smitten kitchen

Five Bits of Housekeeping

• After a series of unfortunate kitchen mishaps over the last week, I decided to give up cooking for at least a couple days and focus my efforts instead on mixology at my friend Jocelyn’s Oscar Party on Sunday night. I guest-blogged Dove Cocktails over on her site today, though I prefer to call them Pomegranate Margaritas. [Dove Cocktails at Pixxiestails.com]
• Earlier this month, Alex and I took some photos of two of our favorite chocolate shops in New York City, Li-Lac Chocolates in the West Village and Jacques Torres in Dumbo. You can see them on Priceless.com. [Jacques Torres on Priceless.com, Li-Lac on Priceless.com]

Continued after the jump »

Alex and I want to thank all of you from the bottom of our grill-obsessed and barbeque-longing gullets for helping us win first-place in Culinate’s GrillMe contest. Yes, you heard it right: We’re going to Napa! And we can’t wait.

I haven’t been to Napa since 1997, and even then it was just for one day. To get to go again, stay for two nights and take in twelve hours of grilling tutelage from published pros is beyond our wildest hopes, and is seriously going to be the best vacation. People, you’re spoiling us rotten.

Next task: Um, buying a grill. Or begging the use of yours.

And now, a wee break from grilling, or at least until mid-August, to get back to this nacro and nens thing I have been not-so-subtly hinting about. Not only did Alex get me an avalanche of awesome from the Martha Stewart Crafts store for my birthday last week, he teamed up with my parents (crowdsourcing being all the rage, anyhow) to get me something I’ve been coveting obsessively for years–years!–and that is a real, live, Sigma 50mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens.

Do you see that? The tiny filaments coming off the flowers on my oxalis plant? The inner-weavings of my straw bag? The texture of the freaking seeds lightly embedded in the farmer’s market strawberries? Oh, man. I am such a detail junkie and with this lens, you can see everything. So if pictures from here on out make you jump back a little more, or give you a little more vertigo from the whole in-your-face thing, well, I’m not really sorry. I did it on purpose.

And seriously, those grill marks against the Napa skyline are going to be fierce. So thank you again and again.