winner, winner, potato and kale dinner

hello! i know i promised a winner on friday, but i was seriously in the throws of the worst cold/flu monster i've ever had - three and a half days, no work, completely bedridden. did you know you can be in bed so long that your body is actually sore from being in bed too long? fact. finally, saturday night, i dragged myself out of bed (just in time to catch andrew bird at the bell house) and had a semi-normal sunday, if it is semi-normal to fall asleep at 8:45 pm. so i'm not 100% yet. but i'm getting there.


top: j crew
dress: thrifted
tights: urban outfitters (fleece lined! so warm!)
shoes: thrifted
brooch: thrifted
hair: lack of cut, dye or attention in 6 months and counting

so, anyways, i promised on friday that i'd have a winner and i am a solid three days late, so without further ado: dawn of turby and john! shoot me an email (homerunballerina@gmail.com) and we'll work out the details. congratulations, wear it in happiness and health! and thank you to all of you who entered - more giveaways soon.

it's been awhile since i posted any food - which feels so wrong! - so i have a quick, easy, and even pretty healthy dinner for you guys. for what it's worth, i've become a complete instagram addict - you can follow me @oddreigh - and post my daily goings-on at the bakery a few times a day there. so it's really not that i stopped posting about food - just that i switched to a quicker, more immediate medium.

i was in ann arbor last weekend, visiting family and getting to spend some all-too-rare time with my little sister and mom, and spent a lot of time at my aunt susie's place. aunt susie and i have a lot in common - both "creative" types, i guess, who love to draw, bake and create - and she had a library of cookbooks that made me swoon. i got to flip through quite a few of them (sneaking iphone photos of the ones i want to buy for myself) but one recipe caught my eye, and was so simple i was able to sort-of-memorize it, enough to make it for dinner tonight.

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potato and kale galette (adapted from an old gourmet cookbook)

1 bunch of kale, leaves pulled of the stem, torn up and washed
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
3 T butter
2 large baking potatoes, cleaned, peeled and sliced very thin (i used a mandolin)

start off by getting your oil going in a pan, over medium heat; once hot, add the garlic and cook just until it starts to brown; add the kale, still wet from being rinsed, and cook it until it's very wilted, and much brighter green. turn off the heat, and set it aside.

now get a cast iron pan going. i used a 10 inch pan. melt about a tablespoon of butter in the pan, then mosaic about 1/3 of the potato slices over it, working quickly; add 1/2 of the kale, then another 1/3 of the potato slices mosaiced (salt and pepper this, and brush a bit of melted butter atop them,) then the other half of the kale and the last of the potatoes. basically, you've made a double-decker potato and kale pancake. brush the top layer of potatoes generously with butter, then butter a piece of aluminum foil and use a heavy pan to weigh down the stack. let them cook for ten minutes or so, over medium to medium low heat; once the bottom layer of potatoes starts to brown (you'll be able to see the edges start to brown and curl a bit,) grab a sheet pan and some oven mitts. this is the trickiest part. use a metal spatula to carefully slide the pancake out of the pan and onto the sheet pan, then invert the pan over it and flip it back onto the heat, so the browned side is facing up and the previously uncooked side is now being cooked. cook this for another ten minutes or so, and that's it! slide it off and serve. i was trying to keep it healthy and simple, so i ate it plain (i'm a fan of simple flavors, anyway) with lots of sea salt and pepper; it would be great with goat cheese, though, and sam doused his in ketchup, so there's that.







thanks a bunch for reading, and have a fabulous week!

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

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

cowlick

good morning!

welp, i had a whole, beautiful food post planned out for today (sous vide duck breast! strawberry balsamic sauce! horseradish potatoes!) and then i went and forgot my camera at home today. duck tomorrow, cowlick today. these shots are from last week and, well, i wasn't going to use them because my hair looks ridiculous, but this haircut has taught me to be humble and laugh at myself a bit more easily, so here they are.




pants: c/o adam
top: j crew
necklace: a gift from sam

my weekend was a bit rough, so i hope yours was safe & satisfying.

more soon,

xo audrey

short & sweet

good morning! apologies for lame lack of posting. it's been a kind of rough week. without diving too deep, sam lost his job this week, which is really a blessing of sorts because it means he'll be home with me all the time (his old job required him to be on the road nearly every week,) but it caught us a bit off guard nonetheless. pro: now i have someone to take my pictures every morning! con: i am so, so awkward when ANYONE tries to take my picture. husband included. 99% of them are photos of me gesturing awkwardly or opening my mouth with a concerned look. not cute. but i think we got a couple today that are useable.





pants, shirt & shoes - j crew
necklace - vintage

oh, yeah - i chopped all my hair off. when we were on our honeymoon (in curaçao, photos to come!) it was so crazy hot and humid and all i could think about was how bad i wanted to chop it all off. it's not like i haven't done it before; i've just never LOVED it. no matter. not one to learn from my mistakes, i went ahead. and i like it. i don't love it, yet. i think i want it to be a bit shorter in back and longer in front and choppier all around, but it'll get there, i think, and in the meantime it does FEEL great. i do find myself dressing to my hair a bit more than i'd like to, though. if that makes sense. like i feel like i need to dress more 'j crew catalog' and less '60s lady' because i end up looking like a 12 year old boy playing dress up in girl's clothes. sigh. none of this is helped by the verdict of my friends and family: sam's been calling me "jamie lee audrey" since i had it cut, and my mom literally emailed, "VERY pretty!! Like one of the Lost Boys if he was a sexy girl!!" LOST BOY. there you have it.

what are you guys up to this weekend? me and sam are goin' to a party tonight, then leaving for connecticut early in the am to see our niece/his goddaughter be baptized, then coming back early sunday so i can hit the jazz age lawn party with keiko. you should come, too.

xo audrey

tiger stripes

good morning! happy friday! it's been a long time coming. i'd had lofty plans to attend an event last night, but sometime around noon my teeth started hurting. real bad. now, i've had this before - i'm 25 and my wisdom teeth are still dwelling somewhere deep within my gums, and i've long clung to the fact that i have room in my mouth for mine and shouldn't have to have them removed (information imparted on me when i was about 12 by a backwoods south carolinian dentist.) i suspect he was incorrect. what started out as an annoyance became a throbbing pain so intense that i was begging sam to hit me in the face hard enough to knock a tooth or two out. (to his credit, he demurred.) needless to say i skipped the event in favor of pumping myself full of ibuprofen and relishing every bite of mango italian ices. it wasn't very glamorous, but it wasn't too terrible, either.

so this morning it was a little hard to drag myself out of bed. it's been growing increasingly hot in my apartment, too - an apartment that is so hot even in december that i wear t shirts and shorts inside. so the glisten in these photographs is no photoshop trick; it's sweat, pure and simple.





shirt: j crew
shorts: asos
belt: asos
tights: hue
sandals: j crew
tiger pin: thrifted, a gift from sam

sam has gotten really, really good at picking out little gems like this brooch for me while he's out of town; it is not only awesome but also quite impressive. i've never known a guy who could pinpoint my weirdo taste in jewelry. yep, he's a keeper.

any big plans for the weekend? sam and i are heading up to boston, to attempt entry into the beer and bacon fest and attend the going away party of a good friend (and groomsman.) should be good times.

enjoy your weekend! also, i wasn't so sure about tumblr at first, but i'm pretty much addicted to it now. should you want to follow me, you can do so here.

xo audrey

**edit: i just realized the whole name of this post was incorrect. that is not a cheetah. it is a tiger. i need to review my big cats.

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.

bagel friday.

hallelujah. friday at last. after office breakfast was such a hit last week, i'd planned on making mexican breakfast this morning; but we are having a going-away party this evening, catered with spanish food, so i decided to keep it simple and stopped off instead at bergen bagels on the way to work and grabbed a baker's dozen. (brooklynites: best bagels in the city. really.) i sliced up some red onion and cherry tomatoes (which i'd been stashing to make a pico de gallo) and picked up some lox, and voila! perfect friday breakfast.

taking all my outfit photos inside allows me the luxury of showing the outfit under the coat, but with winter winding down (fingers crossed) i thought i'd post one with the overcoat on.





i scored this vintage london fog trench at the brooklyn flea over the winter, and it has since sprung a couple of giant holes, one in each pocket; i wear it too often to take the time to sew them up, so i have to remind myself not to put any valuables in my pockets while wearing it. i'm kind of dumb that way.

trench coat: vintage, flea market
shirt: thrifted
necklace: thrifted
pants: on SUPER CRAZY j crew sale (check it out, y'all.)
socks: j crew outlet
shoes: c/o seychelles

i'm lucky to work in an office where i can basically wear whatever i want, but this shirt always makes me feel like such a business woman. it's got a little peter pan collar and i pretty much just want to wear it all the time. one of my favorite thrifted finds in a while.

all right! i'm going to get some work done and get ready for my night of tapas-scarfing and sam-snuggling.

placecard debate update: i'm thinking about the sugar cookie idea again. i keep hearing no one ever takes their favors home, and this seems like a good solution.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

xo audrey

jewelry boxer

good afternoon! a bit late on the posting today - my office is doing a shoot that involves me (being the only girl) twirling around in a long, flowy black dress. black being the one color that is almost entirely un-represented in my wardrobe, me and a coworker went shopping for chiffon for hours, trying to find the right thing (as it turns out, april is not the month to find long black dresses) and i am now sitting in a god-awful junior high prom dress with rhinestone beading on the shoulders, waiting for my turn in front of the camera.

in real life, though, i'm wearing this. my co-worker said i look like a jewelry box today, which i take to mean jewel tones + rhinestones? i've chosen to take it as a compliment.





shirt: thrifted
shorts: j crew outlet
tights: street vendor
necklace: etsy'd and repaired by me
shoes: etsy

i love these shoes so, but every time i wear them i tell myself it'll be the last time - they are about a half size too big and the slingbacks are a bit stretched out with age, so they flap every time i take a step, and after a while my feet really start to kill. the walk home should be fun. oh wait, no, the opposite of that.

tonight i'm having girls' night with a friend of mine; i think we'll see a movie, drink bellinis and give each other manicures. it should be lovely.

as far as wedding stuff is concerned - i think i've decided that, for budgetary reasons, it makes the most sense to combine the placecards and favors into one item. as such, the choices have been narrowed to either bottles of infused oil, small jars of curd or jam, or a plant of some sort; i suppose the supplies i'm able to find on my internet search and sam's vote will be the tie breaker. i'm a bit heartbroken to not use some of the other ideas, though, so i think i've figured out a way - i can get custom made horse ribbons to say whatever i want, so i think i'll have some ordered with descriptions of the appetizers; i'll embroider a hoop with the kind of wedding cake we're serving; paint little animals black and write the types of macarons on them, and so on. i think it'll be a fun way to get to use all these ideas i can't quite let go of.

i've been trying to be organized in keeping track of everything i need to buy, find, decide upon - which has basically amounted to me keeping a variety of lists in different places and then losing them and starting over. i mentioned this problem to a friend of mine today and he recommended i check out backpackit - you can sign up for a free account with that link - and it is a MIRACLE. if anyone out there is planning a wedding or another big event, or just has a lot of things to keep track of, i HIGHLY recommend it. it's super intuitive to use, and it's allowing me to link up my lists with all the pages i've been bookmarking - in short, it's a life saver. i am in no way affiliated with these guys nor do they even know i'm giving them this endorsement - it's just that awesome.

the week is officially closer to over than not! i hope you're all enjoying yours.

xo audrey

disembaudrey'd

last night was, hopefully, the last of coming home and sitting down to work. i've got about 4 more invitations to stuff, but i ran out of rsvp cards and envelopes last night, so i'm giving myself a little bit of a break and wrapping them up on saturday. i can't do one more night of takeout! tonight i have dinner plans with some friends to hit momofuku for the first time in quite a while, so i am fasting to make room for various kinds of pork and a couple glasses of wine.

j crew's fall lookbook is out, and i absolutely adore it. i'm more of a vintage girl at heart, but as a person who pretty much coats herself in color every day, j crew's bright hues and simple patterns are perfect to mix with the vintage pieces i love. here are some of my favorites: (you can see more here)





i am amused by the fact that many of the models bear a strong resemblance to jenna lyons. i am also realizing i should stop being such a dork about wearing my glasses and just do it. of course, these girls look much cooler in theirs than i do.

but anyway! my outfit for today, broken up into little pieces because i only got one photo that wasn't blurry. i REALLY have to figure out a better spot to take these.



i fell asleep on sam, watching the wire, with wet hair last night, so i had to do some urgent hair-spray and straightener work this morning. as a result my hair actually looks better than it ever has. go figure. this necklace was yet another florida thrift store find. i'll tell you what, florda = not so much for haute cuisine or nightlife, but a thrifter's dream!



this top is another thrifted find, this time up near sam's place in connecticut. the shorts are from a j crew outlet in new jersey.



tights are from HUE, in my favorite shade; these shoes - can you guess? - thrifted in florida. i wish the light in my place was better - they are incredible 60s gold shoes with little rhinestone embellishments. new favorites.

i suppose that's all from me today. i am plotting some major baking and cooking action for this weekend so i'll have something more exciting to post than me in clothes, which i am certainly bored of my now.

thanks for sticking with me, and i promise more soon!

xo audrey

thai yellow curry

last night i came home with a serious craving for curry. i'd been thinking about it all the way home, looking up recipes on my little iphone, so i stopped off at the grocery store (conveniently located right across the street) and grabbed a few things before heading home and getting down to business. i decided to make a thai yellow curry, and [vaguely] followed the recipe i found here. i added some stuff of my own, made substitutions where needed, and ended up with an absolutely delicious (if not entirely authentic) curry.



. . . which just so happens to match my outfit for today!











shirt & skirt: j crew
necklace: laura lombardi
belt: urban outfitters
tights: HUE
shoes: madewell

this week i'm dressing in a different monochrome every day, i've decided. yes.

until next time,

xo audrey

ps. i usually black out the background, but it matched too nicely in these photos so i decided to leave it in. this is my favorite place in my apartment - my kitchen. there is a pile of powdered sugar and almonds on the floor. i need to clean.

oh pleats

good morning! today was the first morning in memory where i didn't have to wear a coat! okay, i got some are-you-crazy looks on the subway, but 50 degrees is downright tropical as far as i'm concerned and i can't WAIT to get rid of the bulk of a winter coat for good. (well, until fall, anyway.) so i bundled up in a thrifted sweater, slipped into this comfy outfit, and headed in to work.

i've always loved pleating; such a beautiful texture, and the way it moves is just so stunning. perhaps my favorite part is the way it ripples at the end.



i've been saving this skirt for a warm enough day to not wear with tights - it's so soft and feels so good swishing against my legs.







top: j crew
necklace: vintage, thrifted for $1
skirt: american apparel
shoes: courtesy of aldo
i realized i've never posted a good photo of my rings. i wear them every day, so i don't really think of them as accessories but just part of me; they both mean a lot. my engagement ring (bottom) was sam's mom's (she's since upgraded,) the aquamarine was left to me by my grandmother.


tonight sam and i are scoping out a place to watch the big east semi finals - he's a uconn boy and his team beat the number one seed last night (does it sound like i know what i'm talking about? i don't!) so we're pretty pumped to see what happens when they play syracuse tonight. i actually genuinely love watching games of any kind, so i'm pretty psyched for a fun evening of beer and basketball.

and for the rest of the weekend i am looking forward to RELAXING. this week has been absolutely insane and exhausting in the best way, but i need some good r&r - and to finish my damn wedding invitations, for pete's sake!

hope everyone has a lovely weekend, and thanks so much for all the kind words of late!

xo audrey