Gourmet

Raise your hand if you're going to miss the now shuttered Gourmet as much as i am?

Not like i even cook enough to get properly weepy, but it was one of the first magazines i propped for so i'm extra sad to see it go.

Remember this shopping trip i went on almost a year ago? In memoriam of gourmet, i figured I'd better show the end result, a soup story from the feb. 09 issue.

I assisted Noemi Bonazzi on the shoot, who is just so amazing words aren't enough to describe her. This woman blows my mind. One day I'll tell you about the day i first went to her house. It involved Domino and cappuccinos and china. It was amazing, but that's another post all together.

I remember i had to borrow her SUV to drive down to Fairway in Red Hook at 8am to pick out (and carry to the car!) $500 of fancy firewood imported from europe for the above shot. The car was running on E, i didn't know where the nearest gas station was, my phone was dead, i had never driven a SUV before and i was running late late late for the shoot. I may or may not have had a minor coronary.

These are the valuable life experiences publishers like Conde Nast are robbing from assistants everywhere by closing titles. Keep our beloved magazines open if for no other reason than to keep torturing the assistants and freelancers, please? I swear, we like it.

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Pie in the sky

Two weeks ago I had a transcendent experience. It involved eating a whole blackberry rhubarb pie in one glup. Ok, it was several glups. Spread out over the course of a weekend. Regardless.

A word to the wise. Eat with caution if said pie is from the Blue Stove. It will cause you to become disinterested in all other types of food. I was recently caught pushing dinner around my plate with a fork while pouting and saying "All i really want to be eating is pie." Don't let this happen to you, as it is not becoming behavior from a girl over the age of 7.

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Strawberry shortcake

I made the biscuits from scratch and did the macerating and whipping, while Kristi did the shooting. We've never raced through a photo shoot so fast, just so we could eat the final product!

Absolutely, delightfully, perfectly, summer.

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Ice cream bowls: Part II

Two more photos of the bowls for good measure. I just can't stop, I apologize.


And by the way, I am SO freakin excited for New Hampshire blueberries next month. Pies galore!

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Pie baker

This past month I've fallen off the cooking bandwagon. It's hard to adjust from cooking for two people to cooking just for yourself. Cooking for one is so lonely.

Not to mention it creates a big old mess and there's no one to help with the dishes after. This weekend I tried to get back into the swing of things by making my beloved boss Christine a very, very homemade looking birthday pie, with varying degrees of success.


I managed not to burn it, which was nice. But I don't think it was quite the masterpiece Alice Waters had in mind when she wrote "The Art of Simple Food". Hmm.... oh well. At least sweet Kristi took a few a nice pictures of it.

Despite all that, I am still hopelessly devoted to The Art of Simple Food. I know this is hardly a revelation to anyone who follows cookbooks or Alice Waters or farmers markets in the least, but this is the first book to ever steal my heart away and get me really excited about cooking.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that some of the charm of her book comes from the sweet engraved illustrations but the recipes are all gems, too.

The baking section has been hitting home these days, I think it has something to do with this whole thing. I seriously dream in pies and tarts these days, just can't get enough.

I'm dying to make a fruit galette like this one, but next week I'm 99.9% sure strawberry shortcake is going to be on the menu instead. That is if I can prep it without eating all of the strawberries first.

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Pastry therapy

I have been a truly horrible blogger. I am so sorry.

Since I posted last, I have.....

1. Amicably split with my man. So there's been a lot of boo hooing even though it's what we both wanted. All for the best, my friends. All for the best.

2. Orchestrated his last minute move out, needless to say, my house is in shambles.

3. Became a single mother to our kitties. They are having a hard time adjusting and are showing their displeasure by scratching me much more the usual.

4. Started a new (and AMAZING!) job. More details to follow soon.

5. Lost internet for going on 5 days now (furtively typing this at new job, sorry Sarah!).

5. Spent nearly 50 hours working nonstop for Ginnys amazing wedding. Busy is good, very good.

No time for wallowing, but also no time for blogging. For that, I apologize.



On a happy note, Kristi and I shot these to die for ham and cheese turnovers from The Blue Stove in Williamsburg. I swear, it's going to be my personal mission to ensure that this place thrives. So freaking good.

Lord knows in times like these how much pastries help.

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Off the wagon

Sadly, I think my minimalist moment has ended and I am shopping again. Dear lord, how did this happen?! I was doing so good for a while.

Oh right. It was the thrift store blue and white china. At least these were only a buck.

I'm not normally a huge fan of souvenir plates, but this one is from New Hampshire so I couldn't pass it up even if I wanted to. Which I didn't.



I think I fell for the back of the plate more than I did for the front. Not the first time nor the last.

Yesterday I roped Kristi into shooting a little blue and white table spread. It started off as something completely different and I kept on adding some blue in between shots, till, POOF... It was all about the blue and white.

As always.

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Lilacs

Roses, peonies, violets, hydrangeas; all very sweet and old fashioned. But there is only one spot in a girl's heart for the favorite flower, the dream flower that the boy is supposed to present you on bended knee (without ever being prompted).

Those flowers, for me, are lilacs.

Brooklyn's lilacs are blooming and I could just about die of happiness.

The smell! The different colors! All those little flowers combined!

I think the obsession started with reading Nancy Drew's adventure "The Mystery at Lilac Inn". Stolen lilac trees and ghosts? Yes ma'am.

My favorite bedroom at Elmwood has the most achingly beautiful antique lilac wallpaper, too. I used to stare at it for hours, it was so pretty my older sister pulled rank to sleep there and rightly so. That's the joy of being an older sister, I guess.

When I was little my mom's fancy, special occasion stationary was embossed with lilacs and I think we dabbed it with lilac perfume. They're in my blood, I can't help it.

Fresh off the bus from the botanic garden, I ran to the corner store and blew my budget on some for the house.

The lovely and amazingly talented food photographer Kristi Schiffman came over this afternoon and we did a little bit of shooting; lilacs and Butter Lane cupcakes (plus some liberty fabric). It's good to be a girl.

Kristi is so talented, shooting with her is such a treat. Thursdays are something I always look forward to.

Even when styling doesn't involve taking little bites of cupcakes.

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Prop Shop

Gosh, I think I'm the luckiest girl ever.

Through my course of travels for work I recently needed to go to the much fabled Prop Company, a rental only prop house that caters to the magazine and film industries here in the city.

What's that you say? Aren't interiors in magazines actually authentic to their owners? Sadly, no. Awesome stuff is rented, photographed and returned, while posed as an owner's awesome collection. Not fair, right?

It's a small comfort knowing none of their beauties are for sale cause otherwise i'd be a goner. I'm surprised, however, that they don't check your bag on the way out, the stuff it that good.

(just kidding, I would never steal..... or would I??????)

A little group of table top stuff I had to pull together for a freelance job. My two directives? White and homey.

Bowls, bowls, bowls.

Oh wait, is this a photo of my apartment? Just kidding. But if you've ever been to my house you know I have a problem storing all of my wool camp blankets.

The white marble tabletop section. Mental note- find useless marble stuff for the apartment.

The massive white ironstone tureen section, this was like a tenth of them.

This would be the perfect place to rent things for a wedding or a big party, as long as you can stomach the thought of returning your new pretty things. Which, knowing me, would never happen.

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