brunch

sunday afternoon, four old friends from culinary school came over for brunch. in other words, five pastry chefs gathered at my apartment sunday and they all brought food. for my part, despite two late nights in a row - friday night was my going away party at work, and saturday night was a close friend's birthday - i roused myself at a reasonable hour (10 am is reasonable, right?) and started cookin'.













the apple cake i made can be found here; it was great, nice and light, not like a lot of apple cakes which end up really dense (also delicious, but when you're got a zucchini, asparagus & goat cheese strata, 2 kinds of eclairs, chocolates, a spice bundt with caramel icing to get through, you've got to keep it light any way you can.)

my other contribution (aside from some fresh-squeezed juice to house the champagne) was a smoked duck, beet and goat cheese hash, a variation on one of my favorite breakfasts of all time. it takes a bit of time (mostly for the beets to roast) but it so well worth it.


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smoked duck, beet and goat cheese hash

1 smoked duck breast, cubed
2 large beets, roasted until soft when pricked with a fork and cubed
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled, boiled and cubed
1 4 oz goat cheese log
4 thyme sprigs
salt & pepper

start a large saucepan on medium high heat; add duck. sear it on all sides, then add thyme, beets and potatoes; cook until crispy on the sides, remove from heat, and stir in goat cheese. salt and pepper to taste; serve with fried eggs atop if desired.

easy as pie! and so, so savory or delicious. you can really sub in any meat you like, but the duck did work great with the beets and goat cheese.

i started the new job yesterday, and i have to say, it's pretty incredible. now that i've emptied my camera of brunch photos, i'll be sure to document my goings-on in there. and i'm off work around 2 every day, so i should have some daylight time for an outfit post or two. . . as long as i don't fall asleep watching netflix at 3 like i may or may not have done upon arriving home today.

hope all is well, and more from me soon -

xo audrey

ma[ca]rooned

hello everyone! hope you're enjoying your weekend. i've spent my day sequestered inside my warm apartment, sorting through clothes and whipping up eats when i get hungry. i think i've gotten something like 30 hours of sleep since thursday; the early mornings at work don't seem to be getting easier, and i make up for all my lost sleep on thursday and friday nights. today i rolled out of bed at about noon and, upon surveying the refrigerator, decided to make crepes to use up some fruit i had rapidly ripening in there. i think i ate about 5 of them.






vanilla bean crepes:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 T sugar
1/2 t vanilla bean paste (or 1/2 t vanilla extract, or 1/2 vanilla bean)
1 t melted butter
~1 cup milk (i used 2, but any will work)

combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together, then make a little well in the center of the bowl. add the vanilla, melted butter, and milk to the well and then whisk very close to the middle of the bowl, mixing only the wet ingredients together at first; the dry ingredients should start to come into the mixture as you mix. slowly expand the radius of your whisk until you've thoroughly incorporated the dry ingredients to the wet. check the batter; you don't want it to be gloopy like pancake batter, but pretty runny so that it will create a thin crepe. add a bit more milk at a time if needed. put it in the refrigerator and let chill for about a half hour.

in the meantime, melt some butter. it helps if it's clarified butter, which you can make ahead of time by melting a pot of butter and skimming all the fat off the top until you have a clear, yellow liquid; but just plain butter is fine too. take a paper towel and roll a corner to make a little paintbrush of sorts. use this to put butter on the pan, so you don't get too much at a time and can spread it over the entire pan.

you cut up fruit or get your nutella or whatever you want to put inside ready to go, then heat up a small-ish non-stick pan on medium high heat. get the batter out of the fridge. i use a small ladle to spoon out a bit of batter onto the prepped pan, then quickly swirl it around to cover the entire pan. once the edges start to turn brown, use a small offset spatula to flip it. cook for a few more seconds, then flip off onto a plate. voila! really quite easy and very light and delicious.

also wrapped up those macarons i mentioned last time. i stuck them in the freezer to let them soften a bit; a full report when they are ready, but until then:







they are filled with a vanilla-honey buttercream. yum.

anyway! i do have a few things to add to my etsy shop this week; i'll post the first 3 tomorrow, but here's a preview for you guys. if you are interested in anything, or curious about the price, post a comment or drop me an email; i'm happy to reserve anything for anyone before it gets posted on etsy.


vintage embroidered mexican top (SOLD); vintage polka dot blouse; vintage jersey striped dress.

have a lovely sunday! i hope you all get to have a delicious brunch tomorrow morning. it's one thing i miss most now that i have to work early on sundays.

xo audrey

double dutch

hello! much to show and little time to do it - i've got piles of dishes from the last 24 hours and i'm meeting a friend for dinner in a couple of hours, so here we go!

last night i hosted dinner for a couple of friends: dutch macaroni and cheese. aged gouda. edam. swiss chard. it was heavenly. served it with some sauteed zucchini with pine nuts. a simple strawberry-and-ice cream dessert.








this morning i went all out with the brunch making - it's probably my favorite meal to cook and since i am usually working at the appropriate time for it, i try to do a really indulgent one on saturdays. eggs benedict with fake canadian bacon (surprisingly not bad) and avocado, served with fresh squeezed apple/pineapple juice. i am LOVING my juicer these days.





then went on a nice long bike ride to chinatown this afternoon, basking in the unseasonably warm new york weather. home now to thaw out, clean up, and head back out.



shirt: quail dress
skirt: thrifted
shoes: seychelles
necklace: purchased from a girl on bedford ave

brain still a bit frozen from the long bike ride, and i'm having trouble putting this together in any way besides these kind of lame bullet points. i'll write more soon.

xo audrey

court and spark[le]

hello again! hope everyone's enjoying their saturday. mine has been divine; woke up this morning and started cutting avocados and frying tortilla strips in preparation for a brunch date with sam and a friend of ours. he brought champagne and peach nectar for bellinis; i finally used my juicer to squeeze some apple/pineapple juice (my favorite since working at a brunch place with a juice bar back in chicago,) made a citrus mint salad, and cooked up some chilaquiles for the three of us.



we then poured some hot toddies in thermos mugs and bundled up for a jaunt over to the brooklyn flea market. it's moved this year to an old bank building not too far from my apartment, and the space is great for it - high mosaicked ceilings, ornate old teller's windows that serve as displays for vintage clothing and old dishware. so many pieces caught my eye, but the one i couldn't resist was this gorgeous sequined blouse, which i managed to parley down to $25. j'adore.



blouse: brooklyn flea
shorts: american apparel
tights: american apparel - a christmas gift from my little sister that i am obsessed with
shoes: nine west

this outfit may seem a little silly for january in brooklyn, and rightly so, but it is boiling in my apartment so i'm actually going to end this post to switch into a t-shirt and shorts. have a lovely weekend!

xo audrey