Pink of Perfection

When I read Elsa Maxwell’s informative romp How To Do It or The Lively Art of Entertaining earlier this summer, I doggeared approximately 47 pages for future reference. One of these pages contains advice on invitations for “the city woman who entertains often, at home, and with some degree of formality.” Let us say that this city woman is me. According to Miss Maxwell, it would serve me well to have 4×5 inch cards engraved as fill-in-the-blank invitations: Miss Sarah McColl requests the pleasure of [so-and-so's] company [for cocktails, luncheon, etc] on [such-and-such a day and time.]
Continue reading “Not Just Cardstock and Letterpress” »

We missed you! The last month has been a big one here at Pink of Perfection HQ. Not only have we upgraded the site and added new features (sign up for the newsletter!), but Sebastian and I moved into a new apartment. In the new Chez POP we’ve had our heads locked in summit, brainstorming ways to make POP better.

Continue reading “New and Improved” »

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If you’ve ever taken an early supper during which the restaurant staff changes the lighting scheme over from all-business lunch to starry-eyed dinner, you know that your dining companions instantly become twice as attractive. You don’t need a McMansion with dimmer switches in every room for an intimate effect; the basic element of fire will serve you quite well.
Continue reading “Fire With Fire: Simplest Lanterns” »

The summer heat does not take away my oft-insatiable appetite, though it does make me loathe to turn on the oven or stove. More often than not, dinner time finds me sorting through a stack of take out menus, a habit unkind to both my wallet and my waistline. Even if I won’t be ordering them from the taqueria down the street, I would rather forfeit my summer than give up tacos. Unready to wave the white flag, I looked in my cabinets only to find the lowly but loved staple, the black bean.

Continue reading “It’s Too Darn Hot! No-Cook Black Bean Tacos” »

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When Sebastian was first courting me, it was a cross-country affair that could well have turned cold with the fall. But I knew this suitor meant business when he flew to St. Paul, Minnesota with a backpack and a bottle of champagne, eager to see the bucolic campus paths where I rode my bike, the sunny coffee shop I read in each afternoon, the restaurant where I served brik and met a mentor, and most importantly, the friends who were my daily bread and butter.
Continue reading “Sebastian’s Steak” »

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Until three years ago, craft fairs came in your standard grandma, dried eucalptus, church lawn variety. Enter Chicagoan crafters and visionaries Sue Blatt and Kathleen Habbley. The two saw the craft movement gaining serious online momentum but realized there were no fairs to accomadate the new generation of crafters. And so in 2003, the Renegade Craft Fair was born in Chicago. Met with huge success, the duo brought the fair to Brooklyn’s McCarren Park last year, and their baby grew fast. This year there were nearly 200 vendors selling handmade goods: comic books, purses, cards and stationery, rock posters, puppets, t-shirts, jewelry, and pretty skirts.
Continue reading “Renegade Craft Fair” »

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When Sebastian and I found ourselves traveling to Baltimore for our dear friends‘ wedding, we knew we had to bring POP viewers everywhere the inside scoop on Maryland crab cakes. And so I am delighted to present the first episode of Pink of Perfection On the Road!
Continue reading “On the Road: Maryland Crab Cakes” »

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When Americans dreamed of Italian food in the middle of this last century, their vision was clear: a lot of pasta, a lot of cheese. Since then, thanks in no small part to Italian superstars (folks like Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, and Giada De Laurentiis) and a veritable revolution in the way Americans cook and eat, our understanding of Italy’s fare now happily includes fresh herbs, silvery fish, wild boar sausage, and the knowledge that a pound of pasta feeds six people, not one and a half.
Continue reading “Guest Cook: Noah’s Floorzagna” »