Oak & Willow

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[oak-n-willow]

As a graphic designer, I am constantly searching for new ways to be creative. The last eight months as a design intern at Haven’s Kitchen has opened my eyes to another world: food. Like many people, I love to eat good food, but eating was the only knowledge I had on the subject. I’ve been learning lots of tips and tricks along the way all while broadening my palette and igniting a passion for cooking. Last week, I was lucky enough to help set up and take a food styling and photography class at Haven’s with Rebekah Peppler (food stylist) and Michael Harlan Turkell (photographer). Here are some tips and tricks so you can start to take beautiful photos of your food as well:

1. Sunlight streaming through south facing windows provide the best light.

2. Separate spray bottles filled with water, the cheapest vodka you can find, and karo syrup can be your best friend. The water is used for livening up fresh herbs and dry food, cheap vodka to clean all fingerprints, and karo syrup to mimic condensation on a glass.

3. Invest in some great matte dishware to minimize glare in photos.

4. When shooting take as many photos as possible focusing on three angles: the chefs view (overhead), the eater (45 degrees), and the photographer (0 degrees). It is best to move around to each side of the dish until you determine which light you prefer.

5. Think of the story you want to emulate in your photographs.

Happy cooking, Allie

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Last week my sister and I took our friend Jack, who’s working in Minneapolis for the summer, to see one of our favorite places in the city: The Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden. The Walker is a contemporary art museum in Uptown Minneapolis. We stopped by to see two of the wonderful exhibitions that are currently on show. A particularly fascinating one called International Pop “chronicles the global emergence of Pop art from the 1950s through the early 1970s. While previous exhibitions and prevailing scholarship have primarily focused on the dominance of Pop activity in New York and London during this time, this exhibition examines work from artists across the globe who were confronting many of the same radical developments...” (Walker Art Center). The other, 75 Gifts for 75 Years, celebrates The Walker’s 75th anniversary through an exhibition of pieces from the collections of 75 donors. The beautifully clean and simple architecture is an art piece in itself, I would be more than happy to wander the halls without even entering into gallery. My favorite part of the museum, however, is actually removed from the rest of the center. Nestled in the lawn behind The Walker is a sky pesher designed by artist James Turrell. An underground tunnel leads to a modest concrete square room, where a 16 square foot aperture in the center of the ceiling unleashes a beautiful natural light onto the space. Turrell’s intention with this is piece was to dissolve the space so completely into light and color that it produces an effect he likes to refer to as “bringing the sky down.” For anyone visiting Minneapolis, I would make The Walker, and all of its hidden spaces, a must see. 

Ali

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Ever since my sister Sam and I were introduced to elderflower,  we have searched for any and all excuse to use it. Elderflower lemonade, cake, and cocktails have all become a treasured part of our diet. St. Germain is a liqueur made from the blossoms of the elderflower. The elderflower in St. Germain is harvested from the Alps, where they bloom for only a few weeks each year. Since its creation in 2007 St. Germain has quickly made its way onto cocktail menus of restaurants all over New York- from the Hamptons to Williamsburg. New York Times writer Stephanie Bloom said “like a summer romance, the drink of summer is sweet and fleeting.” Introduced to us just last week at a barbeque, St. Germain, has quickly become a favorite. Though it pairs well with almost anything, my family has found the wonderfully light and flowery combination of St. Germain and Champagne hard to resist. Toss it into a mason jar, add a sprig of thyme, and you will have found yourself a wonderful addition to a sunny day spent outside. 

Ingredients:

3 parts champagne 

1 part St. Germain

1 sprig of thyme for garnish 

Cheers! 

Ali and Allie 

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My current obsession is the refreshing iced matcha latte from Chalait in the West Village. I discovered it whilst running an errand for my job, when they handed the other intern and I the company card and were told to treat ourselves to a latte. Never a fan of regular green tea, I was wary of trying matcha, but took a chance and tried it after all of my co-workers gushed about how good it was. Boy oh boy, it was delicious. Chalait nails the pairing of refreshing matcha and creamy latte. It’s so delicious that Chalait has become a must need stop before heading back home to Jersey after work. This neighborhood café has a lot of amazing options as well. I have on good authority the matcha hot chocolate is on point and the farmhouse crunch sandwich is to die for!

p.s. Matcha has numerous health benefits. Just one cup of matcha has as many antioxidants as 10 cups of green tea!!

Allie

[oak-n-willow]

First by Cold War Kids

First Cold War Kids

Old Love / New Love Twin Shadow

Walking on a Dream Empire of the Sun

Don’t Save Me Haim

Carolina Kimbra

How Did I Get Here Odesza

Play It Right Sylvan Esso

Mother & Father Broods

We Are The Tide Blind Pilot

Southern Sun Boy & Fear

Every year as the calendar approaches June (and for years with especially tough winters- May) I sit myself at my desk and begin to make my musical selections for Summer. If my playlist titled “cry cry sad” is any indication I have always been a little bit too reliant on music to mimic my mood. When I’m sad I want Billy Joel’s Vienna to accompany my soft soft sobs. And when I do an incredibly out of character bad-ass something I want OK Go’s Invincible to follow me out of the room. Because I believe I deserve exactly that I have fitted a playlist to every possible emotion- even one as specific as an ethereal lightness while driving through a lush mountain range. For creating my Summer playlist I like to think about of the smell of tropicana sunscreen and a depressing amount of bug spray, of pineapple sunglasses and Teva tan lines, of rocky boat rides and watermelons larger than I can carry. To me there is an essence to summer: a freedom and active serenity that is expressible only through music. So with that, I give you all this- the highlights from my Summer 2015 Playlist. I hope that it provides wonderful accompaniment to your barbecues and water balloon fights. And I hope too that next winter as you struggle to untangle yourself from your sheets you might pick it up once again and let yourself hold on to summer for just a little bit longer.  

Feel free to click on the title of this post for a direct link to the Spotify playlist!

Ali

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Hello! Welcome to the inaugural post of the lifestyle blog Oak & Willow! Lifestyle is- by definition- the way in which one chooses to live. We hope, here at Oak & Willow, that the women who decide to read this blog choose to live in a million different ways and that they find a million different sources of inspiration in our pages because of it. We hope the woman with unkempt curly red hair who scrolls through Oak and Willow in her mis-buttoned striped pajamas before dropping her kids off at school will find a little inspiration for the day from one of our playlists. We hope the woman with an apron and a computer screen caked in flour who looks to the internet with sincere desperation after mistakenly telling her new colleagues she is the “Julia Child" of her generation will find a little savior in our scone recipes. We hope the woman- the traveler extraordinaire- with a million stamps in her passport, and a million knickknacks lining her shelves will find a new coffee shop to journal at during her next adventure by looking through our Wanderer page. Our hope for Oak & Willow is that it can become a meeting point for creativity, and all of the women who read it can be inspired by it in fiercely unique ways. So please, stay for a minute or stay for sixty- peruse our pages and take what you will. Allie & Ali