{Tomatoes, purple basil and green basil from Alprilla Farm}

Heirloom tomatoes and peaches make strangely beautiful bedfellows, especially when paired with purple basil. A simple pesto – hold the nuts and cheese – lets the basil shine.

Ingredients

• 3-4 peaches, yielding to the touch but not overly ripe, peeled and cut into sections
• 2 extra large heirloom tomatoes (or 8-12 small tomatoes), cut into sections
• Several handfuls purple basil.  Leave the leaves whole or chiffonade them into strips.
• 3-4 cups green basil leaves
• 1 cup basil-infused olive oil, plus extra
• 1 tsp raw honey
• Salt
• 2-3 tbsp Red wine vinegar (or apple cider or champagne vinegar)

Directions

For the green pesto, fill your food processor loosely with basil leaves. Add 1 tsp of raw honey.  While processing, drizzle in about a 1/2 cup basil olive oil, until the mixture becomes a thick paste. Salt to taste.

For basil vinaigrette, whisk 2 tbsp of basil pesto with the remaining 1/2 cup basil olive oil, 2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar, and salt to taste.

Assemble salad on a large platter: alternate tomato and peach slices, putting a purple basil leaf between each.  If you’re serving this in a bowl, chiffonade the purple basil and toss to distribute it evenly. Top with basil vinaigrette.  Drizzle additional olive oil if you like.  Serve with extra pesto.

Serves 8-10.

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Here’s where I am this week.

I won’t be doing a lot of blogging. After all, someone’s ought to hunt down the very best fish tacos for your benefit, right?  This travel section won’t build itself.  I’ll return ready to rock your socks off, with a full report on this rugged yoga resort.  Promise.

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Anyone else craving a touch of Hawaii?  This picture shows women from our town welcoming the 50th state into the Union circa 1949.

These ladies are uncannily on trend for Spring 2011, what with their long printed skirts and striped details.  And it’s proof positive it was once warm in Rockport, and will be again, which is just about all I need to make it through February and March.

Now onto the business of the day: a wrap up of posts from the past two weeks, should you crave a quick catch-up.

1. Drawing Room Art: Blue/Green Edition
2. This Primer’s Ready for Prime Time
3. In Profile: Becky Schaeffer and Her Amazing Knit Bathmat
4. The Best of the NY International Gift Fair
5. D. Bryant Archie’s Textiles on Sale at One King’s Lane
6. Shopping High Gloss Magazine’s Debut Issue
7. Beauty Month in Review: Skincare Bonanza

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Good Friday readers!  This edition of Friday Flotsam is flotsamy, indeed. We’ll cover everything from fruit flies to PJs.

Before we dive in, I’m giving advance warning that posts will be light next week.  There’s a one-night jaunt to NY in store for me early in the week, and then I’m taking the second half of the week off to spend at home with my vacationing husband. The behind-the-scenes slog of transitioning the blog has left me hankering for a break.

On to the good stuff.

1.  Gwyneth’s pajamas in Vogue.  God knows how long I’ve been hankering for a pair.  The Olatz ones she’s wearing above run a shocking $750.  I’m more inclined to take a zero off the end with J. Crew’s version.

2. Mad Men is back! Season 4 premiers this Sunday at 10 on AMC. Can I stay up that late before Monday’s 4 AM wake-up call? We shall see.

3. If fruit flies are driving you bonkers, learn how to make a reusable trap. I’d opt for apple cider vinegar over beer (less smelly).

4. Summer’s small, weekly batches of pesto have me hankering for a 3-cup food processor to leave out on the counter.

5. Louis Boston sale hits 75% off.  That, my friends, is where I’m going right now.

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Did you miss me last week?

Though I hated being away, especially to spend the week up to my elbows in technology, it was well worth it to make the blog more user-friendly.  Someday I’ll do a spiffy redesign.   For now, I hope you’ll find the site easier to navigate.

Here are the changes (drum roll, please):

• Search Button. That’s right, now you can search posts by keywords.  Pass the fainting salts.  5thjoy caught up with the interwebs.

• Pick Your Own Content. Check out the navigation menu.  Now you can select content by topic area. Don’t give a fiddle about my shoe obsession?  Would you rather read about how to cook fiddleheads?  Click on the Food category.

• Twitter and Facebook. See those big bright buttons in the  top right column?  Click on ‘em to fan 5thjoy on Facebook and follow my updates on Twitter.

• Comments. They’re no longer buried, so put down the spelunking gear and jump in.

• Share This! Hover your mouse over the Share This! link at the end of every post to fire it off to friends via a variety of social media.

• Post Teasers. Each page has one feature post.  Scroll down and you’ll see excerpts of the previous nine posts. Go on, dig in.  And please bear with me as I post the thumbnail images.

• About 5thjoy. Expanded for your reading pleasure.

Now for the most important part: What do you think? Are you happy with the changes?  Do you miss the three-column format?  Is there anything else you’d like to see spit-shined?

Sound off in the comments.  Now that we can see them, think of the conversations we’ll have.

P.S. Expect more goodies tomorrow: a new and improved blogroll.

***UPDATE***  It appears my email has been unable to receive messages for the past day or so.  It’s fixed but  you may still have difficulty emailing me (abby@5thjoy) for the next 4-24 hours, while the fix propagates over servers worldwide.

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The Marie Antoinetta porcelain bowl, $219 at Greta.  Spotted on Handmade Charlotte.

When I spied these bowls over on Handmade Charlotte, I thought immediately of the Picasso sketches I’d seen last week in New York (the Met and MoMA both have Picaso retrospectives through August):

I also thought of the enamelware we used as kids, both to eat from and bang on, usually out of doors.

These are not enamel; they are hand-painted porcelain, and the designer, Marta Giardini, was inspired by 18th century hairstyles.

I’d love to see the bowl  overflowing with hydrangeas or peonies.  For casual dinners, I’d mix it with La Chamba oven-to-table cookware.

The Marie Antoinetta bowls coordinate with the larger Louis collection pictured below.

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Growing up, our Mother’s Day celebration consisted of confining Mom to bed while we served her terribly dry scrambled eggs, garnished with fistfuls of dandelion bouquets and “roses” fashioned from hair ribbons.

All of which she endured gracefully, as is her way.

We still aren’t much for Hallmark cards or (many) presents, but there’s no better day to dig through the good linens, set out the best silver, and get down to cooking for the woman who taught us how.

It seems only fitting that today’s post, the hundredth on 5thjoy, should honor Ann, Anne and Maggie.  Lessons these women mastered: the importance of a fur collar, the angle of your hat, that perfect shade of teal and the elegance of a white shirt.  Also: write your thank you notes promptly, keep those elbows off the table, offer up suffering when it comes your way, pursue a gentle sufficiency in all things, and above all, for goodness’ sake, don’t let your children run the show.

Now, I’ve a table to set.

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Skirt lengths for Fall 2010 are all over the map, with longer styles making a strong comeback.  A lot has changed since Harper’s Bazar published this chart in 1868, not withstanding the puzzling granny boot comeback for Fall 2010.  Trouble is, without arbitrary age-based rules, how does one figure out which skirt length works best?

I’ve always loved the romance  of the calf-length skirts Marc Jacbs showed.  They have film-noir-darling-I’m-late-for-my-train up the wahzoo.  I’ve loved them from afar, that is: on me they scream school-marm-fuddy-duddy.

Marc Jacobs, Fall 2010 RTW

Even the right at the knee length, as interpreted in Victoria Beckham’s collection, can look dowdy on me – at least  without towering heels.

Well, apparently there’s a formula to figuring out the most flattering length.

You’ll need two measurements: from your hipbone straight down the outside of your leg to the middle of your kneecap, and from the middle of your kneecap (outside edge) straight down to the middle of your ankle bone.

Here’s the formula:

(LONGER LEG LENGTH minus SHORTER LEG LENGTH) divided by 2 = X

X is the number of inches above or below the knee your skirt length should be.  If your shins are shorter than your thighs, raise your hem X inches above your knee.  If your thighs are shorter than your shins, lower the hem X inches below the knee.

Basically you want to visually equalize the length of the upper and lower leg.

Using this formula, my ideal length would be one inch above the knee.  Now that’s not to say minis are out of the question, but it does explain why anything between knee length and floor length looks so terribly awkward.  I may be making a trip to the tailor’s with an armful of pencil skirts.

Read more about it here. What do you think?  Does this make intuitive sense based on the lengths that look best on you?

Any fashion professionals out there want to weigh in on this?

P.S. Stay tuned for a post on spring skirts.

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Just Mango Slices.

Unsweetened, unsulfered. I’ve yet to open a bag without finishing it.  I’m on my third bag this week.

Almondina Cookies.

My brilliant sister-in-law serves these as crackers with soft cheeses.  Sublime.

Chocolate-covered Pomegranate Seeds.

After the initial shock that the seeds were dried (I know, duh! but for some reason I imagined them plump and juicy), I really dig these tangy little buggers now.  Good thing because the hoarder in me came home with three boxes.

Colossal Cooked Shrimp.

They are not joking when they say colossal.  These are big, bad shrimp.  Firm, without any floppy sogginess.

Pop-Up Sponges.

Just like the bath toys, these puff right up when wet.  100% biodegradable.  To disinfect, microwave damp for 45 seconds.

What are you loving from TJ’s right now?

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Melamine salad servers, $13 at French Bull

Cheeriest Picnic Accessory Ever.

Spotted via happy lady eats.

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