beautiful rye stalk image from here.

I have an urgent stylist’s request for you my dear readers – I need to find rye stalks for a shoot this week. My preference is for fresh rye stalks as opposed to dry, but I don’t think it’s the season for rye here in the north but even still, i can’t seem to find anyone who grows rye or even happens to have rye lying about the place.

So, I’m wondering, would any of you know someone who grows rye or sells rye, or even if you live near a rye field? Or live near somewhere that sells such a product? Or know a baker that might have some rye stalks?!

I know, crazy request!

But as a stylist i often have to find crazy things and I thought I might extend this query out to you, in the hope that by the off chance you might have some rye, wherever you are in the world. And if so, if you’d be so kind as to send some my way. My deadline is this Friday, so if I can get some before then, oh I would be a very happy girl!

beautiful rye field image from here.

Thank you dear readers!

xx

… it’s all happening here in the (blog)house this weekend! Check out my two (blog)guest’s new posts here and here. Thanks guys, you’re so inspiring!!

xx

PS Yvette’s salad is so good, if there is one recipe you must try this week, it’s this one!

I was in Paris last week with family,which is why I was not able to post here. Pia was kind enough to make excuses for me two weeks in a row! I did consider bringing my computer and posting while there, which makes me laugh now, thinking about how exhausted I was chasing a two year old around the city of lights.

I have lived in Paris before but I have never experienced it with – or like – a child. It was really special to see everything through fresh eyes: Chasing birds around Notre Dame crying “I’m gonna catch you birds”; the “tower” up in the sky; salted butter on “bread toast”; coconut ice cream on Ile Saint. Louis….lovely, all of it. The weather was my favorite kind – warm enough to wear a dress and cool enough to wear a light jacket with your sleeves rolled up. The trees were in full bloom and aside from getting hit very hard in the head with a soccer ball at the bottom of Sacre Coeur I had a delightful trip full of inspiration, food and great company.

This week I will be posting several little stories sketching a moment or a place that I loved….there were so many I would rather show you over several days then edit it down to one post. I hope you enjoy!
I would also like to echo Pia’s sentiments from earlier this week, “I love Amsterdam Too!!!!” The weather has been so perfect and I returned from Paris to a garden that has exploded into bloom…more of that to come next week.

Happy Spring.

Written by Riley Salyards.
Photographs by Riley Salyards.

Yey!
Finally it’s really turning into spring over here in Amsterdam!

So maybe I’m too enthusiastic, but I immediately want to eat yummy salads. At our restaurant we just put our version of Fattoush on the menu. I have no picture of that salad yet, but when I do have one, I’ll make sure you will all get the recipe, because it’s my favorite salad at this moment.

This one was my favorite one before that and its the simplest salad ever: the ingredients do the trick for you. Your only job is is to arrange them well on a plate. If you have to win someone over, fix this salad and I’m sure you’ll get what you want!

We shot this picture for Maria last year and it is still one of my personal favorites. Pia, our hostess with the mostess, was in charge of the styling of course and Jeroen van de Spek took the picture (click here to see all the pics from the shoot).

Sexy Summer Salad

1 melon: Cavaillon melon, Galia etc.

for the syrup:
0.5 liters of white wine
100 grams sugar
4 star anise
the seeds from 1 vanilla pod (keep the pod too)
the peel of 1 lemon

Rosemary Oil:
The leaves of 3 twigs of rosemary
150 ml light olive oil
juice of half a lemon
pepper and salt

for the salad:
1 head of raddichio
4 sprigs of red or green basil
8 thin slices of Parma ham
2 buffalo mozzarella cheeses
50 grams of beautiful young salad leaves: mizuna, rocket, mustard leaf

Use a melon scoop to create nice little melon-balls. Spread them out on a deep plate.
Heat the white wine in a saucepan and add the sugar, spices and the lemon-peel. Simmer for 20 minutes on very low heat. Pour over the melon. Let completely cool down.
Make the rosemary oil: Whizz the rosemary with the lemon juice in a food processor. Pour in all the olive oil, while whizzing, taste the dressing for salt and pepper.
Arrange the radicchio leaves on four plates. Tear the mozzarella into small pieces and divide them together with with the Parma-ham, melon balls and the young leaves over the plates. Drop some syrup over it. Sprinkle with torn Basilicum and finish off with the rosemary oil, serve immediately with crisp bread.

You can also conserve the melon in this syrup. Pour this 2 x this quantity of syrup over the balls of at least 2 melons in a clean pot (2 liters) and cook it in boiling water for about 10 min.
It will keep for about a month!

Enjoy!

love Yvette x

…so, as I mentioned last week, here are a few behind the scenes from my last shoot with maria magazine. I only had my mobile phone with me to take photos with at the time, and I was very sick with the flu you might recall, so I could only capture a few shots on this particular occassion, but I hope you appreciate them none the less.

Above you see some photos of the table while I was getting it ready. I was standing back, visualizing what colours I wanted to be prominent. I loved the colour of the rosé we were featuring (more about that in a moment), so I made that the prominent colour for the table setting with white and cream as the backdrop, and a splash of green for Spring! A sprinkle of rose petals here, and an antique knife and fork there.

Can you see the photographic equipment outside the window, ready for our outdoor shots? Below are some behind the scenes photos of the outdoor table where we shot the savoury tarts with smoked chicken, dill and goat cheese (recipe here)…

…as you can see Jeroen is ‘making Spring’ with his light set up! clever thing he is. meanwhile, I manage to find some Spring-like flowers in the garden store the day before, so I was busy picking flowers off and ‘sticking’ them on not so flowery plants on the table. Just another one of my stylist’s tricks!

…we had a baby on set! who doesn’t love a baby on set? unfortunately I was too sick to go near baby Yannick, otherwise i would have smothered him in cuddles and kisses. So hair and makeup stylist Mascha, Yvette and her mum did a great job at making up for my lack of affection.

In the second photo Mascha is doing Fleur’s (incredible red) hair. Fleur (the mother of baby Yannick) is the star of our shoot – it is her wine we featured! She actually has an award-winning wine named after her, how awesome is that? Fleur’s family owns a beautiful winery called Domaine de L’Amaurigue in France. Yvette came up with the brilliant idea to shoot a Spring Ladies Lunch based around Fleur’s wine, a delicious rosé, perfect for Spring! Yes of course I tasted the wine, and it is indeed delicious.

The third photo is behind the camera, the fourth is the tarts in the oven, fifth and six are the table setting again. Below is a sneaky shot I took of Yvette in the kitchen while I was standing outside freezing my buns off! I rather like this artsy shot…

I hope you’ve like these behind the scenes photos! Click here to see the full magazine story. And here if you’d like to see more of my behind the scenes photos.

Oh i can’t believe it’s already Friday! Where did the week go?