Post by Alison Hein.

Sorry everyone, I’m a little short on photos this week. What I do have is a good story, a great recipe, and some words of wisdom for the new year.

We just got back from a trip to Texas, where my sister-in-law Suzanne and her husband Randy hosted a family holiday at their beautiful ranch. There were about 20 of us – from toddlers to grandparents – spending a few days visiting, playing, and eating.

I was happy to jump into Suzanne’s gorgeous kitchen to make dinner, which would end with a sweet, creamy flan. Another sister-in-law, Lindsay, offered to help. The two of us had pots cooking, beaters beating, and timers timing. Suddenly, more guests arrived, youngsters reached across the counter for gummy bears, teens searched for afternoon snacks, a bottle fell out of the refrigerator and crashed into pieces, and then, I put my fingertips into a dish containing the caramelized sugar I had just removed from the stove!

Later, reflecting on my bandaged hand and wondering how I had managed to do such a dumb thing, I realized I had lost my focus. I may have become so comfortable with flames and knives, and so confident in my cooking skills, that I was skimming across the common sense rules of basic kitchen safety:

• Never leave a cooking pot untended
• Wear an apron
• Put away potentially dangerous cooking tools immediately after use, and above all:
• Stay focused and present at all times while cooking

My husband swore he could see my fingerprints embedded in the sugary top of the flan. We all enjoyed it anyway, and I vowed to add “be focused and present” to the top of my New Year’s Resolutions.

Flan, a sweet crème caramel popular in Latin countries, is just as delicious for breakfast as it is for dessert, and there are many variations. This recipe is an easy Puerto Rican-style custard with just the right number of eggs for a smooth, sturdy texture, and enough vanilla to add a rich, aromatic flavor. If you try it, remember to be present while preparing, and later while enjoying, your sweet, creamy breakfast in bed.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Fresh mixed berries for garnish (optional)

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small heavy saucepan, cook the sugar over medium heat until caramel forms, stirring constantly until sugar caramelizes and becomes syrupy and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Pour the caramelized sugar into an 8-inch round mold. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla. Mix well with the eggs.

Pour the mixture into the caramelized mold and cover with foil. Place in a water bath on a strong cookie sheet and bake for about 1 hour, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let the flan cool at room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.

To serve, invert the flan onto a platter. Garnish top with fresh berries.

Photography courtesy of Suzanne Birdwell.

Tags: bed, Breakfast in Bed, Charles P, Children, family, Recipes

Post by Laura Cheng.

I am a firm believer in color, but I also love the simplicity of the primal colors, black and white. Since outfitting a bedroom in black and white often creates the illusion of a clutter free environment, I am all for it. Black and white is also more versatile than many people think. It can be used to set a contemporary, classic, or luxurious ambiance.

When decorating with black and white, it’s important to use different textures to make the room interesting. The intricately created lace headboard is the focal point of this room. Although the ceiling lamp is also white, its unsystematic yarn woven design adds interest to an otherwise lackluster ceiling and wall. The wooden plank floors create a warm, patterned ambiance. And of course, the soft fluffy bed beckons one to sink comfortably into it. I love how the bed frame appears to be nonexistent. It looks like two oversized down comforters, one stacked up on another. It adds a touch of softness to an otherwise overly crisp room.

Source: http://donkeehouse.com/?p=367

If you don’t like the minimalism of just black and white, but want to incorporate those colors, this bedroom has a multitude of monochromatic patterns that keeps the room engaging. The wallpaper features a large Chinoiserie print that complements the striped bedding nicely. To achieve a similar effect, start by choosing three or more patterns. Odd numbers, especially the number three, just seem to work. When mixing different patterns, it’s important to use different scale prints. That way, you add a sense of balance and interest. Be sure to pick the patterns carefully, selecting different patterns about half the scale or size of the first pattern. The wonderful thing about decorating in black and white is that its use highlights any color you add to the room. The yellow rose on the nightstand would have gone unnoticed otherwise in such a strongly patterned room.

Source:http://tinyurl.com/7qg4edk

If white is too stark of a contrast, you can use a variant of white. The creamy white in the bedroom eludes old Hollywood, beachside glamour when paired with the velvety black. This bedroom was designed by Kelley Proximire for the Spring 2007 Design House. Shams and a bed valance are covered in a seashell fabric from Grey Watkins. The canopy features a coordinating geometric pattern. The daringly black walls will darken a room so make sure there is proper lighting. A simple and effective way to do so is by hanging mirrors. Mirrors will create extra light both during the daytime and from the reflection of the lights at night.

Source: http://www.thelennoxx.com/browse-by-style/dramatic/black-white-with-seashells/

Tags: bedroom, Bedroom Design, beds, Charles P. Rogers, Color, Design, furniture

Post by Mark T. Locker.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.

If you trust my opinion, don’t even bother reading the following review. Just walk outside, go to your LOCAL bookstore and buy a copy of this book. I don’t know if Jon Klassen has written or illustrated other books but this is his first children’s book, for sure. Deceptively simple in its text and beautifully illustrated on a plain white background I Want My Hat Back, which was published just a few months ago, follows a bear as he very politely asks all the woodland animals if they have seen his hat. Despite the straightforward language, this is a surprisingly funny story with a wickedly hilarious ending. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Life-Size Zoo: From Tiny Rodents to Gigantic Elephants, An Actual Size Animal Encyclopedia by Toyofumi Fukuda

I like this book for two reasons: One, it has gigantic color photographs of a bunch of different animals from sloths to zebras and in this life-size images you can see all sorts of intricate details that you don’t normally get to see. The second reason I like this book is for all the interesting and sometimes off-beat facts that you learn reading this book. For instance, did you know sloths can hang for days from a branch without ever—er—using the men’s room? Amazing! I can’t stop looking at this book and the giraffe’s lovely long eyelashes.

Tags: bed, bedtime stories, Charles P. Rogers, Children, Children's book reviews, family

Post by Mark T. Locker.

It’s dark by 5:30. A screaming wind whips around the house, clattering the shutters and whistling eerily through the branches. Rain beats against the windows as if demanding an audience. What better recourse than to pull out that bottle of whiskey, climb under the blankets and wrap yourself up in some good old-fashioned film noir?

Personally, I’m a sucker for the old Humphrey Bogart films, most notably The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon is based on the novel of the same name by acclaimed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. It’s got all the good twists and turns, red herrings and hard-boiled hard-drinking detective stuff that makes great film noir. Plus, anything with creepy old Peter Lorre just makes for an even more engaging story. Peppered with humor, suspense, and razor-sharp dialogue, The Maltese Falcon is the perfect way to while away a cold and dreary winter’s night.

Tags: Charles P. Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Maltese Falcon, Movie Review, Movies

Post by Craig Jenkins.

Happy New Year! How’d everyone ring in 2012? Crazy fun-loving parties and legendary shenanigans? Quiet night in with the family? Did you watch the ball drop? Did you go to sleep and ignore all the festive hoopla? However you closed out your 2011, we hope it was a great night, and we wish you nothing but health and happiness (and warmth!) for 2012.

Let’s talk about beds for a bit though. More specifically, how to make the most of your headboard. If you’ve gone out and purchased a bed with a beautiful headboard, you want to show it off, right? Different beds have different headboard heights, and displaying that headboard to the best of your abilities can sometimes be tricky. It won’t be a problem if your bed’s headboard is tall. But let’s assume it isn’t. What are your options?

The answer is a little bit of simple mathematics. First and foremost, you should always make certain that you’re aware of stats like the height of the headboard and the height your mattress will be from the floor. From there, you can wring some hard fought extra headboard inches by playing with mattress and box spring height. Maybe you want to get a slightly thinner mattress. Maybe you opt for a low profile box spring. Maybe you want to look into bunkie boards (thin box spring like supports that keep the mattress height way down while still supporting the mattress and diverting some of the pressure away from your bed’s rail system). You have a wide range of opportunities at your disposal.

As always, be creative, be informed, and ask questions before you commit. Best of luck, and again, happy new year.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Design, headboard