the stories
the kitchen
the market
the proof (party pics!)
the food porn
the recipes
the about
the drop me a line part
the resources
the full list
jewelry alchemy

soupapalooza!

the stories
the kitchen
the market
the proof (party pics!)
the food porn
the recipes
the about
the drop me a line part
the resources
the full list
jewelry alchemy
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roasted roma tomato with gruyere mini grilled cheese: the Shafer beer of soups or the one to have when you’re having more than one

​I had an unspoken but hard and fast rule about soupapolooza! when it began: that I would never repeat a recipe. Since I tend to repeat boyfriends, bad behavior and boring stories I thought I would give myself the opportunity to be bold and different with the soup. But I also promised that I would use local, seasonal ingredients, and in looking back on the very first soupapolooza! I realize that unless we’ve all joined Marty McFly (oh how I miss my spiral perm and Whitesnake) in the DeLorean and have managed to have three seasons happen at once, that little rule was shot from the very beginning, so whatever. I cheated this week. Because I remade the creamy roasted tomato soup with a different variety of tomato, but I cheated nonetheless. I’m a big fat CHEATER. So sue me.

Maybe because I was familiar with the recipe and/or maybe because it’s so simple, I had the most laid back Sunday. Usually I’m up at 7.30 or 8, finalizing the day’s menu and printing out my shopping list, out the door by 9 and working through the farmer’s market by 9.30. Afterwards I come home with the various loot from the market, extra supplies from the grocery store, wine from K&L and new gadgets from Sur La Table (ANY excuse to buy a new pot) and start assembling the mess by 2. By 6.30 I’m ready to serve with candles lit, bar set up and salad dressed; well, in a perfect world... 

Most Sundays I’m still running around and usually unable to talk with anyone when they arrive (just a few weeks ago I was quite short with the Conspiracy Theorist Web Designer when she was kind enough to ask what could she do to help and I practically screamed “get out of the kitchen and get yourself a drink! THEN we can talk about Atlantis!”). It’s a long, arduous, active day and, truthfully, I drag my feet much of the time. Sometimes I cheat by going directly to the grocery store and buying the crappy produce there, not that I like to admit this, but it can be challenging to stare down the barrel of the gun being held by an unknown number of potential party guests with nothing but an unknown stack of recipes in defense. And sometimes I try to shave some time off the prep by avoiding the hipsters with strollers and the displaced homeless people on Ivar at the farmer’s market. Plus I hate shelling out the fiver for parking at Bed, Bath and Beyond because, truly, that is beyond offensive since I come out of that place smelling like a bad candle. I do always get a better result when I go to Hollywood, though, so my cheapness and outrage over paying for parking really shouldn’t be part of the equation. But sometimes it is a very convenient excuse.

But this week it was all a breeze. Because I’m a cheater. Because I knew the recipe and because I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich.

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PostedMay 18, 2010
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriessoup, appetizers and snacks
Tagsroasted tomato, tomato, grilled cheese, cheesy, cheese, tricolore salad, gruyere, mini grilled cheese sandwiches, parmesan, parmesan wafers, recipe, soup and the single girl, soupapalooza!, veruca salt, cheating, puree, soup, thanks for souping
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ragu bolognese: a timeline of the blog-pocolypse

​Dateline: Wednesday

7pm: have brilliant idea to make bolognese for dinner Thursday night. Scour hard drive for secret recipe and pat self on back for being so clever.

8.14pm: find secret recipe while on a commercial break during the season finale of “America’s Next Top Model”. Applaud self for having DVR and ability to FFWD through commercials for that diet thingy that Kim Kardashian is promoting.

8.15pm: practice self loathing upon realizing that I’m watching the season finale of “America’s Next Top Model”. And actually care who wins. And know who Kim Kardashian is.

Dateline: Thursday

12.00 noon: arrive at the food of wholeness after being cut off for the last parking space by a Prius with an Obama sticker on the back (aka: EVERY Prius in southern California). So much for change.

12.17pm: purchase 8 pounds of vegetables and wonder what the cashier smoked on his lunch break and wonder if he has any extra.

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PostedMay 14, 2010
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriesgear and miscellany
Tagsragu bolognese, huntington meats, Real Housewives of New York City, Kelly Bensimon is a gift from Jesus, Monkey the Cat, I drank more wine than I used in the recipe, soffrito, mirepoix
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mulligatawny: when to say when

Sometimes it’s crystal clear when things are done and there is no need to ask the Magic 8 Ball for its opinion. Things can be burnt, they can be dry, the timer in a turkey can pop up or he could have given someone else an engagement ring-- take your pick, they’re all excellent indicators. I like to think I don’t need to read tea leaves to figure out what the universe is trying to tell me by BANGING ME OVER THE HEAD. I like to think I can just use those god-given magical five senses to determine whether or not something is cooked. 

I was hanging out in Gray Gardens, also known as my couch when it is strewn with potato chip bags, coffee cups and a sleeping cat between my knees, when I got a call from the Bossy Blonde in her “thinking chair” from the west village. I desperately need a thinking chair, by the way, and the conversation went a little something like this:

“So [Chef Kenobi] and I were having drinks last night and he asked me if you were obsessed with soup. He said, ‘what’s her deal? Is she going to make soup every Sunday for the rest of her life?’ And I wondered about that, too. I mean it’s not like you gave yourself a year deadline to cook through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blog about it, thank God, since it’s already been done and Amy Adams was so annoying in it.” 

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PostedMay 10, 2010
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriessoup
Tagssoup with a side of ennui, thanks for souping, soupapalooza!, recipe, lamb, there's no crying at the butcher's shop, huntington meats, duck man, mt. dumpatoa, bahhhhhhhhh, persian yogurt salad, fried stuff, fried banana, coconut, coconut milk gelato, grey gardens, Chef Kenobi, east asian, the lambs are definitely still screaming, champagne cocktail, cham-pain-in-the-ass
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goldsmith, sometime costume designer and badass cat owner. 

goldsmith, sometime costume designer and badass cat owner. 

  • dessert (1)
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  • vegan (5)
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  • quick pics! (9)
  • appetizers and snacks (10)
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  • vegetarian (33)
  • soup (36)

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.

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