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This week marks my last free post and chat. I’m grateful for and excited by how many people have upgraded to a paid membership. I have lots to share and am inspired to build a passionate group around home and food. If you haven’t already, come join in!
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I’m a big believer that constraints inspire creativity and fewer options inspire decisions. To catch you up from last week: We’d made our first big decision: Look for a house in a warmer climate to live in and work from for part of the year—and have it ready by the time our kids went to college (which was fast approaching). Next, we needed to decide where this would be. A warm winter climate applies to a big section of the world—the belly band of Earth—aka, a paralyzingly large terrain to examine.
I mentioned that I like lists, right? Tad and I started by writing out a list of prerequisites to help us narrow our focus—and help us understand what we value most in our surroundings. Digging it up recently surprised me. In March 2021, I wrote to my friend Paula, who lives in Austin:
“We're going to try to spend time in a few places over the next couple of years to see if any place feels right. Austin and its environs are on our radar. I'm wondering if there are any neighborhoods/areas you'd recommend looking? Or any other places in the southwest you think we should consider? Here are a few prerequisites (and yes, I understand that a few of these are in conflict with each other!):
Near some place where Tad can play squash
Tad thinks being near a college or university will ensure that we meet interesting people
Either in an urban setting or a beautiful landscape that's not too far from a city with an airport
Hiking trails a plus!
Good food
Good weather from Dec to April
The house style will matter to me a lot (of course!), but I'm not letting that dictate the location.”
I’d forgotten that we considered cities, or the part about a college town. Also, while we did briefly think about Puerto Rico, we mostly focused on the mainland U.S. so we wouldn’t be too far from our kids. Tad noted that another prerequisite for him had been a place where you could still get the New York Times delivered. And in retrospect, I now realize that when I said “beautiful landscape,” I actually meant mountains or ocean—and equally important, a color palette that speaks to me.
Paula wrote me back with some suggestions and her own prerequisites list—we ended up incorporating the farmers market detail into ours:
“I'll need to be near a great pool with a vibrant masters team/program (LOVE the UT pool)
Ideally university town, for reasons you describe
Great farmers market/local food industry (fish market would be awesome)
Beyond that, it's about temperature and proximity to water. Much as I love Austin for half of the year, it's just too damn hot for my DNA. I'd love to be near a coast or a beautiful cold water lake, but I'm not sure where that will be.”
Writing down your must-haves for a location (when you no longer have to think about school districts or commutes) is a productive exercise even if you’re not planning to move now, or ever. It forces you to pause and ask yourself if you’re living the life you want to have…and reminds you what you value about where you currently live.
What would your list look like—and why? I’d love to hear about it in the Chat.
Next week I’ll share where we looked—and where we landed. For now, a few sneak peeks at what’s coming in future posts:
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Yours in mountains and farmers markets,
Amanda
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This is where I share travel tips and places to go for home and food inspiration when you leave the nest! This week: a NYC day trip to Beacon, a town on the Hudson River about 75 minutes north of the city. I hadn’t been in a decade—and wow has it blossomed! Going with good friends made it all the more fulfilling:
Hudson Valley Brewery Excellent pizza, salads, and, of course, beer. If you’re driving, the Industrial Arts Safety Glasses NA Pilsner is great.
Little King A bustling, well-edited shop with everything from dinnerware to desk tools to skincare to snacks.
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The Floral Society This is a company whose stylish candles and candleholders we sell on Food52. Sierra Yaun, the founder, lives in Beacon and recently opened a small, sweet shop filled with planters, candles, table linens, and vases.
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Vera’s Marketplace & Garden Center Stop by this small roadside shop in Cold Spring for a plump apple cider doughnut with cinnamon powder.
Folkways Wines Make a slight detour to Croton Falls on your way home for the tableware and an exciting selection of wines, amari, spirits, and aperitifs.
Magazzino Italian Art Italian modern art in a brutalist building with a great cafe and Italian ipsum donkeys out back. Need I say more?
Dia Beacon More modern art, including Richard Serra’s intense Torqued Ellipses, in an old factory building.
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Last week, I was briefly in Paris and made two essential culinary stops:
E. Dehillerin
First up: E. Dehillerin, the 205-year-old cookware store that served to inspire Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma. When I was working in Europe as a cooking/baking apprentice in the mid 1990s, I spent my first paycheck there. I bought copper cookware, a tarte tatin pan, a rolling pin, caneles and tartelette molds, and a copper bowl for whisking egg whites, and shipped them all home. I had no permanent residence and no real job; my mom was incensed about what seemed like impractical purchases. I still use everything, 30 years later. Now, with a new home in the works, here’s what I picked up:
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A sturdy, extra wide spatula, a carving fork, icing combs, and a wooden paddle with a sharp edge for scraping (I actually picked up 6 paddles…5 as gifts!). My favorite detail, discovered once I was back home in NY: The Dehillerin staff stuck a wine cork on the carving fork tines so they didn’t jab anything or anyone in transit. Ah, les French!
Le Saint Sebastien
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I really like the neat and pleasing way they set the tables at Le Saint Sebastien in the Marais (hat tip to David Lebovitz—I got the restaurant rec on his blog; he also has a Substack). Great inspo for an intimate dinner at home with friends, especially if you have a narrow table and you’re not into doing table settings: Put everything in a straight line and it looks sculptural and snappy! I also loved these Thonet-style chairs—we’ll be using Thonet chairs in our new place, a hand-me-down from Tad’s parents.
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