Strength

Strong drinks, strong woman. See how powerful I’ve become? Lifting whole boulders I am. And…lifting a microphone again. Next Monday April 1st I’m doing stand-up again at the Comedy Store, 9pm. Yikes.

What goes with comedy? Drinks, dang it.

Recently in all my mixing it up at home I’ve made awesome things, and made drafts of blog posts for them. Then before I can post them, boom, another big popular site like Bon Appetit will feature the same drink and I see little point in posting my “discovery”. Last time it was the New York sour.

SO! I am posting the Godfather AND the Dobbs, and actually kind of hope they show up everywhere. After I post this. Then I can pretend like it was all me, trailblazer that I am.

The Godfather.

Can I get a fuck yah?
It’s like an amaretto sour for people who are awesome.
If amaretto sours had bourbon in them.

Godfather from the Bartender’s Choice app, in my own words
2 1/4 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. amaretto
2 dashes angostura bitters
Put a big ass ice cube in a chilled glass. Add everything. Everything. Stir. Sip.

And now the Dobbs! Can I tell you the happiness of not spending 30 bucks for a bottle of Fernet Branca that it would take a lifetime to use? I was so happy to see a tiny sized one, since about a teaspoon, if that, is all you need.

If you make this: Don’t be designated driver.You might be drunk on the Dobbs. Brought to you by the letter D and me, the letter after D, E.

Dobbs from The Bartender’s Choice app, inspired by Short Order, and garnished by moi
2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. sweet vermouth
A goodly rinse of Fernet Branca
2 cherries, but only if they are tasty ones like Luxardo
Chill the cup you’d like to drink from and a cup to mix in.
Pour somewhere between a dash and a dosage of Fernet into the drinking cup and rotate to coat the sides and bottom. There should be a very, very tiny bit of Fernet, but don’t dump it. In the mixing cup add the bourbon and sweet vermouth. Add ice, give it a good stirring, then drain into the drinking vessel. Drop in the cherries. Delightful. Done.

Migas especiales con hongos

Oh yes. Tex-mex. Of all the types of Mex, the Tex is the best.

Of course, the creators of this recipe, the Perez sisters, owners of Austin’s (now closed, I think) Las Manitas, don’t like for their food to be called “Tex-Mex”. Keepin’ it weird for Austin!

I will say this is Tex-Mex in that it is Mexican-ish and created in Texas.

I will attempt to continue the weirdness by making this post ridiculously short for a long-winded dame like me who may be an over-sharer. Enjoy.

This will make way more ranchero sauce than you need. So you’ll be forced to make huevos rancheros the next morning. So sad.

Migas Especiales Con Hongos adapted from Robb Walsh’s The Tex-Mex Cookbook

1 corn tortilla cut in 1/2 inch strips
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 tsp. minced garlic
2 eggs, beaten
1 oz. shredded Swiss cheese
1/4 cup ranchero sauce
Salt n pepa if you like (I do!)
Ranchero Sauce-feel free to jazz this up with your favorite spices, this is a very basic and simple template:
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1/4 tsp. diced garlic
2 Tbsp. sliced jarred jalapeño slices
1/2 c. H2O

Start by making your sauce, you’ll need it.
Bring tomatoes and water to a boil over medium high. Add garlic and jalapeño and take off heat. Let cool then purée. I used my most favoritest kitchen appliance ever, the immersion blender.
Spray a small skillet with Pam. or get crazy and use real oil. Fry yer tortilla strips over medium high. Set them aside.
Spray again and sauté shrooms n garlic several minutes until…they seem done. And most of their liquid is gone.
Spray again. Yes, while the shrooms and garlic are still in there. Turn heat to medium. Add eggy-weggs. Cook, stirring. When almost set add cheese and tortilla strips. Cook to melt cheese. Put on a plate and add some if that tasty ranchero. I imagine salsa would be ok if you want to be lazy. Shocking that I did not. I was lured by the concept of huevos rancheros the next day.

Today’s post as a meal in courses: reel, party, pie, brains and a Clifford original

Whoa. Like, whoa.

So much to share. I shall serve it up like a long tasty dinner. I swear it is worth it. There is a drink recipe at the end your reward. The dessert for this post.

Before I even get to what’s first, I redid my dramatic reel, y’all:

Now the real first course. The reel was the amuse bouche.

Next up we have an appetizer of comedy (very funny), a soup course of party (quite fine). Then a beverage and a main coarse of pie and brains. Yes, brains!
And dessert.

Appetizer: Last weekend I did a wee bit if stand-up. Me likey. People laughed a lot. Tis interesting that I hated being laughed at as a kid. Yet being laughed at is now my chosen form of crack. That was 7pm Saturday.

I rushed home for the soup coarse of this post, a party.
Let me explain the soup, a fine melange of friends, food, drinks, and celebration. Garnished with hugs.
Yes, I had another party with pie. The party was to celebrate 3 years of still being alive after I had that accident from which I incurred some smashing (literally) good injuries. That last link will also hold the recipe for delightful vegetarian Scotch eggs, incidentally. Delightful.

I digress. I am alive and more or less well and grateful for life. I wanted to get down, get down, and party.

For the occasion, and this post’s main course beverage, I cracked a red bubbly recommended to me by Whitney at DomaineLA that was more robust than sweet.

Yes please may I have another? Twas a manly red sparkler.

My amazing neighbor brought this post’s main course side dish, a very smart centerpiece:

Oh, jello molds!
And the entree! Just in time for pi day tomorrow! Get a little 3-14 in your maw!
I made an English Cheddar Farmhouse Pie from the cookbook by Greg of Sippity Sup. His book from which I got this recipe is called Savory Pies and I’m not giving you the recipe because I think you should get the book. Greg, if you are reading I was tempted to invite you to the party but I sort of had performance anxiety over serving you your recipe…
I barely got to taste the pie. I swear it it demolished so rapidly. I got a sliver while slicing it then ran off to make cocktails for my friends and turned around and it was gone. I gotta make this one again so I actually get a full on slice.

My friends were totally forgiven for Bogarting the pie, as thy brought me offerings of books, music, crack (aka cookie butter, not pictured) and pseudo health crap (the “powerberries in the pic).
And have I mentioned how I LOVE getting girly flowers?

LOVE. Take note.

And now the dessert, my gift to you, a beverage I invented playing on the many Negroni themes. I’ll call it the Clifford Negroni. Maybe someone invented this already but I googled and haven’t found it. It’s great if you crave a slightly less alcoholic Negroni with more flavor than an Americano.
Ginger ale. The happy gin.
The Clifford Negroni
1/2-1 oz. Campari (aka my lifeblood)
1/2-1 oz. sweet vermouth
Ginger ale (I wish I could say I was loyal to my childhood Vernor’s but I’ve recently been taken by Hansen’s)
Orange twist
The amounts depend on the size of your glass and how much you already drank. I’d had champagne at my party so I had smaller amounts of the Campari and sweet vermouth. Pour these into a champagne flute, top with ginger ale. Run twist around rim then twist the twist to express some oil and drop it in.
Toast to your exquisite life. If you are lucky enough to have life, it is exquisite and worthy of many toasts.

Not unfiltered for your pleasure

Yah so like totes magotes like no audition for like several days then one on Monday and three that wanted me in their offices at 11:30am yesterday. For realz. Ok that’s a lie. One of the appointment times was for 11:40. Changed that one to 10am went to the other at 11:30 and had to pass on the third.
Like, total actress probs! Yah.

Here’s today’s awkward segue:
As actors, we get our headshots taken, then are tempted to over-retouch them. We don’t trust that we are ok.

And food bloggers edit the living daylights out of their photos.

Well now then. With this salad, the food is enough. Therefore the photo should need no editing, but I put it through filters anyway.

What can I say, Hollywood got to my shrooms’.

The raspberries in the picture are not all that complimentary but are the pretty-makers
This recipe also went through a few filters before making its way to you in it’s downsized and changed form.

I At Least Sort of Look Russian Egg-Mushroom Delight adapted from The Orangette who got it from Saveur who going from Anya von Bremzen’s Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook

Olive oil spray
1/2 lb. white mushrooms, chopped
1/3 c. Chopped yellow onion
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
6 Tbsp. reduce fat mayo
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Spray a pan and heat over medium high. Sauté the shrooms until they no longer classify as white. But don’t char them. Transfer to a bowl.
Spray the pan again and put over medium high heat. Add onion. Once it softens, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring, to caramelize. Add to the bowl with shrooms. Turn off your stove burner.
Add the eggs, thyme and dill to bowl and stir.
In a small bowl, stir mayo, Dijon, and lemon juice. Add a tablespoon or so to the big bowl. Stir n’ taste. Add more if you want, along with salt and pepper to taste. Save some salad for the next day. Gets better, if not prettier, with age. Like us actors. And frankly, wisdom and happiness should be the pretty-makers. Not raspberries. Both on the salad and in life. I promise not to wear raspberries-seems like a Lady Gaga ploy. I’m out!