We made it to February! Today is all about plates. And cake. A spectacular one from Dorie Greenspan. But first…
A bit of housekeeping: If you signed up for a Founding Member subscription after November 25, 2025 and have not received an email from me about sending you a signed copy of my book, The Essential New York Times Cookbook, please DM me so I can get you a copy! (And for anyone who doesn’t have a Founding Member subscription, you can upgrade here if you’d like to get a book, too.)
And a “D’oh!”: Last week, I spent the afternoon with my new neighbor, the designer Nathan Turner. We made tangerine and orange marmalade on the Vulcan gas stove he has in his outdoor kitchen (a smart move in a warm climate)—video here. One of my jobs was to retrieve the processed jam jars from the simmering water, and I used jam-jar tongs to do so. A kind viewer wrote in to let me know I was doing it wrong: I had the tongs upside down. As they explained, “Flipping them over will make your life easier! The grippy, rounded, silicone portion is made to grab the jar top. The rolly, hard plastic helps your fingers slide with the handle.” Erp—next time.
As I wrote in my last post, I’m discovering that moving in and filling this house with personal touches and all the small goods that I love is going to take time. Turns out, there really is no dramatic before/after, even for the people moving in. While those “quick” transformations are fun to look at, I’m more interested in the human dynamics, design details, and craft that go into making a beautiful home—and making it your own. I’ve been insistent that we don’t rush into acquiring all of the utilitarian objects in our house, but I quickly learned there are some items I’d need to prioritize: scissors, wastebaskets, and everyday dinner plates, to name a few.
Form over function cabbageware
When we moved into our house, all we had was a stack of vintage cabbageware plates that I’d shipped out from Brooklyn. The best vintage cabbage plates have a finely webbed surface covered with crevices and ridges. These details make for a beautiful plate and, as we learned after using them for a few weeks, make them a nightmare to navigate with a fork and knife! Your fork feels like this.
We were looking for something low-key and hand crafted, maybe a little earthy but not rustic. I wanted a solid hue that I could then mix with patterned salad plates and bowls. I’d ordered samples of Heath’s Chez Panisse main plate in sorrel; the Commune for Heath dinner plate in barley; Sarah Kersten’s Coupe main plate in both garnet and klamath wheat; and Kati von Lehman’s Place Setting No. 1 in the charcoal glaze.
Clockwise from top: Heath (Chez Panisse in sorrel), Sarah Kersten (Coupe in klamath wheat), Heath (Commune in barley), Sarah Kersten (Coupe in garnet)…
…And Kati von Lehman (Place Setting No. 1 in charcoal). I photographed all the plates against the three primary surfaces they’ll be used on—our oak dining table, pesto green outdoor table, and walnut wood table—to see how they looked in different settings and lighting. I recommend this trick for anyone investing in new dinnerware!
Tad and I were considering the above plates when I hosted a chat for Homewardians, asking them for their picks. Let me tell you that you are surrounded by a very sophisticated group of plate aficionados. Thank you to everyone who joined the discussion and shared their plates of choice.
If you check out the chat, you will notice that nearly the entire discussion centered around stoneware. But then Shawn L., a reader who recommended Caskata porcelain, jumped in to say, “Porcelain is so much easier to live with. Much more chip-resistant (3x) than stoneware and half the weight. I’m a pattern person, so I love mixing and matching pieces to tell an eclectic story. But I’m an outlier I guess.” Cheers to a contrarian view!
The takeaways, followed by the full list of 39 recommendations: ...
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