happy

thanksgiving

table: victoria thorne design

photo: rick e. martin

the soul selects her own society

emily dickinson

thanksgiving table setting: victoria thorne design

photo: rick e. martin for the mercury news

wisp

so many people keep talking about happiness. i love happiness. 

who doesn't? 

but what it is, perhaps, that we are all really talking about- i have begun to think it is really peace: that happiness is the upward part of peace, the clear and present joy part of peace. it's so measurable! the other kinds of peace seem less quantifiable. 

so when we think we are not happy enough, we can begin to think, instead: what peace am i missing? 

where is the bit of peace in this moment, or this hour, or this day? 

when we begin to be able to find that peace, happiness sits like a wisp upon it. 

try this, maybe.

happiness may already be right where you are. i think it is a strong possibility.

 thanksgiving table setting: victoria thorne design

photo: rick e. martin for the mercury news

grateful

gratitude

thanksgiving

plates: victoria thorne

photography: rick martin

set

created for

holidays on a high note

design: victoria thorne

figgy pudding

design: victoria thorne

Stuffing (Hold the Bird)

Just in the nick of time.

Stuffing (original recipe ingredients):

1 1/2 cups soft bread cubes
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced olives
1/2 cup chopped parsley (what? I don't think I've used this for years. yikes)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup of chicken broth &/or wine (recipe says white, but I think I have been using red lately. really, just what's available and decent. don't use really cheap stuff. it'll ruin the stuffing.)
several cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon each oregano and basil
2 tablespoons butter
olive oil

Okay.

Here's what really happens.

I at least double all of the above ingredients. Sometimes even more than double.

And I usually get all OCD and decide I have to make the bread cubes myself.

Sometimes I buy them in bags, but they have to be good bread cubes.

I think Pepperidge Farms has come through at times, but it can be tricky. The nicest thing is to cube day-oldish (artisan, sourdough, something with a life) bread and put it in a skillet with olive oil (sort of a lot) and toss it around for awhile until it is fairly crisp and olive-oily. Here is another tricky part: don't eat it all. Don't let anyone else eat it all. Threaten them with wooden spoons if necessary.

Okay, so you have some bread cubes (you could plan ahead for this).

In skillet: heat butter (here, I add olive oil, also) add onion & garlic & cook until almost lightly browned. Add mushrooms and cook 'til soft-ish (but not too long). Add olives. Add parsley (if you want. I don't think I have for years) and bread cubes. Toss it all around well, but gently. Then add basil and oregano (usually more basil than oregano, I think) and toss gently some more. Then you add, carefully spreading it around and not on anything that's too hot, so that it doesn't congeal and look like fried egg, the egg mix. Toss it.

At some point (maybe even around the time of mushrooms and olives), I add wine. Starting with a little (maybe a quarter of a cup) and then adding whatever is necessary. It seems like some years the bread soaks it up and needs a few cups (never more than two but maybe a little bit more; it depends) and some years it just barely needs any.

The thing is that you don't want it to be mushy but you don't want it to be dry.

So you just mess around with this and taste it some along the way and when it's done put it in a covered casserole (or uncovered, if it's a bit on the too-moist side) and let it sit quietly in the oven for maybe 20 minutes to a half hour. At 350 degrees. I think.

Goes without saying that you don't stuff the bird, these days. (I just put carrots and onions and garlic cloves and maybe some celery and a few sprigs of herbs in where the stuffing used to go. And maybe half a meyer lemon goes in, too, because they grow in the front yard.)

If the stuffing's done done early in the day, pop it in the fridge and then cook it just before dinner.

Gobble gobble.

On this Evening, A Simple Wish in Blue & White: Happy Holidays

A thanksgiving shoot

created a few years ago

for the Mercury News.

happy holidays

design: victoria thorne

photos: rick martin

From Our House to Yours: An Original Film by Erik Thorne

From our house to yours,
a video that Erik whipped up tonight.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Alexander: Here's the Apple Pie!

Sweetbriar Apple Pie, With Love

Crust:

• 1 pound o' butter
  
• 4 cups of good fresh flour
  
• 2 tablespoons, sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons, salt
  
• 1 cuppa water, with ice cube floating around (achtung! you will not use all the water!)
• NOTE: this will be enough crust for 2 or 3 pies

Innards for each pie will be:

• 4 or 5 sour-ish green apples (granny smith or so), peeled and cored and sliced
  
• 1/4 cup, sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/4 teaspoon each of: grated nutmeg, ground mace...and maybe a tiny scosh of cloves and cardamom? whatever. up to you. be creative (which you always are).

Make that crust, just like you have been (i.e., that amazing picture you just sent) but: leave it twice the size, roll it out, and have some nice crumbly artistic edges...you will be folding it over the whole apple deal, in a very soigne way... (For those who would like a lovely pie crust recipe, click here.)

Put this artsy pastry into a nice big pie plate, and chill for about 15 minutes...afterwards, fill 'er up with apple slices, enough so that it looks nice and heaping but not overmuch or too little....

Now, the fun part: shake that sugar softly over the apple slices, and happily dot little bits of butter around. Sprinkle spices on quick-like. Now, fold up those artistic pastry edges, sort of on top of each other. It will seem rather random, but I promise it will come out of the oven looking quite handsome (and taste lovely, to boot). Try to cover up most of those slicey apples, so they are tucked in nice. But don't spend much time on this part.

The pie usually takes about 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven. The crust will be look done, and you'll know. Cool for a few minutes, and then sklather on freshly whipped (no sugar, ist besser!) cream. You can add a bit of grated nutmeg on the top if you want to get super-snazzy.

Enjoy. We will miss you at the turkey table, but we send blessings your way every second of every day.

(Here, we would like to send said blessings, also, to Mim and Pop and Grandma and Grandpa and the Basnights and every Thorne and Reynard we ever knew, along with the Brooksies, the Pilots, the Sans and Chaves families. Aloha, fam. We love all of you and hope you get the right end of the wishbone, every one!)

Alexander: Call your mother if she wrote something down wrong, above; we can try to fix it. It can happen. And remember, my German is sehr rusty, but I try. Ist gut?

that Shakespeherian Rag

Good Eye

A holiday table swimming with

blue and white china, perhaps?

Holiday Plates: How to Dress Up Your Table Before the Bird Arrives

dearest readers:

all of the place settings

posted in the next few days were

created by

victoria thorne,

&

photographed by

rick martin

hope they provide great

inspiration and joy

during your holidays!

above:

mim's plate | quail and olive

Happy Day! Our Table is Featured in California Home+Design

a little snapshot from the table

created for

Holidays on a High Note

also featured on

California Home+Design

design: victoria thorne

& here or here

Setting Up

tidbits from the table...

more soon