fried green tomatoes

oh, fried green tomatoes, you are sublime

Okay, so if you’re stopping by here for fashion or style, sorry, we’ve been on holiday. In reality we’ve been out of touch, and in the kitchen, and it’s taking us a bit longer than planned, like everything else in life that goes down.

driving to market in off shoulder top for food stuff 

We’re on month seven of this professional chef thing, one month extension, granted, and have three days to finish, yikes. Here’s what’s on deck: plant-based manicotti with egg and dairy free fresh pasta dough, scratch tomato sauce, tofu ricotta and cashew béchamel, fresh udon noodles with shiitake broth, almond sole, another Alsatian onion tart, two ways to use legumes, penne Carbonaro, veloute sauce, baked tofu, a chocolate ganache torte, a written description on what you should/could do if you find a pot of boiling stock on a stove top, a black box assignment, (don’t ask me, haha), and a four-hour multiple choice exam, yikes. Interested? Check out www.rouxbe.com. Highly and totally recommend.

Instead of totally concentrating at the task at hand, I get a little side-tracked, and go college dorm shopping with my daughter and decide to make something we’ve never had before: Fried Green Tomatoes with Buttermilk & Chives, from the beautiful new cookbook The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine, by Erin French. Absolutely delicious, and the book, absolutely divine.

the plate is hot 

what the end of the day looks like…

Yes, we’ve also made Wild Mushroom & Truffle Oil Pasta, twice now, in the last three days.

Fall fashion coming soon, can’t wait.

xoxo

 

 

 

 

friday night shenanigans

 

After being gone girl for darn close to three straight weeks the only outing we’re doing is the grocery run.

Our idea of a dream Friday night is a good dinner, a glass of Cava, (or two), and very early to bed. Friday night shenanigans’, indeed.

Spent the day in the kitchen, doing a nice pan-fried chicken garnished with fresh, local pea shoots for lunch, a big side dish of sautéed haricots verts with shallots for the fridge, and a little riff on a Nicoise Salad for dinner: pan-fried halibut topped with a slightly overdone poached egg. Yolk was still a bit runny, thankfully; must have been first out of four to hit the barely simmering water.

We’re 91% through with our professional cook certification and currently posting a 96.3 grade, whew. Hope to wrap this up in the next few days, we’re really missing our style fix. 🙂

Wishing everyone a restful, soulful, mid-summer weekend. xoxo

checked out for a little

We’ve checked out for a little; travel, cooking, and now upon second daughter’s recommendation have added in the study of wine, oh, boy.

Two weeks in Portugal, at times ten of us in all, and now in Manhattan, give or take a week. My travel mantra is now less is always more, and easier, and went with a carry-on and tote.

Sure, I feel a little style-lost, yet tradeoff is greater.

And cooking? One late afternoon in Porto went street-walking and picked up four fresh chickens, had the butcher cut them into eights, and that trifecta of tomatoes, onion, and garlic. A bottle of olive oil, dried pasta, some butter is love, coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, and copious amounts of Portuguese wine. We feasted.

Later in the week moved into the Douro Valley, toured Niepoort, and was gifted with a garden box of more garden fresh tomatoes, and green peppers, and oranges. Upon our late return to the apartment, all hungry and tired, those vegetables along with some white wine, garlic, onions, and butter, all pan sautéed separately and then combined into one gorgeous pot, divine for late night dinner. More wine, of course.

No photos, we’ve checked out for a little, text will suffice.

Wishing everyone good health and great meals, shared with those you love. xoxo

bringing back pink

mise en place for vegetable stock

homegrown, ready to roast

yay, hydrangea in the canning jar from our garden, and def a little Riesling with our afternoon lunch

homegrown lettuces, local chèvre, roasted beets and walnuts, red wine vinaigrette

We’ve been on the down low, stirring up things like scratch stock, roasting some homegrown beets for a nice lunch, and bringing out an old school bamboo handle bag, probably 10+ years out, and pairing it with that new brand for us, W by Worth, in a pale pink silk charmeuse blouse, and some equally old to the bag (10+ years), white linen wide leg pants, Worth New York.

pale pink silk, white linen, decade old+ bag, kind of fun to bring those things back

We’re kind of off for the summer, yay, yet back full tilt fashion come first week or so of September. Be well, fashion friends.

one more shot of the al fresco lunch, this time with cool tones and pink trim on the linen napkin

Every day dress, bringing back a little pink, in the kitchen and in the wardrobe. Love to all. xoxo

party to go

muscles in a wine butter broth

simple table with chargers

hair up, we don’t care

We’ve been town & country, carting food & wine here, there, and everywhere.

salmon on cabbage

a flat of homegrown strawberries = 14 jars of jam

Life is moving fast, definitely some big bumps, yet we’re celebrating the simple.

yes, please, homegrown peas

everyone in the kitchen now

Breaking bread, always a party to go. When we started this site 5+ years ago we were all about making your bed, protein at breakfast, walk the dogs, get out of the yoga clothes, put on some makeup (yay, kind of slacking on that one, it’s summer…), make some dinner, spend time with those you love, enjoy a glass of wine. Still the same.

major mac & cheese prep, notice the rose gold Birkenstocks and the white polish 

unplanned family supper

flower prep, check out the sleeping dog 🙂

blanched hericots verts and chorizo bread waiting to be cubed

the sky is falling

double denim, double wooden salad bowls, toss with your hands

gorgeous roasted miniature San Marizona tomatoes

homegrown for the table times twelve

the gangs all here

knot those cloth napkins if no time to iron 

Every day dress. xoxo

back in town, champagne and cell phone never far behind….

messy kitchen counter, honest kitchen life xoxo

gone cooking

Asparagus Risotto with Truffle Oil

Haven’t forgotten our sartorial sense, it’s just that we’re sliding into the home stretch of a six-month professional cook certification course, yikes. Total new-found respect for anyone that cooks for others, not always easy.

favorite chocolate chip, Furman University cut-outs, lemon bars, and white Sangria

EJ, wearing Worth New York, and Lizzie, wearing her ivy crown,

and Furman University hoodie

We’ve got a July 12th drop date, and still have things to do. Here’s a quick look at what’s been going on, while we haven’t been regularly updating the blog:

prepping an Alsatian onion tart, super delicious

Caldo Verdi soup stuff

nice little healthy lunch

We love food, we love good clothes, we love working with women and feeding others, now we need to finish and graduate. 🙂

wearing two pieces from a new line I picked up: W by Worth,

and absolutely no make-up, it’s been that crazy good 🙂

we still get to the office, really need to finish this cooking school…

get ready Fall 2017, see you soon,

Every day dress, we’ve gone cooking for a little. xoxo

event prep

It’s all hands on deck, we’ve got activities going on: high school commencement, out-of-town guests, getting together to watch the sun set.

We here at every day dress feel all moments are better with good clothes and great food.

We’re in the kitchen and in the closet, feeding and dressing.

Every day dress, event prep in perpetuity, that’s what we do. xoxo

some new regulars

When you’ve been away from something for a while, its way more challenging to jump back in. After the long holiday weekend decided today was the day, so here we go with some new regulars:

Last week Monday hosted a small little brunch. Served up avocado toast, individual frittatas, kale salad with fried garbanzo beans, and a blueberry granola yogurt parfait. Soon to be graduate Lizzie liked the effort, so we’re making these all again for her upcoming celebratory lunch. We’ll add some more sides, as we’ll be lunching, maybe a few or our old regulars, things like lobster mac & cheese, open-faced mini beef tenderloin sandwiches with horseradish cream sauce, and definitely mimosa’s, bloody’s, sangria and a cookie platter.

Like our wardrobe, we like to refresh and update our food things too, really just basics with a small twist.

Every day dress, some new regulars.

a mid-year agenda

white tulips, bread, and butter is love

spaghetti and meatballs, one of the mother sauces

haricots verts and milk braised pork, looks weird, tastes delicious

cod, asparagus, quinoa and sautéed tomatoes

spring is time for rack of lamb

pesto, by hand, no food processor, with small pasta

maple glazed carrots cooked in scratch chicken stock

Essie ‘bikini so teeny‘ nail color

We’ve been out for a little, cooking, gardening, parenting, and forever working on good habits. We’ve been at our studio as well, helping women put together looks for spring and summer events, professional and celebratory. One thing we’ve added to our personal shopping cart is a new mid-year agenda, to help us stay on track, especially those daily habit kind of things.

Last year for the 51st birthday bought the desk size, this year we’re sizing down. Streamlining has been kind of our thing, with the wardrobe edit, now the agenda, and even the wallet. We’ve switched to carrying a little silver card case, with two cards, one for personal, one for business, and our drivers license. All those fancy store credit cards, gone. Card case slips into our bag, or a jacket pocket, or the back of our jeans. Easy.

We love anything Smythson, friend and colleague gifted us with these amazing notebooks, one personalized SCRAPPY, and the other, CLASSY. Pretty much sums us up. Thank you, dear friend.

Every day dress, some new habits, and a new mid-year agenda.

 

linen, un-ironed

Conversation with 5th child, 3rd daughter, before dinner: me: ‘really kind of liking these un-ironed linen napkins of late’, her: ‘yeah, I get it, me too’.

We’re all for a little pomp and circumstance, especially when the occasion calls for it, yet on a weeknight family kitchen dinner, we can go with the un-ironed.

Like everyone out there, we’ve been busy (prom season et al), and wondering where the days go.

sliced leg of lamb, roasted potato, sautéed spinach

all hands on deck, fish tacos 

we always love a little wine

As crazy as it gets, the glue that keeps us together is breaking bread, whatever that may be. Peanut butter and jelly, fish tacos, roasted leg of lamb, doesn’t really matter.

a rail for a client

Every day dress, linen, un-ironed. xoxo

all photos from the iPhone, we got a new laptop and it doesn’t have a memory card drive, not that it makes a big difference, LOL, figuring it out, stay tuned.