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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Last summer I went to Italy for the month of August. That sounds super fancy, I know, but I do not have the funds to be considered fancy by any stretch of the imagination, so please withhold your judgement and snark for the time being. Though I do really love the snark. I was able to go because Bossy cashed in her airline miles to get me a gratis ticket (which was insanely generous) and we had a free house to stay in Panicale in Umbria.

Panicale is ideally located right next to the Tuscan border, so driving around from cute little countryside village to walled gothic town was really easy (well, for the most part considering I did get car sick for the entirety of the month, which was less about Italian roads and more about the driver of the rented Cinquecento but whatever).

The first day trip we took was to Montepulciano (where my beautiful copper stock pot was forged), and it was one of my favorite places in the whole of Tuscany because of the breezy, beautiful walled in spot on the top of a hill overlooking the region. It was a gorgeous day and we were lucky enough to have access to the best wines of the region in the numerous bars that dotted the peak of the city.

PostedAugust 17, 2011

Authormelissa mcclure

Categorieslibations

Tagsfetch, K&L Wines, pedantic wine lesson, soupapalooza!, Bossy, Mean Girls, fancypants, Steve Greer, panicale, franciacorta, montepulciano, my summer in umbria

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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

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I’ve been home from Italy for a week now, and I can no longer claim jet lag as a reasonable explanation for my lack of posting; I’m going to sum up, with as much efficiency as I can muster, the last tidbits of the soupapolooza! goes to Italy summer.

There was a shin-dig for Ferragosto, which is an Italian holiday that has something to do with the ascension of Mary, but don’t ask me what that means since I was raised by godless heathens, thankyouverymuch. But nonetheless, Bossy and I chose to celebrate this holiday by braising a shinbone (called a “stinco” in Italian, tee-hee) and inviting our international friends over for some drunken reveling.

There were also two more trips into Florence, both unsuccessful in their promise of the now unicorn-like vintage silver gelato spoons. On the first excursion, a Sunday, we blindly brought the Cinquecento into the city center without consulting a map. It wasn’t pretty, made even less pretty when we found ourselves squeezing (and screeching) down a one-way street exactly the wrong way. We did get another excellent lunch and dinner (pizza!!!) with Beefcake and the Baron before we drove back to Panicale, dejected and stuffed.

Driving up switch back after switchback on a single lane road through the Apennines, Bossy turned to me and said “[Blonde] and McClure are keeping our eyes on the road.”

We had just made the two hour trek from Panicale to Norcia (the “Disneyland of sausage” according to the owner of our villa and the Bossy Blonde’s sometime boss, the Contessa di Mozzarella), and were heading towards Castelluccio, the place where the best lentils in the world are found. All of this sounds well and good, I am sure, but we were winding up this steep, steep mountain like a corkscrew and there was barely a guardrail keeping us from plummeting to our deaths in the valley below.

“Neither [Blonde] nor McClure are billy goats, so this is good.” I said, trying my best not to rubberneck when we noticed an ambulance scraping an unfortunate motorcyclist off the road while four of his distressed, luckily leather-clad, biker friends looked on in panic about a mile or so up the climb.

I’d never really given lentils much thought. They’re beans and I’m American. I eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day because I’m both southern and superstitious, but other than that I wouldn’t say that they really have a place in my diet. But Bossy has made a couple of batches of lentils since we’ve been here and I’m kind of obsessed with them now. Even our Italian friends have been super impressed with the flavor and texture of her recipe, though one of them did tell me that lentils are basically just eaten in the winter for them, too, just like our black eyed peas.

PostedAugust 20, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriespositively piggy, soup

Tagsviva italia!, recipe, panicale, the Disneyland of sausage, Castellucio, lentils, billy goat gruff, motion sickness, umbrian adventure, august adventure, Apennines, Italian adventure, Norcia, Its a small world, Bossy

1 CommentPost a comment

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

italian bubbles: quit trying to make 'fetch' (I mean franciacorta) happen

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

olive oil gelato: the Baron of the Borgo, Bossy, Beefcake and Bologna... and a club sandwich at the Four Seasons

walking in a lentil wonderland: lunch on the moon (or just the highest settlement in the Apennines)

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.