a small gift fit for the queen

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and 

her grandmother Valerie Glassborow Middleton

The Middleton sisters have an “oh so very English” family recipe for their granny’s chutney that they love to share with the public and with the Queen! At Kate's first Christmas with the royal family, she gifted a jar of this special chutney to the Queen. “I was slightly worried about it, but I noticed the next day that it was on the table,” she stated. 

Sister Pippa has featured the heirloom recipe in her party book entitled Celebrations. It sounds quite yummy and can be best served with cheese and crackers. When I first read the recipe, I literally thought that it called for bone marrow, but soon found out that marrow is actually the British term for zucchini!

I've translated the recipe from grams and liters to American measurements, so here's an easier version of the recipe for us. I plan on making it this weekend, just for fun! 

KATE MIDDLETON’S GRANNY’S CHUTNEY

Ingredients (Makes 8 jars)

4 lbs. marrows/zucchini, peeled, deseeded and chopped into small chunks

4 medium onions, peeled and chopped into small chunks

3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks

½ lb sultanas or raisins

½ lb pitted dates, roughly chopped

4 Tbsp malt vinegar

4 cups soft brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices, secured in a piece of muslin

Directions:

Put the chopped zucchini/marrow, onions and apples into a large preserving pan, add the rest of the ingredients and the bag of spices and stir together, then place over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and simmer gently from 1½-2 hours or until well blended and thick.

Take the pan off the heat, cool and remove the muslin, squeezing the liquid from the bag. Spoon it into sterilized jars with vinegar-proof lids, filling them to within 1cm of the top. Ensure the rims are clean, screw on the sterilized lids and store in a cool place for up to 12 months. Once open, store in the fridge and use within 1 month.

What do you give the woman who has everything? Well, Kate made the right decision giving the Queen this special treat. "I thought back to what I would give my own grandparents," said Kate. "And I thought, 'I'll make her something,' which could have gone horribly wrong. But I decided to make my granny's recipe of chutney." Sounds like a fabulous idea, Kate!

ciao! fabiana

Available on Amazon

shelf that idea

I’m fanning out on Reese Witherspoon's new Hello Sunshine office décor in Santa Monica. The wall of bookshelves with café-like seating is everything! 

And I love how the books and accessories are arranged by color. It absolutely plays into my slight OCD issues with organization.

And I’m sharing a few more of my favorite bookshelf and seating combos... always a cozy situation!

By the way here’s the description of Reese’s latest business venture:  “Hello Sunshine: Honest. Funny. Positive. Founded by Reese Witherspoon, Hello Sunshine is a media company creating & curating content celebrating female storytelling.”

ciao! fabiana

photo credit:

1 2 Domino
3 Hudson Interior Designs
4 5 6 7 Pinterest

zinqué cafe and lido marina village

There are so many fun new places to check out at Lido Marina Village here in Newport Beach, so this morning my friend Nancy and I stopped headed over to Zinqué for her special birthday breakfast. 

Zinqué has the most amazing spot right on the little boardwalk and facing the water with views of the boats and sweeping hills of Newport, behind Pacific Coast Highway.

The view from our table this morning… you can’t get any better than this for a five minute drive on this slightly chilly December morning!

And inside, they had this cozy fire burning.

After breakfast, we headed over to one of my all-time favorite shops, Serena and Lily, which Nancy had never been to before. That store is so light and airy and the coastal-inspired décor is out of this world! I literally want one of everything!

The Lido Drug Store has been around since the 1960’s and offers a small town shopping experience with beautiful gifts and holiday décor.

They have several pretty Christmas trees set up in the three levels of their store. Look at this fun beachy tablescape they have set up.

Lido Marina Village is small but a lot of fun to visit, especially while having a little coffee or lunch on the waterfront.

ciao! fabiana

a rose gold christmas tablescape

Do you ever get inspired by a little something that just catches your eye? When this rose gold glitter table runner got my attention, I knew I wanted to base my whole  Christmas tablescape around this fun piece. 

I don’t know what it is about me pretty shiny objects… I’m a pretty focused person normally, but when a little sparkle catches my eye, I drop everything and just go all in!  Especially at Christmastime.

These sweet vintage-inspired Santa ornaments were the perfect little whimsical touch that my table needed and I love that they come in three different pastel metallic shades, silver, rose gold and a soft verdigris.

The juxtaposition of the sparkling glitter works perfectly with the natural wood tones of the charger plates and the flatware. The wood texture naturally grounds the table and makes it less formal and more fun! 

This copper lantern set adds a little bit of old-fashioned charm to the table. I found that copper and rose gold work perfectly together and a little silver compliments the other metallic tones. 

Then to tie everything together, I chose  one single variety of evergreen to keep things simplified.

These little Santas have the cutest expressions! 

Just the right amount of color and vintage style was added to the table with these Snowy Trees napkins from World Market. I love how they look with the simple wood handled flatware, also from World Market.  

Oriental Trading has these beautiful snowy large sisal trees this year, so I ordered them right away, without hesitation! You can’t have too many bottle brush trees, and these are a really nice size. The color goes amazingly well with all my holiday decor!

I also found this pretty little set of pierced rose gold votive candle holders at Oriental Trading. These sparkle on the table and look gorgeous with the rose gold table runner.

I’m really happy with how this whole look came together.

Simple, fun and little glamorous!

Now I just have to concentrate of finishing my shopping and planning my Christmas menu. What do you traditionally have for Christmas dinner? This year I’m thinking of either making paella or a nice shepherd’s pie for Christmas eve.

We usually have our big meal on Christmas eve, and then we plan on ordering Chinese food on Christmas day. We did that last year and it worked out great! It was a Christmas gift to me not to have to cook another dinner, just like in the movie “A Christmas Story”.

I can’t believe Christmas is next week!

How’s your holiday prep going? 

ciao! fabiana

And it all came together like this:

Dinner Plates:  Home Goods

WoodBaroque Charger Plates: World Market

Green Glasses:  vintage

Snowy Trees Napkins:  World Market

Wood Handle Flatware:  World Market

Copper Lantern Set: Oriental Trading

Pierced Rose Gold Votive Set: Oriental Trading

White Sisal Bottle Brush Trees: Oriental Trading

Santa Ornaments:  World Market

Rose Gold Glitter Runner: Oriental Trading

Rose Gold Glass Ornaments: Kurt Adler

Spiky silver Ornaments: Crate and Barrel

White Pillar Candles: Amazon

Thank you to Oriental Trading for sending me these products to review. 

The opinions expressed in this post are truly my own.

frothy peppermint hot cocoa

I made this Peppermint Hot Cocoa

over the weekend and it was a big hit!

The espresso powder adds just a bit of richness

and doesn’t overpower the taste at all.

It’s light and airy and oh so frothy!!

Frothy Peppermint Hot Cocoa 

1 ½ cups whole milk

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped cream for topping

2 Peppermint sticks

Add milk, chocolate chips, espresso powder, vanilla extract and spices to your blender.

Blend on high until the hot chocolate is totally combined.

Pour it in a small sauce pan, heat it up to the optimal temperature and serve with peppermint sticks. If desired, top with whipped cream.

yield: 2 mugs 

I found these peppermint cocoa stirrers this week at World Market, and they work perfectly to infuse just the right amount of festive peppermint flavor into the cocoa as they slowly melt into the mix.

They have an really authentic peppermint flavor, and they’re not sticky and super sweet like a regular candy cane. 

We served this cocoa over the weekend with our Christmassy spritz cookies and homemade Tollhouse cookies, and it put us in the perfect holiday mood, while sitting in front of the fire. You could even spike this with a little Bailey's or peppermint schnapps! 

ciao! fabiana

p.s. the cute mug is from Home Goods.