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Host
Stories
October 9, 2008
WCBS News Reporter Tony Aiello
and his wife, Liz, a Martha Stewart exec, create a kitchen perfect
for entertaining guests, both young and old(er).
Click
here to read the actual article
By Elena Rover
Welcome, come on in,” says Liz Aiello, leading visitors
into her 1924 center-hall Colonial in New Rochelle and straight
into the kitchen. “I’ve just made some blueberry
muffins with berries I got at the Farmers Market,” she
adds, pointing toward a pretty basket on the island’s gleaming
CaesarStone countertop.
If it seems like a perfect Martha Stewart moment, it may well
be an occupational hazard: Liz is senior vice president of broadcasting
at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She directs Stewart’s
channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, which covers all aspects of
the home maven’s domain, from cooking and crafts to decorating
and gardening. And she’s well versed in every aspect, both
professionally and personally.
Perhaps not surprisingly given
her occupation, she’s also
a fan of home décor magazines, clipping pages to deposit
in her “dream box” for future projects. Her latest
one, an expansion and renovation, doubled the size of her former
kitchen, which now boasts sleek lines, top-tier stainless-steel
appliances, plenty of windows, and a skylight.
“We wanted to bring the outdoors inside,” explains
her husband, Tony Aiello, a news reporter who covers Westchester,
Southern Connecticut, and the lower Hudson Valley for CBS television’s
local affiliate. Perched on a Shinto-style counter stool, Tony
is digging into a piping-hot muffin, awaiting the arrival of
his brother, Rob, and family for Sunday brunch.
In addition to his Emmy-nominated reporting, Aiello is active
in Westchester’s arts scene, serving as a board member
of the Westchester Arts Council (and chairman of its annual Arts
Awards Committee luncheon) and as board secretary for the Westchester
Philharmonic. Six months after the dust settled on the kitchen,
Liz and Tony hosted 22 Philharmonic board members for dinner. “And
guess how many people wanted to stand in the kitchen?” Liz
jokes. “I had the buffet set up in the dining room. But
everyone who sees the new space goes crazy.”
The gleaming new kitchen was designed to adapt with ease to the
varied needs of the young couple’s many roles, whether
it’s the staging area for a formal repast or just a typical
evening meal for Liz, Tony, and their six-year-old twins, Robert
and Anthony.
The old kitchen had its charm. The previous owners had upgraded
the appliances, but without enough cabinets and counter space,
it was cramped. Every bit of available space was filled with
shelves and kitchen supplies. “There was an indoor meat
grill, which was nice, but we rarely used it,” says Liz.
And the grill and its hood hogged valuable space along the northeast
wall.
Converted to counter and cabinets, the area is now Liz’s
baking center. Handpainted Italian canisters hold staples on
the countertop, alongside the double wall-mounted GE Profile
ovens and the GE Monogram bottom-freezer refrigerator. Cabinets
below have pull-out drawers for mixing bowls and other gear,
a turntable for small appliances and ingredients, and vertical
dividers for baking sheets and pans—all with twig hardware
to bring in a bit of the outdoors. The KitchenAid mixer stands
ready on the counter. “I used to have to keep it in the
basement and get it every time I wanted to use it,” says
Liz. “Now I can whip up cookies for the kids or a batch
of biscotti just because Tony has a craving.” Or today’s
blueberry muffins for Sunday brunch.
Despite her executive-level job, Liz, an avid chef, cooks often.
A vegetable garden in the yard yields lettuce, tomatoes, and
basil in summer, eggplant and green figs as the season comes
to a close. As though stepping out of the pages of Martha’s
Everyday Food magazine, she says, “I cook a lot on the
weekends and make sure there are leftovers for the weekdays.
I’ll make something after bedtime for the next day so there’s
always something fresh.”
Liz glories in the new six-burner Thermador Professional range
and hood, but more so in the slim sliding- base cabinets that
flank it, holding a wide array of herbs and spices, oils and
vinegars for preparing family favorites such as lamb chops or
penne with homemade pesto. “Sometimes I think we did this
entire kitchen so she could have those spice racks,” Tony
quips.
But none of her guys complain as they devour the fresh muffins.
And the new space feels just right, whether it’s filled
with a few PTA moms stopping by for coffee and a playdate, friends
sipping cocktails before a dinner party, a gathering of extended
family tucking into a classic paella, or a formal festivity for
the Philharmonic.
As a whole, the addition is done in a style Liz refers to as “contemporary
with a traditional flair.” The four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath
house is a classic Colonial, but the Aiellos didn’t want
to be limited to a traditional aesthetic in their new, airy space.
So they kept the design clean and elegant with a natural palette
so it wouldn’t feel disconnected from the rest of the house.
The fabulous results, the Aiellos say, is due to the talented
team at the Mount Kisco showroom of home-improvement pros MyHome.
“I had a very distinct vision of what I wanted,” says
Liz, relying on the long-held ideas collecting in her dream box.
Meeting the MyHome architect, Jordan Rosenberg, at a home show
in Purchase, the Aiellos described that vision. During a follow-up
meeting, Rosenberg sketched a plan on a napkin that added 470
feet to their 2,500-square-foot home. “That’s it!” Liz
told him.
For extra reassurance, Liz took the architect’s plans to
the office and asked Kevin Sharkey, Martha Stewart’s editorial
director of decorating, to give it a look. “He loved it,” Liz
says. “And I’m so happy with the end result.”
That’s because, in the end, the addition performs exactly
as the Aiellos had hoped. Liz can oversee artwork projects and
homework at the family communication center—a large built-in
desk with an iMac the boys share with Mom and Dad—while
grabbing a recipe from her cookbook cabinet (cookbooks previously
were relegated to the living room bookcase). She can indulge
her passion for cooking with copious counters and easy-to-reach
appliances, equipment, and ingredients. Counter stools make it
easy for guests to congregate around the island, while Liz opens
a bottle of vino from the built-in wine fridge just under the
counter. In comparison to the old, cramped, and cluttered kitchen,
it’s a dream come true—straight out of Liz’s
dream box.
Liz Aiello's Entertaining Staples
Playdates with the kindergarten set:
Kitchen sink cookies from Martha Stewart Living
Classic & alternative rock from iTunes (the boys particularly
love Green Day and The Killers)
Plastic dishware from Target
Sunday brunch with the extended family:
Tomato frittata (with just-picked
tomatoes from the backyard garden)
and homemade blueberry muffins
Music from the Gipsy Kings
Custom ceramic plates from Cose Belle of Ravello, Italy
Dinner with the Westchester Philharmonic Board of Directors:
Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate Cookbook and farro salad
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26
Martha Stewart Collection whiteware plates from Macy’s
Tony Aiello’s Internet finds
The deep farmhouse kitchen sink from HandcraftedMetal.com
The wood stand for the mudroom sink from HomeClick.com
The chandelier over the table from Alluminaire.com
The table, chairs, and stools from RoomandBoard.com
Blueberry Muffins
From Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook Clarkson Potter,
2005
(Makes 1 dozen)
1 stick (1⁄2 cup) unsalted butter room temperature (plus
more for pan)
2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for pan
1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1⁄2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter standard 12-cup
muffin pan and dust with flour, tapping out excess; set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Working over bowl, toss blueberries in fine sieve with about
1 1⁄2 teaspoons of flour mixture to lightly coat; set aside
flour mixture and blueberries.
In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat
butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy,
about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
Mix in vanilla.
With mixer on low speed, add reserved flour mixture, beating
until just combined. Add milk, beating until just combined; do
not overmix. Using rubber spatula, fold in blueberries. Divide
batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until muffins are golden
brown and cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes
out clean (about 30 minutes). Transfer pan to wire rack to cool
10 minutes. Turn muffins on sides in their cups, and let cool.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle granulated sugar
over tops of unbaked muffins (one tablespoon should cover all
12) to give them some crunch. |
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