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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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the latest break in programming brought to you by Guerrilla Atelier

Not that you asked or anything, but you may have noticed a slight blip in the normal schedule of revealing my neuroses and recipe offerings. Well, I have been working. As in a j-o-b, as much as I've been avoiding that three letter word for at least a decade or more. 

I suppose it's not really a job because I'm helping out an old friend who opened a beautiful luxury goods emporium in downtown LA and I have fun every single day. But technically, it's a place of business and I go there for many, many many hours a week and it has greatly cut into the time I devote to grousing. Maybe everyone actually wins in this situation...

Sooooo, I'm getting back on track with the cooking and I have a serious backlog of delicious things I've made over the last couple of months. I'm hoping that if I construct some serious system of rewards and punishments I'll be back on the regular as fast as you can say, "Baby needs new shoes and will get a pair if she gets her shit together". Things to look forward to: huevos sort-of rancheros with chorizo, the perfect Caesar salad (I don't lie), salad lyonnaise, breakfast bacon fregola and some food porn from a beautiful Sunday supper at Magical Merlin's hideaway.

Until then, here are some preview pictures of the latest kitchen triumphs and disappointments, or as I like to call them, my children. I hope you check back for their companion recipes in the coming days and weeks. Until then... 

Soup on! 

 

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PostedJune 25, 2013
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriesbreakfast, quick pics!, salad
Tagsquick pics!, chorizo, eggcellent, eggscellent, pasta, mushroom, mexican, Magical Kim Merlin, hail caesar salad, salad, huevos sort of rancheros, salad lyonnaise
2 CommentsPost a comment
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homefry potato soup with hashbrown, bacon breadcrumbs, fried egg & sriracha: there's a whole lotta bacon goin' on

I have been yammering on and on and on about how I am going to do a breakfast-palooza for almost an entire year. Yes, since LAST APRIL when I did my TV dinner soupapalooza. I am nothing if not a sloth when it comes to executing all the little delights my underutilized brain can conjure...of course, when I dream up these little delights they are always executed quickly, perfectly and I'm wearing a beautiful party dress that doesn't get any food on it. I really loves me an imaginary Best Case Scenario.

After all the plotting and thinking and reality TV watching (please feel more than free to judge me since I judge everyone else ALL THE TIME) I got off my duff and decided to get back on the soup program. Actually I was nudged by a friend who was coming to town for a quick visit and who also wanted to pack in seeing as many people as possible at one time as she could, which worked out well for me because just like starting a blog to ensure that I actually completed the cooking challenge I set for myself, this was a good way to make sure I didn't puss out. Because I do have a tendency to really, spectacularly puss out. Just ask my friend Delia about how I pretended to tighten the tension on the spinning bike in her class, and about the fact that I still almost fell down the stairs after the class because I've been sitting on my ass for A YEAR. And please forgive my Kanye-ALL-CAPS-I'M-YELLING-AT-YOU emphasis, but I think it's necessary to really MAKE MY POINT.

Anyway, I dreamed (dreamt?) up a pretty ambitious menu, though, like I said earlier, I never think it's all that ambitious (and why am I always so cute in these daydreams?) until 30 people are in my house and there are no pigs in a blanket for them to much on while I toss the salad. I consider that a party fail, though I have learned along this journey that it's usually more important to have the drinks ready than the proverbial pu pu platter as guests arrive, or maybe that's just because I have pretty boozy friends, I don't know, but whatever works.

Read more …
PostedFebruary 19, 2013
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriesbreakfast, soup
Tagsrecipe, soupapalooza!, breakfast-palooza!, eggscellent, eggcellent, sriracha, hashbrowns, potatoes, bacon is best, piggy piggy piggy, positively piggy, turkey, turkey sausage patties, breakfast sausage pigs in a blanket, pigs in a blanket, maple butter, waffles, blueberry, blueberry compote, BLT salad, cinnamon ice cream, cinnamon buns, maple ice cream, homefry, homemade chicken stock, homefry soup, yup. it's a shit show, not even close to vegetarian
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quick pics!: a teaser for upcoming posts

here are just a few recipes to look forward to:

curried lentil soup

the 17 minute 350 degree chocolate chip cookie

homefry potato soup with prosciutto breadcrumbs, hashbrown & fried egg

for now... Soup on!

PostedDecember 18, 2012
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriesquick pics!, gear and miscellany
Tagslentil, quick pics!, chocolate, eggscellent, homefry, prosciutto, chocolate chip, eggcellent, cookies, curry, breadcrumbs, lentils
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eggs en cocotte: and so my stage begins and I've already got blisters and they aren't even from my awesome crocs

I know I've gotten a lot older since the last time I was living in New York. You know how I know? Let me tell you: everyone around me is twenty ("why are we at THIS bar?"), they're totally too loud ("can't we go to a more civilized bar?"), they're wearing all the stupid neon stuff I did when I was twelve (the tattoo on her leg totes clashed with the green on her skirt, can we go to the next bar?") and there are bike lanes everywhere ("please don't hit me when I walk right out in front of you without looking when I'm leaving the bar"). When did this happen? When did I actually pay good money for CROCS and am I in the early stages of dementia since when I bought this footwear abomination I was stupid enough to get a pedicure first? My feet are already totally ruined from trying the crocs on and from walking about 100 miles in flip flops over the last few days while I gathered up my new gear (a gorgeous santoku knife, among other things) for my stage. I'm kind of a moron. As Arash commented on one of my Facebook status updates, "what kind of person gets a pedicure before the do slave labor in a kitchen?" Me, that's who. And I don't even get to enjoy it for ten minutes before I screw it up.

But today is special because today is day one of my stage at an amazing restaurant in the West Village. The Magical Kim Merlin invited me to breakfast as a sendoff into this adventure this morning, and, true to her awesome form, we wound up at Balthazar, which in my 32 years of coming to and living in New York, I had never been to. It was decadent, to say the very least. I loved both the eggs en cocotte (the ten minutes of bake time is totally worth it) and the eggs benedict and I'm now the proud owner of a gigantic basket of pastries that I carried eighteen blocks home in the rain, clutched desperately to my chest so they wouldn't get soggy. 

There was even a few rolls of thunder as I was trudging up 1st Avenue, and instead of feeling angry about getting caught in the deluge, I was thrilled. It's been months and months of sunshine back in LA and this was the perfect cleansing. I wished my parched bamboo back home could have had such a treat.

Read more …
PostedAugust 10, 2012
Authormelissa mcclure
Categoriesbreakfast
Tagshumble-pie-a-palooza!, no clogs no way, recipe, eggscellent, too old for comfort, Magical Kim Merlin, eggs en cocotte, stop with the flip flops already, august adventure, Crocs of s*&t, Chef Kenobi, Balthazar, stagiaire, bad ninja, eggs benedict, L train, He Sous Shall Remain Nameless
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goldsmith, sometime costume designer and badass cat owner. 

goldsmith, sometime costume designer and badass cat owner. 

  • dessert (1)
  • party planning (1)
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  • stocks and broths (2)
  • vegan (5)
  • breakfast (6)
  • desserts & sweet treats (9)
  • quick pics! (9)
  • appetizers and snacks (10)
  • salad (10)
  • positively piggy (11)
  • gear and miscellany (15)
  • 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.

 copyright © 2009-2015 soupapalooza! and melissa mcclure. all rights reserved.