Froebel Among the Ferns

When my father and I recently visited Phipps Conservatory, we were drawn there because of a new glass art exhibit being staged there. It is a Froebel glass exhibit, and it was beautiful and fun. This is the second glass art exhibit that the Conservatory has staged -- the first one being the hugely popular Chihuly glass exhibit of a couple years ago.

The Froebel exhibit has not been as popular, but it is still a great exhibit and wonderfully

compliments the plant environments so beautifully maintained at the Conservatory.The Froebel exhibit consisted of four basic types of pieces. First, Froebel has a series of pieces that consist of tall skinny stick figures that he calls "longfellows." He puts them in various settings doing various things -- like walking through a forest or balancing on balls.

Second, a number of Froebel's pieces are face masks -- many of them in gold or opaque white. Third, the artist has some very large pieces that fill entire rooms or courtyards. They often incorporate very obvious geometric shapes.

Finally, and perhaps my favorites were a number of pieces that consist of lifelike replicas of flower arrangements -- many of them orchids. These pieces were amazingly lifelike.

I think the Phipps Conservatory has hit

upon a real winning combination with these art shows placed among their beautiful plants. I hope they keep it up!

A Morning at Phipps Conservatory - Chihuly Style

On the Saturday after Christmas, December 26, 2009, Dad and I traveled into Pittsburgh to visit one of my favorite places in the City - Phipps Conservatory. I'm not sure how long the Conservatory has existed in Pittsburgh, but it's been around for quite some time. It's located in Schenley Park, just across a small bridge from the Carnegie Library and Museum complex.

The Conservatory is immaculately maintained and consists of a couple dozen "rooms" where plants of different varieties are amazingly well kept. Some of my favorite rooms are the orchid room, the fruit tree room, the desert room and the Japanese garden. Also, for many years, the Conservatory has adhered to a program of doing several big "shows" a couple times in the year -- a Spring flower show and a Christmas seasonal show -- when special plants are brought in and planted among the permanent collections.

Additionally, several years ago, the Conservatory began to bring art shows into the Conservatory setting. The first such exhibit was of Chihuly glass. It was an amazing hit. The Conservatory was packed to capacity with guests during the entire period of the exhibit -- which was originally scheduled to last about four months but was extended to six months because of its popularity.

Chihuly is an internationally known glass artist who hails from Tacoma, Washington. His glass has been displayed in special settings all over the world, including Venice and Paris. His

pieces tend to be extremely large and colorful. He also has done a number of installation exhibits designed for conservatory settings all over the US.

The Chihuly exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory was fantastic. I saw it two times -- once during the day and a second time at night. Both visits were wonderful. And, at the conclusion of the exhibit, the Conservatory had raised enough money to purchase several

Chihuly pieces to keep on display permanently. Those permanent pieces are pictured here.

Christmas Greetings from Wexford

Merry Christmas! Our celebrations this year began with a Christmas Eve dinner where we feasted on one of my long time favorite meals - a shrimp and crab au gratin served over home made pasta. This recipe was given to me by Dana Klein in the first cooking class I ever took -- in the winter of 1990. And it was just as delicious today as it was then. On this occasion, Chris was my primary assistant on the pasta machine.

And just before dinner, Chris and Katherine helped me assemble and set out the luminaria along the sidewalk in front of our house.

This was a coordinated neighborhood activity and it looked like more than 50% of our households participated. In our section of the neighborhood, in particular, we had a really high level of participation. The street looked really neat.

Following dinner, we attended the 8:00 p.m. "traditional" Christmas Eve service at our church. This is a b

eautiful service -- the highlight of which is the singing of "Silent Night" by candlelight. high level of participation.

On Christmas day, we followed our tradition of opening Christmas presents in the morning and dining in the afternoon. This year, we prepared a full turkey dinner. Dad made the stuffing, using the recipe his mother and Zia Chiara always used. It was excellent.

And, finally, comfortably full from our Christmas dinner, we relaxed and watched the movie "Up." It was great fun.

In concluding this Christmas entry, we wish you and your family all the best this holiday season.

Desserts to Die For

One of the highlights of our party is the desserts that we serve at the end of the evening. This year, I made four desserts.

First, I made one of my long-time personal favorites -- an apple tart. This is a recipe that I obtained during one of the first cooking classes I took, about 23 years ago!

Second, a Chris' request, I made a Tuxedo Truffle Torte which was composed of a dark and white chocolate mousse and a dark and white chocolate ganache. This cake was sinfully rich.

Third, I made a Croquembouche -- which is a tower of puff pastries filled with vanilla cream and drizzled with lots of chocolate. Chris made the puff pastry dough for me, and it

was superb. It cooked up perfectly. And this dessert was especially fun to construct.

Finally, I made a Red Raspberry Almond Passion Cake. The cake batter included a healthy amount of toasted and finely ground almonds and when constructed, the cake is in four layers. The frosting was a chocolate butter cream. A raspberry sauce was brushed over each cake layer as the cake was assembled and, when finished, the cake was topped by a ring of raspberries. Yum.

By the end of the evening, there was one small piece of the Red Raspberry Almond Passion Cake left -- but everything else was gone -- completely consumed!

A Festival of Food

As is often the case, it has been a hectic Christmas season, and I am remiss in making a few blog entries to record our activities. First, I must report on our annual Christmas party -- which we hosted on Saturday, December 19, 2009. Despite a raging winter storm that hit on that same day (called the "Blizzard of 2009" by the press), our party was huge success. All of our guests were in attendance (no last minute cancellations!), and we had a wonderful time.

Most importantly, I was ably assisted in my preparations by (1) my sister, Lisa, who drove to our house on Friday evening and just beat out the arrival of the storm, (2) my beautiful daughter, Katherine, who is a graceful and tireless helper, (3) my steadfast son, Chris, who is invaluable for those last minute runs to the store and who also is a more than able cook, (4) my Dad, Carlo, who also proved to be a number one sous chef, and (5) Katherine's boyfriend, Tory, who was pressed into service but seemed actually to enjoy it. With this great team at my back, we cooked for two days and served up a number of wonderful delights.

Our party fare consisted of a wide variety of hors d'oeuvres (hot and cold) and several amazing desserts to top off the evening. Here is a partial list of our menu items:

* Grilled peanut chicken

* Veal meatballs in tomato sauce

* Mini twice baked potatoes

* Smoked salmon on mascarpone cheese toasts

* Grilled shrimp in hot sauce

* Mini quiche lorraines

* Apple slices wrapped in ham with honey mustard

* Nutty Napoleanos (pecans with roquefort cheese spread)

* Crab salad in wonton cups

I am hopeful that no one left hungry!

Christmas Time in London

London is a great city to visit during the Christmas season. They decorate as much here as we do in any US city. What I loved the most though was Harrod's. I made a special trip there just to see the Christmas decorations, and I was not disappointed. The exterior was strung with green lights that outlined all the building lines and windows. And I have never seen so many people in one store! It was incredibly crowded.

We encountered another unusual sight associated with the season. Upon leaving the National Portrait Gallery, we entered Trafalgar Square to find it filled with Santas. There were hundreds of them -- maybe even thousands of them. It turns out that they were part of a group called "Santas for Charity." For several weeks before Christmas, this group dresses up in assorted Santa costumes and stands on street corners throughout London collecting funds for various charities. When their collection drive is over, they gather in Trafalgar Square and celebrate with some beer and brussels sprouts

(of all things!). Basically, they have one big public party. It was quite the sight! My photo is a bit dark (it was dusk when I took it), but maybe you can pick out a few Santas.

London in December

I made a business trip to London last week and, quite unexpectedly, found myself with an extra day for some sightseeing. I've been to London before, but I enjoyed returning to a few of my favorite spots and visiting a few places that were "new" to me.

I started the morning at St. Paul's Cathedral. What a truly beautiful church. I learned that the current cathedral is the 6th church at this location -- there having been a church on the same site since about 600 A.D. Of course, I took advantage of the audio tour that was available and learned all sorts of neat things about the history of the building and its contents. Did you know that the word "cathedral" means "bishop's seat?"

I then met up with my two colleagues, Jim and Clarence, and we traveled together, by taxi, to Westminster Abbey. This is another great church which overwhelms me simply by virtue of the incredibly history represented by the tombs and memorials found here. The most impressive are those of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots (located on opposite sides of the sanctuary). All the kings and queens of England have been crowed at Westminster Abbey since the 12th century, and there still exists within the Abbey the throne that has been used for coronation services during that entire period of time.

Following our time at the Abbey, we walked past Parliament and Big Ben and found a great pub where we had a bit of lunch. Then, it was on to the Royal Portrait Gallery where we spent about two hours wandering the halls and enjoying works by Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas and so many others.

It was a great day! And it was so unexpected that we had this extra time to enjoy the city.