eccodomani – Ann Street Studio

I-1 Analog Instant Camera Giveaway!

December 16, 2016December 22, 2016Posted in LifestyleTagged analog camera, camera, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, giveaway, I-1, I-1 analog camera, impossible, impossible project, impossible projects, impossible usa, impossibleproject, impossibleprojects, impossibleusa, instant camera, instant film, Polaroid6 Comments

One of my favorite tricks when hosting a dinner party, or even attending one, is to have an instant analog camera lying around for guests to pick up and use or even just for myself to document the moments. The great thing about instant analog cameras is your picture ejects right after the capture and there you have a little artifact to give to your guest or party host as a token of the event. A beautiful way to remember the time shared.

Ecco Domani Wine, who prides itself on creating a great, crowd pleasing wine, served for any occasion is all about simple ways to elevate your entertaining style. So as a tip from this photographer, for entertaining based upon my recent Provence inspired holiday feast, give your guests the fun and discovery of instant photography which you can hold in your hand!

Thanks to the generosity of Ecco Domani Wine we are giving away TWO of the new I-1 analog instant camera by Impossible Project for you to use over the holidays at your own gatherings! I have been lusting after this camera myself and recently picked one up in Paris for hosting my own dinner party in France. The dreaminess of the camera’s images are painterly and beautiful, each individual and one of a kind, like each of us.

~~Check out my instagram here to enter to win!~~ Contest has ended.

Sponsored giveaway rules here.

A Provencal Holiday Party with Ecco Domani Wine

December 15, 2016June 22, 2017Posted in Lifestyle, ProvenceTagged apt, chicken, ecco, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, food, france, homemade, pasta, provence, reciepe, sauce, south of france, southoffrance, white wine, whitewine, wine14 Comments

If there is one thing to do in Provence it is to eat. The food and especially the ingredients in the south of France, combined with the nearby wine regions both here and in Italy, are insanely good. After being here this past May I swore I could never eat strawberries from anywhere else in the world again. It was a transformative experience and made me rethink the power of good food.

The farmer’s market… NYC vs. Provence

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A Summer Soirée with Zac Posen & Ecco Domani

August 1, 2016August 3, 2016Posted in LifestyleTagged Ecco Domani, eccodomani, event, food & wine, food and wine, foodandwine, kelly framel, kellyframel, laudrée, lifestyle, party, soho, soiree, summer soirée, summersoirée, wine, zac posen3 Comments

I love New York in the summer. The parties are always at their most magical, and the people so beautiful. You would never know walking down a bustling street in Soho that behind a secret walled garden a glamorous summer soirée hosted by fashion designer Zac Posen is underway.

Under sparkling lights and fitted cocktail dresses, it was a perfect way to celebrate the newest collaboration between designer and wine maker. For two years now Zac Posen has been creating limited-edition bottle designs for Ecco Domani‘s Italian Pinot Grigio. Last year’s bottle was silvery burst of flowers and this year’s inspiration, taken from Mr. Posen’s 2016 collection, is reminiscent of joyful dancing bubbles in tones playing off of the wine’s crisp floral notes.

If Zac Posen is the go-to designer for the glamorous, classic Hollywood, lady-like women of the world then it is of no exception that his Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio design would be anything less. Perfect for a summer party table, the bottle is dressed for the occasion and all the joy that comes with….

Happy Summer!

Ecco’s Sparkling Rosa Cocktail

1 bottle Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio
12 oz Fresh Lemonade
12 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
24 oz Club soda or sparkling water
lemon-lime soda
Mint for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large punch bowl. Serve in wine glasses or low ball glasses with ice and garnished with fresh mint leaves and lemon slices.

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A Southern Holiday Party

December 3, 2015December 4, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged biscuits, brussel sprouts, catfish, cheese, dinner, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, food and wine, foodandwine, friends, holiday, home, merlot, pinot grigio, pinotgrigio, recipe, recipes, ribs, southern, southern cooking, southern food, southerncooking, southernfood, wine6 Comments

It feels like only a moment ago we were hosting last year’s holiday party for friends. My how fast a year comes and goes with so many new memories to stowaway in the vault. For this year’s get together in our new Upper West Side home I wanted to bring to life a piece of my past to make the meal even more personal and intimate by taking our friends on a culinary trip down south, to taste my southern roots and warm comfort food.

When I think about southern food I always think about BBQ and biscuits. A saucy slow cooked meat rolled in spices and balanced by the buttery softness of a warm biscuit. It’s sinful and wonderful and went beautifully with Ecco Domani’s full bodied Merlot. For the non-meat eating guests we offered southern catfish baked and served in my cast iron skillet my grandmother passed down to me which is seasoned with love, as I like to say, and a great compliment to Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio.

Of course, any time I host friends or family I like to start with a cheese plate for people to graze on while we finish preparing the meal. Following my simple rule I outlined in this post, I chose a wonderful soft goat cheese, aged gouda, manchego cheese to be accompanied by roasted almonds, apples and artisanal crackers. Wanting to start with a crisp and light wine, we opened Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio for the cheese course though it goes perfectly well with the Merlot too if you prefer.

In the end, no matter what you serve or what you wear, it’s about making memories with friends and loved ones, sharing stories, being at peace and above all, loving one another this holiday season. Cheers….

See below for entertaining tips and southern recipes created for this night by my friend Jared who is, as we call him, the cookie monster. Everything was served on handmade pottery (a wedding gift from my parents!) by Clayworks in the East Village and another very personal, homey touch to this intimate gathering.

For last year’s holiday party we set individual photographs I had taken of each guest at their place setting to not only arrange the seating in a beautiful visual way but for each of the guests to take home a gift from the evening. This year I decided to create individual bouquets for each place setting that the guests could take home and enjoy for the days to come. Living in New York City this is a wonderfully easy way to play with your creativity. On 28th and 7th is the most fabulous flower market where you can find anything your heart desires. I love more than anything exploring in and out of these shops and creating my own story though flowers.

Above, setting the table in Maud Heline’s Arlanik white button up shirt dress made in Brooklyn (ps- it’ has pockets!!)

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Come Sail Away…

October 15, 2015October 20, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged americana, autumn, classic, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, fall, lifesyle, nantucket, new england, newengland, sailing, wine13 Comments

On a recent trip to Nantucket I wanted to take Kevin on a surprise date, something that felt local to the place but personal to our life. I love to sail and when we walked by the gorgeous boat The Endeavor I knew that was it. Considering how much we travel, I’m always looking for ways to make a place feel reminiscent to home. Though I couldn’t make a home cooked meal, I wanted to fill his soul in just the same way. I love a beautiful red wine in the fall and having just received a few bottles of Ecco Domani Merlot I brought them with us on our Nantucket getaway. I tried to think of something I could put together that wouldn’t require access to a kitchen and found a local market stocked with cheeses from Vermont, freshly made lobster salad, my favorite kind of almonds and beautiful grapes. I popped into one of those tourists shops and purchased a cheese board covered in all things Nantucket which I would typically never do, however, we found the enthusiasm for this place expressed on a cutting board quite charming and now back in New York I see it in the kitchen and think back on this perfect afternoon date, sailing around the harbor watching boats bob in place and flags dancing in the autumn sun.

I think it’s important to find ways to enjoy simple pleasures, carving out time in our crazy fast lives. A bottle of wine and a simple picnic on land or sea is an easy and effortless way to make memories with the ones you love. We enjoyed lunch in the smooth waters of the inlet before our captain took us out sailing the sound. Mostly though, we sipped our Ecco Domani Merlot and welcomed fall though the rippling sound of ocean waves.

Though Ecco Domani’s Merlot pairs well with foods like tomato-based pastas and grilled meats, I found the blackberry flavors of this wine went perfectly with a classic cheese plate. Simple rule of thumb is one hard cheese, one soft, one fruit, one nut, crackers and – in most cases – a cured meat, which I opted out for locally made lobster salad. Though we ate before we hoisted up the sails, it was still a good idea to have stemless wine glasses, which I borrowed from our hotel.

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An Afternoon Spritzer

August 14, 2015August 24, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged cocktail, ecco, Ecco Domani, ecco prosecco, eccodomani, eccoprosecco, lifestyle, mixer, recipe, spritzer, wine5 Comments

As we soak up the last remaining days of summer I was looking for the perfect light and crisp afternoon aperitif for our group of friends. I brought along a couple chilled bottles of Ecco Domani’s ECCO PROSECCO and enlisted my friend Jared, who knows how to make amazing cocktails, to concoct a great floral spritzer to leave us feeling like hummingbirds in the afternoon light. Building off of the floral notes found in this frizzante-style wine Jared made the perfect quick pitcher of drinks to serve for any summer occasion.

Scroll down to get the recipe in 8 easy steps! Continue reading “An Afternoon Spritzer” →

Zac Posen & Ecco Domani

June 30, 2015July 2, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged Ecco Domani, eccodomani, interview, lifestyle, zac posen, zacposen2 Comments

In a collaboration that launched last month, fashion designer Zac Posen dressed a limited edition Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio bottle in a whimsical floral design as bright and festive as the wine itself.

I sat down with the famous couture designer recently to get the story on how the collaboration came to be and the inspiration behind the design.

What is the idea behind the new label design for Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio?

“I wanted to work with the FLAVORS, play with the brightness and floral notes, something that would work in a more modern and decorative decor and something that says “party-time”. I also incorporated the actual Ecco logo into the design of the flowers and wanted to bring out the sparkling quality of it, the lightness and the flowers, something that picked up on metallic and something transparent to see the beautiful green color of the wine.”

Where did the design inspiration for the flowers come from?

“When I was at a flea market in Japan I found a beautiful floral obi textile I later redeveloped into a pattern we used in a collection a few years ago (see jacket below). The flowers are little reminders of the wild imagination and creation of nature. There is nothing more inspiring than the natural form. It is abstract and wild in terms of construction and as beautiful as it gets.”

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A Girlfriend’s Soirée

May 18, 2015May 20, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged bergdorf goodman, bergdorfgoodman, Bergdorfs, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, entertaining, erin framel, friends, girlfriends, kelly framel, lifestyle, party, soiree, zac posen, zacposen10 Comments

This past week Ecco Domani launched a special collaboration with fashion designer Zac Posen who created a limited edition bottle design for their classic Pinot Grigio. I’ve been a huge fan of Zac Posen from the runway shows to the red carpet so we really wanted to do something special to celebrate the launch of this inspired partnership and the release of a wine bottle exclusively dressed in Zac.

Kelly put together an intimate girlfriend’s soirée at the whimsical BG restaurant designed by Kelly Wearstler (remember when I stayed at her Malibu mansion?!) overlooking Central Park and the gorgeous Plaza Hotel. Since we are talking about one of the most glamorous gown designers in the world, Kelly dressed us all in Zac Posen bringing such an air of fantasy and delight to the whole gathering.

A silver tiered tray lined in macarons, fresh fruit, meringues and Zac Posen’s own recipe for “My Little Violet Darlings” from the Bergdorf Goodman Cookbook was the center piece to the soirée table. I loved how Kelly brought a formality to the wine by putting it in a silver deco wine bucket on a stand next to the table keeping the Pinot Grigio cool in-between pours.

Why not throw your own soirée – with delicate delights, crisp and bright white wine and look out for the sparkling design of Zac Posen for Ecco Domani to add one last flourishing touch to your own summer parties.

Above- Zac Posen’s limited edition bottle design for Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio chills in a silver deco ice bucket.

Below- The table dressed with a three tier serving tray, Devonia large and small serving plates with matching hand gilded wine glasses, and Alain St. Joanis flatware. I love surrounding a table and room in fresh flowers, these Diane James arrangements are actually silk and no one knew the difference!

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Backyard Pizza Party!

May 7, 2015May 11, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged Adam Pearson, backyard, backyard pizza party, backyardpizzaparty, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, food, food photographer, food photography, food stylist, gaby, gaby dalkin, la, lifestyle, Matt Armendariz, mattarmendariz, Pizza, pizza party, recipe, what's gaby cookin, whats gaby cooking, whatsgabycookin, whatsgabycooking14 Comments

I met Gaby a few years ago on a trip through Chile and then later we were travel companions again through Brazil. We bonded over Pisco Sours, red lips, and avocados (Gaby is VERY serious about them). I taught her the term “on brand” as a way to get in or out of any situation, and she taught me that slutty brownies are the greatest thing on Earth. Gaby is that west coast girl I fantasize I could be- healthy, fit, tan, on it, bikes everywhere, doesn’t drink eight cups of coffee a day like I do, and makes the most amazing food on the internets.

When she found out we were heading west to LA this week she called up her best friends and creative soul mates: food photographer Matt Armendariz and food & prop stylist Adam Pearson and threw together a backyard pizza party in our honor. Knowing that Ecco Domani pairs well with pizza parties, Kevin and I brought over a mirage of wines by Ecco Domani to pair with the different style pizzas from the red Merlot to the Pinot Grigio and ended the night sipping on the sweet prosecco by the outdoor fire.

Being a New Yorker, anytime I get to go to someone’s freestanding home is thrilling, and this backyard setup was one of the best I’ve ever been to. Matt and Adam have been working together for 10 years as a photography & styling duo for multiple cookbooks and industry giants such as the Food Network and in the new media world for places like Gaby’s site. Aside from curating a beautiful historic 1920’s Long Beach Home, running a successful studio that banks on editorial style and natural light, they were also married seven years ago on the first day same sex marriage became legal in California.

Cooking, eating, and hanging out with three major foodies comes with a bounty of tips and new recipes to update your traditional pizza. Pizza is one of mine and Kevin’s favorite at-home meals which typically occurs on Sunday night paired with a bottle of red wine and Game of Thrones. Of course it would be different taking this pizza party out west with old friends and new. Matt and Adam set up a pizza topping station where you could customize your own pie while we all hung out, caught up on our world travels, enjoying that perfect LA weather with our California sun kissed skin.

It’s nice to be reminded that the best things in life are shared memories with friends over good food and great wine. I hope this inspires you to have your own pizza party with friends or family and try out one of the recipes below and, of course, any pizza can only made better with a bottle of Ecco Domani.

{PS- I brought one of my old Polaroid cameras some impossible film to take some instant party pics, the kind you can hold on to and rediscover one day in an old shoe box. You’ll see some of the moments developed below!}

Scroll down for new recipe ideas and pizza cooking tips Adam & Gaby!

For your pizza party, arrange jars of a variety of ingredients for guests to mix and match their favorite flavors and try to add some surprises such as roasted corn, jalapeño, green onions and soy-rizo (soy version of chorizo!).

We always make our own dough, it’s so easy and makes the whole pizza process even more fun. Gaby’s recipe for homemade pizza dough. Continue reading “Backyard Pizza Party!” →

Summer & Wine

July 4, 2014November 12, 2014Posted in Cinemagraphs, LifestyleTagged animate, animation, cinemagraph, dinner, dinner party, drink, drinks, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, food, food & drink, food&drink, gif, hamptons, italian wine, lifestyle, music, playlist, red epic, songs, spotify, spotify playlist, summer, wine, wines7 Comments

Recently we enjoyed a dinner party out in the country, drinking wine provided by our friends at Ecco Domani, and spending time catching up with the people we love. As we grilled, chatted, and relaxed in each other’s company, the soft and subtle sounds of the playlist below served as a perfect complement to the meal.

Below is our summer & wine playlist – as we head into the weekend, we hope you spend it with the ones you love, share a bottle of wine, create new memories & make the most of this glorious season…

Listen to more of our playlists here!

Romantic Beach Picnic

July 3, 2014July 8, 2014Posted in LifestyleTagged amagansett, anniversary, beach, beach picnic, beachpicnic, date, date night, datenight, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, evening, hamptons, lifestyle, love, picnic, pinot grigio, pinotgrigio, romance, romantic, summer, summer night, summer nights, sunset, white wine, wine, wines17 Comments

For our 2nd anniversary this past Monday I wanted to do something low key, but utterly romantic so I planned a surprise sunset beach picnic for Kevin. I tried to get as creative as possible and make every aspect of the picnic a walk down memory lane.

For starters, instead of a blanket, I used a rug we bought together from the flea market in Paris which gave the scene a more formal feeling. I then surrounded the rug with clusters of sandalwood incense we bought on our recent trip to Bali. Everywhere we went on the island, this beautiful and sexy smell drifted by our noses; now it reminds us of those unforgettable sunrises from only a moment ago. I made it personal with our monogrammed glass hurricanes lanterns flanking the view of the setting sky. I brought our go-to Pinot Grigio by one of our favorite studio clients, Ecco Domani, which brings back such fun studio memories – one of our first shoots at our new place. Just as I was talking about yesterday with “upgrading the everyday”, we toasted another year of marriage with monogrammed stemless wine glasses, formal, lovely, and personal (plus much less likely to spill on a sandy beach setup!)

Kevin *loves* crab, so I asked my friend Molly when she was over for dinner for a crab salad recipe that would go well with the Pinot Grigio for our picnic (recipe below!). I also had lots of beautiful fresh finger foods from the farmer’s market such as morning radishes with a little pile of Maldon salt, a couple of flaky, yummy farm stand cheeses, the most beautiful petite blackberries, an avocado, salami for depth and to finish it off – grapes. So classic. And just so there were no pesky bugs around, I threw down some citronella candles in terra-cotta pots. To finish it off, I had our assistant Carly stop by and snap a few photos of us together, just like we did 2 years ago when we said “I do“.

We sat on the beach and sipped wine, took black and white photos of each other in an intimate dance we’ve been doing now for years, shared food, and watched the colors of the sky paint their way into darkness. Happy Anniversary to my husband, thank you for my beautiful anniversary gift (scroll down to see!) I’ll cherish forever which will remind me of this magical era of our life and cheers to forever, wherever that may take us.

Thank you again, Ecco Domani, for the memories…

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SUMMER DINNER PARTY

July 2, 2014July 3, 2014Posted in LifestyleTagged diana yen, dianayen, dinner, dinner party, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, friends, host, hosting, italian wine, merlot, molly shuster, mollyshuster, party, pinot grigio, pinotgrigio, red wine, summer, the jewels of new york, thejewelsofny, white wine, wine, wines16 Comments

It’s the simple things in life that are the best. That statement has never been more true to me than now after traveling for a month solid. Though I saw unbelievable sights and experiences one could only dream of, I was so happy to just be home last weekend with my friends at a house we share out in Amagansett. I just wanted to get together, share a meal, catch up, and be in one place with faces I know and care about.

Summer entertaining is the best. Light that dances through the afternoon and illuminates the moments through a late, lazy evening that always ends with laying in the grass finishing the last sips of wine as another day closes and the possibilities of tomorrow have yet to begin. Beyond the golden glow, there is no market like a summer market. Fresh and ripe, bright and juicy dishes write themselves because the ingredients are so good, they don’t need much more than a little salt and pepper.

We’ve been working with Ecco Domani the past year, shooting their packaging, displays and marketing materials. They knew how much we had been traveling and sent us a case of red and white wine to welcome us back home. One of my favorite sayings of Ecco is “upgrading the everyday” so I based our little backyard summer dinner party around that idea. What could I do with this table that doesn’t require buying anything, just being creative with what we have already? I asked Diana, my friend and prop stylist for one of my favorite magazines, Kinfolk, if she had some easy entertaining ideas. She suggested taking sprigs from our gathered, seasonal flower arrangements as focal points, and simply placing them on a napkin that is draped long ways off the table cascading like a waterfall, dressing the place settings in a softer, organic way.

Once the table was set my friend Molly & I got to cooking. To pair with Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio, roasted cherry tomato and shrimp fettucine; for the Ecco Domani Merlot, grilled lamb chops with a light and gorgeous spring salad – all super simple, elegant, seasonal dishes because, like I said before… it’s the simplest things in life that are the best.

Here is to summer, friends, staying in and making memories with the ones you love.

Kevin’s Homemade Pasta

2 Eggs
1 cup of unbleached flour (to start)
salt

Mix the flour with the eggs in a bowl or wooden surface until the consistency is like a dough, adding flour as necessary. Add a big pinch of salt. Knead for a few minutes, adding a bit of flour if it gets too moist and sticky. From there, follow the instructions on your pasta machine.

When the pasta is finished I’ve learned to dust it with flour and toss, so the individual pieces don’t stick together while you make the rest!

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Ecco Domani’s Spring Fling

April 7, 2014October 28, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged ana sicat, anasicat, book club, drink, drinks, Ecco Domani, eccodomani, erin framel, erinframel, food, food pairing, girlfriends, italian, italian wine, molly shuster, mollyshuster, pinot grigio, Pizza, spring, wine2 Comments

Last fall we had the pleasure of shooting the new packaging and in-store displays for the contemporary Italian Wine Ecco Domani at our studio here in New York. Just because it was a photoshoot and not an actual event taking place – in this case, a book-club party with a group of girlfriends at home – doesn’t mean the food shouldn’t be a great pairing for the wine!

My friend Molly who is an amazing food stylist (remember this series we did together?) created a few spring-time inspired grilled flat bread recipes for our shoot that were DELICIOUS with the crisp Pinot Grigio wine (after we wrapped, we enjoyed some ourselves!). I love Molly’s recipes, they are so fresh and seasonal. This past December she created two special wine cocktail drink recipes for our Ann Street Studio Holiday Party with Ecco Domani’s Pinot Grigio and Merlot. It’s very important to the global wine brand “to produce wines that are fruit forward and food friendly” so the pairings had to work in real life just as in our book club photoshoot.

I’ve really been enjoying the relationship with Ecco Domani this past year, a brand that also thinks about tomorrow not only in their wine but in the world around us. They do a lot in the fashion industry with the Ecco Domani Fashion Fund to help young emerging designers create their collections and present them to the world. So many of the past EDFF winners have gone on to shape the fashion industry and be a driving force in our culture such as Alexander Wang, Prabal Gurung, and Rodarte to name a few!

It’s been an amazing experience finding a balance between being creative and getting the shot the client needs for their messaging and display / box dimensions. And of course, it is always a joy and pleasure to get to work with your friends, the people you have a creative conversation with so seamlessly that it makes work feel like play. For this shoot we collaborated with food stylist Molly Shuster, stylist Erin Framel, and hair and makeup artist Ana Sicat. So perhaps you’ll be inspired to have some friends over on a Saturday afternoon, talk about what you’re reading, have some wine and try out Molly’s recipe, sounds like a perfect way to spend an afternoon to me….

PS-This light, floral, citrus-y and crisp top selling wine is also very easy to find in your local wine shop or Italian restaurant, and now when you see the advertising and packaging you know who shot it! Xx

Continue reading “Ecco Domani’s Spring Fling” →