The Studio

About a year and a half ago, when I first moved to Los Angeles, Jamie and I were in a desperate search for an apartment. We were both going home for Christmas, returning in the New Year and had to vacate our old place by January 1st, sooooo, point taken, right? Desperate. The day before I got on a plane home to Atlanta and the day after Jamie had flown home to D.C., I toured a building full of single units with, what I thought at the time, had two available. After I looked at a beautiful, quaint apartment with dark hardwood floors, an adorable kitchen, and a dressing room with a built in vanity, I was sold. We'll take two! Turned out, however, that the OTHER one had been rented the day before...so shit...it was this or...well...who knows. So, we went for it. And now, a year and a half later, we're still loving it. How you may ask? How DO you do it? Well, I don't know, we just do. Having a separate kitchen is a huge help. I do most of my work in here at the table. But, mainly, we're just good at sitting around in silence, for hours, sometimes we forget the other one is there. And, in all honesty, I love the top bunk. But, yeah, I know, the big question, what do you do when you want to... ya knooooow?? Well, first of all, OMG, my parents read this blog, but...ummm... (yeah, go back to his place, the car, the kitchen, you wait for the other person to leave...I mean..)  ANYWAY... we also really love cooking and we're both really good at it so I thought I'd share this really amazing and super complex recipe we made up last night because my mom asked me to. So here you go: 

JAMIE AND BRITTANY'S BROCCOLI SOUP

co-authored by Jamie G. Hyder

1/2 of an onion that you found wrapped in your fridge

1 or 2 'these look okay' carrots

2 cloves of garlic

2 bags of 'smell this, what do you think?" broccoli 

Broth chicken or vegetable, enough to almost cover the broccoli

As much salt as makes it taste right

An accidentally huge amount of peppercorns because your grinder broke over the pot and a shit-ton   spilled into your soup

Cheese, we used Trader Joe's Toscana Black Pepper Rind (I think that's what it's called)

Obviously, we Instagrammed the crap out of this.

Sautee your onion, carrots and garlic on medium heat with olive oil or coconut oil and salt and pepper for awhile, like 15 minutes so they're all soft and smell great. Add that broccoli. Add that broth. Add salt and accidental peppercorns. Let that all cook for, ya know, like 5ish minutes, until it's all soft and then take that immersion blender to it and puree away. Grate a bunch of cheese into it and stir til it's all melted. Then serve it and garnish it with a swig of olive oil, some green onions, and a little more cheese.

There you go, Mom!