Back in Junior High School, or “Intermediate” as it is known in the parts where I’m from, I signed up for every imaginable sport. Now I know that those of you who know me in this phase of my life are leaning back in your chairs, patting your stomachs and cackling in disbelief (I know for sure some of you indeed cackle when you call “bullshit”), but there was a time in my youth when my butt lined the bench of every B-Team sport to play in the gym of the mighty, mighty CLIS Eagles and in gyms throughout the greater Clear Creek Independent School District.

Before I even got to Jr. High there was ballet, swim team, drill team, cheerleading (I still just ooze pep and sincerity, right? You haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed my bubble letter writing) and gymnastics. At CLIS there was volleyball, basketball and track; the fifty meter hurdles being the only event of which I showed any sort of natural aptitude. After high school I dabbled in riding horses and I literally had a five minute affair with tennis, a particularly embarrassing moment in which I joined a club, bought four or five tennis skirts, a pair of K-Swiss shoes and the panties that you can stuff your extra balls in (get your head out of the gutter), and I signed myself up for a private lesson. My dad had told me earlier in the month that all well-bred young ladies should play tennis. Which was particularly funny since I’m certainly not very well-bred, among other things. Anyway, I drove myself to my inaugural lesson all decked out in Le Coq Sportif fare, tossing my pony tail as I walked into the office of the club like an annoying, totally entitled bourgeois peacock.

“I’m here for my lesson!” I told the lady at the front desk.

PostedJanuary 29, 2011

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesdesserts & sweet treats, vegetarian

TagsWylde Mountain Thyme, recipe, hubris, cinnamon, doughnuts, Silver Palate Cookbook, sweet tooth, fried stuff, soupapalooza!, gear, Moosewood Cookbook, sporty spice, Nike Pre, gelato, ice cream, tennis trauma

CommentPost a comment

It’s been the perfect storm: a combination of writer’s block, holiday derailment and the stomach flu. That means spotty (uh, I mean no) blog coverage. It also means that I’ve scaled back soupapolooza! to a monthly exercise instead of a weekly one. You see, as much as the soup has saved me (thank you very much, Julie and Julia) it has also broken me. And as I am already morally destitute, I can’t really afford to be penniless, too. I kind of kid. Honestly, I’m pulling back a bit because of the crazy holiday schedule and because I’m working on some very exciting projects. But never you fear! I’m still souping and will be souping on an even larger scale in the coming months (hint hint)...please stay tuned.

We did have our now monthly gathering this Sunday last* and we had a special visitor-- my college pal, LC: kind of like Lauren Conrad (also LC) of “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” fame, only slightly smarter and without a franken-boob sidekick and her fame-whoring husband Spencer. My LC is a badass. Even if she doesn’t have her own reality series, which, of course, all the best people do. But I digress.

Anywho, I was thinking, here it is December in LA, and it’s kind of, well, weathery, which is strange, so how will I keep my guests warm in my mostly concrete and unheated cavernous loft? Why chiles and black beans, of course, with masa harina dumplings...

PostedDecember 10, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, soup

Tagsspicy greens, excuses excuses excuses, black beans, soupapalooza!, flaming rum punch, doughnuts, Bad Auntie, cinnamon ice cream, masa harina, guacamole, South Park Creme Fraiche, anchovy vinaigrette, LC!, dumplings, soup, Semi-sweet Bitters

2 CommentsPost a comment

Those are John’s hands on the mandoline in the picture above with the rainbow radishes. John is 15. John has floppy, curly dark hair and a warm smile. John is 15. John has done four (I think it’s four, though it may be more... I had a few glasses of rosé) different stages at amazing restaurants in both New York and Los Angeles. Did I mention that John is 15? John was a volunteer helper on Sunday for “L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade Stand”, a beautifully done food event benefiting childhood cancer. John is 15 and he is going to be a great chef. Hell, he’s already a whole hell of a lot more effective passing out food stuffs and assembling a salad plate at an event than I am. But whatever. John is 15.

John was in charge of slicing the radishes because Chef Kenobi thought a 15 year old could and would do a better job of keeping their digits in tact than I would, which is, actually, all too true. I would like to see my hands continue to be full of fingers, tips and all. But just a shout out to John, my new favorite up and coming chef, I loved working next to you on Sunday and I cannot wait to eat in your restaurant in a few years.

Before I had the pleasure of meeting John, Sunday started like any other Sunday for me as I picked up Chef Kenobi and his adorbs sous chef, I’ll call him Bar-Bearded, and we headed off to Culver Studios. OK, It wasn’t like any other Sunday at all except that there was food. And people. And booze... all to benefit a cure for childhood cancer, which is something I think we can all get behind. Before I forget, please go to Alex’s Lemonade Stand and donate your time, your money or get your kids’ schools involved, please do something. This organization is AMAZING. And Alex’s story is heartbreaking and inspiring.

On Saturday Chef Kenobi, Bar-Bearded and I had hit the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and loaded up on gorgeous Japanese eggplant, herbs, heirloom peppers and micro greens (actually, I just acted as a curious sherpa, asking all sorts of inane questions while lugging economy portions or marjoram from tent to tent). The menu for Sunday: grand aioli, beautiful fresh, local produce, herbed micro green salad seasoned with olive oil, lemon and salt and lightly fried eggplant and baby potatoes.

PostedNovember 8, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriessalad, gear and miscellany, vegetarian

CommentPost a comment

Halloween came a week early this year when I came perilously close to chopping the tip of my left thumb off. It’s been months since my last knife wound thanks in part to knife skills lessons from various and sundry professionals (thank you, Obi Wan) and from a year’s worth of diligent practice; but it was like Dan Akroyd’s Julia Child from the late 1970’s SNL skit where blood just shoots out all over the place in a fountain of red corn syrup. Hilarious. Only mine was plasma and platelets which are apparently necessary to sustain human life. Anyway, I spent a large part of the afternoon with my left hand propped over my head wrapped in a roll of paper towels trying to avoid a trip to the emergency room for stitches since I let my health insurance lapse a few weeks ago. Eventually the bleeding slowed enough for me coat the digit with enough neosporin to support two girls in a mud wrestling vat and to dress it with a sterile bandage and cover it with a rubber glove so I could continue cooking.

And that wasn’t the only creepy occurrence.

There was this little thing a while back where my subconscious rendered an ex boyfriend dead. As in totally kaput. Morto.

Yes, I had a dream, but not a dream in a MLK or a copper pot kind of way, oh no. It was like when Jimmy Smitts was written out of NYPD Blue: there were tears and there was pleading and then the dude died. As in dead. As disco. And I woke up sweaty and full of guilt and shame (guilt because I realized the One Night Stand-Up was sleeping next to me, and shame because technically I should now refer to him as the “Two Night Stand-Up”, which isn’t nearly as funny).

PostedOctober 28, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, soup

TagsGorgeous G, apple pie ice cream, goat cheese w/ pistachio, cranberry & toasts, spinach and gruyere stuffed mushrooms, sunday bloody sunday, soup, butternut squash, blue cheese, killing off ex boyfriends, Chef Kenobi, soupapalooza!, cheesy, apple, romaine and flash pickled fig salad, thumbs up, One Night Stand Up

CommentPost a comment

Go get a copy of the October 2010 Bon Appetit if you want to see what a little photoshop and a hair and makeup team can do for a gal. Or if you just like soup. Take your pick.

Here is a link to the article and here it is in person below.... and a recipe for macerated strawberries and crème fraîche ice cream and some behind the scenes pics from the shoot.

You’re welcome.

Now I’ll put a sock in it. Or mittens on my hands, to be more accurate (you know what I mean, One Night Stand-Up).

PostedSeptember 19, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesgear and miscellany, desserts & sweet treats, vegetarian

Tagssoup and the single girl, Bon Appetit, I'll shut up when it's off the newsstand, recipe, soupapalooza!, Bossy, ice cream, creme fraiche ice cream, creme fraiche, dessert

CommentPost a comment

mini doughnuts and cinnamon ice cream: sweet treats from the fully-outfitted kitchen of a sour sport

soupy black beans with masa harina dumplings: soup, the whole soup and nothing but the soup

herbed salad of local greens with aioli and fried eggplant and fingerling potatoes: LA Loves Alex's Lemonade Stand and I do, too

butternut squash and apple with blue cheese: Halloween came a little early this year

Bon Appetit, y'all!: I promise to totally shut up about it after it’s off the newsstand

Why? Because soup is cheap, delicious and easy. Kind of like me.

a weekly attempt to eat well and to savor life. or to see how much food I can get on my clothes.