new york

bloop! greetings from los angeles, not new york. i know that's weird since all of these photos are from new york, but that's what i'm working with these days: a lot less internet, a vomiting to-do list, and operas every day. so all good things! (save for the to-do list.) all tasty things, all fun things, all things that include really awesome humans.

most of these shots are from a breakfast sandwich crawl that was strategically placed after the saveur awards so that a lot of the bloggers who were in town for that could come. it's true that we didn't stick to breakfast sandwiches and that we also made room for pie and poutine, but how do you not do that when a crawl takes you past 4 & 20 and mile end? 

meh!

eggboy has just arrived in los angeles, so i am going to take him to meet eggslut on this fine foggy morning. 

happy monday, everyone!

-yeh!

for a list of all of the places where we went on the breakfast sandwich crawl, check out donny's post!

bismarck

while half of my instagram feed was in iceland this weekend (???), i was enjoying a lovely weekend of firsts:

first time in bismarck, the great capitol of north dakota, filled with rolling hills and "now hiring" signs in front of every single fast food establishment.

first albino buffalo friend!! i saw them from a distance, outside of jamestown. we didn't actually become friends, but they look kind of friendly?

first fried egg roll skins as nacho chips, first bacon wrapped cheese curds

first days as a 26-year-old

first visit to space aliens (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) it was everything.

first north dakota man bun sighting (at my first north dakota speakeasy experience)

first nanaimo bar!

first neapolitan pizza this far from new york. it was really good and squishy.

first missile silo sighting

...

it was so crazy and fun! and now i'm recovering from all of the cheese curds and the open bar at the wedding. oops! how were all of your weekends??

-yeh!

a macaron party

one thing about living 1,500 miles from the closest ladurée is that a french macaron sighting is literally less common than an albino buffalo sighting. 

so we compensate.  

we put on the french café spotify radio, we wear stripes and invite the town french teacher, and we pile into my kitchen to beat egg whites to stiff peaks and pipe dozens of little macaron shells. 

ok i'm saying this as if this is some sort of weird tradition that we do every month. we don't. yet. but! we did this past weekend for the first time and in the time that it would have taken us to ride the 6 train up lexington and then wait in line for ladurée (and take instagrams of our ladurée), we whipped up our batter, drank wine, made a sprinkle mess, and then ate macarons to the point of belly aches. well, really i got the belly ache, all of my friends are on wedding diets or whatever.

it was so fun!! i love a good chewy macaron. 

want to have your own macaron party?? here are my tips!

make a batch of shells in advance. this isn't 100% necessary if you have mad macaron skills, but i recommend doing this to a) make sure that you have the recipe down (here's my recipe) and b) so that there are some extra shells to fill while the ones that you actually make at the party are baking. 

sift the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture in advance. this process takes so long! it helps to do it in advance (or do most of it in advance and then demonstrate with the rest once guests arrive). 

buttercream. make a big batch of plain buttercream in advance and then set out extracts, food coloring, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and other flavorings so that guests can make their own macaron fillings.   

the setup. each guest should have a baking sheet with parchment (or you can have two guests to a baking sheet), one piping bag for the macaron batter, one piping bag for buttercream, a rubber spatula, a bowl for frosting, a plate for finished macarons, and a container for taking some home. also have some kitchen towels on hand, as well as decorations, like sprinkles! 

don't forget the salty snacks and wine. salty snacks because all of that playing with buttercream will make you crave them. i served sea salted butter dipped radishes, mini quiche, and caramelized onion tarts. and wine, of course! i served kendall-jackson's grand reserve late harvest chardonnay. omg it is so good. 

timeline. make the batter as soon as guests arrive, fill their piping bags, and get piping. since the macarons take a bit of time to sit/bake/cool, get this step out of the way and mingle/nosh/drink afterwards. at some point before the macarons come out of the oven, mix the buttercream and fill piping bags. assemble the macarons, decorate, and eat! 

-yeh!

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thanks so much to chantell ziegler for helping with these photos!!

and thanks so much to kendall-jackson for sponsoring this post!! all opinions are mine mine mine.

pictured: this dress

cold mountain

oh man, oh man, i went to a photography workshop this weekend and it was like summer camp!! instead of arts and crafts we had food styling, and instead of capture the flag we had fishing, or rather sit by the river and drink beer and watch other people catch fish. we even made s'mores and told alien stories around a bonfire. (alien stories are way better than ghost stories, by the way.) it was splendid and beautiful and i miss all of my new friends so much already. 

north carolina was just as pretty as i imagined it would be, it was all mountainy and green, and i got to see some wondrous little waterfalls in the foggy brevard woods on my way from charlotte to cold mountain (thanks to lydia and ben, the best tour guides ever with the best taste in music ever). i think i would probably completely pass out if i ever saw north carolina in the fall.  

cold mountain was the perfect spot for a photo camp. eva and carey totally nailed this location. we stayed in the cutest lodge, ate carey's famous baked oatmeal every morning, took awesome photography classes every day, and at night, we gossiped and yolo-ate cheez-its with red wine. it was so awesome to meet bloggers that i've been admiring through the internet for so long and new-to-me photographers from all over the country. also it was just so refreshing to be with other people who stand on the table for overhead shots and recognize the value of an artfully placed rosemary sprig. 

the weekend was topped off with the most spectacular meal made by my good friend jacob. there was brown sugar crusted pork, black walnut charoset, smashed paprika potatoes, and fancy black bean toast that had about 12 layers on it, i don't even know what they all were, but it made me want to melt to the ground. in the end there was an extra dessert course because at one point during prep jacob's delightful assistant lena mentioned that she gets antsy if she goes three days without baking a cake and i thought, you know what, me too, so shelly and i stole her away and we made olive oil cake with rosemary syrup and lemons from kelly's tree.

oh it was so lovely. 

before flying home, i managed to find room for my first north carolina barbecue and holy poop, what have i been missing all my life. in other words, i'll be back for you soon, north carolina. very very soon.

for now i need to go investigate the landline that eggboy installed while i was gone (i guess people still have those?) and see if it came with any full house vhs tapes or something...

-yeh!

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p.s. big big hugs to all of my new friends that i met this weekend: eva, carey, jordan, rebecca, grace, shelly, patty, kelly. i miss you guys!!! 

most of the goodies pictured in this post come from: lodge, farmhouse pottery, food52 shop, finex, simon pierce, and carey's woodworker dad!