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

ant audrey

greetings from a dining room table in icy cold brooklyn! it's finally feeling like winter here - the temperature has literally dropped 30 degrees in the past few days, and it's almost a relief to bundle up in a winter coat and gloves (although this haircut is leaving much to be desired warmth-wise.) i've had a pretty serious lack of outfit posts lately (and posts in general, but i digress) - it's not on accident; my hair hasn't been cut or colored since i first chopped it and blonded it back. . . whenever that was. i'm trying to grow it out, and will probably dye it back to brown at some point, but for now i'm settling for punk-rock-muppet, or whatever the look i'm cultivating is. it certainly doesn't help that i've take to dressing like your crazy, eternally single aunt. case in point, my christmas garb:



sweater: cloak & dagger
dress (as skirt): charlotte taylor via anthropologie
shoes: ebay'd ferragamos
necklace: thrifted

wrinkles and all.

anyway, for our christmas sam and i headed up to connecticut to spend it with his family. thanksgiving in california with my folks, christmas in connecticut with his; it's a tradition i've come to love, since time at home with my family is invaluable to me, of course, especially now that it means seeing my little nephew pete. my mom makes all the foods i love for thanksgiving - green bean casserole just the way i like it - and then for the christmas holiday sam's mom handmakes more pierogies than you can count, the wine flows generously, and there's a big screen tv in a den (i always wanted to have a house with a den when i grew up) to escape into. the bakery was pretty hectic leading up to christmas, but i threw together a dish i'd prepared a couple weeks earlier in brooklyn that sam went crazy over.

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bass en croute


upon a little internet searching to refresh my memory (i couldn't remember quite what veggies i used the first time) i came across this recipe, which is pretty similar. so i guess i can't claim complete ownership over this one, but i will say it's pretty easy to make and quite the crowd pleaser. particularly if you have a fridge full of fresh fish, as i do.

1 sizeable fish fillet (i used striped bass, which apparently has been on a KILLER run this fall. in case you were wondering.) i'd say about 4-5 inches wide by ten inches-ish long.
2 sheets puff pastry dough
1 egg, beaten
1 bulb fennel
1 lemon
1/2 cup greek olives
1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
about 1/4 cup chicken stock
a couple tablespoons cream
salt & pepper


preheat the oven to 375; make sure your puff pastry sheets are defrosted and ready for use. prep the fish by slicing it, long ways, in half - so that you have two fillets that look the same size as the original from above, but are half the thickness. slice 1/2 the tomatoes, the greek olives, and the fennel; saute until soft, squeeze with 1/2 the lemon juice. prepare the puff pastry sheet by placing it on a baking pan on top of some parchment paper. brush the dough with the beaten egg (there should still be plenty left to brush the outside of the pastry when finished) then place one of the fillets in the center. top it with the sauteed veggies, then place the other half the fish on top; place two slices of lemon on top, squeeze the rest of the juice over it, salt and pepper, then carefully place the second sheet on top of the fish. trim the pastry so it's about 1 inch from the fish, then fold it over itself and seal it with a fork. brush the pastry with the remaining egg, then put it in the oven. it'll take 25-35 minutes to bake; keep an eye on it, and take it out to rest for a few minutes once it's puffed and golden brown.

for the sauce - while the pastry is cooking, take the remaining 1/2 cup of tomatoes, sliced in half, and the cloves of garlic; chop them, toss the two with olive oil, then wrap them in aluminum foil and roast until the skins of the tomatoes have popped and started to brown (10-15 minutes.) remove the foil and place the ingredients in a small pan; saute on low, adding chicken stock as needed, then right before you get ready to serve, add the cream, salt, and pepper. strain the sauce to remove the tomato skins and seeds, and drizzle around the pastry. ta-da!





you can see how out of practice i am - i totally forgot to take pictures the whole time and just cooked like a normal person. i'll get back on track, i swear.

i sincerely wish you all a wonderful new year, and hope you had a wonderful christmahannukwanzukah. or solstice. i have a pretty fantastic new years dress picked out, so i think i'll be back sooner than later.

xo audrey

smitten kitchen

most of the time i cook, i do it without a recipe. this is less because i am some kind of expert and more because i have this weird chip on my shoulder where i feel like i can't really take credit for a good meal unless i made it up. despite this oddity, i spend an inordinate amount of time browsing food blogs and the new york times' dining & style pages; i've been mentally collecting recipes i wanted to try, and this weekend i decided to give them a go. i found out rather last-minute that i'd be making dinner for sam's family up in connecticut, so i fell back on a couple old reliable recipes, and tried two i've been saving for just such an occasion.

smitten kitchen, if you haven't heard of it, is one of my favorite food blogs to peek at. actually, it's one of my favorites even if you HAVE heard of it. the photos are gorgeous but feel like real life, not staged food photography, and she makes everything in her small brooklyn kitchen, which leaves me well assured i'll be able to do the same. and every recipe i've tried has been straight forward & delicious.






recipe here. mine even came out looking almost IDENTICAL to hers, until i smothered it with bacon.

i also roasted a couple of chickens - this has become a sort of 'old reliable' for me, as sam likes them so much that i've gotten pretty good at making crispy skin without drying out the meat. i stuffed 'em with a bunch of corn we picked up from the farm stand; that, and the extra meat, came in really handy the next day, too, when i made a chicken pot pie (recipe tomorrow!)



sam's sister had a ton of tomatoes that she'd offered up for use in the meal, so i pulled out this beaut i'd been eyeballing for some time now: the new york times' tomato tart tatin. my theory: finish anything with a sheet of puff pastry and it will be delicious. (again, a theory i put into action with my pot pie on sunday.)





sam, ever my fishing-lovin' man, had caught some perch and a trout the day before, so i whipped up our honeymoon soup and used the trout in place of the salmon - DIVINE. a lovely amuse bouche.




and lastly, my in-laws have a beautiful yard (it's where sam and i got married) with a couple of pear trees absolutely jammed full of pears, so i peeled a few and poached them in a sweet white wine with a bit of honey until soft. tip: i really meant to cut them in half and core them before i started poaching, but in my rush to get everything done i totally spaced it and they were impossible to cleanly cut - sam's mom did me a huge solid and chopped them up for me, but they'd be a lot easier to handle - and a lot prettier - if you cut & core them first. i served them atop vanilla ice cream with a quick caramel sauce & toasted almonds i whipped up. (i had to serve 'em quick before the hot caramel and almonds melted the ice cream, so no finished product photos.) this is a great way to use pears if they aren't ripe yet.




and that's the meal! it was a lot of food, and several dishes, but really only took a couple of hours - i find that if you mix a couple of dishes that take some time on the front end, then bake for a long time (for example, the potato roast or the chickens,) and mix those in with a couple of dishes that have some prep involved and need your attention for the whole process, but don't take much time to bake (the tart tatin and the soup,) it's really quite manageable to make a four course meal all on your own. a dishwasher helps.

thanks as always for reading, and i'm sorry i've been kind of slack on answering comments and getting back to folks lately - i'm getting back on the horse this week, i've just been a little busier than usual lately.

xo audrey

shrimp tacos & fried green tomatoes

good morning! a bit behind on outfit photos, so no ootd today, but considering pretty much all i did this weekend was cook & eat, i have no shortage of food to show & tell!

saturday morning we woke up and rode our bikes over to the fort greene farmer's market, certainly the one i frequent most often, as it's just a few blocks from our place. we filled up a backpack with all sorts of fruits and veggies and headed home; sam went out to skateboard, and i started to plot dinner.








sam and i used to eat tacos on a weekly basis, but i've slowed down on them a bit because they feel so bad for you - at least, the way we eat them: stuffed with fried fish, mexican corn, tons of cheese and sour cream. so i decided to try for a healthier version of the tacos, and you know what? i really think they were just as good.

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reasonably healthy shrimp tacos

3/4 lb shrimp
1 T olive oil
1 T hot sauce

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1/2 avocado, diced & squeezed with lime juice & sprinkled with salt

several sprigs of cilantro

red onion, thinly sliced into rings
1 T apple cider vinegar
a few peppercorns
1 t mustard seeds
salt & pepper

4 flour tortillas

1 small container 0% fage yogurt
juice of 1/4 lime
salt

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combine the sliced onion, vinegar, peppercorns, and mustard seeds in a bowl; mix well and set aside.

rinse & slice tomatoes.

rinse cilantro well.

combine the yogurt, lime juice, & salt. i used this in place of sour cream and i was AMAZED at what a good substitute it was. i am not someone who likes low-fat versions of ANYTHING, but in something with this many flavors, this worked great.

peel & devein the shrimp, then marinade in the oil & hot sauce; the hot sauce will start to cook it a bit, so don't do this until you're ready to get them on the grill pretty fast.

heat up a grill - we don't have any outdoor space, sadly, so i use this handy double-griddle i got as a wedding gift (thanks toby!) in its place, and it works really well. get it nice and hot, spear your shrimp on a few skewers, and let 'em grill. they'll turn pink and start to curl up; turn 'em, let em turn TOTALLY pink on both sides, and remove from heat. next throw your tortillas on there, about 30 seconds on each side so they get nice grill marks.

and that's it! this was pretty painless, super delicious, and relatively healthy. until i added the fried green tomatoes.









my taco (top) versus sam's. we both have a pretty healthy appetite (or unhealthy, you could say,) but he always piles on the toppings while i like my food simple, with a few flavors working together well and no one thing overpowering the other. i did a bit of research into this phenom this morning and as it turns out, girls have stronger tastebuds than boys! this is a broad generalization, of course, but it explains why i think a simple bowl of vanilla ice cream with strawberries is sheer heaven, while sam needs to drown his in caramel, chocolate, cookie pieces and three kinds of nuts to fully enjoy it.


as a side dish to the tacos, i decided to make fried green tomatoes - i'd attempted fried green tomatillos last week, with very disappointing results, and just couldn't get 'em outta my mind. so when we came upon a bin of green tomatoes, i pounced.

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classic fried green tomatoes

2 green tomatoes
2 T butter
1 cup flour
1 T turmeric
lots of salt & pepper

whisk together turmeric, salt & pepper with flour. put on a plate.

slice tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick. coat well in flour mixture.

heat a pan with butter until melted: fry tomatoes until well browned on both sides. salt again. lots of salt. salt salt salt.

add butter to the pan as needed.

that's really it! simple and good. but bad for you. on many levels! green tomatoes contain a toxin that isn't good for you in large doses, so don't eat these too often; on the other hand, said toxin is said to help prevent certain kinds of cancer, so it all evens out in the end. verdict: i'm not a doctor, eat whatever you want.





that's all from me for now! lots and lots of fancy food for tomorrow (sam's birthday wooooo!)

xo audrey

avocado squash

yep, on days when i can't think of a blog title, i default to "what did i eat last night?" one track mind, ladies and gentlemen. one track mind.

yesterday was. . . monday. [disclaimer: after missing two days last week i am now posting everything a day behind. and rather than pretend i wrote this at 8 am, i'm just going to tell you i wrote it yesterday [tuesday] when the day before was, in fact, monday. sorry for the confusion.] i just tried for over a minute to think of any adjective to put at the end of that sentence and i failed. it was a day. i worked, went home, cleaned my room, made sam & i dinner and went to bed while watching curb your enthusiasm. really, nothing to write home about. or to blog about, in fact!




where it was once a novelty to see my closet, now you just get to watch as it gets messier and messier. sigh.

this dress is another in the haul of dresses i got from my new favorite thrift store in new jersey a few weeks ago. honestly, it's not a favorite - i feel like it is way too, "HEY CHECK IT OUT: BOOBS!" which i try to avoid whenever possible, but sam loves it (go figure) and i do love the pattern and colors, so i gave it a run yesterday. we'll see if it makes the cut when i start sellin' stuff on etsy.

dress: vintage, thrifted
belt: thrifted
shoes: c/o seychelles (similar here)

i can't say enough about how much i love these shoes. they were, in fact, my wedding shoes and they are so comfortable i kept them on all night, and walked all over manhattan in them yesterday.

i've been attempting to eat a bit healthier lately, which i basically hate. i love butter, bacon, beer and pretty much all things bad for you, but (sigh) i'm not as young as i used to be, and blah blah hips-getting-bigger-whine. so i tried a mostly-veggie dinner last night and it was actually pretty delicious, and quite lovely.









this never would have happened if i hadn't spent an hour fawning over veggies at the farmer's market on sunday. such a simple tomato salad is really only pretty and delicious if they tomatoes are fresh and grown in smaller batches, and it takes cute little baby eggplant and squash named avocados to get me to eat that stuff.

basically i made 3 really quick and easy side dishes: baby eggplant and avocado squash, the former halved and the latter diced then sauteed until soft and browned in olive oil & garlic and sprinkled with salt and pepper; baby heirloom tomato salad, simply sliced up, drizzled with olive oil & liberally salted; and zucchini, fresh from sam's family friend's garden, sliced with a peeler and quick sauteed in the remaining olive oil from the squash, then sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a cheese of your choice - i used cojita, but ricotta salata, feta or any parmesan would have been great, too.

of course i served all of this with a "side" of duck confit. . . one healthy step at a time, amirite?

until next time,

xo audrey