I had the pleasure of helping out with a huge party on Tuesday night. Angelika's life dream, The Dining Room, was ready to be shown to all her friends and family. This great chef accepted my offers to help and I got a peek at the kitchen secrets while we prepared nine courses of little bites. You should really read The Flying Apple's blog for the details (and, to my delight, she's using my photos). Here are just a few memories from our busy days.
Angelika prepares the lamb tajine
nearly 80 little cups of the soup I've mentioned before
one of 90 smoked trout mousses with roewe piped the mousse into the cups
spooning the roe rarely resulted in such an artful presentation as this
half the salmon rolls with hand-tied chives
one of two (plus) full refrigerators
mini spinach/strawberry/blue cheese quiches (waiting for the egg/cream mixture)
Gino, my shadow in the kitchen
the full line of Gangl's wines, offered exclusively in Vienna by The Dining Room
the chef and the wine-maker
The Candle Flame Stole posing with a Moroccan lamp on the Kitchen DeckI mentioned yesterday that I would tell you about the stole I was working on at World Wide Knit in Public Day. That's a bit of it posing with the lamp. What follows is the story of the beginning of that stole's life. You see, I was running out of things to knit and I really wanted to try some Wollmeise yarn (hand-dyed in Germany). After I had dinner at Angelika's house last month, I knew exactly what I should make. I'd seen the pattern for the Candle Flame Shawl before and that concept fit perfectly with the candle-lit ambiance of The Dining Room. Next, I emailed Claudia (the Wollmeise) and asked for her help selecting a color from her fantastic selection. She looked at The Flying Apple and suggested a few colors. Next, I secretly emailed Angelika's Texan "sisters" for their color advice. I hadn't met them, but I was rightly confident that they would help. With four lists of favorite colors I noticed that one shade was on every one, always in the first or second position: Granatapfel. In English, it's pomegranate, but in German, well, it ties so nicely into that Flying Apple name, in addition to being a gorgeous color. I wound nearly 1600 meters of laceweight yarn into a ball by hand (thank goodness for great podcasts to keep me company). I cast on and started knitting like mad. Suddenly I found myself with a big project and a deadline. I was really grateful for our long train rides last week.
Now, the color selection was really fun and everything fell so easily into place for this project, but that wasn't the magic. The magic came while I knit. Remember: I was knitting for a chef. I might have noted the colors of this variegated skein in some other way, or not at all, if I'd been knitting for someone else, but as I knit for Angelika, I saw fruit, spices, wines... It was a bit surreal so I took notes. Here's a list of the "colors" I found in this yarn: beet/rhubarb/potato soup, aubergine ("eggplant" doesn't sound as nice; oh, and it's actually "Manzani" in Vienna), cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, cranberry juice, black currants, bittersweet berries, and a touch of deep, red wine - Gangl Grand Cuvée perhaps.
Now, the color selection was really fun and everything fell so easily into place for this project, but that wasn't the magic. The magic came while I knit. Remember: I was knitting for a chef. I might have noted the colors of this variegated skein in some other way, or not at all, if I'd been knitting for someone else, but as I knit for Angelika, I saw fruit, spices, wines... It was a bit surreal so I took notes. Here's a list of the "colors" I found in this yarn: beet/rhubarb/potato soup, aubergine ("eggplant" doesn't sound as nice; oh, and it's actually "Manzani" in Vienna), cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, cranberry juice, black currants, bittersweet berries, and a touch of deep, red wine - Gangl Grand Cuvée perhaps.
3 comments:
the food is beautiful, and the stole looks delicious.
Guess this is why you travel, huh?
Seriously nice work on the stole. I think your blogs are starting to blend...
Oh Auntly H, in this post you have woven - or knit ? - together so many things that are of such high emotion to me !
First of all, our - yes OUR ! - party. Thanks again for your invaluable help, it would have never been the same without you. We know that "in normal life" we both are no real teamplayers, but it worked out so perfectly, so smoothly and didn't we have such an abundance of fun ! Thank you for being such an essential part of the whole, thank you for joining in the fun.
And then there is the stole. This is one of the most emotional things I have ever been given. I so much admire and appreciate the work and the time you have woven into it, I only feel sorry for the "deadline" you wanted to follow, but you have managed so perfectly ! Being a creative person myself I know that hand-made things are the most valuable in the world, especially when there is so much love and understanding and thoughtfulness involved. And again so many special moments and memories have been combined - knit - together in this stole : our chatty "short" evening full of laughter several weeks ago; the atmosphere of theDiningRoom; even my Texan Sisters have played their part (thank you !); our get-together with the Sisters in Vienna and above all the fun we had with Gino and his special friends at the school; the inauguration party itself and two days together in the dream kitchen; and now magic spices and aromas, and even my favourite wines ! Thank you so much again. The stole itself is still lying, nicely wrapped in the lovely paper in which the wool had arrived at your place, on the glass kitchen board; I have not dared to remove it yet from there since it has meant so much luck. However, it will always stay a special talisman and I will certainly wear it on the Küchendeck or on the patio or somewhere else, whenever there is such a warm and smooth evening like we luckily had on Tuesday.... And, most of all, it will always remind me of a true friend of whom I hope that she will come back to "her" Vienna soon again !
A big hug, angelika and your kitchen shadow aka gino
PS: Special thanks also to Claudia aka "Wollmeise" for all her efforts.
PPS: Thank you again for having taken such lovely photos which I am allowed to use on my sites.
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