beet week

hello from a very sleepy brooklynite! today was a 5 am morning at work, and it's now past midnight and for some reason i can't fall asleep, so i thought i'd muster a quick post.

this morning at work i was trying to think of what to make for dinner tonight - a friend came over and i was hoping to try to come up with something without having to make a grocery run. i remembered i had some frozen beet gnocchi and settled on it; i then thought about the beet tart i made monday and the phrase "beet week" popped into my head and i had the sudden association of that sex and the city episode when it's fleet week and the girls are walking down the street and start seeing sailors and samantha is all slutty-eyed about it. except in my scenario it would be beets that she was all hot and bothered by. the thought made me snort a little bit. i don't think anyone heard me over the mixer.

also used up some red beet i'd cubed in the fridge and the last of the leeks. i spun a fresh apple/kiwi sorbet last night, too, so that served as dessert. i love kiwi seeds. they have this tangy crunch.






i've been looking for an excuse to use these egg cups forever. this seemed as good an occasion as any.

finally picked up some dry cleaning yesterday and in it was this dress, one of my favorites. it also happens to be somewhat beet-colored. just sayin'.



dress (top): thrifted in portland
skirt (actually also a dress): h&m. i tuck the top inside and wear it as a skirt - i really prefer it that way.
shoes: thrifted in camden, NJ
belt: thrifted in chicago
purse: a vintage hat box sam gave me. thrifted.

all right. i'm going to attempt sleep before dragging myself out of bed in a few hours. sleep tight, everyone!

xo audrey

oeuf

i cracked 307 eggs at work today. the bakery where i work was featured on the food network friday evening, and as a result orders for a particular brownie have been pouring in for the last couple days. yet still when i came home today i wanted to bake, and with eggs, so i cracked six more and set to work on a beet, leek, goat cheese and pine nut tart that i've been thinking about making for a few days.

















i'm sorry i got a bit camera happy here, but my gosh, isn't food just gorgeous?


i made it down to philadelphia thursday night, in time for dinner at a mexican place where they provide fresh squeezed juice and you bring your own tequila. we spent most of the next day wandering around the city, hitting record shops and thrift stores (to the girl who asked where i thrift in philly - i stopped at one salvation army oxford near 5th, which i basically walked right back out of, and then actually crossed the bridge to camden to a giant one right there, where i didn't have a ton of time but found a bunch.) before grabbing a quick banh mi sandwich in chinatown at qt sandwich. philadelphians - they are $4.95 and they are fresh, filling and delicious. after that we met up with a few folks at national mechanics where i had one too many 'raging bitch' belgian beers and ended up arguing about outsider art with a relative stranger. the next morning was a bit rough, but that's what breakfast buffets are for! and we headed to a flea market where i scored this gem:


other than that, the flea market was pretty much a bust; i've been to really wonderful antiquey fleas, like the one in the west loop in chicago or dumbo, but this was the sort with a guy selling boxes of cereal for $2 out of the back of his pickup and after awhile in a place like that, when you aren't finding any hidden treasures, you just start to feel depressed. so we headed outside of the city for a bit, to another thrift store where i found a few things and wasted several hours.

in related news - i should have my etsy up and running no later than next week. i'm hoping to get some things posted before this weekend, but we'll see. . . the to-do list for this week is a bit disturbing at the moment.

today:



shirt: betsey johnson dress
brooch: flea market
skirt: thrifted
shoes: devotte
purse: etsy


there is no non-clichéd way to do so, but i really want to take a second to thank everyone so much for reading, and especially for all the incredibly kind emails/links/comments lately. i can't express how touched and flattered i am that you read at all, much less take the time and trouble to write. i hope everyone has a wonderful week, i should have more soon - oh! and i am going to start having a twice-monthly food column over at glasses glasses; my first will be up this wednesday, and will feature the recipe from this tart i made today. (i'll try to cross-post, the recipe at least.)

xo audrey

i wear my heart on my heart

hello and happy monday! just took a leisurely walk home with my coat wide open - it's almost 50 degrees out, sunny and gorgeous. just wanted to do a quick post with the recipe from the macaroni i made the other day - i cannot recommend it highly enough - an outfit, and the news that i made the weardrobe top 100!



ha, and i happen to be wearing the same skirt and socks as i am today. anyway, i am beyond flattered to be included in the 100, and i want to send a huge thank you and big love to rich and suz over at weardobe.

and today - i've posted this sweater before, but it was long ago before i had a proper camera and i love it too much to let it fall by the wayside.



could not get a non-blurry photo to save my life. i think one of the lights in my dressing room is out.

sweater: craft and vintage fair, years ago in chicago
skirt: american apparel
socks: american apparel
shoes: oak nyc
belt: thrifted
headband: vintage, flea market

off to philly this weekend to hang with sam and hopefully do some thrifting - i'm hoping to launch my etsy shop early next week!

and for the dutch macaroni and cheese - very closely adapted from bon appetit. . . (i added more of some, changed a thing here or there, and cooked it longer.)

INGREDIENTS
6-7 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided
1 cup chopped onion
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
2 cups (packed) coarsely grated aged Gouda cheese plus 1/2 cup finely grated (about 10 ounces total)
2 cups (packed) coarsely grated Edam cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a pinch or two of ground fennel
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and center ribs removed
12 ounces elbow macaroni
1 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless sourdough bread
mustard seeds for topping, if you want

PREPARATION
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, then flour; stir constantly 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook, whisking occasionally, until mixture begins to boil, about 5 minutes. Add 2 cups coarsely grated Gouda and 1 cup Edam. Stir until cheeses melt, about 2 minutes. Stir in cayenne and nutmeg. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Cook chard in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 1 minute. Using slotted spoon, transfer chard to plate; cool. Reserve pot with water. Squeeze water from chard; chop finely.
Return water in pot to boil. Add macaroni; cook until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Stir macaroni into warm cheese sauce. Place half of macaroni in dish; smooth top. Top with 1 cup Edam cheese, then chard. Top with remaining macaroni mixture; spread evenly.
Melt 4 tablespoons butter. Place breadcrumbs in medium bowl. Drizzle butter over; toss. Add 1/2 cup finely grated Gouda and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over mac and cheese. Sprinkle mustard seeds over, if desired.
Bake mac and cheese until breadcrumbs are golden and edges are bubbling, about 45-50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. It gets better every time you stick it back in the oven.

xo audrey

double dutch

hello! much to show and little time to do it - i've got piles of dishes from the last 24 hours and i'm meeting a friend for dinner in a couple of hours, so here we go!

last night i hosted dinner for a couple of friends: dutch macaroni and cheese. aged gouda. edam. swiss chard. it was heavenly. served it with some sauteed zucchini with pine nuts. a simple strawberry-and-ice cream dessert.








this morning i went all out with the brunch making - it's probably my favorite meal to cook and since i am usually working at the appropriate time for it, i try to do a really indulgent one on saturdays. eggs benedict with fake canadian bacon (surprisingly not bad) and avocado, served with fresh squeezed apple/pineapple juice. i am LOVING my juicer these days.





then went on a nice long bike ride to chinatown this afternoon, basking in the unseasonably warm new york weather. home now to thaw out, clean up, and head back out.



shirt: quail dress
skirt: thrifted
shoes: seychelles
necklace: purchased from a girl on bedford ave

brain still a bit frozen from the long bike ride, and i'm having trouble putting this together in any way besides these kind of lame bullet points. i'll write more soon.

xo audrey

god help the girl

blarg. wednesday mornings i have to be at work at 5 am, which, when combined with my hour-long commute, means i have to wake up at 3:30 am. awful on its own, but worse when i'm wide awake watching news radio until 1 am. so please, forgive any typos or incomplete thoughts in this post. it's been a long day.

a plus side to getting in to work so early, though, is that i snag early control of the speakers and get to listen to what i want all day. lately that's been a lot of god help the girl, a belle and sebastian side project that i gave a brief listen to early last year before falling desperately in love with the album a couple of months ago. perhaps one of the catchiest, if not my favorite, songs is 'come monday night' - the girls in it have such fabulous voices, not to mention style to spare.

Come Monday Night from God Help The Girl on Vimeo.

the band name seemed particularly fitting to my desperate attempts at staying awake this afternoon, too. check them out at the link above - adorably twee, catchy stuff.

but on to today's post-work outfit! i couldn't believe this sweater when i stumbled upon it in a thrift store in december. the smiling sun. the llama. the cactus being rained on on the back. unfortunately it's a leeeetle too small for me, so i will probably end up selling it once i get my etsy page up and running.



skirt: forever 21
shirt: american apparel
sweater: thrifted
tights: mom's old ones
shoes: some sketchy place in union square
necklace: erica weiner




the necklace is hard to see, which is a pity, because it is an airplane with a bird chasing it and i thought it fit in nicely between the sun and clouds of the sweater. i never do detail shots but this sweater is too good to be tiny.

bipimbap was a smash success! it was so easy and so delicious, i'm definitely adding it to my regular dinner list.





all right, enough from me tonight. i'm off to search for a ripe avocado as my culinary cross cultural coup continues. alliteration. good night.

xo audrey

braids & bows

hello everyone! relieved to be back inside from the stubbornly wintery day.



does anyone remember this book? i used to have very, very long hair (and extremely adorable siblings,)



and on family visits to barnes and noble i'd pore over this book for new things to do with it. i was also in a short-lived band of the same name when i first moved to new york, although in fairness i use the term "band" rather loosely as it mostly consisted of a friend and i drinking 22 ounce bottles of blue moon and singing she and him covers in our living room. anyway, the point here is not the braids but the bows - i had some quality time with my sewing machine yesterday, and embellished a skirt i thrifted a couple weeks ago with a sequined bow i picked up at that amazing fabric store in lower brooklyn. unfortunately, just as i finished sewing it on the skirt, the needle on my machine hit a pearl and broke, so i'll have to take a momentary break while trying to remember where i put my replacement needle.



shirt: j crew
necklace: ebay
skirt: goodwill, embellished by me
shoes: kennedy holmes's etsy


bought this fabulous top over the summer with a store credit, and realized last night as i was getting ready for some friends to come over that i hadn't posted it yet - blasphemy! after photo-ing i hustled off to prepare hot toddys and mini pecan pies for the four of us. it was lovely.

tonight, i'm trying my hand at bipimbap. after having some at the korean barbecue on friday i can't get it outta my mind.

hope everyone has a lovely evening!

xo audrey

ps answers to questions! a brief recipe summary for megara -

first thing i did was slice a tortilla into thin strips and fry them up in just enough vegetable oil to cover them - verrry little. as soon as they start to brown i start to scoop them out with a metal slotted spoon onto a couple of paper towels. salt. set aside.

then take a ripe avocado, slice it into cubes, and squeeze lime juice over it (just enough to cover it all) and add a bit of salt. then put a bit of butter in a pan and add diced yellow onion. crack two eggs and scramble in a bowl, then add to the saucepan once the onion has started to turn translucent. i added a bit of green salsa to the eggs as they were cooking, and sliced cherry tomatoes into thin circles. once the eggs have cooked, i used a ring mold to get them to stand up, but you can also just take a plastic or paper cup, cut off the top, and use that as a mold! push the eggs down pretty densely and layer with tomatoes, then another layer of eggs, then avocado; remove mold and top with tortilla stips. it's super easy, and you can layer it with whatever you like - black beans, sausage, corn, etc.

michelle - the flea market is at the corner of hanson and flatbush for the next couple of months. lots of information and photos here.

court and spark[le]

hello again! hope everyone's enjoying their saturday. mine has been divine; woke up this morning and started cutting avocados and frying tortilla strips in preparation for a brunch date with sam and a friend of ours. he brought champagne and peach nectar for bellinis; i finally used my juicer to squeeze some apple/pineapple juice (my favorite since working at a brunch place with a juice bar back in chicago,) made a citrus mint salad, and cooked up some chilaquiles for the three of us.



we then poured some hot toddies in thermos mugs and bundled up for a jaunt over to the brooklyn flea market. it's moved this year to an old bank building not too far from my apartment, and the space is great for it - high mosaicked ceilings, ornate old teller's windows that serve as displays for vintage clothing and old dishware. so many pieces caught my eye, but the one i couldn't resist was this gorgeous sequined blouse, which i managed to parley down to $25. j'adore.



blouse: brooklyn flea
shorts: american apparel
tights: american apparel - a christmas gift from my little sister that i am obsessed with
shoes: nine west

this outfit may seem a little silly for january in brooklyn, and rightly so, but it is boiling in my apartment so i'm actually going to end this post to switch into a t-shirt and shorts. have a lovely weekend!

xo audrey

peace and goodwill to all

happy friday loves! i slept in, in my own bed, for the first time in weeks today and it was glorious. rolled out of bed at about 11 am and made myself a huge plate of huevos rancheros with all the fixins. today i've got a few things to do around the apartment, a bit of sewing to do, and then heading to midtown for korean barbecue with sam. should make for a lovely friday evening.

the new year has certainly made me look back at where i was a year ago, and it is rather mind-blowing how much has changed. i spent last new year in chicago; i had a job in a completely different industry, i was in the middle of school, i was single, i was planning on moving out of new york in a few short months. now i find myself completely in love, working a job i adore, living in brooklyn and pretty much happier than i ever imagined i could be. i feel so very blessed, and i just thought i should say so.

anyway! one of my goodwill finds from the day after christmas is this lovely sweater, which i scored for a whopping $4.



sweater: a goodwill outside of connecticut
skirt: american apparel
belt: urban outfitters
tights: my mom's old jazzercise wear
shoes: akira chicago
necklace: gift

all right - i've got dishes to do, clothing to sew, and emails to write. i hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

xo audrey

oh yeah, duh

i am lucky magazine's "lucky girl" of the month for january! (i got engaged during the time they asked me to photograph my outfits for a week, so it seemed particularly apropos.) i'll also have a small feature in the printed issue coming out in february. i am completely blown away and flattered by all of it - i certainly never set out to be in a magazine, but it was very fun and exciting to be a part of.

you can see the seven days of outfits here, although i think regular readers of the blog will have seen almost all of them already.

until tomorrow,

xo audrey

holidaze

hello and happy 2010! i know i am a bit late on the new year greetings - my holidays were pretty crazy. christmas on the east coast, new years on the west, work every day in between, so my apologies for my delayed well-wishing. i'm currently drinking a home-brewed beer and catching up on a bit of hulu; it feels like the first day i've had time to sit down and post in ages.

christmas was wonderful - sam and i spent the day watching violent movies, eating homemade pierogies, and drinking with his family. i slept in every day and ate more than much of the rest of the family combined. on the way home i stopped at 5 goodwills - i'm sorry i didn't know it in time to alert everyone, but every goodwill (at least every one on the way from connecticut to new york) had a half-off sale the day after christmas, which means i got a huge haul of stuff for next to nothing. lots and lots of stuff to post. sam's mom also bestowed upon me her mother's mink coat. the hem needs to be fixed but it is absolutely stunning and i can't wait for the right occasion to wear it out.



my new years was quiet, to say the least; my baby sister esther got married on the second, which meant rehearsal and dinner were the first, which meant a 7 am flight to california on new years day. the wedding was beautiful, though; 75 and sunny in southern california, and i got to dance my tail off for the first time in awhile.

resolutions: to start doing yoga on a regular basis before bed. to start an etsy shop of vintage clothes that don't fit me/don't fit my closet anymore/etc. to re-ignite my card shop online. i'll be sure to keep you guys updated as these things get going.



dress: bought at the flea market weeks ago, shortened it, finally wearing it now.
socks: american apparel
purse: kennedy holmes
shoes: aldo


i'm going to let these photos up without doing the whole black/white thing; just wanted to throw something up and say thanks for reading, hope you had wonderful holidays, and i will write more tomorrow!

i leave you with one of my favorite songs by the zombies, which i always think of this time of year. 2010 is shaping up to be a great one for me; i wish the same for all of you.



much love,

xo audrey