out of character

hello everyone! i'm coming out from under a pile of wedding websites to quick post. i think i have about 88 tabs open right now - just to figure out what kind of placecards i want to do. i am a psychopath. the list of ideas i have so far is:

vintage award ribbons
plastic animals
fruit
vegetable seed packets
sugar cookies (names written in icing)
mini succulents (names on flags)
bottles of homemade infused oils
mini jars of curd or jam
tiny embroidery hoops?
strawberry plants?

somehow NONE of these satisfy me, so i keep thinking and browsing and scrawling down ideas. i'm totally losing it.




saturday night sam and i went to a skate/dance party, and i dragged a couple of pastry-making girlfriends with; we ended up sequestering ourselves to the kitchen table most of the night, drinking beer and talking pot de creme and soufflés. so when i groggily woke up sunday morning and remembered sam and i were supposed to get engagement (okay, yes, very belated) photos taken that day, i decided to whip together some brunch and try to get us in shape for a day in front of a camera. and with soufflés on the mind, i made these.

savory soufflés
(i made mine with goat cheese and prosciutto)

6 egg whites
3 egg yolks
dash of salt
55 g butter
60 g bread flour
180 mL milk
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 slices of prosciutto
about 2 oz goat cheese (half a log)
powdered pecorino romano cheese & melted butter for the ramekins

turn the oven to 350. place the prosciutto on a sheet of aluminum and let them crisp up in the oven for ten minutes or so, until good and crunchy, while you divide your eggs, prep your butter, etc. once they're out, turn the oven to 450.

put the egg whites in a bowl, carefully not getting any yolk in them. add a pinch or two of salt. wait.

prepare the ramekins by brushing butter along the sides and then coating them with the powdered cheese. you'll be able to fill about 6 1-cup ramekins.

put the minced garlic in the milk.

once the butter has melted, turn the heat to medium and add the flour. stir with a wooden spoon until it's well combined, and then keep stirring for awhile; it'll bubble, and just keep stirring, to dry it out a bit. stir constantly for 3 minutes or so, then start slowly adding the milk, bit by bit. add milk, let it combine, add more. etc. until all combined. remove from the heat.

stir the cheese and the egg yolks into the bechamel (that's the butter, flour and milk sauce.) once well combined, take the prosciutto and crumble it evenly into the ramekins. now beat the whites until they are stiff peaks. once shiny and stiff, take about 1/4 of the whites and mix them into the yolks/cheese/bechamel to lighten the mixture; then gently fold the rest of the whites in with the yolk mixture.

spoon the fully combined mixture into the ramekins, leaving them just under the top of the ramekin. place them on a baking sheet and then in the oven; immediately turn the heat down to 375. let them bake for 15 minutes or so, until they are risen and browned on top and starting to brown around the sides. voila! delicious, impressive, and way easier than they look.



i don't usually do the hey-look-it's-my-face! photos on here - i just feel weird about it for some reason. this isn't really about what i look like, i just like to feature my personal style, my food, my pretty blessed life. but today i couldn't get the light to pick up on the collar in this shirt, which is obviously the best part of it, so i had to suck it up and do some headshots. i figured it was a chance to show my little locket, anyway.





top: in god we trust (who, coincidentally, are having a spring launch party at their shop in greenpoint this saturday! come, maybe i'll see you there!)
skirt: thrifted
socks: american apparel
shoes: jeffrey campbell
necklace: ebay

all right. i'm going to tidy up the office a bit and then dive back in to wedding silliness. hope you're all enjoying your week!

xo audrey

one is sweet, one's for my feet

this morning was one of those awful, harumph-i'm-a-new-yorker mornings; it is absolutely freezing out, but of course i'm still wearing heels; i waited nearly a half hour for my first train, one of THREE i have to take to get to soho, which is probably a 3 or 4 mile trip from my apartment; every single one of the 3 trains i take was absolutely packed to the gills, which meant being smashed against strangers and kneed and elbowed all over my torso; and finally, when i got to work, i discovered my camera's battery was dead. UGH. fortunately i had a post saved for a time such as this.

i've been doing lots of wedding planning over the last week or so - well, i haven't figured out the big things, like where we're going on our honeymoon, or who's going to cater, but i DID manage to pick out a pair of shoes for the occasion. i knew i wanted wedges (so's not to poke holes in my in-law's lawn,) and i recently decided i wanted something red; a google search turned up these kate spade beauties, and i decided i had to have 'em.



we have narrowed down honeymoon destinations to somewhere hot & beachy, so i think these will come in quite handy then, too.

so i missed valentine's day on here by a few weeks (oops) -- sam and i kept it pretty low key, having a couple of friends over for dinner. sam made an amazing perch chowder (a chowder, in fact, that he caught all the fish for himself, through several inches of snow, the weekend before the holiday,)_ i put together a warm valentines-y salad (consisting primarily of goat cheese and roasted beets cut into heart shapes.) as it happened, we were all too full to eat dessert, so i made the one i'd been planning for that night later in the week when some friends were in town to visit.



white chocolate soufflé with blueberry whiskey compote

recipe adapted from epicurean

makes four large or 6-8 medium soufflés

ingredients:

3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

preheat the oven to 400°F. butter 4 individual soufflé dishes, about 8 ounces each. lightly dust the bottom and sides of the dishes with sugar. melt the chocolate over barely simmering water; set aside to cool.

in a large bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. add the salt and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. gradually add 2 tablespoons of the sugar, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form. in a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick and pale in color. beat in the remaining 4 tablespoons sugar. stir in the vanilla and the melted chocolate. fold one-fourth of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it; fold this mixture into the remaining egg whites. spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared dishes. bake for 10-12 minutes or until set and golden brown; if in doubt, give them an extra minute or two.

for the blueberry compote:

1 pint blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla bean paste (or one vanilla bean)
about 1/2 cup of whiskey

combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer on low heat until the bite has gone out of the whiskey and the sugar has dissolved; use a wooden spoon to stir and mash the blueberries. use a spoon to make an indentation in the soufflés and pour in the compote. enjoy!

hopefully an outfit post to come, if i can figure out this camera business.

xo audrey