Fab Friday — Dog Days of Summer Edition

August 12, 2011 By 2 Comments

Ahhh – the dog days of sum­mer are here – and I swear – with each pass­ing day, Philly feels worse than Orlando on a good day… So, let’s have a bit of Fab Fri­day Fun

x Fab Friday Dog Days of Summer Edition

 

1. I’ll be kind and won’t bring up boots – THIS WEEK.. but Fall Fash­ion is start­ing to emerge and I’m like a kid on Christ­mas Morn­ing. First up, these gor­geous “Time” oxford pumps from the one and only Stu­art Weitz­man. Love the plat­form, the key­hole open­ing – this pump is clearly one of my faves this sea­son. Sorry Kalisa – I’m lay­ing the blame on you for my Stu­art Weitz­man addic­tion – you spot­lighted his shoes a few years back and I have been cap­ti­vated ever since. And, if I haven’t said “Thank you”, my wardrobe thanks you pro­fusely – the shoe arse­nal is always styl­ish with his offerings.

2. One thing I miss about Orlando is the Mil­lenia Mall – and, of course, Z Gal­lerie. Z Gal­lerie and I had a tor­rid love affair in Vegas when I would wan­der through their store day­dream­ing about var­i­ous pieces and pic­tur­ing them in my house. When I moved to Orlando, what did I find – Z Gal­lerie. Now that I’m back up in Philly, we don’t have one close by but through the magic of the inter­webs, I’m able to peruse their offer­ings and find some really good pieces for my abode. Right now I’m obsessed with their Sul­tan Can­is­ters – both in Grey and Aqua­ma­rine – I could just pic­ture them lin­ing the top of book­shelves or cab­i­nets look­ing oh so chic…

3. Want to add a lit­tle drama to your spice cab­i­net – check out this Wooden Saf­fron Spice Cup from Dean & Deluca. Now, it’s the price of a pair of Tory Burch flats but still.. gorgeous!

4. I’m a tad miffed at Jen from One Curly Fry right now – she posted a fab­u­lous Cherry Blue­berry Smoothie recipe and she’s got a Vita­mix. I’ve been tee­ter­ing on the idea of buy­ing some­thing that is almost the cost of the Prada Degrade Bow Pumps, esp. when I have a gor­geous Jenn Air Attrezzi cop­per blender. How­ever, func­tion over beauty, right? This beast comes in a gor­geous stain­less steel fin­ish so I might just have to make the plunge this fall…

5. Can It, Bot­tle It, Smoke It: And Other Kitchen Projects Fab Friday Dog Days of Summer Edition and Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cook­ing Projects Fab Friday Dog Days of Summer Edition are two new edi­tions to the Cook­ing In Stilet­tos book­shelf. I have been bit by the can­ning bug and I fig­ured this would be some good fun for future culi­nary exper­i­ments. Great pho­tog­ra­phy, amaz­ing recipes and a recipe for home­made corn­flakes that is super sim­ple – oh heck yeah! Try one or both if you really want to have some fun in your kitchen – you will def­i­nitely enjoy it. Look for future posts on both of these books in the near future as I attempt Can­ning in Stilet­tos…

What’s got you obsessed this week?

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Filed Under: Canning In Stilettos, Cookbook, Cooking In Stilettos, Cool Products, Fab Friday, Fashion, Obsessed With, Shopping In Stilettos, Williams-Sonoma Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

May 6, 2011 By 3 Comments

So, the word is offi­cial – the Sous Pug is sans stitches, feed­ing tube and now we have some more test­ing and con­sults with a pet nutri­on­ist as he refuses the pre­scrip­tion dog food but he’s on the mend. Such great news after this month long roller coaster ride. So, this morn­ing I decided to fea­ture a few things that just think­ing about them makes me happy for this week’s Fab Fri­day choices…

 

1.) My wal­let is on a very strict diet – no more high end designer shoes for a hot minute. Doesn’t mean I can’t look – how­ever, I was look­ing for bright and trendy today and that often means a visit to Steve Mad­den.  I know, I know – I often fea­ture some fab designer but, well – hey, some­times you just need a bar­gain, right?  It helps bal­ance out the other things in life – like some pricey saf­fron or a new Le Creuset.  Any­ways, I found these gor­geous hot coral FELICITE pumps that are chic, mod­ern (I mean look at that wood heel!) and that color just pops! These will be in my closet soon!

 

2.) This Imprinted Palette Egg Caddy from Anthro­polo­gie is so unique and, con­fes­sion, I wouldn’t use it as an egg plate, but per­haps a jew­elry orga­nizer or some­thing else that should be on dis­play. I can’t even count the num­ber of times I have made dev­iled eggs and this piece is too pretty to be hid­den away.

 

3.) OK – and as I peruse Anthro­polo­gie, this Ver­dant Bread Bin MIGHT be imprac­ti­cal and, I know, a tad pricy and well out of my bud­get but it is gor­geous. So del­i­cate and screams of spring.

 

4.) I have two books – NOT cook­books – that I am read­ing vora­ciously at the moment. After this month, I think some light­hearted read­ing is needed, no? Jen Lan­caster, one of my absolute fave authors has writ­ten her first fic­tion novel – If You Were Here: A Novel Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition and if you have loved her mem­oirs such as Bit­ter is the New Black : Con­fes­sions of a Con­de­scend­ing, Ego­ma­ni­a­cal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unem­ploy­ment Office Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition or Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Dis­cover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition , you already know her voice. The same wit comes through in If You Were Here.  Plus, Philly peeps – Jen will be in town, Wednes­day, May 11 at Barnes & Noble on Wal­nut Street in Cen­ter City and it starts at 5:30 – who’s going?

My other must read – Sto­ries I Only Tell My Friends: An Auto­bi­og­ra­phy Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition by the one and only Rob Lowe.  Grow­ing up, I was NOT a Rob Lowe fan – I was more of a Karate Kid gal (and yes, I am hop­ing that Ralph Mac­chio does win Danc­ing With The Stars, but I digress). I remem­ber see­ing Rob’s face plas­tered every­where and thought – ehhh – another celeb bio, what­evs. That was until I caught his recent sit down with Oprah. Within min­utes, I found myself pur­chas­ing this and it is a GREAT read. Highly recommend!

I’m start­ing to think I should start a Cook­ing In Stilet­tos book club …

 

5.) Finally, because I always give y’all a cook­book that is flagged, tagged and has some fabu recipes that you will love, you MUST – stress MUST check out 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know: Engage­ment Chicken and 99 Other Fab­u­lous Dishes to Get You Every­thing You Want in Life Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition from the edi­tors of Glam­our mag­a­zine. The Bare­foot Con­tessa has already fea­tured the engage­ment chicken on her show and I have a few fab recipes that will be show­cased here on Cook­ing In Stilet­tos this month…

What are YOUR obses­sions right now?

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Filed Under: Cookbook, Cool Products, Fab Friday, Fashion, Favorite Things, Reading In Stilettos, Sous Pug Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos

April 8, 2011 By 2 Comments

Ahh – we’re FINALLY back on sched­ule and the Fab Fri­day has returned… This is going to be quite the week­end as I have some really inter­est­ing culi­nary projects ahead, a friend’s 40th b’day cel­e­bra­tion that is sure to bring back LOTS of 80s mem­o­ries, great food, convo and cock­tails, and some work to do on Cook­ing In Stilet­tos. What do they say – when you love what you do, then it’s not work at all icon smile Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos

Here are a few things that have cap­ti­vated me this week.

1. Speak­ing of the 80s, I swear, I should have whapped Kelly Ripa over the head YEARS ago because when she has a killer shoe, I’m like a wench on a mis­sion. Way back when, she was one of the gals on the set of a cer­tain show who always wore 3″ heels and of course, like typ­i­cal teen gals, many fol­lowed suit, myself included. When peo­ple ask how I can wear heels so high, I par­tially blame Kelly since I’ve been wear­ing tee-tottering heights since I was 15. Now that I think about it – she wasn’t the only gal on the set who had some killer shoes – so did Princess aka Heather. Heather was wear­ing fab over the knee boots WELL before Kim Kar­dashian rocked that trend. Any­how – let me stop flash­ing back to mem­ory lane and deal with the shoes at hand. A cou­ple weeks ago, Kel was rockin’ this seri­ously gor­geous Char­lotte Olympia espadrille pump and, while it was cute, I don’t think I could EVER jus­tify pay­ing over $800 for a cot­ton shoe. How­ever, when I saw these DV by Dolce Vita Flo­rence San­dals in Nude, well – it was a win win. The nude ankle strap wouldn’t cut off the leg line and it was chic and per­fect for this spring/summer 2011. Sorry Kelly – you can keep your Char­lotte Olympias – I’ll stick with these lovelies – and I’ll even have some funds left over for per­haps a Le Creuset or three.

2. Ok – this Emile Henry can­is­ter set is gor­geous. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my glass and sil­ver topped set that I’ve had since I was in Orlando but this has such a stream­lined look that would be per­fect for my one day cop­per and teal kitchen.

3. I am really enjoy­ing this quinoa kick that I am on – and when I saw this Zur­sun Black Quinoa at Williams Sonoma, well, I’m intrigued. Has any­one ever tried Black Quinoa?

4. I have been flip­ping through Aaron McCargo Jr.’s book Sim­ply Done, Well Done Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos for a hot minute now and have flagged some recipes to try here on Cook­ing In Stilet­tos. I can’t com­mend Aaron enough – not many peeps know this but back when he had a resto in Cam­den – I hap­pened to be in town for a meet­ing and our for­mer pro­ducer took us there for lunch and the food was slam­min’! When he won NFNS – I was thrilled because the man can cook and, quite hon­estly, he’s a really really nice guy! So, if you see this out and about, pick up a copy – it’s well worth it! Con­grats Chef!

5. Jen at One Curly Fry sent me a link to COOK by Audrey Claire and I almost fell out of my chair this morn­ing. It is open­ing this sum­mer at the cor­ner of Rit­ten­house and 20th St. and it’s going to offer classes, a bou­tique, a book­store and more. Plus – the kitchen is sup­posed to be state of the art. Ummm – where do I sigh up? Look­ing for­ward to great things com­ing from COOK!

 

[Flash­back Photo cour­tesy of Chris Kelly]

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Filed Under: Aaron McCargo Jr, Cookbook, Cooking Classes, Cool Products, Emile Henry, Fab Friday, Fashion, Food Network, Next Food Network Star, Obsessed With, Pantry, Philly, Williams-Sonoma Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cajun Rocket Pot–Simplifying Today’s Lobster and Crawfish Boils

March 13, 2011 By 1 Comment
pot-pic-3.jpg

While many of my friends know I’m a quasi-New Eng­land gal and have expe­ri­enced my share of clam bakes & lob­ster boils, I also adore all things Cajun and Cre­ole and have plans to go to NOLA this sum­mer for the IFBC 2011.  One thing that is a must in New Orleans is a craw­fish boil and this lovely con­trap­tion crossed my path.  While it’s called the Cajun Rocket Pot, it would make light­en­ing fast work out of the often lengthy lob­ster boil. I could def­i­nitely see some of my New Eng­land friends and fam­ily mak­ing good use of this.  Plus – for restau­rants – the value is beyond immense.  Heck, I was wish­ing that they had a smaller 8 qt. ver­sion because it took FOREVER to boil pasta water over the week­end and the base on a smaller ver­sion of these pots really would do won­ders on a gas stove, no?

Check out the Cajun Rocket Pot HERE and, if you are plan­ning to hold a few boils this spring/summer, check it out – time is price­less and for some­thing to cut the work in half the time, well, that’s worth the invest­ment in my book. 

CRP Pots Pic thumb The Cajun Rocket Pot–Simplifying Todays Lobster and Crawfish Boilspot pic 3 thumb The Cajun Rocket Pot–Simplifying Todays Lobster and Crawfish Boils

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Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

February 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

The count­down is on and in two weeks, this gal will be enjoy­ing the sights and sounds of sunny Miami while check­ing out the Food Net­work South Beach Wine & Food Fes­ti­val. Here are a few things that have me over the moon this week.

1. You know, Steve Mad­den is the king of “sim­i­lar­i­ties” at a much lower cost than, let’s say, Brian Atwood. I imme­di­ately made a point to order these lovelies and they should be on my doorstep shortly after I return from Miami – what can I say, I’m a sucker for the detailing.

2. I am a Meyer Lemon addict and, if I didn’t kill EVERY plant I own, I might actu­ally con­sider one or two of these Meyer Lemon Trees from Williams-Sonoma for the house.

3. I know I’m a Le Creuset gal but this Staub Mini-Cocotte has me totally enam­ored – I adore the turquoise color.

4. Ama­zon finally sent my Pretty Deli­cious: Lean and Lovely Recipes for a Healthy, Happy New You Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition cook­book by one of my fave stiletto gals, Can­dice Kumai and the pho­tos – oh my heav­ens, they are stun­ning. The recipes are spot on and I will be post­ing a few in the com­ing weeks – my fave at the moment, the Apri­cot Chicken with Quinoa pilaf – delish!

5. Finally, on my local faves, I have to give some kudos to my boy Joe Zangie. Dur­ing my “recov­er­ing pub­li­cist” days, I worked with Joe and I can’t even begin to tell you what a fab enter­tainer he is. Joe let me take a lis­ten to this track “You Remind Me” when it was in its early stages and I knew then it was des­tined to be a hit. Now that it is finally released, I finally tell y’all about it. It is that *per­fect* song that you will have stuck in your head for days. So, if you have a sec­ond, take a lis­ten and sup­port a local Philly artist icon smile Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition Con­grats JZ!

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Filed Under: Candice Kumai, Cookbook, Cookware, Cool Products, Fab Friday, Favorite Things, Williams-Sonoma Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

February 4, 2011 By 3 Comments

Remind me to give that Punx­sutawney Phil a big kiss one day – the ground­hog has promised us an early spring and I, along with much of the North­east, would be thrilled to kick Ol’ Man Win­ter outta here and look for­ward to sun, flow­ers, cock­tails on the Bour­bon Blue deck and the promise of green grass instead of this “snert” aka dirty snow. Plus, with spring comes base­ball sea­son and, as a Phillies fan, that always makes me happy. So, again with the happy thoughts for this week’s Fab Fri­day as we spot­light some beau­ties that have us all a-twitter.

1. Brian Atwood has hit it out of the park yet again with the Maniac, this time in one of my favorite metallics – Rose Gold. Vic­to­ria Beck­ham had sent her run­way mod­els wear­ing these dur­ing her last show and when I saw the pho­tos, I about stopped in my tracks. These stilet­tos are one of my lust items for Spring ’11.

2. I tend to stick with brands I love and this Laguiole Cheese Knife Set from Anthro­polo­gie is a must for my kitchen. Func­tional and fab­u­lous! Plus, I adore the bright col­ors – more “spring-like”, no?

3. These vin­tage kitchen scales from NapaStyle are retro and would look per­fect in today’s coun­try style kitchen or in the pages of the next issue of “Where Women Cook“

4. 5 Ingre­di­ent Fix: Easy, Ele­gant, and Irre­sistible Recipes Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition by Claire Robin­son is another one of those cook­books that I won­der what I ever did with­out. The recipes are pretty sim­ple, the fla­vors are out of this world and if you aren’t watch­ing Claire Robinson’s show on Food Net­work, c’mon – you must give it a shot.

5. One place I’m super stoked to check out in Man­ayunk is The Spi­ral Book­case. I adore books and there is some­thing to be said about find­ing a gen­tly used copy of a book I haven’t read in for­ever – whether it’s a cook­book that is from way back when or a really good novel. When you are in Man­ayunk, drop in and say hello – and don’t be sur­prised if you see me millin’ about, after all, their next door neigh­bor is a local cof­fee spot – Mugshots.

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Filed Under: Bourbon Blue, Claire Robinson, Cookbook, Cool Products, Fab Friday, Fashion, Favorite Things, NapaStyle, Philly, Shopping In Stilettos Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

January 28, 2011 By 5 Comments

Wow – can you believe Jan­u­ary just flew by? Well it looks like the weath­er­man was off again as I’m look­ing out the win­dow and it appears to be WELL over an inch start­ing to fall this after­noon. Seri­ously, can’t they just get a fore­cast some­what right? *sigh* so let’s leave you with some nice lovelies to gawk at as we think happy thoughts of beaches, sun­shine and cock­tails that come in coconuts…

1. These Jimmy Choo Nexus Snake­skin and Lace San­dals are beyond gor­geous! Would love these for a spe­cial night out in the city but the pric­etag – notsomuch!

2. Aren’t these Parisian Ceramic Mea­sur­ing Cups from Sur La Table adorable?

3. I have been in dire need of a Gel­Pro mat for my kitchen for a while. I adore this azure blue ostrich print ver­sion to go with my blue, choco­late and cop­per kitchen. The price is some­what daunt­ing but I think it might be needed. I just hope the sous pug stays away from it and doesn’t mis­take it for some­thing else if you get my drift *sigh*

4. Jen @ One Curly Fry has been hav­ing a blast at her classes The Restau­rant School at Wal­nut Hill Col­lege.  I have pretty much made the deci­sion that I must check out a class or three when the weather gets bet­ter. From Culi­nary Arts to Pas­try Arts, you can rest assured that they will have a class just for you.

5. Avec Eric: A Culi­nary Jour­ney with Eric Ripert Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition had me doing a dance of joy when I received this on my doorstep cour­tesy of the fab peo­ple over at Wiley. The pho­tos take you on one heck of a culi­nary jour­ney with one of the world’s top chefs and you must watch his PBS Show, Avec Eric.  It’s breath­tak­ing.  The recipes are geared to all lev­els of cook­ing and this cook­book is a trea­sure. Love Love LOVE! Now, if you ask me to choose between my Louboutins and my Avec Eric – well, don’t make me split the baby, ‘k?

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Filed Under: Cookbook, Cooking Classes, Cool Products, Eric Ripert, Fab Friday, Fashion, Favorite Things, Obsessed With, Shopping In Stilettos Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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