these are nuts

so good. they remind me of these, which are harder to find and more expensive. both are insanely good for a you-only-need-a-few kind of snack.

a prune prelude

okay so even though i'm not into sardines, doesn't this plate seem like the perfect bar snack? well that's what it is at downtown restaurant prune. and maybe it's the perfect prelude to prune chef gabrielle hamilton's recipe for braised chicken legs with shallots and vinegar.

 i love how both dishes seem to blend savory and tart, salty and sweet, deftly and with confidence. dare i say i might try sardines in this iteration.

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flower power

 

have you ever seen flowering tea? it's the prettiest thing! though i think i've seen pictures, i first saw it in person at a business lunch here, and it was a sight to behold...simple, whimsical and other-worldly. i bought a pouch of the magical little balls at this tea shop in woodstock over the weekend. 

the instructions say to let each ball steep in hot water for 5 minutes and then watch the beauty take shape. i can't wait to try them!

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special sips

 

i'm always a big fan of having a special drink when people arrive at a wedding or another special event. at my sister's wedding, sparkling water with fresh raspberries punctuated the rosy, blushy hues of the day. at my own wedding, we offered guests water and sparkling apple and pear ciders to signify the fall season. 

at a bridal shower i planned at work a couple years ago, chocolate was the theme so i did cups of chocolate and plain milk but made them look more special with bright pink straws, all tilted matchingly to the side. yeah, matchingly. made it up.

so...these wildflower ice cubes are begging to be tried, particularly at a spring party like a bridal shower or wedding, don't you think? they actually seem pretty doable based on martha's instructions, and you could employ the same method with any number of things...fresh herbs like mint to put in a mojito or a long island iced tea, or berries to put in a fruitier cocktail. love. this. idea.

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bird is the word

 

let's all take a few moments (between planning your menu, dreaming up table settings and designing thanksgiving day decor) to think about pretty ways to display the turkey (or tofurkey or turducken) itself next thursday...most of us have some version of this enormous turkey platter and if you don't, make a quick stop at bed bath and beyond and use this coupon or one of the many you probably have in your glove compartment to save 20%...

but aside from the platter, what will you put on it? last year, i set our platter with thyme sprigs and whole cranberries...simple, but pretty. here are some other thoughts, courtesy of ms. martha...i love the idea of sliced or whole fruits, sprigs of all kinds of herbs, nuts, berries...anything emblematic of the season. also, though, i like the idea of using items whose flavors appear in your feast...there's something nice about people being able to visually identify the flavors they're experiencing...so if you're using walnuts or figs in your stuffing, slap some of those babies on the platter and call it a day.

decorating the platter that bears a delicious meal is an almost effortless way of elevating the meal to something more than that. at least i think so. what do you think?

warm and toasty

i for one am extremely happy that the temperatures are cooling and fall really feels upon us. isn't it amazing how our moods change with the barometer? one of the most changeable spaces in our lives is what we eat and drink, i find. all spring and summer, nothing pleases me more than iced coffee, but around this time of year, all i want is the spreading warmth of hot coffee, extra points for steamed or frothed milk.

the yogurt i've been enjoying for months (greek with sugar free jelly and roasted almonds) is starting to feel and taste too cold...so a warm bowl of oatmeal seems just the thing. i found this delicious sounding recipe for apple pie oatmeal i wanted to share, which makes use of warming fall flavors, including the best of fall's fresh produce (i think pears would be a perfect addition to or replacement for the apples). it seems so easy, and so adaptable according to your tastes and dietary needs.

i even love the idea of having an oatmeal brunch for a small or large crowd. it would start with strong coffee, glasses of ice cold water and milk, stacks of pretty, mismatching bowls and a large urn of piping hot oatmeal. brunchers would have a choice of many toppings and flavors...chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, salted peanuts, maple syrup, berry flavored jam, sliced apples, pears, roasted cranberries, warm figs, ripe banana slices, chunks of fresh melon and seedless grapes (maybe frozen!), even shreds of chocolate and coconut. wanna come? this would be a simple, inexpensive and unexpected brunch to host, don't you think?

is there anything autumnal coming out of your kitchen?

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good clean sense

you know how i've gotten very into organic and i thought these two lists were something we could all use - the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen - easy guides for posting on the refrigerator or keeping handy in your wallet so you know what's worth the organic splurge and what's not. and there's an app forthat too.

the other important note i've read in several places is that it pays to buy organic of any produce you eat a lot of, even if its not in the dirty dozen, and i'd say that just makes good, clean sense. 

what produce are you enjoying this week?

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farmers market day!

i LOVE farmers market day! yesterday, i went first thing in the morning again(new favorite way to start a day) and what struck me the most was the rainbow of colors in so much of the produce. plums in yellow, peach, red, blue, purple and everything in between.

peppers and tomatoes in every shade from palest yellow all the way up through screaming red, with some purples and greens thrown in for good measure. and the eggplants...stripy and speckled and tie-dyed looking, they look like they're related to the stripy and speckled tomatoes you see above...and it turns out they are!

 

i'm most excited about the very special mirabelle plums i bought...i'm told they're very rare in the united states and the woman i bought them from said they're from a tree on her farm that was smuggled in from france 25 years ago. she's planning on having her father in law graft the tree, which i just learned means that he'll attach a piece of it to rootstock so he can create another plant. (would the fruit that grafted tree bore be considered a GMO? if so, i think i'm okay with this kind).

i also bought one hot cherry pepper and one serrano pepper...WWBFD*?

*what would bobby flay do?

some thoughts for a monday

 

take me to this bedroom. and if you love mix and match patterns, you might just DIE over the preview of missoni's collection for target. 

I. DIE. and look at this absurdly adorable missoni for baby outfit that i MIGHT have to buy though it will be years before i have someone to put in it.

and i've been meaning to tell you...last saturday, i saw a great play with my mom, my sister and my brother's girlfriend dani ... it was love, loss and what i wore and starred a very pleasant, easy to watch marla maples and a non-dorota dorota. it touched on so many universal female themes in an understated, matter of fact way, and really nicely tied in how outfits and shoes and bras mark the moments of our lives and how we remember them. totally recommend. 

before the play, we had a really lovely brunch at elsewhere...i had delicious eggs with cheese perfectly folded in, and my mom's bloody mary had pickled green beans garnishing it! dani had the best looking blueberry pancakes we had ever seen...my favorite thing about hers was the way they served the butter - a perfect little square of it in a white porcelain spoon atop the stack. i missed the pre-eaten photo op, but you get the idea.

 
the best thing about elsewhere was their attention to coffee refills, and you know me and my coffee. we were all playing around with our cameras and retro camera apps, and i stumbled into this photo which i felt perfectly captured my "oooh it's coffee time" feeling. 

and look at the sweet little herb garden in the covered greenhouse-like room where we were sitting.

after brunch and before the play, we roamed around a flea market in hell's kitchen and i spotted this very cool bar cart. so perfectly un-glam... i think that's what i thought was interesting about it - no shine or sparkle, just a certain midcentury utilitarian style, complete with the zodiac signs on the surface...very age of aquarius. 

i'm all about bags, as you probably know, but this seems like a naked emperor situation to me...these edie parker bags (which remind me far too much of caboodles) are close to $1000.

really?? if i were going to spend a grand on a bag, that's not what it would be.

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tomatoes AGAIN!

more on the tomato front from my lovely trip to the farmers market this morning before work. look at these!

a tomato state of mind

i've been doing lots of reading and watching on local, organic and just otherwise quality food, and i've come to really appreciate foods like tomatoes, which aren't always in season, though our industrial food system would have us believe it doesn't matter. as i learned from the first few moments of food inc., the tomatoes we find in our supermarkets in non-summer months, and even some of those which are present in the summer, are very often ripened in trucks and by ethylene gas, rather than by time and nature and sunlight as they should be. 

so it's good reason to celebrate that the time for tomatoes on the east coast is here, as they start to finally appear at farmers markets and local produce outlets. my very own tomato plant given to me as a wee thing by my green-thumbed father is starting to bear fruit. for now, it's small, green fruit, but it's only a matter of time and of august heat before they ripen and blush and appear in my late summer salads.

i saw a great tomato idea on rachael ray the other day that i thought was so rustic and sweet and it was sort of, though not exactly, like this...she roasted large, halved tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and kosher salt and in the roasting pan, she tucked full cloves of garlic still in their "jackets" as she called them...when the whole pan was hot and gooey and roasted through, she hatched the little cloves out of their skins and spread the mild paste over ciabatta bread. then she smeared a warm tomato half over each piece of bread and that was that. 

here is a terrific article with all kinds of tomato recipes i thought you might like, and the gorgeous photos that accompany them (and the perfect one at the top, from hali bey) really illuminate how perfectly simple and simply perfect a tomato can be.

cool and fresh or warm and roasted, tiny and round or mutated and bumpy, mixed with fresh pasta, tossed into shrimp and fresh herbs, or all by its lonesome from a bowl on the counter directly into one's mouth, they're pretty close to perfection, don't you agree?