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

glowering flower

good morning! how was everyone's weekend? i'd planned on going into the city to see a couple of shows - fashion! - but instead i stayed home and cleaned my room, because THAT'S how cool i am. this is kind of a repeat, i guess, of what happened in september - delighted to be invited to shows, for the first time ever, i rsvp'd to almost all of them and then ended up only going to the one - rachel comey - that i was most excited to see. there are a few reasons for this - i'm incredibly flattered to be invited, to be sure, but i don't really think of myself as a "fashion person." i am really just a girl who likes dressing up. and this weekend, the craziness of lincoln center - the jumble of photographers, the legions of stick-thin models, the waves and waves of beautiful, confident women walking swiftly past me in several-thousand-dollar shoes as i wait in line, staring at my $12-on-ebay-miu miu's - just didn't sound like a good time. i'm definitely not judging - lots of close blogger friends attended many a show over the past week, and have some really gorgeous photos to show for it. but they know what they're talking about; i don't.

all that to say, i am going to a presentation tonight and i am VERY excited about it. my camera is fully charged and i'm dressed in an outfit that is the most show-appropriate i could put together; i'll post photos from both the show and of my outfit tomorrow, so you can (hopefully) see what i mean. in the meantime, here's an outfit from last week that i somehow never got around to posting.





top: quail
skirt: thrifted, vintage
shoes: a few seasons old pour la victoire
brooch: thrifted vintage clip-on earring

this shirt is one of my all-time favorites, but i don't wear it much anymore because i accidentally ran it through the wash about a year and a half ago, and it's shrunk up to be less of a crop top. . . well, yeah, less than a crop top. i saw a girl rocking this color combo on the F train a couple weeks ago and made mental note of it, and this green skirt is just high enough to make this not-totally-unreasonable for work. all together, the colors & shapes felt very floral to me; a nice little last-hurrah for summer.

oh! i've recently gotten a lot of questions about how i learned to cook. i did go to french culinary school, and graduated about 2 years ago; my concentration was pastry, though, so all of my classes focused on pies, tarts, brulees, napoleons, macarons, chocolate, etc. as far as cooking - rather than baking - is concerned, i really got into cooking a few years ago, when i moved to chicago; i love good food but couldn't afford to go out to eat, so i started slowly, cooking recipes from the cookbooks my mom had given me, and just kept on going from there. i was lucky enough to grow up with a mother and two sisters who knew their way around the kitchen, so i learned some simply by observing them. within a few years i'd cooked enough to know how to make the basics, and started experimenting more; in the year before i left chicago, i started an underground restaurant of sorts, selling tickets to a four- or five-course meal to be cooked in my apartment. it was not only a success, but the most fun i'd ever had - that's when i decided to move to new york to attend culinary school. i decided to focus on baking instead of cooking for a couple of reasons - one being that cooking is something much more easily experimented with. once you know the basics, you can pretty much throw whatever you like into a dish and it will work, so long as you've thought the flavors through - baking, though, is an exact science, and i wanted to be able to play with recipes the way i can when i cook.

i hope this answers some questions, and wasn't too long winded! thank you all so much for reading - you make this a lot of fun for me.

i hope you all had a lovely weekend! until tomorrow,

xo audrey

going to the chapel

not me, no no, but in class yesterday we finished up our wedding cake project. the way the project works is that the class below us creates a wedding scenario: in this one, a japanese college student was marrying a tattoo artist, and they had an asian themed wedding. as such, i decided to play to my strengths and pipe a sumi-e style painting on my cake with chocolate. first i had to make the darn thing, fill the layers with green tea icing, crumb coat it, and cover it with white fondant. then i melted some chocolate, rolled a bunch of tiny piping bags ('cornets' to those in the kitchen) and painted a japanese-style landscape on the cake. i was pretty pleased with the result.







life has been absolutely upside-down crazy the last week. i feel like i haven't had a moment to breathe. it's been busy in the best way; things falling into place for the most part, but still definitely falling and i feel like taking my sanity with it. my final exams start tomorrow, i didn't get to sleep until 5 in the morning last night and i have a to-do list of about 88 things before i leave for chicago sunday afternoon, straight from the weardrobe conference. so i haven't been the best blogger. a quick catchup:

wednesday:

shirt/dress: h&m
socks: american apparel
shoes: 80%20

thursday:

dress: urban outfitters
boots: aldo
hat: vintage from ebay

i have been on a vintage hat-buying binge lately. rather impractical but pretty fun.

and now, lovely readers, i gotta sleep. i am completely running on empty. so much more to come.

xo audrey

cathedral

hello! i had coffee with dinner last night (always a mistake) and couldn't fall asleep until like 3 am, and i woke up with swollen lymph nodes and a little cough so i've been kind of lazy about getting going. i wanted to post really quick about the project i just finished up for school - we had to come up with a concept for a restaurant, design a menu, and make two items from it. i am really happy with the way mine turned out, so here are some photos -



the menu. a friend of mine had a moment of (semi-drunken) genius when he suggested i do a place called cathedral and serve wafers and wine. i played off the idea.




"the blood" - a red wine sabayon with strawberries and honey crisp tuiles




"wafers and wine" - white wine soup with macerated blueberries, blackberry sorbet, and pistachio macaroons

that's all from me for today, but more soon!

xo audrey

ma & pa come to brooklyn

hello everyone! it's been a very gloomy day in brooklyn, which is a fantastic excuse to sleep in, eat macaroni & cheese, and watch dvd after dvd of a certain 90's hit tv show. okay, friends. that chandler gets me every time.

anyhow, my parents are coming to visit tonight! they live out in california and haven't both been out to see me since i moved to new york over a year ago. it should be really nice: dinner tonight, and then tomorrow they are coming to my school for a dessert tasting. i, with the help of my partner, will be making an almond panna cotta surrounded with a spun sugar dome, served with a lavender honey and almond creme anglaise. there are only 2 big projects left after this, and then our FINAL. i am graduating in just over a month. soon after that i'll be back in chicago. i kind of can't believe it. as much as i've been looking forward to moving back to the city i consider home, when i really imagine leaving this place i've grown to love so dearly it's kind of scary.



shirt: dress from anthropologie
shorts: market publique
shoes: payless

these shoes are beyond their last legs. i bought them two christmases ago at a payless for $6. back then, they had 2 inch heels and fully functioning soles. i've worn them down to zero heel and several holes in the soles. but i can't bring myself to throw them away. (it's this kind of behavior that led my mother to throw away beyond-repair shoes, jeans, and favorite shirts during my childhood. like 6 years ago.)

so, i'll try a post or two over the weekend, but with mom and dad in town it's hard to say how much computer time i'll have. have a lovely weekend if i don't get to post tomorrow!

xo audrey

raspberry pureé

i am hoping you read that title to the tune of "raspberry beret" by prince.

so, i had my first day of work on tuesday. i woke up with a great deal of effort at 6 am and sleepwalked to starbucks for a large coffee. i made my way into work at 7 am and got to work making a sextuple recipe of pie dough by hand, basically by using 2 knives to cut the butter into the flour. i then chopped and skinned 24 cups of apples, 12 cups of peaches, and pitted 10 cups of cherries. it took about 10 hours, but i made everything i had planned to, plated a serving for everyone to try, and basically stood back and bit my nails as i waited for the reaction. the plates were clean in less than a minute. everything turned out great! everyone there is incredibly friendly, and everyone made a point to tell me how good it was and welcome me. i left work, i think for the first time in my life, feeling satisfied and proud, flushed from the intense heat of the kitchen and nearly 12 hours on my feet but so, so happy. i go back in tomorrow (in 7 hours, auauagh) so i have to try to keep this short so i can get to bed.



shirt: american apparel
necklace: blueberi
shoes: pour la victoire
belt: anthropologie

note the raspberry hue of the necklace and belt. found the necklace at this AMAZING and beautiful store in dumbo today, on major sale, and grabbed it. i don't wear a lot of black but this necklace is so insane that i felt it required a very simple backdrop.

i decided to attempt my first sneak culinary initiative today. i have a partner who sometimes makes buttercreams during the half hour we have for dinner, and i had a hankering for some macaroons. they take a lot longer to make, of course, but i thought i could probably whip a meringue unnoticed, perhaps pipe them out in a corner out of view. i snagged some leftover pastry cream and whipped it with some raspberry pureé to put in the middle. and of course, i got totally caught by my chefs, but they were cool about it. and they turned out great.



and there. raspberry. bam. bedtime.

xoxo,

audrey

dead leaves on the dirty ground

yesterday we started plated desserts in school, and i think i am going to LOVE it. we were broken off into teams and each team is designed a multi-facted dessert; our first assignment is an almond-infused creme caramel with cigarette rolled tuilles and a strawberry orange salad. everything is made from scratch. we start plating them on friday; the main point of this unit is to learn how to make everything look pretty on a plate. needless to say, this blog will soon be flooded with pictures of beautiful food. (again.)

as much as i try to put myself together nicely during the day, my school uniforms are a disaster. it is becoming a problem. i love getting dressed up but i am a total slob by nature, and this is becoming a problem that manifests itself all over my chef's coat every day. we get graded, in part, on a clean uniform, and i just can't seem to find the time to get my laundry done between work, school, and play. i'm going back to chicago this weekend (i have a good reason though! my little sister is graduating from college, with honors! hi esther!) and i think i'm going to have to schlep my uniforms with me and throw them in the wash before i go out and about. sad.



shirt: anthropologie
skirt: anthropologie
belt: anthropologie
shoes: georgina goodman
necklace: ebay, embellished with a shoe clip

ha, i guess it's easy to make a cute outfit from a bunch of shit from anthropologie - but in my defense, this skirt was on sale for $20 and about 4 sizes to big and i sewed it to fit. so, you know, that's something.

today i am determined to plow through some work. been very distracted the last few days. happy thursday, everyone, the weekend is almost upon us!

xo audrey

tetris

feeling flushed with a great love of my country (aka my tax return) yesterday, i skipped from work to the anthropologie around the corner. for some reason the store was packed, and the dressing room line was out of control; so i hunted down this skirt and slipped it on over my dress. it fit (although after wearing it this morning, i think i'm going to have to take it in a bit - it sits lower on my waist than i'd like it to) so i took it upstairs, bought it, and decided to have a nice, quiet, night of audrey. i try to treat myself to one of these every once in awhile, since my life is so busy and i am almost always surrounded by people one place or another. i bought a book and walked to the momofuku milk bar, a place i've been dying to try since it was just a "coming soon" blurb on new york magazine's website. anyone who knows me knows that i am a milk FIEND. i crave it the way heroin addicts crave a fix. this is no joke. i have been known to wake up at 3 am, craving milk so hard that i will walk blocks to an open grocery store and chug a half gallon in the aisle. i'm not sure what it means, but i am sure i must have some strong bones.



i had pork buns, pistachio lemon curd cake, and a tall glass of organic whole milk. it was incredible and relatively inexpensive. afterwards, i headed home with my book and read until i fell asleep, nice and early, and had bizarre and scary dreams about the ten plagues taking place in our kitchen at school.



shirt: vintage, from etsy
skirt: anthropologie
belt: anthropologie
shoes: devotte
tights: HUE
necklace: etsy

our phone lines at work are messed up and so i am temporarily relieved of my receptionist duties, as all our calls get forwarded to the chicago office. it is oddly quiet in here (well, unless you count the crystal castles blaring over the speakers in the pit. silent of phones ringing, anyway.)

hope everyone has a lovely wednesday. . .

xo audrey

workin' on my night cheese

so, last night, after a long class of chocolate-tempering (an extremely messy and frustrating process) during which i somehow managed to fall asleep (falling asleep in a large lecture hall is one thing, but falling asleep in a kitchen is blaringly obvious and extremely embarrassing) i headed home on the JMZ. i'd spoken to my friend vanessa earlier in the night but a couple of texts went unreturned and i took it as a blessing that i could just go home and get some rest. i stepped off the JMZ and wandered in to a small family-style mexican restaurant and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, and sat and waited as i listed to the soothing voice of scott carrier on the most recent episode of this american life. suddenly my iphone (iphone!!) started vibrating wildly; i'd received a barrage of texts from vanessa, sounding in need of a rescue. "piano les. need u now." "please come save me." etc. i asked if she needed me to come scoop her and got a "yes." so i briskly gathered my sandwich, put my chocolate cake in a plastic bag and hiked back to the JMZ, anxiously looking down the track and hoping she would be okay until i got there. i got off at delancey and hustled towards the bar (with the aid of my handy GPS!) and into the bar, where she was nowhere to be found. my heart dropped. i call. no answer. i receive a text: "upstairs." i run up the stairs to find a very happily drunk vanessa karaoking (read: butchering [i love you spramps!]) kanye west's gold digger. i bought a $4 pbr (scandal,) square danced around the floor with vanessa for a bit, then helped her into a cab and back to her apartment not 20 minutes after i'd come. i slept like a baby on her air mattress, though, and believe me, i am not complaining: i welcome any excuse to be able thumb through her rack of designer dresses and take my pick. it had to be a quick one this morning, and i think the cut isn't quite right for me, but i looove the pattern on this dress, and the light silk feels so good in this still-new manhattan sunshine.



dress: from my beauty in brooklyn, nunispramp
huraches: etsy
belt: also vanessa's
hair: getting more and more awkward

i am contemplating a trip to chicago this weekend. i had been anyway, and then i checked my bank account this morning (peeking through the cracks of my fingers to soften the blow that i was sure was coming after the decadence of this weekend) and was delighted to find that my extremely generous tax refund came through this morning! thanks, mr. president! delta has round-trip flights for $140, so there's really no excuse not to. . . get ready chicago. . . i think hurricane audrey is going to hit this weekend.

hope everyone else's day is as filled with sunshine as mine,

xo audrey

pbjb

good morning! i had a long, gorgeous weekend spent in the sun and it really took a lot out of me. pulling myself out of bed this morning was damn near impossible, and i've spent much of the morning dealing with iphone (iphone!! i got one over the weekend!) related issues. i'm currently holding as i attempt to change my cell phone number to a chicago one because i can now say with confidence that i'll be moving there after graduating from culinary school in september. as i hold, i'm the lunch of a privileged 7 year old: natural peanut butter and strawberry-peach jam with sliced bananas on wheat, a bowl of cut up mango, and a glass of milk. yum.



shirt: thrifted
skirt: american apparel
belt: anthropologie
shoes: etsy
necklace: ebay

tonight: more adventures in chocolate. i have to admit i don't like this unit much so far. not only am i not a chocolate person (i know, i know, i'm a sorry excuse for a woman) but tempering chocolate is a very precise and scientific process, and "precise" and "scientific" are things that i don't really do well unless it involves embossing powder or frosting. le sigh.

also wishing that the time spent in the sun this weekend showed up SOMEWHERE on my skin. i'm as pale as ever, still.

xo audrey

thank g it's f

well, it wasn't pretty, the room-cleaning, but i did it. i even got new sheets and put them on my bed, although i think buying sheets with a pattern may have been a mistake; my room is about 8'x 8' and at this point basically functions as a glorified closet. i have nails every few inches on the longest wall and at least 2 dresses hanging from each, and my bookshelf holds no books but instead each cube is stuffed with a different color - yellow and brown tee shirts, sweaters, skirts, and blouses in one, denim in another. i should take pictures while it's all clean so you can get an idea of why a girl with lots of clothes shouldn't, despite popular opinion, live in new york city. i need a closet!!

in class tonight we start chocolates, which should be fun, although i have to admit i'm not much of a chocolate girl. more for my roommates! i think after i am going to force myself to go home and get a reasonable night's sleep - i have big plans for the weekend and i could use a quiet night at home.


detail shot of what this jacket can do:


sequined jacket: my favorite portland purchase. you can flip the gold sequins over to make silver! meaning you can write or draw on it. it's pretty incredible. and extremely loud.
shirt: gap
shorts: akira chicago
shoes: enzo angiolini
necklace: ebay

i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! it is going to be in the 80s in the big apple this weekend so i'm breaking out the bare legs and summer dresses.

also, edit: i am wearing sheer pantyhose, too, that must be giving me a bit of color, because i am pretty sure i am not this tan.
xo audrey

marie antoinette

she's the one who said let them eat cake, right? after weeks of cake-making, i have to say i don't really want to touch one for years, but here are photos from last night's test.





all the decorations are made from fondant, with some royal icing details.

somebody else's clothes

last night was another night of cake decorating in class; we're starting to use marzipan and fondant and all that fancy stuff to really focus on the aesthetics of the thing. i have to come up with a concept for an occasion cake and sketch it out by friday night; i know what i'll be scribbling at my desk tomorrow.

after class a couple friends of mine headed to the bar down the street from school, where joe the bartender remembered not only my first but also my last name (nice or creepy?) and 3 manhattanite douchebags in their 30s flirted like 9 year old boys by trying to get us to let them sniff our armpits and steal our shoes (no joke.) luckily for me joe bought half my drinks, so i had a pretty nice buzz going by midnight and decided to just head over to vanessa's and crash there. the problem: no change of clothes for work today. the solution: i have been wanting to dive into vanessa's amazing closet for months, and this morning she gave me free reign. the result:



dress: jay godfrey, thanks to vanessa, the most stylish girl i know
tights, shoes, belt and necklace: same as yesterday. i didn't want to get too comfortable in her clothes.

i just googled jay godfrey (i am pretty much designer illiterate) and am somewhat appalled to learn that the dress i am wearing probably cost as much as i make in a week. i will be very careful today. i absolutely love the shape of it, though; the strength of the material makes it flare out almost like a hoop skirt at the bottom, and i love the sleeves. my bra keeps wanting to peek out from under it, though, which could be worse since it actually complements the color quite nicely, but probably isn't really "office attire." so far, no one has complained.

makeup class in school tonight, class tomorrow, and hopefully a gorgeous day saturday. i can't wait for bare legs.

xo audrey

taste the rainbow

we are on my favorite unit so far in culinary school: petit fours! here are some photos from making macaroons last night. mine were pistachio flavored, but there were lots of different ones around the class. they were gorgeous.








have a lovely night, folks, i'm going to chug some nyquil (it matches this post quite nicely, actually) and try to get some shuteye.

xo audrey

somebody else's clothes

this is the first bit of sewing i did when i moved to brooklyn. i smuggled this shirt from sam's dresser, spirited it away in my suitcase and, upon arriving in williamsburg, decided that i desperately needed a onesie. it was a quick few stitches, and voila!

of course, this renders it entirely work-inappropriate, so i donned it under a pair of jeans and some boots today for a more rosie-the-riveter sort of look.



shirt: sorry sam. club monaco?
belt: anthropologie
tights: hue
shoes: akira chicago

tonight we made macaroons! they are rainbow-colored and gorgeous and i'll post photos soon.

much love!

xo audrey

shoe battle

my shoes are being held from me against their will. i am doing everything in my power to get them back, but my best efforts are no match for the anonymity of the interwebs.



i ordered them online from a small boutique in portland about two weeks ago. i received a confirmation email and since then, nada. i've called. i've emailed. i've anxiously awaited the post every day, but all to no avail. what do you do in this situation?

and on the other hand i have my georgina goodman flats, which i dropped off to the cobbler a little over a week ago. i was promised they'd be ready yesterday, and when i called, told to come this morning instead; when i called this morning, the guy muttered something about it being a "big job" and "maybe two weeks" and that i should call back this afternoon to talk to the boss.

uuuuuuuuuaghaghhhh. i'll stop my kvetching.



shirt: not american apparel
skirt: forever 21
shoes: pour la victoire
necklace: mom
tights: have a hole in them. i own 3 pairs of grey tights and every single one springs a leak within a wear or two. what gives?

had a test in class last night - ACE! 98% on the practical exam. translation: my croissants are nearly perfect. it was very satisfying after an incredibly frustrating day. now we move on to petit fours, which is the unit i have been looking forward to since the start. bread is delicious, and i love the process of it, but it just isn't exciting; it's a lot of hurry up and wait. wait for the autolyse. wait for the bench rest. wait for the proof. wait for the bake. wait for the cool. petit fours are just tiny, beautiful bites, which are right up my alley.



tonight - finally a night off! i have plans to make dinner with my dear friend jess, skype my dearest friend ashlee, and dear god hopefully get a decent night's sleep.

until the morrow,

xo audrey

st pats

happy st patrick's day, everyone! green has gone from a color that dominated my wardrobe to one that i find difficult to wear. what color shoes does a person wear with green? add brown and (especially with my features) you look elfin, another color is too much, black just seems off. this is actually a dress that i'd intended to include in my virtual frock-swap, should that ever happen, but now that i've maybe figured out how to wear it, i might just keep it.

another frustrating day of class yesterday. i was exhausted, and ended the night by having my arm slammed into a just-out-of-the-oven pan by my clueless chef (who didn't even notice, much less apologize, as i raced to rinse my scorching arm under cold water,) thus the giant bandage on my left arm. my appendages are pretty banged up overall, mostly from cooking, but also from having to wash dishes and my hands constantly - tiny cuts all over my fingers, cracked cuticles, burns here and there. at the end of this all, though, i'll have some truly tough mitts, which might be handy.



dress: anthropologie
necklace: bought off a lady selling her clothes on the street at midnight
tights: who cares
shoes: irregular choice
belt: forever 21

tonight, lots to do and little motivation. i don't really plan on celebrating st pat's day - last night i feel asleep with my hand around a glass of red wine, and i should probably just lay off for a little while. um, that sounds a lot worse than it is. my plans are basically to study for a test tomorrow, do a bit of sewing, and possibly meet up with a couple of friends for a nightcap. hope everyone has a fun holiday, and manages to brush all the green off their tongue by tomorrow. . .

xo audrey