From Louis

……………On one of my posts, Joko, a model I have worked with many times, mentioned she loved Lingonberry Jam and provided a link to Amazon. Since I’m a raspberry and currant lover I gave it a look and ordered two bottles…….however…..it said that the jam really isn’t for toast and it’s better for cooking? Since I had no idea what to do with them I googled Lingonberry receipts, and this wonderful cookie receipt came up…”RYE and ALMOND COOKIES with LINGONBERRIES” ……..There are very few ingredients which suited me just fine……however…..I did have to buy “Almond Flour”, and “Rye Flour”. The Dark Rye Flour is all I could find, and it worked fine. I doubled the receipt so I would have a descent amount of cookies…..they go fast! You can get the exact receipt on Amazon, but I’ll give you a quick rundown. In a large bowl whisk the two flours, the sugar,  the salt and the cinnamon together well [I sifted it all….it didn’t say to but I did]. Add two tablespoons of water. This is tricky because you will need to add more water to make the dough as described, but they don’t say how much….so I added a tablespoon at a time and mixed it well before adding more….Then add a cube at a time of the room temperature butter, and whisk it in……This was the hard part as I needed three sticks of butter and it didn’t blend with the flour easily. After I blended it all as best as I could I got out my mixer, and on low speed mixed it more adding more water. The dough has to be a certain consistency which the receipt will explain……..next page

……………..I had already prepared my cookie sheets with parchment paper, and set the oven at the suggested temperature….325F. The receipt says the dough should look slightly wet and a bit sticky “Shaggy” what ever that means???? I scooped the dough with a table spoon, and slightly rolled it and put them on the cookie sheets….then into the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. When you take them out you roll the dough in the palm of your hand to create a ball…….The receipt says you can either lightly roll the balls in powdered sugar or not before baking…..I did, photo at upper left second in. The receipt also say to cook until a golden color, aprox. 14 mins, but with the powdered sugar coating it was hard to tell when they were golden so next time I’ll sprinkle the cookies at the end after they are cooked and cooled…….Next you make an indentation in the cookie….a thumb print….I used a Champaign cork which was perfect……Next fill  the indentation with Lingonberry jam……I also used Apricot jam…..I guess any jam will work……Then you pop them in the oven and wait the 14 minutes [I actually cooked them longer….18 mins, and they were good]. Then take them out of the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets before transferring to a cooling rack…….BE VERY CAREFUL…..at this stage the cookies are  VERY SOFT…..next page

…………………When they were in the oven I switched racks half way through baking for even cooking……be careful when doing this…the paper is very slippery and you don’t want cookies to slide off!….They are very soft when you take them out of the oven so be careful not to break them….When I got them on the cooling rack, after they were cooled enough, I gave them another sprinkle of confections sugar. Then I put them on plates and let them cool for a good hour and a half to two before eating………I can’t believe I made these…..Jac would be so proud of me!

…………………….Every fall and spring season the New York Times, in their magazine section, had a fashion review of what was on the runways. Carrie Donovan, a power house editor, was responsible for these pages……EVERYONE wanted to be represented in this very prestigious issue….It was highly anticipated by everyone, and no one knew how they were going to be shown….IF THEY WERE REPRESENTED AT ALL!…The fact that I got this double page spread was a huge coup……The five models above, who were all in my runway show, were all wearing different versions of Red Cashmere knit evening dresses in the photo…..The jersey fabric was made for me by the Roberto Sarti Company. It is a wonderful Italian company in the Florence area. Roberto became a good friend and his daughter came to NY and worked for me for a season before going home to work for her father……I was on this shoot and it was great fun……All of the jewelry, shoes and tights were Anne Klein, and the girls looked exactly how I showed them on the runway….though different models wore them in the show. Elle Macpherson, known in the industry as “The Body”, opened this group of red dresses wearing the V-neck dress to the left. She was jaw dropping in it. Then one super model after the other walked the runway. There were 10 red dresses in all…..I am sure one of the reasons I got this incredible spread was because of how the photo turned out….though Carrie had pre-planned the pages, and had wanted this to open the spread of red clothes……Other designers also did red clothes that season……RED turned out to be the KEY color of that fall ……….This was the Fall collection of 1992.

…………It was a beautiful day when the five models were photographed in my Red Cashmere knit evening dresses. The location was a fire house in NYC. Thank goodness there were no fires when we did the shoot or the trucks would have been gone in a hurry!!!! It was great fun, but organizing and staging FIVE models is a lot harder than focusing on ONE. You want to make sure each looks good, no one is blinking or looking strange, and above all the dresses look good….We tried to pose them so when there was back interest , like the dress with the lace up bac, it showed…..It’s sort of like organizing a family portrait, thought these girls were professionals, and knew what would look good. They LOVED the dresses and loved doing this shoot, and we had great fun which always makes for successful pictures. To tell the truth I liked some of the polaroids better than the shot that was chosen, but I understood that the attitude and action shot was more of what Carrie was looking for…………….RED ALERT!!