Pink of Perfection

Whether it’s New York culture or simply adult culture, have you noticed how over-scheduled everyone is? Usually, you can forget about “what about drinks this weekend?” to say nothing of, “wanna come over tonight to help me eat up the leftover coq au vin?” And when you get to the holiday season? Well, as they say, fuhgettaboutit.

But that’s the thing about last minute invites — maybe only your nearest and dearest will be able to make it, and really, during the time of year when you are perhaps most over-extended holiday craziness, isn’t that the best kind of party? Such was the case the past Saturday night when a few of my favorites wedged on to our super uncomfortable Danish sofa and nibbled on humble but hit-the-spot snacks of hardboiled eggs, pimento cheese on Triscuits, and mini pizzas.

Continue reading “Last-Minute, Low-Budget Cocktail Party” »

Bon Appétit asked me to contribute a recipe to a holiday slideshow of their favorite bloggers (!) and I knew just what to make. Perhaps it says a bit too much about where my priorities lie, but the holidays demand festive cocktails, and unless you mean to make no bones about your endeavor to get schnockered (and sometimes, really, who can be bothered?), drinks call for snacks.

What makes the holidays seem special is making a wee bit more effort than microwaving a bag of popcorn when your friends come for cocktails. This snack should be ideally something that can be pinched easily from a bowl during the artful delivery of your friend’s story about the hilarious thing that happened in the check-out line at Walgreens. These nuts, I confess, have a lot going on. Consider them an embodiment of a season of excess. They are, as the title suggests, salty, sweet, spicy, and jazzed up with the pine notes of fresh rosemary. The heat and salt will make you want to take another sip of your drink, and continue to drink like that, missy, and you will most certainly further the munchies. It’s a rather mutually beneficial relationship.

I’m really honored to be in such good company in this slideshow, and want to thank Emily at Bon Appétit for thinking of me. And now, the nuts….

Continue reading “Spicy, Sweet & Salty Rosemary Nuts” »

• High bandwidth

My best friend calls Katy and me “the most sisterly sisters.” I assume this means we have all the ups and all the downs to the most extreme extremes: Katy’s bossy and over-protective, I’m defensive and reckless, and the next thing you know we’re laughing at jokes no one understands but us. “Sisterly sisters” don’t just get into screaming matches that cause the neighbors to worry (which we did), they do all the stuff of 19th century novels and mid 80′s sitcoms like swap clothes and braid each other’s hair, play dress up and cuddle with puppies and kittens on snowy nights. Some time after we both went through puberty, we learned all the things we have in common: we both love to drink and travel, ideally in tandem, watch seminal films like Baby Boom and Two Weeks Notice in bed, and wear pretty, but holey, vintage dresses.
Continue reading “Two Sisters: Katy’s Easy Guacamole Recipe” »