one is sweet, one's for my feet

this morning was one of those awful, harumph-i'm-a-new-yorker mornings; it is absolutely freezing out, but of course i'm still wearing heels; i waited nearly a half hour for my first train, one of THREE i have to take to get to soho, which is probably a 3 or 4 mile trip from my apartment; every single one of the 3 trains i take was absolutely packed to the gills, which meant being smashed against strangers and kneed and elbowed all over my torso; and finally, when i got to work, i discovered my camera's battery was dead. UGH. fortunately i had a post saved for a time such as this.

i've been doing lots of wedding planning over the last week or so - well, i haven't figured out the big things, like where we're going on our honeymoon, or who's going to cater, but i DID manage to pick out a pair of shoes for the occasion. i knew i wanted wedges (so's not to poke holes in my in-law's lawn,) and i recently decided i wanted something red; a google search turned up these kate spade beauties, and i decided i had to have 'em.



we have narrowed down honeymoon destinations to somewhere hot & beachy, so i think these will come in quite handy then, too.

so i missed valentine's day on here by a few weeks (oops) -- sam and i kept it pretty low key, having a couple of friends over for dinner. sam made an amazing perch chowder (a chowder, in fact, that he caught all the fish for himself, through several inches of snow, the weekend before the holiday,)_ i put together a warm valentines-y salad (consisting primarily of goat cheese and roasted beets cut into heart shapes.) as it happened, we were all too full to eat dessert, so i made the one i'd been planning for that night later in the week when some friends were in town to visit.



white chocolate soufflé with blueberry whiskey compote

recipe adapted from epicurean

makes four large or 6-8 medium soufflés

ingredients:

3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

preheat the oven to 400°F. butter 4 individual soufflé dishes, about 8 ounces each. lightly dust the bottom and sides of the dishes with sugar. melt the chocolate over barely simmering water; set aside to cool.

in a large bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. add the salt and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. gradually add 2 tablespoons of the sugar, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form. in a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick and pale in color. beat in the remaining 4 tablespoons sugar. stir in the vanilla and the melted chocolate. fold one-fourth of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it; fold this mixture into the remaining egg whites. spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared dishes. bake for 10-12 minutes or until set and golden brown; if in doubt, give them an extra minute or two.

for the blueberry compote:

1 pint blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla bean paste (or one vanilla bean)
about 1/2 cup of whiskey

combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer on low heat until the bite has gone out of the whiskey and the sugar has dissolved; use a wooden spoon to stir and mash the blueberries. use a spoon to make an indentation in the soufflés and pour in the compote. enjoy!

hopefully an outfit post to come, if i can figure out this camera business.

xo audrey

i had a dream

last night i dreamed that i spent the night at the white house with the obamas. i'm not sure why i was there, although i do remember at one point helping michelle put away barack's laundry. barack took me on a tour of the white house, which included a mineshaft that had been there since the 1800's; there were what appeared to be corpses of mineworkers lying throughout the tunnel, and he explained that they tried to keep the mine as true to the past as possible, so they hadn't removed anything, including the dead, in many years. one of the corpses started crawling towards me and i screamed, and he laughed and said he was only kidding, he'd asked some of the white house staff to pretend to be dead to give me a good scare. i didn't hold it against him. later we went upstairs and decided to take a nap. we found a couch and laid down, he the big spoon to my little sppon, and he gently laid an arm over me and i felt very safe. i remember as i fell asleep i whispered, "thank you, mr. president," and he chuckled into the nape of my neck. he woke early to go do presidential shit and i told michelle that she had the hardest job in the country. also, and this is sickening, i remember as we laid down to take a nap, thinking in my dream, "i wonder if it's okay if i twitter this," and then deciding that it probably wasn't.

anyway. growing up in south carolina, and going to church every sunday, my mom strictly enforced the no-white-shoes-before-easter law. i hesitated this morning when getting dressed; it still feels kind of wrong to me, and i feel the eyeballs of every older woman on the street on my blazing white feet as i walk down the street (this is almost certainly a figment of my own imagination.) but i did a little research this morning to try to figure out where the rule came from, and it seems that there are two reasons: one being that white reflects light, and thus theoretically makes you colder in the winter; and two, the rule was implemented in the 50's, when the middle class was beginning to come into existence, and the upper class basically invented rules such as these to mess with them. so i say, it's going to be in the 50's today, and eff that. i do what i want.



shirt: american apparel
necklaces: ebay
jeans: cheap monday from an adorable shop in dumbo called epaulet. they carry some really amazing shoes, too, like these vivian westwood for melissa:

shoes: steve madden

bowing out.

xo audrey

i got them back

well, it took several days longer than it was supposed to, but my georgina goodmans are back and right where they belong: on my feet. i may never remove them. being soft leather, they molded to my feet long ago and wearing them feels like going barefoot, only better, because i could walk over hot coals with these babies and not feel a thing.

amanda richards, i don't know if i want to hug you, to throw several scarves around you and accessorize them with big, sloppy kisses - or hunt you down, put you in mom jeans and ugly sweaters and force you to watch lanvin catwalk shows and agnyess deyn montages. because that, my dear, is effectively what you have done to me. you showed me the glamorai and i am now powerless. do you know what i did until 1 am last night, amanda? i stayed up sewing baubles onto a cloth collar. tonight i am having friends over for fish tacos, and do you know what i would rather do? ransack my wardrobe for things to add ruffles to. okay, so i love you. and her. but jesus. if you don't know the glamorai, beware. she is highly addictive.

i've also decided that these myspace, pose-in-the-mirror shots are not acceptable. i'm going to do my best to take shots of myself without the aid of a mirror, but it will be difficult since i don't have 1. a cute hipster boyfriend to take my photo like the glamorai or 2. a huge mansion in the form of my parents' house in which to set up a camera like childhood flames. but dammit, i'll try.



detail of shirt:



shirt: hi-line (american apparel wannabes, from what i gather) beautifully destroyed thanks to childhood flames' tutorial, posted earlier
skirt: american apparel
tights: welovecolor.com
shoes: georgina goodman
necklace: woman on the street
belt: anthropologie

have a lovely sunday, i'm going to go fry some fish.

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

laundry day

good morning! thursdays are generally good days for me. i catch up on lost, get the night off of school, and bask in the knowledge that tomorrow is friday. today i have a pretty full list at work, too, so the day should go quickly.

class has gotten a bit harder. not technically speaking so much as we switched chefs, and the new one is. . . challenging. it's difficult because i loved the chef we had in level one, and this one just seems kind of bipolar; kind of spacey and meandering and then all of a sudden all barking and army general-esque. i really like the unit we're on, though; last night i brought home one of those giant bed bath and beyond bags LOADED with food: 3 different kinds of croissants (ham and cheese, plain, and chocolate,) a malty oat bread, 4 different kinds of danish (cheese, apricot with almond cream, pastry cream, cream cheese and blueberry,) and a cheese tart with onions and and bacon that's gonna serve as my dinner tonight.



shirt: vintage ck pajamas
shorts: handmade mary meyer
tights: two pairs, one anthro, one urban outfitters
belt: anthropologie
shoes: DSW

i have noticed a pattern in the shape of shoes i'm pining after lately. i ordered some pumps online a few days ago, but i haven't gotten a confirmation yet, so if for any reason that doesn't work out, i'm going to have to get one of these pairs instead:



left and right via 80spurple.com; center shoes via buydefinition


tonight: more sewing. eating cheese tarts. probably drinking wine. trying to fall asleep before 2 am. and much, much more.

xo audrey

baguettes

i woke up this morning at 8:55 am. i'm supposed to be at work at 9. so this morning is pretty lacking in imagination.

last night was my first day of pastry II. this means a new chef, a new kitchen, a new way of doing things. i can see that it is going to take some getting used to. last night our chef forgot about my bread and it burned to a crisp in the oven. it's really not a huge deal (well, sort of,) it isn't like i've never had a baguette before, it's just that i hadn't ever made baguettes before and so i wanted to be able to bring them home. and the chef's attitude about it was the most frustrating part; it's her job to make sure that everything is baked properly, or to at least assign someone else to do so, and the fact that she just kind of shrugged it off was pretty irritating. anyway. i hope i learn a lot and i'm sure i'll settle in to it soon, but i am very grateful to have a night off tonight.



sweater: anthopologie, ebayed
dress: american apparel
tights: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire
new purse!! a better view this time

and now. . . the great experiment.



i loved these shoes. clearly, a little too long and a little too hard. they are hand-painted leather shoes that sam brought me from italy, and today i am going to put my cobbler to the test and see what can be done with them. the other shoe is even worse; it has a huge hole in the toe, and the leather is filthy. i'll take after pictures and see what happens.

**update: dropped the shoes at the cobbler this afternoon. there was much head-shaking and turning over of the shoes, but he assured me they could fix them: "this is what we do," he said. a final run-down of the repairs needed:

replace both soles
replace both heels
new leather on the inside
full cleaning
repair two holes on the left shoe

the total cost was $65 (!! but the shoes are handmade and were expensive, and a gift, so i'm okay with it, as long as they fix them. . .) and will be ready a week from tomorrow. we shall see.

got a little online-shopping happy yesterday so i have a couple of things coming my way this week that i am very excited about. hope everyone enjoys their tuesday. . .

xo audrey