Sweater + Earrings via Rent the Runway
I do not want to cook right now. Or maybe ever again. I also do not want to spend $85 a night on takeout, but for real: the whole simmering-of-sauces-and-sprinkling-of-delicate-herbs is not happening at the moment; what’s on the menu is whatever is in the refrigerator and takes three to five minutes to get onto a plate.
So it’s back to the meal delivery services, except now I’m leaning away from ones that make me do things like chop onions, and towards ones that send me onions all nice and pre-chopped. (I used to think that this was cheating. Except now I realize that hello, I know how to chop onions. I do not need to chop onions ever again in order to prove this to myself.) What you see here is from HungryRoot – they’re a vegan delivery service (although they’re introducing some fish and meat in the New Year), and yet somehow phenomenally delicious (weird), and the food takes literally (LITERALLY) three to five minutes to make. I don’t get it, but I don’t care.
Noritake Hammock Dinnerware | Joanna Buchanan Placemats
Another simplification strategy: what I use to serve the meals themselves. See – and those of you with children will feel me – the thing about kids is that they don’t want different foodstuffs to touch because eew, things touching other things, THE HORROR, but they also aren’t superb at keeping their food in the spot where it should be (on their plate) and away from, say, the floor. And my former vacuum cleaner, a.k.a. Virgil, lives with Dad now.
Enter Noritake’s genius new creation: The dinner bowl. As big as a dinner plate, but shallower than a pasta bowl, it’s baaaasically the perfect vessel in which to serve children (and me) anything. I’ve been using Noritake’s Blue Hammock plates and bowls for the past year or so, and for this post I incorporated their new grey additions to the Hammock collection, plus their gorgeous new wood serving pieces (hi, holiday gifts). The end result is very easy-breezy and casual – but also chic and elegant.
My recommendation, if you’re in the market for some new tablescaping: Mix and match the blue and grey Hammock patterns, then add a splash of wood servingware to make it all feel rustic and fabulous – and then throw in some white and gold-rimmed pieces when you want to up the elegance and fanciness just a touch.
Simplicity. It’s good.
P.S. If you want to check out all my picks from Noritake, my curated collection is on the site.
This post was created in collaboration with Noritake China. Photography by Kim Butan. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep RG ticking!
