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I owe you a recipe (doughnuts), and you’ve got a good one coming your way soon (doughnuts!), but when your little sister gets married over the weekend and it’s absolutely perfect and you make yourself sick with excitement, blog schedules get neglected.  It’s just a fact.

But!  We’ll make do.  Anyway, see how gorgeous it was?

Look at those flowers!  Gorgeous blooms for gorgeous maids (if I do say so myself.  I mean, I’m saying so.  Myself).

Emily married John.  They did it.  They’re happy and lucky in love.  Husband and wife!

I made the bride waffles for her wedding day breakfast.  They were the best I’ve ever made, but we were all jittery and boozy and covered in hairspray, so I didn’t get the chance to take a photo.  In any case, I used this recipe, and they were light, crispy, and wonderful.  Bride-approved.

Later that afternoon, John vowed to reach all the tall things, and Emily vowed to be on time (and when she can’t be, she vowed not to lie about how far away she really is).  They both vowed to love each other truly, wholly, unconditionally, for life.  The sun shone bright and crisp in Malvern, PA, and they were married.

As the sun started to set and the sky turned all shades of pink, we drank whiskey cocktails and ate shrimp and grits and slurped ice cream from a custom Little Baby’s cart.  We toasted my sister and new brother with champagne, and we danced like maniacs.  My dad wore blue suede shoes.  We gathered around the fire pit and sang along with the guitars.  We made s’mores.  Prize-winning horses frolicked in the distance.  I couldn’t even make this up.

As sisters, Emily, Casey and I look out for one another.  We’re by each other’s sides for the good times, and we’re there for the not-so-great times, too.  This weekend was a good time. Here’s to a lifetime of this kind of happiness — to waffles and dancing and sunshine and friends and family, new and old.

(First, fifth, sixth and seventh photos are courtesy of my talented cousin, Ben Fenton.  Second, third and fourth photos were taken by the father of the bride, @BruceRits.)

I’m coming down with something and don’t have a recipe to share today, but quick, before the Nyquil kicks in, I thought you should know about this wedding.

Laura and Peter, my lifelong cousin and brand new cousin, respectively, were married this weekend at the beautifully hilly, wooded and woodchipped Miquon School in Philadelphia.

They’d spent months planning their day, from the sunflower-strewn outdoor ceremony on rustic wood benches to the cozy, tented reception beneath the October foliage, champagne-flowing and music ringing through the trees above.

The booze and the music cooperated.  The weather, on the other hand, did not.

The Miquon School saw heavy rain, then sleet, then snow, and then, just for good measure, more rain and freezing sleet, all day on Saturday, the day of the wedding.  It rained through the ceremony and sleeted through the reception, and decided to stop just when the party was over.  Of course.

You’d think an outdoor wedding would be diminished, if not entirely ruined, by a freak October nor’easter.  In this case, you’d be wrong.

We swapped heavy boots for pretty heels, hid our formal wear under downy jackets, wrapped our fingers around cups of hot spiked cider during the ceremony, danced around chilly drips through the tent during the reception, and y’know what?  We loved every minute of it.  We snuggled on wood benches through the beautifully intimate ceremony.  We ate macaroni and cheese.  We listened to Teddy sing Bruce Springsteen while Laura and Peter had their first dance.  We cried, kind of a lot.  Peter wore Converse sneakers and an incredible smile, and Laura was a stunning, stunning bride.  We lifted them both in chairs, and then danced around the beer bottle.  So much happiness, so much love.  So much scotch and soda.

Snow and all, couldn’t have been better.

Welp, here it is!  Big reveal!  You my dears have just witnessed what we in the biz like to call a blog makeover.  Or a blog face lift.  A blogover.  A faceblogliftover.

Yeah.

 

Out with the olivejuiced, in with the doughnuts.  And the totally awesome background which was drawn (drawn!  how good is she?) by my friend Val.  Who is awesome.  Obviously.  What do you think?

The lines are long and the price tags are high, but it’s tough to beat a lunch like this.

Thanks for the picnic, Eataly. Nice of you to set up shop around the corner.

I know I should be focusing on holiday cookies right now (both today’s snow flurries and the calendar say we’re well into December), but I want to linger over Thanksgiving for a bit. I mean, at this point, what’s the harm in another piece of pie?

Or some homemade brioche rolls?

Can I just take a second to say… yum?
I’ve been basking in the full-bellied warmth of Thanksgiving for the past week and a half, thinking about all the time spent in the kitchen, the scent of warm butter, fresh herbs, and toasted pecans, Emily’s très adorable table decorations, and the hilarity that ensues when you combine a table full of cousins and an iPhone app called “FatBooth.”

As far as I’m concerned, cookies can wait another week. I’d rather have another slice of pie.

With that in mind, allow me to present my official 2010 Pie Lover’s Gift Guide:

• a classic pie dish by Emile Henry
• Terrain’s ruggedly beautiful solid birch Pastry Board
• I’d say a pie bird, but who needs birds when this little piglet is available?
• a stainless steel pastry scraper – maybe not as exciting as a pie piglet, but a must-have for any serious baker of pies
• these miniature cutters make for pie decoration perfection
• there’s something about a round cooling rack that just makes me happy
• a set of snowy ceramic pie weights, for when dried beans just won’t do
• a French rolling pin, bien sûr
• a pumpkin pie candy bar from the confectionists du jour, Liddabit Sweets
• this apron from Anthropologie basically defines the word adorable

So, there you have it – a comprehensive guide to most things pie, just in time for the holidays. Next stop – cookieville.

Know what’s nice about November?

Everything.

November means pumpkins.

And squash!

And crackly orange leaves, and crisp, chilly days, and Thanksgiving menu planning.

After much family chatter (mostly just lots of emailing with Aunts Maggie and Lis), this year’s menu is finished. Deliciously. Want to see?

Inez’s Chopped Chicken Liver on Crackers
Gravlax with Mustard Sauce and Fresh Dill

Roast Capon with Lemon and Thyme
Italian Sausage, Mushroom & Sage Stuffing
Cornbread Stuffing with Chorizo & Fennel
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Root Vegetables with Crumbled Goat Cheese
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Sweet Potatoes with Pecans and Parmesan
Cranberry Fruit Conserve
Sweet Potato Brioche Rolls

Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Betty
Fresh Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Chocolate Whoopie Pies

What do you think? It’s lots of food, but then, there are a lot of us, and we do Thanksgiving right. This year, it’ll probably go something like this: we’ll pour drinks. Then we’ll argue about who actually won the family football game, get caught up on all of the family gossip over gravlax and chicken liver, pour (another) glass of wine, and then we will eat, in earnest. And we will eat. And then? We’ll moan about being full while we watch football and eat leftovers.

Personally, I can’t wait. What are you planning to have on your Thanksgiving table this year?

About my favorite sandwich. Because I’m very normal and definitely do not have too much time on my hands.

Presenting:

Peanut Butter & Jelly!

(Starring Peanut Butter & Jelly).

pb&j movie

Oh this shiny new computer–
There just isn’t nothin’ cuter.
It knows everything the world ever knew.
And with this great computer
I don’t need to writin’ tutor,
‘Cause there ain’t a single thing that it can’t do.
It can sort and it can spell,
It can punctuate as well.
It can find and file and underline and type.
It can edit and select,
It can copy and correct,
So I’ll have a whole book written by tonight
(Just as soon as it can think of what to write).

-Shel Silverstein

Today, it rained in the Hamptons. Which seems appropriate, because I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a fog over the past week.

You know that feeling? The feeling like things are happening around you and you’re trying to get a hold on them but no matter how you twist and stretch you just can’t keep your grip on a thing? That foggy-ish, hazy-ish, crazy-ish feeling? No?

Oh.

Well, I do. And let me just say, thank goodness for family. Specifically, mine. Whether I’m freaking out about having to feed fourteen or making a terrified trip to the ER (don’t worry, everyone’s okay), I know my family is there to snap me out of the haze, to pull my feet firmly back to the ground and make everything, somehow, alright.

See what I mean?

I guess that’s really what families are supposed to be all about – comfort, support, love… and large bottles of wine paired with uncannily appropriate t-shirts, when necessary.

I know that not all families work out like that. Since mine does, I guess I’d just like to say, thanks.

Thanks, family, for picking up your phones, for cooking me dinner, for coming to the rescue, for being my family. Keep it up, if you please.

And now, this week’s Private Chef Chronicles: Summering in the Hamptons (Part 4: A Week in Photographs):