Guests in our Home

Guests: Invited and Wanted

This does not mean that guests are wanted as in a search warrant is out for their arrest. Instead, there is a way to show guests they are welcome, because we are enjoying their visit as well. It takes organization, smart thinking about how to entertain, and being at ease ourselves.

Invitation to our Homes

Such a long time now since we have posted to the blog, time does go by so fast, but we can report we have been practicing living well, with friends in our home, and dinner parties, future dinners that were auctioned for a fine educational charity on the Big Island through the creativity and generosity of the Ohana Foundation established by the residents of Hualalai for the benefit of employees, their families, and other service providers at the resort.

So on the way home from this last fundraising event, in which two groups bid and won a dinner for eight at our Waimea White House, each bidding over $4,000.00 then we asked ourselves, what do you serve for a four thousand dollar dinner? We have the menu already planned, will tell you about it when the events take place (don't want to spoil the surprise), but it will be such fun to have eight people around our teak kitchen table, enjoying fresh produce and delicious food, all with laughter and goodwill.

The last two ingredients are definitely part of any menu. It all depends on how well planned the hosts can be, how uncomplicated but delicious the food, and the guest list. These may not be the typical aspects of a cookbook, but that's a secret we are sharing with you. Be relaxed and prepared and guests will enjoy the experience with fond memories and so will you.

Weddings as Wonderful Events

We also over the last lengthy interval since the last posting have had a wedding at Waimea White House, as well as the reception dinner. The celebration event was for wonderful friends, here from France and so their families and close friends came from Europe.

I performed the wedding, yes, I have that license, and we also gave the dinner as a gift. It was well organized, I can report, with anti-pasta styled appetizers already prepared and ready to serve on large platters, with grilled vegetables, including red peppers, marinated artichokes, hummus, and crostini (prepared from thin slices of french bread, dried in the oven at a low temperature, then stored in an airtight container and in the case of Hawaii with a higher humidity, in the refrigerator until needed).

The main course was a pork ragu, prepared over the week before, then frozen, defrosted the day before the wedding, and heated on the stove top in cast iron dutch oven pots. We also served quartered potatoes cooked and browned in the oven with rosemary twigs from the garden, plus asparagus.

This was blanched quickly in salted boiling water, then drained, shocked in ice cubes for a few minutes, drained, and cut into two inch pieces. Put into a container these were kept cold into the refrigerator, then quickly sauteed in a pan with butter, as guests enjoyed the appetizers.

There was a simple cheese course, and then the desert was frozen small cream puffs ( yes, from Costco), still partially frozen with warm homemade raspberry sauce (made ahead and frozen then defrosted and warmed) and chocolate sauce, also warm.

The wedding and dinner for approximately twenty people, was nicely organized --there was no way to perform the ceremony and at the same time be in the kitchen cooking! Everyone had a lovely time, and we all felt like guests at a wonderful wedding.

Go Away World

I recently read an advertisement for a gated community in Hawaii of residential lots and homes that used this phrase "Go Away World." I suspect the advertisement was trying to reach and appeal to people who want privacy and to be left alone, so suggesting as a solution to buy a lot in a gate guarded community. To each his own, of course, but there are ways to both have guests, including wedding guests, as well as treat ourselves as guests. There's a secret to that as well, and it doesn't require a lock and key on the front entry gate.

Treat Yourself as a Guest

Even in our own homes, we can find ways to treat ourselves as guests, from planning time to just relax, not do chores, have a plate of fresh fruit and cheese in the refrigerator ready to enjoy, all that kind of thing.

Of course for many of us, there are always chores or paperwork to do that keep us from relaxing at home, even if we have outside or live-in help. Personally, I feel like an international housekeeper sometimes, since as we travel from location to location to meet with clients, I also get my indoor aerobic exercise from cleaning and outside from gardening. No, I don't travel with a "swiffer" in my brief case, but there are lots of opportunity to clean.

Clean is good, so is uncluttered since when our homes, including our private spaces such as dressers and bathroom cabinets, are clean and presentable, its also more relaxing and enjoyable to read a book, enjoy simple delicious food, lounge on a sofa with conversation with others , and enjoy the garden.

Get Away Weekend at Home

For so long, the get away weekend was a way to leave the endless list of chores and half completed tasks behind, at least out of sight for a few days. Now with travel more expensive, cumbersome, and delayed, the secret is to find ways to relax at home and to stay longer at a second residence. For the latter, it means for our clients that there are fully functional resort homes, with good chairs and sofas for comfortable sitting, good lighting for reading, beautiful interiors that are on a parallel with the main house, all of these kinds of thing.

To relax at home is perhaps something new for many people, but with a well kept home, good interiors, comfortable furniture (Its amazing how many clients have never experienced a wonderful sofa that is supportive but also comfortable; we have used the same manufacturer for these kinds of sofas and chairs for nearly thirty years.)

With a comfortable and attractive home, you can enjoy inviting friends over for lunch, to play croquet, have a sing-a-long, afternoon tea, brunch, and a stroll through the neighborhood park.

All of these can be wonderful ways to treat others and ourselves as guests.

Then again to be a guest in your own home, without company, can be delightful too. The idea and secrets shared are to enjoy your life, treat others as guests in your home, and treat yourself the same way, as a guest who is welcomed, treated well, enjoys the beauty of the personal surrounds, and is refreshed by it all.

Be your own guest at home, welcome others the same way too. That will add to your life as it does to ours.

A New Year in Waimea

Sun with Liquid Sunshine
The days are cooler, especially at night, in Waimea where we have the seasonal rain (liquid sunrise) so that an evening meal of soup is often appealing. I made a good chicken stock from a rotisserie chicken, after slicing the breast for a luncheon salad.

• Simply put the bones in a deep pot with cold water to cover,


• add some celery (I often use the leafy top of the ribs (we often call them stocks) along with carrots, roughly chopped, along with a bay leaf or two.


• Bring the pot over medium heat to a simmer and turn the heat down to low. After several hours, the stock will be a nice golden color.


• Let it cool, refrigerate overnight, spoon off the fat that has hardened on the surface.

With this stock, there are so many good soups. Vegetable soup is one: saute chopped onions, carrots, and celery ( a traditional french mixture called mire poix) along with fresh parsley if you have it, which is one of the nice things to grow in garden pots. When the onions are translucent, cool the mixture, add some of the chicken stock and puree with a hand held wand or in a blender or food processor. Add more chicken stock, reheat, turn off the heat for a few minutes, add seasoning, including a few drops of fresh lemon juice.

Other soups and even cooking pasta in the stock are variations. Yes, cooler days even on the Kohala Coast lend themselves to relaxing evenings enjoying the sunset and with nourishing meals. Include a spinach salad, a chilled white wine, french bread, and a fruit dessert with a few drops of a liquor, and you can easily prepare a dinner for friends or treat yourself.

A Balancing Act: Soup to Furniture to Spirit
Whether its soup to finish a day with a larger lunch or many other aspects of our lives, a balance is a delightful way to live. In furnishings, its interesting, because editing and creating harmony produces a wonderful room and home for us all. We have reorganized client's homes on occassion, moving accessories and furniture from one room to another, eliminating some items too. In a luxury model home, we were asked to finish what another designer had done and the results were very pleasing by using editing, balance, and rearranging.

On a personal level, socializing with friends but also going for a walk alone or with a companion in shared silence creates a balance in life, as does exercise and relaxing.

Food, both the simple and elaborate, is another example. Our lives are filled with these balances and there are opportunities everyday to practice this secret of good living and a life of goodwill and thoughtfulness.

Recuperating

Self-Care
It may not be so fashionable to mention having a cold virus, but indeed that was my unexpected, and of course unwanted, present for Christmas. Certainly we all have times of being under the weather, and it was my turn.
So it is chicken soup, good rest, and as I have gotten somewhat better, short walks. But it is remaining on a schedule of going to bed on time, drinking lots of liquids, and reading that gets me through. I will admit, readily, that I am not over this one, even after three weeks and visits to several doctors along the way, as we traveled during December and now January.
Tranquility and Peacefulness
Now how does an interior designer rest? Of course by reading design magazines and books, mostly we enjoy Southern Accents and Canadian House and Home, these days.
Also I enjoy simple meditation, by relaxing and thinking calm thoughts and gentle breathing. Its not mysterious or culturally based, but just follows the principles of relaxation.
Wishes
Comfortable surroundings are appreciated on an everyday basis and yes even when we are recuperating. I like our Honolulu apartment with its harmony of golden marble floors, walls a bit deeper, chaises in a nice chenille, and four lovely paintings we have collected.
Wishing you good health and goodwill to share in the New Year, this year 2008.