in good taste, vol. 99: color
hallway paint, spring, and braised short ribs with orange gremolata
There’s a small hallway in our house that is a meeting place between my home office, the main bathroom, and our study. It is what it is: a place to pass through, not to spend time, and so it’s always felt a little anonymous. Egged on by too many Internet suggestions and a timely fixation with high-pigment paint, we decided our first paint project in the house would be this little hallway. I wanted a dramatic, navy blue like Farrow & Ball Stiffkey Blue, but a more locally available compromise was found in Benjamin Moore’s Blue Nova (a violet-y blue that deepens with the day).
So we rolled up our sleeves, stowed the cat in the bedroom, and got to making that neglected hallway something to be excited about.
There are a few long-standing observations in the home improvement business: that paint is one of the very first DIY projects people will take on in their homes; that paint projects are gateway projects; and that color choice has as much to do with mental wellbeing as it does customization. All these things are accurate to our little hallway project, and then some. The color on the wall delivers on flair, the art looks better on the walls, and the whole thing made us that much more smug in our choices. What more could you ask for?!
A SCATTERING OF GOOD TASTES
Offline:
A bit of a preoccupation with interior design books:
Simplicity at Home by Yumiko Sekine; gorgeous!!
Farrow and Ball’s How to Re-Decorate, which has inspired me to paint my home office in Setting Plaster (trim), Templeton Pink (ceiling), and Pink Ground (walls)
A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester. I am a busybody about houses and this is thee definitive guide to the houses you might see on walks, drives around a city, or while traveling around. The ~1000 pages might be an immediate nope for some, but it’s fairly digestible. Tons of cool pre-Google Street View photos of neighborhoods and everyday house styles.
Library notables:
Don’t Look at Me Like That, Diana Athill. The only novel by the writer, it’s a 1967 coming-of-age story that will definitely scratch an itch for fans of Nancy Mitford (The Pursuit of Love etc), Elaine Dundy (The Dud Avocado), and Bridget Jones’s Diary. I liked it quite a bit!
Adrian and I saw Cat Power perform her album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert in its entirety the other week. Just wonderful to see Chan Marshall back at the peak of her powers, go see this show if you get the opportunity.
Admiring:
This exploration of Japan’s Western-influenced signboard architecture from the early 20th century (kanban kenchiku). The kitsch of it all is a reminder of how taste (and what we take “seriously”) can evolve in a short period of time. Perhaps a uniquely American equivalent is the classic diner style; perhaps the contemporary equivalent will be those “live/work/play” boxy apartments that single-mindedly service density, and not beauty
While on the subject of color: a collection of color palettes and their contexts over 12 distinct eras in history.
From a very left field: “This bespoke, ruched taffeta slipcover adorns a dog crate and is made to measure.”
Other items of note:
Great piece on “the Frenchwoman from Indianapolis,” Janet Flanner, in February’s Paris Review -- “The pleasure that comes from reading her prose is often accompanied by a kind of relief that here, finally, is an actual adult.”
Collaboration Cookbook: “recipes for an activity, initiative, or experiment that is the products of people working together in creative partnership.”
And in other ephemera, The Smell Explorer lets you explore the history of so many smells!!
Listening to:
a “writing brain” playlist (for when you need background music with no lyrics)
5K EP, Barrie (2023)
Viva Last Blues, Palace Music (1995)
“Black Umbrella,” Anna Tivel (2022)
BRAISED SHORT RIBS WITH ORANGE GREMOLATA
I like big, braisey-braise foods all year long, even if we’re rounding the bend to Spring here in Atlanta. Short ribs were on sale at the grocery store last weekend, so we were off to the races with our long, comfort food braise on a Sunday.
“Braised short ribs” may sound like something that will take a thousand years and equal number of dirty dishes, but in reality it’s like 80% time spent in the oven, 20% prep work and clean-up. I’ve published a short rib ragu recipe before, but inspired by the latest addition to my cookbook shelf (The Farm Table by Julius Roberts), this is a somewhat quieter, silkier version.
This dish makes enough for at least 4 people with some to spare. It is really brightened up by the gremolata, so don’t skip it!
INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 oz., chopped pancetta
2.5-3 lbs bone-in short ribs, salted all over and brought to room temp
4 carrots, chopped
4 celery sticks, chopped
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
5 anchovies
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2-3 whole sprigs each of rosemary and thyme, tied up with butcher’s twine
1 ¼ cups, red wine
1 cup, whole milk
Salt & pepper
1 parchment paper sheet, cut to size of the pot (I use the lid upside down to trace and cut roughly against)
For the gremolata:
½ cup parsley leaves, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, finely minced to a paste
Zest of one orange
Juice from ½ the orange
WHAT TO DO
Pre-heat your oven to 300F and heat oil in a large Dutch oven. Cook pancetta over medium heat, removing to a small bowl via slotted spoon once crispy. Add short ribs to the pot and sear every side until caramel-brown, about 15 minutes depending on size - being careful not to crowd in the pot (if they’re touching, do this step in batches). Set aside on a warm plate.
Add in onions and sweat in the leftover fat until softened, then add garlic cloves, carrots, and celery and season the vegetables with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Add in tomato paste and anchovies, mashing up the anchovies, and combine the anchovy + tomato paste with the rest of the vegetables, cooking for another 2-3 minutes. Scrape the pot for fond. Add wine and cook for a minute (to cook off alcohol, but not reduce), then add tomatoes.
Throw in your rosemary/thyme bundle and stir in milk. Add the pancetta back in, nestle the short ribs in bone-side up, and bring the pot to a simmer for about 30 seconds. Turn the heat off, take your cut-out parchment shape and place it over the ribs - applying a little pressure to create a kind of seal; this will help your braise not dry out. Put the lid on and stick in the oven for 3 hours.
At the 2.75 hour mark, time for gremolata. Parsley, garlic, orange zest, and orange juice get mixed in a small bowl. Once the oven timer goes off, decide whether you’d rather have whole short ribs or shredded into ragu. Either way, you’ll want to skim off about a ¼ cup of fat from the braise - easier to do this before you shred, if you’re choosing ragu! From there, the meat should fall effortlessly off the bone.
Serve atop polenta, mashed potatoes or, like we did, cavatappi noodles. Finish with an equal amount of gremolata on the top of the plated short ribs.
Always fun and interesting links, Emily! I wonder who orders an elegant slipcover for a dog crate. The recipe for braised ribs with gremolata sounds scrumptious!
Did y'all go see the re-release of Amelie?