Susannah Seton is the author of Simple Pleasures of the Home, Simple Pleasures of the Garden, Simple Pleasures for the Holidays, and coauthor of Simple Pleasures: Soothing Suggestions and Small Comforts for Living Well YearRound. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter.

CHAPTER 1

The Kitchen

The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the activeand passive.

—WILLIAM RALPH INGE

Breaking the Fast

I love breakfast. Always have. I love all the traditional breakfast items—orange juice,waffles, pancakes, eggs, bacon, bagels, coffee. My favorite thing on a Sunday morning isto wake up late and, still in pajamas, make a leisurely breakfast—a goat cheese omelet,perhaps, with Kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes—and spread out over the kitchentable with the New York Times. Sometimes I can make breakfast last till 2 P.M. What ajoy!

Raisin Scones

Scones are becoming increasingly popular breakfast items. They're easy to make, andbecause these are made with oats, they have the added benefit of being good for you.

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1½ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1¼ cups quick oats
1/3 cup raisins

Combine butter or margarine with milk and egg in a large bowl. Set aside. Sift togetherflour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar. Add gradually to milk mixture,stirring well. Add oats and raisins and mix well.

Preheat oven to 400° F. With flour-coated hands, form the dough into an 8-inch circle on alightly floured cookie sheet. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate wedges slightly and bake for 12–15 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 8.

Baking Bread

I've been scanning the sales ads, thinking about getting a bread machine. Maybe if I waitawhile, I think, I can get one cheaper. But then I remember how I like to smack the doughto see if it's kneaded enough—as one book said, it should feel like a baby's bottom. Thatthought reminds me how connected I feel to countless generations of women who havemade bread for their families, and how much I love the smell of bread baking.

I wonder how it would feel for that bread to come from a machine into which I dumpingredients in the rush of doing something else, then punch in the correct time-delaysequence. No more thinking of all the women who have made bread before me; no moresmacking it to see if it feels like a baby's bottom.

On second thought, I think I'll keep the flour on the floor, the overactive yeast oozing out ofthe cup, and the awkward tiptoe position I have to assume to knead the bread on acounter that's too high. I'll keep it all, happily.

Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the gram thatnurtures. It is not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life.

—Lionel Poilane

Basic White Bread

Nothing beats the smell of bread baking in the oven or the warm loaves sitting on thecounter. It creates such a feeling of home! Here's a basic recipe.

1¼ cups low-fat milk, scalded
1½ tablespoons honey
1¼ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons canola, corn, or safflower oil, plus a bit more
1¼-ounce package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (105-115° F)
3 1/3 cups unbleached flour, approximately

Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Stir and let cool to lukewarm. In a smallbowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and add to milk mixture. Add flour to mixture, a little bitat a time, to form a stiff dough. Mix well after each addition. Turn onto a lightly flouredboard and knead until smooth and elastic.

Grease a large bowl and add dough, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover with a damptowel and let rise in a warm place until double in size. Punch down and let rest until doublein size again. Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375° F. Shapedough into a loaf and place in a greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch bread pan. Brush top with oil.Cover and let rise until double in size.

Bake loaf until done, about 40 minutes. It should be brown on top and sound hollow whenstruck. Makes 1 loaf.

The smell of new bread is comfortable to the head and to the heart.

—Anonymous, Circa 1400S

Herbal Bouquet

When I purchase fresh herbs or gather them from my garden, I like to cut off the bottomsand place them in a nice vase on my kitchen windowsill. This not only brightens up thekitchen, it adds fragrance, keeps the herbs fresher longer, and has the added benefit ofreminding me to use them in a variety of dishes.

Cutting Capers

There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that beats the feeling of cutting with a truly sharp knife.The satisfying whack to halve an onion, then a rapid chopping to mince it perfectly; slicingthrough beef as if it were butter; actually cutting rather than mushing a tomato—preparingfood is a true pleasure provided the knives are sharp enough. I'm such a fanatic aboutknives that my husband even bought a whetstone; when things get a bit too dull, he cartsit out and sharpens things up again.

Paint with Passion

My kitchen is tiny (roughly 4-by-8-feet) and was rather unattractive when I moved in. Idecided to add character to it by painting the trim an unconventional color. Years back, Ihad clipped a photo of what I thought was an incredibly beautiful kitchen and had saved itin a folder with some other decorating ideas. What I most liked about the kitchen in thephoto was the unusual green that was used on the trim. My kitchen was so ugly that I hadnowhere to go but up, so I was open to just about anything. When I first applied the greenpaint, it was pretty shocking—it was the color of comic book kryp-tonite—even though ithad looked "perfect" at Kelly-Moore. I toned it down with some beige paint that I had onhand, and it came out just right. I love looking at it.

Taking the Plunge

If you are inspired to go wild with trim, consider the following suggestions:

1. Stay away from trendy colors—you're probably going to be living with that room for a longtime. Plus, you might just want something different than what everyone else has.

2. Don't be afraid to mess up—you can always paint over it.

3. Think about the surrounding accent colors—will what you have mesh with the new coloryou've chosen?

"Roast Beef, Medium" is not only a food. It is a philosophy.—Edna Ferber

Mindful Eating

I used to be a remarkably fast eater, and I read or watched TV while eating. I still do thatduring some meals. On most days, though, I eat my breakfast cereal very slowly andremember to bow to the bowl before each spoonful. Also, I bow to my water glass beforeeach drink. I try to make the bow a slow one: I try to hold it for a beat and then breatheslowly and deeply when coming out of it.

During that bow and while eating, I try to think of all the sacrifices and hard work that havegone into...