champaign supernova

hello! a week ago sam and i were just boarding a plane back to new york - we had the most fantastic week in champaign & chicago, it was tough to head home knowing i'd be working ten days straight upon my return. we landed in chicago last thursday, right as temperatures peaked in the worst heat wave in chicago in years - the perfect time to schlep luggage to and fro before taking the red line down to meet my little sister, who picked us up and whisked us away to champaign, where she lives and goes to school.

we had a great dinner that night at big grove tavern then went to mike & molly's for some more beers and a little swing dancing - a great band was playing, and esther and i took classes together years and years ago so we literally kicked off our shoes and danced until the band went off (i have the blisters to prove it.) it was a great time.




pardon my softball player calves. too many years at second base.

top: ann taylor loft
shorts: need supply
shoes: carven (similar here)

the next day was the main event: a big dinner party for esther's birthday. we planned the menu in advance, so sam and i had stopped at publican quality meats to snag some duck confit to make what is now an old standard of hers: duck, arugula, and ricotta ravioli. (she made it the first time about a year ago, and i posted the recipe here.) she made the filling while i got to work making the pasta dough, rolling, and filling the raviolis.









also on the menu were the truffle oil and goat cheese stuffed fingerling potatoes, a constant at me &sam's dinner parties; various kebabs; and a watermelon salad that esther spotted and modified from one of my favorite food blogs, luxirare.





my cutie pie little sister, spicing away







you guys, this salad was so, so good and so easy. perfect for this crazy hot, sticky weather we've been having. even sam, who is pretty anti fruit-in-salad, was blown away by it. do it.

the food all turned out fabulously - we were sure we'd have too much but by the end every bit of food had been nibbled away.





we served the ravioli in a brown butter, pine nut and sage sauce.




once the plates had been cleared away, and people had moved outside for, well, mostly more drinking and chatting, i set about putting dessert together - grilled peaches with a vanilla bean gelato i'd made earlier in the afternoon. i didn't bother to clean the grill before putting the peaches on, and i think it actually was a nice touch - there was a slight hint of meatiness from the sausages we'd grilled for lunch balancing the sweetness of the peaches and gelato. i marinated the peaches in sweet white wine and honey before grilling them, and drizzled the whole thing with a tiny bit of olive oil and topped it off with sea salt. it was divine.




all in all, a fantastic meal and such a fun night. cooking for other people is, no question, my favorite pastime; sam is always amazed that i bake all day in a hot kitchen then come home and only want to cook some more. i'm pretty darn lucky to get to do what i love all day.

more from me, including some pretty big news that i can't share just yet. thank you so much for reading!

xo audrey

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

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!

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