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

medium rare

hello hello! i write you from a pool of sweat somewhere in soho. my god, it is hot. our office has no a/c, nor does our apartment, so i am deciding to think of my current state as "permanently glowing," rather than "constantly sweaty." and sam just brought me flowers at work! so now i am flushed with love. ah, wedded bliss. give it a try some time.

anyway! it is hot as hell, so today i elected a dress with a semi-open back that i picked up at a thrift store a few weeks ago. it's a bit big but i used a belting trick that a reader (thank you gabrielle!) gave me to nip in at the waist. naturally, the belt isn't helping with the whole sweatiness situation, but i digress. in fact, shoutout to 29 skirts! this is my first (actually accidental) thrifted thursday - everything in this outfit was thrifted, except i guess the shoes, which i scored on ebay for a song, so that kind of counts, right?





dress, belt & necklace: thrifted
shoes: scored on ebay

and this outfit happens to match what i made for dinner a couple nights ago, so why not throw that on here?




this was sooo quick, sooo easy and sooo delicious. and probably even soooort of healthy! ish!


baby romaine lettuce (i just used the pre-washed stuff they sell in plastic containers at the grocery store)
1/2 lb flank steak
about 1/4 cup of blue cheese (or feta, or goat, or none at all! if blue is too much for you)
1/2 red onion, verrrrry thinly sliced
a drizzle of really good aged balsamic vinegar

so! turn a pan onto medium-high heat. pat the flank steak dry, then sear it well on all sides, for about 3 minutes per side. let it rest and season with salt and pepper. slice, serve atop the lettuce and onions, drizzle with balsamic and crumble blue cheese on top. voila! the flank steak was soooo good, nice and juicy and simple, and worked great with the lettuce and red onions and blue cheese gave it just a bit of a bite. if you like your meat a little more cooked, cook it for a couple extra minutes on each side - this was very rare, but that's the way (uh huh uh huh) i like it.

all right! i'll attempt a 100 degree outfit post from the firey pits of new york city tomorrow. stay tuned!

xo audrey

bitty benedict

good morning! this is part II of the stuffed-grape dinner - the day i made all this food was pretty slow at work, and i spent much of the day dreaming about different teeny-tiny courses i could make for one regular-sized meal. i ended up making mini quiches (about 3 inches each,) bite-sized caprese salads, and quail eggs benedicts. in case i wasn't getting every single dish in my kitchen dirty, i made three different types of benedicts - a sampler, if you will.






first thing first - i had to make biscuits for the benedicts. i thought about buying brioche and just cutting out little circles, but i DID have all that buttermilk in the fridge from my morel butter, so i just went ahead and made buttermilk biscuits from scratch. much tastier that way, anyhow! i made a full batch, rolled out about 1/4 of it to get the biscuits i needed, and then wrapped the rest tightly and saved it (it ended up being the base of some biscuits and gravy over fourth of july weekend, so none went to waste!)




baby biscuits, brushed with cream.

next up i sauteed the mushrooms, cut & fried the ham, and sliced some smoked salmon and set them aside. time for hollandaise - i used my hollandaise for one recipe. at the same time, i boiled a small pot of water and poached 6 quail eggs. this was easier than i expected - really the same as poaching chicken eggs: drop 'em carefully in boiling water, wait for them to float to the top, scoop 'em up and let them rest for a second in a bowl.

i'm realizing now i didn't really provide much for scale - but the mushroom is a baby bella, abbout the size of a dollar coin, and covers the biscuit, if that gives you an idea.

i dressed them all differently - fresh cracked pepper on the mushroom benedict, a dash of smokey paprika on the classic ham, and some little tomato chicken juice caviars on the smoked salmon. that's right - too cheap to spring for caviar, i created some in my kitchen with a little molecular magic.



the caprese salads were easy - just buy the smallest mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes, and dress them with the smallest basil leaf you can find. salt, pepper, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic. these were delicious (of course - not many salads can beat a caprese, in my book) and surprisingly elegant - i think at my next dinner party i'll serve these as appetizers, with cute toothpicks holding them together.





and that's it! dinner was absolutely delicious, but our friends surprised us by coming over with gifts of beer and cheese and we ended up getting kinda drunk - mini dinner is not enough when up against surprise friend-beer time.





too small, perhaps, but bite-sized and delicious. i'll definitely make these again - just with less beer next time.

i hope you had a good breakfast, and have a lovely day -

xo audrey

health food

hi everyone!

i promised a normal post today, but i'm not quite there - my cold seems to have moved down to my chest (oh joy!) so i kept myself awake coughing most of the night, and thus didn't wake up in time for any cute outfitting. i DID muster up the strength to make sam and i some supper last night, and decided to make it as healthy as i could (well, as healthy as i can FOR ME, which means still pan-frying it and slathering it with cheese.) it was lovely and delicious, so i snapped some photos.








the sandwich was a bunch of leftovers on two pieces of sourdough: steamed broccoli, grilled portobello caps, and various pitted olives with a schmear of artichoke garlic cream on one side and goat cheese on the other, pan fried in a bit of olive oil.

the salad was really bright and refreshing, and quite healthy - i love beets, but i never eat them raw, so this was new for me.

1 beet, peeled
2 carrots, scrubbed
a splash each of white wine vinegar, sesame oil, and honey
1 t cumin seeds
some kosher salt

grate the beet and carrots in your food processor, if you have one, or your box grater if need be. add the other ingredients, toss, and voila! healthy and delicious.


one wedding conundrum down, and another pops up. bridesmaids gifts. this has been so stupidly hard for me. obviously i adore each of the girls that will be standing by my side on the big day, but i'm at a loss as to what to get them - they are all so different, so maybe individual gifts are the way to go, but i'm worried that will get pricey. . . any ideas? what did you do for your bridesmaids?

and thank you SO MUCH for all of your kind words on my last (mushy) post. i don't usually get so personal and it was really touching that everyone had such nice things to say and is so happy for us. . . what can i say? i'm pretty darn happy for us, too.

have a lovely wednesday, everyone!

xo audrey