Martha Stewart Living September 2019

THE SECRET TO a good routine—one that feels anything but routine—is to mix it up. And that’s exactly what my family began doing on a random Tuesday evening about a year ago. It was a school/work night that was feeling like a beginning-of-the-week slog, and retreating to different rooms (or screens) postdinner seemed imminent. But on a lark, I pulled Martha’s Cookies book off the shelf and said, “Let’s bake something!” My son James was excited by the declaration alone—probably because it sounded vaguely like a science experiment to his then four-year old self. We settled on Snickerdoodles, and somewhere between measuring flour, the whir of the KitchenAid, the magic of the oven, and tasting our soft, chewy treat; family Bake Night was born. Since then, we’ve whipped up so many…

ON THE ROAD EPIC READS Bibliophiles and screen-scrollers alike will get a back-to-school buzz when they step into one of these soaring libraries. At the 19th-century George Peabody Library, in Baltimore, five stories of cast-iron balconies guide your eyes toward a skylight that hovers 61 feet above the ground (peabodyevents.library.jhu.edu). Here, three more book meccas that are stunning beyond words. ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN A study haven for University of Michigan law students, the neo-Gothic William W. Cook Legal Research Library draws visitors to marvel at its cathedral ceilings and intricate stained glass. law.umich.edu SAN MARINO, CALIFORNIA Celebrate the centennial of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens at an exhibit honoring the year 1919, including suffragist pamphlets and one of the first photos of Halley’s Comet. huntington.org NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT Inspect ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Beinecke…

CABBAGE, OR KAPUSTA, as we called it growing up, played a memorable role in our family meals in Nutley, New Jersey. My grandmothers, who both emigrated from Poland in the early 20th century, brought their cherished recipes with them, and Mom added her own as she became a better and better cook. The six of us Kostyra children devoured these eastern European dishes, like Mom’s cabbage pierogi (our favorite!), cabbage soup, buckwheat-stuffed gołąbki (aka cabbage rolls), homemade sauerkraut, sautéed or braised cabbage (made from both red and green varieties), and of course, the creamy, vinegary slaws she made for our big family picnics. Our vegetable plot in Nutley always had large, hard white cabbages—Mom’s pick for pierogi—and the plain green ones she used for her gołąbki. When I started my own…

CUSTOM CABINET HOW-TO 1- MAKE IT YOURS Our entryway console is built from two unfinished wood cabinets, which we painted a soft green. We added wooden legs to elevate the pieces and make room underneath for more storage; you can also mount the cabinets on the wall or stack them. 2- OPTIMIZE SPACE Stick self-adhesive metal hooks inside the doors, and adjust the shelves (each cabinet comes with two). 3- ASSIGN THEM Designate a cubby for everyone in your household—even your pets. Reserve one for mail and general use. PROVISIONS Bento Beauties The Instagram sensation that is candy sushi may be a kid’s dream snack, but those sashimi stand-ins pack a lot of sugar. Our healthier take swaps in coconut-rice “nigiri” for the crispy-rice-cereal-bar base, and gets topped with apricot jam, sliced fruit, and toasted coconut rather than gummy…

IDEA NO. 1 Split a horizontal photograph of a landscape into three panels, a format called a triptych, to turn a big, blank wall into a sweeping panorama. Shutter Smarts You don’t need fancy equipment or a class to take display-worthy pictures. Just follow your instincts, says Los Angeles photographer Max Wanger, who works with clients like Target, Gap Kids, and Nike. “If you trust your eye, you’re going to get a cool shot.” Follow these guidelines to capture some keepers. SHOOT SHARP Set your phone or camera to take (and export) photos at full resolution. On an iPhone, for example, go to Settings, Camera, and Formats, and select the Camera Capture mode “Most Compatible”; when sharing photos by email or text, always send them at actual size. For crystal-clear prints, photo files should be…

SARAH KERSTEN STUDIO, Berkeley, California If ceramics projects had levels of difficulty, Chinese water-lock fermentation jars would be off the charts. To seal in vegetables until they reach their pickle-y peak, the crocks require seamless construction and airtight closure. Lucky for us, Sarah Kersten is a whiz. A firm believer in probiotics (and self-described sauerkraut enthusiast), the potter has spent years refining a liquid-clay recipe, a mold for slip-casting, and a foolproof technique. She fires the vessels in a natural-gas kiln that reaches 2,300 degrees F, necessary for a totally nonporous, durable finish. Along the way, she’s perfected their looks, too. Fermenting takes weeks, she explains: “They had to be pretty enough to leave out while working their magic.”…