With the new year and a rough economy, what better time for a little bit of navel gazing? I like to do my cleaning seasonally as I’m taking out new candles, digging up appropriate clothes, changing sheets, and swapping home accessories. Since winter is a few weeks in and I’ve been on the prowl for some fresh design ideas, I’ve grown more and more frustrated with what I’m seeing.

We all know that mass consumption has got us overwhelmed with clutter and debt, but all sorts of “lifestyle” sites and blogs perpetuate the problem by advocating more, more, more. I don’t think I’m alone in this frustration. See, for example, Apartment Therapy’s Predictions for 2009 post, which seemed all in good fun but drew a lot of bitter comments. I guess the readers got a bit tired of being told that a $1000 table is a great! find! in November 2007, then being told it’s out a year later. Or being told that “obvious mid-century modern” (a phrase that if I never hear again, it’ll be too soon) is so last year, but we should all run out and redo our home Mad Men style because that’s what’s on the TeeVee. 

Ok, I’m giving AT a hard time, but there are good ways and bad ways to approach your home and lifestyle that don’t require a complete overhaul every twelve months. Read the full rant after the jump.

I believe our homes should be as simple as possible, with clean basics and embellishments we add along the way and can change throughout the year. My issue with AT, beside the fact that many homeowners and apartment dwellers with obvious design talent end up with homes that all look like they belong in the same catalog, is the overall tone of conspicuous consumption. Which is why I am thiiiis close to deleting the RSS feed from my reader even though I really enjoy about a quarter of the posts. 

But I know I won’t, because comments on threads like this one offer really great ideas. I love the tip to frame beautiful paper if fine art is unattainable. Rich papers like these from Paper Source are great for warming up a room in the winter:

One of my favorite bloggers, Holly at Decor8 and Simply Stated, just posted on this topic. She advises readers to shop at Craigslist and yard sales, and I wholeheartedly agree. No need for an Eames chair (cough, conspicuous consumption, cough) to make a beautiful space.

Another blogger I greatly admire, Nicole at Making it Lovely, expertly mixes up cheap IKEA items with expensive designers. Her design for a beautiful modern, graphic bedroom, for example, includes art that costs about $30 total, with print from etsy and a frame from IKEA. Now, to be fair, I added up all her suggestions and the price tag estimate came to over $1,100, but I bet it’s not too hard to find reasonable substitutes for many of those items on eBay or discount stores. 

So with the start of the new year, concentrate not on buying new things to make a beautiful space, but use what you have and add little touches here and there to make it your own, not something out of a Design Within Reach catalog. 

*The photo at the top is from zen sekizawa photography, via Design for Mankind

Black-eyed Peas

My mother is a gen-u-wine Southerner, so every year on New Year’s Day we’d eat black-eyed peas to ensure a prosperous year. I never really thought much about it, but it occurred to me recently that I’ve never heard anyone else mention this tradition. Turns out it’s one of those regional things that really hasn’t spread outside The South, which I think makes it even cooler. This year I made the dish based on Emeril’s Food Network recipe, and it turned out fabulous! Black-eyed peas are traditionally cooked with a few spices and ham, sometimes called “Hoppin’ John,” but we never used that name.

Emeril’s recipe was not only super easy to prepare, it also has a great combination of spices that bring out the sometimes bland flavor of the peas. I thought two bay leaves would be excessive, but they were right on balance. The only thing I changed is the meat; I couldn’t find a good ham hock so I used turkey ham, which has a great smokey flavor and is even a bit better for you. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly, and all the times were right on to end up with a perfect consistency. The tricky part of making black-eyed peas is getting them to be smooth, but not mushy. You have to remove them from heat at exactly the right moment when they are just starting burst, otherwise you end up with a huge mass of bean mush. This recipe worked well to prevent that.

I know you’re supposed to eat this on New Year’s Day, but I served it to friends a few weeks ago and it was a hit. Which says a lot, considering that these peas are not usually the star of the show.

Dinner on the Fly

I belong to a food co-op that provides a huge amount of produce every week, all organic and in-season, and mostly locally grown. Although this is a wonderful way to get lots of fresh food into the kitchen, sometimes it leaves me with an excessive amount of one thing or another that I don’t know what to do with. Right now, it’s winter squash. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love squash, and it’s great that hearty winter veggies stay fresh for a looooong time. But after eating squash as a side dish, in stir-fry concoctions, making gratin, and trying to arrange the pile of squash on my table as a centerpiece, I was running out of ideas. But a girl’s gotta eat, so I opened the fridge and threw something together. In the end, I made a baked mac and cheese dish that was made a little more grown up with the addition of sweet dumpling squash, gruyere cheese (which was left over from the gratin), and cubed smoked turkey. Click through for the full recipe.

Ingredients – note that I don’t measure when I’m cooking on the fly, so all these amounts are estimates

8 oz. (about half a bag) Spiral Egg noodles

1 sweet dumpling squash or something about equivalent.

1/3 c. grated gruyere cheese

1/2 c. cubed smoked turkey or ham, diced in about 1/2 inch cubes

2 eggs

1/2 c. milk

1/8 c. seasoned breadcrumbs

Cute Lil Sweet Potato Squash

To prep the squash, I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and cut away the skin. Apparently the skin of this particular squash is edible, but I wanted the texture to be the same throughout. After removing the skin, I cut the squash into rough chunks. The size isn’t important, but try to make them as similar as possible so they cook at the same rate. 

The rest of the prep is really easy. Cook the noodles, place in casserole dish turkey (or ham) and squash, distributed evenly. Beat together the eggs and milk, pour over noodles in the dish. Top evenly first with the cheese, then follow with the breadcrumbs. Season lightly with salt and pepper. You can also add other seasonings such as thyme or rosemary, but be careful as a little goes a long way in this dish.

Bake for about 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven. The noodles should be crispy, and the egg mixture should be fluffy on the inside.

This recipe yields 3-4 servings.

From Sooooound's esty Shop

In addition to decals, classic framed wall art works to spruce up a room for the season without the hassle of removing the vinyl. I like the idea of a basic wall color that works well year round, with a space set aside for your own personal rotating gallery. Start a collection now, and when the season changes your wall can change, too. Then next year you can reevaluate your winter art, keep what you like, and donate/sell/recycle the rest.

Just as with rotating throw pillows, this is an easy way to keep a room interesting and refreshing. It also cuts down on clutter and old items you no longer find attractive since you are reevaluating your choices every few months. After the jump, a few finds from etsy to get started.

From Sooooound’s shop:

City Sounds No. 3

Dream

From Robert Socha (I also chose one of his prints for autumn) 

Standout

From Sharkster

October

From Justin Waldinger

Snow Day

From labokoff

Eblouie 2

I’d give this recipe 3 out of 5 wooden spoons, since the time needed to prepare it isn’t necessarily worth the finished product. If I’m still left with a table overflowing with winter squash in a few weeks, I’d consider it again, though. Click through for the full rundown.

The time issue is the major hurdle. This is definitely not a weeknight meal since the squash is baked twice and the cooking must be done in between. The recipe calls for 40 minutes to cook the squash first, but I found this to be a bit long for the delicata. It’s not a very thick variety, but a different variety may need the full time. When I took the pieces out of the oven the edges were singed, although it turned out to add a really nice, full flavor to the finished product. 

Baked Delicata Squash

The most difficult part of this recipe was removing the skin from the halved squash. The flesh was far too soft to cut away, and my first attempts left a big pile of mush on my cutting board, with the skin coming apart in pieces and getting mixed in. This was partly because my squash was slightly overcooked, and partly because the variety has a thin skin to begin with. In the end, the best method I found was to slice the halves in half again lengthwise, then gently roll back the skin from the newly exposed long side. The side of the peel that was exposed in the oven was singed to the flesh, so I had to carefully cut that away.

Once I removed the flesh and cut it into rough chunks, the rest of the prep was easy. My squash was already so tender that it didn’t take much to mash it, which I think is a good reason to err on the side of baking too long. The recipe says you can have pureed or finely diced squash in the mixture, but by mashing it I kept the stringy texture in tact while still smoothly incorporating the other ingredients. 

Because I was a bit worried about overcooking the final dish, I took it out of the oven on the early side. Still, the recipe amounts were right on to give it a nice texture and balanced flavor. The final dish was tasty, but not substantial enough for a main course. Thin slices would work well as an appetizer or a side dish, and with smaller portions I would even consider upping the amount of parmesan on top to make it richer.

After the jump, details on updating a Mac screensaver and desktop with Flickr, iGoogle and Gmail themes, and other ways to winterize your tech.

On a Mac, it’s really simple to change the desktop and screensaver from the System Preferences. I searched for photos on Flickr with tags like “winter” and “snow.” Doing an advanced search for shots licensed under Creative Commons produces results that let you download the full size. Then, I created a desktop folder for the images and selected that folder as my background. I love that Macs have the option of cycling through the contents of the folder, so every time I open up the lid I see something new.

In addition to doing a simple search on Flickr, the Multicolr Search Lab returns surprisingly accurate results for searches by color. You can also combine up to ten colors to find unique combination matches. This a great tool for finding seasonal colors that aren’t so literal. 

My online world is easy to change around, too. iGoogle, Twitter, and Gmail of course have themes. Some of them even change with your local weather and time of day.  And, of course, WordPress lets you upload a custom header image and crop it to the appropriate size. I use either my own photos or Creative Commons ones I find on Flickr. 

Finally, why not change up the appearance of other gadgets with skins or cases? Not only can it help protect expensive toys, it also makes you feel like you just got something new. GeekSugar is a great source for fashionable tech accessories, skins, and cases.

Because I haven’t decided on anything except for the bed, I’ll start with that. I’m on the lookout for a white bedspread or duvet cover, preferably with a bit of texture. Possibly CB2’s glacier bed linens:

Glacier Bedding

Or Martha Stewart’s eyelet collection:

Eyelet

Then I can accent it throughout the year with throw pillows, something like this, or this, or this, or this (all from etsy). Throw pillow covers are so easy I might hit up my local fabric store and make my own pattern, too. 

I’ll keep updating the blog with finds and progress on the room.

Yuzu

The winter solstice is officially tomorrow, but a lot of the stories and festivals run roughly from Dec. 20 to Dec. 23 when the sun appears to rise in the same position every day, rather than move slightly north or south. The solstice marks the shortest days of the year. While we in the U.S. don’t have many “official” solstice traditions, we tend to mix old and new traditions into the season:

Seattle has an annual Winter Solstice Fire Festival with fire and dance performances that looks awesome. 

In Tokyo, people celebrate by bathing with yuzu, a small citrus fruit. 

At Stonehenge, when the sun is the brightest, it shines through a passageway and illuminates an engraving on the wall called the Triple Spiral, drawn to celebrate the arrival of the sun. Great party if you’re a druid. 

According to Norse tradition, the summer god is killed by an arrow made of mistletoe. Loki, the god of evil, made an arrow out of mistletoe and gave it to Hoder, the god of winter. It was he who killed Balder, the sun god. Frigga, Balder’s, mother restored him and cried tears of joy that turned into berries on the mistletoe branch. She was so happy she kissed everyone who passed under the tree.

For my part, I’m just excited that for the next six months we get to enjoy a bit more sunlight every day.