Jcrew comparing its new spring line to the work of Warhol, Degas and Monet? I'm sorry, No.

And, Hell No.
(thank you P.)

some beauty from scandinavia...

59 buketter (bouquets) found here. via blomsterverkstad

it is no secret I have been know to succumb to the celebrity gossip shame spiral

Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to show you these:


and in exchange, you're going to look at this. And you must scroll down for the pink kimono.

special galette post

I recently went on a galette binge, and thought you should know. Its the best easiest thing to make and impress people because its sort of french, i guess, and rustic. and if you fill the gallette with seasonal stuff people will think you're the next alice waters - and maybe you cold be - especially if you toss some microgreenz with a lemon vinagrette and serve a nest of them on a wood plank accompanied by a slice of the gallette. Here goes:

do you have a little food processor? if so, put 1 1/4 cups of flour in there with 1 stick of butter (cold), a half teaspoon of salt, and some chopped sage if you can. Buzz that junk till it gets to be small crumbs, or there's no big chunks of butter left. Then slowly stream in about 1/4 cup of cold water through the top as you continue to buz...it should form a clump. Dump it out, knead it into a round flat disk. Plastic wrap - throw it in the fridge for one hour to chill.

Then cook up a filling. The first night I did squash and leeks and goat cheese. Pretty good...

The second night I carmelized 4 small onions in a bit of olive oil. Then cooked 3 good pork sausages (out of their casings). Tossed that together with lots of ground pepper. Rolled out the dough into a big mishappen oval. Dumped the filling in the center, spread to 1 inch within the edge. Folded up the edges and brushed an egg wash on the crust. I then drizzled the leftover egg wash over the sausage filling - why waste it - and baked at 350 for 35 minutes.

Philly Son

We went to Philadelphia last week for some business and room service. Yes, I read nylon - judge me.
Our assistant, Amanda, says Son after things. She's so in-the-know. What does this mean, Son?

stop; you're going to be jealous

frocks i snagged at mayle before they close down for good in February. everything's on sale, which is to say I just have to eat beans&rice for two weeks instead of a month in order to be able to pay for it.

vanilla bean/cranberry crackity-crack coffee cake. from Smitten Kitchen

Here are some outtakes from my shoot with this little arrangement on Wednesday. I'm working on getting this column rolling, and was shooting all sorts of Ranunucula this week. Desperate to make her debut on the design/home fashion circut, Nea kept sneaking in the shot. I tried explaining that the camera adds 10 pounds - jus' saying - and that if she was serious, she needed to reconsider her between meal snacking.

owning my migraine

its like when you plan a romantic dinner, dress for it and then start seeing strange rainbow squiggles in your vision as you prep a head of fennel. you ignore the squiggles, thinking it's the lamp shining too bright over your counter, and then forget what you're doing with this fennel, or even what you're making for dinner. you look around the kitchen for your bearings and realize that you can't actually focus on anything. that's when it occurs to you that you've felt this way before... before a migraine, and that it's probably not a stroke. but in case it is, you'd had better change out of this ridiculous outfit and apron in case you're boyfriend needs to call an ambulance. this accomplished, you give brief instructions on finishing dinner (slice pear, toss with fennel, olive oil and lemon juice...pork needs 15 more minutes) and run to lay down.

It's two hours later and I'm not dead yet. just a bad headache. and I can see to type straight: thems up there are poppies, the first of the season.

SR

if you don't know, now you know.

my friend Nadia of Butter fame has hooked it up with a new shop in the hood. you should go, because in addition to amazing bric-a-brac she has candy. the good kind.

Eric came in this morning "needing" to hear the Escape Pina Colada Song by Rupert Holmes. We found it on YouTube with one of those montages people make. It's not really the music video, its just a collection of images of Angelina Jolie from the movie Wanted. WHY?

Nadav Kander's incredible portraits of Obama's staff in the NYT magazine...
My favorite is Steven Chu, the man who may save the world:

two deliveries from yesterday for newly minted Capricorns...

stuff

When you count the empty bottles of wine and they equal the number of people sitting at the table, its ususally not a good idea for a nite cap at Sunnys. This being said, this morning im hangin around with my girls salt & peppa, debbie and sheila. And eddie too. Picked these guys up at the DAV in Williamsburg. Thats collonial Williamsburg fools. Like as in Virginia. Everyone knows you can't get this kind of quality at the LP joints in Brooklyn. Later I'll post a picture of eric with a musket posing in front of John Hancock's house.

shizzels

scenes from prep of the last wedding in a long and beautiful season!

Yes.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

root down at chez saipua

It started here, with my new copy of a Platter of Figs, the best cookbook I've seen in a while. I came to a recipe for pigs ear salad and was transfixed. Here was something I would never make. On the other hand, the celery root remoulade, meant to accompany the pigs ear, was within my grasp. I filed this for future reference.

Three weeks later, Aaron and I found ourselves in Fairway enamored by a plethora of root vegetables. We started putting together a dinner that would include 2 root, 2 ways. Follow? A (mislabeled*) parsley root and a celery root would be fashioned into mashed potatoes and a remoulade, not necessarily in that order. Roasted monkfish makes a candid appearance with tomatoes and olives.

Aaron matchsticks half the celery root. The other half gets cubed and boiled with potatoes. He combines 1/2 pound of the matchsticked root with the juice of a lemon and salt. Mixes, and sets aside to drain for 1 hour.


I de-membrane the fish (no photos, please), sprinkle with salt, pepper and cumin. Some cayenne. Fry in olive oil briefly on both sides. Dump in a can of chopped tomatoes and some excellent black olives. Sea salt over all - the whole pan goes in an oven at 400 for around 20 minutes. We turn on HOT 97 for the 90's throwback at nine and wait.

Then the matchsticks are drained, combined with a touch of dijon mustard, a few spoonfuls of creme fraiche and a teaspoon of horseradish. The potatoes and celery root are mashed, fish plated.


We eat, while reveling in the distant glory of Mary J. Blige.


*Turned out our friend labeled the parsley root was in fact a horseradish. How could I make this mistake? Parsley roots are Parsnips, a vegetable I know quite well... or thought I knew. Now we have 2 pounds of fresh horseradish...any ideas what to make of it?

winter peonies

It's basically like death in NYC right now. Rain. Sleeting sideways. I'm looking through my iphoto (which i hate by the way) for relief - and found pics of the tomato garden from this past summer. Tomato Bob has a special on seeds right now - select seeds are selling at 1945 prices! You do the math!

Here in southern NY seeds can be started indoors around Feb. 1st. That's only 3 weeks away.

TADA!

These are my pictures from our shoot at Martha Stewart Weddings. Everyone there is so nice! And the studios are all so beautiful. And each studio has little snacks and coffee and stuff! I got to go into the prop room...and Holy cannoli little dudes, its the real deal. I also got to meet Ditte Isager, whose pictures are so beautiful and surreal. You can see the article here.

You know these cookies?
Completely void of flavor, but yet so delicious? When i was young there was a cookie counter in Macy's that we'd always walk by. As a full-fledged sugar nazi, my mother* would never let us get any. This means that now when I see them I take home several dozen and celebrate adulthood with a crumbs-flying-out-of-the-mouth feeding frenzy. I'm suprised I even put them on a plate here. But I suppose thats what blogging does to you - all of a sudden your stopping to take pictures of all your most perfect personal moments..
__

You know this magazine?
Getting some outtakes together now from our Martha Stewart Wedding shoot - I got a two page spread in the current issue. Like whoa, right?

*She did give me those jadeite mugs for xmas, so I suppose all is forgiven.

The bouquet from today's wedding. Got my paws on dad's old-new camera and noticing how fantastic it is...it has this macro setting which is especially good for photographing dew drops and stuff.