Food & Wine. Art & Food History at Abi's Farmhouse Kitchen
FLORINE STETTHEIMER Florine Stettheimer was FABULOUS. Unabashedly fabulous! A striking, major figure in American modern art that you’ve probably never heard of. (I hadn’t). Poet. Painter. Salonista extraordinaire. Purposefully unmarried. Intentionally beautiful. Vibrant. Female. Florine reveled in her carefully crafted, eccentric and very extravagant lifestyle — the glittering world of Manhattan’s elite. A realm she savored […]
Author’s Note: Before we get to the Food, I want to thank Couleur Nature for sharing their incredibly lovely French tablelinens as backdrop for Monet’s Food. I remember seeing their tablecloths for the first time some 15 years ago. Before I could Cook, let alone make Cassoulet! I was “antiquing” with my grandmother, Mima, in […]
FREE COLOR T.V. One perk as a painter, is genuinely appreciating other Artists. And sometimes, becoming really good friends. Robert Townsend is just such a person: stunning Painter — in a League of his own! — and solid family friend. The fact he’s now a famed painter is just too fun. I met Rob back in […]
Mary Cassatt wrote that women must choose between Art or Family & Hearth. That Mind and Soul cannot properly support both. As an early 20 something, I dismissed that as antiquated. Fast forward 20 years, to me as mother, cook, and painter, I understand. How the Heart and Mind struggle to create each side of itself equally. Frida navigated […]
“SCREW IT. I’VE COOKED ENOUGH,” runs through my head this time of year…. But seriously, the holidays are winding down. You (and your Kitchen) likely need a break from nonstop baking, braising, and cooking. Am I right? But you still need to eat. And celebrate our New Year!! So if you’re going out (or staying […]
Sur La Table “Bigwig Cool Chef Man” Joel Gamoran (I’m pretty sure that’s his title) asked me “So Abi, how did you come to Cook?” I’d flown up to Seattle to tour Headquarters and talk shop. We wore sweaters and munched Cookies freshly baked by icon Dorie Greenspan as TV cameras cooled from her demo. The painter in me watched purpled, gray rain clouds […]
The summer of 1997, I earned a spot in an Art Theory class taught in south of France. I fell in love three times that summer — and no, not with French boys leering at our glaringly white-bikini-lined breasts that yelled “American!” as far as boobs could see. But far more seriously: True Love affairs, the kind that never […]
Welcome to “The Creative Palate: Artist Kitchens!” Cooking and Art are two sides to the same coin. (In my book.) Taking raw ingredients to create something nourishing body or soul. Sometimes both. I’m not talking artsy culinary “perfect” but rather, what we as cooks (artists) choose to EAT and make for ourselves (families and friends) in the […]
It takes a lot to put me off my eggs. Or to leave a Mimosa half finished. But today’s breakfast was just such an experience. The next table over was occupied by a visiting foghorn for bigotry, racism, gender disdain (especially for “the very dangerous” FLOTUS Michelle Obama), and politically conservative extremes. Wave after wave […]
June 30, 2016 DRIVING TO KANSAS We are camping our way from Sonoma, California to Beaumont, Kansas. To the family homestead and cattle ranch my great-great-grandfather founded some 150+ years ago… It’s a humbling thing, driving towards such heritage, out across a wide expanse of the nation in a truck, with “Bumbelina” (our Airstream), through one of the […]
