oopsfish

hello! i'm still getting my bearings after a quick vacation this past weekend - me and a few friends booked a b&b in nashville, tennessee; i'd been looking forward to it for weeks, and i packed my suitcase carefully the night before - i'm a notorious over-packer, and wanted to travel light this time - and was headed out the door for work when i realized that i didn't have my passport. (i've lived in new york for nearly four years, and chicago for five years before that, so when i lost my driver's license a couple years ago i got real lazy and just didn't replace it.) sam had taken off for a fishing trip a morning earlier, and my passport had gone right along with him and was now residing in his jacket pocket somewhere on a river in connecticut. so. vacation was off to a rough start.

as it turns out, getting on an airplane without a photo ID is not as difficult as you may think. i brought along every piece of paper i could find with my name on it - birth certificate, marriage certificate, social security card, mail - even my wedding invitation! - and got a little extra TSA action, but got to nashville and back without a hitch. it was a perfect vacation - a few days with some of my very best friends, eating, drinking, dancing and vintage shopping our way through the city. we found a shop called savant vintage that was absolutely miraculous - jam packed with some of the most incredible vintage pieces i've ever seen, including these trousers.




blouse - vintage, from brooklyn flea
earrings - handmade by the owner of savant vintage
pants - vintage, savant vintage
shoes - madewell

so, while i was galavanting about tennessee, my sam was camping out with a bunch of his friends, and he brought home a bag full of trout of different varieties. i decided to pair one - simply prepared - with a dish inspired by one i had at city house in nashville.

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swiss chard, raisin and almond salad

1 bunch of swiss chard
2 thin carrots, cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1/2 small red onion, cut into thin slices
a splash of olive oil, honey, and white wine vinegar
kosher salt

turn the oven to 350 and place the carrots in a foil-lined sheet pan with a splash of olive oil and drizzling of honey. roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

from here it's easy - sauté the chard in the smallest bit of olive oil until dark green and limp; take off the heat and add a tiny bit of white wine vinegar, then stir in the raisins, almonds, and carrots. season with salt to taste.








the fish should be even easier - but i've been trying this new health-ish kick lately, and i didn't put enough olive oil in the pan, and i kind of mangled the poor thing. trout has such good flavor on its own that i like to prepare it simply, with a little lemon, salt and pepper; just be sure you put enough butter or oil in the pan that you don't ugly it up like i did.






ugly or not, it was utterly delicious and a nice pairing of mild and earthy and sweet.

hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and i promise more soon -

xo audrey

suit

gooood morning. last night i finally had a quiet night in, so i cracked my knuckles, set up my trusty tripod, and took a few outfit shots so that i could put the "blog" back in "blogger." i can't believe how fast this week went - friday through sunday were spent basking in sweet, sweet music (highlights: flava flav and chuck d leading a 2 hour long public enemy set that was absolutely incredible, and probably the best show of the weekend; jeff magnum playing pretty much every neutral milk hotel song you could ask to hear with the aid of nothing but an acoustic guitar. i may have shed a tear or two.) i also probably consumed my body weight in beer and tacos, so i haven't much felt like getting dressed up and looking at my feet for photos. and as for cooking - monday night i had popcorn for dinner, tuesday chinese takeout, wednesday i went out for korean bbq with some friends and last night i ate leftover storebought pasta. so really, this week has been nothing to write home. . . or you guys. . . about.

one of the things i really wanted for fall was a vintage-feeling suit. i looked at a couple of shops near my office, but nothing was quite right (for the fit or the price) - i spotted this one on asos and patiently waited for the price to drop. it did - plummet, in fact - so i snatched it up and plan on wearing the heck out of it during this not-quite-hot-but-not-quite-cold weather.




blazer: asos
shorts: asos
shirt: thrifted, similar here
shoes: miu miu via ebay (and about 5% of the original price)

my hair is a source of much frustration these days. it kind of wants to do this "i'm a dandelion!" frizz thing at the top of my head, instead of lying down all nice and smooth and happy; as a person who's basically shunned a hairbrush for most of my life, i don't really have the skills necessary to tame it so i've taken to spraying it with a water bottle every morning, smoothing it down, and going. it's working okay, but what i end up with at the end of the day is. . . well. . . what you see here. anyone have any tips? how do you get your hair smooth and calm?

this weekend is shaping up to be a good one: tonight sam and i are going to see the ides of march, and tomorrow i'm making a bunch of cookies for a friend's engagement party then going to a yom kippur dinner at another friend's place. sunday there's a street fair not too far from my apartment that a few of us are going to hit up.

what about you guys? big plans? thanks so much for all the comments - i'll be finally getting back to everyone today, with my apologies for the delay!

xo audrey

wavves

good afternoon folks! happy friday! it's a bit dreary here in new york, but i'm defiantly wearing sunshiney colors to spite the rain. i'm in a sunny mood anyway; i've got a really fun weekend ahead.





dress: AKA, via gilt (a couple years ago)
top: zara
shoes: vintage, thrifted
brooch: vintage, thrifted

so, what are you guys doing this weekend? tonight i'm making a wedding cake for a friend's wedding tomorrow; saturday a good friend from chicago is coming in town, so we're going to see SNL (!!!) and possibly sneaking to the after party afterwards; sunday, another couple of old friends will be in town and we're gathering at my apartment for fresh fish tacos.

xo audrey

and the birds cease to sing when you rise

obscure title day! i chose this lyric because a. i'm wearing turquoise, and that's the name of the song i'm quoting; b. sam's been playing donovan records a lot lately and c. i roasted a chicken last night so birds ceasing to sing seemed like a morbidly appropriate lyric!

so! after a few days of ordering food to beat the heat last week, we've decided to just embrace it and drink cold beer to compensate. we got a nifty vertical chicken roaster from our wedding registry (thanks little brother!) and i've been really loving it - it cooks the bird evenly and has a nice little well for veggies, and for easily catching the liquids that are released during the cooking. i wanted to use as many ingredients from the farmer's market as possible, so i came up with this pretty straightforward recipe.

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kumquat & fennel roasted chicken

3 1/2 pound chicken
about 1 T of good, chunky mustard (we got some at the market that is basically mustard seeds and honey, soooo good and simple)
2 T butter, melted
2 onions
fennel (i just used some leftover stems that i had)
salt & pepper
about 8 kumquats, some halved and some sliced
one ripe peach (optional)



this is an adaptation from a cooks illustrated recipe - i use their methods, but not their ingredients. makes nice, crunchy skin on the wings and lets and soft, juicy meat inside. quite tasty, indeed.

start off by brining your chicken. this, they tell me, keeps it nice and juicy, and it certainly seems to work. dissolve 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of salt into a pot of water big enough to cover your chicken, and let it sit, covered, in your fridge for at least an hour or even overnight if you think of it ahead of time. remove from water, pat dry, and set on your roaster (or in a roasting pan on a rack if you prefer.) we buy cleaned chickens that have already had their giblets and whatnot - it makes for a much easier time. preheat the oven to 375.

chop up the onions into thick slices, cut about half of the kumquats in half, and dice up your fennel and stuff the chicken as full as you can with the three. take the remainder that won't fit and scatter them in the pot below the chicken; with the extra kumquats, cut into slices and set aside. melt your butter and mix the mustard into it, then brush on liberally. salt and pepper the chicken, then squeeze and cover with the remaining kumquats. go ahead and place it in the oven and cook it at 375 for 30 minutes, plus 5 extra minutes for each 1/2 pound of bird (so if you're cooking a 4 pound chicken, give it 35.) drop the temperature down to 200 and roast for an hour, then take out the chicken, use the brush (or a baster, mine is broken) to brush with some of the liquids that have pooled at the bottom, and add the peach at this point if you want. i loved the peaches cooked this way, but sam didn't care for them - they definitely taste like chicken fatty peaches, so if that doesn't sound up your alley, skip this step. crank your oven back up to 400 and cook until a thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 170 - should be about 10-15 minutes.





kumquats: also delicious in your tecate.

unable to locate any green tomatoes, i attempted some fried green tomatillos, but they were a big disappointment. pretty though!

meeting a friend for drinks after work today, so i decided to step it up a bit and pull out a dress from my new favorite thrift store in new jersey - part of a haul that included this dress and this dress, with still a couple more to be debuted.





apologies for the mess behind me. i'm in the process of re-organizing my room and i have come to the conclusion that i quite simply need to throw a bunch of stuff away, but i have a lot of trouble parting with anything. . .

dress: thrifted
belt: thrifted
pin: c/o accessorize
shoes: nine west

stay cool and have a lovely tuesday!

xo audrey

rosemary's lady

hello hello! i present to you a SECOND post, in one day, a small pittance for my multi-week absence before, during, and after the hitchin'. after my kvetching about not being sure how to dress from my hair, i got lots of "i've-been-there"s from you guys; and most of you basically said, you can still wear dresses, weirdo. my friend chris, after pointing out that we have the same haircut (a mixed compliment, to be sure,) gave me this advice: "channel Mia Farrow a la Rosemary's Baby and keep rocking the 60s clothes. She's my style icon these days." done and done, good sir! so here i am, doing my best mia farrow a la rosemary's baby. rosemary's lady, if you will. (oh, you won't? fair enough. it was a silly stretch of a title at best.)





top: j crew
dress: urban outfitters
brooch: thrifted
shoes: vintage ferragamos, ebay'd (similar here.)

i think i'll be dragging any shift dresses and button-up blouses out of storage soon.

until next time (much food and i THINK, very soon, the big wedding wrap-up soon to come!),

xo audrey

baby's first gateau

we have officially moved on to cakes in school, thank jesus. i love bread, don't get me wrong, but breakfast bread is a different thing and not nearly as exciting. this is our first cake: a layered genoise soaked with framboise, filled with raspberry jam, iced with buttercream and bordered with caramelized almonds. YES. it was really fun to make. i get so much satisfaction from smoothing out the icing and creating perfect angles, and for those of you that haven't tried buttercream, you MUST. it is divine.

after class i hopped on the jmz just in time for rain to start, and after exiting dashed into the nearest bar to meet some folks. it turned out to be dodgeball team night at boss tweed's. the experience was rather like i imagine attending a state school would be. lots of guys in team t-shirts and spiked hairdos playing beer pong and duck hunter. when in rome - we played a couple of rounds (my team won both times. all that softball wasn't for naught,) realized it was past 1 am, and headed home, where i did not go to sleep as promptly as i should have.

it is a glorious 52 degrees in new york today, so i decided to celebrate with my new favorite dress. i found this at the flea market when i went a couple of weeks ago and i love its simple elegance. it's probably a bit dressy for work, but i thought after yesterday's cootie cutters (fuck you rod) i'd class it up a bit.




dress: vintage 60's silk crepe, according to the sweet girl i bought it from.
shoes: dsw

after loving this dress so much, i scoured etsy for some similar things:

this one via "pantastic"'s shop; lots of cute things, very reasonably priced.



samesies. this from deargoldenvintage. good stuff.



and that's all she wrote. . . until she writes some more.

xo audrey