It was amazing, amazing, amazing. From friends showing up early and pitching in with getting ready, to my roommate’s fiance shoveling the snow in the backyard, to Patrice doing the Cheesecake Dance at the end of the night and all the funny moments that happened that night, I was so happy and so pleased by the feelings of love in the house. That’s what made it a warm house.

There were a few milestones that day. One: I added my place as a venue to Foursquare. I had said I wouldn’t when I moved in due to privacy issues. I nixed that problem by not using my real address and instead using the address of the childhood home of one of my favorite musicians: The Notorious BIG. Benefits: Seeing a visual representation of the friends who’ve been to my house. Also fun: People adding tips on what you can find at my place, including boobs. Nice.

Another milestone: Having half the internet over to my house. We had over 100 RSVPs and, from my count, we actually had about 80 people over during the course of the day. I was humbled. The weather was bad that weekend, and on any given Saturday there so much going on in the city that sometimes it’s hard to get folks together. We had friends from 4 of 5 boroughs visit us, as well as some people visiting from out of state.

The night in tweets:
“Why are you on the Internet? The whole Internet is here” ~@patricec about #chillchill

Me: where did the candy necklace come from? Her: the bathroom. #chillchill

Had copious amounts of fun at @emilyspearl’s #chillchill. Cool peeps, smart convos, and a cup of rum that’s still haunting me. [Note: I have since changed my Twitter handle to @ECava]

We had tons of great photos taken that day, including some in the photobooth! We had a few disposable cameras on hand, which I just can’t wait to get developed this week. For now, check out the slideshow below. Please send me any photos you took, so I can add them to the set!

• You can see a couple of great photos from the late-night portion of the party after most of you left here.
• You can find the user-generated Chillhouse 1 Playlist here.

The one thing that didn’t go as planned was that I didn’t have as much time to chat with everyone as I wanted to. I really enjoy introducing cool people to each other and blowing their worlds up with awesomeness, and I just didn’t get to do that.

I really appreciate you all so much, and also appreciate that you rolled with it even when the house was crazy packed. We had all types in the house; wedding photographers, graphic designers, doctors, models, entrepreneurs, dating coaches, lawyers and artists.  Because you are each amazing and talented and kind, I want you all to be able to stay connected, so listed below are all the people who made it out for the day.

If I missed you on the list, it’s highly likely that I was swimming in a glass of champagne instead of being mentally present for our conversation, especially if you arrived after 8 p.m. (email me, I’ll add you to the list).

So, again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for being so amazing, so generous, so thoughtful. I can’t wait to have you all over again. Mark your calendars for Chillhouse Saturdays all summer long, and many more warm housings to come.

Adam Kraemer http://www.intrepidmedia.com/whois.asp?id=4
Amber Blatt – http://theAmberShow.net @theambershow
Amy Cao – http://amyblogschow.com/ @amyblogschow
Anne McCarthy – http://long19thcentury.wordpress.com/ @annecmccarthy
Brian Vecci – http://www.clintonhillfoodie.com/ @chfbrian
Brian Quinn – http://www.thenoblerot.com/ @noblerotnyc
Charlene Jaszewski – http://theredheadsaid.com/ @theredheadsaid
Charlie O’Donnell – http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/ @ceonyc
Clay Hebert – http://dailysense.com @clayhebert
Crystal Horton – http://www.tastymorselsbakery.com/ @tasty_morsels
Damien A. Basile – http://thecauseisthehabit.com @db
Dario Meli – http://www.hootsuite.com :: http://quikness.tumblr.com/ @quikness
David Blumenstein – http://www.david.com/ :: http://www.hatchery.vc/ @davidavdavid
Elliot Ronen – http://four7s.com/ @elliotronen
Emily Hanhan – http://ncsuemme.blogspot.com/ @emilyhanhan
Erin mcparland – http://web.me.com/erinmcparland/erinmcparland/Home.html
Esther Brown – http://www.estheribrown.com/ :: http://outside.in/ @estheribrown
Jackie Summers – http://jackfrombkln.com/ @jackfrombkln
Jeffrey Wilson – http://www.2d-x.com @jeffreylwilson
Joey Pasion – http://passionmd.tumblr.com/ @passionmd
Jonathan Lazar – http://justjon.net @justjon Julia Roy – http://juliaroy.com @juliaroy
Kalimah Priforce – http://www.priforce.me @kapriforce
Katie Morse – http://candidkatie.com/ @misskatiemo
Kimmie Smith – http://kittenlounge.onsugar.com @cocoabebe
Lara Ruth – http://citygrits.net @districtbelle
Leah Smith – http://www.tafaritravel.com/ @tarafitweets
Maria Avgitidis – http://mariathedatecoach.com @thedatecoach
Mayur Subbarao – http://www.mayahuelny.com/
Melissa Sands – http://forkthis.blogspot.com/ @forkthis
Melissa Zhang – http://thespatulaqueen.blogspot.com/ @SpatulaQueen
Nichelle Stephens – http://nichellestephens.com :: http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com @niche
Nicole D’Alonzo – http://nikisnotes.com/ :: http://charitymoxie.com/ @nikisnotes
Nora Sherman – http://www.noraleah.com/ @noraleah
Parris Whittingham – http://fromparriswithlove.com/ @iamparris
Patrice Callender – http://hellandheartaches.com :: http://www.theotherbrowngirl.com/ @patricec
Rima Hawkes – http://rimahawkes.com/
Rob Blatt – http://www.blattcave.com @robblatt
Ryan Holmes – http://www.hootsuite.com :: http://www.invokemedia.com @invoker
Sarah Simmons – http://homecooksuperstar.tumblr.com @sarahmcsimmons
Sarah Cooley – http://randomsarah.com/ @sarahcooley
Selena Ricks – http://www.thedizzyfizz.com/ @selenawrites
Stephanie Lichtenstein – http://stephanielichtenstein.com/ @microsteph
Stuart Tracte – http://beerdiplomacytv.com/ @Stwo
Tameeka Ballance – http://tameekatime.blogspot.com/ @tameekatime
Tim Kane – http://tim.posterous.com @tkane
Topher Ziobro – http://imtopher.tumblr.com/ @imtopher
Tracey Lander-Garrett – http://bit.ly/aDLD7r @popgoesthegirl
Biana Bakman – @bianalog
Christina Coster – @mizcity
Daphra Holder – @thedaphster
Devin Brown – @devintrix
Julian Smith – @johnjuliansmith
Lily Robertson & Charlie Elliot – @batpigthe5th
Melissa Quinn – @fortyyards
Nate Erickson -  @nateerickson
Nia Batts – @nini_b
Whitney-Amanda Horsham 

Also huge thanks to my friends and new friends Aaron, Ana & Rob, Aneil, Bill, Brian, Caprice & Matt, Chinyere, Eric, Erin & Andrew, Guilherme, Janelle, Kat, Lori & Torr and Shannon for showing love and coming to the party.

If you made it to the end of this, you deserve to see a few seconds of The Cheesecake Dance performed at the end of the night.

My first decor purchase for The House of Chill

My housewarming is this weekend! I moved on Thanksgiving weekend and between the holidays and then craziness at work, we’re just now having the chance to warm it up officially.

I say officially because I had about 10 friends over to help us move and 10 turned into 20 and soon enough I counted 30 people between the living area and the backyard. We had crashers and everything. It was a wonderful start to what I hope will be a constant habit of casual hospitality.

I’ve had one random brunch party, one “you have to come over now and drink beer with me” night, one night of consoling the roomie over beer and pizza and just last weekend a very fancy, involved dinner for two. We’ve already packed a lot of living into this space, and I love it.

But this weekend, it’s official. We’re throwing the doors open with a lot to celebrate. Since we moved in, my roommate has gotten engaged, so she’ll actually likely be moving in with her fiance. Housewarming/engagement party. A dear friend just launched her website. Housewarming/engagement/site launch party. Another dear friend had her last day yesterday at a stifling job and is pursuing her dreams in the fashion industry. I could go on, but I can’t fit that many celebrations into one sentence properly. I have 100 RSVPs, I’ll put it that way.

I thought, foolishly, that I’d be all settled in by now and the place would be sort of decorated. Of course, I left myself one free weekend since moving in. I thought Valentine’s Day weekend would be the one time I could stay home (being single), but I wound up having fun plans that entire time. I did get one decoration, though! I was at the Brooklyn Flea, and my friend Q eyed the cute vintage wooden utensil set for me, since he knows I love to cook. I just hung it tonight.

While that’s a little disappointing for me that my place isn’t gorgeous and picture-worthy, it does give me the opportunity to ask my friends for advice on how to use my space.

I adore my part of Brooklyn, and have lived here since I moved to NYC three years ago. I am smack dab in the middle of a few neighborhoods, but spend most of my time in my hood or a couple blocks over in Fort Greene. This party is called Chillhouse 1. The name is a mashup of Clinton Hill House (after my neighborhood) and Clinton Hill Chill (an annual barbecue that my neighborhood has thrown every summer for the past 11 years).

I’m not the only one who loves it here. I’ll be meeting an online friend for the first time in person that day. Clinton Hill Foodie reps our hood hard, reviewing as many restaurants and wine spots as he can get to. He’s making a red velvet cheesecake for the party, which I’m just beyond about, as our area is also famous for Cake Man Raven, home of some of the most sought-after red velvet cake anywhere around. I can’t wait!

My neighbor Kara Masi, who hosts the first underground supper club I ever attended, the Ted and Amy Supper Club, will also be there, so I feel like there will be a lot of good neighborhood love going around that day.

Everyone who is RSVPing for the party is admitted as a “Member of the House of Chill.” I am going to make that literal.

Benefits of membership include:
- Opportunities to throw parties at my place. It sucked when I didn’t have a big enough space to have people over and NYC can be such a challenge that way.
- A gift bag at the first bbq of the season.
- Grilling privileges.

Also, this party is interactive! I’ll have several surprises for folks when they come over, but even before that, I’d like to get folks involved.

Help me create the playlist! If you’re attending (or wishing you could make it), please leave a comment with the name of the song or songs you want to hear on Saturday! I’ll be making the playlist in Grooveshark, so it shouldn’t be too obscure.

I look forward to seeing what songs everyone suggests, and looking forward to hearing them with friends even more. Happy Inaugural Chillhouse Weekend!

Sullivan Walsh, Brooklyn metalworker and artisan

Salvaged gears for lamp and mirror bases

I recently met artisan Sullivan Walsh at a friend’s book signing at a new, cute boutique called Shag (Link NSFW). Walsh told me he was a metalworker who lived in Brooklyn. I love architecture, metalwork and woodwork, so we chatted for a minute and exchanged business cards. The next day he sent me an email and a link to his website. As soon as I clicked it, I was all “Wooooaaaaah, must go visit his studio and check out his stuff!”

I’m going to be highlighting more local businesses and cool people who make stuff on this site. I love Brooklyn and I’m constantly meeting the coolest, most talented people. Hopefully, you’ll dig my interviews with them and support these folks and their work/art. Walsh is someone who exemplifies what Seth Godin is writing about in his new book Linchpin, so I’m really happy he’s the first local artist I have the honor to introduce.

My friend and fellow food writer, Jennifer Iannolo, came with me for a visit to Walsh’s studio over the weekend. His space is located in a historic industrial loft in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Even though Walsh’s space is a work-in-progress, he was a gracious host and provided wine glasses, a bottle opener and a lovely spread of olive oil, delectable cheeses, bread, wine and French press coffee. It was a delightful day.

A view from the unfinished living space into the downstairs

Below is a short Q&A I did with Walsh about his work, along with some photos from our day checking out his art and poking around his loft. You can view the whole photo set by clicking here or by clicking any of the photos below.

Seven Questions with Sullivan Walsh

Q) How did you get your start in metalwork?

A) I always enjoyed building things even as a kid, from tree houses to snow forts. When I was at Pratt [an architecture, art and design institute in Brooklyn], studying architecture, I started taking some electives such as woodworking, metal shop, ceramics, and bronze casting, all of which I absolutely loved.

It became clear to me that I was much happier working with my own hands and building things than toiling at a drafting table.

The artist and his mirror - an elevator wheel is the base

I later started working as a studio assistant for an artist named Jon Kessler. At one point, Jon was going to Paris, and an artist from the same gallery he was in, Luhring-Augustine, was coming to New York to use Jon’s studio. He needed welding done, so Jon taught me how to weld in about 15 minutes. It’s actually really easy when you have the right equipment. I describe welding as like using a really, really, really, really really hot glue gun.

I also became a certified scuba diver diver around then, and went on to work on a ship that was docked at the South Street Seaport. That was kind of interesting because when you’re working on a floating ship, you can’t use a level or a plumb as a reference, so you have to eyeball everything.

After that, I worked as a finish carpenter. All this time, I just wanted to be building my own designs, and in 1996, I formed my own company, Walsh Metalworks.

Q) What kind of formal training did you do, or are you mainly self-taught?

A) No real formal training. Learned a lot through construction about tools and materials, and just kind of refined my skills through different projects.

Q) What other artists/artisans inspire you?

A) I wouldn’t name any “famous”  artists as my inspiration. I think the people that I want to emulate are those who just care about the finished product, as well as the process. People who made armor that is just so intricate and beautiful, or stone carvers that work on cathedrals that won’t be finished during their lifetime blow me away.

Or people who take something that we all know one way, and put a new twist on it that makes you say “Wow, that is SO clever”, are the  people that I love meeting and talking to.

My lamps are sold at VOOS home in Williamsburg, and they have a Friday night salon for their designers. An artist named Susan Woods was saying that it’s such a great gathering, because anyone could think up the designs and build these things, but we are the people who actually DID it. It’s the people who DO things, and MAKE things, and bring their own wacky shit into the world that inspire me.

“I’m trying to add a little elegance to the world. Which is how the sleigh bed came about. There was just nothing like it out there, not even close, so I dreamed the fucker up and I built it.”

The most gorgeous sleigh bed you will ever see

Q) Why do you make the sorts of works you make? What inspires you?

A) I make the things I do for different reasons. The lamps I’ve been making are my attempts at clever reincarnations of things from the past into objects people can take into their future. It’s so sad to see my neighborhood, Williamsburg, being torn down and thrown away for some of the ugliest, poorly constructed buildings I’ve seen. I think the gears I make these lamps with are beautiful, and deserve another life.

Gears and Cuffs

My bracelets/cuffs I make so that people who might have a bit of a kinky streak can look totally hot in everyday life, and yet give a subtle sign to others who might be of the same mindset that “Yeah, I LOVE getting tied up!” And so much of the BDSM gear is just SO fucking tacky. I’m trying to add a little elegance to the world.

Which is how the sleigh bed came about. There was just nothing like it out there, not even close, so I dreamed the fucker up and I built it. I’m just trying to add my own unique, elegant version of things to the world.

Q) What’s your favorite part of your work?

A) My favorite part of the work is when I finish a piece, because I always struggle with and stress over design decisions, so when I’m done, it means I think it’s the best solution to what I’m trying to do. And when I build something, like the bed, and someone sees it and just gets it, it makes it all worthwhile.

And when a photographer and a model use my stuff to make amazing images, I love it. And when a hot fucking woman like Emily Cavalier is lying on my bed and imagining one of the zillion ways that the bed could be used, it makes me so happy. [Ed: That answer is unedited.]

Hold that thought. (Mirror and bed both by Walsh.)

Q) What’s the back story on the building where your studio is located?

A) I work and live in The Esquire Building, which used to be The Esquire Boot Polish Factory. My friend Stephanie Eisenberg bought it at a city auction in in 1982, and couldn’t get a construction loan to renovate it until 2000. She’s another person who inspires me, because of her persistence and determination.

If you ever see photos of Ebbet’s Field, where the Brooklyn Dodgers used to play, there’s a big sign for Esquire Boot Polish on the outfield fence. Our building is also referred to as the “Save Domino” and “Vote Obama” building, because of the signage we’ve had on it in big red letters.

Q) What’s next for your work and your art?

A) Short term goals: Do a photo shoot with photographer Ellen Von Unwerth (Link NSFW) and designer Alexander McQueen and my bed, or with the next Ellen Von Unwerth and Alexander McQueen and my bed.

Long term goals: Just keep doing what I’m doing, and meeting with and collaborating with people who want some hot, elegant, sexy furniture. Or who want to come over and play on it!

***

Walsh’s wrist and ankle cuffs and neck collars can be special ordered through Shag. Folks interested in commissioning lamps, mirrors, tables, beds and other custom metalwork, can contact him via his website here.

[Note: Photographers/models/other artisans: Walsh's studio is a gorgeous space and he loves having photographers and models use it for shoots. Please contact him directly if you're interested in using it. The light/space connection there is amazing.]

Music for this post: Dirty Picture – Taio Cruz f. Ke$ha

Flourless chocolate cake at Chez Oskar, my favorite summertime brunch spot

I love everything about it. You can eat breakfast foods and lunch foods and usually quite a bit of booze is involved. More than the food itself, what makes brunch one of my favorite occasions is the pace of the meal and sharing it with friends. On a Sunday morning, there are few things I enjoy more than quiet time around a table with close friends catching up with them and hearing about their weeks (and even more interesting weekends).

Some of my brunches have gone on for eight hours. It starts with the meal at the little French bistro then moves to a bar and ends at another restaurant over more food and drinks. The wee hours race to catch us. Even while going our separate ways home, we devolve into fits of giggles over texts with inside jokes and catchphrases from the day.

Me being broke and two friends who wanted to brunch equaled the perfect scenario to have people over to my new apartment for an impromptu get-together today. I moved into a garden-level apartment a few weeks ago, and now that I have a beautiful kitchen and a backyard, I’m really excited to have my home be the place where everyone loves to visit.

New Kitchen/Living Room and door to backyard

I let friends on Facebook and Twitter know my doors were open for brunch at 1:30 today and that it was potluck. It couldn’t have worked out better.

Arriving first was Emily, who I met through my friend Katie a couple of months ago. Since then, Emily and I have bonded over our love of cooking. She also lives in my neighborhood. She came bearing cold brewed Gorilla coffee, cupcakes and a delicious quiche.

Next my neighbor Rima came over. She brought all the fixings for pancakes, an espresso machine and a board game. I spent much of brunch obsessing over her moonboots.

My former roommate and friend Guilherme arrived with tons of sweet strawberries and blueberries for a fruit salad, and then he popped out to pick up some prosecco for us at Olivino, my neighborhood wine shop.

Katie came with everything you need to make brunch right, namely orange juice. She also brought crackers, goat cheese, honey and the essential eggs and bacon.

Topping off our bring-whatever-you-want brunch menu were the chocolate Donettes and two different kinds of bacon my friend and neighbor Patrice brought.

I scrambled the eggs and tossed the bacon in the oven so I didn’t have to constantly tend to it, and within minutes we had a full spread on the table and settled in for some conversation.

Happy Brunchers

It was wonderful to have everyone over and relax. Today was another example of not needing money, even in an expensive city like NYC, to have a great time. All you need are people whose company you enjoy, great food and enough time to really appreciate both.

Throw My Brunch

Soundtrack: “Hang On Little Tomato” by Pink Martini

Quiche: “Seriously Good Quiche” made by my friend Emily

Cupcakes: “Chocolate, Whiskey & Beer cupcakes” made by Emily, recipe by Smitten Kitchen

Libations: Ombra Prosecco

Dresscode: Sweatpants. (My favorites are these from Abercrombie & Fitch.)

That was my Sunday. How was yours?

I went to see Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” last week with two girlfriends, one from Trinidad and one who is mixed, like me. [NOTE: "Good Hair" opens October 23 nationwide.] One uses a flat iron to wear her hair straight and the other wears hers natural. Me? I relax mine with chemical relaxer every two months and then spend the weeks in between visiting a Dominican salon to get a wash & set to keep it straight.

Here’s a quick video I made last weekend to show you what I deal with to make my hair beautiful.

I knew 20 minutes into the movie that I wanted to see it again. It is intelligent, hilarious and honest and I recommend it for anyone – black women who will laugh with recognition, white people who want to understand what all the fuss is about and yes, any man I’ve ever dated – please go see this movie. (This reminds me: A man I dated last year went and got satin pillowcases for me so I could spend the night without having to wrap my hair. That’s a huge commitment and I salute him for it. Future love interests, take note.)

Chris Rock plays the narrator throughout the film and focuses on 3 main story lines:

- the behind-the-scenes drama and economic impact of the biggest black hair show, which takes place annually in Atlanta

- the feelings Rock has about raising two daughters and what they’ll learn and believe about their own hair

- how black celebrities and average women feel about and care for their hair

Wrapped up in each of those themes are several moments where I was hit by a surprisingly insightful nugget of information or doubled over and stomped my feet because I was laughing so hard.

For instance: Did you know that in India, thousands of woman and girls shave their heads to reject vanity as a sacrifice to the gods? This hair gets sold, and is what goes on to support the hair weave industry that keeps long, silky locks on so many black women’s heads.

As for the hilarious parts, you can’t expect anything less from a project involving Rock. One favorite part of mine is when the only white hairdresser in the movie goes to a dermatologist to get pretty for the hair show. Remember I said that when you go see it, because I don’t want to give too much away.

I most enjoyed the humor, but I did learn so much about the black hair care industry; about the chemicals that go into the products used to relax hair and about the cultures dominating the ownership of those African-American hair care companies (Hint: there’s only one major company still owned by African-Americans).

I didn’t walk away feeling any differently about my own hair or how I choose to take care of it. I accept the fact that I am part of a culture that stereotypically places more value on hair that looks “white” i.e. straight and silky.

I do relax my hair. I’m half-white myself and I was raised by white people who didn’t know how to care for my hair. On the other hand, I didn’t have any black women in my life to teach me how to care for it either. Now that I live in a city with access to great stylists and products appropriate for my hair type, I still choose to relax my hair and wear it straight. And it looks better and looks healthier than it ever did before I moved here.

That’s my choice. If you watch until the end of the short video I made last weekend when I relaxed my hair and went for a haircut, you can see how happy I am when my hair looks good. My whole demeanor changes when I’m having a great hair day.

And that, I felt, was the point of “Good Hair.” Whatever YOU feel “good hair” means is cool, so long as you feel happy and beautiful.

More Good Hair Links:
Official Website
“Good Hair Week” blog posts with a perspective on weaves, courtesy of my friend Tameeka
“What’s Good About Good Hair?” another perspective on the movie from blogger Afrobella, who writes extensively about caring for her natural tresses.
Highlights and Official Movie Trailer on YouTube

One of those three cookbooks is Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too by Shauna James Ahern. I’ve been reading Shauna’s blog since a few months after she started writing in 2005. I was drawn to the site because of her gorgeous photos and lyrical writing style. She came across as an incredibly positive person, and I enjoyed her posts on a consistent basis.

I was drawn further into the content of her site because eating and cooking with whole, natural foods was something that was just then becoming important to me. I don’t have celiac disease or any other food allergies, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying her posts. It was just delicious food.

One recipe really struck my fancy, and making it has become an annual tradition for me. I have a few things I only make once or twice a year, and Shauna’s recipe for plum crumble is one of them. The original recipe is here. She wrote a retrospective of sorts in praise of plums here, and I even commented on that post about how much I loved her plum crumble.

Fast forward to 2007. I’m living in New York, Brooklyn to be precise, and a sparkly new Whole Foods has opened not too far from me in lower Manhattan. Not only that, but they have a shiny, gleaming kitchen where they host classes and cookbook signings. I had already purchased Shauna’s cookbook by the time I got the email announcement about the gluten-free cooking class and book signing her and her husband were doing. But I signed up anyway, because I wanted to meet her and see how she cooked.

It was a great time. I forget now what we learned to make, and since I can’t find the pictures, I may not recall in time to include it in this post. But it was delicious. I remember so many people at the class were ones who had just recently found out that they, or someone they loved, had celiac. Everyone was so earnest with their questions. It struck me even more then just how much a difference the quality of our food makes in the rest of our lives, and how writing about food and cooking together can be an educational, transformative experience.

It cemented my resolve to pursue my writing project. I told Shauna about the concept for Mouth of the Border that night, and she said that it sounded like something she couldn’t wait to read. Between her encouragement, and that of Matt Amendariz (who I met at another class at the same Whole Foods, this one on food photography), I knew I had something special.

But speaking of something special, let’s get back to that crumble (slideshow of my 2006 rendition of the plum dessert below).

When Shauna started using Twitter a few months back, I followed her, so I saw her tweet about needing helpers to test recipes for the cookbook she’s working on with her husband. I IMMEDIATELY emailed her, volunteering to help out however I could. She said she’d get back to all of us when the first batch of recipes were ready for testing.

Then a couple of things happened.

My friend Adam launched a blog with two of his friends, one of them a mutual friend named Emily Farris. Emily’s cookbook, Casserole Crazy is another one of the three cookbooks I bought specifically because of a blog/website. The blog they started together is called Fifty Bucks a Week, and it explores adventures in keeping their food costs under budget.

I was friends with Emily through Twitter and through Adam, but had never met her in real life before she moved from Brooklyn to Kansas City. So when she wrote that she was coming to visit New York, I told her I’d be happy to have her over for dinner and help keep her under budget while on her trip here.

A day after Emily accepted my dinner invitation, I got an email from Shauna saying they had recipes ready to be tested. On the list were a Blackberry Peach crumble recipe and a dish of beef tenderloin with balsamic onions. Remembering the amazing plum crumble, I snapped up this crumble recipe right away. I also thought the tenderloin would be a nice treat for Emily since that sort of dish would be outside the scope of her $50/week budget.

I can’t share the recipes with you here and now. They’re original recipes created by Shauna and Daniel (her husband, who is also a chef). But the good thing is you’ll be some of the first to know when they’re available in cookbook format because I’ll tell you so. You can see the pictures of the two dishes by clicking through to my photo set on Flickr below.

The dishes both came out delectable. Homey, satisfying and special enough to make you feel loved and cared for. The fancypants feel of the beef tenderloin with balsamic onions was balanced by the relative ease of nearly foolproof summer fruit cobbler. Emily and I both loved the food, and would barely change a thing.

For me, the moral of the story is that social media combined with my love of whole, tasty, natural food brought two women I admire close to me. Through Shauna and Emily’s websites, I discovered them and then bought their cookbooks. But it was the immediacy and “ambient awareness” of Twitter that brought the three of us together again as adventurers in food.

Wonders never cease.

Answers to your comments:

- The bourbon bacon ice cream won the people’s choice award. I’ve had butter pecan ice cream with a shot of bourbon at a local restaurant, and that rocked my world. This interpretation was just as good.

- Straight up bacon dusted with Szechuan spice buttons won the judges award

- I wasn’t competing. I went just to eat. And eat I did. All 30 samples.

- Yes, Brooklyn is the best place in the world. The fun, eating creative class lives here and I’m happy to call them friends.

Brooklyn Bacon Takedown, Today at 5 p.m.

Posted March 29, 9:37 a.m.:

This is where I’ll be tonight – drinking beer and surrounded by glorious bacon.

Also, check out the interview in my friend’s magazine with @forkthis, who’s participating in tonight’s Bacon Takedown http://bit.ly/wfOjy

See you there!

During the first few weeks after my office moved from Midtown East to Times Square, I kept my eyes peeled for every new sight, and smelled every new smell. There was Bryant Park with its huge lawn to relax on, the bright lights late at night in the Square and all the tourists milling about at all times, making it difficult to grab a bit for lunch.

One day, when I was walking to Bryant Park to enjoy some time away from my desk, I looked over and saw what was surely a hole-in-the-wall Dominican salon. It had all the markers: a row of chairs with the stuffing falling out of the plastic seats, each supporting the ass of a woman who’s been waiting too long just to get her hair done. Some of those women were chatting away on Sidekicks, some were eating beans and rice from a Styrofoam container picked up at the bodega next store.

Along the back wall inside was a woman getting her head dunked under the faucet at the washing sink with another pretty, young girl standing over her and vigorously scrubbing at her scalp and sudsing up her hair. Rinse, wash, repeat. Next to the washing sink are three chairs in front of three styling stations. Two women work here to blow out women’s hair with super-powerful professional hair dryers and round brushes. In a small anteroom, five or six other women sat with their hair in rollers, each of them under a huge egghead-shaped hair dryers.

At the Domincan salon.

Two main elements that differentiate a Dominican salon from a black salon are the ethnicity of the staff and the language spoken. When you walk into a Dominican salon, they will either speak Spanish with you, or direct you to the one person who works there who speaks English. If you’re going in the late afternoon or evening, they’ll have music playing, and inevitably one of the girls will be singing along. If you’re like me, you’ll be wondering what the words mean.

There are less than five inches of free space anywhere you turn – squeezing your way through to the washing sink in the back is an intimate encounter with the torsos and behinds of every stylist in the shop. In that space, or lack of space, you learn to treat the other women there as co-conspirators. You may not know the song that’s playing, but you and everyone there understand that this weekly trip is your way of maintaining your femininity.  Some girls go nuts over shoes. Some girls have a thing for designer purses. When it comes to spending money on accessories, the only accessory I care about is my hair. Being a black girl with great hair is work, and for me, it’s worth this hassle.

You get comfortable with a particular stylist after having been to the same shop a few times. One girl will know how to flip out the ends of your hair to make it gently curl where it hits your collarbone. She’ll remind you to bring your special shampoo in if you’re scalp’s a little dry. She knows to ask which side to part it on each week because you switch it up. For me, that stylist was Dorka, a very pretty Dominican lady maybe in her early 30s with lovely shiny hair and an amazing ass.

You also see some usual suspects on every visit. The girl with the super long hair and a container of plantains and rice is the one you watch because you know she’ll be there for hours waiting for her hair to dry. There are stacks of old magazines to keep you occupied while you wait and wait under that dryer. The old lady answering the phone offers you a slice from her plate of melon on the visits when the outside temperature hits the 90s and sitting under the dryer is nearly killing you.

I liked my little hole in the wall Dominican shop. I’d sometimes grab a slice of pizza at the bodega on my way out and eat it at the corner of 38th and 6th Ave., watching the double-decker buses drive by and observing the mix of midtown drones and out-of-town visitors. It was a nice little routine.

Sometime in December, Dorka brought me down a flight of rickety stairs to wash my hair because the upstairs sink was in use and the dryers were packed. She peered at me with my head back in the sink and told me that the shop was going to be closing, but that she was going to be working at another salon nearby. She wanted to keep me as a client, so she gave me her cell phone number and asked for mine so that she could tell me where the shop was the following week.

I was sad when I walked out that night, knowing that I wouldn’t have that little community anymore. I liked the old lady with her plate of melon, and the girls singing along with whatever song was playing on the radio.

The following week rolled around, and I called Dorka. The new salon was also just a couple blocks from my office, so I walked over on a Tuesday night. When I saw it from the street, I couldn’t believe that’s where she’d be working. It’s got huge windows showing the second story salon and just looks so … fancy. I can do fancy. I do fancy every two months when I visit the Black Hair Mommies at Joseph Tyler salon to get my hair cut. But Dorka is low-key. I couldn’t see her personality shining through in a fancy shop.

Up the stairs I went. The place was enormous, especially compared to the elbow-room only Dominican shop. There was a sofa in the center of the room, new issues of magazines like InStyle, a separate room just to hang coats in. Gone were the jugs of no-name Dominican salon shampoo and tubs of Silicone Mix conditioner. In their place were fancy organic shampoos. The place was quiet, as the only other people there were another former worker from the Dominican salon and the owner of the new place, an Italian man that I’m sure is going to hit on Dorka every chance he gets.

I didn’t know what to make of it. The following week, I went back and this time it was a little busier. I was in and out in about an hour and a half, which is a wash and set record, cause it usually takes 2-3 hours, depending on how busy the shop is and how late in the shift you make it over. I could get used to that.

The strange thing is that I missed the hustle and hard luck feel of the old place. I miss watching girls snap their gum and attempt to squeeze their cell phones under their hair dryer so they can talk about their evening plans. I miss the rotating fan blowing on hot days and picking up a slice on the way home. My Dominican salon near my apartment recently closed without warning, too, so now I go down the street a bit further and it’s the same story. I found a new salon and it is a Dominican salon, but it’s big and airy and sort of fancy.

I guess I just miss what I first experienced as the definition of a Dominican salon – going to a place called Michelle’s a handful of blocks down the street from my old apartment, waiting my turn for the owner to scrub the bejesus out of my hair, scroll it efficiently onto big plastic rollers, and then yank it out almost by the roots with a big round brush while wielding a blow dryer hot enought to make diamonds melt.

So, R.I.P. all my hole in the wall Dominican salons. I know you’re still out there, but I feel you’re slowly being replaced. Thanks to all the Dorkas and Jospefinas out there – you ladies are the reason my hair looks great every week. You give my locks a girly swing and put a bounce in my step.

***

I had no idea what I was getting into. I had just got home tipsy from a fun dinner with a friend. My holiday vacation had just begun. I was laying in bed with my iPhone, scrolling through email when I saw a note from my friend Cathy Erway. She wrote those of us on the NYC Food Bloggers’ mailing list about a fun contest she was co-hosting with a group of amateur photographers called Photojojo and a couple of local supper clubs.

My strength is making food that tastes good, not food that looks good. I’ve taken a workshop on food styling, and I photograph damn near everything I eat (see here), but I have a long way to go before I can make food that looks gorgeous.

This contest would be a fun way to challenge myself to make something beautiful, and give me a chance to get some additional photography and food styling tips before I launch my food writing site next month.

The next night, I found inspiration as I drank nearly an entire bottle of wine (vacation!) while I was watching a PBS show called Made in Spain. They were making a savory dish with quince paste and a Spanish cheese. I came up with an idea to make poundcake squares filled with mascarpone and topped with a spicy blackberry sauce.

Fast forward and it’s already contest day. I woke up late, all mussed up and of course with none of the necessary ingredients to make my dish. I had gone hunting for mascarpone the night before but my local cheese shop had only 7 ounces of it. I needed 12-14 oz., as I needed to make enough to serve 10 portions.

I hopped a train over to Carroll Gardens and went to Stinky Bklyn cheese shop and got the mascarpone. It’s near 1 pm, and the contest starts at 5 pm. I know it’s 1 because I’m missing the last Pats game of the season, which has started at my Sunday football bar directly across from where I’m shopping. I head to the grocer and scoop up Sara Lee poundcakes, 4 pints of blackberries, ginger, a lemon, candied ginger and head home.

At home, near 2:30, I toss the blackberries in a pot with the fixings from this recipe. I’ve thrown the sauce together before, and I know it’s quick. In a pinch, it can make a mean cocktail addition.

While the berries cooked down, I got to work scooping out the poundcake squares. It’s about 3:30 at this point and I’m starting to sweat. I throw the mascarpone into a bowl and get bored with how white and smooth it is. I have leftover shredded coconut from making Christmas cookies, and decide to throw that in to make the texture more visually interesting.

I throw the blackberries into a blender, then pour it all through a strainer I bought at the hardware store. There is blackberry juice staining my counter, it’s 4 pm, and I haven’t even filled the poundcake yet.

Miraculously, I get the cakes filled, the sauce packaged up, and somehow get myself in a cab to the secret location of this event.

The event was hosted at the loft apartment where The Whisk & Ladle Supper Club takes place, so no one can publicize where this apartment is. Supper clubs are a secret, social thing that has significantly increased my happiness since moving to New York. It’s just a group of strangers who get together weekly or monthly for seated meals at people’s homes. My local supper club is the Ted & Amy Supper Club, which happens to be run by my pretty, talented neighbor Kara. Another group participating in the contest that night is the somewhat renegade yet illustrious group called A Razor, A Shiny Knife.

I had no idea I was going to be hanging out in the kitchen with fools like Mark from Whisk & Ladle and Mike from A Razor, A Shiny Knife. These guys are straight up madmen when it comes to doing weird, yet delicious things in the kitchen.

For instance, at one point I turned around and they were demonstrating how to use a meat bonding agent to bond meat proteins to make skirt steak sous vide and bonding different fish to form visually interesting rainbow rolls.

NOTE: All photos below are mine, unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to share, but do link back to this post.

My friend Cathy (the one who invited me), was doing a pie lattice demonstration. She can make pies with even the juiciest of fruits, like grapes and pineapple, but the star of this occasion were her crusts, adorned with cutouts of autumn leaves or basket weaves.

Latticing again.

And then there was Kara, who runs the Ted & Amy Supper Club – I’ve been to her apartment more times than I can count, and not just for dinner. Kara was doing a demo on how to make pumpkin ravioli using wonton wrappers. Making ravioli is a little hectic because you have to work fast to seal the edges before the dough dries out. So, while she mixed up the filling, I hopped in and painted the edges of the wontons with water.

Punkin raviolis :)

Across the room, a chef named Akiko (who also runs with the A Razor, A Shiny Knife crew), was making a multi-layered dessert using agar agar (similar to gelatin), yuzu zest, green tea tapioca pearls and a milk foam. She was quite busy layering her dessert and dissolving things, so I ran a KitchenAid mixer on the floor to whip her milk layer while she carefully composed her masterpieces on the table above. Total chaos.

Mille feuille (not the pastry, just so many layers)

We also got to eat some succulent, inventive food. We had squid ink pasta with delicate sea bass, sesame and butter sauce. There was the sous vide skirt steak, stuffed with herbs and seduced with a mushroom reduction sauce. There were more little, beautiful dishes than I can even remember now, but I tasted almost all of them…

My two favorite parts, though, were watching an amateur (soon to be professional) bartender show us how to make vermouth and watching the food stylist style my dessert to make it beautiful. When I was done assembling desserts, I gave our bartender my blackberry sauce and he made us a lovely cocktail with gin.

Bloody good. Photo of Mayur, our bartender, by me.

The flowers come out. Photo of Pablo, our food stylist.

As soon as I walked in, I was accosted by a guy named Pablo. Pablo apparently thought I knew what I was doing, because he started showing me all these tools (weird nozzles and tweezers and things a dentist would use) and asked me how I wanted to style the dessert. I looked at him blankly, handed him my platter of cakes, then we went upstairs with the blackberry sauce so he could have his way with it.

Sounds dirty, but he made that stuff look gorgeous!

Photojojo Photo Safari. Photo courtesy of Semel17.

The outcome: A photo of my dish won second place, out of hundreds of photos taken by the event goers. Hot stuff. The first-place photo was of a knife, so I’m interpreting this to mean that I actually *did* have the most photogenic FOOD there :) And it was delicious! That coconut really did something special for the mascarpone, and the spice and intensity of the blackberry sauce was exactly the right element to cut through thr richness of the poundcake and creamy filling.

But, more than than, this was an amazing opportunity to hang out with some creative, passionate people who aren’t letting their day jobs get the way of their creativity. For some people, like Cathy (who has a book coming out) and Mayur (the amateur bartender who’s about to open a restaurant), this unchecked passion is leading to great things. I admire them, and totally basked in the opportunity to play with them.

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll enjoy a slideshow from the event. Remember, this was mainly about how to create beautiful photographs of food, so everyone at the event snapped away and then contributed to the slideshow. You can see everyone’s crazy, fun & delicious photos (including mine) in the slideshow below. Enjoy.