Content Services for a Video-Obsessed World by Dannielle Kyrillos
Exploring Downtown LA again has been a mysterious and exciting adventure. I'm staying in a haunted hotel, but it seems like the ghosts are mostly benevolent, so that's good.There is so much decaying glamour within just a few blocks, and so much fresh new life.
It is such a special treat to take in an opera at the Met at Lincoln Center, and one of the best parts starts well before the performance. The Metropolitan Opera House is one of my favorite interiors in New York, because when you walk in and encounter these quasi-futuristic, brilliant twinkling masterpieces, you can't help but be transported, uplifted and inspired. They were originally hung in 1966 when the Met moved to Lincoln Center, designed by an Austrian man named Hans Harald Rath, and just last year were completely refurbished and re-crystalled in Austria by Swarovski.
A tip if you're seeing "Tosca" and not feeling up to being emotionally crushed: It has a relatively happy ending if you leave before the third act!
The week after New Year's was spent on my second-favorite island in the whole world, St. Croix. It is mostly filled with all things decidedly unprickly, with a notable exception: THE UUURRRCHIN! I guess if I were so, so creamy and tasty I'd be sure to grow a very sharp coat of armor, too. But man does it hurt to step on one. Island wisdom says the best way to take the sting out is to, uh, have someone pee on you. I'm pretty sure a wily fellow from the olden times just made that up, because nothing really soothes flesh that's been pierced by multiple giant needles, but you'll always find willing volunteers.
To celebrate being officially sick of being cold, I'm going to a) post something every day to this here site, and b) pretend that it's actually two weeks ago, when I met this romantic duo in Mexico. They had a lot to say for themselves.
'Tis officially the season: the tree is lit, the stockings are hung and we have had a word with the holiday playlist so it only plays that hauntingly beautiful but somewhat-of-a-downer Sting album from last year sporadically. Let's talk cookie recipes, people!
On DailyCandy.com today, I show you how to make, in ten minutes active time, a light, fluffy pumpkin pudding. My mom always called it "pumpkin fluff," but I'm beginning to realize certain things my mom says sound utterly weird to anyone else, so let's call it pudding. It's an incredibly easy chiffon of pumpkin you can pour into individual serving dishes and allow to set, or, as I did last night, whip up a quick crust and make it a pie. The video should convince you that anyone can do this really quickly, and have fun doing it!
On the train to Philadelphia to visit one of my two very best friends in the world and my dear sister-in-law, and to celebrate the opening of my friend Joey Campanaro's new restaurant there, The Village Belle. (You might know him from the Little Owl in the West Village.) It's going to be a great night, but right now I feel a little like I'm in a Fellini film. The conductor has a long monk beard and looks just like my friend Andrew, the lady next to me has been wearing giant Gucci sunglasses the whole time and whispering while the fall foliage we glide through is spectacular.We're here!
There comes a time in every good apple's life when you wake up and realize it's your last day in the fruit bowl. There's something bigger you were meant to do. That something is getting cooked and mashed and jarred into the most delicious applesauce ever, and that something is happening tomorrow. I'll show you how very, very easy it is to preserve the best tastes of autumn for the whole rest of the year. See you on the stove, my pretties!
So maybe my friend, Phil, used a different turn of phrase than "jumbled," but as I switch from summer to fall, not just in terms of clothes but mindset, too, it describes things pretty perfectly. I mean, how are there wire ones in there? That's a good (albeit embarrassing) reminder to get things in order!
Just yesterday we were playing in the sand and celebrating the nuptials of two crazy kids. Seems a world away from this bleak and dreary NYC Monday, but thinking back on such a sunny, spirited weekend reminded me that on a practical note, we should all copy this simple, inexpensive but statement-making gerbera daisy arrangement!
A late-September day at the beach on the Gulf's pristine shores. Water is salty and warm; shells abound. Bugs mate...a lot.
A little hipster design goes a long way at BR Guest's first hotel project, The Postcard Inn at St. Pete Beach, FL...
A mystical sky portends a marriage adventure for Brooke and Dan filled with infinite possibility! (And it's definitely, definitely not going to rain during the ceremony.)
You know what's been missing? Dip. It's one of those things that makes everyone happy when it appears, but is often overlooked in the name of fancifying cocktail hour. Tear down this hors d'oeuvres wall, Mr. Martini-Drinker!
Television producer, Isaac Mizrahi adviser and perfectly preppy renaissance man, Korey Provencher equips us with the easy and most tasteful solution: He's created Kors d'Oeuvres, a wholesome and handmade line of dips and spreads in scrumptious flavors such as spinach and artichoke; roasted pumpkin, butternut squash and goat cheese; spicy black bean and chipotle; and southern bleu cheese and herb. His World's Greatest Onion Dip really, really is. The tastes are nostalgic but freshly modern, and I promise if you take them to a party, you will be the most popular person in the room.
You can order the creaminess from KorsdOeuvres.com, or find Korey each Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea (as if you needed another reason to hit it). This week, if you mention Dannielle Dishes, you'll be treated to a stellar buy one get one free situation! And you can always e-mail Korey for delivery options and the week's flavors.
One more thing: don't feel guilty if you have to physically remove yourself the dip and its 50-foot radius to stop eating it. It's been known to happen.
Discussing this evening's premiere of "Top Chef: Just Desserts" this morning on the Today show went really well, considering there was the potential for the tipple-loving hosts to skip right to the bourbon. Luckily, we talked about everything we were supposed to, then went straight to the bourbon (which was the Bourbon St. Milkshake from Brooklyn Bowl).Please to enjoy, sweet-toothed tigers!
A first at the Today show this morning: my own dressing room! (And therefore a misspelled first name is so not important.) ps.--Yes, it's not just a desperate attempt to liven up the sweets metaphors, it's my favorite Dead song. Xo
The air in Montana was so crisp and pure, it was impossible not to feel great. A more frivolous take might be that the state boasts the best climate for good hair and no makeup. Which doesn't explain why I lost more than six games of pool to my eight-year-old nephew, but at least the pictures convey how much fun we all had.
This rough-hewn but somehow quite elegant timekeeper adorned our cabin at The Ranch at Rock Creek. I want to believe I could start collecting nice sticks now, and chop them to the appropriate lengths and glue them together at just the right angles to create something similar, but perhaps that's a bit...ambitious. Maybe e-Bay will come to the rescue, and I will scour yard sales in wooded locales.
In any case, something so woodsy and craft-y would lend a city apartment a nice dose of sylvan magic!
Of course we all want to avoid needing first aid. But cuts and scrapes happen, dude, so prepare to treat them glamourously. And without Hello Kitty. Cynthia Rowley designed these for Band-Aid, and I might wear one without a bloodletting.
We didn't notice it when we first moved in. The front of our building was really leafy that September, but I thought the foliage was ivy of some sort. That winter, our neighbors told us to cut down the big, ugly, dilapidated brown stalk they said was a dead grapevine. We didn't listen, and last summer were rewarded when it came back to life and produced dozens of bunches of grapes. Same thing this year.
We abandoned our delusions of becoming Manhattan's first vineyard when a flavor-chemist identified the unmistakable scent of methyl anthranilate: they're Concord grapes. So, we stick to jelly, and hopefully this year, my pal Johnny Iuzzini will come over and make some granita.
