lifestyle Archives • Every Day Dress by Rebecca Collins

create your own magic

bake a cake, set the table, make some dinner – create your own little party

While there is so much talk about fall and back to school and back to work, I’m not ready to give up on you summer ’25 just yet; in fact, I’m going to the official end, Sunday, September 21st. On Monday, September 22nd, the autumn equinox and the official start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m all yours. Until then, let’s soak in every last drop of the waning daylight.

A few weeks ago I hosted a small weeknight al fresco dinner for eight of us. I wanted to make it special, we were hosting family and friends that hadn’t been together in too long a time. Me being me, I carted dinnerware, the good flatware, and linen napkins from the city house to the country house, it’s all in a day’s effort.

*Peach and burrata salad with homemad foccacia.*

*a room with a view, my county kitchen windows*

*always good for breakfast the next day with an over easy egg on top.*

*Chicken from the local market is prepped and ready to go.*

*quickly blanched green beans laying wati to be sauteed with good butter is always a faorite.*

I made a sublime peach and burrata salad using young arugula and fresh small basil leaves from my garden, and a roasted Chicken Provencal that has been a recent favorite and on good rotation. I did a small potato mash using lots of Kerrygold butter and heated whole mild to make them silky and delicious, and fresh, homegrown green beans rounded out the entree.

For dessert I baked my standard blueberry pie. Apricots have been calling my name at the farmers market so I also added in a beautiful apricot upside down tart kind of thing. Both were served with fresh whipped cream. Guests were offered to choose, most chose a small serving of each, myself included.

My husband picked the wines, as he always does. We are quite the duo, I couldn’t tell you what we drank other than it was delicious, and he couldn’t tell you where I sourced the food or how I prepared it, no matter, we made it work, and it was good.

*when all is done and ready to be served i like to turn the lights off in the kitchen proper work area. It’s easeir on the eyes and makes for a better vibe. no harsh lighting during the dinner hour.*

*here we go… Lela Rose bustier, Brunello Cucinelli skirt, I love good clothes.*

*another vibe check, lighting small votive candles*

*later in the evening when the temperature dropped i added a great turtleneck sweater.*

This was a weeknight dinner during a week I host one of four annual trunk shows, meeting women for one to one style appointments to help them choose clothing for their unique lifestyle. Trunk shows in and of themselves take a lot out of me as I take matching luxury clothing with beautiful women quite serious, yet I also love to host family for intimate and meaningful dining experiences so I guess I just have to go forth, put the work in, and enjoy the rewards.

*the morning after, it was a lovely evening.*

Good food and good outfits are always worth the effort.

*more trunk show shenanigans waiting for me city-side the very next day. it’s all worth it.*

fashion food lifestyle

dinner on the lower deck

Dinner for three on the lower deck.

family food home lifestyle

Roast Chicken with Radishes

*Crudité with green goddess dip* *from the dinner I served the night before. I repurposed the red pepper by trimming the bottom so it would sit flatter and giving it a fresh cut on the top.*

*I also served warm olives with orange peel and thyme. About a decade ago, my sister gave me the linen cocktail napkins.*

Peanut in Paris in front of her former place of employment, Pierre Frey. She’s now in graduate school at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. She traveled to Paris with her sister Elizabeth via Amsterdam on a gallery scouting week-long tour.

A week ago, I taught my youngest daughter how to roast a chicken while she was driving through the French countryside to a chateau. Yes, doesn’t that sound so romantic?

She’s a good cook and can navigate a kitchen flawlessly. She needed a little confidence boost, and I was happy to deliver. We traded shopping lists and directions via text message (she was a passenger, she wasn’t driving). She was a little concerned about navigating between Celsius and Fahrenheit, so I told her to wiggle the leg of the bird and to use her sense of sight, smell, and touch to see if it was cooked through.

Roast Chicken is a go-to dinner; now, she has this in her repertoire. She used onions and carrots, while I used radishes, carrots, and shallots, as that is all I had on hand and I did not want to go out to market. Both birds were a success.

*My Roast Chicken with Radishes, Carrots, and Shallots.*

*The table is set for four. I bought the blue linen napkins while in Barcelona, Spain, when my oldest daughter Caroline was studying abroad. We used them for our Thanksgiving Dinner there*. *They always bring back good memories.*

*A spring table with candles lit.* *Peanut brought with her from* *Pierre Frey a piece of linen used as a tablecloth*.

*Buttered egg noodles and sauteed broccolini rounded out the meal.*

*While I spend most days in denim and a tee, one of my favorite party tricks is to run upstairs right before we sit down and put on ‘dinner clothes’.*

I like roasting a chicken without consulting a book or recipe; I’ve done it often enough, and muscle memory is good. Of course, you want to make sure it is cooked through. I usually use a Thermometer to do this. If a thermometer isn’t available, you can make a tiny cut into the thickest part of the bird and look for clear juices, not red or pink.

Peanut, here are the tips in post form for future reference:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the neck, liver, and giblets, set them aside, rinse the bird with cool water, and pat it dry inside and out with paper towels. (I freeze the liver to make pate at a later date.) Season liberally with salt and pepper. Stuff the bird’s cavity with a lemon cut in half (give it a little squeeze), a head of garlic cut in half, and a small handful of fresh thyme. Tie the legs with kitchen twine and tuck the wings out and back behind the bird. Place the bird in a roasting pan or baking dish. Slice some onions and carrots and surround the bird with the vegetables, or use what you have on hand, like radishes, carrots, and shallots. Be sure not to crowd the pan as you want roasted vegetables, not steamed. Baste the bird and the veg with melted butter, season again with salt and pepper. Pop into the oven. Periodically stir the veg and baste the bird with the butter and juices. Roast for about an hour and begin to check for doneness. After removing from the oven, let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Enjoy!

*Two of us had fresh strawberries for dessert; the others had olive oil cake with strawberries and ice cream!*

family food lifestyle

Angel Hair Pasta

Angel Hair Pasta, barbequed chicken, and a Caesar salad make for an easy summer meal.

family fashion fashion for women over 50 food home lifestyle style style at any age

On the Road

Here it is the half-way point of the year and I’m not quite sure how we got here so fast. We’ve been on the road.

*the athletes before team open water swim practice*

*the early morning sky from our bedroom deck*

Sixteen of us gathered in Mont Tremblant to cheer on second son Maxwell while he competed in the 70.3 Ironman. It was an achievement on so many levels: he doing the triple athletic crown, us doing the summit get together.

*the arrival of London girl and Boston girl. They met up at the Montreal airport. There were so many moving pieces to get us all in one place.*

*tank tops and denim were on full rotation*

*cross-body bags too for walking all over*

*Rory and BaPa in matching fits; unplanned*

There were times husband and I couldn’t string together a full sentence or think a clear thought, we were organizing and hosting all of it. Every moment as they say priceless.

Anyway, back in the USA now and trying to prep the country house for 4th of July activities. Went to two nurseries and almost all plant materials are gone, picked up what I could and decided I was just going to go for it. We have the full property to get ready for guests by the coming weekend, it’s full tilt go time. I know I do most of it for my own satisfaction, I also know that when family and friends arrive they expect the full experience, again, my total doing.

*Back in the USA and came home to this fine display*

*yay hydrangeas, husband and I planted these seven seasons ago*

*gathered these annuals to fill our pots, it feels late in the season yet doing it anyway*

*Flat lay of the neutral wardrobe with a very good book, thank you Diana 🙂*

Here’s my thought: go with your gut and gather supplies in a color palette you know and love. When time is of the essence it’s hard to try new things. I chose red, blue, yellow, and chartreuse, all colors I wear on my body when not wearing neutrals. I chose the best plants they had on hand and leaned into making good things happen when I was deep down feeling anxious and stressed.

Anxiety and stress won’t get those plants in their pots. Head down, and dug in.

Home or away, it seems we’re always on the road.