cooking your nemesis

don't worry, faithful readers; this is not the post where i lose my mind and post a cannibalistic recipe. no, tonight i conquered one of my great cooking rivals - scallops. these (and potato gnocchi, which is for some reason absolutely impossible for me to properly make from scratch and cook without turning it into a slimy mush) have been my great culinary failing every time i've tried to make them at home, and it's hard to express the frustration this causes me - i'm trying to think of it's other-job equivalent, and while an athlete blowing the game winning shot, or a doctor missing a diagnosis seem too serious, i imagine it's a similar feeling on a smaller scale. every time i've tried to make scallops they've ended up more steamed than seared, and inedibly raw in the middle. utterly depressing.

sam's been out of town all week, so i've been working long hours and trying to catch up on sleep. tonight, after a particularly long day, i decided to treat myself to a decadent meal - and figure out scallops once and for all. they're one of my favorite foods when cooked properly, and they sell fantastic dry scallops across the street from my bakery - so i bought a few and headed home, determined to get it right.

success! i can't tell you how great it feels to win battle scallop after so many failed attempts. it turns out my mistake was the same one i have when it comes to trying to grow rosemary - paying too much attention, and fussing too much with it.


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pan-seared scallops with cannellini bean puree, shredded asparagus, duck prosciutto and fried egg

3-4 bay scallops (mine were "dry" scallops, meaning they hadn't been stored in liquid at the store, so they didn't need rinsing - if yours aren't, make sure to rinse and drain them thoroughly before cooking.)

1/3 cup canned cannellini beans

2 T chicken (or vegetable) stock

2 T butter, divided

1 T olive oil

a couple tablespoons of diced duck (or regular) prosciutto

3 stalks asparagus, shredded with a peeler

kosher salt

1 egg


you'll need two pans; one smaller one, for cooking the sides, and one cast iron pan for the scallops.

first, prepare the bean puree. take 1 tablespoon of the butter, and place it in the smaller pan; on medium high heat, melt the butter, then add the cannellini beans and sautee until they start to brown. remove from heat and blend thoroughly with the chicken stock until you have a nice, thick puree. set aside.

season scallops with a healthy sprinkling of kosher salt, then turn the heat back on under the smaller pan, and add the remaining butter and olive oil to the cast iron pan on medium high heat. add prosciutto to the small pan, then add scallops to the - now very hot - cast iron pan, and DON'T TOUCH. leave the scallops alone for 2-3 minutes, until they develop a nice brown crust all over the bottom. meanwhile, add the shaved asparagus to the now-crispy prosciutto. start plating with a big dollop of the bean puree in the middle of your plate, surrounded by the asparagus and prosciutto (asparagus only needs about 30 seconds in the pan with the prosciutto.)

flip the scallops and cook, again without moving, until you have a nice caramel brown on both sides. meanwhile, using the same small pan as you did for the beans and proscuitto and asparagus, fry an egg. plate the scallops on top of the puree, and then top it all of with the fried egg (i used a circle cutter to make my egg look a little more perfect, but obviously that isn't really important.)






di-vine. the scallops fell apart under my fork, and were perfectly buttery and sweet; they paired well with the creamy cannellini bean puree, slight bitterness of the asparagus and salty fattiness of the prosciutto. the egg on top (an addition i would make to nearly every meal if given the opportunity) just adds a bit more richness to a dish that is certainly rich enough as is. . . but is all the more delicious when bathed in soft-cooked egg yolk.

it was a satisfying end to a long but productive day, and i'll be adding scallops to my regular meal rotation from now on.

xo audrey

work in progress

hi everyone! i hope you all had a fabulous valentine's day - mine was very low key, which was perfect. sam insisted on staying in and making me dinner, and i acquiesced - i'm so used to cooking for the two of us, and stubbornly set in my way of doing things in the kitchen, that it's really hard for me to sit back and let someone else take the wheel. fortunately we recently re-organized our furniture, so our sofa has a prominent seat in the kitchen (i finally admitted to myself that, while a sofa in the kitchen might be unusual, it is the place where it will get the most use) so i settled myself on it and watched him mix a batch of pasta from scratch, rest it, struggle with the machine and then proceed to make what was honestly the most divine fettucine alfredo i've ever had - topped with wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms and crispy prosciutto. lesson learned: i should take a seat on the couch more often.

ever since setting eyes on the stella mccartney resort 2012 collection, i've been smitten. i've googled and ebayed obsessively, hoping to find the (seemingly not even for-sale yet) white dress covered in bows at an audrey-friendly price (i know this will never happen) - and it finally occurred to me that, of all the over-priced designer clothing i've fallen for, this was probably the most easily DIY-able. so i bought a spool of ribbon, picked a well-fitting but infrequently-worn dress from my closet, and proceeded to obsessively tie and pin ribbons onto it.



sadly, i'm a pretty good idea person and initial energy runs high; but after sewing on the first half of the ribbons, i lost steam, so i'm wearing this carefully so's not to stick myself with one of the many pins poking out of the skirt and sleeves.

dress: madewell
shoes: thrifted
bows: added by me

i'm pretty excited with the way it's looking so far. a good cocktail dress is so essential - you can tell i think so, as i have a closet full of them and yet 9 nights out of ten you'll find me at home with sam, wearing comfy pants and a t-shirt. still, i love having a cute, well-fitting dress to slip into - an outfit no-brainer for when i DO go out.

. . . which is where you come in! brooklyn industries contacted me not long ago to see if i'd like to do a giveaway for my readers (another no brainer.) i've loved the brand for a long time - my love for red pants started with a pair of theirs a few years ago, and i've admired their simple but flattering silhouettes ever since. i picked this cute dress of theirs to give away - yours, for one lucky reader who leaves a comment.



so. . . enter away, and i'll pick a winner this friday. be sure to take a look at their new collection, too - lots of good stuff to see.

so much to post, and what feels like so little [free] time. i'll be back soon!

xo audrey

white collar girl

nothing new or notable here, just a quick outfit post (a more substantial, VIDEO-INCLUDED, post to come this afternoon) - i ordered this cute little pearl collar off etsy only to realize, once it arrived in my hot little hands, that it was about big enough to around my bicep and not much else. no matter! i cut it carefully in half, stitched the ends to secure the pearls, and sewed two ribbons, about 5 inches long, between the two halves. voila! a pearl collar.

top: j crew
shorts: asos
shoes: rachel comey (similar here)
collar: vintage, etsy


more soon!

xo audrey

morels & cream

work has been very quiet for the last week or so, and it turns me into a ball of anxious energy, just waiting to escape my desk; i've even started doing some baking at work, having found that as long as i share the final product, no one seems to mind me bustling around the kitchen. monday night i hurried home from work with a project in mind: making butter.

the times posted a diy handbook recently that really got me thinking about all the from-scratch projects i've been wanting to try but putting off. now that there's no wedding planning to distract me, i plan on tackling a lot of these.

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morel mushroom sweet cream butter

1 fresh morel mushroom
1/2 t butter (for sauteing morel)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
truffle salt, to taste

i had a friend in high school whose family gathered morels from secret locations, and i've always been fascinated with this gorgeous little mushroom. (rumor has it they grow wild in some nyc parks. . . july through september, audrey leary becomes the fungus fighter, morel hunter extraordinaire!) i picked one up at dean and deluca on my lunch break, determined to make the most of it. to wash morels, you have to do something that goes against every mushroom-washing instinct i've got - dunk it in a bowl of water and shake and shake it until sediment comes out. the honeycomb like cap just traps dirt and it's the only way to get it good and clean. once you're satisfied it's de-dirtied, immediately chop it up and throw it in a saucepan with your tiny pat of butter, sauteing on low heat until it's soft and dark brown.





so! prepare a pitcher of ice water, then put your cream in a mixer or food processor and whip it until it gets very stiff peaks. and then keep whipping. it'll start looking kinda curdled. KEEP WHIPPING. it'll start to separate. GOOD! keep whipping! until it's pretty stiff and buttery and there's lots of buttermilk separated out.



strain out and save the buttermilk (i used it later for biscuits.) now rinse the butter in a sieve with that ice water until the water runs totally clear. it's important you use ice water so the butter doesn't melt down the drain. rinsing it will keep it from going bad quickly.




now, take that butter and put it in a blender (or use your immersion blender, like i did.) add salt and your morels and pulse; add salt until you're satisfied with its saltiness, and the butter is speckled and doesn't have anymore big mushroom chunks. ta-da! delicious mushroom butter.




i made this butter the same night as the egg cup custards, and decided to make a really simple pasta with some noodles sam and i picked up on our honeymoon, in curaçao.





fun with food!

all i did for this pasta was boil the noodles (duh) steam and then char some baby artichokes in chicken stock, and make a chiffonade of basil leaves, and toss it all together with salt, pepper, and the morel butter.








voila! this pasta managed to be both light and rich; the morels come through beautifully on the noodles, and the basil helps keep it fresh and not too heavy.

enjoy! my apologies for the overload of food pics. . . i'm having a love affair with my camera these days and i'm bad at editing myself.

xo audrey

seeing spots - a DIY

it is no secret that i am obsessed with tights. they are one of the few things i really love about winter, a so-called accessory that basically take the place of pants for me for a couple months of the year (when paired with a good pair of seamless thermal long underwear.) i've spoke of my admiration for bebaroque before, and today i decided it has been way too long since i posted a DIY on here. which, i guess, brings me to thing two i love about this time of year - being cooped up in the apartment leads to forced creativity. i've thought for awhile i'd like to try my hand at a pair of modified tights, and i thought this would be an easy way to test out the idea.



need:

one pair of tights (i used some old ones of my mom's, passed down to me a couple years ago; i know they've held up for 15 years or so, so they have to be pretty resilient to the elements)
some embossing powder
an embossing heat tool (a hot hair dryer might work. . . i haven't tested it, though, so i make no promises.)
stamps or an embossing pen

i'm a major craft nerd, so i have all this stuff just lying around my apartment, leftover from my major card-making days. my original idea was to try some stamps, but when i looked through mine they all seemed way too card-specific: a christmas tree, a star of david, the words "you're invited," (which would just be wrong on tights, i think.) i may try to scout some cool stamps and try again on another pair soon.

start by finding something to pull the tights over - something approximately the size and shape of your leg. i put a lot of my pantry ingredients in big glass jars, so i had a nice long one that was pretty much the exact shape of my thigh. stretch one tight leg over this, paying attention to how far down you pull it, and making sure to draw on the front side of the tights.

so, i just used an embossing pen and drew a really simple design down them - vertical stripes, about 3 or 4 at a time. draw it over a few times, then stop, pour some embossing powder over the ink, and snap the tights a couple of times to free the extra powder - make sure you do all this with a piece of paper underneath, so you can save and reuse the reserve. i swear i've had the same little jar of embossing powder since i was about 12.

continue until you've got it as long as you want, doing a few inches at once, stopping, adding powder, loosening the extra and using the heat tool to emboss it. be careful not to leave the heat stationary on one part of the tights - they are pretty resilient (at least, mine were,) but they'll burn little holes if you give them too much.

and voila! clearly a first-time effort, and far from perfect, but i'm pretty happy with the results. very hand-drawn, to be sure, but the possibilities seem endless. i want to try stamps, and sewing on them - maybe this weekend if it stays this cold.





worn with

marc my marc jacobs tunic, nordstrom's (courtesy of stylefind*)
shorts: mary meyer
tights: DIY'd
shoes: nine west
necklace: blueberi (small store in DUMBO)

(* stylefind is a new site that is kind of gilt group meets net-a-porter: a wonderful selection of clothing, shoes, and accessories, carefully chosen by the editors of instyle. they also offer a daily exclusive discount, and collect special offers from around the web for you to check in one place: what online stores are offering free shipping, discounts, etc. a highly recommend from me.)

i have another idea for a DIY i want to try later this week, so stay tuned!

stay warm out there!

xo audrey

sparrow

hello everyone! it's my weekend woooo! this month i'm working at 5 am both wednesday and thursday, so by thursday afternoon i am SO ready for a couple of days off. i'm kicking this one off right with some ramen and a homebrew. yes, when i have no one to cook for, ramen is my not-so-secret indulgence. sometimes when i'm feeling really nutty i fry an egg on top. yum.

so THS is actually the DIY i was talking about. i've had this bird necklace for ages but it was always a kind of awkward length, and then it broke, but i could never bring myself to throw it away ("i could never bring myself to throw it away" will probably be the subtitle of my biography someday.) i'd kind of half-destroyed it, thinking i might incorporate it into one of those fabulous cluttered collars marni showed on last year's runways, but never wore it or really thought about it again. until now. no necklace seemed quite right with this top, so i just sewed this one right onto it.



top: anthropologie
shorts: mary meyer
tights: cynthia rowley (via gilt)
shoes: vintage, etsy'd

these tights have these amazing freckled black studs in the back of them - you can kind of see them on my right leg a bit here. they remind me a lot of some of the detailing of bebaroque tights that i love oh so much but can't really afford - but i had a gilt credit so these puppies were free!

a word about vintage shoes. i have NEVER bought a pair of vintage shoes, from anyone, anywhere, that didn't fall apart in one way or another in very short order. whether it's a strap breaking, the heel falling apart, or the sole wearing through in a matter of days, this is such a source of frustration for me. these ones i've sewn up by hand time and again and they continue to sprout new holes. does anyone have a reliable place to buy vintage shoes? or is this just how it goes? i do walk alot, and it makes sense that something that gets so much wear and tear would fall apart a lot faster than, say, a dress; but damn, i've pretty much given up on secondhand shoes. it doesn't seem worth it to get them all re-heeled a week after i bought them in the first place.

tonight i'm heading out with christine from my style pill for a bit of a girl's night - there will be wine, sushi, and dancing involved, and, of course, as much dressing up as i can manage in this sub-par weather.

ive had a couple of questions about macarons - i have been trying out a few recipes to find the best one, so i'll report back this weekend. i just got a new scale so i can more accurately test things, and i have been VERY impatiently waiting for this to arrive:



but it seems to be on backorder. cross your fingers for me. i didn't go to culinary school for nothing, though, so i certainly have some tips to share and will do so when i post the recipe for the next batch.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone! until next time -

xo audrey

at last

i finally, finally fixed this dress into something i like. i splurged on this months ago and have worn it less than a handful of times since; i'd decided i would diy it into something i would actually wear, but i was too chicken to actually cut into it. until today.

it went from this:



to this:



a nice little crop-top for the summer. i sewed the back closed, too, so i can finally wear a bra with it (hooray!)

and to top it all off, the skirt is still functional, and better than ever! i'm sure i'll be posting that soon.

that's all for now. hope you're enjoying your weekend!

xo audrey

*edit* holy shit, i'm pale as can be. the first picture was in the middle of last summer. i need sun, guys. if my transparent skin can take it.

favorite shirt, take two

good morning! if you're in new york today you know how hot and sticky it is. now imagine this heat and humidity but trapped in a 12'x12' room filled with ovens and burners. needless to say i got my hustle on while making peach cobbler this am.



shirt: smith & butler
skirt: diy'd
shoes: devotte
necklace: mama

i made this skirt months ago and haven't worn it - after putting everything away a couple days ago and realizing how much i have that i never wear i'm trying to get through it all (mostly so i can justify hanging out to it.) i had a long slip that i turned into a shirt (the one i wear constantly, like here for example) and took the bottom ruffle and added it to a white american apparel skirt that i rarely wear. i think i like it here though. with the long shirt and necklace it's kind of flapper-y. if it wasn't so damn hot i'd add some elbow length gloves to this ensemble and be ready to charleston.

i've long been a fan of bebaroque (i wax poetic here and here) and perusing pixiemarket yesterday i discovered that not only are their tights finally available in the us at a store i love, but they have an entire new line available and it's gorrrrgeous. buying tights in august doesn't feel quite right but these puppies are bound to sell out (just like this blouse i'm still kicking myself over resisting) and i gotsta get some while i can. get yours.





and lastly on the wistful list of wishes: nina ricci on gilt yesterday, and i missed the dress i love best.



lots of beautiful, flapper-inspired frocks though. . .



of course, even the ones that aren't sold out are a liiiittle outside of my price range. oh well. a girl can dream.

happy hump day!

xo audrey

weekend recap

happy monday everyone! insomnia struck me last night for the second sunday in a row, but for some reason i feel pretty alert today. maybe all the extra sleep on wednesday and thursday are carrying over. who am i to question it?

this weekend was short and wonderful. friday night was spent dancing in windows and taking shots with spramps and some of her friends. couches acquired. high-fives given and received. glasslands dance party sneaking. and dancing, naturally. saturday we had brunch and a lazy day spent in the sun, dipping in and out of boutiques, smoking on a roof and then going to a loft party in brooklyn and eating a giant slice of pizza in the back of a tahoe. yesterday i finally slept in, had brunch, then spent the evening sewing and cleaning my bedroom.

the result of some of that sewing is this shirt, which was a never-worn american apparel short sleeved shirt (one of the first things i ever bought at american apparel, i remember the stars in my eyes when i walked out with it.) i cut off the sleeves, hemmed them in, and added this panel of distressed shirt fabric from a tank top i'd unraveled a few weeks ago. ta-da!



shirt: reconstructed by me
skirt: american apparel
tights: same
shoes: pour la victoire
necklace: ebay

class tonight, then hopefully i have more luck sleeping. hope everyone has a pleasant monday.

xo audrey

marni lovin'

i am not knowledgeable about labels, nor do i pretend to be. nor, really, do i want to be - since i've started paying more attention to other fashion blogs, i've started to see things i like and think, wow, that's cute, maybe i could find something by that designer i like! . . . and then experience [virtual] sticker shock when i find out that those shoes/that dress/these earrings are $900 or so. but i've seen two different blog posts mentioning the marni runway show, and i LOVED what i saw, so i had to check it out for myself.





i saw this first on glamorai's site - she made it into a nice little DIY, which i am attempting myself. this has meant scouring etsy and ebay for lots of brooches (and losing two bids on them in the process.) i'm hoping to make it out of work in time to stop in the salvation army before heading home to see what i can scrape together there.

i'm working on another DIY that i'll post soon. i'm having a sick day (wearing pajama shirt with some wide leg pants, verrry cozy) so no photos today.

xo audrey

somebody else's clothes

this is the first bit of sewing i did when i moved to brooklyn. i smuggled this shirt from sam's dresser, spirited it away in my suitcase and, upon arriving in williamsburg, decided that i desperately needed a onesie. it was a quick few stitches, and voila!

of course, this renders it entirely work-inappropriate, so i donned it under a pair of jeans and some boots today for a more rosie-the-riveter sort of look.



shirt: sorry sam. club monaco?
belt: anthropologie
tights: hue
shoes: akira chicago

tonight we made macaroons! they are rainbow-colored and gorgeous and i'll post photos soon.

much love!

xo audrey