Obsessed With: Colin Cowie’s Holiday Picks for HSN

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ahhh – Novem­ber has just begun and it’s already time to start plan­ning for the hol­i­days. I heard that Colin Cowie was going to be show­cas­ing his new prod­ucts on HSN today and, as expected, he does not dis­ap­point. Here are a few things that have me “obsessed”…

x Obsessed With: Colin Cowies Holiday Picks for HSN

 

1. I’m hear­ing that “Pur­ple is the New Pea­cock” lately and, of course, Colin is right on trend. I’m obsessed with these stun­ning pur­ple all pur­pose glasses that will look per­fect on the table­top for the holidays.

2. I’m in the midst of putting together my home office and have been on the fence for that *per­fect* desk – until now. I’ve decided to do a lit­tle “glam” in the office and this lovely Mirage Mir­rored Con­sole Table will be stun­ning there! Now – let’s hope the Sous Pug and the Evil Minx keep their noses away.

3. When Colin first launched his line with HSN, I bought some some din­ner­ware and I have to con­fess that years later, they still look brand new. For the hol­i­days, he’s offer­ing a 24 piece porce­lain scroll design din­ner­ware set in either antique gold or plat­inum and let me tell you – it’s GORGEOUS. I highly rec­om­mend if you are look­ing for a qual­ity set that will not break the bank. He’s also got a match­ing 2 piece serv­ing set and plat­ter that are per­fect for the hol­i­day table.

4. I have a rule that I will not start even to THINK about hol­i­day dec­o­rat­ing until around Thanks­giv­ing. I get annoyed when I even see the glim­mer of a tree up at stores. How­ever, I will only break that rule for Colin. Why, you ask – because his stuff sells out QUICK!  I was quick to pur­chase this flocked wreath for the front door. It’s on a timer, looks chic and will last so much longer than that dried fruit mess that I got last year. I learned my lesson.

5. Speak­ing of sell­ing out, I have to con­fess – I saw this Star­burst Wall Mir­ror yes­ter­day – knew I wanted it and fig­ured that I’d have time to just pur­chase it in the morn­ing. Well, this morn­ing when I logged into HSN to pur­chase, guess what I saw – the big let­ters SOLD OUT. Well, should Colin care to bring this stun­ning piece back back, please let a gal know because I learned my lesson.

6. If you don’t have one of Colin’s bev­er­age servers, you might want to snatch this Bev­er­age Server with Infuser and Chiller Inserts up quick. It’s on clear­ance at a great price and they are phe­nom­e­nal. I use mine when­ever I enter­tain and it always gar­ners compliments.

7. Finally, there’s some­thing that HSN started to do last year which both Colin and Ingrid par­tic­i­pated in – namely, design­ing orna­ments that ben­e­fit St. Jude’s Research. St. Jude is a char­ity that is near and dear to me and any time that I can sup­port it, I do. Colin designed a gor­geous birdcage-esque orna­ment for 2011 that is a must for everyone’s hol­i­day tree.

Obsessed With: Colin Cowies Holiday Picks for HSN
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Filed Under: Colin Cowie, Decorating, Decorating in Stilettos, Dinnerware, HSN, Ingrid Hoffmann, Obsessed With, Shopping In Stilettos Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Obsessed With: Calphalon Contemporary Non-Stick Bronze Cookware

October 12, 2011 By 5 Comments
CalphalonNonStickBronze10PcSt

“Hi my name is Aly and I’m cook­ware obsessed…”

If you go into my kitchen, you will find not only my trea­sured Le Creuset pieces, but inter­spersed within that are pieces from Ingrid Hoffmann’s fab. Sim­ply Deli­cioso line, some pieces from Cat Cora’s new col­lec­tion, some Ruf­foni cop­per pieces and, of course, my lovely Cal­phalon Con­tem­po­rary Stain­less Steel set which I totally blamed Ingrid on for using in her show Sim­ply Deli­cioso eons ago. If those pieces didn’t look so stun­ning on the stove, I wouldn’t have stalked Rue La La to grab when I first moved to Philly.

[Read more…]

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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 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: , , , , , , , ,

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: , ,

Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

April 22, 2011 By 1 Comment

Yes, I’m still hot under the col­lar about the All My Chil­dren can­cel­la­tion last week but, in the spirit of Fab Fri­days – I will sol­dier on.  So, let us get in the mood for a relax­ing week­end with some fab finds includ­ing, of course, some fan­tas­tic shoes!

1.  These Dolce Vita Car­rie Multi-Strap Fringe San­dals almost gave me heart pal­pi­ta­tions – they are unique, chic and just have that *wow* fac­tor.  Plus, the price isn’t so bad either.  I swear – nude shoes have totally out­ranked the num­ber of black shoes in my shoe arsenal.

2.  For you gals that adore all things pink, did you see this Kitchen Aid Arti­san Susan G. Komen Stand Mixer in Rasp­berry Ice?  Now this is a gor­geous mixer that will gar­ner all the right attention!

3.  I am DETERMINED to get my deck gar­den to flour­ish this year and one of my must have pur­chases is a Meyer Lemon Tree.  I’m so annoyed to buy Meyer Lemons at the store to only have them go moldy in a day or two – who knows how long those Meyer Lemons are on the truck to the store, right?  At least if I can cure my black thumb, per­haps I can only go a few paces out the back door to get the per­fect ingre­di­ent to brighten most any dish.

4. I have to con­fess, being a recov­er­ing pub­li­cist has me a bit jaded.  When I hear of a celebrity cook­book, I tend to see right through it.  It’s all about mar­ket­ing and brand­ing nowa­days.  I remem­ber one “celeb” who released a cook­book and on one of their appear­ances, they didn’t even know their own recipes.  C’mon now – if you are going to pro­mote some­thing as your own and swear YOU wrote the book – well then, KNOW the recipes.  I pur­chased a copy of  Eva’s Kitchen: Cook­ing with Love for Fam­ily and Friends Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition and I have to say, out of the flood of celeb cook­books on the mar­ket, Eva Longoria’s cook­book seemed to be the most authen­tic.  She has some fab sim­ple recipes in there along with some from her fam­ily and it’s a cook­book I will be using this spring & sum­mer.  Well done!

5.  Finally – have you heard about the Philadel­phia Sci­ence Fes­ti­val?  Now, before you whap me upside the head ala NCIS Gibbs’ style, hear me out.  It’s got some seri­ously fas­ci­nat­ing events at this fes­ti­val that are geared to the curi­ous foodie.  I mean, we’re talk­ing about events cen­tered around healthy eat­ing, the sci­ence of beer and cheese, and a host of other fas­ci­nat­ing events.  Check out their cal­en­dar – it looks intriguing!

I’m curi­ous – what are you guys obsessed with this week?  Tell me in the comments!

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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: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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