Book Review: Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Fascinating tale, made more fascinating because it's true

Truth if often stranger than fiction and this account proves it. Larson takes two stories set at the same time in the late 1800's to spin an intriguing story about two very different individuals. The first is about Daniel H. Burnham, the architect of the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. The second is the story of H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who re-imagined himself several times as a pharmacist and doctor, but really preyed on women.

How do these stories intersect? They both took place at the same time in Chicago. Holmes was able to use the World's Fair as a perfect way to lure women who were far away from home to prey on them. That in itself is a fascinating morbid story.

The vision and drive of Burnham is equally interesting and the advances of technology as well as all of the things that came out of the World's Fair is a great read. There are so many little trivial things that I learned and Burnham intersected with some very interesting folks.

Many books that feature historical accounts are rather dry and boring. That is not the case with this one and I have to highly recommend it. I found myself looking for time to sit down and finish this.

Sunshine Margaritas Part II

Sometimes just the glass makes it better!

Yes, it's the same recipe for Sunshine Margaritas but it's in a brand new glass. These whimsical glasses featuring bicycles were from my friend Jill to celebrate every week and remember the fun we had at Mackinac Island last week. Good times, good memories. Lovely glasses for cocktails.

Orange Porch

I know that for years now, we have heard that Orange is the New Black.

I just want to go on record that orange has been my favorite color for years. 

 

You might ask me to demonstrate it and I do have proof. Let's see, at our former house, our front door was soft orange, along with our bathroom (think construction cones), and another shade was featured in the kitchen. My vehicle, a Jeep Wrangler, is painted "Crush", reminiscent of soda with the same name. My hair is also sometimes called orange even if I am really striving for more of a copper. . .

So when looking at our house, I thought we should add some color. While it's a beautiful and classic look, it wasn't quite us. We added color with furniture on the porch but something was missing. Looking at the paint covering the porch floor, we decided it was time to touch it up and it seemed easier to just paint it a new color.

I really do think the orange porch just adds a bit of pop, and still stays true to the classic colors of slate gray and white that really is timeless.

Our front door was wood but it was very distressed and not necessarily in a good way. At first I thought about refinishing it but realized that the interior side was already painted white to match the foyer. And while I love orange so very much I decided against an orange front door this time. I would have had to go a couple of shades darker than the porch and I really didn't want an autumn sort of feel. Instead, I tried something completely new and picked a complimenting color. I thought the "mermaid green" added a nice little splash.

I

Sunshine Margarita

Refreshing and Light

This week was our second week of afternoon cocktails and featured another experiment. I really like the Southern Margarita at Sweet Lorraine's and thought we would try to make our own homemade version. I don't know much about making margaritas from scratch (it's usually something I order out) but I knew we didn't want any of those mixes in the ingredients.

I must confess that I tried to make this last night as well, using the vintage mixing glass I have as reference for a recipe. I have learned from that experience that cocktails in the 1960's must have been pretty strong as there was much alcohol than the lemon juice (Why lemon is beyond me - maybe they didn't have limes in those days?).

So today I really cut back on the alcohol and upped the orange juice. This is what we came up with:

The Sunshine Margarita

2 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Silver Tequila
1/3 oz Grand Marnier
Ice Cube
Salt for Rim

Place cubes in a shaker, pour in the liquid ingredients. Shake gently for about 10 seconds. Strain into a glass with more ice cubes that has been rimmed with a coarse layer of salt.

Delicious with chips. I would not change a thing on this one. 

Cucumber Lime Spritzer

I am going to have to come up with a cooler name for this refreshing cocktail

. . . but for now it works. We are celebrating the warmer weather and sunshine that really means that deck season is really here. Today, a dear friend came over to start our new tradition of "afternoon cocktails". This first version was very special as it was reminiscent of a drink we both sampled last year at Local Kitchen and Bar. I even did a review Too Many Cukes which really inspired our whole foray into cucumber cocktails. You know it's serious when I planted cucumbers in a pot on the deck for the sole purpose of making these cocktails (at a later date, as it's just a little sprout right now).

We stayed true to some of the basic elements of the original drink, including (of course) muddled cucumbers and Hendrick's Gin (which in writing this blog today I discovered their quirky site and highly recommend a visit) which is infused with cucumbers and rose petals and distilled in Scotland. This was the first purchase in anticipation of stocking our home for the deck parties, not only because of the liquid contents involved, but for the glass container that reminds me of an old vintage apothecary bottle, complete with a little cork stopper. I am not a huge gin fan but this version is quite different, even down to the smell when you uncork the bottle. There isn't the traditional Christmas tree fragrance but something a lot more refreshing and light.

To our version we added some lime to make it a little more refreshing and because I didn't have any tonic water on hand, nor simple syrup, we used some Sprite which we have in abundance due to a recent Costco run this weekend.  I guess to summarize we made it an easy recipe so we can make it often.

Cucumber Lime Spritzer

Per drink:
3 oz Hendrick's Gin
6 oz Sprite
Cucumber
Lime

Muddle about 3 cucumber slices in the bottom of a tall glas.

In a shaker add crushed ice, and pour in gin and sprite, along with the juice of half a lime, and give a quick shake.  Pour over muddle cucumber.

Garnish with more sliced cucumber and a wedge of lime.

Sunshine - Celebrating Summer

A collection of suns really brighten our outside area

Over the years I have managed to collect all kinds of suns. It really started eons ago, before I even owned a home, in anticipation of one day decorating a kitchen with them all over. I had sun glasses, and sun dishes, and of course lots of suns to adorn walls.


I still love suns, but I'm not necessarily into theme rooms these days, looking more for harmony with complimenting colors (or sometimes contrasting colors) and good pieces that promote style. The suns were relegated to outside duty but I think this really works.


Our privacy fence is functional but not exactly beautiful and adding suns, as well as assorted birdhouses, has added to the overall warm feeling of our outside home.We were going for an inviting area near our deck that would feel cozy.

We also added a couple of funky elements, including some solar lights that look like Chinese lanterns that we hung from the tree (think Giant Christmas Ornaments) and my favorite funky piece. . . a Lucite chandelier silhouette. This was a recent fab find at a garage sale and was originally a display piece at the old Detroit Hudson's department store. When it spins and catches the sun just right it sends fluorescent yellow light on to the panels of the fence and I think it's one of a kind.

Faygo Pop Planter

Garage Sales = Treasure Hunts

I have decided that garage sales may be my new favorite activity. I have dabbled in this throughout the years, especially when the kids were very little as it was a good way to get almost brand new baby clothes and equipment but in recent years I had kind of forgotten about the wonderful things you can find.

This Faygo crate was from this week's expeditions and to be quite honest, I have stumbled across some other ones a couple of weeks prior but they were pricey. To throw a bunch of dirt in it, it didn't make sense to spend a lot of money and the gentleman that I bought this one from seemed to understand, and it was priced reasonably.

Today was "Flower Day" in Eastern Market which meant buying the crate yesterday was part of a master plan. I picked a selection of flowers to add to my box to give it some color but also to tie in with the red "Faygo" logo. I think it came out pretty cool and brightens up our gray and white exterior.