SweetAnd Condensed

Oh my, oh my has it been a crazy month: welcome to December! I feel blessed, I feel happy....I feel...tired.  I heart the holiday season there's just so much to do and so much going on... 

I love being busy though and made some cookies for the 2nd Annual New York Holiday Cookie Swap event today organized by Bloggers Without Borders to benefit the Cookies for Kids' Cancer charity.  So many great blog friends to catch up with and new ones to meet.  Oh and did I mention all the cookies?!  

So, someday I'll catch up on blog posts about flower arranging, (birthday present, 2 Thanksgiving dinners, 2nd year of amaryllis for a big fashion client), canning (Brooklyn Swappers event and Justin's first pickles), sewing (new book and material to make my first skirt), knitting (another beautiful book and lilac-colored socks), felting (have the tools, don't have the time), paper crafts (squirrel place cards and so many great friends who are into this!), craft fairs ('tis the season), friends visiting from out of town (yay!), holiday parties (double yay!) and holiday projects (oh so many in mind...)  

But this week is the busiest one of the whole month for catering, so I'll resurface very soon.

Here are some much better recaps of the event, enjoy:

Three Many Cooks: thank you so much for organizing such a fun, tasty event!
Justcook NYC: in which he made THREE kinds of cookies, oh my
The Diva That Ate New York: with a video!
Sweets by Sillianah: she even volunteered for the event
One Tough Cookie: my award for best presentation with her cookie TREE
Healthy Green Kitchen: mmm iced ginger bars...
Abby Dodge: sooo sorry I didn't grab a piece of her caramel 
macadamia coconut shortbread before they all got snapped up
Open Mouth Insert Cookie: an amazing picture summary of the assortment

Fun with Fruit

Happy November!  I've been so inspired by lots of fall fruits and events lately, everyone is as busy as little bees....I really enjoyed Pie Party Live hosted by Jackie & Ken -- great job, guys!  I even won a copy of the Sarabeth's Bakery Cookbook, hurray!!

I'd been meaning to make a pie (or 2!) but being sick for the whole month of October threw a wrench into my plans.  Eventually I got back to canning with some black grapes and red plums from a recipe in Canning for a New Generation.

Love how the kitchen smells when fruit is simmering...

Winnie suggested a way to use up a bunch of kumquats: 

candy them with cinnamon sticks and star anise, yum.

I also love her post because she rounds up some great DIY gifts.  

One of my favorite things about canning is that it makes such nice, little presents.

Back to the grape plum filling: got this Wilton pie press at Sur La Table 

and (I admit) used store bought pie dough to save some time -- NOT as good I agree, but infinitely faster.

And pretty quickly we had a bunch of hand pies!

They were best right out of the oven of course.

But I had to wrap up a few

for little breakfast presents the next day.

More canning adventures soon, I'm having so much fun!

After the Storm: Sunshine & Macaroons!

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., 

closes at 6:00 p.m. every day except Sunday

Kinda Speechless

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.

And there were party favors!  Stamped paper fans from an idea by Martha Stewart (and the fans were just $1.00 from Pearl River Mart).

Pretty cards, including a few cats of course:

Colorful flowers from Eliot and Robert:

And presents!

Lexi made this ceramic tile: ahhh she knows of my affection for precious, little sheep.

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!

Today a UPS surprise arrived!  Girly fun by Nars from Niki of B3: Beauty by Brennan. 

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.

Vacation Day 1: Blogger Meetup!

Heading out the door, but writing a few quick e-mails before shutting my phone off for a week and having limited internet access -- yikes!  But I had to do a quick post about the awesome blogger meet-up yesterday in McCarren Park.  I felt met Helen from Helen Hearts, yay!  First though, I did some morning baking. 

Popovers really DO pop up!  Had them with some of my strawberry jam.

And made some jam-filled cookies from a recipe by Mrs. Fields for the picnic.

Helen and I also made some new friends!  The Delightful Dozen hosted and I'm so happy I met Yanil from thenewyorkerstyle (check out her handmade jewelry!), the totally stylishly fabulous Monroe from Fashion Steele NYC (love her twirling in her latest post) and the totally fun Nicole from Black Shoes Diary (she had the most adorable shoes on that she got for FREE!  And thanks to whoever made the spectacular spiked punch...

The girls took me vintage shopping at beacon's closet, which I have NEVER done before and I can't believe how fun it was!  

Got some dresses from Calvin Klein, J. Crew and Kimchi Blue for such great prices.  Uh oh, I may have found a new obsession...too bad this cute, pink wall sconce in the dressing room wasn't for sale.

Also loved these colorful chairs lining Bedford Avenue.  Helen said they're all over Paris too, so can't wait to see them in person very soon.

We also passed the biggest Scrabble game.  Too bad I am so so bad at Scrabble.

Well, my posts never end up short or quick, but there you go.  And to my new friend who I sent a link to today, hope you visit soon!