A Trip To The Far East

Taken as I browsed a local flea market

I have always been a great lover of Europe. As our designs show, a great deal of the inspiration for Rosanna product comes from Italy, Britain, and France. However, for everything I know about the artistic and cultural eras in Western cultures, I know just as little about countries and cultures in the East. I never imagined I’d find inspiration from China, must less travel there. But when business took us to Guangzhou, we decided to make a family vacation out of it and use the opportunity to explore China.


I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed learning about the design history and intricate craftsmanship that distinguishes the arts in China. It was amazing to see firsthand the production of porcelain, jade, and silk, to name a few Chinese innovations that Westerners have enjoyed, admired, and employed for centuries.


The Chinese people, culture, landmarks, and history inspired me greatly. They broadened my worldview and provided me with a host of fresh ideas for new Rosanna products. Our trip to China extended my appreciation for the fine arts beyond the West in surprising and gratifying ways.


Here are some photos from our trip, including shots of the Great Wall and from one of my favorite flea markets we visited. When you look through these photos, even though I’m only an amateur photographer, I think it will be easy to see why I was so struck by this extraordinary culture.
 

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Living In The Seasons--Spring

For centuries people lived in the seasons.  Their diets were determined by their geographic location, the temperature, weather, and the food they had access to.  Nowadays we are able to shop in grocery stores where most fresh fruits and vegetables are available year-round.  However, as we learn to eat fruits and veggies in their seasons, the tastes are so much more vivid, alive, and delicious.  Every spring I look forward to the fresh crop of artichokes that hits the local farmers markets.  The artichoke is an unusual vegetable, and some may find its spiny appearance intimidating, but it's so easy to prepare and so rewarding--especially when you get to the toothsome, flavorful heart--that it will likely become a regular feature of your spring menus as well.  A special bonus that the artichoke offers is healthfulness:  One large artichoke has only 25 calories, no fat, and 170 milligrams of potassiums, and is an excellent source of vitamin C.  Artichokes also contain folate, magnesium, and lots of dietary fiber.  Try this delicious and healthy recipe from my book, Coming Home: A Seasonal Guide to Creating Family Traditions.

Spring Artichokes With Lemon Butter (serves 4)

4 large California globe artichokes

Juice of 2 lemons

1 clove garlic, smashed, plus 2 cloves minced

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) good quality-salted butter

ARTICHOKES

Wash the artichokes under cold water.
Cut off the stems at the base and remove any small leaves.
Fill a large pot with 2 to 3 inches of water.
Add half of the lemon juice and the 1 smashed garlic clove.
Bring to a boil.
Place the artichokes upright in the pot.
Cover and cook at a low boil for 35 to 45 minutes, until the artichoke's base can be pierced with a fork or you can easily pull off a leaf.
Drain the artichokes upside down.

LEMON BUTTER DIPPING SAUCE

In a small saucepan, heat the butter, minced garlic, and the remaining lemon juice.
When the butter is melted, pour it into individual ramekins.
Serve the artichokes with the lemon butter as a dipping sauce.

Tell your guests to pull one leaf at a time from the artichoke and dip it in the sauce, then scrape the leaf with their teeth to pull off the tender inner flesh of the artichoke.  After the large outer leaves are all eaten, paper-thin leaves remain.  These can be pulled out in sections and eaten, but the best part of an artichoke is the heart.  After you've eaten all of the leaves, remove the hairy choke with a tablespoon until you reach the heart.  Dip the heart in the butter sauce, and enjoy!

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The Arts

The poet Gary Snyder defined my first passion—art—as “an assimilator of unfelt experience, sensation, and memory for the whole society.”  The arts are a crucial part of any well-rounded education. They connect us with our human past, present, and future.

Encounters with the arts of any kind give me immense satisfaction. The most fulfilling work I’ve done for Rosanna Inc. has involved designing projects for arts organizations, including the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and Metropolitan Museum of Art and Met Opera in New York.

These projects require me to draw on material I learned as a student, but also to research genres about which I know only a little. Since we began working with the Met, my knowledge of opera has grown incredibly. Through our work with the Met Museum, I’ve developed an appreciation for art from the ancient Chinese Qing Dynasty, a delightful surprise.

Because the products we’ve designed specially for these arts institutions don’t appear on the Rosanna Inc. website, I’m providing links here to share this work with you.


The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Qing Famille Rose Teapot
Qing Famille Rose Dessert Plates
Qing Famille Rose Mugs

The Met Opera
Evening at the Opera Plates
Carmen Mug
Rigoletto Libretto Mug
La Traviata Paperweight
Limited Edition Muse Collector's Plate

The Muse Collector’s Plate has also been featured in Gotham Magazine, below.

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Helping Japan

Rosanna Inc. is proud to announce that for the month of April, we will be donating a portion of all proceeds to relief efforts in Japan. Our office is also participating in our neighborhood donation drive to send non-contaminated, non-perishable food items to victims of the tsunami.


Many of us are still feeling the effects of the recession, and don’t have much extra income to spare. But even in lean times, it's still possible to give. Non-perishable food items from the pantry were the first items to go from my home as contributions to the airlifts for the tsunami victims. Soaps and bath products collected from hotel bathrooms, extra bedding, unused clothing, and toys your children have outgrown are other options that you may find lying around the less frequented corners of your house. To determine what would make an appropriate and helpful donation, try to imagine what you would want or miss if you were in this same situation.

Across the country, organizations are orchestrating airlifts for Japan. Google your local charities and see what’s available, drop off what you don’t need to help those who so desperately do need our help.

Get creative with your giving; for people who have lost everything, anything helps.

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Improvising

Quiche is a culinary treat. It’s one of my favorite dishes for a few reasons, but namely because it’s so easy to improvise. Recently, we arrived home from a trip late and hungry. No one felt like going to the grocery store, so I looked in the fridge to see what I had: eggs, butter, cheese, and some assorted vegetables. What to make? Quiche!

Another reason I enjoy quiche so much is because of the way the textures and flavors combine to create a complex flavor profiles. A quiche custard done right is light and delicate. The vegetables and cheeses stud the egg with delicious pockets of flavor, and a crisp, buttery crust rounds out the dish. A crust that melts in your mouth provides the perfect complement to a light custardy, cheese filling. A true quiche isn’t far from ambrosia.

This is a perfect time of year to make quiche, as the first spring vegetables come into season. Quiche is a dish easily adapted to seasonal offerings. Quiche is a good way to take advantage of ramps, peas, asparagus, and artichoke. Mix and match the vegetables, cheeses, and seasonings for a selection of diverse outcomes. Here’s my basic recipe to get you started: 

Rosanna’s Mediterranean Quiche

INGREDIENTS

Pie Crust

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1 1/4 Sticks Organic Salted Butter

3 Tablespoons Crisco or other vegetable shortening

1/4 Cup Ice Water

1/2 Teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

Vegetables

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking

1 bunch loosely chopped asparagus (preferably thin)

1 bunch green onion, greens and whites loosely chopped

2 cups fresh peas

3 Cloves of Garlic, chopped finely

Custard

6 Eggs

3 Cups of 1% Milk

1 Teaspoon salt

1 Cup grated Reggiano Parmiggiano Cheese

8 Small Fresh Mozzarella Balls, cut in fourths

DIRECTIONS

Vegetables

1.     Heat olive oil in medium sauce pan, add garlic and stir briefly

2.     Add chopped vegetables and sauté at medium-high heat until wilted and soft

3.     Remove from the heat and set aside.

Crust

1. Cut the butter into 2-inch pats and set aside.

2. Prepare ice water and set aside

3. Combine flour and salt in the food processor, mix in the butter pats and shortening.

4. Process the mixture until the flour, butter, and shortening are totally incorporated- the mixture will look like coarse sand.

5. Add ice water slowly. Process in the pulse mode until the dough forms a rough ball.

6. Place the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Custard

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add in the milk, salt, grated parmesan, and mozzarella, and whisk together with a fork.

3. Remove the vegetables from the refrigerator (make sure that they’ve cooled down to room temperature), and add to the egg mixture.

4. Mix with a fork and place mixture back in the refrigerator.

Quiche Assembly

1. Remove dough from refrigerator.

2. Spread a pastry cloth over a large, flat surface.

3. Fit a stocking on your rolling pin.

4. Scatter flour on the pastry cloth and rolling pin.

5. Coat the dough with a light dusting of flour.

6. Flatten dough with your hand and slowly begin rolling out in a firm even manner. (Don’t over handle the dough or add too much flour as it will become tough and not flaky).

7. Once the dough is rolled out, slip a pie pan under the dough and gently transfer to the pan.

Leave at least three inches of extra dough all around the edge. Cut off excess.

8. Remove the egg mixture from the refrigerator and pour into the shell.  

9. Gently crimp the extra dough around the edges of the quiche with your thump and forefinger into fluted edges.

10. Cook quiche at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes. The quiche is done when the custard has risen and solidified, and when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

11. Let the quiche rest on a wired baking rack for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

Enjoy!

*Photo by John Granen courtesy of Coming Home: A Seasonal Guide to Creating Traditions. Published by Abrams: Stewart, Tabori & Chang

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Sisterhood

This past President's Day Weekend, my husband and I got a taste of what it's like to be Empty Nester's. On Friday we put Francesca, our youngest daughter, on a plane to Berkeley, CA to spend a few days with her older sister, Alessandra.
At first, I was nervous about Francesca's trip. She's my baby! But, when she arrived back home that Monday night, emitting an astonishing and unmistakable new aura of confidence, I forgot about my concerns. I knew that agreeing to the trip had been the right choice.
I realize now that encouraging your children to spend an extended period of time together on their own can be one of the most powerful ways to perpetuate close bonds between siblings. Something magical and crucial to closeness happens when siblings hang out without their parents around, at least that's what my older daughter tells me.
For my girls, who are eight years apart, this year couldn't have been a better time for this trip to happen. Francesca, who's 14, and Alessandra, who's 22, are finally starting to relate to each other as peers; their age gap is finally starting to close.
For a younger sibling at the seminal point of transition into life as a young adult, spending time with an older sibling can be an especially profound and impactful experience. I didn't realize it until after Francesca's trip, but an older sibling can be an incredible resource in raising younger children. Here is another person who can provide perspective, introduce new worldviews and get your younger children to start thinking about the life stages that lie a little further down the road. As an added bonus, because younger siblings generally regard older siblings as the most gloriously cool humans to ever walk the earth, they're much more likely to incorporate the values we hope to teach them when those values are modeled by their big brothers and sisters.
We all know that it takes a village to raise a child. But as you search out role models and mentors who will help your children grow into their full potential, don't look too far; they may be right under your nose. They may even call you "mom."
 

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Music

Music is a primal pursuit. In the bustle of activity, it can slip easily out of our days and we forget the power it holds. Making the effort to keep music in your life is worth it because music is vital. As we open our ears, we also open our eyes. Music creates new awareness of the world in which we live.

In my book Coming Home, I talk about the crucial role of music, and dance, to building an enlivened existence:

"Music and dance can temper any mood, elevate the spirit and release a rush of endorphins. The sense of well-being that comes from dancing is a priceless gift that we experience far too infrequently. Music and dance release tension, allowing our souls to become free."

Today I want to talk about the music that, the first time I experienced it, touched me deeply and now enriches my life on a regular basis.

Five years ago, a friend brought me to the opera. We saw La Boheme by the composer Giacomo Puccini. Experiencing this tragic story through arias that trembled, glimmered and thundered with emotion changed my life in more ways than one.

Opera has a rich legacy with influences, contributors and innovations from all over the world. It is a medium that spans a wide swath of eras and finds inspiration in some of the most unlikely places. Attending operas has given me a blossoming awareness of its many traditions in opera. And the more I learned, the more the music opened me to the spiraling complexity of this beautiful art form.

About a year after I saw my first opera, I began designing products for the Metropolitan Opera. This ongoing project has been immensely fulfilling and vastly educational. It has allowed me to delve deeper into the music, and, in so doing, feel more alive.

Music of all kinds frees our souls. Different sounds speak to different people. Opera may not be the music that touches your soul, but there is music out there that will call to you, wake you and transport you to new places. All you have to do is find it and listen.

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*Coming Home: A Seasonal Guide to Creating Family Traditions, Published by Abrams: Stewart, Tabori & Chang