The Party Begins

Sparklers, Champagne and the Year Ahead

Sparkling. Photo: Getty Images, 1933

Belated Happy New Year and Welcome to Year Three of Time Travel Kitchen!

Having a birthday the same week as the 4th of July means most of my birthday cakes have arrived at the table with sparklers, not candles. This July should be a real humdinger because I’m turning 70, and that’s a lot of sparklers.

This feels like kind of a big deal to me, so I’ve decided to celebrate for the entire year and I’m dragging everybody I know along for the ride. In my fantasy the actual day will be celebrated with friends in a rented Wienermobile (seats six, including the company’s assigned “hotdogger driver”) that I’ll fill with cocktail wieners and Veuve Clicquot because it would be so ridiculous and therefore, fun.

The playlist will be Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66 and everything ever recorded by Antonio Carlos Jobim, giving the whole party a suave vibe as we cruise down Michigan Avenue like a Mardi Gras float of processed meats.

Interior of the Wiener Mobile. Getty Images.

As for the Veuve Clicquot, if I’m going to splurge it will be on this champagne. Not only is it great, but I love the backstory. “Veuve” is the word for “widow” in French — and an actual widow, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, the Widow Clicquot, changed the industry forever during the time of Napoleon.

There is a fantastic biography by Tilar Mazzeo about Madame Clicquot and a film has also been made about the life of this remarkable woman. Widow Clicquot premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and is due for North American release in 2024.

The Widow Clicquot by Tilar Mazzeo, Harper Collins, 2009. Link: Here

On New Year’s Eve I hosted a small (early!) champagne party for some friends before everyone headed out for dinner and I served (splurged) on Veuve Clicquot. With nibbles of popcorn (great with champagne) salted almonds and shrimp cocktail it was just enough to enjoy with the bubbles, but not so much that it spoiled appetites.

Bubbles and Nibbles at my place. Photo: Jolene

Celebrating with The Fabulous Stein Sisters: Hattie Stein, Me and

Leigh Stein

who writes the terrific Attention Economy.

If you’d like to do some baking with champagne there is an absolutely delicious champagne cake my friend, the legendary baker

Anne Byrn

created — a real showstopper. I made it a while ago and have linked to Anne’s recipe here. It uses pink champagne and it’s a perfect celebration cake, whatever the celebration. So pretty and good and I love decorating with real rose petals.

I loved making (and looking at) this cake! Photo: Jolene

Mrs. Palmer

In addition to Madame Clicquot, another formidable woman I have great affection for is Bertha Palmer, Mrs. Potter Palmer, the de facto First Lady of Chicago in the late 19th Century that I’ve spent the past year with. Also, she invented the Brownie at The Palmer House Hotel, so there’s that.

From the website of The Palmer House, A Hilton Hotel

The Year Ahead

Like everyone else, I’m feeling the heaviness of the world right now. I turn to the work of artists who move me and comfort me and make me think. This quote from the incomparable Toni Morrison really touched me at this moment in time.

Of course I am a storyteller and therefore an optimist, a firm believer in the mind’s appetite for truth and its disgust with fraud.

I’m a believer in the power of knowledge and the ferocity of beauty, so from my point of view your life is already artful — waiting, just waiting for you to make it art.

— Toni Morrison from a speech to graduating seniors at Princeton University in 2005

The Ferocity of Beauty

In each post this year I am going to take a minute to highlight writers whose beautiful work I consistently admire and share it with you here.

Danyel Smith

who writes Shine Bright HQ on Substack wrote Tina Turner’s obituary for The New York Times Magazine: The Lives They Lived tribute this past December. Link to the piece at Danyel’s Substack or Instagram page below or via the NYT.

author

Danyel Smith on Instagram: “chose this song because
🔆
as i’ve often said, when i was a baby, i thought Tina Turner’s name *was* Proud Mary — that’s just how hard she sang it: ‘and i never lost one minute of sleep / worrying ‘bout the way things might have been.’ say it Miss Tina. keep reminding us of of that good word. beyond grateful to my editor @nielaorr and the visionary and committed folks — art, design, research, copy — @nytmag 🔆
so much more to come, here — and everywhere 🔆 big wheels keep on turning, yes they do 🔆 wishing you the year you most desire 💐💐💐💐💐
#tinaturner #thelivestheylived #2023recap #blackwomenrock #writerswrite #blackgirlsongbook #danyelsmith #shinebrighthq”

January 9, 2024

Christene Barberich

’s A Tiny Apartment brings a mixture of utility and beauty and personal style — whether for a tiny home or an outfit for dinner. And no one is better at joyfully thrift store shopping and sharing that expertise with you than Christene.

I think that’s why I like thrifting so much. It gives beautiful secondhand things another life and purpose.

—Christene Barberich, 2024

I hope you’ll visit Danyel and Christene’s pages, I just love them both.

Getting This Party Started

I thought about it over the break and since 35 is half of 70, all yearly subscriptions will be $35 going forward. Also, no content will be paywalled this year (it’s a party, after all) so if you are enjoying the festivities here, I’d love it if you’d upgrade to a yearly subscription.

For all of the readers who are already and have been paid subscribers over the past three years, I really can’t thank you enough — you’ve buoyed me and given me confidence. Getting paid to write? A dream fulfilled.

And speaking of dreams, I wasn’t kidding about my love for Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66 and the gorgeous sound of lead singer Lani Hall’s (a Chicago native, by the way) voice. So I’ll close this post with one of my favorite songs — listening to So Many Stars feels like a good way to start the New Year here. See you soon. Jolene ✨