The Insider: Mollie Chen
In the Baby-sitters Club version of our lives, Mollie Chen would be our Kristy—not because she’s always wearing turtlenecks or getting all bossy, but because she’s just so good at stuff. Editorial director of our favorite beauty site Birchbox by day, Mollie is also a ridiculously good cook—to the point where you question when and how much she sleeps. And while we still don’t have the answer to that query, Mollie did share her tip for at least looking awake. —carlye wisel
Q: What’s the most embarrassing thing on your bookshelf?
A: I’ll stand by any of my books—a mishmash of contemporary writers, the odd Hunger Games or One Minute Manager, and tons of cookbooks and food memoirs. But I also have weird stuff I haven’t gotten around to throwing away: a roll of Chinese toilet paper that my dad gave me upon landing in Shanghai and made me carry around for the entirety of our three week-long family trip; a Step Up 2 DVD (cinematic genius); and an empty Hitachino Nest bottle that I drunkenly took from Momofuku because I thought it was pretty (now housing paper flowers).
Q: Since you’re a master home chef, do you have a clutch recipe for last-minute dinner parties?
A: Roast chicken. Seriously. I never understood the appeal of chicken until I made it myself, using Thomas Keller’s can’t-fail method. Add a hefty salad and crusty bread, and you’re set. Anyone can—and should—cook. Seriously. Just buy some eggs and greens and get your hands on a cast iron pan. I’ll teach you how to make a frittata.
Q: No, but seriously, Mollie: How do you make vegetables taste good?
A: During the colder months, I roast everything at high heat until it’s just shy of burnt. This works with sweet potatoes, cauliflower, fennel—you name it. In the summer, I love raw shaved salads or simple grilled veggies. And salads don’t have to be boring. I think secret is twofold: fat and texture. Add tahini, avocado, or cheese for creaminess, and chopped up apples, toasted nuts, or crisp sprouts for crunch. If all else fails, consult Yotam Ottolenghi or Suzanne Goin for inspiration.
Q: What’s the last thing you saw that really amazed you?
A: I was familiar with George Bellows but hadn’t seen any of his paintings in real life until the Metropolitan Museum show this fall. I was blown away by the depth and range of the paintings, and the way they captured the color and life at the edges of New York life in the early 1900s.
Q: Is there anything hanging in your closet that you’ve never had the guts to wear?
A: No, but I definitely have things in my closet that require a week’s worth of kale and chia seeds to wear. (They don’t come out very often.)
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I wouldn’t call it a style, but I’ve definitely cornered the market on silky printed things and skinny belts. I almost never wear black.
Q: Do you own any Of a Kind editions?
A: So far, I only have Kindah Khalidy’s Cotton Candy Clutch (a birthday gift), but I have my eye on many others—and I’m hoping the Swiss Camo Tote comes back before summer!
Q: What’s your one solid beauty secret?
A: Face oils. As someone who had oily skin as a teenager and a frustrating bout of mid-twenties acne, I never, ever thought I’d learn to love face oils. But I find that they keep your skin balanced year-round, and feeling amazingly light and healthy—kind of like a green juice for your complexion. Under-eye brightener (YSL Touche Eclat or Benefit’s Ooh La Lift) is the fastest way to look awake and pulled-together. Cream blush has a velvety texture that you don’t get with powder—I adore Jouer’s Cheek Tints and RMS Beauty’s Lip2Cheek. Whoops, that was three.
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Rawaan Alkhatib’s Famous Cucumber-Caramel Ice Cream
This scarf designer goes back to her pastry-chef roots.
Turns out, Rawaan Alkhatib’s scarf line is one of many creative projects she’s cooked up. Back when, she planned to open a bakery with a friend in Dubai. “At the time, I had been baking and selling cookies and cakes out of my home kitchen, staying up till 3 A.M. filling orders, so it didn’t seem like a crazy idea,” she says. Here, a shockingly refreshing ice cream that may have found its way on the menu—alongside kooky goodness like Pop Rock truffles—if Rawaan had gone the confectionary route. —alisha prakash
Ingredients:
4-5 cucumbers (depending on size)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¾ cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
1 good pinch kosher or flaky sea salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch (or rice starch)
1 cup cold heavy cream
Directions:
Peel cucumbers and roughly chop. Process, blend, or grate to get about 1 ½ cups of cucumber-y goodness. Stir in lemon juice and set aside.
To make the caramel, spread the sugar in an even layer in a cold, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Turn on the heat, and allow the edges of the sugar to liquefy before gently dragging it in to the center of the pan to help the rest of the sugar along. Stir away. Observe it, because caramel likes nothing more than to burn. When it’s pale amber, pour in the milk. The caramel will harden into a raft. Stir it around to dissolve about half, and then fish out the block gently (it will be very hot!) and set it aside on a chopping board for a second. Stir the salt into the pot.
Combine the cornstarch and heavy cream in a bowl and stir to dissolve. Strain into the caramel mixture. Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, boils, and bubbles up—this will take roughly two minutes.
Remove from heat, scrape into a bowl, and cool in an ice bath. Mix the cucumber puree into cooled base. Chill thoroughly in the fridge, for at least an hour, then whisk to remove lumps. Pour into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions.
While you wait for your ice cream to freeze, chop the caramel block into small (a little bigger than a grain of rice) or medium (a little larger than a pea) shards. Once the ice cream is ready, plop it into a freezer-friendly container and mix in the caramel choppings. Freeze for 20 minutes before serving.
See what Rawaan made just for us! This cheetah scarf will blow your mind.
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Get Your Michelada on With Workhorse
Bust open a few cans of Tecate, and you’re on your way.
Even the most dedicated workhorse needs to unwind sometimes. And so when Zoë Chicco, Nicole Sutton, and Amber Sutton of the vintage-inspired line Workhorse Jewelry (see what we did there?) want to chill out with a couple of friends, the industrious trio whips up its signature spin on the michelada. “We’re fairly obsessed with it,” confesses Amber. “If we’re getting together with friends, we’ll bring all the fixings with us and make it on site.” Here is their tried-and-true recipe for the so-delicious libation. —mattie kahn
Ingredients:
1 lime, cut into wedges
Celery salt
Cayenne pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ to 1 teaspoon hot sauce (to taste)
Ice
2 12-ounce bottles or cans of Mexican beer (e.g., Tecate, Modelo, Negro Modelo)
Directions:
Prepare four tall glasses: Sprinkle celery salt and cayenne pepper on a small plate. Use a quartered lime to wet the rim of each glass. Flip the glasses over onto the plate with celery salt and cayenne pepper to coat the rim. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Add a handful of ice to each glass. Divide the lime juice mixture between each of the glasses. Top up the glasses with slowly poured beer, wait for foam to settle, and ENJOY.
Get your hands on the so-stunning, gold-and-diamond bracelet the trio made for us.
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Fort Standard Whips Up a Batch of Hard Apple Cider
It’s a party in a five-gallon jug.
Talk about DIY kings: In addition to handcrafting furniture, jewelry, and toys for their design label Fort Standard, Greg Buntain and Ian Collings brew their own hard cider every year. “It’s super easy,” shrugs Ian. “And super cheap, which was the main incentive to do it.” The boys are so serious about their (alcoholic) juice, in fact, that they throw an annual fall cider fete at their studio. Here, Ian shares their recipe so you can get in on the fun. —raquel laneri
Ingredients:
Five gallons of local, unpasteurized apple cider: “The most important thing is getting the right kind of juice. We get all our cider at the farmers’ market. And you want unpasteurized apple cider—if it has preservatives and it’s been heated, that kills all the yeast and all the good stuff.”
Brewer’s sugar, 1 to 4 pounds: “You could also brew the juice without sugar, but then your alcohol content will be really low, and we like our cider strong!”
Dry ale yeast or champagne yeast, one packet: “The yeast develops the flavor: Champagne yeast renders this very wine-like flavor, and ale yeast brings out a hardy, more round flavor. You’ll want to check packet instructions for exact amounts, but usually one packet is designed for a five-gallon batch.”
Directions:
Prime the yeast by putting it in warm water. In a large pot, heat up one gallon of the apple cider. Add the desired amount of sugar—the more sugar you use, the higher the alcohol content. Warm until the sugar is just dissolved. Don’t heat it up too much, or you’ll kill all the important stuff in the cider!
Combine the sugary solution and the remaining cider in a five-gallon glass jug. Add the yeast—it will start to violently bubble—and seal everything off with an airlock. Store the jug in a dark place that’s below 60 degrees so the mixture can ferment, but don’t put it in the fridge because it’s too cold.
Let it stand for 30 to 40 days, until the mixture stops bubbling.
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Get Cookin’: Suzanne’s Best Brownies from Annie Larson of ALL Knitwear
Hard copies of our cookbook went up for sale this morning! 45 recipes for $6?! Get on that. To tempt you further, here’s what it takes to whip up Annie Larson’s fave (polka-dot) brownies, bound to make your weekend approximately 83% more delicious. —erica
Ingredients
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1 ½ cup + 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs, cold
1 cup flour
Chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the butter, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a double boiler. Mix until fully melted and hot to the touch. Remove and let cool until mixture is just warm. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring to combine after each addition. When the batter looks shiny, thick, and well-mixed, add the flour. Mix in slowly, then beat batter 40 times with a wooden spoon. Pour the batter into a greased 9x13-inch pan (or an 8x8-inch pan for thicker brownies), and spread it evenly. Top with chocolate chips if you’d like. Bake 20-25 minutes.
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Recipe for Success: Download the Of a Kind Cookbook, Vol. 2
We made a cookbook—our second. Well, really, we just put the thing together: 45 of our designers, who are apparently also talented behind the burner, provided the recipes, and we so freaking thrilled to share them. We’re talking basil pumpkin seed pesto, olive oil carrot cake, apricot-rosemary whiskey…wipe the drool off your keyboard.
And! You can download the full PDF here. You’re welcome.
If you want a hard copy to spill all over, we got you covered, too. If you’re in NYC, come to our cookbook release party at Thistle & Clover tomorrow (Tues.) night—if you buy an Of a Kind edition there, it’s a GWP (gift with purchase, y’all). Or $6 on its own. Angelenos can score a copy at the amazing Tenoversix, and for everyone else, there’s the internet: We’ll have them avail on this here site later this week.
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Jeet Sohal’s From-the-Garden Refreshments
Mint tea? Green smoothie? One of each, please.
The veggies of their labors.
Things in perfect symmetry do not particularly inspire Jeet Sohal—it’s nature’s disarray that gets her creative juices flowing. And, for Mother’s Day in 2010, her husband gifted her a patio garden that has made at least a partial Martha Stewart out of the designer behind the unfussy L.A.-based line Bare. Her two young sons, Kieran and Simran, help her water the plants, and Kieran, not yet three, even plays chef de cuisine for one of her two favorite homegrown drinks—drink up the recipes below. —dana covit
Crazy-Fresh Mint Tea
“Since I’m not a caffeine person—it gives my hands the jitters, making jewelry and bag work a bit difficult!—mint tea makes a great, refreshing alternative. I love having it in this sweet vintage cup I scooped up from the Rose Bowl Flea Market, or over ice for a brisk A.M. beverage.”
Directions:
Wash a handful of mint leaves—we have an Egyptian mint plant. Steep for 1-3 minutes in boiling water until desired strength is achieved.
Greens-On-Greens Smoothie
“Three to five times a week, my son Kieran makes my husband and I a green smoothie largely from garden picks. It’s a great way for us to use up any overripe bananas, which we stockpile in our freezer. The apple is optional, but we like a frozen one thrown in for a creamier smoothie. Sim, Eric, and I always love drinking Kieran’s specialty green creations—even if he prefers red or blue smoothies himself.”
Ingredients:
½ head (about 2 cups) of romaine lettuce
2 cups dark leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, whatever!)
2-3 celery stalks
½-1 lemon, peeled
1 overripe banana (preferably frozen)
1 apple or pear (preferably frozen)
½-1 cup of ice
Water as needed
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on highest setting until smooth.
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Jade Lai Whips Up Her Fave Comfort Food
The Creatures of Comfort designer adds a little bit o’ this and a little bit o’ that to make her signature ochazuke.
As if running two stores and designing a line of cool-girl clothing isn’t enough, Jade Lai is considering a side-career as a restaurateur. But her tastes in that realm are a little more contained: “I eat the same thing for lunch every day—Hampton Chutney,” she says. Her brand of eatery would be equally straightforward. “I think it would be cool to serve only five dishes. Comfort food that people want to eat,” she explains. “One of my favorite is ochazuke, a rice and tea broth dish. It’s great for warm weather, and I can usually whip it up with ingredients that are already in my fridge.” Here, she shares the recipe for what could someday be a menu staple. —olivia seely
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups of sweet brown rice, dry
1 genmaicha green tea bag
1 dashi pouch
8 umbeboshi (Japanese pickles)
8 radish pickles
4 handful spinach
A dozen slices raw salmon (optional)
4 handfuls crushed nori
Salt, to taste
Wasabi, to taste
Directions:
Cook the sweet brown rice—you can use rice you have left over from the day before, too. You want four cups cooked rice. In a pot, combine 6 cups of water, the genmaicha green tea bag, and a dashi pouch and bring to boil. In each of four deep bowls, add 1 cup of brown rice, 2 umeboshi, 2 radish pickles, a handful of spinach, a handful of crushed nori, and a few slices of raw salmon. Pour 1 ½ cups of the tea broth over the rice bowl. Add salt and wasabi to taste. Serves 4.
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How Caroline Z. Hurley Throws a Dinner Party
Feel free to single white female her hosting style.
Not only does the girl make downright amazing scarves, jewelry, and paintings, but Caroline Z. Hurley also throws a hell of a party—and in a tiny Manhattan studio no less. Here she gives us some advice on how to entertain, her way. —raquel laneri
The Food
“I really love simple recipes—not only do they taste the best, but if the food is simple, I can enjoy my guests rather than stress over the cooking. I’ve done Mexican and Moroccan food, but I’m Italian, so I’m really good at pasta. This is by far my favorite recipe for dinner parties—t’s a modified version of a pasta dish my mom made growing up. You can use any type of pasta—orecchiette, rigatoni, fusilli, whatever your heart desires. I buy mine from the Italian store at Chelsea Market in Manhattan.”
Caroline’s Kale and Tomato Pasta
Ingredients:
1 pound of pasta (whatever you like!)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
2 bunches kale, roughly chopped
Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, and grated parmesan cheese to taste
Directions:
Boil water and a teaspoon of salt for the pasta. While you’re waiting to add the pasta, heat a large sauté pan with the olive oil and add the garlic. Turn heat to low so that the garlic does not burn. Stir in a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, black pepper, and cayenne pepper; the mixture should have a reddish tint to it. Throw the tomatoes and kale into the sauté pan and cover with a lid or aluminum foil so that the kale begins to cook. Sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese on top and stir well again. Let cook until kale is soft. Drain cooked pasta and mix into kale mixture. Serve hot with cracked pepper and more parmesan cheese.
Setting the table…
The Ambiance
“I sort of like to follow the theme of whatever food I am cooking. So, for example, for the rustic Italian meal I had I did a farm table with no tablecloth. I used jam jars – I save all my old jam jars to use for mixing paint and for around the house – as cups, and I used old scraps of my fabric for napkins. I bought the flowers I used at the local deli, and I mixed and matched them in different jars when I get home. I hardly ever buy things specifically for a dinner party. I try to use what I have. So for example, when I had a Mexican dinner party, I used tissue paper I had gotten during a two-month stay in San Miguel. If you don’t have Mexican tissue paper, you can just buy regular colored tissue paper and cut it like you would a snowflake. I like to pick up little things when traveling, or at flea markets; the stuff you find is so much cheaper and more interesting and each item has a story behind it.”
…And setting the mood.
The Music
“I love music. I’ve really been into Tune-Yards, First Aid Kit, and Yellowbirds this summer. But for dinner parties, sometimes I use Pandora and Spotify to help go along with the theme. I will program Buena Vista Social Club for Mexican parties, and for the Moroccan-food party, I found this weird Pandora station that played Moroccan instrumental guitar music!”
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Let It Flow: Ellen van Dusen and Her Hummingbird
It’s Of a Kind drink week! Or something like that! We’re asking some of our designers what they’re sipping on this summer, and today, the cool-ass gal behind Dusen Dusen (and these pillows) pours one out.
“My friend Cat makes me this drink, the Hummingbird, every time I go to her house, which is a lot. It’s 2 parts champagne, 1 ½ parts St. Germain, 2 parts club soda, and lots of ice—garnished with a lemon twist. It’s really refreshing and sweet, perfect for sitting on the stoop and sipping with a straw!” —ellen
