One of my favorite things about (mostly) working from home: I get to stay firmly planted in my pajamas next to our space heater on days like today (brrr). If you're doing the same (or stranded, or playing hooky, or just fantasizing about what you'll do when you get home tonight), some snow day essentials for you.
1. These flannel J.Crew pajamas are amazing. I don't own them, but would very much like to. (They also come in black-and-white gingham.)
On Saturday morning, I co-hosted the INC holiday fashion event with Camila Alves in Garden City...and it seemed like a good time to wear red. Holidays and all.
It was also Camila's last public appearance as the INC Brand Ambassador, which made the whole thing a little bittersweet - I've had so much fun getting to know her over these past few months (Vegas! Seattle! Minneapolis!), and am excited to see what she ends up doing next.
I love the tradition of picking up a new ornament every Christmas to commemorate the year that just passed. Last year, we went for...a VW bus. For no especially good reason other than that we liked it. So on Sunday's trip to Nyack we thought we'd get a few that really spoke to these past few months.
For Kendrick, a studious owl...
OK, so at Quaker Steak & Lube - the wings chain that we stop into every time we drive to Ohio - there's a huge menu of hot wings arranged according to something called "Scoville Units" (hotness. basically). The ones I would consider eating hover around ninety units, because I am a weenie and I don't understand why a person would want to eat things that incur pain.
Triple Atomic wings - the hottest ones on the menu - contain something called "ghost peppers" and have FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND units.
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND. That is a lot of thousands.
And if you want to eat them, you first must sign a waiver. And if you eat six, you get a t-shirt. Obviously I was not interested in doing this, but for whatever reason Kendrick (and the Man Vs. Food guy, apparently) was.
Q. What ingredients/cooking tools would you recommend for a beginner, mid-level and advanced-level cook?
- Jeannine
A. I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of someone who's firmly in that middle category: a decent-ish cook who's interested in moving slightly beyond the basics and experimenting a little. My feeling about cooking - beginner or no - is that it should be fun, not fussy...so I honestly don't think you just don't really need a ton in order to create delicious meals, regardless of how proficient you are in the kitchen.
That said, it's definitely nice to have a few little toys to play with.
Alright, last batch of gift ideas!
If you have a preteen, I'm going to be exactly zero help here...but if you have a toddler?! Got it.
We're getting our son one of those crazy Thomas the Train train tables because despite the fact that the thing is approximately the size of the second floor of our house, he's going to freak out over it. If you'd like to go the same route (large, expensive toy), may I suggest CraigsList? There are so many people whose kids have aged out of those big, pricey items and are desperate to get rid of them (we found a used version and it was worlds more affordable than it would have otherwise been).
But that's just what we're doing.
1) After a solid five years of coveting, I am finally the owner of a KitchenAid stand mixer (pistachio seemed like the obvious pick), and it is everything that I dreamed.
2) For its inaugural outing last night, I made the New York Times' Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies (again), for the sole reason that I wanted to eat the raw dough.
