Kale Chips, anybody?

ately, all I hear about is kale chips this and kale chips that. Even my sister has jumped on this bandwagon and baked her own rendition of veggie chips, using brussel sprouts. Yum. I was at the farmers' market in park slope and saw a fresh bunch of kale for sale and thought I'd give this a go.

After a thorough rinsing, I dried them off, hand tore the leaves and spread them across an oven tray.

Drizzled some olive oil and kosher salt, put them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 and voila! Definitely a tasty way to eat kale, and a great snack while "vegging" out in front of the tube.

Paris in NYC

was starting to fall into a rut by the end of last week and needed something to cheer me up. I noticed that the Fiance was in this rut as well and so I thought, why not plan a special day for us, why not bring Paris to New York? We have been spending quite a bit of money lately, with the wedding, people visiting from out of town and graduations, and I wanted to keep the spending to a minimum, yet splurge. We found the perfect combo and had an amazing night out. Sigh...there is nothing like Paris.

Our first stop was at Le Grainne Cafe on 21st and 9th Ave. It's a very cute little cafe/bistro type with a ton of hustle and bustle and very delicious food. I had a chicken salad with ratatouille and the Fiance had a lamb sausage and peppers sandwich. Both were mouth wateringly delicious. I also really wanted the broccoli soup but they ran out. Poo.

Then began the adventure! We tried to watch the new Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris, at the Angelika theater but all the shows were sold out! So we raced over to the theater in Chelsea, and the show was sold out! So we got smart and fandango'd it and was able to get tickets for the theater on 3rd Ave near Bloomingdales, but there was a line that went around the block. In any event, the movie was great -- consistently entertaining and my favorite actors were featured, Marion Cotillard, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Carla Bruni (singer). Ok not my absolute favs but definitely up there.

We had so much fun, it was just what the doctor ordered. We ate well (including the snacks we snuck into the theater!) and we laughed and whispered throughout the movie and dreamt of another life when we could do this all the time. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it for when one has the case of the ruts. Or even just because.


{via Little Brown Pen}

Boeuf Bourguignon

esterday I got an email from Sarah Kate from the Kitchn (no, not a typo) with a recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon. I love Boeuf Bourguignon and anything in its family, such as beef stew, beef stroganoff...beef in general... This recipe looks fantastic but with some maintenance involved if you truly want to make "beef" into "boeuf"! Quoted from the entry:

" The two techniques for Boeuf Bourguignon . . . One method, and arguably the more popular, involves browning the beef, then adding the vegetables and wine then adding a beurre manié (mixture of soft butter and flour) to the mix . . . The other method . . . is much easier. Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec, who wrote about food for Elle back in the 1960s, called this the "true" recipe. It's also how Julia Child makes her daube de boeuf in her Mastering the Art of French Cooking. You simply build the dish by layering the ingredients, much like a trifle, in a large casserole or Dutch oven, finishing with a bacon topper and some wine and brandy, and cooking stove-top for a couple hours. Aside from its easy preparation, the big difference is that this method produces a very pale brothy sauce versus the thick, winey sauce in the traditional version."

I'm going to have to store this one for later use!


{via The Kitchn}

Handmade Weddings

just saw this post on Sally J Shim's blog and I MUST get my hands on it! I've already overspent on wedding books that promised to make the process easier and found that not all of them keep their promises. In fact, most of them haven't. Who woulda thunk it. But Handmade Weddings seems so lovely!...I want it. It's the second DIY book by the women at Hello! Lucky and I want it I want it I want it!

Closer to Free

h my, what a week! We are coming to a close of a very intense case and I see my freedom on the horizon. So close! I've been trying to get back on the horse with wedding planning and have a hair and makeup trial this Friday. This may be a dumb idea, but I think I'll be going with the same makeup artist a friend of mine used, and she was NOT happy on her wedding day. Well, to be fair, she wasn't happy because the agency sent over a different person from her trial to do her hair, and it just wasn't coming out right. My conversation with the artist went something like this: "Remember, I was in the bridal party of the bride who hated her hair and cried?" Hm. You'd think I'd get the hint. BUT, they've had some great reviews in the past, and I recently saw pictures of a bride whose hair and makeup I loved, and this artist happened to have worked on that job. So...I'll chalk it up to a mistake. And at the end of the day, the bride liked her hair. It was just a struggle to get there.

In other non-wedding news, I have a serious shopping bug. I really want to buy something...that's not for the wedding. Obviously, I can't buy anything expensive and will have to satisfy my craving by going to Forever 21 or H&M or ooh, Uniqlo, and going nuts. Then return everything.

And lastly, I have a strong desire to make some of these over the weekend.

{gorgeous strawberries}

{light and buttery biscuits}

~Strawberry Shortcake a la Heart of Light~
Aren't her photos scrumptious? Strawberries have been very cheap as of late, and I plan on doing some damage. A friend of mine suggested using a oatmeal cream, which is popular in Sweden and supposedly very very delicious and "healthy" (or rather, healthIER than regular cream). Hopefully I will get to this.

24 and Shoes!

osh, where does the time go? Once again, I've been in the office almost 24/7 and have had little time for myself or the Fiance. But we've been making it work. The secret is that we've picked a new show to obsess over. I get it - it's not really considered "quality" time, but you know what? I'm ok with that. Because by the time I get home from work, all I want to do is just veg out and at this point, I'll take whatever "quality time" that I can get. So the Fiance and I have been watching back to back episodes of 24, starting from Season 1. I know, I know, I'm coming in way late in the game. Oh well. Reminds me of the time we were obsessed with Alias and I watched every season during my first year of law school. Good times.

In wedding news, I've been searching for wedding shoes via the internet - oh how I love technology. Since I'm pretty short (5"1), I want to get a high heel with a platform front to give the appearance of, dear God, being lean. Here are my options. P.S. I also do NOT want to spend a fortune on shoes. I capped myself at $50 but am willing to go to $100. Here are the contenders. What do you think?