The Dainty Dish

- Sutton

So I just wanted to take a moment to introduce POUND jewelry to you, dear readers. POUND jewelry is the love child of Linda, Becca, and Mia Kannapell, and myself. Together we have taken our unique skills as individuals and put them together to form this family-run jewelry business. So please excuse this shameless plug for a moment, because regardless of whether I was a part of this company or not, I’d still tell you about it, cause our stuff rocks, and so do you.

So without further ado, here is our story:

POUND jewelry manifested itself. Its seed was planted long ago, but like any object or deed worthy of awe, POUND took its time germinating and accumulating nutrients before it emerged. As it blossomed, its presence was not only visible, but also impossible to ignore. A mother, two daughters and a best friend began tending to its needs and have now intertwined their lives with POUND, continuing to nurture it and partake in its growth.

POUND is a unique, handcrafted jewelry line born from both vintage and new materials. We adorn women with pieces that illuminate them from within, magnetically attracting attention and inspiring awe. Each piece has been and will continue to be made from that place inside us that speaks as loudly as intuition, demanding recognition by all.

Through a multi-sensory, eclectic persona, POUND unites striking, bold colors with a wide range of unique, yet soothing textures and shapes. We incorporate beads, brass, chain, stones, pearls, bone, crystals, pyrite, glass, and rare found objects sourced from around the globe. As materials, sources, inspirations, and humans evolve so will POUND.

-Amber

P.S. If you want to stay up to date with new products, events, and sales, you can create an account or drop us a line to say hi!

1. Sanuye   2. Tzompantli   3. Coming Soon   4. Tlazopilli   5. Cualli

I love a kitchen with well placed vintage accents— bright or pastel colors on a white backdrop is my absolute favorite. I adore big farmhouse sinks with beautiful curtains hung above, even more perfect if there is a freshly made pie cooling in the window sill.

1. Retro Kitchen 2. Norwegian Kitchen 3. Cape Race 4. Little Round Table 5. Bright Yellow Kitchen

We don’t use paper towels at our house. I find them to be an unconscionable waste. I have drawers full of towels and rags to use for cleaning purposes. I also refuse to purchase paper napkins. I am not a messy eater, nor is Tripp (unless a Philly Cheese Steak is involved), and Hawke throws a fit whenever his hands get dirty while eating, so I just keep a damp towel at the table to regularly wipe his hands clean. However napkins are useful to have when guests join us for dinner. For the past three years, we have bought white cloth napkins in bulk, but recently I’ve become bored with them. One night a few weeks ago, I mentioned to the mister that I wanted to start back up our weekend estate sale habit, so I could pick up some vintage napkins to add a splash of color to our napkin collection. Well, Tripp is a bit Ebay obsessed, so he took to the site and unbeknownst to me, started bidding and winning auctions for vintage napkins and tablecloths (!!!) for me. It wasn’t until he started getting packages from all over the world (yes, world- the most recent one came from France) that I knew something was up. When this last one arrived, he finally showed me the collection he had. I am so excited to break these out the next time we have guests over for dinner. My camera is not currently charged, but here are some favs I found online. Thank you, Pinterest!

1. Vintage Sheet into Napkins DIY 2. Pretty green & blue set available on Etsy 3. Summer Napkin set

Another oh, so fab way to jazz up a plain table or the walls in your home is by collecting, displaying, and using vintage plates. I love the idea of hanging them on a plain white wall, possibly above the breakfast table. Estate sales and Etsy are two great places to find vintage plates (and most any vintage items you could be seeking). And they most certainly don’t have to match! A mismatched collection is even more fanciful than everything being matchy matchy.

1. Thrifted 2. Yellow Dishware 3. Fake Out Vintage 4. Mismatched Wedding Plates 5. Yellow & Blue Plates

- Sutton

I’m sure it’s the graphic designer in me, but regardless, I’m obsessed with band posters. I love the illustrations, color, typography, witty content, and of course that they promote my favorite bands. If my husband would let me, I’d have band posters framed all over the house.

There are so many amazing ones, it was really hard to pick just 4. When you have some time you should check out gigposters.com or insound.com and be amazed at all the great designs.

-Amber

1. The National   2. Youth Lagoon   3. Widespread Panic   4. My Morning Jacket

1. Electric Guest - This Head I Hold    (Los Angeles, CA)

2. Metronomy - The Look (Two Inch Punch Rework)    (London, England)

3. SOKO - First Love Never Die    (Los Angeles, CA)

4. Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks    (Reykjavik, Iceland)

5. Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings    (Los Angeles, CA)

6. SWIM DEEP - King City     (Birmingham, UK)

- BK

If you’ve never eaten a dish with some form of truffles, your taste buds are sorely missing out, poor things.  Truffles are rare, edible mushrooms that are considered a delicacy in most parts of the world.  Tasting like pungent garlic and earthy mushrooms had a love baby, they add a level of flavor like nothing else I have ever had the pleasure of eating.  Usually they are shaved, uncooked, into pastas, salads, light sauces, or even on pizzas.  One of the most expensive natural foods in the world, they sell anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars per pound.  Ridiculous, you say?  Well, never fear, as a foodie addicted to the rich taste only truffles can impart, I have found the perfect solution.  One day my super foodie roommate and her French/American boyfriend came home with a little jar of heaven… truffle salt.  Weighing in at only a fraction of the cost of whole truffles, this delectable concoction runs anywhere from 20 to 30 bucks for a few ounces, with white truffle salt being more robust and expensive and black truffle salt a bit milder in flavor and lower in price.  You don’t need much to add an earthy deliciousness to your next gourmet creation.  Unfortunately as I write this, I am on a strict diet for my upcoming beach vacation or I would certainly whip up a heavenly dinner and take pictures for all of you to salivate over.  But, I’ll do the next best thing….

Buy this:

http://www.deandeluca.com/herbs-and-spices/salt-pepper/truffle-salt.aspx

Make this:

Your favorite risotto or pasta, french fries or oven roasted potatoes, scrambled eggs or an omelet, popcorn.  Sprinkle that love in a jar on top.  Enjoy.  You and your taste buds can thank me later!

Bon appetit!

-Kelly

I tried out the first recipe from the book I received for Christmas “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” and it was a massive success! I started out with the Butternut Squash Grilled Cheese sandwich.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup of butternut squash puree*

1 tablespoon of butter (The recipe in the book called for margarine, but we don’t use margarine in our house. We are strictly a butter using household)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

4 slices of bread (The recipe calls for whole wheat, but I used nut & oat)

nonstick cooking spray, if you don’t have a non-stick skillet

1 teaspoon of olive oil

* I pre-made all purees for the recipes I planned to try first (spinach, butternut squash, and cauliflower) the day before. Because butternut squash is not in season, I used frozen organic butternut squash cubes and steamed them, then pureed them using my handy Magic Bullet. After each puree cooled, I bagged them in small freezer bags. Each bag containing 1/2 cup. I froze the majority of the bags, while keeping out a bag, of each type of puree, that I planned to use within the next few days.

How to:

1. In a small bowl mix the puree, the shredded cheese, the butter, and salt.

2. Spread the mixture onto two slices and top with the other two slices. Be sure not to overload the bread, as it will spill over the edge if you do so and then its just a bit too messy. I then coated the top piece of each slice of bread with olive oil using a basting brush. The recipe said to add the olive oil straight to the skillet, but I tried that and the first slices ended up being drenched and the final taste was just overkill on the oil.

3. Heat up a non-stick skillet on medium heat. If you don’t have a non-stick skillet, add the non-stick cooking spray to the pan. Once its warm, place each sandwich into the skillet, olive oil side of bread facing down onto the skillet. While the first side is cooking, bast the upwards facing sides with olive oil. Allow each side to cook 4 to 5 minutes, or until the bread is crisp to your liking and the mixture inside is melted thoroughly.

4. Let each sandwich cool for a few minutes, then cut into pieces. Hawke loves when his sandwiches bites are in fun shapes, so usually I break out my stash of cookie cutters in fun shapes (like a star) and cut his sandwiches using those. This does leave the excess trimmings for me to snack on as well. A win-win situation for us both.

Butternut squash is low in fat, full of fiber, provides significant amounts of potassium & vitamin B6, has high levels of beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A), and is packed full of antioxidant rich vitamin C.

Hawke LOVED his sandwich and I will definitely be adding this to our regular lunch meals!

- Sutton

Baby animals. Need I say more?

I just can’t get enough of these adorable little creatures. It doesn’t matter what type of animal it is, if it’s a baby, it’s cute. Skunk? Gross. Baby skunk? Adorable!

It reminds me of the time my sister and I found a nest of baby rats in our garage. They were pink and adorable, and my sister and I ran to our mom, asking if we could keep them. Of course there was no way my mom was going to let us keep these nasty, disease-infested creatures, but even she couldn’t bring herself to kill them. So she put them back where we found them, thinking the mama rat would just leave them to die since they smelled like us now. But, much to her dismay, that mama rat gathered up all those pink babies and moved them to a safe place, where I’m sure they grew up to have a long life of torturing us in our garage.

Yikes, I kind of can’t believe I just shared that story, but I guess I just wanted to illustrate my point: that it doesn’t matter what kind of animal it is; if it’s a baby, it’s gonna be adorable.

-Amber

1.Tiger   2. Squirrel & Kitten   3. Monkey   4. Sloth   5. Kitten   6. Turtle   7. Pig

Do you remember when AC Slater wore silk shirts with high-waisted, pleated black pants on Saved By The Bell? Gag me! He was the reason so many guys wore silk shirts back in the day. Him! I don’t know about you guys, but I couldn’t have been happier when this trend faded and guys only wore silk ties.  

Over the last several seasons, silk shirts have re-emerged for the fairer sex. Thank goodness they haven’t eased back over into the men’s fashion world. Guys, please don’t ever start wearing silk shirts again. We ladies beg you!

Though I don’t particularly like them on men (think of the puffy shirt Seinfeld had to wear on The Today Show), I LOVE them on women. They’re an easy way to dress up jeans and keep you looking breezy and carefree. Depending on the style shirt you choose to wear, you can effectively play up your feminine or masculine side.

I’m most partial to camp/button-down shirt silks in neutral colors (perfect to go with skinny jeans, tall heels, or boots)…

(1 - Joie; 2 - J.Crew; 3 - J.Crew; 4 - Trinity)

but the bold color and pattern silks aren’t far behind (lovely with wide leg/trouser jeans or tailored shorts and platform sandals).

(1 - J.Crew; 2 - Aclee; 3 - Joie; 4 - Daniel Rainn)

- RM

1.The Bamboos - Wilhelm Scream ft. Megan Washington (James Blake Cover)  (Melbourne, AUS)

2. Emily Wells - Take it Easy (Manhattan, NY)

- BK