor serves as your advocate. They open the door to career-changing opportunities, by making important introductions to senior leaders, expanding the perception of what you can offer the organization, and offering powerful backing to help you soar and protection when you stumble.

But most important, a sponsor helps you develop your executive presence, so that when those opportunities arise, you will be perceived as the undoubtedly right candidate. Executive presence is the “it factor,” a heady combination of confidence, poise, and authenticity that convinces the rest of us we’re in the presence of someone who’s going places. It’s an amalgam of qualities that telegraphs that you’re in charge — or deserve to be.

Executive presence is not just a measure of performance: After all, it’s a given that every entry-level hire is ready to work hard and excel — that’s why you all were hired. Rather, executive presence is a measure of image: whether you signal to others that you “have what it takes,” that you’re leadership material.

Research from the Center for Talent Innovation found that executive presence rests on three pillars:

• Gravitas. This is the core characteristic, with 67% of the 268 senior executives surveyed saying that gravitas is what really matters to move to a leadership position. More than intellectual horsepower, gravitas is about signaling that you have the confidence and credibility to get your point across and create buy-in when the going gets rough.
• Communication. People know you have gravitas because you communicate the authority of a leader through your bearing, speaking skills, and ability to command a room. That’s why 28% of executives surveyed put this attribute at the top of the list of leadership materials.
• Appearance. While only 5% of leaders consider appearance key in executive presences, all recognize its power as a critical filter — and its potential for derailing talented up-and-comers.

These three pillars are universal and interrelated. If your communication skills ensure you can command a room, your gravitas grows exponentially; conversely, if your presentation is rambling and your manner timid, your gravitas plummets. And while you may be the smartest guy or gal in the room, no one will pay much attention to what you say if they’re distracted by the coffee stains on your shirt or a neckline gaping down to your navel.

How do you know how people perceive you? Ask your sponsor for feedback. After all, they are in the perfect position to hear the whispered comments or spot the telltale clues that you either hit the mark or missed it.

Make your request for advice timely, specific, and prescriptive. The blanket, “How am I doing?” usually returns a blanket answer (“Fine!”). Better to laser in on a recent encounter that required considerable executive presence — a meeting with a leader in the firm or a presentation to a group of clients — and request an assessment on your body language, speech and delivery, attire, or command of the room.

Of course, not every sponsor is an ace at giving clear feedback. If you don’t understand, it’s up to you to clarify the confusion. Ask, “How is what I’m doing getting in the way of my job?” Continue to ask questions like these until you can identify specific steps to improve the way you’re presenting yourself.

Then, demonstrate that you will act on the feedback you’ve been given. Unless you show that you’re willing to course-correct, your sponsor might conclude that you’re not worth the time and energy it takes to impart feedback in the first place. That could mean something as obvious as ditching the graduate student wardrobe for a polished, mature look. A common communications improvement is learning to distill a rambling presentation style into three succinct bullet points. Because gravitas is an amalgam of knowledge and confidence in that knowledge, one way to enhance it is to immerse yourself in a particular subject so that you stand out for your expertise.

The good news is, nobody’s perfect — especially when you’re starting out. It’s within your power to do something about it. If you’re able to find the right support and crack the code of executive presence, you’ll be first in line for the next plum assignment and set your career off on the right foot.

This is the fourth post in a blog series on using mentorship to advance your career. Sylvia Ann Hewlett is a contributor to the HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need.

Read the other posts here:
Post #1: Three Questions to Advance Your Career
Post #2: Engage a Mentor with a Short-Term Project
Post #3: Find the Right Mentor During a Career Transition

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I learned how to drink alcohol between the ages of 21 and 25.

Learning how to drink is an exercise in irony.  It’s like you have to learn how not to drink in order to learn how to properly drink.

The lessons learned are often far too numerous and embarrassing to acknowledge.

Stay away from that dark rum.     You didn’t need to drink whatever was in the paper bag.     Any booze made in a bathtub is really really really not a good idea.     A shot on the way home from the bar is 100% foolish.     Every drink in Vegas will somehow multiply itself by WAY TOO MANY!    Tequila… ugh.     Cheap gin is downright criminal.     Dropping a shot into any other drink and consuming it quickly should be reserved for sushi karaoke bars, or better yet… NEVER.     Don’t Jagermeister anything.    You are not Tyra Banks in Coyote Ugly before she went to law school.      Vodka is not spicy water.

The lessons really are too many  to chronicle.  I mean…

I found my drink by figuring out what wasn’t my drink, a feat I hope you all approach gingerly. My drink order:  A Maker’s Mark Manhattan, up, with two cherries.  Gah… just to think of 21-year-old me ordering that drink makes me roll my eyes.  I was going for sophistication, poise, edge, knowledge, with a touch of sweetness.  Also… gag me with a spoon.  Right?  I think mostly I was trying to seem cool enough not to get carded.

These days, anyone that cards me is an angel sent from heaven.  Literally?  My drink of choice currently: an Old Fashioned, no cherry, extra twist and what kind of Rye Whiskey do you like best, bartender?  It’s simple and classic and admits defeat when it comes to proper rye whiskey knowledge.  I think it might also betray my Mad Men fan girl tendencies but I’m ok with that.

Here’s how!

Let’s do this one together.

Rocks glasses, a bit of turbinado sugar (if you don’t have sugar cubes), ice cubes (I love these super square cubes), bitters, club soda, rye whiskey (Bulleit Rye is dreamy), lemon and orange peel, and GO!

A bit of sugar in the glass.  Just a small spoonful will do.

Bitters are sprinkled over the sugar.  Three dashes.

A tiny splash of club soda over the sugar and bitters.  Muddle muddle!

Add the ice.  Add the whiskey!

Peel lemon and orange zest from the fruit and spritz zest (not pith) side down into the cocktail.  This will release the essential oils into the cocktail.  I like to rub the zest along the rim of the glass… you know, like a real bartender (mixologist/cocktail maker/drinkist).

And there you have it!

A very fine, extra refined cocktail.  Enjoy one, not five.  We’re grown (I guess…).