Everyone getting excited for Tim Burton’s dark and slighty twisted film Alice in Wonderland to open in theaters March 5th? Rumor is the New York premiere is taking place March 2nd and should be a rockin’ time (Ziegfeld anyone?)!
While you wait, you should head over to The Museum of Modern Art to check out the Tim Burton exhibition that has been receiving rave reviews since its opening this past November. It will get you pumped up to see the new Alice in Wonderland and it will remind you why you should run home and rent Edward Scissor Hands. The Exhibition at MoMA runs until April 26th.
* photo to the left ~ enterance to the Tim Burton Exhibition gallery at MoMA.
Categories: In New York · Uncategorized
Tagged: Alice In Wonderland, movie premiere, The Museum of Modern Art, Tim Burton
I love sending and receiving “real mail.” I could spend a fortune at stores like Kate’s Paperie and Papyrus. In a recent attempt to de-clutter my life, I decided to be more resourceful when it comes to more frivolous occasions such as Valentine’s Day. So, instead of running out to buy cards, I dug through my drawers for blank writing paper and leftover ribbon. I decided to sit down and make a few handmade {with love} Valentine’s Day cards for my family and friends. It brought back fun memories of making cards when I was a child and hopefully all recipients will enjoy the homemade sentiment.
Categories: Holiday
Tagged: cards, ribbon, Valentine's Day
February 4, 2010 · 1 Comment
More fun details from New York’s (or in this case New York/Los Angeles) fabulous hostesses for you! I love finding out my friend’s secrets, tricks, challenges, recipes, etc. and how they entertain in their own homes. This week I asked my very best friend, Kelly (who is a native New Yorker, but now splits her time between New York and LA) to share her tips. She nicely took time out of her busy recording schedule to fill me in. Here’s what she had to say…
KELLY LEVESQUE, RECORDING ARTIST (Due Voci):
A great trick to have up your sleeve is a dessert that is part of your family’s heritage. This way you can serve a yummy dessert but also (and maybe most importantly) have a story that goes along with it! My mother is Peruvian and at family holidays we usually have one dish that has a Peruvian flair. My personal favorite is a cookie called Alfajore; they are bite size and delicious! Although the original recipe takes over four hours to prepare, I have a recipe to create this amazing dessert in an instant – while appearing to your guests that you slaved in the kitchen for hours!
Ingredients:
1 (Pillsbury) Refrigerated Pie Crust
1 Can of Dulce de Leche (Nestle)
1 Box of Powered Sugar
Directions:
- Lay out the pie crust
- Take a shot glass (yes, I said a shot glass) using it as a cookie cutter to cut out circles
- Bake on a cookie sheet (400 degrees) until the crust is a light golden brown
- Let the cookies cool
- Place the dulce de leche in between two cookies
- Roll the cookies in Powdered Sugar
To make the cookies look elegant and irresistible place them on a silver tray!
Keep an eye out for Kelly’s new project: www.duevoci.com (official website launches February 14th!)
To see the first part of this series (with tips from CITY Magazine’s Renee Lucas and Dtangled’s Alexa, click HERE!)
Categories: In New York · Uncategorized
Tagged: dessert, Due Voci, easy entertaining, entertaining tips, Kelly Levesque
Honestly, I am not so into the Superbowl this year ~ no New York teams. That’s not to say I’m not going to use it as a great opportunity to see my friends and throw a party. What else do you need on Superbowl Sunday besides chili and beer to make the guys happy? Let’s spice it up a little though:
Whole Foods Bowery has a fabulous beer room! If you haven’t been, definitely check it out. They have over 1,000 choices plus at least 6 beers on tap. For my gathering, I am chosing all local breweries and picking up a few growlers as well! If you are not in New York check out the local beer selection at your beer store. Fun, new beers are a great conversation starter for your party.
Feed a crowd, make a big pot of chili. I am spicing it up with a recipe for Spicy Chili Con Carne.
Ingredients
2 large onions, chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 carrots, sliced thin
3 pounds boneless beef chuck, ground coarse in batches in a food processor or by the butcher
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon crumbled dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried hot red pepper flakes
two 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 1/4 cups beef broth
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
a 19-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained (or black beans!)
2 green bell peppers, chopped
Directions
Cook the onions in the oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until they are softened, add garlic and carrots, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Add chuck and cook over moderate heat, stirring and breaking up lumps until it is no longer pink. Add chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, broth, and vinegar, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer it, covered, stirring occasionally for 1 hour, or until the meat is tender. Add the beans, bell peppers. Salt and pepper to taste and simmer the mixture, uncovered, for 15 minutes, or until the peppers are tender.
Serve with cornbread or cheese biscuits ~ game on!
Categories: Recipes
Tagged: beer, chili recipe, entertaining, superbowl, Whole Foods
February 2, 2010 · 1 Comment
Images {left –> right}
Casablanca: Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman, Dessert, Moet & Chandon Champagne Imperial Rose, Graffiti in New York, Toile, Grace Kelly, LOVE Sculpture in NYC by Robert Indiana, The Eifel Tower, The Red Shoes, Roses, Fashion Week 2009, La Perla, mannequins in Front of Hugo Dalton Art, Conversation Hearts, Breakfast at Tiffany’s Audrey Hepburn & George Peppard, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Charlotte Moss Collection for Halcyon days, White Babies Room, Cupcake from Sugar Sweet Sunshine in New York.
Categories: Holiday
Tagged: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Casablanca, Conversation Hearts, Fashion Week, Grace Kelly, Grafitti, Hugo Dalton, Humphrey Bogart, La Perla, LOVE Scuplture, Moet & Chandon, new york, Romeo and Juliet, Roses, Shakespeare, The Eifel Tower, The Red Shoes
January 29, 2010 · 1 Comment
Flûte or coupe? How do you toast with your bubbly?
Lately, I have seen champagne coupes popping up all over the place. In the past few weeks I have started my morning with a brunch bellini at Freeman’s, clinked with friends during après work cocktails at Clover Club and sipped the night away at Boom Boom Room, all with champagne coupes.
About two years ago my husband and I went on a wild hunt for our very own set of champagne coupes, we simply love their style. They were impossible to find. We were about to give up when my Grandmother saved the day, passing her gorgeous set down to us. Lately, I have seen these beauties pop up everywhere, gaining popularity. New trend? I think so!
The champagne coupe (sometimes called a champagne saucer) is believed to have been modeled on the breast of Marie Antoinette. Many aficionados consider this type of glass “inappropriate” for the current style of very dry champagnes, versus the sweeter champagnes popularized when the coupe came into popularity in the 1930s (post prohibition). Its broad surface area (as opposed to a flûte) means that the champagne quickly loses its signature carbonation. But, honestly I feel more fabulous drinking out of a coupe!
Categories: Its All In The Details · Uncategorized
Tagged: Boom Boom Room, champagne, champagne coupe, champagne saucer, Clover Club, cocktails, Freeman's
Chinese New Year, what a fabulous, festive occasion! February 14, 2010 marks the start of the year of the tiger. Sounds like a pretty great occasion to celebrate; let’s throw a party!
Chinese New Year is one of the most important of traditional Chinese holidays reflecting many fascinating ancient myths and traditions and representing themes of happiness, longevity and wealth. It is not uncommon for people to spend money on presents, decorations, clothing and food to celebrate this momentous occasion. It is also the tradition that families thoroughly clean their house to “sweep” away any ill-fortune, hoping this makes way for good luck to come.
The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. Sounds good to me!
One of the very first events I worked in New York was a benefit and party after a performance of Broadway’s Flower Drum Song. My boss sent me downtown to Pearl River Mart to pick up a few items for the event. It was my first time to the store and even in its old grungy location (it has since moved to swanky Soho), it was love at first sight. This weekend I took a trip (with my camera) to one of my now all time favorite, New York “go to” stores, Pearl River Mart, to pick a few items for my Chinese New Year party. If you have never been you must run there! It is an amazing source for excellent gifts, décor and affordable home goods. If you are not in NYC, no worries, you can order online!
A few ideas for your Chinese New Year Party:
Lanterns pack a big punch! Just a few hanging from the ceiling will set the mood (individual lanterns range from $5 – $12).
Chop sticks are a cheap and easy way to create a fun feel. The possibilities are endless when choosing which to pick, most are under $1.
Asian Noodles in boxes (here’s where your chop sticks come into play!)
Pot Stickers (click here for the recipe that I have used many times and love)
Homemade Fortune Cookies (they are way easier than you would think!)
Ingredients
- Nonstick spray
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tablespoons water
- Pinch salt
- Fortunes written on strips of paper
Directions
Position an oven rack in the center of oven. Preheat to 400 degrees.
On a half sheet tray, spray a nonstick spray. In a medium bowl whisk egg whites until foamy. Add flour, sugar, almond extract, water, and salt to egg whites, beat until smooth (about 30 seconds). Pour or spoon 1 tablespoon of batter and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 4-inch circle. Repeat on the other half of the sheet, making only 2 cookies per sheet tray. Bake the cookies on middle rack of oven until golden brown around edges, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and working very quickly, with an offset spatula, remove cookie from baking sheet and place a fortune in the center of the round. Fold to create a half circle. Bend pointed edges of cookie toward each. This should be done quickly since the cookie will become hard and brittle within 10 seconds. Let cool.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: affordable entertaining, Chinese New Year, entertaining, entertaining at home, fortune cookies, happiness, lanterns, party, Pearl River Mart
I keep a photo archive of all the events I have worked on throughout the years. On this cold Friday in January, I perked up a little when I came across this spring 2006 photo from a women’s luncheon in Central Park. We were struggling with not having enough space on the table and trying to move swiftly through the lunch (nobody likes a luncheon that drags on). So, we decided to scrap a traditional dessert and instead have the centerpiece be the dessert. Cookies, candies and petit fours it was!
Here’s to a sweet weekend! xx
Click HERE to see more from the vault.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: centerpiece, Central Park, cookies, dessert, luncheon
While you wait, you should head over to The Museum of Modern Art to check out the Tim Burton exhibition that has been receiving rave reviews since its opening this past November. It will get you pumped up to see the new Alice in Wonderland and it will remind you why you should run home and rent Edward Scissor Hands. The Exhibition at MoMA runs until April 26th.
