Melissa Paul

Fashion designer, Jason Wu has hit his licensing stride with two new impressive product launches that hit the retail market at both ends of the spectrum.  At the top of the market, Wu has stuck his toe in the luxury home goods arena by partnering with Nest to launch a luxury home candle, the first in a series of designer candles from Laura Slatkin.  But it’s Wu’s February launch of his fashion-forward but price-effective clothing line at a Target Near You that will more than likely break retail records. Either way, Wu’s embracing the fickle retail market in clever little ways that will surely place keep the Jason Wu brand right under our noses.

With pop-up restaurants, well, popping up more and more these days, it’s refreshing to stumble across a concept that takes the Pop-Up to a whole other level of creativity.  Where food and art intersect into an educational medium that truly inspires food for thought.

The San Francisco food collective, OPEN Restaurant, is bringing together chefs, artists, fisherman, bakers, designers and farmers for interactive culinary events that tempt the mind as much as the palate.  Not to mention, OPEN encourages community engagement on environmental and political issues through its thoughtful approach to dining.  As they say, “we are what we cook.”

As the beloved project of a group of restaurant professionals that spend their days working at the renown Chez Panisse, one the world’s most influential restaurants, OPEN is an experiment in foodie expressionism. Every few months, OPEN takes over a space for a single night, or an entire weekend, to explore an issue that affects us all. For instance, for a recent pop-up dinner they focused on water and its importance to the world as our most precious resource. The experiential restaurant took over an entire naval warehouse and OPENwater was born: in one corner, chefs gutted and prepared line-caught local fish; in another, snowmelt from the Sierra Mountains dissolved into a large tank that supplied the drinking, cooking and dishwashing water; during the day, children were encouraged to create art from items found on local beaches or to participate in educational installations on algae and fish. OPEN artists even decorated the warehouse with randomly placed maritime debris, projected images of the sea on metal walls and amplified the sounds of crashing waves throughout the space. But of course, there was plenty of fabulous food prepared from what was dredged from the seas or pulled from the rivers.

Recently, at the behest of the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, the OPEN team headed to Japan for OPENharvest to support farms and fisheries, as well as to explore the cultural aspects surrounding the rice harvest season.

Artful. Experiential. Thoughtful. Local. Sustainable. Communal. No matter how you look at it, OPEN is simply brilliant. We need it everywhere.

Merry Christmas! Just woke up my husband this Christmas morn with a plate of Panettone French Toast, Mascarpone Cheese, Apple-Cinnamon Syrup, Irish Bacon and Raspberries… Must say, it’s pretty delicious and the PERFECT Christmas breakfast! When we got married, we decided to create our own holiday traditions in addition to honoring some of our favorites from childhood. As we both grew up with mothers who always went all-out with festive Christmas morning feasts, it was easy to embrace the tradition in our own home. What better place to start, than with a European holiday classic? The Panettone bread is cut up into thick slices, drenched in a light custard, then lightly seared in butter before it hits the plate where mascarpone and fresh raspberries await!  You just have to try this deliciousness for yourself… perhaps for a New Years Day Brunch?

INGREDIENTS NEEDED (serves 6-8).One loaf of Panettone Bread (outer paper removed, of course), cut into thick 1″ slices, then halved

• 6 whole eggs
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup whole or butter milk (we’ve tried chocolate milk too)
• 1/4 granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 8 oz container of Mascarpone Cheese
• Maple Syrup or, our favorite, Apple-Cinnamon Syrup
• Powdered Sugar, Fresh Berries, toasted chopped pecans… to add on the plate

DIRECTIONS

First, before you start to mix up the custard, get your griddle or large skillet heating up on the stove on medium heat.  Then, slice up the Panettone loaf into thick 1″ thick slices by taking the outer paper off, turning the loaf on its side, and starting from the bottom, making your way to the top.  Generally, I manage to get 7 full slices out of the loaf and I happen to LOVE the rounded top as my own portion! I take each rounded slice and cut it in half to be easier and faster to cook in the pan.

Now, let’s get to the custard! In a large mixing bowl, briskly whisk together the eggs, whipping cream, milk, sugar and cinnamon until it’s creamy.  Then, add some of the butter to your griddle or skillet. When ready, drop in two slices of the bread into the custard, making sure to flip them over to make sure both sides are coasted with the creamy goodness!  Do not let them sit too long though, as the bread will disintegrate into mush!  Dip, flip and drop into the waiting skillet, griddle or pan.

Cook the slices until they are golden and cooked through, 3-5 minutes per side on average.  As you make them for the group, keep the slices warm in a warming oven, on a plate covered with foil, or on a baking sheet in the oven preheated at a very low temperature (200-250 degrees).

When you’re ready to serve them, plate them up with a light dusting of powdered sugar, a dollop of Mascarpone Cheese, your favorite salty bacon (we love Irish Cut), perhaps some toasted pecans and plenty of fresh berries.  But don’t forget the syrup! The tang of maple syrup is fabulous, but a lighter flavored syrup like Apple-Cinnamon can also be divine.

Happy Holidays!

With Christmas just a week away, it’s finally high time to put on my favorite holiday music and CRANK UP the volume!  Years ago, I started playing holiday music right after Thanksgiving but quickly found that by mid-December I was ready to listen to thrash metal at dangerous decibels.  If only to stop Vince Guaraldi tunes from dancing in my head.  But with age, I’ve learned to be patient and wait out the temptation to put on my Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole.  Like waiting to open gifts on Christmas morning; holiday music is worth the wait.

Since we associate music with memories, holiday songs are truly remarkable in how they can reach down into our souls and bring the meaning of the season back into focus.

For me, holiday tunes like Josh Groban’s Thankful and Sarah McLachlan’s remake of John Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over) remind me of how blessed my life is compared to others’ whom are less fortunate. Johnny Mathis’ song It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas immediately takes me back to when I was kid, wrapping gifts into the wee hours with my mother.  Luciano Pavarotti’s Adeste Fidelis puts me riding in the car with my father, who taught me that to love opera is one of life’s greatest joys. Jon Bon Jovi’s Blue Christmas seems to be ideal for dancing around the living room with my husband.  But Faith Hill’s A Baby Changes Everything became a personal favorite instantly for its modern and unexpected interpretation of the birth of Christ.  The first time I heard it I was just learning I wouldn’t be able to have a child, so the words of the song caught me off guard completely. But by listening to the song, over and over and OVER again, the song ended up bringing me back to a place of hope and peace within myself.

All I know, is that whether contemporary, traditional or spiritual, holiday music marks the season as celebratory in my house. And will continue to do so unless someone turns on Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. If that happens, I’m dragging out my Vince Guaraldi, putting it on REPLAY and we’ll have a contest to see who freaks out first.

Christmas weddings are a personal favorite and, as it turns out, a family tradition.  Beginning with my paternal grandparents, who celebrated their wedding on Christmas Day in 1935.  Twelve years ago today, my husband and I were married in our newly-adopted home of Philadelphia, having recently arrived from New York just months before. Hungry for wedding planning information, I looked to magazines like Martha Stewart for inspiration. In 1999, the year I was soaking up all-things-bridal, Martha Stewart Weddings had just transitioned from special annual issues to regular quarterly publications.  Being both a bride and a new professional wedding planner, I couldn’t get enough of the magazine!  The elegant gold holiday wedding of Rebecca Thuss and Patrick Farrell, as well as the ruby-red summer wedding of Matt Lauer and Annette Roque, gave me all the inspiration I needed for my own Christmas wedding celebration. Thoughtful details, personal charm and stunning decor graced each and every page of what would quickly become my favorite wedding magazine.

Armed with my Martha magazines, I turned to event designer Renny Reynolds, caterer Peter Callahan and photographer Phil Kramer to bring my vision to life.  Over a decade later, our family continues to talk about our intimate family-style Christmas wedding as the most endearing event they’ve ever attended.  So much so, that other family members have chosen to celebrate their marriages during the festive season.  Thank you, Martha Stewart, for creating such an inspiring and much-needed publication.

{Photos: Phil Kramer}

Let’s start with a Holiday Confession: Ordinarily, I’m not a fan of the upside down Christmas tree trend.  Yes, I find them modern, stylish and ideal for ornament display.  And yes, I know they have a religious symbolic history dating back to the Middle Ages. Not to mention how wonderful they are for child or animal safety.  Yet, when it comes to how I choose to celebrate the holiday season, give me a traditional floor-set Christmas tree to decorate any day!

HOWEVER, I must say, after attending a recent holiday wreath making class at URBN Outfitters headquarters in Philadelphia, I might have to eat crow on my anti-upside-down stance.  I loved URBN’s dramatic installation of a forest of tinsel and foil-covered upside down trees suspended from their 30-foot ceiling. Perhaps it’s about the quantity or height of the installation, or maybe it was the grandness of the display transposed against the raw urban backdrop. Grouped together at varying heights with dramatic lighting, the trees aren’t showcases for colorful ornaments.  Rather, the forest of holiday trees are a soft natural art installation that adds warmth and spirit to a modern urban environment.

All I know, is that the talented designers at URBN and Anthropologie have managed to show me that upside down Christmas trees are indeed pretty fabulously festive. Does that mean I’m getting one this year for my own home? Hmmm, probably not.  But who knows what I’ll do next year?

{Photo:  Melissa Paul Ltd.}

Oh SNAP, look what I found on Cargoh today? These fabulous, homemade baby bibs from Superfly Lullabies!  Now that I have at least five different uber-stylish girlfriends in-the-family-way, I’m regularly hunting for one-of-a-kind cool baby gifts that aren’t overly commercial or loaded with chemicals.  YAY, looks like I found some hip little presents to go under their holiday trees!  Perhaps they’ll even get  a bib AND a blankie, hmmm. The gift just gets better every moment!

There are soooo many cool patterns to choose from you won’t have any trouble grabbing a couple of these dynamite baby bibs yourself!  Go to Superfly Lullabies on Cargoh.

When I stumbled upon this fabulous photo I thought, “FINALLY!”  I’ve been searching for something, if only a photo or quote, that captures the essence of what Thanksgiving means to me in my little world.  When I look at my life, which is blessed in soooooo many ways, I’m certainly grateful for what I have.  But I’m also grateful for what I can give.  If only a hearty laugh, a quick hug, a hot meal or a strong shoulder. So give BIG, I know I plan to. My kind, generous, patient and loving family and friends deserve everything I can give them as they give so much to me in return.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Last night I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on “Growing Your Business with Mitzvahs!” for the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of NACE.  Certainly, most people do know mitzvahs are large family celebrations but they don’t know the religious symbolism behind the party.  What came up at the NACE meeting, several times actually, was the question “what is a bar mitzvah, exactly?” So, here I am, a now-retired-gentile party planner, ready to explain some of the basics as I know them.

The term “Bar Mitzvah” literally means “son of the commandment.”  “Bar” actually means “son” in Aramaic, which used to be the vernacular of the Jewish people and much of the Middle East.  The term “Bat” means “daughter” in both the Hebrew and Aramaic languages.  “Mitzvah” means “commandment” in both Hebrew and Aramaic.  Technically, the term refers to the child who is coming of age and now has the same religious rights as an adult, including being morally and ethically responsible for his or her own decisions and actions.  Oftentimes, it is correct to refer to someone as “becoming a bar (or bat) mitzvah.”  However, the term is more commonly used today to refer to the coming of age ceremony itself, and you are more likely to hear that someone is “having a bar mitzvah” or that your child is  “invited to a bat mitzvah.”

So, really, what exactly does it mean to become a bar or bat mitzvah?  Under Jewish Law, children are not obligated to observe the Commandments in the Torah, although they are encouraged to do so as much as possible to learn the obligations they will have to their community as adult members.  However, at the age of 13 for boys and 12 for girls, children become of age to observe the Commandments of the religion because they are now able to distinguish right from wrong and take responsibility for their actions.  Specifically, the child formally joins their community by leading the weekly religious service as their first public announcement of that obligation.  The celebrant is required to recite the weekly Torah portion, direct parts of the service and lead the congregation in prayer during the Saturday services at the synagogue.  All in Hebrew!  Quite impressive for a twelve or thirteen year old let alone an adult!   Indeed, it is common practice for the mitzvah celebrant to spend months and months (and months) in Hebrew School at their synagogue studying the Torah cover-to-cover and learning the Hebrew language specifically needed for the ceremony.  But it’s a tremendous achievement for the child and his or her family to become a bar or bat mitzvah. Relatives and family friends will travel from far distances to witness and participate in these milestone celebrations as proof of their importance and social standing.

Like a wedding, if not more so, to become a bar or bat mitzvah is something to celebrate! Generally, from what I have seen over the years, the structure of the celebration may include a family dinner the night before (Shabbat dinner), a religious morning or evening (Havdallah) service at a synagogue, a kiddush or kiddush luncheon, an afternoon or evening party, and a Sunday brunch. The main party, whether it takes place in the afternoon or evening, generally includes the celebrant’s friends, camp friends and family members who play games and activities then focus their energies on dancing the night away! Adults may enjoy their own cocktail party before joining the kids for the big blow out dinner dance celebration.  But, as any party planner or event professional knows, there isn’t just ONE WAY to throw a party.  And the crazy world of mitzvahs demonstrates that concept every weekend!  Each family celebrates in their own way, which is exactly why I happen to LOVE the creativity and personalization that goes into planning a bar or bat mitzvah.  {and fully believe, you should too.}

[Photo courtesy of Susan Beard Design]