Rouge the Day

Inspiration for a retro inspired life! All things retro, vintage, tiki and tacky. (I don't own all of these photos, some are mine, some aren't and are always used with love!)

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Lush be a lady:

Though currently rigging my shorts closed with a rubber band, attempting maternity pants and wearing tents for shirts, I can envision a time when I will wear a waist band again and maybe even have a waist! Until then, a girl can dream! (Will do a post on alternatives to maternity clothes at some point if I remember) Ruche's super soft, draping, vintage inspired pieces give me hope for my future as a new mom with some style (Ok, I have big dreams and will be happy if I remember deodorant and to wash the spit up out of my hair). Until then, enjoy button closure pants and have a cocktail for me!

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Bringing Up Baby:

Well, we did it!  We made a baby!  So how do we tell the world (come on, you are all waiting with baited breath)? After doing some searches and finding loads of adorable "1+1=3" announcements, we put a tiki spin and a vintage twist on ours.  Just please, don't go the gloating father/puking mother route, you are still a lady, though you may not feel like one!

Special thanks to the father to be for his creative genius and patience!

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Hollywood, I hate you:

Excuse me while I scream from the top of my soap box, but Hollywood, with all of numerous things wrong with you, you have taken the cake.  Having no respect for the dead or for legends, you cast the undead as Elizabeth Taylor????  Lindsay Lowlife as National Velvet???  That train wreck as Maggie?  I was incensed when you cast Jennifer Love Hewitt as Audrey, but today you have broken my heart. Shame on you.

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I have been living under a rock:

Or just moving, but anyway, how did I not know that Estee Lauder put out a Mad Men collection? Very simple, consisting of a blush in Evening Rose and lipstick in a bright Cherry, both in fabulous vintage packing.  Partners well with their Youth-Dew (what an unfortunate name), Eau de Parfum Spray in it's classic bottle.

For more vintage makeup revival, check out check Besame Cosmetics!

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Blast from the Past:

A buddy of mine was talking about going to the Psychobilly Luau in Brooklyn this year and it reminded me of my alter ego, Trailer Trish!  Sadly forgotten, Trailer Trish was my radio show alias as well as my roller derby ref name.  Trish attempted to rock the pompadour and did not sit in a cubicle or listen to indie rock (Osheaga, here I come!).  Sigh. So if you want a good laugh with a sad accent and decent music, here you go:

Hot Rods & Trailer Trish, Episode 1

Hot Rods & Trailer Trish, Episode 2

Hot Rods & Trailer Trish, Episode 3

Hot Rods & Trailer Trish, Episode 4

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But I can't pay the rent! 

Though I currently envision our soon to be former landlord in Brooklyn as a vaudevillian villain, I am finally getting excited for our move to Park Slope the weekend of the Great Googa Mooga  (two blocks from our new abode!).  A cute, 4th floor walk up (if you don't count the stoop), I have high (as in five stories high) hopes for this new apartment just a block and a half from Prospect Park. So we are saying good bye to our Lilliputian Kitchen, our turquoise and red walls and Pan Am being shot on our street and packing up the tiki's and prepping for the pent house.  Posts will be sporadic for a bit, but I can't wait to get started on the new digs! Until then this clip from the fabulous Barefoot in the Park will sum of the 4 flights (if you don't count the stoop).

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Going Mad for Mad Men:

Ever the perfect housewife (ha!), I went a little crazy the Sunday of the Mad Men Season 5 premiere.  You ask, why all the random ingredients?  Well, they are what you need for a successful Mad Men Party! Deviled Eggs, California Dip (The unofficial Mad Men Cookbook, pg.79), Bacon Wrapped Cocktails Olives and of course, Pineapple Upside Down Cake!

All super simple recipes, all in all the cooking only took about two hours.  (Unfortunately, I did not get many of the completed dishes photographed due to the pre-party Zombie at Brooklyn's own Zombie Hut). The night turned out fabulous with our local friends and neighbors and I now know I can chuck it all and be the perfect hostess and housewife! (a girl can dream right?)

Pineapple Upside Down cake 

·          1/4       cup butter or margarine

·          2/3       cup packed brown sugar

·          1/4       Grand Marnier or Dark Rum 

·          9          slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained

·          9          whiskey maraschino cherries without stems, if desired (the brand I use is Tipsy)

·          1 1/3    cups all-purpose flour

·          1          cup granulated sugar

·          1/3       cup shortening

·          1 1/2    teaspoons baking powder

·          1/2       teaspoon salt

·          3/4       cup milk

·          1          egg

·   Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Add and 1/8 of a cup of booze. Drink other 1/8. Wait, just make yourself a cocktail. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

·   In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries. Eat left over batter and do a shot.

·   Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered. Make a cocktail to celebrate making a cake.

Deviled eggs as taught by my Mother:

·          A dozen hard boiled eggs, egg whites split in half, yokes separated gently from the whites

·          A teaspoon of mustard powder

·          Mayonnaise, about 3 tablespoons, (not Miracle Whip, gross!) 

·          About a tablespoon or two of sweet pickle relish to taste

·          Mix the yolks and the other ingredients and spoon into the solid whites

·          Paprika mixed w/ sea salt as a garnish

  Bacon wrapped olives from my Grandmother’s cocktail parties:

·          1 Jar Spanish olives w/ pimentos

·          About a half pack of Sunday Bacon preferably Applewood Farms since they are nice to their animals!

·          Wrap each olive in a half a piece of bacon, stab w/ a toothpick and cook until crispy @ 350.

Also, make sure to check out our new blog, Kitsch'N'Kocktail, where we are exploring all of the Mad Men Cocktail Marvels!

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Secret Garden:

There are days living in NYC that nature seems so far away and grey cement seems to dominate the landscape.  Fortunately for my fellow Brooklynites, there is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, our oasis of color in the concrete jungle. All photos used in this set were stolen from my patient and loving husband.

PS, go before noon on Saturdays and it is free!  Share the love! https://www.facebook.com/Rougetheday

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My week with Marilyn:

Honestly, the movie bored me to sleep, but this image by Nathalie Rattner makes me happy!  Also check out her darling Bernie Dexter!

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Vodka Gimlet

Though insanely simple, the Vodka Gimlet is a fresh treat on cool spring day.  Betty Draper’s drink of choice, she has them with Lobster Newburg, during the Cuban Missile Crisis and right before a dalliance with a random stranger.  Did I mention she drinks them while pregnant? (Do not do that! Instead, make a virgin mojito with lime juice, simple syrup, muddled mint and soda.  Much safer for the baby, refreshing, and sans many a dirty look).

AMC’s 1960’s cocktail guide is very vague when it comes to the ingredients, but “The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook” swears by Rose’s Lime (pg 43). Ever the purest, I will take the time to juice the limes and make my own simple syrup though I also prefer Rose’s in the cocktail. A Gimlet can be garnished with lime slices or mint springs and is better when assisted by a cat named Fred, darling.

Vodka Gimlet

Ingredients 1½ oz vodka ¾ oz lime juice 3-4 lime slices Instructions

Pour vodka and lime juice into mixing glass. Shake and strain into martini glass. Add 3 to 4 slices of lime.

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Welcome to Lilliput:

I had spring fever one day and felt the need to expand our 3 foot by 3 foot kitchen.  How does one expand a kitchen in a rented NYC apartment?

Take off the cabinet doors.

Use color! 

Not only did removing the doors make the room feel a foot bigger, but the bright colors make your eye move upward and they don't get stuck on the fact that only one person can be in the kitchen at a time. And the amazing thing is, we have made more food, canned more jellies and mixed more cocktails in this kitchen than any other kitchen in the past 15 years! Happy Spring!

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Martini

It’s a safe assumption that the first drink that comes to mind when thinking of Mad Men is probably the martini.  The clean taste, the classic shape, martinis look like one of Don Draper’s suits. In the 1960’s cocktail guide on AMC’s Mad Men page, the cover both the Classic Martini and the Dirty (I would guess that would be called the “Rodger”). These gin based cocktails, washed with the bare minimum of dry vermouth (originally sweet vermouth, but that is another story for another time), are the preferred beverages of secret agents and poets alike.

In our martini’s we made both the classic and dirty variation with both gin and vodka.  And the jury was hung.  I preferred the gin, though it was harsh and Matt went with the dirty vodka martini (officially gin is the key to the cocktail, though many prefer vodka). 

Classic Martini

Ingredients 2½ oz gin (vodka) 1½ oz dry vermouth 3 green olives

Instructions Rinse martini glass in dry vermouth and pour out. Shake gin with ice until chilled. Pour into martini glass. Add olives.

  Dirty Martini

Ingredients 2½ oz gin (vodka) 1½ oz dry vermouth ½ oz olive juice 3-4 green olives stuffed with blue cheese Instructions Add dry vermouth to the martini glass, rinse, and pour out. Pour gin, olive juice and ice into mixing glass and shake until chilled. Strain in the martini glass and drop the 3 to 4 olives as garnish.

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Check you our new blog!!!!!!!!!!

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Sending out an SOS:

Help!  I have not had long hair since I was 11 and since it is apparently summer now in NYC, I need help!  What can I do to show the world that I am calm, cool and collected instead of a crazy mess (atleast on the outside!)?  Post your sugesstions of Facebook and help a sista out!

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It's Spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to be vibrant and happy.  Wear flowers and put a bird on it!

(Shoes - Nine West, Purse Vintage Letisse, Necklace - Topshop, Bracelet- Betsy Johnson, Handkerchiefs - Great Grandmothers's and Mom's).

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Springing forward!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just Love Alice & Olivia's Spring line.  Going to go home and beehive my hair!

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