Link: Where to Watch College Football in NYC
Our original plan today was to head to Connecticut for a game between my alma mater and Kendrick’s, but an extremely large frog has taken up residence in my throat and I have some on-camera work next week, so it’s bed and fluids for me.
For those of you looking for somewhere fun to watch some football this weekend, Guest of a Guest has a comprehensive guide.
Another amazing iPhone app that I was introduced to on set: Pano, which allows you to create panorama photos using up to 16 separate shots. If you want to get really crazy with it, you can create a panorama photo, and then upload your shot into the TiltShift Generator and play with saturation/brightness/contrast.
Megan and I on the set of the pilot we shot this week, in another TiltShift Generator-adjusted shot (this time with heightened contrast and decreased saturation).
Forever 21 coat with faux-fur collar.
Me, Julia & Megan in Central Park, towards the end of our final day of filming the pilot. This lovely color-saturated shot is the end product of my favorite new iPhone app, the TiltShift Generator (I think Julia looks particularly stunning here…love how the app made her lipstick pop). Our new buddy Aaron showed me how to use this app to blur out the edges of the shot and play with saturation, contrast, and brightness. You can also use the “Vignette” option to darken the borders. In my (very humble, being quite the opposite of a “tech expert”) opinion, it’s vastly superior to the Photogene app, which I recommended earlier.
One element of this picture that displeases me: Megan’s scarf, my scarf, and my jacket all blur together into one big, red mess. More contrast might have helped. Or decreased brightness? I’m still experimenting with this app, having purchased it approximately two hours ago, so hopefully my skills will improve over time. Tips/advice welcome!
In this video, David from James Knight of Mayfair (the fishmonger to the Queen and Prince Charles) shows me around the fish stand in Selfridges and explains how to pick the very best specimens.
Wednesday night, Stephen and Dave cooked us up a delicious dinner of chicken, rice, and veggies (pictured above).
While their mix of brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, shallots & potatoes turned out perfectly, I have an unfortunate tendency to overcook my vegetables (especially when I cook them in a casserole dish alongside a chicken). When such a thing occurs, an easy way to salvage any side dish that consists of root vegetables is to mash the whole mess up with a lot of butter, a few pinches of salt, and perhaps a little milk (whole milk - or at the very least 2% - please).
Waking Sleeping Beauty with a kiss on the set…
Thanks to reader Mary Clare, who wrote to tell me about a company started by several members of her family, Viewville.com. Viewville offers gallery-quality digital art at affordable prices (as low as $65, which is pretty amazing). I, of course, immediately went to the “Food” section, where I discovered artist Tim Chumley, who slices fruit until he finds a piece that holds color while allowing light to pass through. Above is “Cherry,” which would be stunning in a large size on a stark white wall.
A few more excellent tips for beating the common cold:
- Reader Hallie recommends adding lots of garlic to chicken soup: check out my post on the benefits of garlic here and my mom’s chicken stew recipe here.
- Reader Elizabeth recommends eating spicy foods to boost immunity and to drain the sinuses. She’s also a garlic advocate…check out her delicious, garlic-heavy orecchiette here.
- Reader Jenny recommends elderberry syrup (elderberry pictured above) for its infection-inhibiting properties.
I’ve gotten so many amazing responses to my query about home remedies for colds that I thought I’d post a few of them here.
First, reader Sarah of Wisewhimsy wrote to tell me about Hot Knives’ All-Natural Nyquil Recipe.
What you need:
2 cups fresh mint leaves
