winner, winner, potato and kale dinner

hello! i know i promised a winner on friday, but i was seriously in the throws of the worst cold/flu monster i've ever had - three and a half days, no work, completely bedridden. did you know you can be in bed so long that your body is actually sore from being in bed too long? fact. finally, saturday night, i dragged myself out of bed (just in time to catch andrew bird at the bell house) and had a semi-normal sunday, if it is semi-normal to fall asleep at 8:45 pm. so i'm not 100% yet. but i'm getting there.


top: j crew
dress: thrifted
tights: urban outfitters (fleece lined! so warm!)
shoes: thrifted
brooch: thrifted
hair: lack of cut, dye or attention in 6 months and counting

so, anyways, i promised on friday that i'd have a winner and i am a solid three days late, so without further ado: dawn of turby and john! shoot me an email (homerunballerina@gmail.com) and we'll work out the details. congratulations, wear it in happiness and health! and thank you to all of you who entered - more giveaways soon.

it's been awhile since i posted any food - which feels so wrong! - so i have a quick, easy, and even pretty healthy dinner for you guys. for what it's worth, i've become a complete instagram addict - you can follow me @oddreigh - and post my daily goings-on at the bakery a few times a day there. so it's really not that i stopped posting about food - just that i switched to a quicker, more immediate medium.

i was in ann arbor last weekend, visiting family and getting to spend some all-too-rare time with my little sister and mom, and spent a lot of time at my aunt susie's place. aunt susie and i have a lot in common - both "creative" types, i guess, who love to draw, bake and create - and she had a library of cookbooks that made me swoon. i got to flip through quite a few of them (sneaking iphone photos of the ones i want to buy for myself) but one recipe caught my eye, and was so simple i was able to sort-of-memorize it, enough to make it for dinner tonight.

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potato and kale galette (adapted from an old gourmet cookbook)

1 bunch of kale, leaves pulled of the stem, torn up and washed
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
3 T butter
2 large baking potatoes, cleaned, peeled and sliced very thin (i used a mandolin)

start off by getting your oil going in a pan, over medium heat; once hot, add the garlic and cook just until it starts to brown; add the kale, still wet from being rinsed, and cook it until it's very wilted, and much brighter green. turn off the heat, and set it aside.

now get a cast iron pan going. i used a 10 inch pan. melt about a tablespoon of butter in the pan, then mosaic about 1/3 of the potato slices over it, working quickly; add 1/2 of the kale, then another 1/3 of the potato slices mosaiced (salt and pepper this, and brush a bit of melted butter atop them,) then the other half of the kale and the last of the potatoes. basically, you've made a double-decker potato and kale pancake. brush the top layer of potatoes generously with butter, then butter a piece of aluminum foil and use a heavy pan to weigh down the stack. let them cook for ten minutes or so, over medium to medium low heat; once the bottom layer of potatoes starts to brown (you'll be able to see the edges start to brown and curl a bit,) grab a sheet pan and some oven mitts. this is the trickiest part. use a metal spatula to carefully slide the pancake out of the pan and onto the sheet pan, then invert the pan over it and flip it back onto the heat, so the browned side is facing up and the previously uncooked side is now being cooked. cook this for another ten minutes or so, and that's it! slide it off and serve. i was trying to keep it healthy and simple, so i ate it plain (i'm a fan of simple flavors, anyway) with lots of sea salt and pepper; it would be great with goat cheese, though, and sam doused his in ketchup, so there's that.







thanks a bunch for reading, and have a fabulous week!

xo audrey

matchy matchy

i snagged this rather un-characteristic top on sale at urban outfitters recently. i've been feeling a little body-conscious and the fit and drape of this lets me relax a little bit; i also was surprised how much i love the neutral color, given my usual penchant for bright bright bright. of course i couldn't completely let myself dress like a grown up, so i paired it with (new favorite) some bright red shorts and a pair of flats i thrifted in connecticut a couple of weeks ago, and broke one big fashion rule: don't be too matchy-matchy. the color of the shirt+shorts perfectly match the two-tones of the flats, but i think i like it.






top: urban outfitters
sunglasses: asos
shorts: urban outfitters
shoes: thrifted

i wore it for the first time last week, right after deciding i was going to wear a big girl outfit, with painted nails and everything. i never paint my nails, because i'm too much of an impatient spaz - of course, the moment i put the shirt on, i got a smudge of bright yellow polish on the damn thing. i think i'm going to cover it up with a button, but i'm pretty annoyed at myself.

more from me soon,

xo audrey

partyin', partyin'

lookin' forward to the weekend. (i know. i'm SORRY. every time someone says "it's friday!" my mind just GOES THERE. i hate it too.) just a quick outfit post before the weekend. . .




blouse: karen walker (dress version here)
shorts: urban outfitters
shoes: vintage ferragamos
socks: we love colors

thanks so much to you all for your sweet words about the shimmer video - to me watching it is like listening to myself laugh repeatedly on an answering machine. AWKWARD. so it means a lot that you have such nice things to say about it. and there are two more coming, so i'm especially glad you find them tolerable!

what are your plans for the weekend? tonight we're going to a birthday party in brooklyn, then tomorrow sam and i are heading up to connecticut for a wedding - waking up early to thrift all the way there, then out on sunday to thrift all the way home. yee-haw.

have a great one!

xo audrey

what makes love true

good morning! so much to post, so little time! a couple weeks ago i was invited to take part in a new campaign for tiffany called what makes love true. being that i just got married (and just got word that the photos are en route to my apartment and should be in blog form by week's end,) if i so much as see the word 'love' written on a kleenex box i pretty much melt into a puddle of butter on the floor (plus who doesn't love a fine piece of jewelry?) so i readily agreed. my love of brooches well-documented at this point, i selected a beautiful bow-shaped pin.






i found this dress, and a pile of others, at a vintage shop in new jersey this weekend; since this drastic hair-chopping, i've been wanting more simple, high-necked shift dresses, and i walked out of there with about 4 of varying colors and patterns. score.

dress: vintage, thrifted
shorts: urban outfitters (similar here.)
shoes: urban outfitters
brooch: c/o tiffany

i think it's the perfect little detail to add some romance and charm to any outfit; especially with the more basic, mod-style clothing i'm starting to gravitate towards, i'll be glad to have this to pin on if a dress needs a bit of sparkle.

and you can see how some other girls styled up their pieces here.

xo audrey

rosemary's lady

hello hello! i present to you a SECOND post, in one day, a small pittance for my multi-week absence before, during, and after the hitchin'. after my kvetching about not being sure how to dress from my hair, i got lots of "i've-been-there"s from you guys; and most of you basically said, you can still wear dresses, weirdo. my friend chris, after pointing out that we have the same haircut (a mixed compliment, to be sure,) gave me this advice: "channel Mia Farrow a la Rosemary's Baby and keep rocking the 60s clothes. She's my style icon these days." done and done, good sir! so here i am, doing my best mia farrow a la rosemary's baby. rosemary's lady, if you will. (oh, you won't? fair enough. it was a silly stretch of a title at best.)





top: j crew
dress: urban outfitters
brooch: thrifted
shoes: vintage ferragamos, ebay'd (similar here.)

i think i'll be dragging any shift dresses and button-up blouses out of storage soon.

until next time (much food and i THINK, very soon, the big wedding wrap-up soon to come!),

xo audrey

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

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

i'm just mad about saffron

this color once dominated my wardrobe, and is still one of my all-time favorites; it earned me the nickname "little bee" from one friend of mine (whom has since moved to rhode island and i miss dearly!)

this is what i wore today - i dragged myself home, ate some leftover fried rice, and worked on wedding invitations for awhile before leaning against my pantry wall to snap this real quick. so that slump is not affected. i am exhausted.



shorts & sweater: urban outfitters
top & scarf: j crew
tights: hansel from basel
shoes: some sketchy store in union square

until next time,

xo audrey

hiya, stud[s]

so, quickly, some interesting news that will, hopefully, bode well for this blog. i recently decided to leave the bakery and get a more jobby-job. i love baking (obviously) and it's definitely still what i want to do with the rest of my life, but after a long time at baked (for some reason i never named it while i worked there - i guess i felt weird doing so, but it's a great place, and anyone in new york should check it out!) i felt a bit creatively stifled and, to be frank, financially challenged. ah, the food industry - home to so many passionate poor people. i'm a grown up now (i guess,) and i'm getting married soon (aaaaah!) and i decided it was time to start putting some serious money away, and getting weekends off for a change. thankfully, i am really happy in the office i ended up - it's a creative place, and i'm carving out a little catering niche for myself so i still get to bake on a nearly-daily basis.

the good news for the blog, though, is that a desk job at a creative office means wearing what i want every day, and ample time to blog about it! i missed the last couple of days, and this morning would have been comedic for any outsider to witness - me with my big ol' camera, propping it up and then posing, checking the shot, and trying a different space. i did try a couple in the utility closet for old time's sake, but it's a tight squeeze, so i'll have to figure out a way to shove myself in there. i was clearly uncomfortable trying this morning.



i've settled, for now, for a corner right behind my desk.





top: j crew
shorts: UO
shoes: rachel comey (care of lambs ear)
tights: both pairs by HUE
necklace: a mashup of chain from accessorize, locket from ebay, and shoe clip from devotte

i've been gravitating to all things embellished lately - i think it's an easy way for a pattern wuss like me to gently break into a bit of mixing and matching.

i've been making macarons for an order this week and was able to bring in the leftovers for my office to enjoy; both sam and i's waistlines will be very grateful that i finally have somewhere to bring my pastries.

until tomorrow,

xo audrey

friends in high places

hello! i hope everyone's had a good couple of weeks. mine we spent first living the life of someone much cooler than myself - a friend came to visit two weeks ago, and through his savviness we were able to attend a jimmy fallon taping (the one where justin timberlake was the guest and belle and sebastian were the musical guest - a fantastic preview to the next night, when we saw them play in williamsburg [a heartbreakingly wonderful show. i don't know if i've ever left a concert happier]), a saturday night live dress rehearsal, and then, ridiculously, the snl after party. it was fun, but incredibly surreal for a bunch of reasons - i think there were more celebrities of one caliber or another than there were every day joes such as ourselves; every table was reserved by one of the aforementioned celebrities, so we were forced by default to stand awkwardly in the middle of a bunch of celebrities; and i had, at this point begun to develop a pretty nasty cold, the party didn't start until 1 am, and i had to work at 7 the next morning.

so. week 1 spent in a fury of activity, and most of week 2 spent in bed, surrounded by used kleenex, watching show after show on hulu and eating nothing but chicken noodle soup. i guess everything balances itself out. i'm still nursing away what must be the worst cold of my adult life (15 days later i still have a cough and the sniffles) but i've started to dig myself out and get to work. with the wedding 8 months away, and on a saturday in june, i'm anxious to get save the dates in the mail; i've almost completed the pile now. i changed the colors to match what i guess will be our wedding colors (although i don't really see myself sticking to just two) and i've been writing out the addresses with a kind of crappy calligraphy marker. i think i need to upgrade.








but anyway! the goods. a recipe AND an outfit! in one day! i'm trying to make up for lost time.

squid ink fettucine a la audrey

so! i made my own pasta for this one. it sounds like a pain, and it kind of is, but i'm telling you, fresh pasta is so so so so SO much better than anything you can buy at the store. so much. i put squid ink in here because i'd picked some up at a fish market a few weeks ago and intended to use it for, i don't know, something (buy random ingredients at stores and force yourself to use them. i find it gets me making things i never would otherwise) and decided to throw it in here. you can buy little packets like the one i used here. they're cheap! and while they didn't make a huge difference in taste that i could tell (i think it did make the pasta a bit saltier,) they sure do make it look good.

so! for the pasta.

3/4 c semolina flour
1/4 t salt
1 egg
1 T water
1 T olive oil

whisk salt & flour and make a well; add egg, squid ink, water, and olive oil. mix with a wooden spoon until it's combinded, then knead for about 8-10 minutes, until it's pretty smooth and elastic-y. wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. then use a pasta machine (or roll it out if you are a better woman than i) to roll it out, bit by bit, until it's pasta thin and cut into fettucine. let it dry while you prepare. .






2 egg yolks
1 large portabello mushroom cap, cut into bite sized cubes
2 small zucchini, washed then sliced into ribbons with a peeler


boil a pot of water. once it's at a rolling boil, drop in the pasta and cook until tender with a splash of olive oil in the water. strain pasta but save some water; get a sautee pan heating up and add in mushrooms and a splash or two of pasta water. once mushrooms start to cook, add zucchini; keep adding pasta water as needed (whenever it's all cooked off, add another splash until the zucchini and mushrooms are sauteed to softness.) add pasta to sautee pan, mix together, then turn off heat; immediately mix in the two egg yolks, stirring quickly so they don't cook at the bottom of the pan. season to taste and voila! few ingredients but tons of flavor. my new go-to pasta.



aaand lastly, outfit! i went to the flea market saturday with some long-lost friends and had a really nice time, despite snotting and sneezing all over the place the whole time. my outfit for shopping (although i didn't buy anything. . .)



shirt (red): urban
slip: vintage
bow tie: shoe clip
tights: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire
not pictured, but totally wearing: purple bloomers from american apparel. just in case.

my parents are flying in this weekend and i get to go bridal-shopping with my mama. i'm hoping to find a veil and some shoes, and i've been looking for an excuse to check out the j crew wedding shop on madison ave, so. . . yes! more soon!

xo audrey