savory scones

hi guys! if you follow me on instagram (or twitter, or are my friend on facebook) you've probably seen photos of various savory scones popping up here and there. of all the food photos that flood my feed, these get the most comments and recipe requests, and i live to serve, so! here we go - my basic savory scone recipe. it's highly adaptable - i've made everything from bacon, egg and cheese, to duck confit and arugula, to today's beet, goat cheese and rosemary.

     

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savory scones
yields 9 scones

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup plus 2 T bread flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t salt
2 oz butter, cut into cubes and chilled
~ 1 cup fillings of your choice - chopped, cooked veggies, cheese, cooked meats, etc
enough cream to bring it together as a dough (approx. two cups, depending on the fillings you use)

1 egg, beaten with salt
cream
salt & pepper (or whatever you care to top them with)

dump the flours, powder, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor; pulse, then add the butter and pulse until the chunks are pea-sized throughout the mixture. dump into a big mixing bowl, then add the fillings and use your hands to coat them all in the dough; add cream, and gently mix with your hands just until it comes together as a biscuity dough.

dust a bit of flour on your work surface, and dump the dough out; pat it into a large square, about an inch high, and cut it into 9 pieces. place on a sheet pan; brush with the egg/cream mixture and top with salt and pepper, an herb, a small veggie, or whatever you care to - i try to use an item in the scone to help identify it.

bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes or so, until golden brown and a tester inserted comes out clean. cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

have fun with the fillings - just pay attention to the dough, and be careful not to add too much butter or cream - if i use a lot of bacon, for example, and use the rendered fat in the scones, i cut back on the butter.

enjoy!

xo audrey

animal house

bonjourno! it's been hard to do outfit posts lately, as most of my clothing has been in a big scary pile on my bedroom floor (yep, despite the fact that i am an adult, married woman, i have my own separate bedroom which is basically a giant closet/clothes hamper.) work is busy, and i think i've been out of town for something like the last five weekends - the beach, quebec city, connecticut, etc - and we're heading to chicago this week, for a much needed vacation - and it just hasn't left a lot of time for cleaning. at least, not when i have six whole seasons of dawson's creek to watch.

but i'm trying to get on my grind a bit, and that means straightening my pigsty. in doing so i've started to notice a theme in recent, and not-so-recent, clothing acquisitions - animals, everywhere.





top: thrifted
necklace: marion vidal
pants: imogene & willy
shoes: comptoir des cotonniers

i've been wearing this necklace basically non-stop, but that's only the beginning. . .

from a swan-printed kimono,

to kitty cat flats,

lady bug wide leg pants,

my small charlotte taylor ant collection,

horse-printed jeans,

this skirt, and a gaggle of creatures in brooch form, probably the creepiest of which is this kitten.


i'm also noticing that for a dog person, i have an awful lot of cat clothing.

i'm super excited to go to chicago, it's been YEARS - i met sam just days before my last visit, when i was planning to move back shortly - i found an apartment and a job, and told all my friends i'd see them in a few short weeks - then realized i couldn't leave the guy behind and threw caution to the wind to stay in new york. of course, being me, i'm most excited to eat everything while i'm there - chicagoans, what's new in the city, and where must i eat?!

much love to each and every one of you,

xo audrey

paper anniversary

hello! i feel like i all-too-often start out posts apologizing for the big gap of time between, but i feel i've barely been keeping my head above ground lately - working lots, but more than that, working extraordinarily odd hours that have turned the idea of a "sleep schedule" into a sadistic joke and me into an exhausted, cranky pastrarian (pastry chef/contrarian.) the little bakery where i work is lovely in almost every way, but it is un-air-conditioned and poorly ventilated and that basically means there are precious few daytime hours when i can work without my butter melting all over the table; i end up working in the middle of the night here, the early morning there, a regular day between and basically yawning my way through the rest of the week. so - my apologies. ac is (fingers crossed) being installed as we speak and i hope to return to a semi-normal work schedule.

but this is a post long overdue - sam and i celebrated our one year wedding anniversary a few weeks ago, in quiet, old-married-people fashion, as is our way; we stayed in, made a big seafood feast, and watched back-to-back episodes of law and order: svu, aka the most romantic show on television.

sam visited our favorite fish market in new jersey and grabbed a couple of live lobsters, a dozen fresh oysters, and some jersey corn on the cob; i picked up some fingerling potatoes and truffle oil with a vague idea for a fancy potato salad. we decided to keep it simple - boil the lobster and serve with drawn butter, serve the raw oysters with a simple mignonette, steam the corn and make the salad.

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potato & arugula salad with truffle oil & goat cheese

1 bag of fingerling potatoes

1/2 container washed baby arugula

about 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme leaves

a couple teaspoons of truffle oil

a splash of olive oil

about 4 oz goat cheese

salt & pepper

steam the potatoes and cut them into quarters (or so - bite sized pieces.) sauté them for a bit, to crisp them up, with some olive oil, then just toss it with everything else. ta-da! so simple, so delicious.

i sprinkled the corn with a little old bay, just to add a little something.

we even ate a bit of our extremely freezer burned cake, which was. . . extremely freezer burned. ah well. it was a lovely night, and very us; i feel so incredibly lucky to have found such a smart, funny, incredibly considerate, loving and thoughtful man to spend my time with; it definitely helps that he's crazy tan, handsome, and talented too.

and a happy birthday to my little sister, esther, who is one of my favorite people on the planet (and who is finally starting to like seafood, hallelujah!) love you lady!