I'll be running away from home in the next few weeks. Yup, just like when I was six or seven and had decided that I was going to move into the oak tree in the front yard next to the Crepe Myrtles. I brought my most important possessions with me: my favorite headband, my "Grease" t-shirt with John Travolta decal (or as my dad called him, "Johnny Revolting") and some sort of stick for hunting birds or squirrels, though I was more interested in befriending them than in killing them, but a runaway gal's gotta eat. Also, if you look in the upper right corner of the photographic evidence of this moment, you'll see there is what appears to be a tambourine. I think I thought I could earn money by performing Linda McCartney-style musical routines from the tree. In this my upcoming new version of a runaway adventure, my treehouse will be a fifth floor walk up in the East Village and I'll be bringing my knives and leaving my headbands at home (my Bangs-Not-Botox make a headband wholly unnecessary). And John Travolta won't be an iron-on on my shirt, but probably will be in a bathhouse getting an erotic massage in Chelsea. Oh how life has changed in 33-34 years!

Hopefully I'll have some funny kitchen tales from my three weeks away from home, and I fully intend to bore you endlessly with iPhone photos and tales of accidentally grating my fingers along with the parmesan cheese, so do stay posted for the live blogging of my kitchen humbling.

But until then I'm teenager sitting in the Pacific Palisades. And nothing, absolutely nothing, brings on feelings of finite mortality quite like being responsible for a now-almost-grown-but-still-kind-of-useless human being that you've known since he was two. Well, that and the RadioLab meditations on death and dying that I heard on my way over to his parents' house on Sunday. And the fact that I'm forty and I'm so untethered that I'm even available and desperate enough to housesit for someone else. I'm clearly the Jerri Blank of the 90272.

Even before I got to the beautiful house with a pool (yes, I'm caring for a kid, but I'm so totally also getting a tan), before I even left the parking lot of my loft for this quick two week detour, I was already feeling anxious and a little sad...

PostedJuly 22, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, appetizers and snacks

TagsI don't give a fig, no clogs no way, mission fig, recipe, 90272, crostini, change sucks, red onion, appetizer, bruschetta, Runaway, soupapalooza!, prison warden of PacPal, Peter Pan Doesn't Live Here Anymore, f^$kup

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Reformatting this blog has proven to be a bit more tedious than I had first imagined. Imagine that! I could go on and on about iWeb and MobileMe and tags and categories and robots and stats, but then that would just be me being super cranky and boring you to no end. And I hope that even if you may disagree with my cantankerous and narcissistic point of view sometimes (and the overwhelming number of times I mention my cat) , and even if you may not like the food I'm writing about, I hope I'm not completely boring you. I try to mention things like almost cutting my finger off and my narrow escapes from internet dating predators just to make sure you're awake. Hell, I'll even further lower my standards and throw out something like a cat on a leash if it makes you think I'm some kind of blog surrealist or if it means you'll read a post about tomato and crab soup.

So, anyway, as I'm reformatting each individual entry from the last almost-three-years (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz), I'm being reminded of many embarrassing rants and some pretty crappy photography (this blog did pre-date Instagram--you can see a few pics of my live feed at the bottom of this post-- and Hipstamatic, after all). But there has also been a silver lining: there are many appetizer, salad and dessert recipes that I failed to document along the way that now can be posted. I'm also formatting a page with full menu suggestions that may prove helpful for you, and it should be up in the next week or so. If, of course, I don't have an aneurism while I continue to re-visit these old, obnoxious posts.

So the first old recipe that will be new to you is an arugula salad with grilled avocado and peaches, topped with a red pepper, red wine and vanilla vinaigrette.

PostedJuly 19, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriessalad, vegan, vegetarian

Tagsrecipe, soupapalooza!, stone fruit, peach, summer salad, avaocado, Instagram, arugula, grilled, vinaigrette

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My default setting is “solo”, romantically, socially and professionally speaking. I haven’t always been this way, and I’m sure it would be great fodder for the psychiatry I imagine I desperately need, but I’m comfortable in safely saying that I’m pretty much a lone wolf.

I do almost everything by myself and I am used to the solitude in an almost upsetting way. Like I’ve gotten to the point where it almost never occurs to me to invite people along on any of my many adventures and the ushers at the Arclight movie theatre in Hollywood know me as That Creepy Chick That Sees Matinées by Herself Every Other Wednesday at 11am. I bet they instinctively know that I’m also a Krazy Kat Lady (tm). They do. I look like the kind of gal that might have a Kolony (tm) on her Katio (tm)*. The Kollection (tm) of strays even has outstanding names: Miss Peaches, Lady Saffron, Herman, Pip, Genghis Kat and That Other One.

But here’s the thing-- I LOVE people even more that cats. I really, truly and deeply do. I am constantly amazed at the inspirational qualities that live inside of everyone. And I mean everyone, even in evil freaks like Hitler, Jennifer Love Hewitt or the “Call Me Maybe” girl. And you don’t have to look very far to be surprised at the goodness in people, unless, of course, you’re driving in LA, and then all you’re shit out of luck, swimming in a sea of tasteless, moronic salmon. And that’s totally another blog post, somewhere, I’m certain.

But I started doing soupapolooza! for purely selfish reasons, not out of any sense of community or goodness inside myself.

PostedMay 25, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, soup

Tagsrecipe, soupapalooza!, lONEly, Bossy, cat-astrophe, Italian, soup, Legal Eagle, past e fagioli

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It’s spring! And there’s Easter and Passover and Persian New Year and bunnies and eggs and it’s all a big fertility Pagan thing. But I don’t care what you do or don’t celebrate as long as there are eggs somewhere, because eggs are badass any way you serve it up. There’s no dogma in an egg except deliciousness. I mean that is unless you’re stealing eggs from the nest of an endangered bird or a penguin, and then you’re totally going to hell. Because penguins are ridiculously cute and the world clearly needs more American Bald Eagles.

Deviled eggs, in particular, seem to really be having a moment right now. In the last few months I’ve had them about a hundred different ways, and the one at Freddy Smalls was fantastic. It’s called “buffalo deviled eggs”, and is made with Point Reyes blue cheese, celery, CP’s hot sauce and a CRACKLIN on top. Yes, a motherloving cracklin. For those of you who aren’t from the rural south or from Texas, a cracklin is fried chicken skin (or sometimes pork skin) and it’s/ they’re divine. From what I understand, which let’s face it is not that much, cracklins are also a Kosher thing called Gribenes and are a byproduct of schmaltz preparation (and schmaltz is even tastier than it is fun to say). AND they’re also Kosher for Passover.

PostedApril 6, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, appetizers and snacks

Tagstexmex, recipe, easter, soupapalooza!, redneck, eggcellent, appetizer

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Ahhh, the starchy and deliciousness that is the tater tot got an upgrade. Tot 2.0 is big, earthy and seriously truffley.

Every soupapolooza! has a standout and this last event was no exception; I made five times the following recipe (that’s about 250 truffletots or 8.3 per guest) and there was not a single tot uneaten. Not a one, no joke. That makes the effort involved, and trust me there’s some effort involved in making 250 truffletots, all worth it. Yes, staying up until 2am boiling, ricing, piping and freezing, cutting and then freezing again was not my idea of a rocking Friday night, but “Say Yes to the Dress” was in reruns and I needed something to focus on other than viscous rayon and rhinestone tiaras. So that was good. And I got in some serious one on one time with my giant ricer which is about as romantic as anything in my life lately.

I now understand why no one really makes tater tots from scratch. This is California and the deep fryer is an exotic thing to many of my healthier friends (I feel so very sorry for these people) but the pure, unexpected joy of this little truffle potato explosion made at least two or three of my surlier party guests spontaneously smile...and maybe remember the joy of eating something with their family as a child. Only a much, much tastier version.

PostedApril 4, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesvegetarian, appetizers and snacks

TagsTV dinner soupapolooza!, truffle, make ahead, recipe, potato, comfort food, appetizer, side dish, deep fryer

2 CommentsPost a comment

mission fig and red onion bruschetta with ricotta: who really gives a fig?

grilled avocado and peach arugula salad in a red wine & vanilla vinaigrette: killing you softly with this blog

pasta e fagioli (version 2.0) with garlic confit: one isn't really the loneliest number

chipotle deviled eggs: the deviled really is in the details

truffletots: it's a truffle, truffle, truffletot world

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.