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.

top image, bottom image

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?

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?

crazy eyes

hear me when i tell you that these sunglasses (impossibly hard to find) have been following me around the city...on other womens' faces. they first caught my eye a few weeks ago on a fellow train rider, and since then i've seen them pop up on other lucky lasses. each time, they stop me dead in my tracks. something about the high gloss black combined with the sweetly heart shaped frames and wavy arms...i just love them.

out of curiosity, and maybe a little torture, i sought them out online and discovered some other ridonc prada pairs as well. my goodness gracious ladies, check them out. i just love the extreme-ness of the shapes.

and then look at this pair from charles in both fab colors...

and these from karen walker, also very extreme in shape.

and then in fuschia!

 

and if you're into brights, just look at these...

and then these from house of harlow. you go nicole.

i'll allow you to switch mental modes for a second now....

there are also these and these which are a little closer to my budget. as in, they're $10.

i've really become of the opinion that, like fragrances and bags, sunglasses are an accessory meant to be changed up and switched around, so inexpensive ones in different colors are a definite YES in my world right now.

too hot for hair

i think it's too hot today even to write, and way too hot for hair on your neck. let's all wear our hair up in loose, casual buns all weekend, okay? here are some particularly charming ones.

uncomplicated, unfussy and a built in air conditioner for your neck...and awfully lovely looking, don't you think?

images from here, here, here, here

a summer classic

i'm all of a sudden pining for a pair of jack rogers navajo sandals. i'm ruefully recalling a day before i loved them...a day when i encountered an enormous rack of them, all in gold, all for $10. i could die. do you have a purchase that got away?

but what was NOT on that $10 rack -- because it wasn't yet born -- was the jack rogers navajo jellies! kind of obsessed with this new beach and pool-ready incarnation and at $68, these might be the way to go.

if the jellies weren't by the original designer and were instead a copy, they might be cheesy, but instead, they're a playful, summery nod to what is already an american summer classic. you want to argue with jackie o?

what's on your wish list right now?

images from here and here