Put it in your head

Ah strawberries. My pictorial representation of the vernal season for those of you who need visuals to go with your vernalness.
So, Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring sprang, and now that it is fully sprung, I’ll be getting back to my usual posting schedule, so you have to wait for Wednesday for another recipe.
But I wanted to share something.
Cause I’m a giver.
When I’m not being a taker, anyway.
I recently added a Wicked Stuff page to Scrumptious Gruel which I will gradually, when I have time, be adding stuff to. Wicked Stuff is basically favorite creative things of mine. Thus far it has just been a couple of paintings.
I was recently inspired by Ellie of Boots n Burbs to add one of my favorite poems to it. Turns out we share a love of e.e. cummings. I’ve kept this poem on my fridge because I love it. It’s about love. Duh. God I’m a girl. But it is also about emotion vs. intellect, life and death and…well I’m curious what y’all think too. So it will be on the Wicked Stuff page too but here ya go:

VII
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
—-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other:then
laugh,leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

Do you like e.e. cummings? What do you think this poem is about?

What week is this?: Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring Day Five

Oh, god, how I agonized when to post this. Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring? Or Second Annual Pizza Week?

If only I had waffled a slice.
What week would that be?
Waffle, pizza or pumpkin? We’d be REALLY confused.

I really wonder about the need to categorize and document that we humans have.

Why can’t I just let this food be what it is? Cause you and me are free to be…you and me.

Elementary school music class flashback. Sorry. I hope that song isn’t stuck in your head now too.

Geez, that was way dated even back when I was in school. I hope Jackson Park Elementary has updated their music books since then.
Anyway, thank you for reading my Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring! I don’t have any theme weeks planned just yet. Next year there will surely be Second Annual Pizza Weeks and Waffle weeks. I may slide in recipes in those categories at other times too. Try not to panic.

Any requests for future theme weeks? I know I had an “oft-neglected vegetable week” request from a friend that is a strong possibility…leave me a comment with requests! Purty please do.”

Pumpkin Cornbread Pizza(adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Brian Ruppenthal)

Crust:
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp. applesauce
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder

Topping:
1/2 c. Chopped onion
Olive oil spray
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 ground coriander
1 c. Chopped tomato(I used canned)
1/3 tsp. dried basil
3 oz. grated Swiss
Mix pumpkin, sugar, egg, and applesauce. In another bowl mix cornmeal, salt and baking powder. Combine the two, then put in greased 10 inch pie pan and bake at 350 for ten-ish minutes.
Sauté onion using olive oil spray adding chili powder, oregano, cumin and coriander. Spread on baked cornbread, spread tomato on that, then the basil, then the cheese. Bake about ten more minutes.

Thanks Katie: second annual Pumpkin Week in Spring Day Four

I love Katie.

Thanks to Katie I grew a pair and faced my nemesis Rosemary.

You’ve seen me get down with dirty with my girl Chocolate Covered Katie before.
You’ve seen us do it with pumpkin before.
I did her muffin.
We screamed a lot.
Turned purple.
So we took a dip.

So in this dire I’m-bloody-busy-and-need-more-pumpkin(it is like cowbell, you always need more), I have looked to lovely Katie once again.

I tried her Pumpkin Bread in a Bowl, which I made in both the regular way, and then with chocolate almond milk, Instagrammed below for your viewing pleasure:

Both versions quite worthy.

And I also made her pumpkin baked oatmeal, see below:

Better with Butter(or, as the case was in honor of the vegans, Smart Balance Light):

So take that pumpkin you have leftover from the other pumpkin recipes and get down with Katie. She’s kind of like cowbell too.

For one? Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring Day Three

Welcome day three of the Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring!
Boo-yah. Merriment, etc.

Let us get started.

I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been dating my career this year, and she is one foxy wench.

Demanding. She consumes my mind, body and soul and I love her.

So clearly, I want to keep her. So I cook for her.

Fortunately she’s a small eater. I can cook for one person who has a big appetite and it is enough. Which is good because I spend a lot of money on her for other things,

This recipe, which I reduced to be “for one” was also actually a request of my friend. She wanted to see soup on the pumpkin week menu. It is thanks to this friend I made this Indian Potato Salad so when she requested that I make a soup part of Pumpkin Week in Spring, I obliged.

My woman got jealous, but I soothed her with a good staged reading, so that saucy minx career of mine would shut the hell up.

Here you see the romantic candlelit dinner I made for me and my work:


Note that we share a spoon. We’re that close. As one. She completes me.

I consulted a few recipes for this but decided on using the basic recipe from The Joy of Cooking and elaborating. To make it more trendy-um, I mean vegan, I used almond milk instead of broth or cream. I wanted to get my date hot so I added some hot sauce. Then just a dash of my favorite spice, cumin. Topped with a smattering of cilantro.

Pumpkin Soup for you and your not-too-hungry Love(adapted and reduced from The Joy of Cooking)
Olive oil spray
1/3 c. chopped onion
a couple Tbsp. celery, chopped
1 c. pumpkin
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. almond milk
1 tsp. sugar
salt
freshly ground pepper
Dash of hot sauce(I use Bufalo Chipotle)
Pinch of cumin
Cilantro
Spray a small pot and heat over medium. Add onion and celery and heat until translucent. Stir in pumpkin, then remaining ingredients except the cilantro. Break out Bad Boy, I mean your immersion blender, and blend that sucker up. Get as hot as you want(delicious both hot and chilled!), garnish with cilantro and serve to your lady.

Two: Second annual pumpkin week in spring day two

Year 2. Of having spring pumpkin week.
Day 2. Of the week.
Two ingredients.

How friggin’ too too.
I love tutus.
Behold pumpkin salsa.
About a cup of salsa, 3-ish tablespoons of pumpkin.
That’s it.
Tata.

Busy one: second annual pumpkin week in spring day one

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What to do with the remains of a can of pumpkin when one has much work to be done?

What to do when one is plagued with the harrowing duties we actors face, like looking at hundreds of pictures of our faces trying to find which headshot our new manager wants.
Tis harrowing, I say.
Devastating, depending on whether you agree with the manager on what pic to use.

Which we did:

He wanted one in which I look as pale as I actually am. I think perhaps I’ve been missing out on albino roles.

Friggin’ A. I’ve put on weight since the new year and still my arms are scrawny. I’m going to have to get over that. I could gain twenty pounds and my arms would probably maintain their twig status.

Today’s cooking was done while I labored to narrow down hundreds of shots to about five for the manager to choose between.
I dealt with the sensory assault of hundreds images of my blinding whiteness by assembling the most rapid thing I could to devour whilst working.

I decided to egg it.
Egg it. Everything can be worked into eggs.
Passion,
Ardor,
Love for les’ouefs.
Take a couple tablespoons of pumpkin and beat into an egg with some sage and thyme.
It is like Thanksgiving for breakfast.
Maybe I should start eating Thanksgiving everyday. That would be good.

Pssst

I know you are so ready for Second Annual Pumpkin Week in Spring to begin but hold your horses. T’will begin Monday.

IN THE MEANTIME!

If you live in LA and want some free Sunday night entertainment come on down to the Del Close Theatre of Improv Olympic at 6366 Hollywood Blvd. and see a staged reading of some Parks and Rec spec scripts.

No I did not write any of them, no I’m not acting in all of them, just one, written by my friend Roxana Altamirano, fellow UCB classmate and the woman behind Nerd Boyfriend. Which also has a Nerd Girlfriend counterpart. She’s a cool lady.

I’ll be playing April. Total duh.

So if you are bored the show starts at 8:30, I think the episode I’m reading in is last but you can hang out with me and laugh at(with?) the first readings while I work to channel my best Aubrey Plaza.

Fun!

Something’s coming

Duuuuude, I’m taking next week off from the blog.

I’m swamped. On set as we speak. Write. Read?

But! Coming up a week from Monday is the Second Annual Pumpkin Week in spring!

Just when you least suspected.

The picture is of my pumpkin colored walls. Due the the way the light filters through my curtains it’s always sunset in my bedroom. Except at night.
For color ceases to exist sans light.

I think I had approximately 2 readers for last spring’s pumpkin week so I’ll recap how the first year went.

Day one: cracked open a can of pumpkin and grilled that mother.

Day two: shook it up

Day three: still shake-ish but prettier

Day four:
Not even.

Day five: the grand finale

There have been other delights of punkin’ nature:
Pumpkin Chia Pudding

As well as pumpkin bars, time dos:

A muffin:

And of course, pumpkin pie:

So take the next week to relax, buy some pumpkin, catch up on your reading, go hiking and get ready. Pumpkin week is on it’s way.
Got a favorite pumpkin recipe? Feel free to link to it in the comments! Yah.

Shape up or ship out or order in

Or practice.

Sometimes I love it because I put a ring on it.
Wait. No.
Because I put it in a ring.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Food that can be shaped is better than amorphous mounds. I know some would disagree. That’s your opinion and you are entitled to it, but know that in Ellenwood, shaped food really is superior.

If you want to stay you’ll need to go with the Ellenwood flow. If not you can leave now and go get a bowl of rice somewhere. But if you stay in Ellenwood, or as it used to be called, Ellenwoodland, then food is sometimes shaped. And rice will be black and sticky. Like my soul. And it’s always betta with buttah. Also like my soul.

Please stay with me in this land. Just a little bit longer.

Cause I’m going to be baking more ring mold items. I need the practice in unmolding:

Baked Noodle Ring with Cheese(The Fannie Farmer Cookbook-1965 edition)
4 oz. penne
1 Tbsp. Smart Balance
1/2 c. Almond milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Tiny tinier tiniest pinch nutmeg
2 eggs, separated(yolks lightly beaten, whites beaten into stiff peak submission)
1/2 c. Grated mozzarella, reduced fat
Cook and drain zee noodles. Add all but egg whites and mix, then fold in whites. Grease an 8-inch ring pan and add noodle mix. Put ring pan in a larger pan filled with hot H2O and bake at 325 til done-30 minutes give or take.

Unmold with caution. If it is dumpy like mine, at least you tried, you’re a trouper.

Ring molds, like or no?

Simple food, simple clothes

Ham n swiss on rye. Classic.
Except when it’s vegetarian ham and Swiss on a rye crispbread(I won quite the assortment from Lynn’s lovely blog giveaway) with Dijon.

Not exactly an original recipe. That’s ok, I have something else original for y’all this week.
I took me forever to do, seeing as I was sewing by hand.
Behold, the stocking skirt:

Because I aspire to not have to go clothes shopping and only have to buy stockings. Plus I hate throwing things away.
Also behold the cool fountain my girl Sabrina and I happened upon on our way back to the car from the Museum of Contemporary Art:

I love downtown LA.

Questions for the readers!
What simple foods do you love? Do you make your own clothing?
And LA-ites, what part of LA is your favorite? Or tell me something about where you live that you love. I beg of you, leave a comment and tell me!
It gets lonely here on ye olde interwebs