For food writer and gourmet chef Wendy Franzen, creating the ultimate dinner party is like penning a memorable scene in a novel. Every detail has meaning and nuance—from how the…
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An All Starry Night Weekend
When Northwestern University (NU) alumnus Stephen Colbert made his commencement address to the Class of 2011, he said that life itself is an improvisation. “You have no idea what’s going…
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An English Christmas
Sarah Shelley had the kind of English childhood American anglophiles only dream of. Growing up in Shropshire, a sparsely populated county about two hours north of London on the border…
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House Hunters for Real
If you’re a fan of HGTV, you know the popular series formulas about young couples who go on a house hunt and bring along the experts to help them see…
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Lake Forest Home An Ode to Ragdale
“Small, but adequate.” That’s what the Latin inscription on the chimney at Michaele Ann and Patrick McDonnell’s Sheridan Road home means. But one glance and you assess a few things…
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HP Home is Baked to Perfection
It is a rare and special thing to walk into a space and feel an instant connection. That is exactly what happened just three years ago for two very lucky…
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Rags to Witches … Bewitches
When Alison Aldrich and her husband John Varones accepted an invitation from Jeanna and John Park to join them for The Ragdale Foundation’s “A Novel Affair” event five years ago,…
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English Delights
There’s a telling little anecdote about the first time that Neal Fenwick brought his wife, Tina Dann-Fenwick, to the big 1930s Georgian property in Lake Forest. Both from the Surrey…
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Paradise Found
If Amy Morton asks if you would like a cup of coffee, say yes, but know that it might take a minute. The Evanston restaurateur and member of the Morton…
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LB Union Church Celebrates 150 Years
When this “little brown church” was built on Rockland Road in 1866, one year after the end of the Civil War, there was no such place as Lake Bluff, Illinois….
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