Fashion Friday

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While the rest of the fashion world is focused on New York this week as designers show their spring 2009 collections, there’s other style news with a New York connection: two lines of “Sex and the City” clothes are in stores and online. Left is a look from SATC designer Patricia Field, whose Destination Style New York is sold as pre-orders now at hsn.com and live on hsnTV from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27. Think edgy, sexy and Vogue cover. Right is a dress from The Kristin Davis Collection, sold at belk.com and in Belk department stores. Think sweet, feminine and Real Simple cover. The Patricia Field line seems meant to directly evoke SATC style — many outfits are complete recreations of some of TV character Carrie Bradshaw’s more memorable looks. On the other hand, Kristin Davis’ line seems more evocative of the actress herself and not related to the show so much as just to be some wearable and pretty clothes.

Aren’t we glad we’ve got choices?

My New Favorite Cookbook

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You have to add “The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper” to your cookbook collection. If you’re a fan of the public-radio show “The Splendid Table,” it’s a must-buy. If the sound of “Splendid Table” host Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s voice is enough to send you into the kitchen with renewed enthusiasm, it’s a must-buy. If you like to eat, it’s a must-buy. If you’re fascinated with food, it’s a must-buy. If you think nothing’s new in the cookbook section, it’s a must-buy. And that pretty much covers everybody.

Why will you love this book? The recipes are new and fresh, with unexpected twists on tried-and-true classics. The photography is lush — while some reviewers have wished for more, the low number of photos leaves room for more recipes and, besides, the lively graphics and layouts keep things fun. But it’s the text that’s so compelling — the stories behind the recipes, the valuable how-to’s, the quick “Cook to cook” tips and the guidelines to answering such perplexing puzzles as how to buy a wok, how to read olive-oil labels and what to do with not-on-purpose wilted greens. One of my favorite chapters doesn’t have recipes: “Essential Equipment,” where authors  Kasper and “Splendid Table” producer Sally Swift tell you to buy the best you can afford and give us a glimpse into what’s usually found dirty in their own kitchen sinks.

Tennessee Trips

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If you’re headed to Lynchburg, Tenn., this fall, make sure to stop at Woodards Market, south of town on Hwy. 55 (Fayetteville Highway) and home of some of my favorite food ever. Woodards is a general-store gathering spot for all of Moore County. You can buy almost anything you need here and catch up on the latest news: distillery gossip, high-school football scores, Sunday sermons, presidential politics — it’s all discussed while roaming the produce section in case your tomatoes are bad and you need to buy some or while waiting in line for fried chicken and sausage biscuits at the deli counter. And while you’re eavesdropping … uh, listening, I mean … pick up local treats such as creamy store-made pimento cheese in regular, white or jalapeno; Granny’s Cow Patties, classic chocolate-oatmeal-peanut butter no-bake cookie, from nearby Decherd, Tenn.; and a bag of whole Uncle Bud’s Salted Peanuts, which are deep-fried so you can eat the shell. If you want to. The shells taste sort of like fried sticks — a bit woody and fibrous — but it’s nice to know you can chow down on them if you want to. Less waste that way, at least.

My favorites are the cookies. I cannot pass up a chocolate-oatmeal no-bake cookie, and these are rich and creamy with authentic flavors and nice chewy oatmeal. Perfect for breakfast — I mean, it’s oatmeal, right?

Street Talk

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I do not understand this street sign, which is in a neighborhood I pass through about a dozen times a day. My husband says it’s very simple: The sign is at a crosswalk at an intersection and it’s telling drivers to yield to pedestrians as they walk across the street on the crosswalk. Then why, I wonder, doesn’t the sign just say “Yield to Pedestrians” like every other “yield to pedestrian” sign does? Are yellow triangles not good enough anymore? Are the street-sign makers afraid we drivers don’t know what “pedestrian” means and so have resorted to hieroglyphics? By the time a typical driver (say, me) has translated the sign — which seems to be quite small in proportion to its stated purpose of protecting pedestrians — there’s a line of irate drivers honking in frustration. And why the extra cautionary arrow to especially avoid pedestrians “from here to?” I want to know: From here to where? If we have to be told to yield to pedestrians beginning at a certain point, then we need that ending point, too. Do not leave us hanging, infinitive-wise. Besides, shouldn’t we always yield to anybody out walking in the street, whether there’s a sign instructing us to do so or not? Just common courtesy, seems to me.

Inquiring minds …

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

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The flowers at left are beautiful and lush and healthy and make me happy every time I look at them. The “flowers” (and I use that term loosely) on the right are spindly and leggy and not doing well at all and make me cringe every time I have to look their way. So guess which flowers are smack dab in the front yard for all the world to see and which ones are hidden in a corner of the backyard where nobody goes? This is why I’m a weeder, not a gardener.

Happy Birthday, Ann Beattie

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Ann Beattie, author of one of my favorite books ever, is 61 today. (Thanks, Garrison Keillor, for always letting me know things like this.) My husband and I were college students when her “Chilly Scenes of Winter” was published in 1976, and this novel captures that time and our then-20-something-year-old angst (although I don’t think anybody in the ’70s would have used the word “angst”) perfectly. In fact, it was my husband who, many years after college, introduced me to Beattie and this book. I’ve been a fan ever since. You will be, too, if you haven’t read her yet. And what better day to start than her birthday?

Jacket Weather

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Even though the temperature is summer-like today, I still want to wear this jacket. I absolutely fell in love with it when I tried it on at Reed’s department store in downtown Tupelo, Miss., the other day. You know how you put something on and you know immediately that it was meant for you and you for it? There is such a thing as love at first sight. I adore the tailored half-belt in the back and the sort of pleated sleeves and the slash pockets and seaming in the front. I usually don’t like double-breasted jackets — reminds me of Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island — but this one doesn’t even seem double-breasted for some reason, even though it obviously is. It fit perfectly (even though it looks square in the photo, it’s definitely not when you put it on) and of course who can resist a pumpkin-colored jacket for fall? I’d never heard of the brand “liquid,” but my fashion-savvy college-age daughter assures me that it’s a hot name, so there you go. Actually, this jacket sort of reminds me of the car coats every self-respecting female had to have in her wardrobe about a million years ago — when I was younger.

Now I just need a day that’s less than 70 degrees. C’mon, fall!

Do Not Try This At Home

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I obviously cannot multi-task.

“I can’t talk right now,” I said to my younger daughter when she called Sunday night. “Apparently I’m having a fire.”

Of course, she completely understood as I explained to her that the roll of paper towels I’d put on the dining-room chandelier to dry out had started to glow and smell like a campfire when I forgot it was there and turned on the lights. It was on the chandelier because it had gotten damp under the kitchen sink and I wanted a safe place to dry it out because I am too frugal (cheap?) to throw away a perfectly good roll of paper towels. The paper towels were under the kitchen sink instead of out on the counter where normal people keep their paper towels because if a roll of paper towels is left out in our house the cats immediately attack it and reduce it to shreds since obviously paper towels are a Major Threat in Cat World. The roll had gotten damp because I had over-enthusiastically washed dishes and water dripped down the cabinets and into the under-sink area. Ironically, of course, I had to douse the smoldering paper-towel roll in the very same sink and throw it away after all. So there you go. And luckily my husband was watching TV (football, of course) and didn’t notice — or I would have had some explaining to do.

Naturally, the thing that really disturbs me about this whole episode is not that I’d forgotten the paper-towel roll was on the chandelier when I turned the lights on or that my husband was so engrossed in TV he didn’t notice smoke but that my daughter was not surprised any of this happened. To me.

Sunday Morning Papers and Coffee

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I believe it’s time to start going through the stack of newspapers that seems to pile up at our house whenever we slack off from reading them every day. Plus, since my husband and I both work with newspapers — although he’s an actual boss/editor and I’m just a lowly writer — we pick up papers everywhere we go, from the freebie weeklies to the weighty Sunday editions. I’m embarrassed to tell you that this is a mere couple weeks’ collection, not counting our local dailies we read and recycle pretty regularly. I just hate to get rid of any paper or magazine we bring in the house because I might miss something important. At least when I made coffee this morning in the iffy stovetop espresso maker — sometimes it works the way it should and sometimes not, although I think when it doesn’t that it’s more a matter of user error than anything else — I got some nice foam for my cappuccino, so I think I’ll pour a cup in the pretty red coffee mug my friend Jana gave me this week and sit down and start reading papers. Until it’s time to go to church.

And here’s the other thing about this morning here in northwest Alabama: It’s cool outside! If I had to be out for any length of time right now, I’d have to wear a sweater. It’s not even 60 degrees. This is big news around here. Even though the weekend football games were hot and humid, cool mornings are definitely progress. I’ll pour another cup of coffee to that!