m.i.a.

and i do mean ACTION. i do think this new (awesome) job will allow me more time for blogging, but it's been a big adjustment - waking up at 5 am, and working until 2 or 3 pm - as yet, i haven't figured out how to get enough sleep the night before to bypass a nap when i get home; usually a 3 to four hour nap, which sucks me of any energy and still sends me off to bed early.

a typical day for me now looks like this: wake up, stumble into some clothing; tie my seriously-dark-rooted mop top into a bandana, slip on some comfy shoes, grab my magical red notebook of recipes and hop into the passenger's seat of sam's car, because he is a saint who wakes up when i do every morning just to drive me the 3/4 mile or so to work. once i get in to the bakery, i flip on the oven and start prepping muffins for the morning; i'll usually make two, say a blueberry cinnamon and then what's become a standard - a cheesy cornbread muffin with a hardboiled egg baked inside. next, biscuits; i'll see what cheeses or herbs need to be used and incorporate those - today's were buttermilk prosciutto.






somewhat by accident, i've been making lots of gluten free stuff that has gotten a pretty positive response - much of it inspired by this lovely blog. around this time of the morning, i'll pick a fruit we have in abundance, match it with a spice, extract, or herb and slowly bake it at a low temperature to create a fruit leather of the day.





next i'll try to bang out a few savory items, for lunch time - usually a pissaladiere, some kind of galette, and maybe a puff pastry tart. mini tomato tartins, cornbread upside down cakes, or mushroom and lamb galettes. . .






then the real fun starts. this is the time of day i get to experiment a bit; i make a batch of macarons (so far flavors i've tried: root beer float, chocolate raspberry, pumpkin pie, salted caramel apple, vanilla pomegranate, peppermint dark chocolate,) and any other cookies or sweets i want to test out. one of my favorites so far has been homemade s'mores - i made graham crackers and marshmallows from scratch, then pressed them together with some dark and white chocolate and melted them for about 30 seconds.












so, all is well, and i really feel like i've found my place - what's better than getting to do the thing you love all day long, and get paid for it?

i know i've been awful about responding to comments, and getting back to you guys - i swear i'm getting my feet underneath me (and getting over a pretty nasty cold) and i'll be back to my old self in no time.

much love,

audrey

walking dead

good afternoon! sam and i rushed back from portland yesterday morning, and i went straight from the airport to work. . . it always sounds like such a great idea to save $50 and get an extra night with your friends when you're buying the plane tickets, but i'll tell you, waking up at 4 am after a late-night sushi party is ROUGH. and working through it is rougher. i spent yesterday in major zombie mode.

before we left for portland, i made a batch of extra-large macarons. when i was in school, we were taught to make them about the size of a quarter - petit four size - and it has been a really hard habit to break, maybe because you get so darn many out of a batch and they're so tiny and cute that way. i decided it'd be easier to travel with extra large macs rather than a box full of delicate little guys, so i made them about three times their usual size, and i will never go back.



raspberry vanilla macarons with dark chocolate ganache

100 g aged egg whites, preferably at room temperature
28 g sugar
5 g egg white powder
1 t bakto vanilla ground vanilla beans (or vanilla bean paste, or just plain vanilla if that's what you have on hand)
1/2 t bakto raspberry extract
a few drops of deep red food coloring
120 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

for ganache:
200 g dark chocolate
about 3/8 cup (or 6 T, or 1/4 cup plus 2 T. it's a clumsy amount.) heavy cream

as always, get everything measured out and a nice big space cleared. i like to go ahead and prep 3 baking pans by trimming parchment to fit them and securing them down with butter before i start, and get a piping bag ready with a tip about the size of a pencil eraser.

sift together the almond flour and sugar and set aside. now combine the sugar and egg white powder. using a handmixer, whip the egg whites until they are foamy and no longer yellow; slowly add the sugar mixture and beat until you have a nice meringue, with peaks that will still droop a touch. before you're finished, add the extracts and color and mix until they're evenly combined. the egg white powder does a good job of preventing an over-mix, but you want to make sure not to under beat it, too - it should be nice and shiny.



at this point, shake off the beaters and grab a good, flexible rubber spatula. grab the sieve you used to sift together the flour & powdered sugar, and add the flour/sugar mixture to the meringue in five additions, sifting it through the sieve again each time to evenly distribute it. gently fold the flour each time until you don't see streaks anymore.





all right! pour all this into your eagerly awaiting piping bag; i usually fit mine over a quart container, twisting the tip, so i can pour it in there with both hands and get every bit out of the bowl.

move to your trays. the trick we were taught in school was to count as your piping, a quick "one-two-three," so that they all turn out the same size; err on the size of giving yourself too much space between cookies, because they'll spread a bit after being piped and even a bit more when baking. after you pipe a sheet, tap them once, hard, on the table to release air bubbles.

then just let 'em sit. while this is happening, turn your oven to just under 300; i'd definitely get a thermometer, if you don't have one already, as my busted old brooklyn oven actually burns at 375 when i have it set to 300, so i have to watch it and adjust accordingly.

let them rest, preferably not somewhere super hot or humid, until they develop a skin, and you can poke them gently without the batter coming off on your finger. pop them in your preheated oven and set a timer for six minutes, then rotate them and bake for six more - this is perfect for my oven, but yours might need a bit more or less time, so watch for them to start to barely turn light brown on their feet and take them out then.

let them cool entirely before peeling them off the parchment; you can refrigerate or freeze the shells if you don't want to fill them immediately, otherwise melt 2/3 of the chocolate with the cream over low heat on the oven, and mix in the rest of the cold, chopped chocolate after it's all melted. this should give you a good consistency for piping; pipe a dollop onto one sandwich, match it with a mate, and voila. these things only get better with a day or two in the fridge, so don't be afraid to make them ahead of time.

i know i've done macarons to death, but i continue to be delighted with them; as a pastry chef with a seriously stunted sweet tooth, i never tire of the mix of textures and the fact that you can make any flavor combination under the sun with these things. the raspberry flavor in this is as good, or better, than when i've tried pulverizing dried raspberries to use - i highly recommend all the flavors bakto offers. the woman behind the company is a scientist really does an incredible job of extracting the most natural tasting flavors. give 'em a try.

that's all from me for today. we had such a fantastic time up in maine and have lots to show for it, as soon as i've rested up and gotten my act together a bit.

xo audrey

. . . happy birthday to you

oops. so, yeah, i'm sorry because i am awful at this sometimes. basically, here is how my last week went:

wednesday: blog! success. followed by a rebecca minkoff event with a couple of friends (and many bloggy friends); great fun, didn't have my camera. i'll attempt to scrounge something together for this soon.

thursday: no blog. woke up late and rushed to work, then scrambled to the anthropologie event; great fun, HAD camera, took a few photos but somehow zero of the clothes. derp. will certainly put something together on this soon. dashed home, packed to go to california for a few days, fell asleep watching the daily show at 1 am.

friday: wake up at 4 am to catch car to airport. fly to california. arrive. family! hugs! food! beer. sleep.

(this cycle is pretty much repeated over and over until tuesday morning, when i spent the day flying back to NYC, with the exception of sunday night, when my sisters and i made a big fancy anniversary dinner for my parents [post pending] and spent monday at disneyland [post pending.])

wednesday: back at work. camera dead. super tired. late night dinner with sam & a couple out of town friends at prime meats, a major brooklyn recommend. woke up late on. . .

thursday. work. too late to take outfit photos. thanks to a hair removal cream *incident*, probably wouldn't want to, anyway. bake cinnamon rolls at work, leave early to see colbert report (AWESOME) then head home to order/gorge on cheap mexican food and watch chef reality tv with my husband. MARRIAGE.

which brings us up to. . . friday! today. woke up late, dashed to get bagels for the office, and have basically been buried in paperwork and receipts since. sam & i and a couple of our friends are leaving straight from work to head down to the jersey shore for the weekend, so i have my fingers crossed for sunlight although it looks like we're doomed to a weekend full of rain (no matter, i can cook, eat, drink and sleep in rain OR shine.)

so, my apologies for my lack of posting/responding/commenting for the last ten days or so; i've been busier than usual, but also just kind of let myself have a bit of a vacation from blogging for awhile. which sounds really stupid, because blogging is something i do voluntarily and greatly enjoy. just not when surrounded by my family and beer all day.

anyway, sam went out of town the night before i did last week, to go on a major fishing mission with some pals; i hadn't made him any birthday cake or anything, at his insistence, but raced home after the rebecca minkoff event to make him a berry tart so he'd have something to blow candles out on. he came home as it came out of the oven, and we decided to let it cool while we watched some 'river monsters' in bed (because we are the coolest) and, short story kept short, i woke up asleep on his macbook pro at 1 in the morning. we'd both fallen asleep and didn't get to eat any tart. i had special candles and everything! but he took it fishing with him and said that it was the best thing at least one of the guys had ever eaten, so i'm going to take his word for it and post the recipe. it did LOOK pretty damn good.







this recipe is pretty much exactly the same as this one, right here. but you have to have a membership to the site to see it, and i assume you aren't all giant suckers like me, so i'll copy it here.


pate sucree

1 large egg yolk
1 T heavy cream
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
2/3 c confectioners' sugar (about 2 3/4 ounces)
1/4 t table salt
8 T unsalted butter (1 stick), very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

filling
6 T unsalted butter
1 large egg plus 1 egg white
1/2 c sugar, plus 1 T
1/4 t table salt
1 t vanilla extract
1 t Kirsch or framboise, optional (i didn't have this, and didn't use it.) (obviously.) (obviously that i didn't use it, i mean, SINCE i didn't have it.) (sorry.)
1/4 t grated lemon zest
1 1/2 t lemon juice
2 T Wondra flour (i used cake flour, since i didn't have any wondra on hand. nor have i ever. i had to google it to find out what it is. apparently it is a "low-protein, pregelatinized wheat flour to which some malted barley flour has been added. it has been formulated to dissolve quickly in either hot or cold liquids, and is most often called for to thicken gravies and sauces." so it actually does sound pretty handy.)
2 T heavy cream
2 half-pint containers fresh blackberries (about 10 ounces total), picked over (i used half raspberries, half blackberries, and just eyeballed the amount.)

for the tart pastry: whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl. combine flour, sugar, and salt in food processor with four 1-second pulses. scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about twenty 1-second pulses. with machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough comes together, about 12 seconds. turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). unwrap and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 11-inch round. (if dough becomes soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable.) transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely over rolling pin and unrolling over 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners and sides of pan with other hand. press dough into fluted sides of pan, patching breaks or cracks if necessary. (if some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet or large plate and freeze 30 minutes. (frozen dough-lined tart pan can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen up to 1 month.)

meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet; lightly spray one side of 18-inch square heavy-duty extra-wide foil with nonstick cooking spray. press foil greased side down inside frozen tart shell, folding excess foil over edge of pan; fill with metal or ceramic pie weights (or lentils - that's what i use. cheap and easily available. you can save & reuse them over and over.) bake until pastry appears dry and pale gold under foil and edges have just begun to color, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. return baking sheet with tart shell to oven and bake until sides are medium golden brown, about 5 minutes; set on wire rack to cool.

for the filling: while tart shell is cooling, heat butter in small saucepan with light-colored interior over medium heat; cook, swirling or stirring occasionally, until butter smells nutty and milk solids at bottom are golden brown, about 7 minutes. transfer butter to small heatproof bowl to stop cooking; cool butter until just warm to touch. whisk egg and egg white in medium bowl until combined; add sugar and salt whisk vigorously until light colored, about 1 minute. whisk in warm browned butter until combined; then whisk in vanilla, framboise, and lemon zest and juice. whisk in wondra flour (or cake flour,) then whisk in cream until combined.

add berries and bake: distribute blackberries in single tightly packed layer in bottom of cooled tart shell. pour filling mixture evenly over blackberries. place tart on baking sheet in oven. bake until fragrant and filling is set (does not jiggle when shaken), bubbling lightly around edges, and surface is puffed and deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating sheet pan after about 20 minutes for even browning. cool on wire rack to room temperature, at least 1 1/2 or up to 6 hours. remove tart pan ring; slide thin-bladed spatula between tart pan bottom and crust to loosen, then slide tart onto serving platter. cut into wedges and serve.


making sure i am clear about where credit is due: this recipe is from cook's illustrated, which i highly recommend but does charge a subscription fee. i made a couple small changes, which i noted in parentheses, but mostly followed this recipe to the letter. i happened to have some pate sucree left over from another tart i made a bit ago, so it was very quick & easy for me and, apparently, delicious.

thanks for sticking with me, and i am going to do my best to do a post or two this weekend to try to catch up - the only time i opened my computer in california was to dump out my camera's memory card, which was filled with 90% pictures of my nephew, pete, and 10% pictures of food. i'm not sure which is more DELICIOUS. (weird.) i then re-filled it with lots of photos at disneyland, including sneakily (and, some would say, creepily) taking photos of every little girl i saw in a princess costume.

have a great weekend!

xo audrey

back in the swing

hello everyone. i have to admit, it has been tough to figure out how to jump back into this. i'm waiting for my photographer to send her official wedding photographs, so i kind of want to hold off on the big-official-homerunballerina-got-hitched post, but writing about anything else seems kind of silly, too, since getting married was, you know, pretty much the biggest thing that's happened to me, ever. so i begged my little sister to send me some of her husband's beautiful photos (thanks andy!!) so that i could at least do a little wedding lead-up post.


our banner, made by the lovely caitln of nice

i left work a week before the wedding and took the train up to connecticut to get started on wedding preparations. my to-do list was pretty horrifying. i'd already made a piñata and dyed all 85 cloth napkins, but i still needed to design placecards, cut them out, decorate the piñata, create signs for all the food, and make the topper for the cake. . . not to mention baking everything on the dessert and appetizer menus, which, by the end, had gotten a little out of control. five kinds of macarons, two types of pie lollipops, rosemary creme brulee spoons, malted chocolate chip cookies, and mini lemon blueberry tarts, plus, of course the wedding cake; and for appetizers, two kinds of quiche, lobster rolls, 2 different cold salads, deviled quail eggs, and sam's specialty potatoes. sam had been gone all weekend, fishing with his buddies in the connecticut river; rather than be a responsible adult, staying home and crossing some things off this to-do list, i went out harder than i have in years for three nights in a row, so that not only did i accomplish zilch on the list prior to arriving in connecticut, but i actually took all of monday off once i'd gotten there, choosing instead to kick up my feet, sip some wine, and bask in the glow of my fiancé's presence because hey, we had all week!

yeah, i'm kind of dumb sometimes.

tuesday i spent the entire day sifting almond flour, beating meringues, and folding in colors to make all the macarons: strawberry balsamic mascarpone, lemon cherry dark chocolate, clementine honey white chocolate, chocolate caramel sea salt, and coconut lime. that night my parents arrived, and we had a nice quiet dinner at home as i slowly hyperventilated into my pinot grigio. this was not going as planned. yes, knocking out all the macarons was a big coup; but i had three days left, two of the evenings already set aside for other plans, and a laundry list of things to accomplish.

thank god for dettmars.



my mom and dad got in tuesday, and the rest of the dettmar brood (my older sister emily, her adorable son pete, my sister esther & her husband andy, and my little brother colin,) trickled in over the course of wednesday and reported for duty. we made repeated trips to grocery stores; they chopped strawberries, made pie dough, assembled lollipops, quiches, salads, and cookies. basically, they saved the wedding. i truly wouldn't have been able to do ANY of it without them, and i'm eternally grateful. luckily for me they are all married already, with the exception of my little brother, so i won't be forced into indentured wedding servitude until he finds the right lady. i hope he gives me a couple years to recover.


filling quiches; the tarts, quiches and macarons, ready to be brought out


sam's famous potatoes, and the god-forsaken deviled eggs (quail eggs are my nemesis. i won't be making these again for awhile.)

everything turned out beautifully. the morning of the wedding i woke up at 6 am with butterflies, and went with my dad to pick up bagels and donuts and ride over to the house to start the final preparations. my mom and sister had decorated and filled the piñata the day before; my sister-in-law (and our reverend) sheila sat at the dinner table finishing the placecards; by dad, brother and brother-in-law spent practically the entire day blowing up 700 balloons to fill the roof of the tent (despite andy's CRIPPLING allergies which he was too sweet to complain about.) my mom and esther tied ribbons to the pie pops to identify flavors, and two of my former co-workers showed up and became honorary family members by busting ass all day to assemble the cake, bake all the cookies, make buttercream, and finish the creme brulees.


my cake topper, and my mom & sister's handiwork


rosemary creme brulee spoons; malted chocolate chip cookies


this is what 5 hours worth of balloons look like.

in the end, i know everyone says it, but i look back on that day and just feel so incredibly grateful for my friends and family. people woke up at the crack of dawn (and in my family's case, REPEATEDLY woke up at the crack of dawn, to be subjected to such menial tasks as peeling impossibly small eggs and curling ribbons on the ends of lollipops) to make our wedding exactly what we wanted, and it absolutely, positively was. there is nothing about the day i would have changed (except, perhaps, my choice of facial hair remover, but more on that later,) and i am eternally grateful for all the wonderful, generous, talented people i'm surrounded by that made it possible. i love you all, and i am forever in your debt. i promise i'll make you dinner one of these days to show my gratitude. yes, you. every last one of you.


we got married under the apple tree. . .


and ate dinner and danced under the tent.




much, much more to come. i should have our photographer's photos in a couple of weeks, and there are some really amazing details i haven't even gone into - our florist put together the must gorgeous centerpieces and bouquets i have ever seen, i swear, and the dancing was, as my mother would say, off the heezy. (yes. she really would say that.)


much love,

xo audrey

april showers

good morning! well, afternoon. i spent most of my morning adding things to my etsy shop; my closet is packed to the gills and beginning to overflow onto my desk, my chair, my floor, so it's time to dig in deep and get rid of some things, no matter how attached i may feel. i'll post in a bit about the stuff up for sale - if you're interested in anything, leave a comment and i'll hold it for you.

as for today, i'm combatting another rainy, chilly day with one of my favorite outfits of all time. this little red dress has been in my closet, completely untouched and all but forgotten, for probably two years; it was a little big when i bought it, and by the nature of the way i organize my closet - by color, starting with red and ending with black - it's all the way to one side of the closet, and gets kind of hidden by the wall. it fits much better now that i've put on a few pounds, and the strength of the corduroy allows me to cover it with the mess of flower brooches i've amassed, via etsy, bonanza and a few thrift stores. my new favorite collection.






dress: on sale at anthropologie (a long time ago)
belt: thrifted
brooches: thrifted, etsy'd, bonanza'd
tights: man on the street
shoes: urban

someone asked for the cupcake recipe, so here it is! it's adapted from the vanilla cake we made at the bakery where i used to work. without further ado -

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter , softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs , at room temperature
1 1/2 cups ice cold water
3 large egg whites , at room temperature
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

preheat oven to 325. sift together flours, baking powder, soda, and salt; set aside. cream together the butter and shortening until soft and no chunks remain; add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. add egg and vanilla and mix juuuuust until combined. in three additions, add flour, then water, then flour, then water, then flour and mix until just barely combined. whisk up your egg whites and cream of tartar in a separate bowl until they are white and frothy and no yellow remains - NO peaks, though. fold this in to your cake batter and scoop it into cupcake cups, about 2/3 of the way full. makes about 30 cupcakes. bake for 10-12 minutes, until they just start to turn golden and a toothpick comes out clean. i actually don't know how many minutes this was - i just kept an eye on them.

pastry cream

2 cups milk
1/4 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
cherry whiskey or brandy (optional)(but highly recommended)

put milk and 1/4 cup of sugar on the stove on medium - high. meanwhile, whisk the remaining ingredients together until they're pale yellow and well combined. once the milk starts to boil, take it off the stove and add it to your egg mixture, bit by bit, whisking furiously all the while, until it's combined; pour the whole thing back into the pot and whisk it on medium heat until it starts to BOIL. once it's boiling, KEEP IT GOING for another 2 minutes at this heat to get rid of the starchy taste from the cornstarch. pour it through a seive into a bowl or tupperware, cover it with plastic, and let it cool.

take about 1 cup of strawberries and cut them into pretty small dice. mix this with about 1/2 of your pastry cream, and set aside.

take a big star pastry tip and insert it into the cupcakes; twist, and pull. you'll pull out a little tube of vanilla cake. you can keep this for munching, or making a trifle with your leftover pastry cream and strawberries! yum. put your pastry cream/strawberry mixture into a piping bag and fill the holes you've made. ta da! i plan on topping these with a lavender buttercream, or maybe even just whipped cream for the sample ones.




all right, that's all from me for today. stay warm, stay dry, and i'll see you tomorrow!

xo audrey

sunday supper

hello hello! i hope everyone had a great weekend. friday night i got dressed up and went out, for the first time in ages; an office i worked in for a year when i first moved to the city is closing its doors for good, so all employees, past and present, met up for the first time in ages and knocked back a few. a jolly good time was had by all, and i poured myself into bed at about 2 am and slept until 11. saturday was a much-needed cleaning day: my bedroom has become a dumping grounds for weeks, and it was piled knee-deep with bags of ribbons, vellum, and invitation stuff, as well as about 38 pairs of shoes, clothing in need of mending, and god knows what else. i sorted through it all, hung all my clothes, and now the bar in my closet is bending to the point that i am starting to worry it'll snap.

and i finally COOKED! glory hallelujah! my little sister sent me a crock pot as an early wedding present (she being the on-top-of-it one in the family,) and i have been so itching to use it to make pulled pork sandwiches that sam has actually had to stop me once or twice. (he: "if it takes 12 hours and you start right now, you'll have to wake up at 3 am to turn it off. how about we just do it tomorrow?") i got it started saturday, though, and last night we had a pulled pork family dinner FEAST. it was awesome. (recipes below.)


ashlee: make sure you get my boobs in the picture. me: don't worry. they refuse to be left out.





pulled pork

prep time - 12-18 hours

3 lbs pork tenderloin (i've read that shoulder works just as well at 1/3 of the cost; this is just what they had at our market.)
1 large yellow onion
your favorite barbecue sauce (i wanted to make my own, but sam swears by kc masterpiece)
your favorite spices: i used fennel, paprika, smoked salt, turmeric, sage
a couple cups of apple juice

do a rough chop of the yellow onion and put it in the crock pot. rub the tenderloin with the spices, or just a rub you like if you have one; put it in the crockpot and add more spices, if you like (i don't measure these, just do 'em to your fancy.) pour about a half bottle of barbecue sauce on the pork, and then enough apple juice to almost cover it. cover the pot, put on low, and let it go for 8-12 hours. (it'll start to blacken; it's ready to pull when it falls apart easily when forked or picked up.) pick out the big piece of meat and put it in a bowl; strain out the juices, save the onions, and dump them in the bowl with the meat. now start pulling. you just want to shred the meat as much as possible. it's a pretty visceral activity, really. once you've got it really well shredded, dump it back in the crock pot and add the remainder of the barbecue sauce. turn it back on low and let it go until you're ready to serve.

pickled onions

prep time - 10 minutes
(best if you let them sit for an hour or so before using.)

2 large red onions
about 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 t mustard seeds
4-5 allspice berries
4-5 coriander seeds
some ground fennel (okay, yes, i just put this in everything.)
a few pinches of sea salt
plenty of fresh ground pepper
pink peppercorns (if you've got 'em)

thinly slice the red onions and put them in a bowl. add everything else and mix well. let it sit. ta-da! the longer you wait, the better they'll get; these'll keep for a couple of weeks if well sealed.




i gorged myself on momofuku last thursday, and one of the best things i had was a brussels sprouts dish with thick cut bacon and carmelized apple. i took a stab at it last night and it was sooo delicious; i subbed duck prosciutto for the bacon, since i had some that i needed to use (because i'm a weirdo) and the one thing i'd change was the way i cooked the brussels sprouts - steam them, don't boil them like silly me - they get too wet that way.

brussels sprouts with duck prosciutto and apple

about 3 cups of brussels sprouts, cut into quarters (or half if they are really small)
3/4 cup or so of thick cut bacon, duck prosciutto, or whathaveyou cut into lardons (thick dice)
one apple, peeled and cut into dice

steam the brussels sprouts for about 4 minutes, until they are starting to get tender. at this point i would try to get them as dry as you can - maybe squeeze them in a towel to release any residual liquid. set aside.

get a good, steel-bottomed pan going on medium high heat. once it's good and hot, add the bacon and cook it until it's good and crispy. add the brussels sprouts and toss them around for awhile to get them nice and bacon-y. add the apples, toss around, and then take off heat and serve with salt and pepper.



and lastly, for dessert, i made little almond lemon-curd and blackberry tartlets. super easy (so long as you have lemon curd in your fridge begging to be used, as i do,) and SO tasty.



almond tart dough (from here)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 large egg, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon almond flour

beat butter and sugar together in mixer until combined. add the egg and mix it just until combined; you may need to help it a long with a spatula. add the flours all at once and mix just until it comes together.

lemon curd: when i made mine, i used this recipe (to use up egg yolks) - it worked perfectly.

so - roll out the almond dough. i used powdered sugar instead of flour for my bench. use a cutter (i think mine was about 3 inches) and a mini cupcake tin to get the mini tart shells; put them in the freezer until they're firm, then bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until browned.

in the meantime, clean your blackberries, add a bit of vanilla and some sugar to them and stir until coated.

pipe in the lemon curd and top with a single blackberry. crank the oven to 400 and bake them for about ten minutes, until the curd has set. let them cool for a few minutes. they are great on their own, or you can top them with some ice cream or whipped cream; ashlee whipped up some cream with a bit of powdered sugar, then i poured the juice from the blackberries into it to give it a little flavor.





and today, back to the grind. the highlight of saturday was probably the uconn game; sam and i had intended on going out to watch it and NOT be total hermits, but instead i put on pajama pants and we drank coors light and watched it on his macbook pro. ah, domestic bliss. so today i'm wearing uconn blue and we've promised ourselves to leave our apartment and watch the game in the presence of actual living human beings. it should be a good time.







dress: madewell
brooch: snagged off a necklace, courtesy of accessorize
belt: snagged of a top from the (now defunct?) church & state
socks: american apparel

shoes: madewell

that's all from me for now. thanks for reading, happy monday!

xo audrey