I've had my eye on this plant ring from MAKR for what feels like years. It's simple and classic but still a little bit unusual. I'm not sure what the policy is on drilling into the wall, but I'm thinking that one of these would be right at home in my new office.

Above: Made to fit your own standard 4-inch planter, the modern ring dresses up even an inexpensive terra cotta pot. A MAKR Plant Ring is 48€ from Amsterdam-based Miscellaneous. In the US, an Avocado Powder Coated Steel Plant Ring is $48 from MAKR Studio Goods.

Above: The powder-coated steel ring and leather base plate riser are made in the USA.

Above: Available in black from Miscellaneous, and in pewter and avocado from MAKR Studio Goods. Plant and planter not included.

For more wall-mounted plant rings, see Design Sleuth: Wire Pot Hangers and A Wall-Mounted Planter, Made in California.

N.B.: This is an update of a post originally published on June 4, 2013.

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• The Novice Gardener: Help, Can This Olive Tree Be Saved?

Los Angeles-based designer Alexandra Angle worked in event design and wrote an entertaining guide with her husband, Eliot, called Cocktail Parties with a Twist, before setting up her interior design practice. For this Los Feliz guesthouse, she combined midcentury Scandinavian pieces with a Southern California palette. To see more of the firm's work, go to Alexandra Angle Interior Design.

Photography via Alexandra Angle.

Above: The cottage's bedroom opens directly to the lush green lawn; a Hans Wegner PP24 Rocking Chair made of solid ash with plaited halyard props open one of the doors.

Above: The porcelain sconces are Hector Medium Wall Lights; $210 apiece from Horne.

Above: The cottage is tucked into a corner of the yard.

Above: A path leads to the outdoor bath.

Above: A galvanized metal trough serves as a plein-air tub.

Above: A tiny outdoor dining table for two.

Above: Next to the dining area is a hammock.

Above: The tiny kitchen features dashes of red. Note the red bulb in the Moooi Cluster lamp ($361 from Ylighting) above the range.

Above: A high-backed Windsor bench is painted an unexpected shade of pale blue.

Above: For another outdoor bath designed by Alexandra Angle, see Bathing en Plein Air: 29 Outdoor Summer Showers on Remodelista.

for more ideas about how to use black as a garden accents, see A Glamorous Black and White Cottage Garden.

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My yard is filled with the rich scent of plants making their last stand. Lettuces allowed to go to seed are leafy columns waving small flowers like flags of surrender. The last of the summer sun fuels robust displays in my herb garden, especially from my basils, good soldiers to the end.

For a frozen cocktail recipe (made with the last of the summer's basil), read on:

Photography by Laura Silverman for Gardenista.

Above: Sometimes called “the king of herbs,” basil actually can be a royal pain. With enough hot weather, it generally behaves like a hardy annual, but it wilts almost instantly in the refrigerator. This applies to all varieties, though the bushy, tiny-leaved pistou basil is a bit sturdier.

Above: Genovese basil, with its broad, crinkled green leaves, is perhaps the most familiar variety of Ocimum basilicum (Ocimum is from the Greek for “to smell”) but there are many others, including opal basil, Thai basil, holy basil, lemon basil…in all there are more than 40 cultivars and almost as many subtly distinct flavors. 

Above: All basils belong to the Lamiaceae family of mints, so most have at least faint hints of that, but notes of anise, cinnamon, and clove are also common. This pungent herb is used extensively in Mediterranean cooking, but also in India, the country of its origin, and throughout Southeast Asia.

Above: There is no basil preparation more classic than pesto, the famous sauce from Genoa that contains just basil, garlic, and pine nuts pounded together, then mixed with olive oil and grated Parmesan. It’s traditionally made with a mortar and pestle, but a food processor makes a perfectly acceptable version.

Above: In addition to eating it fresh, I like to spread my pesto in a thin sheet and dry it thoroughly in my dehydrator (a low oven also works). Crumbled up, this newfangled garnish is delicious sprinkled on everything from rice and pasta to soup and salads, where it adds an irresistible crunch.

Above: The purple stems, flowers, and narrow deep green leaves of Thai basil all have a lovely sweet licorice undertone that perfectly complements the floral taste of fresh peaches. Gently poach them together in a bath of rosé sweetened with a little honey. The herb-infused syrup covers the fruit in a luxurious satin cloak. 

Above: Chef Alex Raij taught me to make a Basil Pomada, the herbaceous, bright green frozen cocktail served at El Quinto Pino, one of four restaurants she co-owns in New York City. It comes together in just a few simple steps, starting with grinding together equal parts basil and sugar.

Above: This vivid paste is combined with lemon juice, water, and gin, then frozen in an ice cream maker until it achieves the perfect slushy consistency. (This kind of herb-flavored sugar is also wonderful in other cooking applications. Try using mint-sugar to bake chocolate biscuits.)

Above: No ice cream maker? No worries. Just place the mixture in a shallow glass bowl in your freezer and rake with a fork every 20 minutes or so until you achieve the right texture.

This divine concoction hails from the Spanish island of Menorca, where the living is, clearly, very easy. It’s the best way to send off summer.

Basil Pomada, Menorca Style

Adapted from chef Alex Raij

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 cups water
• 12 ounces gin (preferably an herbaceous one, such as Plymouth) 

Instructions:

Combine sugar and basil in a food processor and process until very finely ground.

Scrape basil-sugar into a small bowl and pour the lemon juice over. Set aside, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts, about 15 minutes. Then combine with water and gin in your ice cream maker, and run the machine until the pomada is slushy, similar to a frozen margarita. Pour into a rocks, highball, or margarita glass and garnish with a sprig of basil.

For more recipes from my garden, visit Glutton for Life. And for more on our favorite basil varieties, see our Field Guide posts on Tulsi Basil and Sweet Basil.

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• DIY on a Budget: $30 Mini Concrete Planters

Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our pocketbooks. It's easy to remodel if you have a million dollars to spend. But when you don't? This week Remodelista's editors came up with 101 ways to create style on a budget. Here were our favorite ideas:

Above: Margot discovers the next hot NY neighborhood, and guess what? It's not in Brooklyn. And you don't need to throw a lot of money at the problem to create a beautiful home there. See more in House Call: Living with Vintage Finds in Queens.

Above: We're dying to update our rooms, but the year-end budget will not stretch to include construction. So we were thrilled to read about these 11 Zero-Cost Room-Changing Ideas. (We'll be doing No. 3 and No. 7 this weekend.)

Above: We can't get enough of Remodelista's inventive weekly DIYs. Justine has cleverly found bits of twine washed ashore—and repurposed them into pot holders, trivets, and more. True.

Above: Notice how even linoleum looks warm and friendly when there's a houseplant in the room? Janet explores more ways to use low-cost flooring in Remodeling 101: Budget-Friendly Linoleum.

Above: We know what we're getting Julie for her birthday: Classic Wooden Clothespins Made in the USA. Oh, and a clothesline for her backyard. Because we know 7 Life-Changing Reasons to Dry Laundry Outdoors.

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• Table of Contents: Style on a Budget
• Trending on Remodelista: Minimalist Glamour
• Table of Contents: Minimalist Glamour

Take a look at a few things we've been loving lately: 

• Above: Go for the romance (plus more tips for creating an alluring cottage garden). Photograph by Jan Johnsen. 
• Gardenista is now on Hometalk. Connect with us there, too. 
• Garage turned graphic design studio.

• Above: We're taking note from the brick work and the indoor-outdoor living possibilities of a renovated North London cottage. Photograph by Richard Chivers. 
• Our new favorite app? GrowIt!, a new social network for gardeners. 

• Above: On our wish list: An American-made hanging copper planter.
  
• The best drought-tolerant, low-maintenance plants. 

• Above: Pistachio and saffron financiers, rose petals included. Photograph courtesy of Honestly Yum. 
• The Line Hotel's newest restaurant turns an urban environment into a green oasis. (Spoiler: It's inside of a rooftop greenhouse). 

• Above: Stay tuned for a natural beauty giveaway coming to Gardenista on Monday. 
• Create a journal of the best herbal remedies for kids at Wildcraft Studio School's workshop from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, September 27. 

Take a look at Gardenista's week of Style on a Budget and don't miss Remodelista's Style on a Budget issue, too. 

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• Current Obsessions: Busy in the Garden
• Current Obsessions: Fall Prep
• Current Obsessions: Last Light of Summer

We know the landscape architect and designer members of our Architect/Designer Directory are talented, but nothing drives the point home like a good before and after. Here are some amazing gardens they've conjured in San Francisco, New York, England, and Southern California:

San Francisco: Before

Above: A verdant but unloved lawn; the owners' children had grown and gone and no one used the space.

San Francisco: After

Above: San Francisco-based Growsgreen Landscape Design created a large outdoor room and garden with a new wood patio that sits at the same level as the threshold to the house, lending the feeling of a continuous room indoors and out. At the back of the garden is a heated seating area. Photograph by Caitlin Atkinson. 

Brooklyn: Before

Above: An empty backyard in Park Slope, Brooklyn provided little utility and privacy.

Brooklyn: After

Above: Kim Hoyt Architect made use of the plot's generous length and created separate seating and dining areas connected by bluestone paving. A new stucco garden wall provides privacy and a crisp backdrop for the perennial plantings and styrax trees.

Southern California: Before

Above: A couple in Redondo Beach, California turned their garage into a studio and demolished their driveway.

Southern California: After

Above: Grow Outdoor Design used chunks of the old concrete driveway to build a retaining wall for a garden filled with Mediterranean and California native plants. Their design includes raised vegetable beds, dwarf fruit trees, a blackberry bramble, and large trees to provide shade and wildlife habitat. Photograph by Katrina Coombs.

Kent, UK: Before

Above: A thriving but impractical garden in Kent, UK sports vines destructive to cottage walls and shrubs that block access to the cottage doors.

Kent, UK: After

Above: Marian Boswall Landscape Architects redesigned the courtyard using local Kent ragstone and Breedon gravel. She created an herb-filled dining area surrounded by 'Mariette' red tulips in spring.

Northern California: Before

Above: A cramped garden in Marin County, CA with a bay laurel tree (disliked as a carrier of the pathogen for Sudden Oak Death) and a giant agave (adored by the succulent-loving client).

Northern California: After

Above: SF Bay Area-based Pedersen Associates managed to keep the client's beloved agave while creating a "classic Northern California" outdoor room carved out of the hillside.

For another dramatic before and after, see Garden Visit: Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan on Shelter Island. And browse our archives for Before and After Garden Rehabs.

N.B.: This is an update of a post originally published October 13, 2013.

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I'm not new to fresh pasta; my mom makes it, several Italian friends make it, and we have the process down well enough that we're reaching for flour just as we're starting to get hungry for dinner. But I like a challenge, and each time I say the same thing: "Next time, let's make colored pasta."

I finally took the leap, and coloring pasta with natural ingredients is far easier than I thought. I did some Googling and found myriad coloring strategies—some even using artificial food coloring (the horror!). But most agreed on a simple concept: reduce a coloring agent to two tablespoons of liquid or wet paste, and add to your pasta when adding the rest of the wet ingredients.

One thing to note: This isn't really for flavor, it's for color. I wouldn't pair the beet pasta with a sauce that would clash with beets, but even that may be all in my head: you really can't taste the beets at all.

Read on for step-by-step instructions:

Photography by Meredith Swinehart. 

Above: Fresh pasta begins with eggs, olive oil, and salt inside a ring of flour.

If you've never made fresh pasta before, try it. Just don't start when you're already hungry for dinner. It's a bit of a process the first time but, like everything, gets exponentially faster with practice. As a primer, I recommend a recipe from Linda Scheibal of Pasta Poetry: see Perfect Pasta with a Magic Ingredient on Remodelista.

Above: To flatten and cut the dough into linguine, I used a Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine with Motor; $169.95 on Amazon. Made in Italy, it's the same brand of choice as Christophe Lemaire's partner Sarah-Linh Tran.

Above: The overarching concept for coloring pasta: find something with a strong natural color, roast it, boil it, or smash it, and mix it into the pasta dough. I used beets, saffron, and fresh herbs. 

Beets: For red pasta, roast a beet in the oven (at 425 degrees for approximately an hour). When cool enough to handle, peel a piece of the beet and puree in a food processor or high-speed blender, adding a splash of very hot water. Continue blending, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until you have a very fine puree; you don't want any chunks of beet in the dough. 

Saffron: For yellow pasta, place a pinch of saffron threads into a small bowl and add two tablespoons of very hot water. Let the saffron soak for 15 minutes. Most recipes end after recommending you remove the saffron threads from the dye. This works, but the color isn't nearly as vibrant as I want it. My tweak? I poured more hot water over the saffron (just a teaspoon or so) and ground it with a mortar and pestle. This succeeded in drawing a lot more color out of the saffron, and the dye was much more vibrant. Next time I do this, I'll go straight to the mortar and pestle. 

Above: Add two tablespoons of the coloring puree with the liquid before mixing. Here, saffron water in the liquid well. 

Above: When you add coloring, you are changing the ratio of liquid to flour in the basic recipe, so consider adjusting accordingly. I did not, but I also know what fresh pasta dough should feel like, and I'm comfortable adding more flour or water as needed. Some recipes suggested swapping one large egg for two medium eggs to reduce the initial dose of liquid in the recipe.

If your dough is dry, as pictured above, your recipe will call for adding more water, a little at a time, to moisten the dough. When making colored pasta, don't add water: add more of your puree instead.

Above: Why the dark photo? Because, well, even I forgot how long it takes to make fresh pasta; I made four pounds of pasta, and by the time I'd colored each pound and run it all through the machine, the sun had set.

Above: After I'd begun cutting the pasta, I realized I hadn't accounted for a drying rack. (See DIY: Instant Pasta Drying Rack on Remodelista, coming Friday.) The solution? Let the pasta dry in small piles, each generously floured. Your final product won't be dried flat and neatly folded onto itself, but it will taste just as good. 

Above: The saffron pasta was the mildest, in both color and flavor. I couldn't taste the spice at all, but the pasta boils into a beautiful yellow color. 

Above: The earthy flavor of beets is one of the hardest flavors to mask, so I was surprised to discover that I couldn't taste the beet at all.

I paired the beet pasta with a radicchio and gorgonzola sauce from new cookbook Bitter. Stay tuned for the recipe, coming Thursday.

Above: The herb pasta had the most flavor. I paired it with more herbs—Walnut Sauce for Pasta (with walnuts, ricotta, and basil)—also from Bitter. 

Above: I hadn't intended to make the tricolore, but since the Italians gave us pasta as we know it today, viva l'Italia. 

Keep playing with pasta: See The Magic Pasta Ingredient, The Healthiest Spaghetti You'll Ever Eat, and coming Friday on Remodelista, DIY: Instant Pasta Drying Rack.

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Do you hear that crunch of leaves underfoot? September is our favorite season. The air is tinged both with nostalgia for our school days and anticipation of the holidays. This week we'll be picking apples (and planting them), stringing our own DIY dried vegetables, and filling our window boxes with the colors of autumn. Join us: 

Above: Some gardens come into their own in autumn. Like Grace Kennedy's. See more in It's High Season in Grace Kennedy's Garden.

Monday

Above: We'll be exploring both inside and out of a stylish backyard shed with a secret back door in this week's Architect Visit.

Above: Now is the time to plant next year's fruit tree. If you're thinking of an apple tree, we'll tell you everything you need to know before planting one in this this week's Field Guide. Photograph by Nicole Franzen.

Tuesday

Above: We've tracked down furniture and accessories you can leave outdoors year round; see our favorite concrete pieces in this week's 10 Easy Pieces. (And if you missed last week's ode to the humble concrete block, see 10 Genius Garden Hacks with Concrete.)

Above: We're all invited to Meredith's house for dinner. This week she launches our new feature, The Dinner Party Project, with a step-by-step plan that makes throwing a party as simple as, well, cooking dinner. Next up? Stay tuned, because we'll be asking for your favorite garden-to-table recipes to make a menu for youe next installment of The Dinner Party Project.

Wednesday

Above: Inspired by her New England forebears, Justine figures out how to make colonial-style dried vegetable garlands in this week's DIY. (Yes, she had some help from her after-school assistants.) Photographs by Justine Hand for Gardenista.

Thursday

Above: Christine Chitnis & Co. goes apple picking as we celebrate the season of U-Pick Orchards (see directions to our favorites) in this week's Garden Visit.

Above: Jeanne investigates the pros and cons of different materials for window boxes. Zinc, wood, terra cotta: which one is right for you? See this week's Hardscaping 101. Photograph via The Balcony Gardener.

Friday

Above: We tour a timber garden outbuilding versatile enough to serve as a studio, shed, barn, or garage in this week's Outbuilding of the Week. Photograph via Dezeen.

Above: Kendra visits a classic English kitchen garden at Sulby in Northamptonshire in this week's installment of Brit Style. See more of Kendra's English Garden Visits in our archives.

And see what's happening on Remodelista this week, where the editors are visiting Kitchens Around the World. 

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• Current Obsessions: Heading into Harvest
• Current Obsessions: Busy in the Garden
• Current Obsessions: Fall Prep

Seattle-based SHED (members of our architect and designer directory) designed an unassuming backyard shed with barn doors that roll open on two sides, allowing it to double as a well-appointed gardener's retreat and bike storage. But when the doors are closed? You'd never guess what's inside.

Photography via SHED.

Above: On one side, a potting shed with a sink and running water, wall-mounted shelving, and a floor you can hose down.

Above: The door slides open on an overhead track.

Above: With closed doors, the shed draws no attention to itself.

Above: The view from the potting bench.

Above: The flip side; a rolling door on the other side of the shed opens to reveal a separate space for bike storage and sporting equipment.

Above: The door's track stretches like a pergola across the path.

For another clever use of space, see House Call: Garage Studio by SHED on Remodelista. Designing your own shed? Read our Hardscaping 101 primer on Garden Sheds.

N.B.: This is an update of a post published October 13, 2013.

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Here at Gardenista, we strive to take a natural approach to our skin care and beauty regimens. Erin showed us how to make a face mask with flowers and Dalilah demonstrated how easy it is to ditch store-bought aloe vera gel.

To promote the notion of using clean, natural products on your body, we're teaming up with Hillary Peterson, former CEO of Marie Veronique Organics, to give one reader a $450 gift of products from her new venture, True Nature Botanicals. The roster of products include moisturizers, shampoos, and solid perfumes—all made with the purest scents and ingredients.

Here's what one lucky reader will win:

• One solid perfume compact and two refills in one of each of these noble scents: Citrus, Floral, and Woods. 
• A four-ounce bottle of Pacific Body Oil.
• A one-ounce bottle of Pacific Face Oil.

How to enter:

• Submit your email address to a form located at the bottom of the page.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing and contacted through the email address provided.
• The contest ends on September 29 at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted September 30. 

Note: The sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada (excluding Quebec). For more details, see the Official Rules. 

Above: The prize: A solid perfume compact ($95) plus two refills ($75 each), a bottle of Pacific Face Oil ($110), and a bottle of Pacific Body Oil ($95). 

Above: Hillary in her Mill Valley, CA garden, harvesting plants and flowers for True Nature Botanicals. 

Above: A basket of kale from Hillary's garden.

Above: True Nature Botanicals uses natural materials to achieve the most authentic scents, and each product is formulated without toxins. Take a look at the website to read more about the skin care philosophy. 

Submit your email address below to enter for a chance to win. 

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• Table of Contents: Harvest Moon
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Apples (Aplicus Rosacea): "Love-Struck"

Have you ever just known that your blind date has some shadowy past behind his chiseled cheekbones? Well, meet apple trees, the plant equivalent of dating baggage. Beneath the rosy exterior, we've got the whole Garden of Eden original sin debacle. Then there's the tiny matter of prompting the Trojan War. And giving Hercules grief in the garden of Hesperides, and delivering the poison to the lovely Snow White. On the plus side, the tree arguably saved Asian and European civilizations as one of the only fruits that could last through the long winters. Cab for two, please. 

Above: Photograph by Nicole Franzen. 

Apple trees, like Mr. Shadowy Cheekbones, take some effort. Two cultivars, the scion and the rootstock, combine to make most varieties. Both should suit your climate. Don't fret over the minutiae—every state has agricultural extension agencies, and most have detailed resources for selecting, planting, and pruning fruit trees (more than Over 7,500 varieties of apples are grown world-wide) for your area. You can even grow apple trees in a large container.

Above: A picnic under the apple tree. Photograph by Erin Boyle.

Outdoors, select a sunny, well-drained spot with excellent air flow, preferably on a slope to avoid early spring frosts that can kill off the blossoms. You'll need to thin the harvest too. 

Above: Pink apple blossoms at Walden Pond in Concord, MA. Photograph by Caroline Polgar.

When the apples are dime-sized, pinch off all but one per clump. This will give you larger apples and set fruit buds for the following year.

Above: The apple tree walk at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, UK. Photograph by Kendra Wilson.

Cheat Sheet

• Dwarf or semi-dwarf trees are best-suited for home gardens. Dwarf trees perform well in containers
• The color scheme of apple trees includes pink and white blossoms; glossy green leaves, and gray and brown bark in winter months
• Their gnarly shape makes apple trees a beautiful element in landscape design

Keep It Alive

• Don't interplant with walnut trees, which can inhibit growth
• Hardy in growing zones 4-8 (depending on the variety)
• Two is better than one: apple trees are "self-incompatible." They need another variety of apple tree nearby, one which blooms at the same time of year, in order to produce fruit. 

Above: Looking for the World's Best Applesauce Recipe? Look no further than Dorothy's Applesauce. Photograph by Michelle Slatalla.

For more of our favorite recipes with apples, see:

• Apple Coconut Crisp (Pack It to Go)
• Mulled Apple Cider (With a Secret Ingredient)
• Raw Kale Salad (With Apples and Almonds)

After your tree gets established, it can last many years, up to a hundred in some cases, providing fruit, tonic bark tea, scented blossoms, and beauty to your landscape. How do you like them apples? (Sorry, couldn't resist adding one little cliché. At least we didn't say anything about keeping the doctor away.)

Read More:

In the mood for something crunchy? Browse our state-by-state listings for U-Pick Apple Orchards. California's best apples? We found them.

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At Obercreek Farm in Hughsonville, New York (near Poughkeepsie), owners Sam Wildfong and husband Tim Heuer (who happens to be my cousin) have been growing more than 200 varieties of vegetables and herbs on ten acres since 2012. The chemical-free harvest finds its way into the farm's CSA boxes, which offer subscribers from eight to 10 varieties a week during a 22-week season.

Recently I went for a visit and a lesson in how to process herbs—by drying or making tinctures or infused oils—to make natural remedies. Read on for step-by-step instructions for how to process calendula flowers into an herbal oil used as a natural remedy for its anti-inflammatory properties and to heal wounds. (N.B.: For more about calendula oil's medicinal properties, see Memorial Sloan Kettering.

But first, a tour of the farm:

Photography by Meredith Heuer for Gardenista.

Above: Here's Sam Wildfong up in her herb drying studio.

Above: Different kinds of herbs require different preservation techniques. The best way to dry lavender is in bunches, hung by the stems in the rafters.

Above: Sam pulls the leaves from dried Tulsi plants. The dried leaves will make a great tea mixed with other herbs, such as mint or chamomile, or on their own.

Above: The many benefits of eating garlic are widely known. Sam mixes garlic with mullein in organic olive oil to make a solution to heal ear infections.

Above: Echinacea grows extremely well in the Hudson Valley and makes a powerful tincture to build up the immune system against flus and colds.

Above: Fresh yarrow leaves are used to stop bleeding wounds, to treat gastrointestinal problems and high fevers, and to improve circulation. Chewing on fresh leaves will relieve toothaches. Scientists have credited yarrow with wide-ranging health benefits.

Above: Calendula flowers, ready to be processed into a healing oil. (N.B.: Starting next year, Wildfong and Heuer will begin selling calendula oil at their farm store and will include it in CSA shares.)

Above: To make calendula oil, harvest flowers—including their sticky green calyxes—and chop (for the sake of the photo, I may not have chopped it up quite as much as I should). 

Add chopped flowers to olive oil (100 grams calendula to 300 ml olive oil) and heat the mixture to from 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (a slow cooker is great for this). Maintain temperature for 1 week. 

Above: Strain out the flower material through a colander.

Above: Then pour the liquid through a second, finer strainer.

Above: And finally, through a cheesecloth.

Above: The final product is as rich, golden oil that can be slathered on the skin to treat conjunctivitis, eczema, minor burns including sunburns. 

For more herbal remedies, see Miracle Cure for Allergies and 10 Chinese Herbs to Cure What Ails You.

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Too many people ignore curb appeal until it's time to move. Then they spruce up the place for the next residents. How does this make sense? Every time you come home, the sight of your front door should give you the sort of euphoric endorphin rush that long-distance runners feel when they stop.

Adding curb appeal doesn't have to be expensive. Take it one step at a time: here are 11 ways to add instant curb appeal for $100 or less:

Above: When architect Mark Reilly gave an Edwardian home in San Francisco a full remodel, the facade also got a facelift. Photograph by Bruce Damonte via Mark Reilly Architecture.

1. Get new house numbers. House numbers are one of the first things to catch the eye—first-time visitors are looking for them to confirm they're at the right address—and should set a tone for what to expect indoors as well as out. The spare, slim lines of Hillman Group 5-In Satin House Numbers (above) hint at the modern interior that lies beyond the traditional facade; $5.98 per number at Lowe's.

Architect Mark Reilly also updated the facade by changing the entry stairs and porch from brick to Brazilian black slate and by painting the building's trim and body the same color. The paint is Gray by Benjamin Moore (color 2120-10). For more of our favorite gray exterior paints, see Shades of Gray: Architects' 10 Top Paint Picks.

Above: Photograph via Gutter Supply.

2. Clean out the gutters. Nothing says "Boo Radley lives here" like clogged gutters full of soggy leaves and the odd bit of twigs. Don't be shy about attempting this housecleaning chore yourself. All you need is a sturdy Stepladder ($63.99 from Cornell's), your oldest pair of waterproof garden gloves to protect your hands, and a bucket to fill with water to flush out the downspout. 

For more tips on installing and caring for gutters, see Hardscaping 101: Rain Gutters.

Above: A New Zealand beach cottage has a covered front entryway. Photograph via Homebunch.

3. Add hanging hooks. If you have a covered entryway, you can turn it a welcoming extension of your home with hooks for coats, jackets, and dog leashes. Hanging fabric instantly softens the look of a space (think: curtains). We've rounded up our favorite hooks in our recent 10 Easy Pieces: Mudroom Hooks.

4. Replace your porch light. It's hard to go wrong with a wharf light (above), a versatile style that complements both modern and traditional facades. We recently rounded up our favorites, including several under $100, in 10 Easy Pieces: Wharf Lights. And if you're looking for a ceiling fixture, check out our favorites in 10 Easy Pieces: Classic Ceiling Porch Lights.

5. Get a new doormat. This is the exterior equivalent of getting new carpet. You need an upgrade if yours is stained, scuffed, worn down, or faded. If you're looking for a new doormat, see 10 Easy Pieces: Durable Doormats.

6. Get matching planters. Flank your entryway with matching potted plants (as above) to create symmetry.

Above: Photograph by Eve Ashcraft.

7. Paint the front door. Think of your front door as jewelry for your house. It can be a little flashier than the rest of the outfit the facade is wearing. A strong color that complements wall and trim paint colors can be pleasing. (To get the look of the bright blue door above, paint color consultant Eve Ashcraft recommends Benjamin Moore's #2067-20 Starry Night Blue paint in Advance Satin Finish.)

For more color ideas, see 5 Favorites: British Front Doors with Style.

Above: For more, see LA Confidential: A Private Courtyard Goes Luxe on a Budget. Photograph via Naomi Sanders Landscape Design.

8. Get a new mailbox. If yours is rusty or dented, consider replacing it with a long-lasting aluminum or steel model. See our favorites in 10 Easy Pieces: Classic Sturdy Mailboxes. 

Above: Architect Barbara Chambers keeps a rosemary hedge pruned to a height that frames her windows instead of covering them. For more, see Architect Visit: Barbara Chambers at Home in Mill Valley. Photograph by Nicole Franzen for Gardenista.

9. Trim the shrubs. Overgrown bushes that block your front windows are not a good look. Ever. Period. Shrubs should frame your windows but never hide them (unless you're on the run from the law).

Do you live in a climate where rosemary is a perennial? You too can have an herb hedge. For more on growing and caring for rosemary, see our recent Field Guide: Rosemary.

Photograph by Liesa Johannssen for Gardenista.

10. Wash the windows. This will improve the view from within as well as from the curb. Are you wondering if you can wait until spring? If your windows have cobwebs, a visible layer of dust, or dirt on the sills, you can't. Get out there and get the job done on the next sunny autumn day. Use our all-natural cleaner with The Secret Ingredient to Make Windows Shine Bright Like a Diamond.

Above: Zinc window boxes outside the Paris home of architect Nicolas Soulier and ceramicist Cécile Daladier.  For more, see A Ceramicist and an Architect in Paris.

11. Add a window box.  This is the fastest way to add color to your facade. Update the plantings year round and you can change the look every season. Wondering where to start? For more about choosing, installing, and maintaining a window box, see Hardscaping 101: Window Boxes.

If you are inspired to spruce things up a bit, see our archives for more Curb Appeal posts. And on Remodelista, see Outdoors: House Numbers from A Short Walk in Cornwall.

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Dinner parties shouldn't be hard to throw. To prove it, I invited friends over—and then fed them an easy-to-make menu based on what's in season right now at the farmers' market. Best night ever. (Hint: start with a cocktail.)

It would be simply too hard to say goodbye to the sun and garden bounty of summer if autumn and its own seasonal produce didn't follow. To welcome fall and kiss goodbye to sweet summer, I built the dinner party's menu from Gardenista's collection of Garden-to-Table Fall Recipes.

Home cooks, get ready. Tomorrow, we'll be asking for your favorite fall recipes for our next dinner party. 

Photography by Meredith Swinehart. 

Above: Before we start cooking, a word about party preparation. Candles say, "It's a party." Before guests arrive, light them. Lots of them. This sets the right tone—and is more important than vacuuming, more important than music, more important than putting on mascara (in fact, the complexion-enhancing glow from candlelight will make it look as if you are wearing extremely flattering makeup). 

For more on creating a mood with candlelight, see 11 Ways to Look Younger Instantly.

Above: Every dinner party should start with a cocktail. My pick was Hannah Kirshner's Tom Collins recipe from Party Ideas: Cocktails and Caramel Corn. It had refreshingly few ingredients and was a breeze to make.

Above: Another weeknight dinner party hint is to serve the food buffet style. This also sets a tone, signaling to guests they've been invited to a relaxed, casual evening. And a buffet is easier for the host; you don't have to plate the food for your guests if they serve themselves.

Above: Ready to cook for these people? Start by checking the refrigerator for usable leftovers (seriously). For instance, I found some homemade saffron pasta—the last of four pounds of colored pasta I recently made (see Garden-to-Table Recipe: Colorful Fresh Pasta). This gave me a head start on one dish.

I paired the pasta with end-of-summer heirloom tomatoes from Erin Boyle's recipe for The Healthiest Spaghetti You'll Ever Eat. (Full disclosure: I couldn't find moringa leaves—which are the "healthiest" ingredient in the recipe's name—so I substituted super-fresh pea shoots. Nobody complained.)

Above: For the main course, I baked three small snappers under a paste of salt and water, as suggested by Souvla restauranteur Charles Bililies in Going to the Greek: A DIY Dinner Party in San Francisco. (Had I a grill, I would have followed the instructions in The Secret to Perfect Grilled Fish for some end-of-summer outdoor cooking.)

Above: As a side dish, I made Mollie Katzen's Smoky Brussels Sprouts and Onion recipe from her new book, The Heart of the Plate. (Cooking this inspired me to add The Moosewood Cookbook: 40th Anniversary Edition to my wish list; it's out in October. And yes, I already know I will be reviewing it favorably.) 

Above: For dessert, I made Olivia Rae James's very September-y Apple Coconut Crisp. 

Above: The pasta sauce called for slow-roasting the tomatoes at 200 degrees for two hours. This made the most of their summer flavor. 

Above: The salt-baked snapper was a hit—tender and moist. But next time I bake a fish in salt, I'll use a single large fish instead of several small ones; the fish absorbed the salt, and the thin layer of flesh was too salty. I think a thicker flesh would have helped. 

(A friend suggested that it's critical to serve salt-baked fish as soon as it's out of the oven, when the salt still adheres to the skin. I let mine sit and cool before serving, allowing the fish to absorb even more salt.) 

Above: Among the unexpected ingredients in Olivia Rae James's apple crisp are coconut palm sugar, coconut flakes, and whipped coconut milk—instead of whipped cream—to go on top. 

Above: I admit I'd never had a Tom Collins before, despite the drink's fame. It was the perfect start to the evening: refreshing gin and lemon made slightly sweet.

Start poring through your recipe files: tomorrow, we'll be seeking reader recipes for our next dinner party.

Steal some dinner party inspiration from The Ultimate Open-Air Dinner Party: A Floating Pallet Under the Stars, A Guide to Intimate Gatherings from the CAMP Workshops, and Steal This Look: Dry Garden Tablescape from Local Milk.

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• Recipe Contest: We'll Feature Winners at our Next Dinner Party
• DIY Floral Arrangement: Smoke Bush and Queen Anne's Lace
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Maybe you're as sick as I am of outdoor furniture that warps, rots, stains, splinters, sags, or falls apart if you forget to bring it indoors in bad weather?

If so, consider concrete. Here's a material made to withstand the elements—hurricane season, do your worst—that may even look better under a blanket of snow.  

Here are 10 of our favorite pieces of concrete furniture—for dining, lounging, or just sitting around—for the garden.

Dining Furniture

Above: Clothing designer Courteney Klein at home in San Francisco's Mission District; her outdoor dining table is the Fuze Grey Dining Table ($999 from CB2). Measuring 35.5 inches wide by "57 inches long and 30 inches high, it seats six. 

Above: A matching concrete Fuze Grey Bench is 49 inches long; $399 from CB2.

Above: Christine recently discovered British architect Sally Mackereth's CAST 001 line of cast concrete outdoor furniture. "From Le Corbusier to Donald Judd, architects and artists have long been attracted to the sculptural qualities of cast concrete," Christine notes. "Mackereth adds warmth and texture with a metallic sheen." For more information, see Outdoor Furniture with a Dose of Glamor.

Above: A Concrete Slab Dine Table is made of Eco Concrete, a lightweight mix of granite, stone, marble powder, natural fiber, and cement that weighs about 40 percent less than typical concrete. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, it measures 63 inches long by 35 inches wide by 30 inches high; $2,029 from Bevara Design.

For more outdoor furniture designs from Bevara, see our recent post on The Last Outdoor Furniture You'll Ever Buy.

Above: A Massive Concrete Table designed by Long Island-based artist Nico Yektai is aptly named; it measures 108 inches long by 42 inches wide. Shown here with the Modern Concrete Bench for Outdoor Dining, the table is a one-of-a-kind piece. For more information and prices, see Nico Yektai.

Lounge Furniture

Above: Designed in 1954 by Swiss industrial designer Willy Guhl, a concrete Loop Chair is made of lightweight natural fiber cement (ingredients include cement, powdered limestone, cellulose and synthetic fibers) and is $1,200 from Stardust.

Above: Weighing 400 pounds, a hand cast concrete Jenner Lounge by Concreteworks of Oakland is resistant to staining and can be left outdoors year round. It measures 72 inches long by 30 inches wide and 23.5 inches high. For more information and prices, see Concreteworks.

Above: Made of a single sheet of lightweight reinforced concrete, a Spurt Club Chair by Paulsberg comes in two colors of gray (Stone and Mouse) and is 2,170€.

Side Tables and Stools

Above: Made of raw concrete, a Letter Box stool has two handles and measures 18 inches tall (a comfortable height for seating); $179 apiece from Teak Warehouse.

Above: Measuring 15 inches in diameter and 19 inches high, a Fluted Concrete Stool suitable for outdoor use is available in black or ivory and is $400 from Mecox.

Inspired to use concrete as a design element outdoors? See our recent post on 10 Genius Garden Hacks with Concrete Blocks. Looking for outdoor furniture that's a little less permanent? See 10 Easy Pieces: Budget Friendly Unfinished Wood Furniture.

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Having trouble adjusting to the Autumn Equinox? This four-acre English garden in Essex makes the seasonal transition rather effortlessly. Or at least that's the effect intended by Ulting Wick's tireless owner Philippa Burrough.

Photography by Jim Powell for Gardenista.

Above: Ulting Wick's garden is arranged around an assortment of black barns. Rambling rose 'Goldfinch', seen here on the right, arches around the entrance to the heart of the garden: a densely planted parterre. The Goldfinch rose, from Peter Beales, has played proud host to a nest of goldfinches.

Above: A circle of grasses (Stipa tenuissima), salvia (s. leucanthra 'Purple Velvet' and ipomea 'Lime Green' ranging around a young Eucalyptus gunnii 'Silverdrop' form the center of the parterre. They are all suited to growing in this dry part of eastern England.

(More dry planting ideas from Essex can be found here: Required Reading: Beth Chatto's 5 Favorite Flowers For a Gravel Garden).

Above: The fiery hues of tithonia 'Torch' and dahlia 'Arabian Night' against a backdrop of oversized canna leaves. The center of each of the boxed beds in this area is dominated by a canna and Ricinnus communis, or castor oil plant. They give a different height and texture from your typical English herbaceous display.

Above: The purple-mauve-red part of the color wheel is represented by spiky Salvia farinacea 'Evolution', Verbena bonariensis, and morning glory 'Knoila's Black'.

Above: The garden is open six times a year for charity. On the other side of this open barn, a trestle table and chairs provide a place for tea and cake consumption, an integral part of garden visiting. Shown here: rhubarb and terra cotta forcers, for stuffing with straw and encouraging very early red stalks.

Above: Spotty crimson borlotti beans sing out among the yellowing wigwams of beans and pumpkins.

Above: Who says asparagus takes up too much space? Not when it looks this good, shown here from rabbit level. At human height, the feathery foliage is accented with red seed pods that resemble peppercorns.

Above: Dahlia 'Bishop of Auckland', v.bonariensis, and yellow Mirablis jalapa. Dahlias and sunflowers in this garden are firmly tied with hazel poles and twine.

Above: The sharp edges of the box parterre coolly contain an eruption of the hot and fiery.

Above: For more information about Ulting Wick (and dates when it is open to the public), see Ulting Wick.

Designing an English cottage garden? For inspiration, see all our Brit Style gardens. One of our all-time favorites is Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage at Dungeness.

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An autumn tradition in my family, our annual walk on the "Battlefield Road" retraces the footsteps of Paul Revere from Lexington to Concord. Here, in addition to autumn splendor, we enjoy presentations in Revolutionary firearms and, my favorite, colonial cooking.

Fall was a time of bounty in colonial New England. But with no refrigeration, it was also time to prepare for the long, hard winter, preserving food by pickling, salting, and drying. Not only women, but also children were expected to partake in this provisioning process, with evenings by the fire spent stringing vegetables and fruits to be dried. As one who is always game to instill a sense of history in my children, and perhaps kill an hour or two in the process, I decided to give it a try. 

Read on for step-by-step instructions:

Photography by Justine Hand.

Above: Each October at Hartwell Tavern, a preserved 18th century house and gathering place along the Battlefield Road, historic reenactors demonstrate authentic methods of colonial food preparation and preservation.

Carrots, onions, broccoli, peas, almost any vegetable can be dried. I found the most comprehensive list of which vegetables to use and how to prepare them at Colorado State.

Above: Strung using a large needle and kitchen twine, fresh and dried mushrooms hang in the sun at Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln, MA.

Above: Back home, we gathered supplies. Beans and mushrooms are easy to dry and are therefore a good option for beginners.

Above: With their small fingers, children are ideal candidates for stringing vegetables. They also really enjoyed it. Here, Oliver, 7, strings green beans. 

Above: Solvi, 5, works on mushrooms.

Above: After one strand each, Oliver and Solvi were still raring to go, so they switched vegetables and started again.

Above: There is almost nothing more charming than the sight of your children stringing vegetables. (Photo opps galore.)

Above: After our vegetables were strung, we simply found a sunny, dry spot (our kitchen window) in which to hang them. Then all you do is wait.

Above: A few days later we decided to try drying apples.

Above: After a couple of weeks we had dried food. The results, though not pretty, were still pretty satisfying.

Above: Stored in sterilized antique canning jars, our dried vegetables should keep all winter.

Above: For more authentic colonial food preservation and other handy household tips, the folks at Minute Man National Park recommended the improved The Servant Directory or House-Keepers Campanion, available from G. Gedney Godwin, Inc.; $7.75. (When reading, it is helpful to note that the letters that look like f's are in fact s's.) 

DIY: Dry Vegetables Like a Colonist

Unlike my recent foray into colonial candle making, which was fun but labor-intensive, drying vegetables in the tradition of our fore-mothers was quite easy. 

• First, procure fresh vegetables from a garden or farm stand. If you are growing beans, it is recommended that you leave them on the stem as long as possible. (As I learned from Blind Pig and the Acorn's excellent experiments with colonial foods: dried beans are also called "leather britches.")

• Gently wash vegetables and thoroughly dry them; moisture may introduce mold. It is also recommended that you blanch vegetables such as beans to kill germs that can cause mold and decay.

• Using a large needle, such as an embroidery needle, and some kitchen string or sturdy thread, begin stringing vegetables or fruit. Be sure to knot the ends so the food stays in place.
• After your strand is complete, select a warm, well-ventilated, and moisture-free space in which to hang your vegetables. Many colonists selected a place in the kitchen or under the eaves in the attic. (Some websites even recommend the window of a car, parked in a sunny spot.) The idea is that it should be warm enough to dry the vegetables quickly, but not so fast that the outsides become hard and lock in moisture. Obviously, like anything, this involves some trial and error. But lucky us, ours turned out great the first time.
• Drying time depends on the dryness of your spot. In my kitchen window, it took only two weeks. One of the reenactors at Hartwell Tavern said it took four weeks for her mushrooms to dry. 
• Dried vegetables will look shriveled. Beans should be pretty hard, mushrooms and apples will still be spongy.
• After your vegetables have dried, place them in a sterilized container and store in a dark, dry place.
• Use the concentrated flavor of your dried vegetables in soups or casseroles all winter.

Interested in more ways to prolong the shelf life of food? Try our recipe for Pickled Dilly Beans, explore methods of Preserving Roots in Sand, or try your hand at Canned Tomatoes.

N.B.: This is an update of a post published November 6, 2013.

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Over the weekend, we hosted a dinner party to welcome the fall, featured in The Dinner Party Project: Easy Weeknight Recipes. We built the menu using our favorites from Gardenista's trove of Garden-to-Table Recipes. 

For our next dinner party, we want to feature someone else's favorite seasonal recipes: yours. Do you have a go-to succotash that makes everyone swoon? Did you inherit your grandmother's apple cake recipe? Did you create a genius side dish the other night from farmers' market finds?

Send us your best fall recipes using the comments section below, today through next Friday, October 3.  We're looking for recipes for all courses, including cocktails, starters, salads, sides, main courses, and desserts. We'll pick one winner in each of those categories—then we'll make the dish, serve it at our next dinner party, and feature it in our next Dinner Party Project post. 

A few things to keep in mind:

• Think about the season: we know that seasonal produce varies by region, but we're in San Francisco and have a fairly temperate climate. We can handle most ingredients you would consider "fall."
• Remember the "garden-to-table" mandate: we're eager for recipes that use at least one fresh ingredient from the garden or farmers' market. 
• We'll host our next dinner in October (yes, around Halloween), but we're leaving the cookies shaped like witches' fingers and cocktails with floating fake eyeballs to Martha—so no need to send anything spooky.
• Your recipe needn't be original. If it's taken from somewhere else but happens to be your favorite, tell us where you got it and we'll give credit where credit is due.

Submit your favorite fall recipes—one or many—using the comments section below, today through Friday, October 3. Thanks for participating! 

Fair's fair: here are a few of our fall favorites from the Gardenista Recipes archive to inspire you:

Above: Michelle has been known to hoard Quinoa Fruit and Nut Bars from blogger John Bek of He Needs Food. A cookie sheet that looked just like this one was wrested from her grip over the weekend.

Above: An easy way to flavor any dish with broth: a bouquet garni. Erin Boyle points the way in DIY: How to Make a Bouquet Garni. Photograph by Erin Boyle. 

Above: Justine made a Victorian-inspired tea cake using leaves from her rose-scented geranium in Tea Cake with Meyer Lemons and Rose Geraniums. Photograph by Justine Hand.

Above: Michelle chose this kale and almond salad for her latest Recipe Roundup: 5 Favorite Garden-to-Table Salads. Photograph by Erin Boyle.

All this cooking means we're spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Browse some of our favorite kitchen stories: Required Reading: The Forager's Kitchen; Steal This Look: Island Cabin Kitchen, and A Clever Kitchen Herb Rack from Austria.

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• The Dinner Party Project: Easy Weeknight Recipes
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Why are you spending your Saturdays raking? Think of autumn's colorful leaves as jewelry for the garden. To inspire you, here are 10 gardens that look particularly good draped in fall's colors—all from members of the Remodelista + Gardenista Architect/Designer Directory:

Above: Tall trees with yellow leaves preside over the infinity pool of a stacked-stone lodge-style house by Bethesda, Maryland-based McInturff Architects. An outdoor fire pit and lounge chairs linger nearby. For more from McInturff, see Let Twilight Linger: 10 Early Evening Gardens.

Above: This Martha's Vineyard landscape by Stephen Stimson Associates was designed in collaboration with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects to emphasize continuity between the indoors and out. New plants join features of the preexisting landscape in dialog with the house. Photograph by Roger Foley. For more from Stephen Stimson, see Landscape Architect Visit: A Very American Garden on Cape Cod. 

Above: This Geyserville, California landscape by Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture was once a prune packing facility and is now a mixed-use property for arts and commerce. Photograph by Marion Brenner. For more from Andrea Cochran, see Garden Visit: Andrea Cochran's Courtyard Vignettes. 

Above: Stephen Stimson Associates designed the landscape of this farm near New Salem, New York, in the Hudson Valley. It sprawls over 50 acres and includes a pool, pond, and orchard. Existing stands of color-changing native woodland were preserved, and the grass plantings shown here are meant to conjure regional agriculture. Photograph by Charles Mayer. For more of this property, see Architects' Roundup: 10 Contemporary Farmhouse Gardens.

Above: XS Space designed the landscape of this weekend house in Watermill, New York, using native plantings such as birch and maple trees and perennial grasses. It was designed in partnership with architects Khanna-Schultz and Summerhill Nursery to ensure the landscape is in step with the architecture of the property. 

Above: Minneapolis-based Coen + Partners revitalized the landscape of a historic home on Lake Minnetonka, MN, where the landscape was overgrown and no longer in step with an ongoing modern architectural renovation. The client wanted to maintain the shape of the historic landscape while creating a modern, art-centric landscape. For more from Coen, see Ultimate Luxury: 10 Favorite Fountains and Garden Water Features. 

Above: Susan Wisniewski Landscape designed the gardens of this home in Bedford Hills, New York, in partnership with architect Kroeger Woods Associates. For more from Wisniewski, see The Grandes Dames: 10 Stately Gardens from the Gardenista Gallery. 

Above: Though the house on this Midwest estate was designed in French reproduction style, the gardens do not follow suit. The landscape, designed by NYC-based Deborah Nevins and Associates, is modern with simple hedges and tree groves. For more, see Hedge Fun: At Home with Garden Designer Deborah Nevins. 

Above: Wirtz International Landscape Architects designed this formal garden near Antwerp. Though the garden is heavily geometric, the color-changing hedges and trees soften the look. For more, see Secret Garden: The Wirtz Family at Home in Belgium. 

Above: Fall colors completely surround a home on the Potomac River by Bethesda, Maryland-based McInturff Architects. The modern house features full-height windows from which residents can view the changing seasons. For more, see A Forest of Wood in Northern Virginia. 

Read more from our directory members in Steal This Look: A Seaside Beauty in Marin; Steal This Look: Elegant French Country Compost Bins, and Secrets of Success: Winter Gardening from Seattle Urban Farm. 

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Following the success of their first book, Vegetarian Everyday, David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl, founders of the popular vegetarian food blog Green Kitchen Stories, have just come out with a new book: Green Kitchen Travels. Inspired by years of traveling through 15 different countries and five continents during the first four years of their daughter Elsa’s life, the Stockholm-based couple share their favorite recipes from around the world (all of which they have tweaked for vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets). 

Read on for a bonus recipe from the book:

Above: The couple's take on Italian antipasti: a plate of chioggia beet carpaccio and mint- and ricotta-stuffed cherry tomatoes.

Above: "The recipes in this book are different from many other travel-inspired cookery books because our approach to food and cooking is healthy, natural, and green," they write.

Above: A green yoga smoothie, with layers of green vegetables and red berries, was inspired by a trip to Barcelona. See recipe below. 

Above: The book includes a chapter on traveling with children with helpful tips garnered from experience. 

Above: "Even though cultures, ingredients, methods, and flavors may be very different around the world, the people who are genuinely interested in food seem to have a special connection and are always the friendliest in town," they write. 

Above: Green Kitchen Travels by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl is published by Hardie Grants Books. The book is available in the US for $22.36 at Amazon.

Green Yoga Smoothie

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe mango, peeled and flesh cut off stone, discarded (thawed frozen is fine too)
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2.5 cm (1 in) fresh ginger or ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 handfuls leafy greens of your choice  (spinach, kale, chard, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons hemp seeds
• 2 teaspoons barleygrass powder or grass powder of your choice (optional)
• 250 ml (8½ ounces) natural coconut water or unsweetened plant milk
• 1 large handful ice cubes
• 200 g (1⅔ cups) fresh or thawed frozen raspberries, crushed

Place all ingredients except the raspberries in a high-speed blender and mix until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust to your preference. Spoon the raspberries into two jars or glasses, pour the green smoothie over, and serve with a spoon.

Tip: Start with 1 teaspoon barleygrass powder per person and work your way up to 1 tablespoon.

On Remodelista, we create an Easy DIY: Herb Drying Rack for the Kitchen. 

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