Indoor Winter Wire Wreath

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 | Add Comment

Indoor Winter Wire Wreath from The Faux Martha

It was the first week back at school, back at work, post-holidays, and I was on the couch nursing the bug I managed to get after dropping everyone off at the airport. I was in need of adding a bright spot to our house, for the rest of winter, in place of the downed Christmas decorations leaving bare walls, that could also stand in as decor for the Nordic Winter Party. Were we moving? No. In fact, we were just settling into our long winter lap, the most significant 4 months of winter. Let there be light by way of an Indoor Winter Wire Wreath, I wished. And there was. Read more

Recipe

Blueberry Spelt Pancakes

Thursday, February 6, 2020 | 8 Comments

Blueberry Spelt Pancakes with walnuts from The Faux Martha

I miss the good ole days, the days where I’d test a recipe over weeks, if not months, and post it when it was ready, when it was just right. I’d test it on Saturday mornings, when we’d eat it for breakfast, not 6 times in a row over the course of a Monday and Tuesday, a speed I learned when recipe testing for a cookbook. I started testing these Blueberry Spelt Pancakes with crushed walnuts on the underneath side sometime last year, like the good ole days, over slow Saturday and Sunday mornings. Read more

Design

Nordic Winter Party 2020

Wednesday, February 5, 2020 | Add Comment

Melissa, stay focused. I tell myself. Maybe just stick with recipes or design or writing. You’re all over the place. Or don’t. The or don’t seems to keep winning, as if I have no control over what I do. (I do.) Because we just threw a party, hosting the first annual Nordic Winter Party in the Twin Cities, hopefully the first of many. These parties have happened before on a very, small intimate scale, and the consensus after each is that we need more things like this in winter. More low-key, merrymaking gatherings to look forward to. Places to connect with something warm to drink and cozy to eat. Read more

Design

Pinch of Yum Studio Kitchen and Dining Room Reveal

Thursday, January 23, 2020 | 5 Comments

I’m pretty bad at goodbyes. I’m also the last one to leave every party or gathering. Wrapping things up isn’t my forte. I’m best at lingering. As I watch the cursor blink, blink, blink, bumming a desk space at the studio as I write this post, I’m having trouble wrapping up this project too. The Pinch of Yum Studio, a project that began 6 months ago, has come to an end. I’ve learned so much, mostly learning how much I’ve yet to learn. What is it they say—the more you know, the less you really know? And yet, I’m so proud of what we created. And proud, too, that I took my own advice, to play, and figure out where The Faux Martha is headed in the future. OK, without any further awkward lingering at the front door, come on in. I’d love to walk you through the Pinch of Yum Studio Kitchen and Dining Room reveal, where the magic happens, especially that magic green sauce. (PS—Here’s the office tour in case you missed it.) Read more

Recipe

Toasted Golden Oatmeal

Tuesday, January 21, 2020 | 2 Comments

Toasted Golden Oatmeal from The Faux Martha

I fell in love with a little prepackaged turmeric oatmeal cup on a trip to Seattle. Kev and I ate it in our hotel room every morning to save money. He’d bring up filtered water from the workout room, 3 floors down, where I swear I heard weights dropping to the ground at 5am. Bump, bump. Bump, bump. Bump, bump. We were still on central time, awake before the hotel and the city, before the sun and the birds. Read more

Recipe

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Quiche

Thursday, January 16, 2020 | 6 Comments

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Quiche from The faux martha

Every time I make a quiche, every time, my mind goes to the restored kitchen of a bed and breakfast, like this one. The one we dream about running when we’re old and grey, when our kids are young but grown, when a 10-inch quiche is too much for our table of two. I’ll stockpile handmade pie dough in the freezer and blind bake the crust each night. We’ll fill it with the freshest eggs and whatever else is in season. Read more

Recipe

Overnight Orange Cardamom Rolls

Monday, December 23, 2019 | 8 Comments

Overnight Orange Cardamom Rolls

Like religion and politics and tradition, there comes a point in adulthood when you decide what to keep from childhood and what to revise and what to frame for a shelf. These questions go through rounds of editing when two become one and then three and almost four. The Coleman family Christmas traditions are a slurry of his, mine, and what is starting to become ours. But the overnight orange cardamom rolls and cutting down a tree and going on a carriage ride and decorating a gingerbread house and cookies, the new things, they all felt a little fraudulent at first, like trying on a romper when you’ve always worn jeans. Do they fit us right? Only time will tell. Read more

Design

Pinch of Yum Office Reveal

Friday, December 20, 2019 | 13 Comments

Sometimes, my yes is fast. Maybe too fast? A couple weeks before they asked the question, Kev and I were sitting on the kitchen counter talking about what’s next. I had finished designing our home and was itching to keep designing. Not a week later did our friends ask if I’d be interested in helping design their new studio space. “Yes!” I said without hesitation.

I thanked my lucky stars that Kimberly, who works with me, was along for a new ride without a paved road. Somehow, we did it. (I couldn’t have pulled this off without her.) Or without IKEA, who partnered with us to furnish the space. Or without Bjork and Lindsay, who believed in me enough to ask. And without further adieu, I’d love to share my fast yes and slow execution with you; the Pinch of Yum Office reveal is below. Thank you, too, for being along for my many rides—from dinnertime to the dinner table to the Pinch of Yum Studio. Read more