Table Grau

Designer Claudia Grau is known to many in Southern California for clothes using interesting textiles from around the world. Here, she’s putting her fabrics on the table.

Napkins and place mats are $20 per place setting at Freehand in Los Angeles.

Taming of the Shrew?

If you paid attention at all to the performance art scene in the ‘80s, you know that artist Karen Finley has been obsessed with food (yams, especially) for many years--not that you’d want to eat anything she cooked up on stage.

These days, Finley admits to living in a converted barn where the kitchen cabinets have antique Art Deco knobs, making endless to-do lists and loving her Crock-Pot. But she’s not a total Martha. In last year’s “Living It Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity” (Doubleday, $15.95), Finley showed what can happen when a person is assaulted by one too many Martha Stewart “good things.” Into her New Year’s breakfast casserole go 2 inches of Frosted Flakes, 8 eggs beaten with 8 tablespoons of Tang, pancake batter and bacon bits. (Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.) Her St. Patrick’s Day Leprechaun cocktail is an assortment of frozen green vegetables blended with creme de menthe (fresh vegetables just don’t have the right texture, she says). Out of the book, of course, has come merchandise--this apron, for instance, which is embossed with cooking phrases: baking, beating, blending, etc. Might table linens or a Crock-Pot endorsement be in Finley’s future?

Apron, $28, and book, $15.95, at MOCA gift shop, Los Angeles.

Pretty in Plastic

It’s not as if plastic in the kitchen ever went away, but it does seem to be actually fashionable lately. These kitchen canisters are typical of what we’ve been seeing: intense colors and super-cool styling.

$6.99 to $7.99 at The Container Store in Costa Mesa.