easter monday

that is, the morning before easter. hello! how was your weekend? mine was, as usual, much too short, but pretty enjoyable (if rather uneventful) nonetheless. friday night we had a work party, and i didn't make it home until rather late, was pooped, and hit the hay. saturday morning we slept in, then i headed to the farmers market (something feels so wrong about having to bundle up to go to there, which i did on saturday, but i digress,) and got some little fish called shiners, some squid, and a couple of duck breasts with no real plan for them. when i came home and showed sam, my handsome fisherman husband-to-be, my bounty, he was horrified; apparently shiners are commonly used as bait fish, and he couldn't believe i'd been silly enough to pay for them. i insisted on frying them up though, and made him try them (he took iphone photos and sent them to all his fishing buddies so they could all share a laugh at my expense) but in the end they were actually quite tasty, pretty cheap, and completely sustainable, which makes them okay in my book.


coincidentally, it poured all saturday evening, so we stayed in and ate chinese food and watched movies, and one we stumbled upon was a documentary about commercial fishing and its affects on the ocean and fish levels; it was really horrifying and eye-opening, and i am sadly resigned to the fact that this sushi-lover will never eat blue fin tuna again - it's too awful to see how it's fished, and the population is really dwindling. i'm no expert and i'm not hear to stand on a soapbox, but if you're curious, you can watch it for yourself - it's called 'the end of the line.' (bonus! it's narrated by ted danson.)

sunday we slept in (again) and woke up to get some work done; sam decided to take advantage of the sunny day and headed out with his skateboard for a few hours, so i threw on an apron and decided to make some wedding-cake-test-cupcakes.

i want to keep the cake pretty simple - my desserts menu is no less than eleven items long, cake not included, and i've always thought a very basic cake is best, anyway, since that way you won't offend anyone with flavors. i've decided on a very light vanilla bean genoise, layered with framboise pastry cream and fresh strawberries, and finished with a lavender buttercream. i haven't made the frosting yet, but the cake with the pastry cream and strawberries is divine - almost like a cake version of strawberry shortcake.



a friend called right when i was pulling the last of the cupcakes out of the oven, so i threw on a sweater and walked to his part of brooklyn to grab a drink, commiserate over our busy lives, and share a couple of cheek-kisses before heading back home to meet sam and his friends for the end of the celtics game. (my new england man is a fan of all-sports-boston, which is a major point of contention when it comes to football and baseball, but for basketball i don't care, so i try to be supportive.) i snuck out a few minutes before the game to make dinner - grilled squid salad with arugula and lemon vinaigrette, and duck breasts a la erika. one of my very dearest friends recently went to paris and took a cooking class with a great chef there, and to try to temper my raging envy, she sent me all the recipes they'd used. this one was straight from her - a very simple preparation of the duck breast, topped of with a thyme and caramelized onion compote. it was really easy, and absolutely incredible.





sam and i have the ugliest thrift store dishes EVER. i hate them. friends, family, we are registered at crate and barrel and if we don't get some new plates i am going to hurl all of these from our second story window so that i have an excuse to buy them myself.

and that was my weekend. it could be summed up as, drink, sleep, eat, drink, eat, watch, sleep, eat, drink, eat, watch, sleep. perfect.



my outfit felt very easter-y to me, which i didn't do consciously, but i suppose is appropriate. i've got to figure out some kind of egg-related project to do this week in honor of the upcoming holiday!

shirt: anthropologie
shorts: j crew outlet
tights: gift
shoes: rachel comey

all right - i'm going to jump back into the grind, for now. have a lovely afternoon!

xo audrey

ps i'll try to include some of these recipes later on in the week - i need to grab my notes (and my friend's permission) before doing so.