SuburbanKoala

Topics: 

• Home 'n' hearth
• Parenting

Neighborhoods: 

• Dorchester

Free tagging: 

• Gardner Street

Neighborhoods: 

• Allston

Topics: 

• Crime

We're teaming up with Squarespace for a week of inventive DIY centerpieces, from classics with a twist to totally wild takes. We invited a few of our favorite designers and stylists to participate, so join us as they share their tips and tricks—and scroll down for a code to get 10% off a yearlong subscription to Squarespace.

Today: Designer Megan Pflug teaches us how to create a leafy, whimsical hanging centerpiece for your dinner table using common houseplants. Megan uses Squarespace—check out her site here.

Inspired by her favorite houseplants, Brooklyn-based home decor stylist and designer Megan Pflug dreamed up this leafy arrangement using ivy clippings, fern fronds, and begonia leaves. She tells us that when she uses common houseplants to create an arrangement, a summery green centerpiece is never out of reach.

Pflug loves finding ways to incorporate hanging arrangements into her table settings. (They leave plenty of room on the table for food and wine.) Her design is easily adapted to adorn any type of lengthy hanging object or chandelier—here, she used a copper-pipe chandelier that she made over the winter—and suggests that a small branch would work just as well.

  

First, she prepped her materials by cutting a couple of lengths of ivy off her plant and wove it around the bottom of the chandelier. "I found that the vines stayed in place on their own, but you could easily use a little bit of thin wire to help hold things in place," she explains.

Letting a few of the vines brush the tabletop created romance in the centerpiece, she adds. She then tucked 2 to 3 fern fronds into the ivy for more texture, and then finished off the look by adding begonia leaves for a little extra color.

 
And because centerpieces look better with a few friends along for the ride, here are some of Megan's favorite ways to use clippings as place settings:

Fern

 

Ivy

Photographs and videos by Biz Jones. Follow Megan at @mepflug.

This article was brought to you by Squarespace. Use code FOOD52 to get 10% off a yearlong subscription to Squarespace.

Ramps can be a bit mysterious. With a short spring harvest, they're not quite a scallion or a leek; neither garlic nor onion. But ramps are fresher, more pungently scented, but sweeter and more mildly flavored than their fellow alliums. They get along especially well with butter, and pair nicely with pork, eggs, toast, and all sorts of other stuff; and we've got 15 recipes to prove it. Read More

Toward a Shoe Abstraction

Artist Ellsworth Kelly’s studio shoes–appear to be camp moccs, much like this you can buy from makers like Quoddy. In addition to being a celebrated artist and OCBD wearer, Kelly dabbled in clothing design. 

h/t Parker

-Pete

This week, we made fully loaded cemitas, filmed a promo for our upcoming Food Lab video series, and colored fresh pasta. See it all in the slideshow!

VIEW SLIDESHOW: This Week at Serious Eats World Headquarters

Now through April 16 for travel between May 19 to June 11, 2015, Amtrak is running a sale with routes starting as low as $20 each way in the Northeast.

With this offer, you can travel to/from NYC to New Haven; Providence; Boston; Baltimore; and Washington, DC, making this a great deal if you’re looking for a quick away and don’t want to hassle jumping on a plane.

Taking a look at a sample date in May, I was able to find availability between Boston and New York for $37, for a one-way trip, making this not a bad option if you’re looking to hop around the Northeast the next few months.

If you’re looking to transfer points to Amtrak, the Guest Rewards program itself has several partners that allow you to accrue Guest Rewards points, and is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, so you can transfer points from cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Plus into your Guest Rewards account. You can also transfer in points at a 1:1 ratio from Starwood Preferred Guest as well.

Terms and conditions:
Offer is exclusively available at www.Amtrak.com. Valid for sale April 14 – 16, 2015. Valid for travel May 19 – June 11, 2015. Blackout dates: May 22 and 25, 2015. Valid for travel on the Northeast Regional train service between the following select city pairs only: 1. New York, NY – Washington, DC. 2. New York, NY – Baltimore, MD/BWI Thurgood Marshall airport station, MD. 3. New York, NY – New Haven, CT. 4. New York, NY – Providence, RI. 5. New York, NY – Boston, MA (South Station/ Back Bay) and Route 128, Westwood, MA. Offer does not include travel to/from any intermediate cities. Once purchased, tickets are non-refundable; exchanges are permitted prior to the original travel date. Seating is limited; seats may not be available on all trains at all times. Fares are subject to availability. Discounted one-way fares are valid for all adult passengers; no additional discounts apply. Valid for Coach seats only; no Business class upgrades permitted. Not combinable with any other discount offer. In addition to the discount restrictions, this offer is also subject to any restrictions, blackouts and refund rules that apply to the type of fare purchased. Fares, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice. Once travel has begun, no changes to the itinerary are permitted. Other restrictions may apply. 

It's always more fun to DIY. Every week, we'll spare you a trip to the grocery store and show you how to make small batches of great foods at home.

Today: Meet bacon jam, the black horse of the meat aisle and your new favorite condiment.

The story I want to tell is one of years of stoic veganism that met its demise to one beautiful batch of bacon jam—but that wouldn't be the entire truth. I never really ate animal products; I avoided them growing up and completely cut them out of my diet when I went to college. Then, on a fateful trip to Chicago, I broke my veganism with a deep-dish pizza. But it was bacon jam—the store-bought kind—that inspired me to head to the meat aisle to voluntarily cook up a batch of this irresistable condiment.

Buying store-bought bacon jam can become an expensive habit—it is the kind of food that gave Whole Foods its paycheck-related nickname. Making it, on the other hand, is easy and affordable. Once you start cooking up your monthly batch, as I'm sure you will, it will only be a matter of time before this underrated condiment finds a permanent place on your dinner table.

Bacon jam can be used to add depth to just about any food: Spread a little on your breakfast sandwich, add it to order-in pizza when you don't want to splurge on extra toppings, or eat it by the spoonful. Want to add a smoky-sweet bite to your soup? Bacon jam! Want to bake next-level beer bread? Bacon jam! Think your mac n' cheese needs an upgrade? Add some salt... just kidding: Add some bacon jam!

More: Cooking perfect bacon is still an important life skill. 

Bacon jam changed me, as I'm sure it will change you. Before, I only indulged in Bac~Os, which—don't be fooled—contain no bacon (as a matter of fact, they're vegan). Now, I finally understand why people wax poetic about this cut of pork. Bacon jam made me a believer, a bacon-based poet. Now, it's time for you to join me on the bacon train:

Homemade Bacon Jam

Makes 1 1/2 cups

10 ounces bacon, maple-smoked and nitrate-free
1 heaping cup chopped onions (about 2 small onions)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
4 cloves garlic, pressed
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 to 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup milk stout or malt beverage

Note: If using malt beverage, use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar; if using milk stout, use 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

Making bacon jam is better if you measure all of your ingredients before cooking for two reasons: Once you get cooking, it all happens pretty quickly and, more importantly, once you have measured out your 3/4 cup of milk stout or malt beverage, you can drink the rest as you cook. For your mise en place, everything should go into its own little bowl. If you don’t have eight little bowls, the vinegar and beer can go together, as can the maple syrup and brown sugar.

Start by chopping your bacon into 1/2-inch strips so that the pieces cook quickly and evenly. Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat and add your sliced bacon. Move the bacon around with a wooden spoon, making sure it cooks evenly and does not stick. Let it get crispy if you like texture in your jam, which I highly recommend.

Once your bacon is cooked, remove it from the heat and place it on the paper towel-lined plate. Transfer the excess bacon fat to a disposable container to either throw away or reserve for another dish, leaving a thin coating along the bottom of the pan (about 1 tablespoon) for cooking your onions. Dump your onions into the pan and cook them until they're translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Now it is time to add the paprika and garlic to the onions. First, turn the heat down to low. 

  

Stir a few times to evenly distribute the garlic, then add the maple syrup. If using malt beverage, use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar; if using milk stout, use 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Cook until the brown sugar has dissolved and the liquid has thickened slightly: When you pull a spoon along the bottom of the pan, the liquid should slowly move back into place.

  

Add the vinegar and beer to the pan, turn the heat back up to medium-high, and bring your mixture to a boil.

As soon as it has reached a boil, reduce the heat, add the bacon back into the pan, and let it cook at a gentle simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid is slightly reduced.

  

After 15 minutes, test your jam by running your spoon along the bottom of the pan: It should should leave a trail, indicating that the liquid has thickened (as shown in the photos directly below).

  

Turn off the heat and let the jam sit for 10 to 20 minutes, then pour the bacon jam into a blender or food processor.

Pulse for 1 to 2 minutes, until the desired consistency is reached. I prefer the consistency of chutney over that of jelly, but this is your bacon jam so pulse it to your heart's content.

Refrigerate the jam for about an hour before eating so it solidifies a bit. But don’t worry if you can’t wait—it also tastes greats warm. 

Store it in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 1 month.

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by Bobbi Lin

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Now that GQ's inaugural Suit Week is finished, we've rounded up our favorite looks that you, the readers, sent us via Snapchat. Each is jam-packed with useful knowledge for how to get your suit-game GQ-approved. See them all here.

kentwang:

Rickshaw Cart pocket square $45

Illustrated by Jed Henry as part of his Ukiyo-e Heroes series.

The top cartouche phonetically reads “Ma-ri-o”, and the bottom cartouche means “Beloved friends, dear rivals”. 

The design of Bowser is based on the legendary dragon turtle from Chinese mythology, a chimeric creature with the body of a turtle and the head of a dragon. Later period ukiyo-e artists such Utagawa Kuniyoshi often depicted such monsters and anthropomorphic creatures in their fantastical woodblock prints. Jed now brings this millennia-old motif full circle by merging it with art inspired by both the 19th century and 20th centuries.