oopsfish

hello! i'm still getting my bearings after a quick vacation this past weekend - me and a few friends booked a b&b in nashville, tennessee; i'd been looking forward to it for weeks, and i packed my suitcase carefully the night before - i'm a notorious over-packer, and wanted to travel light this time - and was headed out the door for work when i realized that i didn't have my passport. (i've lived in new york for nearly four years, and chicago for five years before that, so when i lost my driver's license a couple years ago i got real lazy and just didn't replace it.) sam had taken off for a fishing trip a morning earlier, and my passport had gone right along with him and was now residing in his jacket pocket somewhere on a river in connecticut. so. vacation was off to a rough start.

as it turns out, getting on an airplane without a photo ID is not as difficult as you may think. i brought along every piece of paper i could find with my name on it - birth certificate, marriage certificate, social security card, mail - even my wedding invitation! - and got a little extra TSA action, but got to nashville and back without a hitch. it was a perfect vacation - a few days with some of my very best friends, eating, drinking, dancing and vintage shopping our way through the city. we found a shop called savant vintage that was absolutely miraculous - jam packed with some of the most incredible vintage pieces i've ever seen, including these trousers.




blouse - vintage, from brooklyn flea
earrings - handmade by the owner of savant vintage
pants - vintage, savant vintage
shoes - madewell

so, while i was galavanting about tennessee, my sam was camping out with a bunch of his friends, and he brought home a bag full of trout of different varieties. i decided to pair one - simply prepared - with a dish inspired by one i had at city house in nashville.

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swiss chard, raisin and almond salad

1 bunch of swiss chard
2 thin carrots, cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1/2 small red onion, cut into thin slices
a splash of olive oil, honey, and white wine vinegar
kosher salt

turn the oven to 350 and place the carrots in a foil-lined sheet pan with a splash of olive oil and drizzling of honey. roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

from here it's easy - sauté the chard in the smallest bit of olive oil until dark green and limp; take off the heat and add a tiny bit of white wine vinegar, then stir in the raisins, almonds, and carrots. season with salt to taste.








the fish should be even easier - but i've been trying this new health-ish kick lately, and i didn't put enough olive oil in the pan, and i kind of mangled the poor thing. trout has such good flavor on its own that i like to prepare it simply, with a little lemon, salt and pepper; just be sure you put enough butter or oil in the pan that you don't ugly it up like i did.






ugly or not, it was utterly delicious and a nice pairing of mild and earthy and sweet.

hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and i promise more soon -

xo audrey

picture book

good morning! how was the long weekend? sam and i left to head back to the city super early yesterday morning, but caught bad traffic and a lot of bad luck and i ended up racing, late, to work, and not having a chance to blog. so today's a little catch-up - aka, a major photo dump. but if you make it to the end, you'll find out who won my contest! yes, blackmail! employed, for the first time, here in blog form.

saturday morning, bright and much too early, i hopped on an amtrak to new london, connecticut, ate corned beef hash in a diner, lugged my bags to a salvation army for a bit of shopping, and then caught the ferry to block island. it was a really gorgeous ride.









there i met up with sam and our friends haley and julie and hit the beach for awhile (hit the beach, aka pass out on a beach blanket for a couple of hours) before heading back to julie's parents' place to drop off our stuff then pick up food for dinner. fish market to grocery store, we feasted on oysters, clams casino (a delectable concoction of clams, red peppers, bacon and white wine,) and a leek and goat cheese galette. . . and lots of wine.




the next morning we picked up sam and haley from fishing and hit a yard sale, then changed into our suits and went down to the bluffs. it was sooo beautiful - hot but breezy, sunny but not unbearably so; i think so many tourists had decided to skip the island after the hurricane, assuming the worst, that it wasn't too crowded anywhere and we pretty much got our pick of beach. sam and i fished up and down the coast, soaked in some sun, then headed back home to pack up and take the ferry back to newport.








we grabbed lobster rolls and clam strips, smuggled a couple of pbr and snuggled up on the ferry for the ride back; there we climbed in sam's car and drove up to newport to see our buddy johannes, who was just finishing up a shift as a chef in a restaurant downtown when we arrived. we joined him for a beer, then two, a shot of whiskey, a couple more beers, another whiskey. . . and so on, before stumbling back to his apartment, where i quickly zonked out on the couch but sam, johannes, and his sister sarah chatted for a couple more hours. needless to say we slept in, late, and required a very greasy breakfast in the morning.




our bunkmate for much of the night, rex.

after some bacon and eggs, we packed up the car once again and headed to a beautiful pond not too far from the apartment. sam and johannes both snagged a couple fish apiece, but i wasn't having any luck so i took photos of the scenery instead. take that, nature.






after fishing, we grabbed some groceries and invited over old friends mike and katie for a big family dinner; johannes crafted a delicious fish soup with some of sam's catch, and i made some marinated zucchini and heirloom tomato crostini with ricotta and pear & almond cream puff pastry for dessert.

it was really a pretty perfect weekend. i'm not sure anywhere is as beautiful as new england this time of year, and getting to see so many friends (and eat so many good meals) in a few short days is pretty much my idea of heaven. a relaxing vacation it wasn't, but it was a perfect end to the summer.



and, the winner of the loehmann's giveaway is. . .



heather of 29 skirts! i internet-love heather so i'm so happy for her! heather, email me your address and info and i'll have this shipped right out to you. and thanks so much to everyone for entering - i loved seeing what you're eyeballing for fall, and now i can steal all of your ideas and be the most stylish girl in brooklyn. bwahahaha! just kidding. OR AM I?!

tell me what you did for your long weekend! staycation? go out of town? anything epic? i am very much looking forward to a quiet weekend or two at home. . . in a couple of weeks, after fashion week comes and goes.

xo audrey

honeymoon food

good morning! i'm still awaiting my wedding photos, which i THINK will be coming next week, so in the meantime i'll skip right ahead to the honeymoon.












pomp station: fill up on your solemn displays here.

curaçao was so bright and vibrant and beautiful. all of the buildings are painted crayola-bright colors; i saw one paint store on the whole island (sam and i rented a car and, using only a free airport map of the place, drove the entire country while we were there,) and it must have been stocked with nothing but bright pinks, yellows, greens and blues. we stayed in a fancy hotel, and our door opened up about 8 feet from the ocean. it was pretty amazing. a typical day, sam would wake up at 7 or so and walk down the beach to do some fishing; i'd rouse myself at 9 or so and lazily order room service eggs benedict and coffee, and watch NY1 until sam came back (weirdly, all the channels in our hotel were NYC-based - we don't have tv at home, so this was a welcome luxury.) after breakfast, we'd get dressed, grab bathing suits, hats, sunscreen, snorkels, flippers, books, and beer and hop in our little car and drive until we saw a beach, side street, or ravine that looked worth exploring. we'd park the car, grab up our towels, and snorkel, swim, and read to our hearts' content, then get back in the car, drive, and repeat. it was glorious. i've snorkeled off the california coast before, but i had never seen anything like the ocean life here - 2 feet off the shore, the water was teeming with coral, fish, eels, and urchins. it was absolutely stunning.

most nights we would just head back to the hotel and have lobster or shrimp and drink at the bar, watch the sun go down, and head back to our room to wind down; one night, though, we went out to dinner. food obsessed as i am, i'd done some research on the restaurants there before we left and knew that if we only went out to dinner once, i'd like to try fishalicious. despite the kind of stupid name, it got really rave reviews, so we stopped in thursday night of our trip and stuffed ourselves on good wine and all kinds of seafood - sardines, raw tuna two ways, cod, marinated squid, and more. the best thing we ate, though, was the amuse bouche served at the beginning of the meal - a tiny, foamy mustard soup with perfectly cooked salmon at the bottom. i couldn't get it off my mind, so i recreated it for us when i got back and i have to say, for such a delicious, unique dish, it is really quite easy to prepare. and here it is!

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foamy mustard soup with salmon

this soup is VERY rich - i really recommend keeping it small. this recipe is enough for 2 amuse sized portions.



1 small (tiny!) salmon steak, cut into 1/2 inch-ish dice
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup cream
1 T dijon mustard
2 t mustard seeds

use a tiny pot (if you have one - i used a butter warmer - you can also use a heat-proof small bowl inside a bain marie) and fill with the chicken broth; place the salmon in a sieve and turn the heat on low. poach the salmon in the broth until it easily flakes a part; remove from broth. pour the broth into a small saucepan and add the mustard seeds; place the poached salmon into tiny serving cups. add the cream and mustard and heat until warm enough to serve; using a whisk or aerolatte frother (if you have EVERY APPLIANCE EVER MADE like i do now [except a sous vide machine. which i'm working on a hack for]) to froth up the soup; spoon it over the salmon, and serve! for how simple this is, it has a really great, rich, complex taste with a little bit of a bite from the mustard, and the seeds give it a great texture. YUM.








what are you guys up to this weekend? i'm SO excited for a long weekend with sam - we're having a little shindig at our apartment tonight to kick of the weekend, then heading down to the shore for a nice, relaxing few days of fresh fish, sun, and ocean.

have a wonderful weekend and a safe holiday!

xo audrey