hot child in the city

i don't mean to suggest that i am "hot," at least not in any sense except the sweaty, sleepy, sticky one. my apartment has no air conditioning (which i suppose is normal in new york, but it shouldn't be) and sam attempted to do me a solid and install an ac unit yesterday only to discover after lugging the thing a couple of states, up a flight of stairs and into the back room, that it doesn't work. so, i sweat.

i also jump. i write this while lying on my bed (and, to be honest, catching up with lost [i have no tv so i had to wait for hulu,]) and my favorite bedspread is falling apart, releasing little bits of feather all over the place; the fan i have set up keeps blowing them and out of the corner of my eye it looks like my bed is being consumed by white, furry spiders. oh, hello summer. nice to see you again.

but, not to complain. i know i've been away awhile; so what have i been up to? mostly just the usual - working, sleeping, hangin' with my man, cooking, hanging, shooting hoops. yes, sam and i have taken to playing some one on one, and i even win a few games! which sounds impressive when i tell you my fiancé is 6'2" and much less impressive if i told you what my handicaps were. but i digress. i am coming to terms with the fact that having a job where you a. start at 7 am, b. work for 8 hours with no breaks, and c. spend the entirety on your feet, lifting things, mixing things, and pulling things in and out of a hot oven, you are bound to be pretty damn exhausted after, and that's okay. so i'm going to continue to blog, as flakey as i may be, when i really wanna blog. and i thank those of you who've stuck with me.

thursday night is my friday and this past one i had a dinner party for a few friends i hadn't seen in awhile; i spent the days beforehand preparing a menu (with much input from sam,) and then making as much ahead of time as i possibly could, which led to much more enjoyment of the party itself and much less time spent in the kitchen than usual. the food turned out pretty damn good, too: a beet salad with a mini tomato tart, homemade basil goat cheese ravioli, and acai berry ice cream. of course i had a few drinks while the night commenced (ahem) and didn't take as many photos as i should have, but what can ya do.




man, sloppy pictures. i hate that. the dessert was so pretty, too.

perfect pasta.

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
2 eggs
2 T water
2 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
some all-purpose flour for dusting

whisk together the semolina flour and the salt. make a well in the middle and add the eggs, water, and oil; mix with a wooden spoon until it's all come together. add a bit of water or a bit of flour as needed; it should stick together but not be super sticky. wrap in plastic and let it rest for about 20 minutes, then knead it on the ap flour for about ten minutes, until it's stretchy and elastic. use a pasta machine (i have a pretty cheap-o one from amazon.com and it works awesome) to cut into whatever size and shape you want. you can also easily add a couple of tablespoons of chopped herbs of your choice to this for a bit of flava.

and now for clothes! huzzah! i must apologize for the silly pose. most of you have blogs - do you ever try to take an outfit picture only to realize after the shutter's gone off that the only picture that isn't blurry or otherwise unwatchable is the one where you're doing something kind of stupid? this is one of those.



i've been looking for a good pair of shorts for awhile now; somehow i've ended up with only very brightly colored and VERY short shorts from last summer. i happened into a j crew outlet this past weekend and found two pairs that are great colors and the perfect length, so i'm hoping to get a lot of use from them. this is a dress i bought back in the dorms in college off a roommate of a friend of mine, and then shortened - unfortunately, a bit too much, so now i am forced to wear it as a kind of tunic-top. the necklace is one i've had since high school, i think, but broke awhile back; it was always shorter than i wanted it so today i just attached another necklace to the opposite side and voila, problem solved. i am noticing my overuse of semicolons, by the way, and i swear to do something about it in the next post.

dress: purchased off a girl in college
necklace: off a small and now out-of-business shop called kaleidescope in carbondale, illinois
shorts: j crew outlet
shoes: pour la victoire

all right. that's enough from me for now, although i promise more soon - i have a pretty free week ahead and lots i still want to share.

xo audrey