pretty woman

hi everyone! happy tuesday! i have a bunch to do today so i'm just going to crank this out.

last night i came home with a dinner plan all set; i'd spotted these scotch eggs on tastespotting earlier in the day and decided to make my move. i've always wanted to try these things, and as they require some frying, i figured it'd be best to get them out of my system before it gets so bleeping hot in my kitchen i barely want to cook, much less negotiate with hot, splattery oil. i changed the recipe a bit to suit what i had, and to make it small enough for me & sam. i paired it with these sesame soba noodles and fresh squeezed juice to try to keep it light. a great meal it was, but light it certainly wasn't. don't make this for dinner unless you plan on retreating immediately afterwards to bed to watch a movie. (fortunately, this was exactly what i had in mind.)



vietnamese-ish scotch eggs

4 eggs, soft boiled (put eggs in a pot; boil some water; pour it over them and turn the heat to medium; set a timer for 6 minutes; remove the eggs and plunge them into ice water. peel when cooled.)
1 lb ground pork
2 stalks of lemongrass, chopped
3 small green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
2 inch piece of fresh ginger (skinned)
a spoonful of brown sugar
zest of one lime
fish sauce
salt
1/2 bunch of cilantro
a couple cups of flour
a couple cups of panko
1 egg, beaten

combine the lemongrass, chillies, garlic, ginger, and lime zest in the food processor until quite pulverized. add the brown sugar, then turn on the food processor and stream in fish sauce until it turns into a loose paste. add salt to taste. (beware: this will be pretty spicy. i was talking on the phone when i was making mine and i somehow got chili on my hand and then on my phone and then on my face, and way too much of my conversation became about my face being on fire.) finely chop the cilantro. mix this, the pork, and the paste together well.

now you're going to want to get a piece of saran wrap. grab a piece of the pork about as big as your fist (a little bigger, in the case of my toddlerhands,) and pound it out so it's about 1/2 inch (or less) thick. put the egg on top. caaaaarefully use the saran wrap to envelop the egg in the pork mixture. seal it well and make it as round as possible, then pop it in the freezer until you're ready to use it. repeat 3x.




once you're ready to go, get some oil going in a pan on medium-low heat until it's good and hot. take your eggs and roll them in flour, then egg, then panko and plop 'em in the pan. you want to cook them until they are very dark on each side - 3-4 minutes - and turn so every side is well cooked. repeat. you can keep them warm in the oven; i set them on a drying rack as they came out and put them in at 300.

and voila! they were so tasty - sam had his with some sriracha sauce and i just drank lots of milk to minimize sweating. they are hot and heavy, but so good, and paired with fresh juice and soba noodles it was a pretty great dinner.





aaand an outfit at last! i had to get dressed in a hurry today - i'd planned on tights but it was already over 70 by the time i left my apartment this morning and i was worried i'd overheat. what i should have worried about was wearing newly-thrifted shoes without road-testing them first - my feet hurt so bad after walking to and from the subway this morning that i'm truly not sure how i'll make it home today. and the title of this post doesn't refer to my appearance, but the fact that this dress is straight outta that 1990 julia roberts classic.





dress: thrifted
belt: urban outfitters
shoes: painfully thrifted


all right, that's all from me for now! have a lovely tuesday!

xo audrey

artichoke onion soup for the soul

hello everyone! i am sitting in my kitchen, typing in the warmest part of my apartment - right by the oven, which is propped open and heated to 400. apparently the pipes in my basement chose this weekend to crap out on me, so my radiators are ice cold; sam and i have decided to stomach an extra large gas bill, rather than shiver in our own apartment.

the past weekend had its highs and lows; i usually have fridays and saturdays off, but had to work this saturday, making for an extra short weekend - most of which i spent in front of a computer, desperately trying to remember photoshop shortcuts as i worked on wedding invitations. i did find the time to make us a good, thick, wintry soup - it was easy and delicious, and perfect for these cold winter nights, so i thought i'd share the recipe.



2 cans of quartered artichoke hearts
1 medium yellow onion
3 cups chicken broth
2 T butter
2 t ground fennel
1 t dried thyme
1/4 c heavy cream
salt
pepper
olive oil for drizzling
parmasean or similar cheese for crisps

so - start the butter melting in a big pot. a soup sized pot. slice the onion into thin strips, then add it to the butter; saute until good and caramelized, stirring as needed. add the artichoke and saute for a few minutes. add enough chicken stock to cover the onion and artichoke and then some. add the spices, then the cream, and salt to taste; either use an immersion blender or a regular one to puree them until you can't anymore. put your oven to 350, and grate the cheese into little piles on a silpat or piece of parchment, and bake the cheese for 10-15 minutes, or until browned. serve the soup with a drizzle of olive oil, a grinding of pepper, and a cheese crisp or two. and a grilled cheese and pastrami, if you're me.

and an appropriately yellow and green outfit for the day!



dress: thrifted
tights: from mi madre
shoes: madewell
hat: from a weird little antique shop outside of atlanta, ga
necklace: jewelry shop near atlanta (a fish, therefore, a gift from sam)

well! my smoke alarm is going off for no reason whatsoever, so i guess it's time to sign off. stay warm, and much love!

xo audrey

chattanooga choo choo (er, airplane)

after trudging off to work this morning in 20 inches of slow that is rapidly turning into a city full of slush, i'm headed off to chattanooga for a nice, long weekend with sam. plans include a lot of thrifting, sleeping in, and free hbo - in other words, a very quiet, low-key new year. we do have reservations at one of the fanciest restaurants in chattanooga (i'm not sure what to make of that sentence,) and i look forward to weather warm (enough) to get away with tights with no long johns underneath, and open-toed shoes.

in case i don't have internet access from the hotel room (heaven forbid!,) have a great weekend and a phenomenal new year, everyone. i don't have the presence of mind just yet to get sappy about 2010, but it has been a truly fantastic year, and i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading. i've been up and down on this thing and it means a lot to me that you've stuck with me.



my comfy traveling outfit:

sweater: picked up at a renegade craft fair a couple years ago
pants: super on sale rodebjers that i finally just sewed skinny a couple of days ago. i don't wear wide leg pants.
shoes: madewell
necklace: thrifted

oh yes and!! to leave you on this delightful note, in honor of the new year, with my thanks to the beautiful and befreckled linsey of the indo projects - some caviar and champagne. . .

. . . handstitched out of sequins.






all these things and more, right here.

rollin' in dough

i have used this recipe dozens of times and probably mentioned it here nearly as many. finally: galette dough.

i've made galettes for years, and until a few months ago i used a pretty straightforward recipe, quite similar to a standard pie crust dough. then, more recently, we started making seasonal fruit galettes at work, and i discovered with the same few ingredients (butter, salt, flour, and water) you can get a very different, absolutely heavenly flakey crust. here it is:

2 sticks of butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and placed in the freezer for at least 30 minutes (until quite hard and cold)
240 g AP flour
100 g cake flour
1/2 cup water, with 1 t salt dissolved in it and placed in the freezer to cool


you'll need some table room to work on. clear a space as large as you can on a kitchen table or counter.

dust your work space with the slightest bit of ap flour to work on. sprinkle the butter on top in a small pile; dump the 2 flours on top of that, and get out your rolling pin. you'll also want some kind of scraper to gather the dough. roll it out and scrape it back together until the butter has all been flattened into little pieces and the dough looks very shaggy, like the first picture on the left.



one you've gotten it all nice and shaggy, gather it up, make a well in the center, and pour in the water that's been chilling in the freezer. use your scraper to cut the water into the dough a bit before using your rolling pin to begin to roll the dough out into a long rectangle (as in the above photo.) use extra flour on your rolling pin to keep it from sticking, and on your table as needed. once you've got it all together, as a cohesive dough, even out the sides and then simply fold it up as you would a letter - 2 folds, in three sections. then turn it to the side, and roll it out again, the exact same way - long rectangle, then folded into thirds. roll out once more, fold it up, and wrap it in plastic and let it chill for at least an hour.

once you're ready to use the dough, roll it out into a big rectangle, with the dough about 1/4 inch thick. all the folds you've put in there give it amazing, flaky layers - it's almost like puff pastry, but without all the work and waiting between turns. simply cut up any fruit that's in season, sprinkle a bit of lemon juice on top (if it's something like an apple or pear) or else just some sugar, and bake at 350 until browned. simply incredible. i use it for savory galettes as well.

a wonderful and unforeseen consequence of a surprise half birthday party? friends unable to attend offer to buy you drinks! for no reason except that you didn't see them a night you hadn't even known to expect them! for such an occasion, i wear:



blouse: j crew
brooch: picked up at a little shop in red hook (for a DOLLAR!)
skirt: american apparel
belt: thrifted
tights: bought off a guy in the street (yes, but they were in untampered with packaging, i swear!)
shoes: oak nyc

wearing these shoes while i still can, before the first snow comes. i tremble in fear.


have a lovely night, all!

xo audrey