food Archives • Page 4 of 8 • Every Day Dress by Rebecca Collins

waiting on spring

brunch at The Obstinate Daughter | community table

Six years ago today we put our first post up here, and if we’re completely honest with ourselves we’re looking to reclaim some of our mojo. It’s kind of funny, no one is really out there waiting for a new entry. Yet when we don’t write I feel anxious, and let it go for a while, and then feel more anxious, and then it feels even harder to get back to it. Kind of like the gym, when you’re in the habit it’s a daily do, and you feel better, even when you don’t.

yeah, that’s me styling oldest daughter, pink bag, pink charm, pink scarf, floral shoe

So, here goes: writing and posting here keeps my brain engaged, even if it’s simply content about food and clothes. We’ve had a love affair with both for as long as we can remember, and we’ll need to be fed and dressed for as long as we’re here so content continues. If you’ve been a reader for a while thank you, I like sharing my space.

Several years ago through my professional work with Worth New York I heard Tom Black, entrepreneur and wine collector, speak. Motivational, yes, and since then I’ve subscribed to his Success Quotes for Daily Living. Yesterday, this landed in my inbox:

Ignore all hatred and criticism. Live for what you create, and die protecting it. – Lady Gaga

And with that, we continue. Every day dress, and every day cook. Food and clothes, in any order, with as much style as we can gather.

of the several group photos this one’s a favorite, as it shows love, laughter, movement, and no perfect posing

Photos here are of recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina. Easter Sunday we brunched at The Obstinate Daughter, Sullivan’s Island, and did a beach walk afterwards, thank you, Lucy. There were eleven of us in total, now ten of us are back in the northeast and we’re all waiting on spring.

Every day dress, waiting on spring.

super greens and chicken

More food, besides work going on now, what else is there? Wine, perhaps, of course.

Last night kale, spinach, & chard got dressed with blue cheese and canned mandarin oranges. Roasted four chicken breasts with lemon, thyme, butter, and onions, then cut them in half, we had five show for dinner instead of four. Served it up with Baked Farro & Butternut Squash from Ina’s latest make it ahead– delicious.

Every day dress, super greens and chicken. Hang in everyone, almost March. xo

Last week’s roses looking as fresh as the chef, haha.

food

croutons and cod

Food & lifestyle Post:

Intern and new admin suggests that fashion and food are best posted as separate topics (thank you, Alexa), and all four daughters say the same. So here it is, food only.

No reason to ever buy store made or, worse yet, packaged croutons. With day old bread, kosher salt, olive oil, pepper, and any seasonings you have on hand, you’re good to go. If it were not a frozen tundra outside we’d be adding fresh herbs from the garden.

Most sources say to bake in the oven. Well, our oven was full roasting asparagus, in two heart-shaped cake pans, the only ones we had on hand. We had wild cod baking, too.

For a fresh starter, put some organic spinach in a bowl, throw in some slivered almonds, top with your handmade, homemade croutons, dress with olive oil, ground pepper, add a little more kosher salt, parmesan cheese and your favorite vinegar.

Dinner done! Yeah, that cod needs some zest–it’s looking a little plain–so make sure that you have fresh ground pepper at the table.

Trying to live up to a Monday through Friday posting schedule, but that’s negotiable. Store bought croutons, never.

Oh, and real butter is LOVE. Careful, if you get too good at this, the family will most often want to stay in. 🙂

food

for your weekend

Perhaps you’ll be doing a little mall walking, not really our thing yet when the temp is 1° and feels like -18° with the wind chill factored in, sometimes you’ve just gotta go with it.

Picked these few things up recently while in FL, cold there as well. Heck, when the worlds most beautiful women wear this stuff, we should too. It’s all less than $100, and each piece alone half that, so pretty easy lift.

Bought the one piece one size up, didn’t want a tight fit, kind of loose might be good since we’ve done this too:

For your weekend, every day dress, hope it’s a great one.

lingerie | Victoria’s Secret

sneakers | Converse

cookies | Nestlé’s Tollhouse

fashion food

dinner in

For dinner in at dear friend’s home Saturday night wore sleeveless blue velvet. Sometimes it’s fun to do the unexpected and get kind of overdressed. Three bangles on the left arm dressed it down. A little exposed shoulder this time of year is easy to pull off, Donna Karan tells us in this month’s Porter magazine ‘Women have all different kinds of body issues, as do I, but the one asset for every woman is her shoulders; they never gain weight, and never get wrinkles, guaranteed.’ Donna, you are a true fashion heroine.

Barbara and Bill, so much fun to break bread with you and friends. Thank you for keeping that good tradition alive, dinner in, complete delight. xo

fashion food lifestyle

bookend(s)

A little spirited relief from shoveling snow this Tuesday: we like to bookend our days with coffee first and wine last. Don’t let these photos fool you, it’s winter and when it’s dark it’s a nice glass of red, simply creating some visual interest. Just can’t seem to get away from it, and really, why?

So to break it up, lots of water in between. In fact, trainer has recommended going one to one: every coffee or diet coke or wine gets matched with a big glass of H2O. Cutting up a big pile of lemons for the water break is good, too.

Lunch-time post, check, really trying to get better here. Every day dress, bookend(s).

food lifestyle

no turnaround

For client and colleague meetings, doing inventory and shipping out samples wore the same outfit two days in a row, kid you not, a week or two ago. White blouse, leather pant, flat shoes. Gave it a little personality with Chien cuff and fourth daughter’s old JCrew socks. Casual, yet still dressed, had to move a lot.

Love this shirt as there’s no (dry cleaning) turnaround, machine wash on cold, hang to dry, perhaps lightly steam. Added it to the wardrobe in black too, we all know how useful a great black shirt is.

Now that I’ve figured out we’re all about great clothes and good food, here’s some pics from last night’s dinner:

Back to work now, prepping for Spring 2015 Trunk Shows and searching for a new stylist in upstate New York, with good focus on Saratoga Springs. Beef Stew on deck for after hours tonight, cold, snowy, and winter storm advisory here in Buffalo.

Have a great Monday. Every day dress, no turnaround.

Optic White Sueded Triacetate Pocket Shirt | Worth New York Spring 2015

fashion food

do it double

When things work well, do it twice. Fifteen years ago husband and I built this house, where most of these blog posts come from, we now all call home. Outrageously expensive, all-consuming; every single floor board, door handle, faucet, window frame, stone countertop, light fixture, light switch, each piece of wood trim, you name it, we picked it. While we might not ever do that kind of thing again, never say never, going through an experience like that reaffirms that when things are good and work well, do it double.

Dishwashers? Absolutely. In the thirteen or so years we’ve been tucked in have probably pushed out 9,490 meals or so. And most of those have been for six or more, most often eight. That’s a lot of cooking and a lot of dishes. Double dishwashers, such a great thing. At first they were Miele and hidden behind matching cabinet doors. For the first eight years, perfection. Then they started acting up, needed service, and one needed to be replaced. In went another foreign brand, only one, the other one was still okay. Never felt the new replacement was that great. Then the other went down, and as there was no love affair going on with the new one that was ordered online, and we were downsizing with the amount of kids that were living at home, never replaced that first original one, until recently.

Cut to the quick, I guess the point of all of this is that if you enjoy being a home cook, and if you have the option and opportunity to place double dishwashers on either side of an extra-wide and extra-deep sink, go for it absolutely. These things give really unbelievable pleasure. 🙂

Now, one more thought: if you’re gonna roast a chicken, why not two? Stuff them with lemons, and garlic, and thyme. Cover with butter, and salt, and pepper. Surround with sliced onions, carrots, and potatoes. Dinner that night, and lunch, the day after that. Pleasure, again.

Tangent, and this could be an entirely separate post yet I digress: have read and explored a bit about blogging and realize there aren’t really any best practices followed here.

No regular posting schedule, haven’t hired anyone to help with the technical stuff, really no involvement with other fellow bloggers, not a lot of engagement with readers. No marketing plan.

On the upside, and there’s always that, have thought about the voice of every day dress, and that it’s a love of good food and great clothes, and sometimes great food and good clothes. It’s passionate, comes from the heart, and is grounded in family. And that it’s fun to write, and share, and possibly inspire.

So, in the spirit of always learning, and growing, and trying and doing better, challenging myself to be a bit more consistent, without too much discipline. Love having a space and no one to answer to, no deadline, no subject. Yeah, there’s discipline in this life for sure, and now looking for a little more here.

Thank you, dear readers, truly feel that each day can be better when there’s thought and care given to some pretty fundamental basics, good food and good clothes. Thinking the tagline might be re-written to show some of this. Fashion, per se, seems a bit high-reaching, especially when I also find dishwashers so darn interesting. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by, and happy 49th Super Bowl Sunday. California Pizza’s tonight, doing it double.

new dishwashers | KitchenAid

food lifestyle

1955

Sixty years and two days ago dear husband arrived in this world. Celebrated, of course, with family dinner at home.

No Rolex, or fancy cocktails for a hundred or so, simply flew two Boston MA girls home for his surprise.

Osso Bucco was a whole day affair, that with work and all. Thankful for good clothes, never had a chance to think about what to wear. Printed silk blouse (black lace bra underneath, something needs to be fancy), sleeves rolled up, ubiquitous blue jeans and flat black boots, good to go.

Went without the cliché of fresh flowers, this was a man’s party, and put three small pots of ivy down the table. (So much less than fresh flowers too, being January and broke and all). White tapers, this time no votives.

You’d think with a milestone like this for the man I love deeply I would have it together a bit more. Knew what I wanted and needed to do, took a deep breath, anxiety and all, and went forward. Had visual memories of three photos from recent travels, at 4 pm dropped them in a thumb drive, headed to Kinko’s FedEx and printed them out, and then to Target, I know I know, to grab a frame. Here it is ready for the red room, haha.

This is how it looked at 5 pm, and dinner was at 8: carrot cake baked, cream cheese frosting on the counter, haricot verts blanched, veal shanks wrapped and on a tray, onions out for the risotto. One great thing about doing things time and again is that you don’t really have to measure things like chopped vegetables: simply feel the amount needed for onion, celery, carrots, tomato, garlic. Spinach and artichoke dip to go with the champagne, and caesar salad for some more green.

Green continued with wine bottle-shaped sugar cookies, hand embellishment with his birth year as vintage. 🙂

There were eight of us plus one, second son’s girlfriend, always make room for more love at the table.

Happy 60th dear husband. 1955 was a very good year. xoxo

family fashion food lifestyle

five cakes

For third daughter’s sixteenth birthday celebration this past Saturday night, ordered five cakes from our local restaurant two days before the party. They don’t make one big cake, had to order enough for sixty or so guests so five cakes it was. Yeah, kind of last-minute, made it work. Didn’t want anything too overdone, or looking like a wedding, so naturally waited to the very sweet end. Thank you, Cynthia, you were spot on, they were a hit. A little anxiety about how to make five cakes feel special, it came in the middle of a long walk: five siblings, each will carry one and present, sparkle candle and all. Fun.

Balloons were a two-day before addition as well. At the walk-through on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 pm, asked the club manager for her source, deliver she did. Chris, from Balloon Masters, did it up brilliantly. Called him on the car phone on the way home, barely 48 hours in advance, signed, sealed, and delivered. Wanted to call in a real photographer, husband nixed that idea rather quickly, like the blog here we’re a bit of a do it yourself cottage industry.

Dress was bought the day before, no stress there, that’s one of the things we do here at every day dress, dress busy women in beautiful clothing. Last minute for that kind of thing is fine. Shoes were a gift from Santa Baby, she was delighted. Birthday crown purchased at a local little French shop in Sonoma CA, two years ago, she wore it at her fourteenth as well. New nail color, Chanel.

We were all there. A New Year’s Day birth is sometimes a little left behind. This year, not so much. Lizzie, happy sweet sixteen, we love you to the moon and back.