This week, I’m sharing the utilitarian home object that can bring real joy when you find the right one: a laundry hamper. Maybe it’s because I’m fresh back from Switzerland, land of rugged yet efficient and precise design, but give me a sturdy canvas basket on wheels and I’m a happy camper. First, though, I need to share the coffee and cookie recipes (from one of my favorite cafes) that are my answer to pumpkin spice season. If you enjoy reading this post, please share it!
I took these photos in 2017, when we were on a road trip with our kids from Seattle to San Francisco. I fell in love with The London Plane, an all-day cafe on Occidental Square in Seattle. It had soaring windows and a cool northern European minimalism that felt precise and confident. There were flowers to buy and rustic, buttery pastries. We sat in the loft so we could look down into the open kitchen.
Sadly, the restaurant closed during Covid. But, happily, Katherine Anderson, the founder, has captured its essence in a book. I never fully appreciated restaurant cookbooks until I held this one and realized that, at their best, they are time capsules that capture the sensibility, the feeling, and the food that defined the restaurant. Perhaps the most successful such book is Roberta’s Cookbook. The London Plane Flower & Cook Book stands out, too, but has none of the inebriated chaos that animates Roberta’s.
I’m very happy that I can still occasionally drop in on The London Plane through its recipes. I recently made the Whiskey Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies and Orange Cardamom Cold Brew—videos below! I highly recommend both; the coffee recipe is especially forgiving as you’ll see. And if you’re worried about what you’ll do with the rest of the bag of rye flour that you buy for the cookies, I have your answer: you’ll use it up making these cookies again and again.
Cardamom season activated: See the full recipe video below!
Whiskey Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 16 cookies
Ingredients
¾ cup (75 g) walnuts
1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (64 g) rye flour
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ cup (185 g) butter
¾ cup (165 g) tightly packed brown sugar
¾ cup (150 g) sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rye whiskey
¾ cup (110 g) dark (70%) chocolate, chips or chopped
Flaked sea salt (Maldon), for sprinkling
Instructions
Toast the walnuts at 350°F (175°C) for 10–12 minutes, until fragrant. Remove from oven and let cool.
In a bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, rye flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
Add the egg, vanilla, and whiskey, scraping down the sides of the bowl after 30 seconds. Beat on high for 2 minutes, or until pale and fluffy.
Add the flour mixture in two additions, scraping the bowl after each. Mix until almost incorporated.
Add the chocolate and walnuts; mix just until combined.
Scoop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 2 ounces (roughly 2 heaping tablespoons) per cookie.
Refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours to allow the flour to absorb the wet ingredients for the best chewy-crackly texture.
Sprinkle the cookies with flaky sea salt. Bake straight from the refrigerator at 325°F (165°C) for 24 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
Put the grounds into a pitcher that can hold 10 cups.
Mix the cardamom and orange zest with the water in a separate vessel.
Pour the water mixture over the coffee grounds.
Let sit for 24 hours.
Strain through a fine conical sieve and then a coffee filter.
Refrigerate to cool.
I love receiving mail. For Mother’s Day, Tad got me a gift called History by Mail, and every month I receive a copy of a historical document along with other writings and context. So far, deliveries have included a letter from Johnny Cash to President Ford, supporting his pardon of President Nixon, and a pitch Annie Oakley made to President McKinley, offering to assemble a team of 50 female sharpshooters to fight in the Spanish-American War. He declined.
So, a question for you: how would you feel about receiving a handful of recipes in the mail each month? They’d be developed and tested by me, and photographed and printed on heavy paper stock with a binder or box for storing. The Internet’s billion recipes can be overwhelming, and perhaps I’m alone in this, but I like a recipe on paper and a place for collecting the keepers. Please share your thoughts here:
I’d originally planned to do a deep dive on laundry-room products, but, once I got into the water, I quickly realized that this is a vast and complex sea—there are numerous ways to dry your sweaters and smooth your linen shirts—and it’s too big for one post. (And yet there’s still no surefire way to track down those lost socks.) So this week, let’s focus on collecting and transporting your laundry. There are many charming solutions, and I’ve included some handsome baskets below. I like ones on wheels, myself; they’re also fun to stick a kid in and roll around the house!
This hamper has a removable interior bag with a shoulder strap for easy transport—and the bag can be washed if it starts to smell like your laundry…which it will.
We have this tall hamper set in Brooklyn and it’s great for fitting into narrow spaces. It also has wheels, one of my pre-reqs! If you’ve got the space, use one for darks and one for whites (there’s also a trio of baskets for bigger households).
I love Yamazaki, which sells well-made, streamlined, and budget-friendly products for home storage and organization. This two-level basket is handy for maintaining separation between bed linens and clothing, or dirty and clean laundry. The open wire baskets are also great for keeping post-workout clothes separate from the rest of your laundry.
If you don’t have any available floor space, I like how this bag tucks behind a door. You could also use it just for smaller items. Plus, the endless color options are fun.
Handcrafted in Maine by Erin and Peggy Pollard, this basket comes in natural and smoked rattan. A $2,100 laundry basket is not for everyone, obviously. This is for people who really love doing laundry and who want a basket that can be handed down from generation to generation.
Another budget-friendly woven option is this medium-sized basket, which fits nicely on a shelf. The liner prevents fabric snags and can be laundered. I would recommend getting two of these: one for clean laundry, one for dirty.
This vintage-leaning design is what I’m getting for Ojai. We designed spaces for it to nest underneath the counter in the laundry room and also in our walk-in closet. And we designed the washer and dryer doors to swing open a few inches above it, to minimize bending over when filling and emptying the machines. I haven’t decided on color yet. My instinct is to go for the natural canvas, but I’m trying to embrace more color! What do you think?
No filter was added to that landscape photo, taken on one of our hikes!
Ever since I came back from a hiking trip in Switzerland last week, I’ve been scheming about getting into my kitchen and figuring out how to make a great Swiss rösti (potato pancake), a homemade version of the salty grapefruit soda, and a chocolate-dipped hazelnut triangle. I’ll share any successes here! In the meantime, I leave you with these snapshots (how do we get floral vending machines stateside?).
Yours in Recipes By Post?
Amanda
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