Hope everyone had a good, safe weekend since Hurricane Irene's visit. I headed out of town for a few days, but am back in NYC and the sun is shining on a beautiful, cool day. And even better about today: Ladurée has opened on Madison Avenue at last!
I saw the mention in the Times today and trotted up to Madison & 71st in these 5" heels. I reported on Twitter that they were 4", but then came back and measured, yikes!
We make macaroons here in the kitchen at the catering company I work for too. We start with almond flour.
And the pastry chef won't let me give away the recipe, but eventually you get a batter.
That is whipped up until it's light and fluffy.
And piped out and baked.
We pipe a lot of them!
Seriously, a lot...
There was a line of course at Ladurée, but I stuck it out.
And after some time I was in!
The shop is gorgeous: the soft colors, flowers, candles...
jams...
chocolates...
pretty boxes and ribbons...
ice creams and sorbets...
and of course, the macaroons!
Go visit soon, it's a very pretty, tasty trip:
Ladurée
864 Madison Avenue at 71st Street
open Monday - Friday 9:00 a.m., Saturday at 9:30 a.m.,
It takes a lot for me to stop talking, but this birthday cake by Cheryl Kleinman from Betty Bakery took my breath away and was an absolutely perfect guest at my party! I'm so grateful to the family and friends who came out to celebrate and I tried not to get too teary-eyed. It all started with this invite from Paperless Post, love this site...
Of course the theme was pink & purple:
and Betty Bakery also made these yummy cupcakes that Rachael brought. The pink ones were strawberry frosted!
There was an abundance of cheese, mmm....one of my favorite foods ever...and lovely duck sausage, pate and rillettes from New Amsterdam Market. This was only one of the cheese tables!
Gotta have some nice drinks, including a magnum of Veuve Clicquot yellow label Champagne I got as a gift in 2007 and never seemed to get around to opening, lovely local wine and a strawberry sangria that Jenny made.
I attempted a little speech but didn't get too far. It was just enough to have everyone there with me for the day, eating and happy. There was much Bonchon Korean fried chicken, pajeon (pancakes), mandu (dumplings), kimchi coleslaw, eggplant parmesan made by my Mom, a strawberry jello mold made by my Aunt Liz (a family favorite), curry rice with chicken made by Ray, california rolls and spam sushi made by Tomoko, dumplings brought by Louise, a gorgeous plum tart made by Eunice and luscious enchiladas made by Eric.
How I didn't get pics of all of this astounds me, but I guess I was running around a bit in my sparkly heels and pink crown.
I used Paperless Post again for the Thank You cards. My friend actually thought this was my handwriting -- I WISH I could write this neatly, but I'm definitely not known for that. Thanks especially to my setup & cleanup crews, great job, guys!
And finally a BLOG surprise! I noticed more than a usual number of hits yesterday and found out that Teri & Jenny from spoon fork bacon had added me to their "blogs we love" page. So exciting! Thanks so much, ladies, the feeling is mutual!
Just another lunch (Thai) and 2 more dinners out (Italian, then Korean BBQ) to finish off this super fun week....really: BEST birthday in years.
So said Miranda to Charlotte about her wedding day. Well, I'm not getting married, but it's my birthday tomorrow so I heart this week and am taking my time celebrating: kicked it off last night with a rooftop pizza and wine picnic with a friend and moving on to dinners, drinks, lunches, even a special breakfast, Korean skin scrub at Juvenex, mani pedi, PARKED! Food Truck Festival and throwing myself a party. Would love to add in the beach and raspberry picking, but that's all very weather-dependent. Thanks to all the friends for the invites out, you're making my heart swell with happiness. I say this is going to be a good year. Cheers!
It's somewhat random post time: I'm thoughtful today, grateful, happy. It's been a good day. I had some potentially very good news, personally and professionally at about the same time. But I also have some friends who are going through some extremely difficult times, unspeakably sad things that no one should have to go through. And they introduced me to some music that is helping me a lot this week, so here are some videos to ponder. Nice beach scenes too. Can you believe summer is almost over?...
