Yayyyyyyy! Irina Shabayeva was crowned the queen of Project Runway last night.
And I must admit, I agreed wholeheartedly with the judges. So what if she occasionally came off as a b(*%#. Irina really worked that last collection. And it showed! In classic Irina fashion, she said after her win, “I think this deserves a pat on the back, because I did have some stiff competition.”
No kidding, Irina had to step up to the plate to win the title. This girl is a great designer. While her last collection was Gladiator-meets-Mad Max, it told the story of “New York girl who needs to protect herself with a shield” quite appropriately. And as Michael Kors said, she had the best sense of showmanship of the Final 3. And let’s not forget the little black dress she designed for Macy’s….I swear, I pegged her as the winner when I saw that dress.
My only complaint (and the judges) was Irina’s lack of color. It was all black. Still, her designs were defintely slammin’.
Now, Carol Hannah (my second choice) offered up some pretty pieces, but the judges said they lacked cohesion (I must agree). Althea’s collection, inspired by old sci-fi movies, leather, metallics and oversized knits, made me grab the telephone and call my BFF Miriam (Carol was her favorite). And when the judges said she knows “what’s cool on the street,” we both thought she’d pull it out at the end.
Now, correct if I’m wrong, but Carol did get the biggest round of applause when she first appeared on the runway, right? Mmmmmmmm?
Anywho, I must admit, my favorite moment of the entire episode was watching super cool Tim Gunn lose it for a mili-sec on the designers backstage when their models weren’t ready for the runway. I love me some Tim (I just interviewed him last week) and he’s never shown that side of him, but boy he’s sexy when he gets mad, right? I love you Tim.
As for guest judge Suzy Menkes, what was that on top of her head? She looked like a sweet little school teacher I had in the third grade. Bless her heart.
Auf wiedersehen. I sure hope there will be a reunion special.
See you next season Project Runway.
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I don’t brag. Really. Not often. ... OK, only to my closest friends.
So, just between us, I’m really kind of proud of the blooming I’ve got going on.
I started this garden around 2001, and, since I mostly planted in the summertime, I had pretty much a summer blooming garden. Thanks to you guys, I now have a garden that blooms in the fall, too!
FOD Janice Vogt gave me a chalice vine cutting a few months ago. Solandra maxima likes full sun to partial shade (I have mine in my only little shady spot) and well-draining soil. It also tolerates seaspray, so it’s good for your beach condo. (Not mine. I don’t have one.)
It grows big and fast, and needs support. The blooms are outstanding! And fragrant—my cat was getting intoxicated on this one this morning.
Janice has also given me countless angel’s trumpets cuttings. Brugmansia suaveolens does not like my yard! It’s supposed to like full sun, but it doesn’t like mine. Or maybe it’s my sandy soil—even though I throw in buckets full of compost before I plant.
I would love to have the gorgeous, 5- to 10-foot blooming trees Janice has. But my trumpets are vertically challenged. Or dead. The best of my two little survivors seems to love being in a pot in a corner that gets some shade from the neighbors’ trees. I water frequently and fertilize once every couple months.
This one is interesting because it has both solid green and variegated leaves.
From FOD Janna Begole, I got two cat’s whiskers cuttings.
I had never seen Orthosiphon aristatus till I saw the showpiece blooms in Janna’s garden. She had hers cleverly placed in front of a group of shorter, colorful plants and the effect was stunning. I don’t brag, but I do beg, and, well, it’s fruitful!
I planted this one less than two months ago. It took quickly without a lot of excessive watering, and had its first bloom in no time. Right now, it’s not getting a killer amount of sun. We’ll see how it tolerates summer in Penny’s full-on desert.
A little update on the tiny, organic veggie garden: The yellowing yellow pear tomatoes got a good amount of help from the stinky fish emulsion fertilizer. (See earlier post) It’s now much more green than yellow, has blossoms, and I’ve gotten to actually eat a couple tomatoes. (They’re tasty! And cute!)
FOD Chip Fulp (our edible expert) says yellow pears do better here in the spring, when it’s warmer. Somebody needs to tell Home Dept! I bought this one there at the end of August.
Finally, yeah guys, a plant I discovered, successfully grew AND propagated all on my own! I love my butterfly cassia, also known as desert cassia or Cassia bicapsularis. (Monica Brandies had a few of these—she says they’re the most sought-after cutting when people visit her Open Garden in November.)
I bought my first in 2001 at the now defunct Hudson Nursery. The family propagated it from a huge tree in their yard. That first little one was big and beautiful by 2004, when the hurricanes whipped it around just a bit too much. (I was devastated.)
But I had already discovered it was easy to grow from seed, and I already had some of Miss Original’s daughters growing. Thank God. I have two in the yard now and three volunteers in pots. This one is a great-granddaughter of Miss Original. It’s three or four years old. This is a tree, not a bush. The limbs are hanging much lower than usual because they’re so weighted down with blooms. (YOW! I love it!)
Also, sulphur butterflies, those fun little yellow, frolicky butterflies, love this tree whether or not it’s in bloom. It’s a larval food, but the caterpillars don’t eat enough to make it ugly—and it’s a very pretty tree even when it’s not blooming.
Unless you ate or worked at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., you probably have never heard of Jérôme Girardot. The respected pastry chef was known for his quiet nature and his ability to turn chocolate into art. Former co-workers remember him saying that, “Anything you can see or imagine I can create in chocolate.” Monuments. Fifty-inch-tall Easter eggs. Anything.
Girardot was born in northeastern France and began learning about pastry as a young boy. Eventually specializing in chocolate, his career led him to the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas and later to the Ritz in Washington, D.C.
In February, Girardot, 32, was found dead at a park in the west side of Alexandria, Va. The state medical examiner declared his death a suicide, according to Washington City Paper.
To honor their friend and colleague, two dozen chefs and food celebrities will come together on Dec. 3 in Orlando for‘ A Night of Extreme Taste’ at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. (Two more events in Chicago and Washington, D.C., are planned.) Proceeds will go to The Jerome Girardot Fund established to support his children, Noah, 5, and Luc, 3.
During the event, guests will be served the signature dishes of 12 noted savory chefs at individual stations as well as pairings of fine wines and spirits. Fittingly, 12 pastry chefs will collaborate to create a grand dessert buffet. All guests will receive a box of chocolate truffles created for the event by four celebrated chocolatiers, including Norman Love.
Participating in the meal will be Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” star Geoff Manthorn; “Food Network Challenge” host Keegan Gerhard; Bravo’s ‘Top Chef’ contestants Jeff McInnis and Mike Voltaggio; Norman Van Aken; Melissa Kelly; and two-time world pastry champion and Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin executive pastry chef Laurent Branlard.
Tickets are $95 per person. For more information or to purchase, go online to www.jeromegirardotfund.com
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I may be slow, but I’m good on the follow-through! Here are some more of the plants in Monica Brandies’ Brandon garden.
If you missed the earlier post, these are from Monica’s Open Garden, held two Saturdays every year in November. Monica has written or co-written 11 books, and they’ve helped many a newcomer—and old-timer—learn what works and doesn’t work here. She is the nicest woman, mother of nine, grandmother of .... more than that ... and holds her Open Gardens with help from her husband, David, kids, grandkids, and our own personal fav kid, Mangoman.
Janna and I fell in love with her orange cosmos.
A fellow visitor, Marla Clites of Brandon, told us she grows these and they are wonderfully hardy. They re-seed themselves and come back every year if you don’t mulch the area. (Yes, weeds are a problem until cosmos crowd them out. ) She was popping off dozens of little seed pods for Janna, who I hope plans to share!
Interesting note—Marla says the orange do much better than any other cosmos color.
Turk’s cap was one I’ve heard of but never seen. The plant is tall and covered with blooms, which all had this sleepy look. Not sure if they ever wake up more than this, but I got a cutting!
The rare white plumbago! I’d never heard of it, so it was a thrill to see. But I think the thrill was all novelty. For flower power, I’ll stay with the blue.
Last but not least, how’s this for fun? Chinese hat plant. Also called cup and saucer plant. It’s named for the funky little blooms. Monica’s was about 10 feet tall, a climbing shrub with lots and lots of blossoms. You’d want to put this—as she did—near a walkway so people can get a load of the flowers, which are less than an inch in diameter.
Monica says the cuttings people ask for most often are from her butterfly cassias, which are in fully neon yellow bloom right now. (If you’re not familiar with it, I’m very proud of mine and I plan to post a picture this week.) Second is probably flowering maple, which I’ve never heard of and failed to get a photo of (sorry).
Here’s a bit of sad news for milkshake and ice cream lovers in Tampa: Snack City, an institution on Columbus Drive, is out of business.
Of the five decades the West Tampa institution had been around, Alfredo Naranjo , 77, owned it for three. He catered to a diverse clientele with tropical fruit creams for his Hispanic customers, saffron-laced Kesar Pista ice cream for Indian visitors and Lychee Nut ice cream for Asian treat-seekers.
Last year when Miami celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein came through town, I took her to Snack City to try the decadently creamy Dulce de Leche.
Me? I couldn’t resist a scoop of wonderfully fresh Guayaba. They also served what I thought were the best milkshakes in Tampa.
I spoke by phone this afternoon with Silvia, Alfredo’s wife of 54 years. She told me the shop closed two weeks ago.
She told me that the business hadn’t made a profit for three or four years. Recently, the store hadn’t made enough to pay the electricity bill. Rumors circulated online for years that the store was on the ropes.
“Alfredo is 77 years old,” she said in broken English. “We can’t work for nothing no more. It’s a shame. He makes the best ice cream.”
To put this in context, consider that when Snack City opened, it was during the Golden Age of the ice cream parlor. It survived the commercialization of ice cream, the franchising of ice cream shops and changes in the national diet.
As historian Gary R. Mormino wrote in the Tampa Tribune July last year:
Tampa entered the modern age with the arrival of Henry Plant‘s railroad in the 1880s. The transportation revolution made it possible for red snapper caught in Tampa Bay to be sped to New York’s City’s Fulton Fish Market in 24 hours.
Vast amounts of ice were necessary to refrigerate fish, vegetables, and beer. Tampa’s first ice factory opened at the Government Spring in 1884, in today’s Ybor City.
With abundant supplies to make ice cream, soda fountains and ice cream parlors followed, some palatial and ornate, others simple and unadorned. By 1893, Tampa boasted seven ice cream parlors.
Cuban immigrants brought a rich tradition of blending tropical fruits with cream and sugar. Heladarias (ice cream parlors) competed to see which prepared the finest sapodilla, alligator pear, and mango helados. In 1896, The Tampa Tribune praised the “Famous” ice cream served at “El Original,” a parlor on 14th Street in Ybor City.
Tampa Bay area dairies supplied tankers of milk and cream, but many produced their own specialties. Poinsettia Dairy, begun by William Barritt, manufactured ice cream. In 1915 it became the Tampa Dairy Company, and in 1943 it was acquired by Borden’s. Southern Dairies also made ice cream. Many Latin families also operated dairies.
By the 1920s, national brands arrived in the Tampa Bay area. Good Humor trucks and carts, manned by employees in their distinctive white uniforms, circulated widely.
The post-war decades introduced still more competition as national companies, such as Dairy Queen, Baskin-Robbins and Carvel, entered the Tampa Bay market. A few local favorites, such as Snack City in West Tampa and Bo’s in Seminole Heights, have managed to survive.
Following World War II, however, affluence meant owning a refrigerator with a freezer compartment. People could enjoy ice cream at home, anytime.
By the 1960s, as national chains started opening shops in malls, the old-fashioned Mom and Pop parlors, along with drug store soda fountains, were becoming sweet memories of a less hurried time.
Former Tribune reporter Phil Morgan wrote the definitive profile of Alfredo and Snack City in 1998. (Times reporter Jeff Klinkenberg wrote a great profile last year, too.)
Included in Phil’s story was this excerpt:
Ice cream smoothed the path to self-reliance after Naranjo came to this country. He and his family were able to leave Cuba in 1962, three years after Castro took over. His first job in the United States was as a janitor in a factory in Elizabeth City, N.J. It took him a year to learn English. He then rented an ice cream truck and saved to buy it. He saved to buy a second, then an ice cream shop and a coin-operated laundry.
He started taking annual vacations to Florida and decided to move here. He loved the weather. It was close to Cuba’s weather.
Havana was heaven to him, Naranjo says, smiling at the memory. He lived in El Vedado section, in a tall building overlooking El Morro fortress and El Maleco’n, the broad boulevard that stretches along the beach. He and a friend used to say that “the best part of the world is Cuba. The best part of Cuba is Havana, and the best part of Havana is El Vedado. And the best part of Vedado is here, where we live.”
He would love to see it again, but he would never go back for a visit, even if he could, as long as Castro is in power.
“I’m an extremist,” Naranjo says. “I’m political ... in every detail of my mind.”
His 21-year-old granddaughter, Stephanie Llona, stopping by on this Friday night, sums him up:
“He is a perfectionist, an idealist. He likes things done his way or no way. Very stubborn. Big, big heart,” she says, kissing him on his forehead on the way out the door.
His wife of 43 years, Silvia, says he “looks tough, but he’s not.”
Some friends were talking the other day about cinch bugs, brown patches and other banes of lawn care.
“Not a problem for me,” I said. “I’ve got weeds.”
Hahahaha, they laughed. “Yeah! Me, too. Ha-ha!”
They were joking. I am not.
Sure, I have some tufts of Bahia here and there, depending on the season. But if it weren’t for the weeds, my yard would have a serious case of pattern baldness.
Actually, it’s wrong to call my little volunteers weeds. By definition, weeds are unwanted, and I want mine. That makes them wildflowers.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to persuade neighbors, or maybe a homeowners association, of this fine semantic distinction. In such cases, it’s important to learn your plants’ names. Who can argue when you point to Emilia fosbergii Nicolson and identify it as Florida tasselflower?
Thank goodness my neighbors are an easygoing bunch. But for those of you not so fortunate, I e-mailed photos of some of my new fall bloomers to a University of Florida weed expert. Phil Busey, based in Fort Lauderdale, very kindly provided the names.
Sadly, he wasn’t as appreciative of my favorite as I am.
“I consider the Southern sida nasty in lawns. It has a strong taproot and is hard to remove,” he wrote. “I prefer more delicate, restrained weeds.”
But the flowers, he conceded, are “attractive and interesting.”
Which is more than I can say for my Bahia.
Your wildflower glossary for this week
Southern sida
Sida ulmifolia
A common sight in southeast Florida, it’s also called common wireweed (but you don’t have to share that). This is a big bloom compared to the others—about an inch across. It reminds me of Cuban buttercup.
Pink purslane
Portulaca pilosa
Phil says this ID is a “probably.” Pink purslane usually grows in dry, sandy areas and looks like the cultivated moss rose. This photo is a super close-up; the flowers are very small and open only in bright light. But the little clusters of hot pink spots are very pretty when open, just like their domesticated cousins.
Globe amaranth
Gomphrena serrata
An uncommon plant, Phil says. It’s documented in only seven states, including Hawaii, according to a USDA Plants Database. Not quite so dramatic in the yard because it’s tiny, but it reminds me a bit of white clover Up North, so I like it.
PS The sign in the photo at the top was a gift from a friend. Isn’t it great when friends know you so well? I love it! It hangs on my front door.
Ask for Vee at Skin Savvy
2802 W Azeele St
Tampa, FL 33609
(813) 870-9000
Saturday was Day 5 of doing nothing since developing costochondritis at our flag football tournament.
My ribs are improving every day. I actually wasn’t forced to do the tuck-and-roll to get out of bed this morning.
So the doc said I’m not allowed to do anything for at least a week.
I am going stir crazy!
I decided to head outside and get some fresh air during a leisurely walk along Bayshore.
Because the weather is finally nice for November, it felt great to be outside.
But I guess I left the “leisurely” part at home.
It killed me to see so many runners pounding the pavement when I knew I couldn’t.
But during my walk, I lapped:
*Seven walkers
*Two dogs
*A woman with a baby stroller
*A man pushing his wife in a wheelchair
That’s right. I passed the wheelchair.
Hey, a girl with a rib injury has to stay competitive somehow.
I also had time to notice the stingray swimming in the bay.
I counted at least four Gators. (Way to win over South Carolina this weekend!)
And a cute guy smiled at me, too!
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