breakfast for dinner

hello! last night i scurried all the way to the upper east side, to an event thrown by decades to benefit sloan-kettering hospital's cancer center. basically, i got to sip champagne and feast my eyes on some of the most beautiful designer vintage clothing i've ever seen in person - none of which i could afford, of course. still, it was fun, and i got to catch up with a long-lost friend, which is always a good thing.
 

top: thrifted vintage
scarf: thrifted
boots & skirt: madewell
earrings: c/o charming charlie

 i got home and set straight to work on dinner - i'd scored some duck eggs and house-made corned beef hash from work, so i had a vague plan for breakfast for dinner. i heated up the oven, got some pizza dough rising, and set about chopping.

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breakfast pizza 

one batch pizza dough - i use this recipe
white or red sauce - i made a bechamel sauce (basic recipe here) with onions, mushrooms, ramps and fresh ricotta
toppings of your choice - i used baby heirloom tomatoes, duck prosciutto, avocado and an egg

heat your oven as high as it will go without broiling - mine was up to about 550. put your pizza stone or a sheet pan inside to heat up with the oven. make your sauce, then roll out your pizza dough on a piece of parchment so you can easily slide it onto your sheet pan/pizza stone. bake it for 2-3 minutes, then pull it out and spread your sauce over the dough, and add the toppings that need more time - for me, it was the tomatoes and prosciutto. bake these for 5-6 minutes, then pull out and add the egg and avocado; bake for five more minutes or so, until the white of the egg is fully cooked.
 

while everything was baking, i quickly threw together some corned beef hash.

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corned beef hash

 3 large idaho potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
a spring of rosemary, finely chopped
1 cup of prepared corned beef hash (mine was dressed with some mustard and mustard seeds, salt, and pepper)
butter
3 eggs (i used duck eggs, just because.)

once everything is chopped, it's quite simple; use a cast-iron pan and add a couple tablespoons of butter. add the onion, and sautee until soft and transparent; add the potatoes, turn the heat down to medium-low, and just let those potatoes cook through. don't worry too much about them sticking to the pan; add a bit of butter if this happens (my favorite solution to any problem) and you'll just have some nice crispy bits. add the rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste, and the corned beef (chopped into bite sized pieces) once the potatoes have cooked through, and stir occasionally; i put mine in the super hot oven with the pizza, still baking, so they'd be ready at the same time. while the hash crisped up in the oven, i fried the duck eggs to place on top.
 

i didn't get home to start cooking until nearly ten o'clock, so by the time we sat down to dinner it was a rather unhealthy 11:20; it felt sort of right, though, eating breakfast in the pitch black, all sleepy-like. but instead of just waking up, i got to go to bed right after. bonus. have a wonderful week, and more from me soon -

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

sunday supper

hello hello! i hope everyone had a great weekend. friday night i got dressed up and went out, for the first time in ages; an office i worked in for a year when i first moved to the city is closing its doors for good, so all employees, past and present, met up for the first time in ages and knocked back a few. a jolly good time was had by all, and i poured myself into bed at about 2 am and slept until 11. saturday was a much-needed cleaning day: my bedroom has become a dumping grounds for weeks, and it was piled knee-deep with bags of ribbons, vellum, and invitation stuff, as well as about 38 pairs of shoes, clothing in need of mending, and god knows what else. i sorted through it all, hung all my clothes, and now the bar in my closet is bending to the point that i am starting to worry it'll snap.

and i finally COOKED! glory hallelujah! my little sister sent me a crock pot as an early wedding present (she being the on-top-of-it one in the family,) and i have been so itching to use it to make pulled pork sandwiches that sam has actually had to stop me once or twice. (he: "if it takes 12 hours and you start right now, you'll have to wake up at 3 am to turn it off. how about we just do it tomorrow?") i got it started saturday, though, and last night we had a pulled pork family dinner FEAST. it was awesome. (recipes below.)


ashlee: make sure you get my boobs in the picture. me: don't worry. they refuse to be left out.





pulled pork

prep time - 12-18 hours

3 lbs pork tenderloin (i've read that shoulder works just as well at 1/3 of the cost; this is just what they had at our market.)
1 large yellow onion
your favorite barbecue sauce (i wanted to make my own, but sam swears by kc masterpiece)
your favorite spices: i used fennel, paprika, smoked salt, turmeric, sage
a couple cups of apple juice

do a rough chop of the yellow onion and put it in the crock pot. rub the tenderloin with the spices, or just a rub you like if you have one; put it in the crockpot and add more spices, if you like (i don't measure these, just do 'em to your fancy.) pour about a half bottle of barbecue sauce on the pork, and then enough apple juice to almost cover it. cover the pot, put on low, and let it go for 8-12 hours. (it'll start to blacken; it's ready to pull when it falls apart easily when forked or picked up.) pick out the big piece of meat and put it in a bowl; strain out the juices, save the onions, and dump them in the bowl with the meat. now start pulling. you just want to shred the meat as much as possible. it's a pretty visceral activity, really. once you've got it really well shredded, dump it back in the crock pot and add the remainder of the barbecue sauce. turn it back on low and let it go until you're ready to serve.

pickled onions

prep time - 10 minutes
(best if you let them sit for an hour or so before using.)

2 large red onions
about 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 t mustard seeds
4-5 allspice berries
4-5 coriander seeds
some ground fennel (okay, yes, i just put this in everything.)
a few pinches of sea salt
plenty of fresh ground pepper
pink peppercorns (if you've got 'em)

thinly slice the red onions and put them in a bowl. add everything else and mix well. let it sit. ta-da! the longer you wait, the better they'll get; these'll keep for a couple of weeks if well sealed.




i gorged myself on momofuku last thursday, and one of the best things i had was a brussels sprouts dish with thick cut bacon and carmelized apple. i took a stab at it last night and it was sooo delicious; i subbed duck prosciutto for the bacon, since i had some that i needed to use (because i'm a weirdo) and the one thing i'd change was the way i cooked the brussels sprouts - steam them, don't boil them like silly me - they get too wet that way.

brussels sprouts with duck prosciutto and apple

about 3 cups of brussels sprouts, cut into quarters (or half if they are really small)
3/4 cup or so of thick cut bacon, duck prosciutto, or whathaveyou cut into lardons (thick dice)
one apple, peeled and cut into dice

steam the brussels sprouts for about 4 minutes, until they are starting to get tender. at this point i would try to get them as dry as you can - maybe squeeze them in a towel to release any residual liquid. set aside.

get a good, steel-bottomed pan going on medium high heat. once it's good and hot, add the bacon and cook it until it's good and crispy. add the brussels sprouts and toss them around for awhile to get them nice and bacon-y. add the apples, toss around, and then take off heat and serve with salt and pepper.



and lastly, for dessert, i made little almond lemon-curd and blackberry tartlets. super easy (so long as you have lemon curd in your fridge begging to be used, as i do,) and SO tasty.



almond tart dough (from here)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 large egg, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon almond flour

beat butter and sugar together in mixer until combined. add the egg and mix it just until combined; you may need to help it a long with a spatula. add the flours all at once and mix just until it comes together.

lemon curd: when i made mine, i used this recipe (to use up egg yolks) - it worked perfectly.

so - roll out the almond dough. i used powdered sugar instead of flour for my bench. use a cutter (i think mine was about 3 inches) and a mini cupcake tin to get the mini tart shells; put them in the freezer until they're firm, then bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until browned.

in the meantime, clean your blackberries, add a bit of vanilla and some sugar to them and stir until coated.

pipe in the lemon curd and top with a single blackberry. crank the oven to 400 and bake them for about ten minutes, until the curd has set. let them cool for a few minutes. they are great on their own, or you can top them with some ice cream or whipped cream; ashlee whipped up some cream with a bit of powdered sugar, then i poured the juice from the blackberries into it to give it a little flavor.





and today, back to the grind. the highlight of saturday was probably the uconn game; sam and i had intended on going out to watch it and NOT be total hermits, but instead i put on pajama pants and we drank coors light and watched it on his macbook pro. ah, domestic bliss. so today i'm wearing uconn blue and we've promised ourselves to leave our apartment and watch the game in the presence of actual living human beings. it should be a good time.







dress: madewell
brooch: snagged off a necklace, courtesy of accessorize
belt: snagged of a top from the (now defunct?) church & state
socks: american apparel

shoes: madewell

that's all from me for now. thanks for reading, happy monday!

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.

a bone to pick with winter

so at this point in the winter, about 5 months in, i have basically begun wearing summer clothes layered over long johns and tights. i am so, so ready for good weather to come. we've had a couple of teaser days - a couple weeks ago it was 70 DEGREES, and i spent the entire day walking outside in shorts and sandals. but this week has been pretty brutal - pouring rain on monday, and bitter cold these last few. tomorrow is going to be 54, which sounds downright tropical at this point, and i think i'm going to drag sam on a donut-eating bicycle ride around brooklyn. we'll just have to think warm thoughts.

the place i work now produces tv commercials, and yesterday they shot a few things in the office - one of those things being me applying lipstick. apparently my outfit was too "urban" for them, so they asked that i wear something a bit more "midwestern business woman," at least from the shoulders up. this was the best i could do.



shirt: thrifted
shorts: vintage, courtesy of market publique
tights: street vendor
necklace: a gift from my sweetheart
shoes: madewell
belt: thrifted

last weekend sam and i became movie moguls at bam - what this means is that we can now see any movie showing there for free, any time we want, without worrying about buying tickets in advance. which means that despite the fact that tonight's showing of repulsion, with an introduction by miss catherine deneuve herself, is sold out, we'll be in attendance.

other than that, and eating lots of donuts, i'll be trying to finish up our wedding invites and starting to work on a big, exciting pastry project, details of which will follow shortly.

what's everyone else up to this weekend?

wishing you warm weather and tasty brunches,

xo audrey

auld lang syne, my dears

a belated happy new years! i spent mine in chattanooga, as i mentioned, and managed to remember every camera cable, every charger - and forget my battery charger. the camera died the instant i pulled it out. so, there it is. starting the new year off with no bang.

so, i have to admit, this shot is staged. my friend ashlee came over the other night and we had some wine and she, being a photographer but without her camera, decided that i should dress up and she'd take pictures of me. i'm pretty awkward when most people take photos of me, but the glass or two of wine helped, and we got a couple shots that i actually liked quite a bit. this one is my favorite, though, most likely because my entire face is obscured by syrah.



dress: madewell
necklace 1: gift from sam, from california
necklace 2 (rhinestones): also actually from sam, from our recent trip to the south
tights: courtesy of stylefind
tights 2 (patterned one): sam's mom gave 'em in my stocking
shoes: madewell
belt: urban outfitters
purse: gift from a friend, marc jacobs

back to my trip, though - sam and i had a great time, despite the desolation that is northern georgia. i was so excited to hit every goodwill within a twenty mile radius, and i did so, but was left pretty disappointed in the selection (and pretty depressed in the atmosphere in some of them.) i guess it was a wake up call of sorts - i grew up without a lot of money, and certainly shopped in thrift stores out of necessity; today it's more to try to find fun, unique things for a steal, but what a reminder that a trip to the goodwill isn't all fun and games for some. it was humbling, for sure. but everyone was so incredibly friendly, that it wasn't an entirely lost cause.

for reasons to complicated to explain, my flight got really screwed up and we ended up staying in atlanta for one night, and exploring the outer regions some - we found this awesome jewelry store, right next door to a salvation army, and i snagged 3 necklaces that will be getting a lot of play, including one of the two i wore on new years. i've never been huge into jewelry before, but one or two great pieces have really got me kind of addicted.

so our days were mostly spent exploring the country and eating really bad(ly awesome) food such as outback steakhouse and red lobster, and our evenings were spent in the hotel. sam got an amazing room with a giant whirlpool actually like 2 feet from the bed, so we could sit in it and drink wine and watch hockey. which we did. a lot. one game (penguins v. capitols,) one hbo special (24/7 penguins) and mighty ducks I and II. it was not the most glamourous way to spend the new year, but we had a damn good time.

the night of new years we did have an amazing dinner, though - we drove the half hour to chattanooga and sam had booked us a reservation at a really incredible little restaurant that was serving a 4-course prix fix menu. it was lovely, with the small exception of the fact that i'd developed a cold so bad at that point that my outfit was outplayed by my extreme kleenex rash under my nose. ah well.

so, there is my horrific-ly out-of-order new years holiday. how was yours? did you do anything special?

and lastly, a recipe to start off the year! i had the idea to try making creme brulee in oranges, to see if they would pick up some of the flavor. having just sucked one down i can say that it did have a very mellow orange flavor and was pretty delightful, and the orange does make for a pretty presentation (and easy cleanup! just scoop it clean and throw it away [or compost if you're cooler than i am.])




orange infused creme brulee

first - hollow out two oranges. it's kind of an annoying task, and be careful when you get to the bottom that you don't rip out the little stem, which leaves a big hole. i've been there.

you'll need:

2 oranges, cut in half and scooped
4 yolks
1 cup cream
2 T plus 1 T sugar
pinch of table salt
2 T vanilla or vanilla bean extract
2 T fresh squeezed orange juice (just squeeze the stuff you scooped.)

heat oven to 300, and get a kettle with some water ready for boiling.

first - put 1/2 cup of the cream, the vanilla, the salt, and 2 T of the sugar into a small saucepan. stir for a bit to make sure the sugar dissolves. once it starts to boil, turn off the burner and now put your yolks in a bowl - wait until now if you can, so they don't dry out. add the remaining 1 T of sugar and the orange juice and whisk until combined. add the remaining 1/2 cup of cream to the saucepan, to cool it further, then add the cream, bit by bit, to the yolks, whisking all the while. add it all, whisk til combined, but try not to add too many bubbles.

use a sieve to pour the mixture into a 2 cup measure. place the oranges in a small pan - i just used a 9" cake pan (you want it to have high-ish sides.) turn the kettle on so the water boils, and fill the oranges to about 1/2 inch from the top. carefully put them on a middle rack in the oven and then pour boiling water up to 2/3 of the orange. bake for about 30 minutes; they are done when they don't slosh, but just barely jiggle. let them cool off, then cover them and put them in the fridge for several hours (or even a couple of days.) when ready to serve, cover with turbinado sugar (shake off any excess) and use a torch to brulee it. voila! an elegant, delicious and seasonal dessert.



all right, i'm off. sam has been downloading d3, the last of the mighty ducks trilogy, and i have some roasted chicken and dutch macaroni and cheese to scarf.

happy 2011 everyone, may it be our best year yet!

xo audrey

chattanooga choo choo (er, airplane)

after trudging off to work this morning in 20 inches of slow that is rapidly turning into a city full of slush, i'm headed off to chattanooga for a nice, long weekend with sam. plans include a lot of thrifting, sleeping in, and free hbo - in other words, a very quiet, low-key new year. we do have reservations at one of the fanciest restaurants in chattanooga (i'm not sure what to make of that sentence,) and i look forward to weather warm (enough) to get away with tights with no long johns underneath, and open-toed shoes.

in case i don't have internet access from the hotel room (heaven forbid!,) have a great weekend and a phenomenal new year, everyone. i don't have the presence of mind just yet to get sappy about 2010, but it has been a truly fantastic year, and i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading. i've been up and down on this thing and it means a lot to me that you've stuck with me.



my comfy traveling outfit:

sweater: picked up at a renegade craft fair a couple years ago
pants: super on sale rodebjers that i finally just sewed skinny a couple of days ago. i don't wear wide leg pants.
shoes: madewell
necklace: thrifted

oh yes and!! to leave you on this delightful note, in honor of the new year, with my thanks to the beautiful and befreckled linsey of the indo projects - some caviar and champagne. . .

. . . handstitched out of sequins.






all these things and more, right here.