retrolillies

August 4, 2015

The NYC Highline

Not many words today. There is a hammock outside and it is calling my name, and this glorious August afternoon is too pretty to waste indoors. So I am leaving you with a few pictures instead. The Highline is the perfect place to spend a glorious August afternoon, or any afternoon, really. It straddles the…
August 2, 2015

The Great Cookie Off

There comes a time when you must make a sacrifice. A sacrifice involving more than 2 pounds of chocolate, 2 pounds of butter, and sadly, all hopes of a bikini body. For what, exactly, are we sacrificing all this? For COOKIES. For the best cookies. Because it’s time to get serious up in here! There will…
July 24, 2015

Six Impossible Things

Whew! This July has been kind of crazy. I need some sleep! My photography course at FIT demanded that I wake up in the wee hours of the morning to catch a train to NYC and once my half-day class was over, I usually spent the rest of the day traipsing (or maybe trudging? definitely…
July 19, 2015

Roasted Blackberry Apricot Ice Cream

The blackberries were on sale. Big boxes of them, full of ripe fruit- a sure sign of the advent of summer. They were calling to us, singing a song of green fields and sun, and their dark, midnight sheen was bewitching. We bought two cartons. “I bet we finish one box on the way home,”…
July 17, 2015

Sour Cherry Pie

Late night pie happens like this: come home from the cherry orchard as the sun begins its slow descent. Wonder, how will we eat six pounds of cherries? Think: pie! Proceed to look for a cherry pitter, come up with fingers. Settle for a piping tip. Painstakingly pit and stem three pounds of cherries. Turn…
July 14, 2015

Upstate Adventures

You know those perfect days? The ones where the sky is a pastel shade of blue, and clouds are everywhere, but they hint at cotton candy, not rain? The ones where the sun is ubiquitous and stays put all day, not moving even when a breeze comes to cool? Yes. Those perfect, rare days in…
July 6, 2015

#SummerGoals

Goals. We all have them. Maybe you want to climb Mt. Everest. (I did, at one point.) Maybe you want to write a best-selling novel. Maybe you have goals as simple as “learn how to make a pie crust” or “wake up on time for the bus”. Whatever your goals are, make sure you have…
July 2, 2015

Bourbon BBQ Beef Ribs with Cucumber Vinegar Slaw

It’s almost the 4th of July- AKA, barbecue season! Do we agree that barbecues are the perfect meal, the only way to celebrate summer? Yes? Good! Let’s begin. What do your barbecues look like? Are they a carnivorous feast? Do you dole out fat slices of watermelon as guests arrive? We usually begin with lots of…
June 26, 2015

A ♥ Letter to Summer: Sweet Cherry & Blueberry Galette

Dear Summer, I love you for a lot of things. I love you for the golden glow you give me. I love you for your long afternoons. I love you for juicy watermelons, eaten with sticky fingers besides a dwindling stack of napkins. I love you for your sounds: sometimes, a hazy stillness, sometimes, crickets…
June 19, 2015

Triple Berry Pavlova

Summer! Fresh berries, freedom, joy. For the next few months, the sun is on my side. I like that very much. I am eating all the berries I can get my hands on. Mostly just fresh, or on yogurt. But when I feel fancy, I love putting berries on a pavlova. There’s something so perfect…