weekend in [someone else's] pictures

hi there! i had an absolutely perfect weekend, if you discount the hangover i nursed most of sunday. here it is, in pictures.




friday evening me, sam, his brother & girlfriend went to see holly golightly in williamsburg after stuffing our faces with meat & cheese at our apartment. and lots of wine.

saturday morning we woke up surprisingly early (well, like 9:30, early for me,) and i made us soufflés, fruit salad, and chicken apple sage sausages and french pressed coffee for breakfast, than wiggled into comfy clothes and ridiculous shoes and headed off to my bridal shower.






one of my best friends and bridesmaids, rachel, told me she was throwing a bridal shower for me, and i wasn't sure what to expect - but it was absolutely perfect. can you imagine if people are throwing a party in your honor, and their idea of doing so is to bring together the best people you know, with the most beautiful, delicious food and pastries, gorgeous, homemade drinks, flowers everywhere, and asking everyone to wear their "audrey finest"? i have never been so touched and flattered in my life. needless to say i was drunk my about 6 pm. which didn't stop me from. . .



duck fat toast, tecate and tequila shots from fatty cue in williamsburg. truly, and i'm not proud of this, but i barely remember being here; apparently i dropped my food on the floor a lot and repeatedly told the bartender i was getting married. he was charmed enough to give us all free shots throughout the evening, which was sweet, but really probably not the best response to the girl who can't hold on to her ribs.



sunday we woke up early to say so long to sam's brother and his lady, and stopped off for donuts at dough before i headed back to bed in hopes of relieving my pounding headache. (it didn't work.) instead i chowed down on leftover chinese food, called my mom and had a nice long mother's day chat, and then made sam and i dinner



and then we headed to the movies, to catch an old favorite of mine, that sam had never seen -






harold and maude.

and that was my weekend! how was yours? happy belated mother's day to all the moms out there!

and happy birthday to my own dear mother, the proximity of which to mother's day means a curse of combo presents for most of her life. i'm sorry mom! i love you a ton!

xo audrey

homer heaven

the highlight of my weekend? probably getting doughnuts with my guy at dough in brooklyn. don't judge me.

dumplings for good luck

last night i headed out to chelsea to meet up with keiko, kim, and at the last minute claire for an event thrown by blue stripe pr. we sipped on cans of sofia champagne, browsed racks upon racks of gorgeous clothing (sadly, the momeent i was waiting for - when they tell us we can take whatever we want - never came,) and chatted it up with lots of stylish girls, mostly about food, which seems to happen every time i lead a conversation. getting dressed for these events is always a messy affair for me - i'm so indecisive, and it's so hard to dress for the weather, and somehow i almost always end up dressed in primary colors. last night was no different.






i'm trying out this new thing where i post closeup photos. i've always done the one-photo, this is it thing, and i have my reasons for doing that; but i've realized as i've been browsing more blogs lately that i really love blogs that are photo-heavy and show all the details, and that's something that my posts have always lacked. i got a new fancy camera (!!!) that allows me to do high-quality shots, so there you go. i tried taking a couple of face shots and i feel like i look like a fish in all of them, so we'll do this photo thing in baby steps.

shirt: j crew
skirt: thrifted (originally united colors of benetton)
tights: man on the street
necklaces: vintage jewelry shop in atlanta, gift from sam's mom, gift from sam
shoes: thrifted


it was a lovely time, and we left with arms full of great gifts, but i was in a rush to make it to whole foods before it closed so i could grab some ground pork and head home to the most exciting part of the night, for me - dinner. my friend ashlee, who spent a couple years in mongolia and has also traipsed much of the rest of asia, came over and showed me how to make dumplings, which we promptly scarfed down, along with a couple of white ales, in honor of chinese new year. i'm told eating dumplings is good luck for this year, which is the year of the rabbit - any excuse to stuff my face with pork in any form is good enough for me.


Gif animation creator





she is a master of sealing those dumplings.

here is the recipe we used:


ingredients:

1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 cup of chopped green onion
1/2 cup of chopped cabbage
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon rice wine
A few dashes of white pepper
5 drops of sesame oil

for the wraps:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water

sprinkle the cabbage with salt to draw out the water and let it sit until it's dry. combine the filling ingredients and set aside.

use 1/2 cup of BOILING water, pour into the flour, and knead until it springs back to the touch; let it rest for a bit, then you can do what we did, aka cheat, and feed it bit by bit into a pasta machine to get it nice and thin, and then use a 3" cutter to cut it into circles; fill each with about a tablespoon of filling, and seal it however you can.

put a bit of vegetable or sesame oil in a pan, heat until water spits when you splash it on; brown the bottoms of the dumplings, then add a cup or two of water and cover them tightly with a lid. let them steam until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.

we made a sauce of ponzu, sesame oil, soy sauce and a bit of srirachi sauce. dip and enjoy!


happy chinese new year, everyone, and have a great weekend!

xo audrey

fondoozy

hello hello! ten days ago now (man, time flies) i had the pleasure of the company of a bunch of sweet and fashionable folks, including claire, christine, christina, and keiko, as we got to drink sweet drinks, eat sliders, listen to live music, and view the club monaco spring collection. it's always fun to get together with these girls regardless of the affair, but this was one of my favorite events to date - in no small part because it ended with us all getting to choose one piece from the collection to take home for our very own. there were so many things i loved, and i hemmed and hawed until the last moment, but ended up snagging this silk racerback dress - it's so comfy, and i felt like it would be really versatile. . . and a perfect piece to take on a honeymoon (assuming, of course, we go somewhere warm. with all the frantic planning we've been doing, sam and i haven't yet managed to figure out where to head after the wedding. . .suggestions welcome!)



what is the pose in this photo? holding imaginary handbag? preparing to balance tray of cocktails? i'm a little teapot? who knows.

dress: club monaco spring collection
scalloped slip: thrifted
tights: HUE
shoes: madewell
my new favorite necklace: laura lombardi

and for what occasion did i don this apparel? fondue party!! sam and i have been wanting to have a big dinner party for some time, and decided that there's no better dinner than one in which you dunk everything into cheese. i spent all thursday and friday prepping appetizers and desserts, blanching vegetables, cutting bread into cubes, and grating cheese (well, actually, i had my dear friend ashlee to help with that. . .) for friday night, when our apartment was packed and the food got absolutely destroyed, in the best way possible. sam has now caught the host bug and we're planning our next dinner party already - with a beer and pizza theme (homebrewed beer a la sam, and homemade pizza a la audrey.)



so much more to post - lots of things swirling around in my world and this head of mine, and i'll do my best to get them down here before long!

OH! and my tights DIY was featured on styleist a couple days ago! made my day.

hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

xo audrey

auld lang syne, my dears

a belated happy new years! i spent mine in chattanooga, as i mentioned, and managed to remember every camera cable, every charger - and forget my battery charger. the camera died the instant i pulled it out. so, there it is. starting the new year off with no bang.

so, i have to admit, this shot is staged. my friend ashlee came over the other night and we had some wine and she, being a photographer but without her camera, decided that i should dress up and she'd take pictures of me. i'm pretty awkward when most people take photos of me, but the glass or two of wine helped, and we got a couple shots that i actually liked quite a bit. this one is my favorite, though, most likely because my entire face is obscured by syrah.



dress: madewell
necklace 1: gift from sam, from california
necklace 2 (rhinestones): also actually from sam, from our recent trip to the south
tights: courtesy of stylefind
tights 2 (patterned one): sam's mom gave 'em in my stocking
shoes: madewell
belt: urban outfitters
purse: gift from a friend, marc jacobs

back to my trip, though - sam and i had a great time, despite the desolation that is northern georgia. i was so excited to hit every goodwill within a twenty mile radius, and i did so, but was left pretty disappointed in the selection (and pretty depressed in the atmosphere in some of them.) i guess it was a wake up call of sorts - i grew up without a lot of money, and certainly shopped in thrift stores out of necessity; today it's more to try to find fun, unique things for a steal, but what a reminder that a trip to the goodwill isn't all fun and games for some. it was humbling, for sure. but everyone was so incredibly friendly, that it wasn't an entirely lost cause.

for reasons to complicated to explain, my flight got really screwed up and we ended up staying in atlanta for one night, and exploring the outer regions some - we found this awesome jewelry store, right next door to a salvation army, and i snagged 3 necklaces that will be getting a lot of play, including one of the two i wore on new years. i've never been huge into jewelry before, but one or two great pieces have really got me kind of addicted.

so our days were mostly spent exploring the country and eating really bad(ly awesome) food such as outback steakhouse and red lobster, and our evenings were spent in the hotel. sam got an amazing room with a giant whirlpool actually like 2 feet from the bed, so we could sit in it and drink wine and watch hockey. which we did. a lot. one game (penguins v. capitols,) one hbo special (24/7 penguins) and mighty ducks I and II. it was not the most glamourous way to spend the new year, but we had a damn good time.

the night of new years we did have an amazing dinner, though - we drove the half hour to chattanooga and sam had booked us a reservation at a really incredible little restaurant that was serving a 4-course prix fix menu. it was lovely, with the small exception of the fact that i'd developed a cold so bad at that point that my outfit was outplayed by my extreme kleenex rash under my nose. ah well.

so, there is my horrific-ly out-of-order new years holiday. how was yours? did you do anything special?

and lastly, a recipe to start off the year! i had the idea to try making creme brulee in oranges, to see if they would pick up some of the flavor. having just sucked one down i can say that it did have a very mellow orange flavor and was pretty delightful, and the orange does make for a pretty presentation (and easy cleanup! just scoop it clean and throw it away [or compost if you're cooler than i am.])




orange infused creme brulee

first - hollow out two oranges. it's kind of an annoying task, and be careful when you get to the bottom that you don't rip out the little stem, which leaves a big hole. i've been there.

you'll need:

2 oranges, cut in half and scooped
4 yolks
1 cup cream
2 T plus 1 T sugar
pinch of table salt
2 T vanilla or vanilla bean extract
2 T fresh squeezed orange juice (just squeeze the stuff you scooped.)

heat oven to 300, and get a kettle with some water ready for boiling.

first - put 1/2 cup of the cream, the vanilla, the salt, and 2 T of the sugar into a small saucepan. stir for a bit to make sure the sugar dissolves. once it starts to boil, turn off the burner and now put your yolks in a bowl - wait until now if you can, so they don't dry out. add the remaining 1 T of sugar and the orange juice and whisk until combined. add the remaining 1/2 cup of cream to the saucepan, to cool it further, then add the cream, bit by bit, to the yolks, whisking all the while. add it all, whisk til combined, but try not to add too many bubbles.

use a sieve to pour the mixture into a 2 cup measure. place the oranges in a small pan - i just used a 9" cake pan (you want it to have high-ish sides.) turn the kettle on so the water boils, and fill the oranges to about 1/2 inch from the top. carefully put them on a middle rack in the oven and then pour boiling water up to 2/3 of the orange. bake for about 30 minutes; they are done when they don't slosh, but just barely jiggle. let them cool off, then cover them and put them in the fridge for several hours (or even a couple of days.) when ready to serve, cover with turbinado sugar (shake off any excess) and use a torch to brulee it. voila! an elegant, delicious and seasonal dessert.



all right, i'm off. sam has been downloading d3, the last of the mighty ducks trilogy, and i have some roasted chicken and dutch macaroni and cheese to scarf.

happy 2011 everyone, may it be our best year yet!

xo audrey

she's crafty

hello! i've been making some cards lately and it occurred to me that i may not have mention this hobby of mine. when i lived in chicago i had a small business hand-making invitations for a bar mitzvah here, a wedding there. i really miss sitting down and making things out of tiny pieces of paper, so lately i've been grabbing every excuse to do so. i've also decided to make the save the dates (and invitations, eventually) for the wedding myself, but it's way too early to send those out just yet, so i'm keeping my hands busy with this kinda stuff.











while i'm speaking crafts, i've been meaning to mention this lady for awhile - alexis brown, a friend from chicago who makes beautiful, witty embroideries. she now has an etsy store so you can have some of her goodness for your own.





get some.

xo, audrey