Author Archives: HomeandTable

Tastes Like Home

HOME COOKING

We’re heading into hibernation with big appetites and familiar cravings.

Recipes and photography by Yelena Strokin

The return to cool days and cold nights sparks a hunger that almost feels insatiable. Overnight, we find ourselves craving the kind of hearty meals that are going to anchor us to the dinner table for a couple hours at a time and leave us not just full but warmed, too. Once the holidays pass, it won’t be long before we’ll start to feel boxed in by root veggies. But, for now, the scent of roasting meats and baking desserts smells like the start of a cozy new existence.

img_4805Rosemary Roast Leg of Lamb
Serves six to eight.

5 lbs. leg of lamb, bone removed, untied
3 tbsps. vegetable oil
1 cup dry white wine
6-7 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsps. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 onion, peeled and minced
5-6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 turnips, peeled and quartered
3 tsps. salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

• Place the lamb in a glass baking dish.

• In a bowl, mix together the vegetable oil, wine, garlic, rosemary, onion, salt and pepper, then pour it over the lamb. Move the lamb to the refrigerator to marinate for anywhere from three hours to overnight (the longer the better), turning it occasionally.

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

• Move the lamb to a rack in a roasting pan and add half of the marinade. Roast it for about two hours, or until the lamb becomes tender. An hour in, add the potatoes and the turnips, along with the remaining marinade. Baste the lamb frequently.

• Place the lamb and the veggies on a hot serving platter and let them stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Baked Acorn Squash with Chestnuts, Mushrooms and Quinoa
Serves four.

3-4 acorn squash (about 1 pound each), halved lengthwise and deseeded
6 tbsps. extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of cinnamon
½ tsp. paprika
5 ozs. chestnuts, roasted, peeled and chopped
1½ cups cooked quinoa
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 cups assorted mushrooms, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
Bleu cheese
Fresh sage
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• In a small bowl, mix together three tablespoons of the olive oil with the cinnamon, paprika and salt and pepper. Brush the cut sides of the squash with the mixture. Then place the squash, cut side down, on two baking sheets and roast until they begin to tenderize, about 25 minutes.

• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining olive oil over a medium heat. Then add the onion, carrot and mushrooms. Stirring occasionally, cook until softened, about five to eight minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

• Turn the squash cut side up. Spoon the onions, carrots and mushrooms into the cavities, top with a few crumbles of bleu cheese, then return the squash to the oven until the stuffing turns golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

• Transfer to plates, garnish with sage and serve hot.

Apple-Almond Tart with Baked Apple Chips

A couple of notes: Don’t add sugar to the apples. It’ll draw all of the liquid out of them. There will be plenty of sweetness in the pastry. And, if the tart seems too full after adding the apple slices, it’s OK; they’ll shrink as they bake.

For the pastry
1½ cups plain all-purpose flour
6 tbsps. unsalted butter, diced (and kept cold)
¼ cup ground almonds
2 tbsps. superfine sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. cold water
¼ tsp. almond extract

For the topping and filling
1 cup plain all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. mixed spice
¼ cup (4 tbsps.) unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup raw sugar
¼ cup sliced almonds
1½ lbs. cooking apples
3 tbsps. raisins
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

For the chips
1-2 apples
Cinnamon

The apple chips

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

• Cut the apples into eighth-inch-thick slices with a mandolin. Then, arrange the slices in a single layer across a parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly.

• Bake in the bottom third of the oven until the apples are dry and crisp, about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Then, let them cool completely.

The pastry and the topping

• Add the flour to a food processor or a mixing bowl, fold in the butter and mix until it takes on the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Then, stir in the almonds and sugar. Separately, whisk the yolk with the water and almond extract, then add it to the food processor/mixing bowl. The dough should now be soft and pliable. Knead it until becomes smooth, then wrap it in clear film and leave it in a cool place for 20 minutes.

• In the meantime, make the topping. In a large bowl, sift the flour and the mixed spice. Knead in the butter, then stir in the sugar and almond slices.

• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured counter. Then, line a quiche dish with it, taking care to press it into the nooks and form a lip over the top edge. Use a rolling pin to trim off the excess. Then, stick it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

• Put a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 375 degrees.

• Peel, core and thinly slice the cooking apples. Then arrange them in the quiche dish, overlapping, in concentric circles, doming in the center. Top with the raisins, then, with light pressure, the topping mixture.

• Place the quiche dish on the hot baking sheet and bake until the top of the tart turns golden brown and the apples, tender, about 30 minutes. (Test them with a fine-gauge skewer.)

• Let the tart stand for 10 minutes. Dust with the confectioner’s sugar and serve warm.

Yelena Strokin is a Newtown-based food stylist and photographer and the founder of the blog Cooking Melangery

[divider]What I’m Drinking Right Now[/divider]

Brandywine Branch Distillers The Revivalist Botanical Gin

$41.75 to $50.95 (750ml)

I’m a brown-spirits guy. But this summer, I began exploring the suddenly-evolving world of gin. Gone are the days when the juniper-heavy London dry style was about the extent of your options. Now, they come in so many unique varieties, it hardly seems right to refer to them all simply as gin. Among the most intriguing is this series of four, small-batch, seasonal gins being made right in our own backyard, at Brandywine Branch Distillers in Chester County. Each kind is infused with its own unique blend of botanicals and spices that plays to the season. Harvest Expression, out now, bears the essence of orange and clove. Solstice Expression marries dried cherry, anise, orange peel and ginger. If you left the gin and tonic behind with your white jeans, it’s time to reconsider.

ADAM JUNKINS

Partner/Sommelier, Sovana Bistro, Kennett Square

Photo courtesy Brandywine Branch Distillers

The Democratization of Wine

That guy from “Shark Tank”—not Mark Cuban; the other one—is aiming to convert the non-wine-drinkers and the casual drinkers of the world one $20-bottle at a time. Or, rather, one case of $20-bottles at a time.

While Kevin O’Leary may be blunt to the point of offensive on TV—he didn’t earn the nickname Mr. Wonderful because he’s an especially gracious Canadian—he knows too well the cocktail of emotions raging within each budding entrepreneur who comes before him on “Shark Tank” after 33 years of his own experience.

When you consider that one startup goes under for every two that get off the ground, today’s innovators need to possess paradigm-shifting visions and wills of steel. Which is why pitching on “Shark Tank” is akin to going viral for wannabe celebrities. “Any product we put on the show increases its sales twentyfold,” O’Leary says. Thus, the hundreds of thousands of applications a year.

Long since established in his own right, O’Leary’s been devoting a good chunk of his seemingly infinite attention to a more personal endeavor as of late. O’Leary Fine Wines is aiming to put not-bad wine in the hands of the masses. O’Leary, the consummate entrepreneur, perceives it as a void in a lucrative market. To that end, he’ll be hosting a tasting of his cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay at the Philadelphia Taste Festival of Food, Wine and Spirits October 21.

“A decade ago, I asked myself why inexpensive wines have to be so bad,” O’Leary says. “I figured I could do a better job.”

He partnered with 20 vineyards in California’s Napa, Sonoma and Russian River regions to create his own line.

“This isn’t a story where some celebrity slaps his name on some swill,” he says. “I create these varietals with my own palate. And I challenge anyone to do a blind taste test with one of my wines and a $100- or $200-bottle. Very often, mine will be better.”

Thanks to loosening liquor laws, like the one recently enacted in Pennsylvania, O’Leary Fine Wines is now shipping directly to 40 states. Business is booming, basically. Though, do you expect a more modest report? Earlier this month, he debuted his latest vintages on QVC. In anticipation, O’Leary said, “We’ll move thousands of cases that day.” Excuse us, then, for assuming this was an introduction. —Sean Downey

Hauntings for the Timid

FIELD GUIDE

You like a good scare, but you’d prefer not to wet your pants. Follow us.

By Christine Olley

 

Halloween, like salsa, is an occasion that’s served at various intensities. Some of us may kick back with The Wizard of Oz and then call it a night. Black-and-white if we’re feeling brave (or buzzed), Technicolor if we’re alone and especially paranoid, with all those trick-or-treaters roaming around. Others may opt for a haunted hayride. Just enough of a fright to cause a spike or two of adrenaline, but never too threatening. And then there are those whose every action over the coming weeks suggests that Halloween is, in fact, the dawning of the end of times.

Our compilation of some of the coolest Halloween attractions now playing favors the mild-to-moderate side of the palate. We figured if you were seeking something hot, you weren’t going to refer to a magazine called Home + Table. Still, there are ample reasons to feel afraid. Just think more along the lines of goosebumps than night terrors.

 

Nassau Inn | Princeton, New Jersey

If you tend to weather your hauntings better on a full stomach, the Nassau Inn, which sits across from Princeton University, in charming Palmer Square, is offering private dinners for groups of 20 or more chased by a tour of the campus’s most notoriously haunted nooks. ($75 per person.) You’ll be armed with EMF meters, dousing rods and night-vision flashlights and fed lots of graphic stories for dessert.

 

The House in the Hollow | Newtown

If not for Halloween, we’d likely never realize that we’re surrounded by so many turn-of-the-century asylums and orphanages. And thanks to whichever reality TV-ghost hunter you favor, we’re all now well aware of the horrific treatment that played out within their walls. So what we have here at Malfate Manor, a.k.a. The House in the Hollow, is the perfect storm: Our own ridiculous preconceptions colliding, head-on, with lots of dark corners and costumed teenagers jumping out from them.

 

Waldorf Estate of Fear | Leighton

Imagine a haunted house where you and your friends are the attraction. That’s the idea behind Waldorf’s newest scene, the Zombie Escape Room. You’ll be offered refuge from the encroaching apocalypse and then given a half-hour to figure out the clues that’ll lead to the exit. Think “The Walking Dead,” but without the armfuls of guns. If there are enough of you—10 are admitted per turn—make a game of it. Slowest to exit buys dinner. Then align with your Type A friends.

 

Temple of Terror | Pottstown

The legend has it that Damon DeMonio returned home after fighting in the Civil War only to discover that his new wife was, um, nurturing an army of her own. He lost his head. The result was not pretty. Skip ahead 150 years: An actual freemasons lodge sits atop the plot where DeMonio’s home once stood. Strange things, reportedly, happen there, like freemasonry. Also: a three-story haunted house. But, really, freemasonry is plenty creepy enough.

 

Costume Dash 5K/10K | Philadelphia

When you’re moaning your way up a small hill, barely maintaining a walking pace, do you ever think, What could make this jog even better? A bulky, awkward-fitting costume? Yes! Then the Costume Dash is just the opportunity you’ve been looking for to further sabotage your fitness. And if that wasn’t already a weird enough site, there’s a pub crawl afterward. Nothing says, “You’re a man now,” to a 10-year-old like forcing him to witness Iron Man and his super friends stumble out of a bar in the middle of the afternoon.

 

PAFA After Dark | Philadelphia

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is hosting a “Stranger Things”-themed party (Will!) October 19, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., (free with museum admission; registration required) complete with pumpkin decorating (resistance is futile) and tarot card readings (find out when you’re going to die through a party game!). There’s also going to be ghost tours of the galleries, including one of Fernando Orellana’s ghost machines. It’s a site-specific installation where Orellana’s configured four robotic machines through which he’s attempting to interact with the ghost of Thomas Eakins.

 

Photos courtesy (from the top) Waldorf Estate of Fear; Nassau Inn; Waldorf Estate of Fear; Costume Dash

A Personal Connection, for a Change

BOOKS

Brandi Granett’s mastered the fickle art of nurturing grassroots support for her novels. With her latest, she’s taking a different tack: turning away from her computer and trying it in her backyard.

By Scott Edwards

 

It’s early 2000, and everything in Brandi Granett’s world is right. She’s fresh out of graduate school and her first book just dropped. The world is opening up before her. Until it abruptly flips upside down. Her publisher, William Morrow and Company, is bought by a larger publisher, HarperCollins, and overnight, everyone she works with is dismissed. Just that quickly, she’s alone and adrift.

“So, I didn’t want to do it again for a very long time. I walked away from it. I was saying, ‘I’ll just be a teacher,’ ” Granett says. “But then I started competitive archery on a lark.”

Her daughter was aiming to star in either the Olympics or a renaissance fair, so they scoped out a school in Lambertville, New Jersey, near their home, and the director confided in Granett, with a wink, “You know, women are better at this than men.” She was hooked from that moment. With writing and then publishing, everything Granett thought she knew deteriorated to nothing. But archery revealed itself to be surprisingly profound. The more she practiced, the further it grounded and focused her in the rest of her life, including the writing.

“There’s a coach that I admire, Jim White, out of Georgia,” she says. “And he teaches his people, relationships determine results.”

It became a kind of mantra for her as she gradually worked her way back to the thought of taking a run at writing another book. The rules are different now; the book’s only part of the pitch. “You’re expected now to have a platform,” Granett says. “If you go to a publisher and you have two Twitter followers and one of them is your dog, they don’t want to hear from you.”

So she joined a peer group called the Tall Poppy Writers, comprised of 45 women fiction writers from across the country. And she launched an author profile series for The Huffington Post, for which she’s a frequent contributor. The aim of both is one and the same: To establish a self-sustaining community. The authors, these days, who draw a marketing budget that’ll reach mainstream America could be listed in a single breath, and there’d be some air leftover. The rest are left, largely, to find their own ways. And as with all grassroots efforts today, that means social media networking. A well-placed Retweet is as valuable to these workingman writers as a New York Times endorsement.

When it came time to promote her latest novel, Triple Love Score, published last month by Wyatt-Mackenzie, Granett was inclined to make it a group affair, naturally. Over the last few months, she’s organized what’s become quite a massive book fair, for lack of a better term. In all, 45 mostly-Delaware Valley-based authors spanning a range of genres, including children and young adult, will present themselves and their books October 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Prallsville Mills, in Stockton, NJ, as part of the event Granett’s dubbed River Reads.

[divider]River Reads[/divider]

WHAT    A book fair featuring 45 mostly-local authors. Plus, crepes and a Unionville Vineyard tasting

WHEN    Sunday, Oct. 23, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE  Prallsville Mills, Stockton, NJ

 

“I didn’t want it to be about my book,” she says. “That sounds so—I don’t have this mysticism about, like, oh, I wrote a book, so I’m somebody special, because thousands of people, every day, hit publish on Amazon Createspace. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. But what means something is connecting people to readers and sharing books with other people.”

Some of the authors, Granett knows—a few Tall Poppies will be there—but the majority simply answered her public call. The total number of participants doesn’t even represent the true extent of the interest. It’s only where she was forced to cap them for lack of space to accommodate any more.

Spread across both floors of the mill’s main building, each writer will have his or her own display. And there will be brief readings performed every 15 minutes or so downstairs and up-, “like a little commercial blast of what they have to offer,” Granett says. Also, nearby Unionville Vineyards will be hosting a tasting and the Bonjour Creperie truck will be stationed outside.

A community, virtual and actual, is currency in modern writing. The larger the population, the more likely you are to publish another book. But it’s also become a support system for a profession that’s notoriously isolating and disorienting. For many aspiring and established writers alike, Granett included, the former is the icing, the latter, the cake. Granett expects River Reads, if nothing else, to reinforce the following: “I know that I’m not the only person that had an agent break up with her. I’m not the only person who’s struggling to find time with writing and being a mom.” And that, she says, “kind of keeps me invested in the process.”

Photos courtesy Wyatt-Mackenzie

The 2016 Home + Table Holiday Gift Guide

Our aim here is simply to inspire. Whether you lift these ideas for your vision board or your shopping list is entirely up to you. ‘Tis the season to be merry, after all. And, despite what we grimace and mutter through gritted teeth, it’s not the thought that makes us happy. It’s the stuff we crave. Like this stuff, as you’re about to discover. So if you’re buying for yourself, really, you’re just saving someone else the trouble. And if you’re shopping for those in your circle, we haven’t been properly introduced.

Styling by Courtney Greisman and Kristen Chase • Photography by Matthew J. Rhein

For Her


Erickson Beamon Smoking Jacket Earrings, $412,
ESTATE Boutique, estateboutique.myshopify.com

Erickson Beamon Kumbaya Earrings, $345, ESTATE Boutique

East Philly Industries custom watercolor portrait, $30 to $55, eastphilly.etsy.com

Debbie Martin Designs Paris Scarf, $98, Bucks County Dry Goods, bcdrygoods.com

Erickson Beamon Milky Way Bracelet, $467, ESTATE Boutique

Iosselliani brass chain bracelet, $267, ESTATE Boutique

Diane von Furstenberg clutch, $198, ESTATE Boutique

Nicole Miller Sunburst pleat skirt, $395, ESTATE Boutique

 

Smythe + Audgen I Know, Right sweater, $425, ESTATE Boutique

Erickson Beamon Electric Queens Earrings, $330, ESTATE Boutique

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Him

J.Lindeberg Wolverine Compact Melton Jacket, $650, J.Lindeberg Dani CL poplin shirt, $154, leather gloves, $160, VINCE. cashmere scarf, $195  All available at ESTATE Boutique, estateboutique.myshopify.com

Jo Bucket Weekender Canvas, $265, Bucks County Dry Goods, bcdrygoods.com

HEWN Spirits Shipmate Gold Rum, $29, hewnspirits.com; California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties (hardcover with Japanese matte art paper), $40, Bucks County Dry Goods; Vintage blankets, $115 (each), Bucks County Dry Goods; HEWN Spirits Dark Hollow Pennsylvania Bourbon Whiskey, $34, and HEWN Spirits Red Barn Rye Whiskey, $32, hewnspirits.com

AG The Protégé sueded stretch sateen pants, $178, ESTATE Boutique 34 Heritage Charisma twill pants, $175, ESTATE Boutique;

 

 

 

Gant Rugger Knit Cap, $35, ESTATE Boutique, estateboutique. myshopify.com

 

 

 

 

 


For Kids

Tegu magnetic wooden building system, $35 (14-piece set) to $110 (42-piece set) JaZams, jazams.com

Runspecht marble tower, $110,

My Marquee Light Box, $37

 

 

Gund Pusheen Plush, $25

Automoblox Mini 3-Pack, $35

Micro Kickboard Mini Deluxe Scooter, $89

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Pets

Martingale dog collar, $13, P & A Feed and Pet, pafeed.com

All-natural dog bone, $15.50 (per pound), and Pumpkin biscotti pet treats, $20 (one pound), Crossroads Bake Shop, crossroadsbakeshop.com

Top Paw dog dress, $21, PetSmart, petsmart.com; Paul Frank Signature Julius dog leash, $19, P & A Feed and Pet, Top Paw dog sweater, $24, PetSmart, petsmart.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Host

Honeycomb wine rack, $44, Bucks County Dry Goods, bcdrygoods.com

KOBO soy candle, $38, Bucks County Dry Goods

seda france L’Ambre Boudoir Boxed Candle, $32.50, ESTATE Boutique, estateboutique.myshopify.com

catstudio Philadelphia dish towel, $20, and glasses, $12 (each), Bucks County Dry Goods

Summer’s Parting Shots

LOCALLY SOURCED

A few of our favorite Instagram’d scenes from across Home + Table Country.

Braden Airpark, Easton: inordinate_ / instagram

Brandywine River; Peace Valley Park, Doylestown: brandywinevalley / instagram

Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square: brandywinevalley / instagram

marquand-park_zeniaraudya

Musikfest, Bethlehem: musikfest / instagram

Padilla Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Allentown: missylynntran / instagram

Tyler State Park, Newtown: chrissybutnotinsane / instagram

Marquand Park, Princeton, New Jersey: ffolkes / instagram

Tyler State Park, Newtown: gregory_allen_kear / instagram

West Chester Growers Market, West Chester: wcgrowersmrket / instagram

10 Minutes of Hell (Plus 60 Minutes of Restraint)

HEALTH + FITNESS

Burning through fat really is this simple. But don’t infer that simple means easy.

By Todd Soura

 

We live in an interesting time. A lot of the long-held conventional thinking about exercise and nutrition has been debunked in rapid succession over the last several years in favor of methods that are, for the most part, more conducive to our nonstop lifestyles. Never really able to make time for those 10K training runs? Good news. Turns out that 10 minutes of sprinting are more effective anyway.

A lot of what seemed radical at first glance, like the above, now feels closer to common sense. Yet, the onslaught of so-called revolutionary workouts and diets just keeps coming. Understand that it’s a business, first and foremost, and you’ll begin to see it for what it is: an attempt to profit off of misguided information.

To show you just how simple it can be, I’m going to outline a 10-minute workout that’s designed to boost your metabolic rate long after you finish, as well as a recovery plan for the hours immediately afterward. No gym’s required. Nor is a nutritionist. If you’re cramped for time, you can do the workout and leave it at that. But if you supplement your current regimen with it, save it for last. You’re not going to have anything left in the tank. For that reason, my clients have come to refer it as the “10 Minutes of Hell.”

 

10 Minutes of Hell

1 minute          Kettlebell swings
2 minutes         Step-ups
30 seconds      Mountain climbers
30 seconds      Push-ups
1 minute          Jump rope

 

Perform the circuit twice and without rest between the exercises or the rounds, unless you absolutely have to. Aim to do the maximum amount of repetitions you can within each timeframe. If you’re not thoroughly exhausted when you finish, try the advanced version next time:

1 minute          Kettlebell swings
45 seconds      Burpees
45 seconds      Mountain climbers
45 seconds      Clapping push-ups
1 minute          jumping lunges or box jumps

 

Once you pull yourself together, try not to head straight for the kitchen, unless you need to grab some more water. I know. The popular thinking is to eat within 20 to 30 minutes of finishing your workout. Your metabolism’s still raging, and anything you consume is more likely to be used as fuel rather than stored at fat. That’s all true. But it neglects the other half of that equation: You stop burning fat as soon as you eat.

In other words, you just ruined yourself for 10 minutes, and now you’re going to negate those gains in a single bite. What you should do instead is abstain for the next hour. Let your body eat into its fat stores while you go shower and prep your meal. Then, reward yourself with a palm-size portion of lean protein and all the veggies you can stomach. (Note: If you’re building muscle or trying to enhance your athletic performance, a different set of guidelines apply.)

 

Todd Soura is the owner of the Doylestown-based Action Personal Training. 

Life in the Cuckoo’s Nest

HOME DESIGN

Polished as her Northampton home may seem to her thousands of followers, Julia Konya’s life is in constant upheaval. And that’s just how she likes it.
By Sean Downey

 

Julia Konya isn’t comfortable in the spotlight. She’s never thought of herself as a writer, much less an Internet personality. Yet her face is front and center on the interior design blog, Cuckoo4Design, she created from scratch and relentlessly updates each day. The blog has become a source of inspiration for the tens of thousands who regularly return for the never-ending flow of whimsical design and clever decorating ideas. Check in once and you’ll soon be immersed in painted curtains, secretary desk makeovers and an endless stream of other intricate DIY projects.

But beyond all that, she’d prefer to be left to her own devices. “When I’m alone, I can be creative,” Konya says. “That’s pretty much how I’ve always been. As a child, I used to lock myself in my room and just color or do craft projects.”

Konya grew up in Germany, where she studied art and visual merchandising before moving to the United States at 21 for a marketing internship at an engineering firm based in Bethlehem. That’s where she met her husband, Jarrid Konya.

After the couple settled in Northampton to raise their two children and four cats, Julia continued working with her hands. And every time she would refinish a piece of furniture, remodel a bedroom or fashion new drapes, her friends would ask how she created such a distinct look. “So I decided to start a blog and put everything in there,” she says. “I figured it would let my family in Germany see what I was doing too.”

Her visual approach to blogging turned out to be perfect for Pinterest and Instagram, where she quickly developed a following of 28,000 strong.

“I had to get over my fear people might think I was saying something wrong,” Konya says. “But I’ve grown to love blogging because I get to do what I love and I make my own hours.”

For all her time and effort, the posts that prove the most popular seem to take on lives of their own, like the outdoor enclosure she built for their cats. “I built them an outdoor play area with tunnels that are connected along the fence to our living room window, but I was scared to write about it because I thought people would think I was completely nuts,” Konya says. “But that post has received the most traffic ever.” The project even caught the eye of modern cat magazine.

Design is temporary
Spend any time on Cuckoo4Design and it’s immediately apparent how much Konya looks at her home as a work of art. Graphic lines on the front porch and in the living room give way to geometric patterns in the bathrooms and bright accents in the kitchen. Every corner, every surface is fair game.

“I get an idea, I get an inspiration and I do it. And if I don’t like what I’ve done, I just redo it or take it down,” she says. “When I complete a project, I take pictures and write about it.”

She’s also adamant about not plotting her projects well in advance. That’s too structured for her liking. “I feel like the people who follow me like the spontaneity.”

Who’s afraid of a little heavy lifting?
Konya’s designs and her home life often bleed together as one, and she’s quick to point out that her house doesn’t always look as perfect as it does in the blog. Most of the time, actually, it’s a mess. “My family is used to the house being torn apart most of the time,” she says.

She also tackles the handyman work—“I’m a perfectionist, and I don’t like it when Jarrid helps.”
Her approach, she says, is always even-keeled, even in the face of the kind of trauma that usually sends a couple into a fiery rage. Case in point, earlier this year, the Konyas bought a new sectional for their basement. It wasn’t until they got it home that they realized it wasn’t going to fit down the stairs. After much deliberation, Julia took it upon herself to bring it down in pieces.

“When it came to cutting the sofa in half, I just figured I’d be able to put it back together again later,” she says.
She carefully stripped the upholstery, cut the feet off and then, impossibly, put it all back together downstairs.

Home is where the heart is
While Konya’s built her following around letting people into her home, she’s cautious about making her blog too personal. “But I realize that I have to keep things somewhat personal or else the readers don’t have anything to connect with,” she says.

A few years ago, Konya confided about her daughter’s sensory issues and candida overgrowth. The emotional posts conveyed a deeply personal and difficult struggle to help her daughter get through painful periods in her young life.

“I felt like it connected with a lot more people and helped them in some way because there are a lot of people going through the same thing,” Konya says.

For the most part, though, Konya’s posts are focused on her insatiable desire to make all the spaces in her home—“Half of my husband’s man cave is ripped apart right now”—as dynamic as she can. The attention’s flattering, but it’s by no means an affirmation. Interior design, for Konya, is about the means, not so much the end.

“I’m a big believer in going with the flow and not dreaming too big,” she says. “I want to stay focused on doing what I like to do. And if something happens, it happens.”

At least so far, it’s happening.

Photos (interiors) courtesy Cuckoo4Design / Julia Konya; (portrait) courtesy Cuckoo4Design / Jules & George Photography

Easing Into Fall, One Well-Placed Accessory at a Time

THE LIFE STYLIST

Some modest, seasonal tweaks to your interior design will work wonders on your perspective.

By David J. Witchell

 

Before you start scattering dead leaves around the house, there are other ways to go about introducing those fall colors.

Neutral hues have always formed the base layer around my home. I get bored with colors quickly, and the vanilla canvas allows me to overhaul the accessories from season to season. Honing in on a new part of the spectrum every few months has a way of refreshing all of the fixtures, not to mention my own spirit.

Still, it’s a bittersweet time of year. It’s invigorating to reintroduce fall’s shades, but it’s just as hard stowing away the summer stuff. Turquoise encourages communication and clarity, and indigo is the color of intuition. Blues, in general, tend to facilitate peace and grounded order, which makes them the ideal palette for the year’s most carefree, restorative months.

Fall, for me, looks like warm metals and hits of crimson, cayenne, rust and goldenrod. I may be especially partial to the season because orange is my favorite color. I’ve also come to learn that it represents optimism. Blending in reds helps me feel energetic and fuels my ambition and determination, a particularly productive cocktail of qualities. Yellow just makes me smile. I throw in some green or magenta for balance and harmony. And somewhere in my office, visible from my desk, I make sure there’s a splash of purple to spark my creativity.

Beneath it all are the browns, grays and whites, the ideal companions for my seasonal whims. It’s easy to look straight past them, but without them, there’d be no anchor, no context. Instead of flowing with the landscape on the other side of the windows, the accents would appear to be at war with the spaces around them. It all works and, just as importantly, it all transitions relatively effortlessly because there’s a consistent, objective platform upon which I can express some personality. Less discretion would back me into corners that I’d be stuck in for years at a time.

And those neutral colors have some personality of their own. Brown embodies warmth and bit of gravity. Gray represents compromise. Little wonder, then, that I’ve used it so liberally. And white connects us to innocence and a sense of fruition.

Interior design is not unlike how we go about dressing ourselves. If I was to go around draped in jewelry, a loud-patterned sweater, putting-green colored khakis and a pair of Christmas-red boots, what would that say about me? I know mixing patterns and colors is having a moment, but with that kind of wild abandon, it all turns into white noise. I love my home. And when I switch out a few well-placed variables, it reminds me why I love it, because those pieces manage to cast it in new light. And that’s all it needs most of the time. To constantly repaint walls and interchange furniture and art would only be masking that appeal.

 

David J. Witchell is the co-owner of David J. Witchell Salon & Span, in Newtown and Lahaska, and The Boutiques at 25 South, in Newtown.

Photos by David J. Witchell

How to Eat Your Way Through Festival Season

FIELD GUIDE

Beginning this weekend, you’re not going to be able to turn around without running into some kind of street fair. Which means more-than-ample opportunity for eating with your hands. But you need to be smart about it. You can only consume so many calories. Allow us to show you the way.

By Christine Olley

 

The old saying goes, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” but with the overloaded slate of festivals, and their smorgasbord-like food courts, on the horizon, it would be downright wrong to discriminate. Here, a rundown of the most appetizing gatherings across the region over the coming weeks.

Chester County’s playing host to two major food-centric festivals over the next month, the long-running Kennett Square Mushroom Festival this weekend and the biannual Phoenixville Food Festival October 1.

The former is a bit of everything—demos, cook-offs, eating (of course), even exhibits—packed into one nonstop weekend. Whether you go for an hour or set up camp, just don’t forget to buy mushrooms to go. They’ll be sold in front of the east and west gates and the growers’ exhibit. The latter is far more straightforward, though way more diverse: 30 trucks (and counting), covering every conceivable niche, from Caribbean-American soul food to Liege-style waffles.

Don’t be deceived by the name. Hit the Doylestown Arts Festival this weekend for the local art and the artisanal goods, but stay for the food. Two food courts will be crammed with the usual festival fare—sausages, fries and ice cream, oh, my—along with samplings from Doylestown’s textured restaurant scene and a bevy of food trucks. This may be the one street festival that doesn’t disappoint a vegetarian.

Yardley Harvest Day, the following Saturday, Sept. 17, is evolving into the ultimate collection of the region’s most promising small-batch foodstuff makers, from Bucks County Cookie Company and Carol’s Pizzelles to Gourmet Jelly and Jak Jeckel Pepper Sauce. There’ll be Brewscuits, too, for your four-legged best friend. You’ll owe him for panting patiently at your side throughout this shopping/tasting spree.

Peddler’s Village, in Lahaska, can always be counted on for some seasonal gorging. OctoberFEAST, October 15 and 16, delivers an onslaught of German specialties, including, most notably, bratwurst pork schnitzel and the ever-delectable Bavarian crème pie. A couple weekends later, on November 5 and 6, it’s Apple Festival, complete with a pie-eating contest, which’ll be divided by age, naturally. I mean, what satisfaction is there in out-eating an eight-year-old—again?

Not enough to eat local? You need to see where it comes from, too? Then plan to head to Bethlehem Sept. 17 for the Monocacy Farm Food Festival, where you’ll be able to munch on a smattering of stuff grown on the 10-acre organic farm as you tour the grounds. The Monocacy Farm Project, which the festival benefits, was established a few years ago. Under its umbrella resides a CSA, community gardens, all-ages educational programming and a community service garden dedicated to supporting low-income families, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t include the TASTE Philadelphia Festival of Food, Wine and Spirits October 21 through Oct. 23 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia, because, full disclosure, we’re a media sponsor. Every day’s loaded with celebrity chef demos, featuring the likes of Charles Oakley (yep, that Charles Oakley), Ashley Sherman (lead cook from “Hell’s Kitchen,” season 13) and Will Brown (a frequent enabler on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”). And they’re not even the headliners. That’d be Ayesha Curry, whose demo is Oct. 22, and Kevin O’Leary, who’ll be hosting a tasting of his wines Oct. 21.