The Story of Chanel's Tweed

From Elle:

There is nothing quite as iconic as a classic Chanel tweed piece. If you’ve had the honor of wearing one—a jacket, a dress, a skirt—you know that its texture, its weight, and its very aura are the things magic is made of.

Her use of the now legendary fabric was not only inspired by menswear, but by a man—and a Duke no less. After borrowing sportswear from her beau, the Duke of Westminster, Chanel realized the comfortable, supple fabric had a sophisticated quality that would lend itself well to her designs. Beginning in 1924, Chanel enlisted a Scottish factory to produce her iconic tweed fabrics for everything from sportswear to suits and coats. She’d choose colors she was inspired by from the Scottish countryside, bringing back leaves and bits of earth to her manufacturers. (Read more.)

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Easy Mayo

A recipe from Meduseld. To quote:

Making mayonnaise from scratch can be daunting.  The oil has to be incorporated very gradually into the eggs or it will separate.  I’ve avoided making it in the past because of the mess it would make with my blender.  Oil and eggs would spray all over the kitchen as I poured oil into the running blender.  What a mess!  It seemed to take more time to clean than to make the mayonnaise!

Recently, I decided I had to commit to making mayonnaise from scratch again.  The list of ingredients on the store brands, not to mention the exorbitant price, was enough to convince me to find a better way to make this delicious treat.  And did I ever find one!    A hand blender!

I have  an inexpensive Hamilton Beach hand blender (in Meduseld’s Amazon store) that I use for making Smokey Pumpkin Soup (recipe for that soon).  Using this nifty tool, you can make your mayonnaise in a wide mouth quart jar that can go straight in the refrigerator.  The only thing to clean is the hand blender attachment. (Read more.)

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Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte as Charity

The daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette is shown sheltering three little children at the time of the Restoration of the monarchy in France in 1814. (Via Vive la Reine.) Share

Vietnam: Dreams and Reality

My dear friend Christine Niles shares her family's harrowing escape from Communism. To quote:

I was too young to remember, but my family tells me the Communists seized everything we had. After some agonizing months, seeing the many souls who fled the city, knowing we had no future there, my father made the difficult decision to leave his homeland, and all that he knew and loved, to begin anew in France. (Read more.)

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Mystery of the Dauphin

Portrait of Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France, later known as Louis XVII. (Via Tiny-Librarian.) Recently. some scientists have found a DNA link between the little king and the descendants of the claimant Naundorff. We are discussing it on the Tea at Trianon Forum, HERE. The historical background of the mystery is explored in the novel Madame Royale.

Louis XVII suffering in prison.

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Buying a Château

A young couple purchases a crumbing château. To quote:

Since work began, everything started to get a little bit more interesting. Karina regularly updates the château’s official blog and social networking pages with snapshots of the progress, thanks to a building team of six, who are working around the clock to bring this sleeping beauty back to life.

While her husband Craig has returned to Australia to look after the children and continue working (they’re going to need plenty more of those Aussie dollars), Karina has been left in charge. Her fears and triumphs as an ex-pat in a rural French village trying to manage this monumental project are all delightfully unfolding on the blog too.

Château de Gudanes’ hidden treasures are constantly being discovered during the renovation process, with original details and century-old paintwork being uncovered at every turn. Karina constantly finds herself going through the discarded piles of rubble being accumulated on the front lawn, looking for anything to recycle as the house undergoes repairs and reinforcements. (Read more.)

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Louis XVIII

The successor of Louis XVI and Louis XVII was the former Comte de Provence, whose wiles are told of in my novel Madame Royale. (Via Tiny-Librarian.) Share

The Death of the Greasy Spoon

I love greasy spoons. My hometown of Frederick, MD had several. From SpliceToday:

My favorite meal is breakfast. I’d happily skip the other two meals of the day if it meant a huge brunch around 11 with cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, shredded hash browns with onion, Scrapple if they have it and an English muffin with orange marmalade. There are only a few places I can get this meal in my local area, and one of them is about to close.

Holly’s Restaurant, located on Route 50 (on the way “down the Ocean” for Marylanders) has been open since 1955. It’s still in the same family. The sign says it’s the “Meeting Place of the Eastern Shore,” and it’s true that on any given day you’ll see politicians, watermen, and local families dining on the fried chicken, meatloaf, ice cream, and other homemade goodies. It’s always been my favorite place to meet a friend for coffee; I usually choose the “Shore Scrambler,” which is a unique chopped-up blend of eggs, sausage, hash browns, onion, mushrooms, tomato, cheese and (for me) skip-the-green-peppers.

I’ll miss it. I cannot blame the family at all for selling to Royal Farms, but it’s very sad. They’ve held down the fort for nearly 60 years, much longer than most businesses could even imagine staying open. My kids loved the placemats that required knowledge of the 50 states; only the first letters were given and no matter how many times we went, we could never think of all the “M” states right away. Sometimes the placemat was a 50 states word scramble, which is exactly what you’d have to do to find all the states during your visit. (Read more.)

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The Pope's Gift

Here is the lapis lazuli orb Our Holy Father Pope Francis recently presented to the Queen for her great grandson Prince George of Cambridge. Stephanie Mann reports:

Pope Francis wisely featured St. Edward the Confessor...in his gifts to both Queen Elizabeth II and her great grandson Prince George. St. Edward is a shared saint between the Church of England and the Catholic Church--primarily because he was canonized by Pope Alexander in 1161 and his cult extended to the entire Catholic Church by Blessed Pope Innocent XI in 1679 (!) According to the Vatican's report of their meeting, "The Pope . . . presented the Queen with a replica of a decree from the Vatican archives, dating from 1679, by which Pope Innocent XI extended the veneration of St Edward the Confessor to the Universal Church, establishing his feast day on October 9^th." (Except that sources I found say his feast day is October 13, since that is the date of the translation of his relics to Westminster Abbey.) It is interesting to think that Blessed Pope Innocent promoted this feast while Catholic priests in England were being executed because of Titus Oates' "Popish Plot". It's also important to remember that Innocent did not approve of Catholic King James II's methods in promoting Catholicism in England--nor of James's closeness with King Louis XIV of France (and probably not of Charles II's, either).

Additionally, St. Edward the Confessor was featured in the other gift Pope Francis presented to the Queen for Prince George, third in the line of succession to the throne:  "It was a blue, lapis lazuli orb, topped with a cross of St Edward the Confessor and around the base a dedication reading ‘Pope Francis to His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge’."

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip faced a greater challenge in giving ceremonial gifts to Pope Francis: what do you give to the man who does not really want anything? In keeping with the informal nature of the visit, they gave him a hamper "stuffed with goodies from her royal estates: honey from the gardens of Buckingham Palace, venison, beef and some best bitter from Windsor Castle, cider, apple juice and a selection of chutneys from Sandringham and some shortbread and whiskey from the Balmoral estate in Scotland." (Read more.)

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