Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Fry’s Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

August 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
WS-LC-FennelBraiser

[Guest Post cour­tesy of Jen from one curly fry in a box of the reg­u­lar]

WS MarvelCupcakeKit 300x300 Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Frys Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

I love all things about cup­cakes, so when I saw the Mar­vel ™ Heroes Cup­cake Dec­o­rat­ing Kit I imme­di­ately said out loud to myself “I need to have this!” I live with a Huge Cap­tain America/Comic book fan so it’s kind of ingrained in me to rec­og­nize this stuff. And when you pair it with some­thing I love (like cup­cakes) then I’m def­i­nitely all in! I’m always look­ing for an excuse to bake some deli­cious cup­cakes! They also have two dif­fer­ent Cookie Cut­ter Sets and a Cakelet Pan if Cup­cakes aren’t on your thing.

WS HerbSavor 240x300 Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Frys Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

A few weeks ago I got some Basil in my CSA box. It was a huge bag and I was able to use some of it for a won­der­ful Tomato, Basil & Moz­zarella salad (or two) but there was still a lot of basil left­over. After a cou­ple of days it started to get those black specks all over it and it just started smelling bad. Now if I would’ve had one of these Herb Savors I wouldn’t have had that prob­lem! I’ve tried the glass filled with water thing, but Basil is so potent that it smells up the entire refrig­er­a­tor. This Herb Savor would at least con­tain the smell a bit and save my Basil! So this is def­i­nitely on my shop­ping the list for my next trip!

WS PieMaker 300x300 Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Frys Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

As a huge dessert fan, pies are just one of the many things that I love! I remem­ber pick­ing black rasp­ber­ries at my Grandmother’s house when I was a young child. I’d pick them until I had a huge bowl full so that she could make me some pie. I cur­rently belong to a CSA and I pur­chased the fruit share as well. I have a huge stock of fresh Blue­ber­ries that are cur­rently in my freezer just wait­ing to be used. But dur­ing the sum­mer months when the tem­per­a­ture is flirt­ing with triple dig­its, the last thing I want to do is turn on my oven. This is where the Bre­ville Pie Maker would come in very handy! You’re telling me that I can have pie (in 8 min­utes!) and a cool house – all at the same time!? Count me in! This can be used for savory pies as well – Mini Chicken Pot Pies in under 10 min­utes? You can’t beat that!

WS OCF Dish 300x240 Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Frys Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

I’m always inter­ested in adding addi­tional pieces to my Bak­ing Dish col­lec­tion. Now that I don’t have as much stor­age space, I look for pieces that are mul­ti­pur­pose. When I saw the La Chamba Colom­bian Clay Bak­ing Dish it was love at first sight. As I was read­ing more about it, I fell in love with it all over again. This dish can be used in the oven for casseroles, lasag­nas and baked desserts or on the stove­top for sautéing and grid­dling recipes! How is that for ver­sa­til­ity? It comes in two dif­fer­ent sizes and you sim­ply can’t beat the price – this is a must have for my kitchen!

WS LC FennelBraiser 300x240 Guest Post: Jen From One Curly Frys Shares Phive Phavorites From Williams Sonoma

I have a vari­ety of Le Creuset pieces in my col­lec­tion, but one thing that I don’t have that is def­i­nitely on my list is the Le Creuset Braiser. It’s an absolutely gor­geous piece, and I fell head over heels when I saw it in a new color – Fen­nel. It’s such a beau­ti­ful shade of green and it would look beau­ti­ful on dis­play when it wasn’t in use. Although I think it’s safe to say that this would get a lot of use in my house – from chicken, to beef, to pork, to one pot meals; this dish would not be ignored. I’ve heard rave reviews from friends that have this Braiser and I hear it’s a must-have for any kitchen!

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Filed Under: Favorite Things, Guest Post, Shopping In Stilettos, Williams-Sonoma Tagged With: , , ,

Fab Friday Returns

June 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Oh Fab Fri­day – how I’ve missed thee! There’s some­thing about a lit­tle vir­tual eye candy that makes a gal happy. I’m lov­ing the fact that the fall shoes are start­ing to come out. Now, before you remind me “Aly – it’s just the begin­ning of sum­mer – don’t bring up fall!”, I have to say that buy­ing fall clothes/shoes are some­thing that I look for­ward to EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR! Well, I fig­ure I got 8 weeks of shoe lust to get out of my sys­tem as I pick out THE per­fect stilet­tos to rock this fall. Don’t worry – I’m sure that many can be worn year round and I promise no boots til at least the begin­ning of August – fair?

OK – so, now that we got that agree­ment in place – here’s a few covet-worthy items for you to enjoy!

x Fab Friday Returns

 

1. These gor­geous Chris­t­ian Louboutin’s Laval­liere Bow Pumps just chan­nel that “Mad Men” vibe while flash­ing that red sole. LOVE!

2. I have seen this “COOK” cut­ting board by Joseph Joseph a few times and every time I see it, I’m tempted to get it for my kitchen. There’s some­thing about it that reminds me of the Philadel­phia LOVE sign. I even saw it last week in New York but the price dis­suaded me from pur­chas­ing it (plus car­ry­ing glass home on train – never fun!). How­ever, when I got the email that Cam­bria Cove was clos­ing, after wip­ing away my tears, I was thrilled to see this avail­able for sale at such a great price. I even picked up the Sex & The City Cup­cake apron I was obsessed with as well as some fabu ear­rings. I love a great sale but will miss Cam­bria Cove and their gor­geous products.

3. I was SO dis­ap­pointed in the Meyer Lemon crops this year. Talk about a short sea­son – I still always look at Whole Pay­chex to see if, per­haps, they might have a stray, non-moldy (!) Meyer Lemon but so far no go. How­ever, Williams-Sonoma is going to help me brighten up my dishes all year long. They have added not only a Meyer Lemon Brais­ing base to their food prod­ucts but also Dried Meyer Lemon Peel which will go per­fectly when I start using my new Emile Henry Tagine. Note to self: get Meyer Lemon Trees for the apart­ment and tell the Sous Pug that the trees are for cook­ing, NOT for him!

4. Every week, it never fails – I pur­chase a loaf of sour­dough bread and vow “One Day I’ll Learn To Make It Myself!” Then I remem­ber that when it comes to bak­ing in stilet­tos, well, I’m def­i­nitely in the begin­ning stages of bread. How­ever, some­how I think that this Sour­dough Starter & Crock from King Arthur Flour will help me get over my fears and, per­haps, I won’t be as ter­ri­fied to attempt it myself (and, in turn, tak­ing that $4 and putting that in the Stiletto Fund, right?).  Plus – when you bake (and cook) with qual­ity ingre­di­ents – it can only help.

5. I was in New York last week for an event and decided to take some time that after­noon to visit the Chelsea Mar­ket. While I was there, I always tend to buy a cook­book and I have been obsessed with learn­ing to cook Mex­i­can food lately. Now, we already dis­cussed my irra­tional fear of Bak­ing In Stilet­tos, but I think that My Sweet Mex­ico: Recipes for Authen­tic Pas­tries, Breads, Can­dies, Bev­er­ages, and Frozen Treats Fab Friday Returns, will help me get over that. The book is beau­ti­fully pho­tographed and I read it like a novel the whole train ride home. I am look­ing for­ward to giv­ing this book a whirl over the next few months and post­ing about my bak­ing experiments!

What are you obsessed with this week?

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Filed Under: Aprons, Baking In Stilettos, Bargains, Cookbook, Deal Alert, Fab Friday, Fashion, Favorite Things, Obsessed With, Pantry, Shopping, 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: , , , , , , ,

Something Shiny and New To Brighten The Day

May 2, 2011 By 3 Comments
Cooking In Stilettos Blog Tag

This past month has kicked my butt in ways I didn’t even know could exist. Between all the med­ical drama with the Sous Pug, bal­anc­ing the day to day with hos­pi­tal vis­its, dog nutri­tion research (home cooked diet v. canned dog food), learn­ing med­ical jar­gon, etc., I am wiped out. Shortly after the Sous Pug went home, he was rushed back to the hos­pi­tal and had to undergo quite the surgery and had to stay there for basi­cally another week to recover.

Offi­cially the Sous Pug is home for good. How­ever it’s a del­i­cate bal­anc­ing act between the morn­ing feed­ings, the noon­time check (and his mid­day snack), the evening feed­ings and don’t even get me started on the amount of med­ica­tion I have to give him daily.   When it comes to meds, that pug is smart and I can’t hide it in a dag­gone thing. If he finds it, he spits it at me and it’s a 45 min. wrestling match to get him to swal­low just one pill. Add to that an ever watch­ful eye, his con­stant need for atten­tion, his tem­per tantrums, doc­tor appoint­ments and turn­ing my home into a quasi hos­pi­tal suite, well then, cook­ing (for me at least) has not been a high pri­or­ity.  I have, how­ever, been cook­ing for him reg­u­larly as he’s not a fan of the new pre­scrip­tion dog food. This is a dog that adores spice and to remove that and leave him with bland chicken, ham­burger and rice is heart­break­ing. So, that has been my life for the past month and, quite frankly, I’m hop­ing this is the last month we will see with Wiggy’s pan­cre­ati­tis and, if all goes well, they will remove his feed­ing tube. I can’t even begin to tell you how fab­u­lous Hick­ory Vet­eri­nary Hos­pi­tal is – they essen­tially saved my lit­tle guy’s life. Their doc­tors, techs and staff are all top notch and I think that some treats have to be made for those won­der­ful peo­ple. Of course, Wiggy won’t be able to par­take but, who knows, per­haps one day.

In other news, with all that is going on, I found a lit­tle some­thin’ some­thin’ in the mail­box this week­end that had me clickin’ my stilet­tos with glee – namely, my shiny new Blog Tag. I have become a tad obsessed with jew­elry lately and when I found out that Court­ney from Coco Cooks is also a fab jew­elry designer, well I had to take a peek. And when I saw that she did blog tags, well you know I needed to have a Cook­ing In Stilet­tos blog tag to add to my jew­elry col­lec­tion in my favorite metal – cop­per.  Some­thing bright and shiny to bring up the mood, right? She has some other stun­ning pieces and is so gifted when it comes to jew­elry design so I know I will be adding some more Coco pieces to my collection.

If you would like a blog tag of your very own or some seri­ously chic pieces to add to your jew­elry col­lec­tion, check out Courtney’s jew­elry site.

 

CC BlogTags 270x300 Something Shiny and New To Brighten The Day

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Filed Under: Fashion, Favorite Things, Great Blogs, Obsessed With, Shopping, Sous Pug Tagged With: , ,

Kickin Off The Week With A Fab Monday

March 28, 2011 By 1 Comment

Where oh where does the time go? Already it’s the end of March and before long the sun­shine and warm weather will be here. Granted its in the 30s today here in Philadel­phia so I’m really won­der­ing where the spring weather is. How­ever, that won’t stop me from bring­ing a lit­tle sun­shine with some of my lat­est obsessions…

1. First up – the Report Sig­na­ture Women’s Lin­net Plat­form Pump Kickin Off The Week With A Fab Monday had me at hello the minute I saw it. I am happy to say that the pic­ture doesn’t do it jus­tice – it’s more stun­ning than it looks and already it’s one of my fave 2011 shoe pro­cure­ments. The Lin­net is well worth the invest­ment – I’ve had more peo­ple com­ment on how stun­ning they are. Thank­fully, it comes in black and nude but hurry quick – they are sell­ing out like crazy.

2. Napastyle has some gor­geous Ham­mered Stain­less Steel Tum­blers that are beg­ging to be serv­ing some crisp mint juleps as you sit on the front porch. Adore these almost as much as their cop­per tumblers.

3. One of my culi­nary goals was to be more proac­tive when it comes to can­ning and preser­va­tion and boy did I wish I knew about this deal sooner because the Lee Bros. pre­miered the Lee Bros. Gran­ite­ware 12-piece Can­ning Set with Recipes over the week­end dur­ing the HSN Cooks Spring Week­end Event. I actu­ally went out and bought all the pieces through­out the win­ter and I spent WAY more than this. What a great deal! Plus – if you win the HSN Give­away that we’re host­ing here at Cook­ing In Stilet­tos, that’s $10 more in your pocket, right?  You did enter, right?

4. I had the plea­sure of meet­ing one of the matri­archs of Ital­ian cook­ing, Lidia Bas­tianich, at her book sign­ing for Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes Kickin Off The Week With A Fab Monday at the King of Prussia’s Williams Sonoma. I can’t begin to even tell you what a charm­ing lady she is, and so tal­ented. Her recipes are on point and how could you not learn from a woman who cooked with Ms. Julia Child. These are authen­tic Ital­ian recipes that will even make the most dis­ap­prov­ing mother in law who diap­proves of her son’s wife’s Ital­ian cook­ing basi­cally “eat her words.” Plus – her QVC line is to die for. Love the rus­tic look of the tableware.

5. When I was at the South Beach Wine & Food Fes­ti­val, I hap­pened to see this Food Net­work Mag­a­zine Great Easy Meals: 250 Fun & Fast Recipes Kickin Off The Week With A Fab Monday which was avail­able for sale before release and it is a must get. Food Net­work Mag­a­zine Kickin Off The Week With A Fab Monday is one that I must read monthly and the cook­book is of the same qual­ity with some great recipes and tips straight from the Food Net­work kitchens.

What’s your obses­sions this week?

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Filed Under: Cookbook, Fab Friday, Favorite Things, Food Network, Lidia Bastianich, Shopping, Shopping In Stilettos Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Fab Friday– SOBE Edition

February 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

This weeks’ Fab Fri­day comes to you live and direct from all points South Beach.  I’m in town this week­end for the 10th Annual Food Net­work South Beach Wine & Food Fes­ti­val and, after all that nasty snow that Mother Nature slapped us with this win­ter, this is a well deserved breather.  81 degrees, a mojito and a cool breeze can make this gal happy in an instant.  Oh – and writ­ing this post from the front bal­cony of the Catalina Hotel & Resort doesn’t hurt either.

1.    These Brian Atwood Maniac Stilet­tos in lime green just scream “Wel­come To Miami”, don’t they?  Some­thing about South Beach man­dates that bright col­ors are a must – not an option.

2.  These shell mea­sur­ing spoons from Anthro­polo­gie are whim­si­cal, beau­ti­ful AND func­tional.  Ahhhh – the clear blue waters of Miami – these would be a lovely reminder of a week­end by the sea.

3.  You know Bren at Flan­boy­ant Eats has been on my case about get­ting a pres­sure cooker for­ever!  Every time I have used Ingrid Hoffmann’s Sim­ply Deli­cioso by T-fal I have had amaz­ing results so it’s only appro­pri­ate that I get over my pres­sure cooker fear with her new addi­tion to her fab. cook­ware line – a 4.2 Qt. Stain­less Pres­sure Cooker.

4.  Michael Symon’s Live to Cook: Recipes and Tech­niques to Rock Your Kitchen Fab Friday– SOBE Edition has some great recipes, sage advice and insight from one of Food Network’s Iron Chefs.  You can’t go wrong with any recipe from this book and it is a must for this gal’s kitchen.  Also, kudos to Chef Symon – he took the cov­eted top spot in last night’s Burger Bash and, from what I heard, his burger was an homage to meat and to. die. for. 

5.  One of the top places on my radar to visit when I get back to Philly is Marc Vetri’s spot, Vetri.  The chef is beyond amaz­ing and very much buzzed about.  He’s one of the fea­tured chefs tonight at Bub­bleQ.  I’m curi­ous to see what dish is going to be front and cen­ter from him as well as the other 30+ chefs there.  Some­one pass the bub­bly please icon wink Fab Friday– SOBE Edition

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Filed Under: Cookbook, Culinary Events, Fab Friday, Favorite Things, Food Network, Shopping, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , ,
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