Archive for September, 2009
Steal his heart (and his products)
September 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment
Tags: Beauty & Grooming

The other day we told you about the grooming products our men steal from us. This naturally leads to the question: what do we steal from our unsuspecting honeys? Our exhaustive research tells us that, by and large, products for men are significantly cheaper than those for women. And they usually work just as well—or better.
We steal gimmicky “man-tools”—stuff like the Ace Nail File Pick (around $7). It “does everything but play the guitar,” says the Ace/Rubbermaid marketing team. Good for filing, scrubbing, removing grit and grease from under nails and around cuticles—and it’s just for him. What, we don’t get our hands dirty? Please. For women who paint and clean and garden and cook—that is, for any modern bitch—this “manly” tool is worth filching.
For those of you with adorable Mia Farrow-esque pixie haircuts, ditch your pricy pomade and steal his classic Murray’s Hair Pomade. When we say cheap we mean CHEAP. Like, for $3 you get a vintage-y tin, a product that’s long-lasting and easy to manipulate (warm with hair dryer for easier malleability), and, most importantly, the sweet satisfaction of avoiding the financial sinkhole also known as your salon.
And why not pilfer his bristle shaving brush and shaving soap? Lots of guys have these hanging around. Way more satisfying (and green) than those aerosol cans you’ve been using. Elegant, chic, old-fashioned. Plus, nothing feels so good tickling down low and up high as a hot, lathered-up brush. If your sweetheart’s in possession of one of these, give it a whirl. Or gift it to a hard-to-buy-for-hubby when next the occasion arrives (and conveniently steal it when you need a treat). Price ranges from cheap to massive splurge.
Go on, girls: take what you need from your men. We won’t tell.
Coming up (and we do mean “up”) next week: products to use together.
A Borrower Be
September 29th, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Health & Fitness, Travel & Entertainment
We love to bicycle. After all, we do everything we can to be good green queens. And nothing beats biking for keeping our gams and glutes toned. When traveling, we look for cities that roll out the green carpet to make pedal-pushing easy. Wouldn’t you know that some of our favorite cities (like Paris and Montreal) are way ahead of the curve with bike sharing kiosks set up all over town. London, Boston, Barcelona (just to name a few) are all lined up to roll. It’s so, so simple. Swipe your card, make a deposit, see the scenery as you cycle to a kiosk near your destination, and leave that borrowed baby behind. Cheaper than a taxi, and even hipper than public transit–the perfect choice for all us bitches on a budget!
The Best Raw Deal (or) If Marshmallow Fluff Married Smokey the Bear…
September 27th, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, Shopping

You know our obsession with finding the little things that make a bitch happy. That spoonful of sugar…well, not sugar anymore if we can help it. These days we’re all about honey. No, we’re not members of the healthy food police, but we do like to eat as well as we can. For example, when given the choice we take brown over white rice and wheat over white bread. Organic over non-organic. Unprocessed over processed. And honey over sugar in all the right places: in our tea, spread on toasted Eli’s health loaf, baked into our favorite ancho chili blue corn bread recipe (we’ll share, we promise). We’ve been experimenting with raw honey. Interesting. We’ve tried it all. We’ve explored the gamut of ‘raw’ honey—from the kind with a faintly feral hive odor and bits of bees in it (at least we thought we came upon wings and stingers) to a very pricey, waxy, raw clover blend with a bland odorless flavor. We’ve worked hard to find you the world’s best most delicious honey…and in our search we discovered something divine. It’s a lovely blend of that classic Smokey the Bear-container honey, fragrant wildflowers, and marshmallow fluff. 365 Organics Wildflower Raw Honey from Whole Foods is the one!
Premature Explosion is the Mother of Invention
September 25th, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, Travel & Entertainment
Remember we were nearly orgasmic in our description of apple picking in the farmer’s field? The simple joy of plucking those honeys, shining them up against our chest, that first deep, crisp, tantalizing bite…
As promised, here’s our super-secret, super-easy, super-unscientific applesauce recipe. Trust us, it’s delish.
We came home from apple picking, put a dozen fresh, washed apples in a pan, and stuck them into a steam oven. (Okay, we know not everyone has a steam oven, but we’re a little crazy when it comes to cooking. Actually, a lot crazy.) We set the oven to 100% humidity, turned the temp to 350, and, having heard there was a sale at Anthro, left our husband in charge of the apples.
The football game was on. We called to remind him to check the apples. Not a hard task. Correct?
We returned mid way through the third quarter and found him wearing a very pretty pink flowered apron, a green scrubby in his hand, cleaning out the oven. He explained that a “premature explosion” of our lovingly picked apples had occurred. Uh, “premature”? Okay honey, let’s not go there. (Of course we know he forgot to look at them).
Fourteen people were coming for dinner and the question remained: was anything salvageable? We took the remains of the collapsed skins, the bits and pieces of apple left in the pan, and ran it all through our food mill. The result? A delicious warm brown caramelized applesauce.
Our newest invention? Baked applesauce.
Here’s how to do it in your regular oven:
Wash your apples. That’s all. No peeling. No coring. No nothing. (We ‘budget’ everything-especially our time and always look for the easy way out.) Then take a knife. Find the inner bitch/homicidal maniac hiding deep inside you (trust us, this is better than therapy). Then stab the skin like crazy (you’re saving yourself the trouble of cleaning—ahem—“prematurely” exploded apple from the inside of your oven).
Bake them at 350 until they get all mushy and the skin turns a warm deep golden brown.
Next, run them through the fine sieve of a food mill (this will screen, core, seeds and skin). Add maple syrup to taste and, if you like, cinnamon and nutmeg. Serve warm. Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for dessert, or use as a side dish for pork, chicken, or turkey.
Who’s The Bitch?
September 24th, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Beauty & Grooming
You know you’re onto a good product when your boyfriend/husband/ball-n-chain secretly uses it. Oh, they’ll deny it, but it’s true: OUR MEN USE OUR PRODUCTS. We bitches know all, and we’re here to report the grooming products most stolen by our men.
Before we spill the beans, it’s worth noting that the men in question, while fashion conscious to some degree, are decidedly not the metrosexual type. Nope, we’re not talking dudes who get facials and weekly manicures and know Turkish from Egyptian cotton. Still, we’ve done an unscientific poll and have found them using the following:
MAC Brow Set. And why not? It’s a ‘cheapish’, effective, simple product, awesome for keeping unruly brows in place. (And unlike most stuff on the market, the drugstore version just isn’t as good.) Before we discovered this we’d overpluck or overwax, since that seemed the only way to tame our dramatic brows. MAC eyebrow gel keeps ‘em tidy—and it does so invisibly, making it particularly ideal for men. Yes, it’s true, we found our guy using this on the sly to control his handsome, dramatic, but, uh, rather sun-visorish brow. Got a man who’s fighting a private battle with his twin caterpillars? Offer him this weapon and that battle is won.
Smith’s Rosebud Salve. The classic in the vintage-y tin. Recently a friend kissed her manly-man goodnight and tasted a hint of this luscious rose, cotton-candy, baby-oil-esque amalgam. “Have you been using my Rosebud Salve?” He shrugged sheepishly, and she understood why his lips had recently become so soft. Want to tenderize your prince’s pout? Offer him a dab at bedtime. Though we can’t help but wonder—is it a form of narcissism, taking such pleasure in kissing lips that taste so much like our lips? Well, nevermind. Keep it by the bedside. It’s cheap and sweet, just how we like it.
Benefit Benetint. OK, funny story here. Another friend noticed her man emerging from the bathroom with the nicest, most natural-looking flushed cheeks. Ah yes, that rosy, in-from-the-cold, I’m-so-well-rested look. This was a Monday morning in February, the height of haggard pale. She complimented him and, lo and behold, watched him turn a deeper shade of red—turns out he used her Benetint! He confessed all, stammering that he was “just curious.” Fine with us, if it imparts such a natural, flattering stain. If you haven’t tried it yet, swing by the Benefit counter. A splurge, but a bottle lasts a long time (if he doesn’t get his hands on it, that is).
You know you’re onto something good if your man can’t keep his paws off it.
What products do your partners steal? Let us know! Write to us!
Who Do You Trust?
September 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment
Tags: Travel & Entertainment
We’re wild for the Daily Beast–let us count the ways. Even before they found us, they were our favorite online aggregator and generator of news. We are obsessive newspaper and magazine readers, and while we still have several papers delivered (how else to get our hands dirty in the morning?), the internet has become our main source for news and information. Not only are we saving money by cancelling all those magazine subscriptions, but the media business is adapting and the best content is moving online. We trust in the NY Times and Pro Publica, but the question of credible internet sources should be the biggest concern of every thinking bitch. Tina Brown’s Daily Beast is credible, smart, and fun. And of course we like to keep up with new movie releases, hot books, style, and the latest celebrity gossip. The Beast answers here too.
Our final reason we love The Daily Beast is Tina Brown’s comment at the end of her piece about Vogue editor Anna Wintour:
“I guess you get called a bitch when you get things done.”
A Birthday Three-Way
September 23rd, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Shopping, Travel & Entertainment
It was our birthday last week and we received the best three presents. (Besides actually getting our long awaited website launched, that is.) The Daily Beast picked us up for their Buzz Board, we were kindly gifted a Kindle, and we received a yummy package of goodies from Baking for Good (see post of 9/22).
Generally we’re “early adapters,” and so Amazon’s Kindle more than piqued our interest. But since we’re also in frugal and thrifty mode (and nutso for the library), we weren’t about to actually “buy” a Kindle. Plus, we had misgivings about this generation of the Kindle that doesn’t actually show the design of a book. Honestly, we’ve become pretty sensitive to the cool work designers do for books, especially since our book (counting down the days until December 29!),has the best “interior” design we’re seen—ever. And the Kindle won’t pick it up! But that doesn’t stop us from being a two-faced bitch and LOVING our gift. We already downloaded Dan Brown’s new book and are almost done with it. Besides, what does a mystery thriller need with gorgeously designed pages?
As always, we’ve been thinking about you. We know it’s not everyone’s birthday this week or next, and you probably aren’t going to be getting a Kindle as a gift, so we’ve been rationalizing how a Kindle could actually be a frugal device for a thrifty bitch to invest in (btw, we’re really good at rationalizing).
So. If you’re hungry for some new gizmo and need some way to justify it:
–Books at $9.99 are indeed a bargain.
–Many books can be downloaded for free, thus saving time and gas getting to the library.
–When traveling, instead of paying for an extra suitcase to carry all those books, just pack this one clever device, which weighs as much as a light paperback and holds more books than even we can read in a week. No need to see the PT to fix that horrible crick in your neck from schlepping all those books around.
You get the point. Check it out if you’re a bookworm.
And if you’re on the fence about another big purchase—technology or otherwise—always check with the bitches before you splurge. 9i3tyq4fwb
A Little Sugar Goes A Long Way
September 22nd, 2009 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, Shopping

BAKING FOR GOOD debuted just about when we did, and while we love their products (who wouldn’t? lavender shortbread, whoopie pies, crunchy caramel corn – organic ingredients) we feel an even keener affinity for their philosophy. 15% of every purchase goes toward a charity that you choose. While it can seem just a little pricey (delivery fees), we put it in our splurge worthy category– particularly if you need to give a gift. We’ve spent way more on waxy generic delivered floral arrangements. You know, $55 -$100 dollars later and you’re never sure exactly what was sent. Most likely some over-assorted mess sure to die within days– or dyed mini-carnations that last forever and are nothing more than an undying reminder to the recipient of your thoughtlessness in waiting to the last minute to send a gift. (And, worse yet, proof positive of your bad taste.) So a charitable contribution and a dozen of the best gingersnaps or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever eaten for $14.00 is a veritable bargain!! Yummy.
A Bitch Needs to Be Picky
September 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment
Tags: Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, Shopping, Travel & Entertainment

Today was the perfect autumn day. The weather was clear and gorgeous, so we folded down the top, cranked up Beethoven’s 6th (the best bucolic country road music, ever) and went for a ride. Our destination? The apple orchard. Our mission? Pick the first of the season Macoun apples. Nothing in our apple eating experience rivals these babies for pure eating pleasure. Crisp, tart, sweet, juicy. It is the quintessential apple. In fact, we can think of few things on earth as sinful (at least as far as apples go) than picking them off the tree, polishing them up on our sweater and taking that first crunchy, hard bite. We are certain these red beauties were the temptation hanging in the garden that changed everything.
We drove to the same farm we have gone to since we were kids. It was mobbed. Where once fruit trees filled the distant view, suburban subdivisions have grown in their place. We put on blinders to the clipped boundaries, the hayrides, the moonwalk, and the ice cream stand that the farmer has brought in to build traffic. (Hey, everyone needs to make a buck and the concession circus beats more pop-up mansions.) Patiently, we waited in line, bought our bag to fill, and trudged away from the crowds across sweet clipped grass to our favorite corner of the orchard.
Admittedly, we have lots of secret beliefs and little obsessions (who doesn’t?) and one is that each tree produces apples with its own distinct flavor. So, we spent the day on the hunt for the perfect tree that produced the perfect fruit, and once we found it picked as many perfect apples as we could carry. Fifteen pounds of perfect apples to be precise.
Yes, we got a little carried away. But, hey it was a big bargain— our overstuffed, fixed price bag worked out to only $1.53 per pound. We were so proud. All in all a multi-tasking thrifty day for a bitch on a budget: food, travel, entertainment, exercise, and culture (Beethoven, remember?).
Wondering what did we do with all those apples? Check back this week and we’ll fill you in on some of our wickedly good recipes.
WHAP!
September 18th, 2009 | 1 Comment
Tags: Shopping

Check out Cathy Horyn’s review of fashion week in the New York Times. She writes:
“In the age of Twitter, the inessential becomes the essential. You sense this reductive pattern in a lot of the spring shows: that designers are trying to crash their collections with a lot of quick, short-term thinking. Meanwhile they are making just as much noise as they did in the past.”
This sage thought grabbed our attention—its wisdom goes beyond the catwalk.
A bitch on a budget can’t afford to succumb to “quick, short-term thinking” when making choices about how to invest her precious and woefully-dwindling resources (and we’re not talking just moola but time and lust—oh-so-easily confused with love—as well).
After all, we’ve become slightly nuts for twitter—it’s such a clever and addictive way of shrinking full-sized thoughts into itty-bitty screen-bites. (Or maybe aborting full-sized thinking into shallow e-commerce networking?) No matter. How else does a modern woman keep up with the instant buzz of the moment?
But a smart B shouldn’t confuse a significant trend (as in something with meaningful, investment-grade, lasting style direction) with instant fad and mindless filler. Remember our inaugural post (just a few days ago) when we talked about editing? Well, if you’re bombarded by a constant barrage of jagged pieces of information, streaming at staggering speed, how will you ever be able to sort and edit the absolute must-haves every bitch needs?
Train your inner bitch. You know those angels and devils always appearing on the shoulders of cartoon characters? What you need is a bitch sitting on your shoulder, clad like a dominatrix, red-lipped and narrow-eyed, cracking her whip whenever you get caught up in useless fads.
… studded platform gladiator shoes
WHAP!
… puffy-hipped skirts
WHAP!
OK. We know. Fads can be fun, and sometimes it takes a while to know which look really has legs. (Who knew stove pipes could last this long?) Just remember, no big spending gulps on a passing fancy, only little micro-bites allowed. More simply put: no Fendi gladiators, only H&M knockoffs!
WHAP!
(That last one was because we know you secretly like it…)
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