Five Friday Frames

It's finally FRIDAY and I'm getting ready for a quick escape from the city. Luckily, I have a couple days scheduled to explore Chicago and have my first city adventure there.

This past week included a lot of going to bed early and lounging around in sweatpants, drinking tea (due to a certain Boy on a Budget's crazy production schedule in upstate New York, driving one very fancy car). However, I managed to cram as much magic as possible into the otherwise low-key couple of days.

Below are five Friday frames from the past week.

Pretty blue blown glass, c/o an estate sale around the corner.

Getting ready for Halloween in my own pro-sparkle way.

HOVA at Barclay's Center.

Table full of Bloody Marys at SKY TOWN.

Brooklyn Bowl is ready for trick-or-treating.

What are you up to this weekend, ladies? Whatever it is, I hope it includes lots of leaf-pile jumping in floppy Anna Karina hats, steaming hot coffee and/or chocolate and at least two brunches.

Enjoy the weekend!

xo,
B

Bitches Beyond: Cooking with Candy

Comfort Food on a Budget

What to do when it’s gloomy and cold and grey outside?

Put on a hoodie, get that Velvet Underground record crankin’ on your record player, and make yourself an open-faced grilled cheese baked on top of some tomato soup.

I luckily stumbled upon this incredibly deliciousrecipe from the lovely Deb at Smitten Kitchen during last year’s “Hurricane” Irene. Determined to not leave my bed due to the exorbitant amount of promised destruction, this bitch stocked up on champagne, sprinkles, and enough cheese to crank out several bowls of this delicious comfort food.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Broiled Cheddar Lids (recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

All you need:

SOUP

3 lb plum tomatoes, halved

Olive oil

4 cloves of garlic UNPEELED (this seriously makes all the difference)

¼ tsp dried thyme (or oregano if you don’t have thyme)

7 shakes red pepper flakes

4 c chicken or vegetable stock

SANDWICH

Sliced rye or pumpernickel bread, buttered on one side and toasted

1 tbs grated raw onion

1 c coarsely grated cheddar (more for topping)

1.    Preheat oven to 400. Cover a baking sheet with foil and add tomatoes, halved lengthwise. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and drizzle with olive oil. Place garlic cloves in a tightly wrapped foil packet and add to baking sheet. Roast for approx 1 hour, until tomatoes and garlic are very tender.

2.    Let cool for 5-10 min.

3.    Unwrap garlic and peel cloves. Place garlic, tomatoes, and any accumulated juices into a food processor and pulse until you have a chunky puree.

4.    Put tomato puree, soup stock, and spices in a medium stockpot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer approx 25 min. Taste and season accordingly.

5.    Preheat oven to 350. Pour soup in oven-safe bowls (or mugs) and fill with soup. Stir in onion. Top with toasted bread and add cheese.

6.    Put bowls on a baking sheet and let cook 15-20 minutes, on until cheese on top is bubbling and brown.

7.    Curl up under your favorite softy-soft blanket and enjoy in front of an open window.

Weekend Wish List

How is it already Sunday night? I swear, these weekends pass MUCH faster than they used to!

Did you have a nice weekend, Bitches? Mine was one of the best: lots of time spent with friends, a fancy pants dinner at the grown up house of my dreams, a semi-drunk brunch at my new favorite neighborhood spot, and chilly enough weather to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a great movie (windows open, of course).

Even after such a lovely, relaxing weekend, there are a couple of things on this weekend’s wish list that I’m legit drooling over.

1. Gold sparkle Oxfords. After submitting my favorite white pair to the slushy salty “snow” that hit New York last winter, I’m in serious need of a new pair.

2. Joy theBaker’s Fried Guacamole. How can something so wrong sound so right? I’m drooling just looking at the pictures here.

3. The perfect hot pink mini dress for my currently TBD Halloween costume, sure to be the best look I’ve come up with yet.

4. An unlimited gift certificate to Sugar Paper. Anybody who knows me even the tiniest bit knows about my deep-seeded obsession with paper and my ongoing hunt for the perfect greeting cards. I think these “You’re My Lobster” cards are pretty ace.

5. Apple cider donuts. Just because it finally feels like fall is here to stay.

Spend this gloomy night in tonight, open a bottle of wine, and maybe enjoy a grilled cheese or two with a Felicity marathon in bed. That’s where I’ll be.

Happy Sunday!

Xo,

B

Bitches Beyond: You’ve Got Free Wi-Fi

Stopping to Smell the Daffodils

Sometimes it’s hard enough to wake up and remember to put milk in your cereal or mascara on your eyelashes. For this reason, no matter how much I whine about it, it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have a puppy to take care of.

Which is why it seems a tremendous strain on my responsibilities, as well as my wallet, that I’ve made my weekly challenge to buy a bunch of daffodils from the bodega on the corner of 14^th St and 6^th Ave every Monday.

Since I spend more time at my office than I do at home, I feel this gives the flowers a better, fairer chance at life. Besides, they make an excellent distraction from my computer screen (always a worthy sight).

I’m going to try to keep something else alive this week, and hopefully it’s something that brings some smiles to my stressed out, over-worked office.

What’s your personal weekly challenge to make your work/home/friend/love life a slightly sparklier one? This Bitch could use a thing or two to make her smile.

Drop a comment below, send me an email at bbonabudget (at) gmail (dot) com, or Tweet me @bbonabudget!

Xo,

B

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: S.O.S. Save My Cell Phone

Bitches Beyond: Weekend Wish List

Free Fall for Broke Bitches Everywhere

It’s fall, and I know I’m not the only one who’s pumped. After months of sweating our mascara off and damning all offices mandating appropriate summer attire amidst glacial air conditioning, it’s finally time to wear sweaters without shame.

While most of the lovely ladies in my life are springing for new leather boots, bottles of Kraken rum just perfect for making hard apple cider, and outdoor pizzas by the fire pit at Roberta’s, I seem to be just as broke as ever. New York is in a frenzy of fall celebrations, from foodie feasts to hayrides in Queens to pie contests in all five boroughs, which would usually have my broke ass pouting, but I’m way too excited fo that.

What’s a broke Bitch to do when it comes to celebrate the best season of all?

Luckily, I’m returning from a SUMMER-LONG (good God, I’m the worst) hiatus to school your poor souls on how to make the most of this broke fall.

Here are some things that I’m really looking forward to doing to cheaply celebrate fall’s arrival:

1.     Wear tights. Always, all the time, forever. It’s been too long.

2.     Sleep with the windows open with a ton of extra blankets piled on the bed.

3.     Switch to hot coffee instead of iced.

4.     Convince a friend to knit a cute hat fo’ free.

5.     Resume Thursday Night gallery hopping, as per usual. The city’s too empty in the summer to really get alarmingly drunk on cheap red wine and talk perspective and color theory with absolute strangers along the West Side Highway.

6.     Jump in piles of carefully-raked Carroll Gardens

7.     Drink some two buck chuck on a fire escape. Feel chilly. Grab a blanket. Resume drinking.

8.     Splurge on a pumpkin whoopee pie from your favorite neighborhood bakery. All the things you love about seasonal baked goods: cinnamony, pumpkiny, cream cheesy….

9.     Check out the “Art in Odd Places” exhibition staged all over NYC, from October 5 to October 15.

10. Put together your fall playlist. Mine’s two parts Tallest Man on Earth, one part Yo La Tengo, one part the Shins, and seven parts Neil Young.

11. Take the long walk to the subway when you leave work this week. It’ll be darker out, you’ll most likely smell that amazing combination of burning leaves/dirt/mulch coupled with apple cider, and you’ll probably spot an adorably bundled marshmallow of a toddler out for a pre-bedtime walk with mom and dad.

12. Figure out when the next Harvest Moon is out and make it a point to see it.

13. Resume your annual favorite scary movie marathon that becomes mandatory once we hit October (I’m starting with Rosemary’s Baby tonight!).

14. Pick up a bag of fun-size treat-or-treat candy bars from CVS and surprise your office. That’s cost-effective magic right there.

15. Pull out the plaid you retired last February. It’s that time again.

What are you looking forward to the most when it comes to fall? This Bitch is looking to bulk up her favorite ways to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Xo,

B

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: Weekend Wish List

Bitches Beyond: October is for Street Fairs

Weekend Wish List

Hi friends!

It's been a pretty crazy summer- as noted by my slightly-longer-than-desired absence- but I'm glad to be back with a Weekend Wish List. While it’s nearly impossible to wish for better weather, there are a couple of things I wouldn’t mind in my life… especially during these last few hours of Sunday.

1. A bottle of St Germain for my new home bar. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to venture out to Governor’s Island for the annual Jazz Age Lawn Party, which is pretty much a big 1920s celebration where everyone is beautiful and drinking, picnicking, and trying on hats is strongly encouraged. Lucky for us, we had a sweet hook-up at the bar which afforded us plenty of champagne, lemonade, and St Germain cocktails. This is sure to become me and E’d favorite new warm-weather cocktail.

2. Approx 37 consecutive spare hours for me to catch up on every season of Felicity that was ever created. Netflix streaming has become my constant companion as I follow Felicity, Noel, Ben, and Julie through their 90s adventures at the University of New York. Obsessed.           

3. Heavy cream. I’ve made a batch of Smitten Kitchen’s Peanut ButterBrownies in honor of Father’s Day, but don’t quite have everything I need to create the dark chocolate ganache. With no car access or even a pair of sensible walking shows (let’s chalk that up to packing in a champagne-induced hurray following yesterday’s Jazz festivities), having a carton magically appear would be quite welcome.

4. The perfect black Maxi dress. I can’t even link to an option I’m drooling over, because I have yet to find one worthy enough to covet. If you’ve got any suggestions, I’m begging you to leave a note in the comments, send an email to bbonabudget (at) gmail (dot) com, or Tweet @bbonabudget.

5. A bouquet of pink hydrangeas. My parents’ home on the beach is apparently overrun with these beautiful, delicate blooms- and I can only ever find the $10+ blue bodega versions back in the city. If I wasn’t stuck taking the 7a commuter train into the office tomorrow morning, I might try to smuggle a bunch home in my purse.

Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend, Bitches, and showing all those awesome dads out there how grateful you are for teaching you how to double park all those years ago.

Xo,

B

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: Frugal Feast #23

Bitches Beyond: Sad Mac (aka Technical Difficulties)

Five Friday Frames: Part 33

This past week has been a somewhat crazy one, with my birthday coming up this weekend. While I’m not sure what the actual surprise logistics of that special occasion are going to be, you can bet I’ll be engaging in cupcake-eating contests for one while wearing something that has a super swirly skirt. Whether or not there’s champagne or gin will dictate if I get to the point where I dance on tables and/or make monster faces at strangers. Let’s hope, for Williamsburg’s sake, that the latter happens. You only turn 24 once.

Below are five frames captured over the course of my peanut-butter-cupcake-heavy week.

Dinner.

Happy Housewarming to my new roomie, E!

Secret Kind of Like Spitting basement show = awesome.

My #dreamlife.

Nut Allergy cupcakes.

What are your weekend plans, lovelies? I hope for everyone’s sake that the weather stays gorgeous, and we all get to enjoy a couple of cocktails from Mason jars atop a Bushwick rooftop with our loved ones. That’s my birthday wish.

Xo,

B

Bitches Beyond: Most Popular Bitch at the Picnic

Weekend Wish List

It’s almost May- which means my birthday is exactly seven days away- and the weather has been beautiful and very conducive to some outdoor play activities this past weekend. I’m really looking forward to frying up some specialty avocado grilled cheeses, uncorking some wine, and heading outside for a fire escape picnic with the boy.

In the interest of being as greedy as possible- and as the soon-to-be-birthday-girl, why the hell not- below is a list of five things I’ve been lusting over this weekend.

1. Rag & Bone’s Barcelona dress. This pleated drop waist dress, in my favorite shade of black, is both seasonal and slightly too sexy to wear to my office. Paired with my red cowboy boots and (depending on the temperature) a pair of minimally shredded black tights, this could possibly be the perfect birthday celebration dress,

2. An early-season cancellation of Lena Dunham’s Girls. It’s not really the post practical thing to be wishing for, but I don’t really care- every single part of the show makes my skin crawl and annoys me to no end. Please, HBO. Help a Bitch out.

3. Le Pens in brown, navy blue, orange, and grey. All of my favorite colors have suddenly gone MIA, leaving all of my Moleskine scrawlings and scribbles exclusively in either lime green or boring black ink. It’s funny how something as little as a pen can make or break my whole daily to do list.

4. The Hand Springs/ Red Death at 6:14 45 from the White Stripes. Released exclusively in limited quantity on this year’s Record Store Day (which was officially last weekend, in case you weren’t aware), this record contains two songs from the White Stripes’ back catalog, and have been described as “quintessential White Stripes jams… paring them together here makes (arguably) one of the best Stripes singles ever”. Drool. Yes please.

5. How to Dress for Success by Edith Head. I fear for the state that this selection of illustrations by my all-time favorite Hollywood costume designer would be left in after I devoured all the pages, tearing out my favorites and framing each sketch. Originally released in 1967, I find myself drooling over every fierce bathing beauty, perfectly clad in a dramatic head piece while picking out eggplant from the produce man, pug-faced little girls in flouncy swirly party dresses, and the entire chapter 2: How to Dress to Get a Man. Edith, you fierce Bitch.

What are you wishing for this weekend, lovelies? Whatever it is, I hope all of your wishes come true and you’ll get to spend the next few hours of this glorious weekend outdoors somewhere- maybe at a secret sidewalk café in Williamsburg, sippin’ on some three dollar red wine.

Xo,

B

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: Frugal Feast #18

Bitches Beyond: Bitches Got the Blues

A Selfish Weekly Challenge

Being selfish is usually a bad thing.

It brings it back to the days where Sunday School teachers would write your name on the blackboard for stealing the last of the Cinnamon graham crackers. Or the day that my mom brought my baby sister home from the hospital and I was convinced that all of her new stuffed animals belonged to me, because I was the older (and cooler) Bitch.

The Brooklyn Bitches on a Budget- as we’ve mentioned many, many times before- are nothing if not the polite, courteous ladies who will give up their seats on the subway and always tip our bartender (even if it’s just for a club soda). However, this Wednesday, I’m challenging you all to take a change of pace: be selfish.

Now, I fully understand that this is a really risky Weekly Challenge. It makes it really easy to justify any Bitchy roommate behavior, snarky phone calls to mom, or copped attitudes to the construction worker who’s hollering at you on the street. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

I often feel like I’m in work mode close to 35 hours per day. I am 100% certain that my lifestyle, sleep schedule, diet, and stress levels do nothing to increase my life expectancy. You’d think that the only thing I would be interesting in indulging in after work ends for the day would involve my couch, a pair of sweatpants, and a bowl of cereal (preferably with a Netflix livestream of The City, if I’m being honest here). However, I have found that lately I don’t seem to have an off switch. It’s go, go, go, more, more, more, faster, do it, go, we needed it five minutes ago, why are you late for dinner, meet me at the bar, you’re no fun anymore, you’re so stressed out!  My weekdays are jam-packed with work, work, and more work (small price to pay when you’ve got a dream job) and my nights are crammed with trying to see all of my friends and loved ones that make my life a little sparklier.

Alas, my fellow Bitches, I’ve found that this pattern is only seeking to dim my sparkle. I feel really stressed, overtired, and on edge constantly- hardly the fun, cupcake-baking whirlwind I’m known to be. In the last week or so, I’ve found myself playing the selfish card- coming home early when work finishes at an unexpectedly reasonable hour, just to read. Or skipping out on happy hour down the street so I can take an extra long shower. Its these little selfish actions that are actually helping me stay more sane, more relaxed, and more present when it’s time to face my social and professional obligations.

This week’s challenge: be the good kind of selfish. I dare you to deny how good it feels.

Xo,

B

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: When Life Gives You Lemons

Bitches Beyond: Weekend Wish List

Spring Dinner for a Bitch on a Budget

Sometimes, a girl just wishes she could afford some ramps. Some fresh summer onions. A cardboard crate of strawberries from the Farmer’s Market, even. Heck, if it’s in season and it’s spring… I’m craving it. Which makes going home to a kitchen fully stocked with a half-gallon of oatmeal and a couple of eggs (plus plenty of coffee and spicy mustard, as expected) all the more depressing.

A recent bout of seriously jonesing for a meal that didn’t come out of a cereal box or a dented can led me marching to the supermarket, on the hunt for a dinner I could make under $7.50 for myself and the boy.

Inspired by a recent brunch dish and even more exhilarated by the mega sale happening at the Key Foods on Grand St and Lorimer, I present a dinner for you, prepared by one broke Brooklyn Bitch on a budget (for two!):

All you need:

2 tbs olive oil

2 large leeks

4 c fingerling potatoes, cut in half lengthwise

2 minced garlic cloves

1 ¼ tsp paprika (this recipe calls for Spanish smoked paprika. Now, I have no idea what that is… but it sounds expensive. No thank you)

Salt and pepper

1 bunch of Swiss chard, thinly sliced

4 eggs

¼ c shredded Gruyere (I’m not gonna lie… if this cheese hadn’t been on mega-sale then I would have done without, but boy am I glad I got to splurge on this one)

1.    Heat skillet. Add oil.

2.   Once oil is sizzling, cook leeks for 6-8 min.

3.   Add potatoes and garlic. Cook until potatoes are fork-tender (approx 15 min)

4.   Add paprika, salt and pepper.

5.   Add chard and cook for four minutes. Stir constantly.

6.   Use a spoon to carve out four egg0sized holes. Crack egg into hold and sprinkle with salt, paper, and paprika.

7.   Cover. Cook for 3 min.

8.   Uncover and sprinkle with cheese.

9.   Put lid back on and cook 2 minutes until egg yolks are lightly set.

Enjoy with some Andre and some orange juice. It’s breakfast for dinner, which pretty much always means mimosas.

What’s your favorite breakfast for dinner? I know for a fact my baby sis would eat pancakes for three meals a day if Mama Bitch permitted it. Drop me a comment below, send me an email to bbonabudget(at)gmail(dot) com, or Tweet me @bbonabudget so I can indulge in all of your favorites!

Totally Bitchin’ Throwback: Weekend Wish List