Where have all the flowers gone?

Where have all the flowers gone?, originally uploaded by electric stove.

I went to the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza to get flowers and heavy cream for tonight's party. I wanted to make some nice centerpieces and some whipped cream for the egg creams I might make for dessert.

No more flowers anymore. It's gone too cold here now. Cabbage roses and wheat wreaths at the flower stand this week. Everyone was in mini-mourning for all the colors that were there just a few weeks back.

"If you're going to do the eat seasonal thing," I snapped to someone, "this is part of it."

"Do you cook them or plant them?" she asked.

"Neither, they are flowers," I said.

She wasn't convinced. Me either.

Truffle & Salt: Getting ready for the blogger party

IMG_2811.JPG, originally uploaded by electric stove.

Popcorn is one of my favorite party snacks. Beats opening up a bag of chips, right?

I was thinking about popcorn while I was trolling Crate and Barrel last night. Had to pick up some martini glasses and candles.

Then, I decided I could make the popcorn a bit more exciting. I decided I'd get some Truffle Salt for the popcorn. I didn't realize it was $28 for 3.5 ounces.

After much angst, I picked it up and put it back twice, I decided I'd go for it.

Two new things to be excited about

I just found a great NYC food blog. Gezellig Girl is brave enough to post about how her cooking style differs from her mom's (hi Mom!), knows about Chinatown (and I want to learn!), is interested in teapots and watches Top Chef. It is very late notice, but I hope she might be able to make it to our NYC Food Blogger party tomorrow.

The second exciting thing is that I won an Ebay auction for the December 2004 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Not that there were many people clamoring for this magazine, but I really wanted it. Someone was bidding against me, but I still got it for only $4.82.

In that issue, there's information about how to make Christmas centerpieces using carnations. Carnations -- the un-exotic, cheap, forgotten flower, bouquet filler -- reimagined into modern, interesting, yet still inexpensive centerpieces. Its sort of a metaphor for the rediscovery of my part of Brooklyn, or just a good life philosophy in general.

I'm hoping I can pull something like this off for our Holiday Book party. I'm off to Bed Bath and Beyond to think up some simple decor idea for tomorrow night's Food Blogger Pickle Party.

Two parties to plan!

PARTY #1
R* and I are hosting -- with much help from Ann and Jon -- a pickle-tasting party on Saturday night. I've been jealous how how the bloggers on the West Coast get together and meet each other in real life, so we're going to host NYC food bloggers and friends at our party. Looks like about 25 people are coming.

To keep it low stress, the food bloggers aren't cooking. Jon's brinig pickles from his small-batch Brooklyn-based pickle company, Wheelhouse Pickles.

I need to admit I always get anxious as it gets closer and closer to hosting a party: will the crowd mesh, will there be enough booze, is the food right, R* should get some new iTunes for the audio ambience, how will I find enough time to clean the bathroom . . .

Saturday's pickle party is making me especially nervous since some of my favorite NYC food bloggers and apartment therapists are coming. It is not unlike having Martha Stewart come over.

P.S. If you're an NYC food blogger and you want to come to the pickle party, lemme know. It's a very small apartment, but we'll make it work.

PARTY #2
R* and I also have a Holiday Party every year. We start planning it every Halloween. It's our one big event of the year. So now's the time for me to get out my recipes and notes from last year and start to plan.

I think it's a little bit creepy or boring to write about our party and all the brooding about it and planning and recipes, but maybe it will be fun. At least we'd have a record of what we did for the party this year. If anyone has seen someone blog "a month in the life of planning my party" kind of a blog, let me know, I'd like to see how they did it.

My first idea is that I want to have some amuse-bouches. I love the little appetizer spoons that I blogged here. Today I had perfect reuben sandwhich at a deli in Murray Hill. I'm thinknig corned beef with spicy mustard on a bed of sauerkraut with some cheese metled on top and a drop of spicy mustard. Would that be a weird thing to serve on these spoons? (Sigh, these spoons look kind of ugly in the picture on the web. In the catalog, they looked much better.)