Cloudy With a Chance of The Kennedys

Hello dear friends!

So much going on! I have been eating and cooking up a storm-all delicious vegan eats of course. Lately we've been munching on Vegan Brunch Buffet at Savyon (scrumptious!), spicy garlic noodles at Fresh East (absolutely amazing), vegan lunch special & vegan pumpkin soup from Kassava (DELICIOUS), Mao's Chinese vegan items (mouth-watering), and have been cooking such tasty recipes as Hoison-Mustard Tofu Lettuce Wraps & Scallion Potato Pancakes (from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz), Chipotle Lentil Burgers & OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings (also from Isa's book), vegan brats & coleslaw, and Veganomicon's po'boys (also by Miss Moskowitz). Such delicacies in my tummy-I have been living it up! :D

I have been working tirelessly to finalize my pics for my headshots that I took & once I send them to be edited & get those back I will post oodles of pictures. Cannot wait to show you!

Movie reviews: I have been watching some goodies lately my friends-

Mildred Pierce (starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Eve Arden): such an amazing film about a mother's struggle to provide for her family after she & her husband divorce. And the daughter is so ungrateful and cruel and selfish. Just a fabulous classic film-always a bit excessive in costumes, sets, etc. (no single mother could afford Joan's wardrobe) but a delight to watch nonetheless.



Mildred Pierce the mini-series (starring Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood): so far I am enthralled-I am loving the realness that is being portrayed. Kate is raw, the little girl playing her daughter is owning that bigoted mind-set, Guy Pearce is wonderfully selfish and aloof-the sets & costumes, I have been loving it!



The Kennedys (starring Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Tom Wilkinson): I am love with every scene that Greg, Tom, and Barry are in-those three men are fantastic actors. The women in the film are fantastic as well, all but Katie Holmes, she is just so blinky & twitchy & talk-out-of-the-side-of-her-mouthy that it distracts from EVERYTHING! Grrr Katie Holmes, grrr! Why must you ruin Jackie Kennedy with your weird twitchiness-stop it! Despite Katie this mini-series is very lovely. I am enjoying it immensely.



2012 (starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover): OY VEY! Why John, Danny, Amanda, etc., WHY?! This movie was just not good. Oh movies today-all CGI flash and no substance. No substance at all. And while the message was optimistic towards the human spirit which I appreciated the film was so poorly executed. Just blah...



A River Runs Through It (starring Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethlyn): this movie is still magic to me-I love the story, the cinematography, everything. It reminds me so much of my two older brothers. Just poignant and lovely every time I watch it. Thank you Robert Redford and thank you Norman Maclean. I am haunted by waters...



Gangs of New York (starring Daniel Day Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz): I love this movie, well everything with the exception of Cameron Diaz. She is HORRIBLE, I'm sorry, she just is. There is no connection, her accent slips in and out, she is one of my least favorite actresses. She & Kirsten Dunst-do NOT get me started...other than she who shall not be named I really enjoy this film. The story, the actors, the grittiness, and Daniel Day Lewis is always brilliant. Just an amazingly committed and talented actor.



part of Sex & the City 2 (starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis): this movie makes me so sad-it missed the mark from the magic that was the show. So many problems. I had to turn it off because it made me sad to see what they did with most of the characters in the film. Just not my Sex & the City, I busted out my box set of DVDs and watched an episode just to soothe myself!



I feel like there is more that I watched but I am blanking & need to wrap up these left-overs from dinner for Joe's & my lunches tomorrow. I love left-overs!! Have an absolutely fabulous night & tomorrow dear chickens! xoxox

Cloudy With a Chance of Vegan Etouffe

On the menu tonight-delicious vegan étouffée from the Vegan Dad's Blog-I am in love with all of his recipes! Especially all these great Cajun & Creole inspired recipes! Scrumptious!

Now on to my quick recipe for the Vegan Shamrock Shakes:

2c vegan vanilla ice cream (we used So Delicious brand)
2c vegan milk (we used vanilla Almond Breeze)
1/4 tsp mint extract
green food coloring-use as much as necessary to get a nice kelly green

Blend & ENJOY! Easy right?! :)

Now on to my serious part of this post-Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. My heart is so sad. I've loved her since I was a girl and watched National Velvet, then as a teen found her too adorable in Jane Eyre, and as a high-schooler obsessed with classic film I was overcome by her talent in films like Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Father of the Bride, Little Women, Cleopatra, Suddenly Last Summer, and my fave Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She was such a talented actress, humanitarian, and such a stunner. It's so sad to me when actors I admire pass away. It's like a little part of me dies for a little bit too. It just makes me so nostalgic for all the movies & actors I grew up loving & being in awe of their talent. Just look at her at work and in life:

























What a life, what a woman, and what a talent. All images are courtesy of mptv images. Enjoy some of her work today, you'll be glad you did.

Take care chickens.
xoxox

Rainy With a Chance of Vegan Shamrock Shakes...

Friends it is pouring here in LA! But I will not let that bring us down. :)

So this week was St. Paddy's-as part of my Irish heritage I have to say this day means a lot to me. Yes it is about St. Patrick converting the pagans to Christians but for me it is about celebrating my Irish heritage. Remembering all day Eire and its history. Joe and I had a blast-I took the day off of work. We went downtown at noon and enjoyed a free concert in Pershing Square featuring bag pipers & The Young Dubliners. We walked around downtown and had a delicious lunch at Mendocino Farms. We scooted home and had a snuggle and nap with Colonel Mustard. Had some thai for dinner and went out to Molly Malone's Irish Pub to meet up with friends. I had a total of 4 drinks all day/night-tame for most Americans on this day-but I had the best day. Spent time celebrating being Irish and spent loads of time with those I love. Best day!




















The rest of this week has been full of work and appointments. But headshots are NEXT SUNDAY!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! Planning has commenced-I'm thinking 'young mom', 'sultry', 'young professional, and then the traditional commercial and theatrical shots. I need to buy a new button up & slacks and a "mom-ish" sweater but other than that I think I have the perfect outfits for the shoot. I'm just super excited! I cannot wait! My friends are super helping me out by cutting me a deal on the shoot and the make-up for the shoot (I love having such talented professionals as friends) so that helps out a lot since I am so uber broke right now. I will post the photos as soon as I have them! :D

Oh, by the by, if you didn't catch Pee-wee Herman on Broadway on HBO-you should. It was so fun and nostalgic (even some new references and tongue & cheek about Paul Rubens' "abstinence" problems). I watched with Joe and we kept giggling. And he made me a VEGAN SHAMROCK SHAKE! AMAZING!!!



Hope you all had great weeks/weekends too chickens! xoxox

Sunny With a Chance of Paczki!

I hope you all had amazing Mardi Gras/Paczki Days! Mine was amazing! Joe and I ate our left-over jambalaya for lunch and made vegan paczki! They were AMAZING & so delicious & everyone we shared with loved them too! It was really a great day-I dressed up, ate some delicious vegan Polish pastry, had drinks with friends, it was great! :D












The next few days were horrible-stress and a not so nice lady in my life made it a crap Weds-Fri. Then I came home Friday at 5, fell asleep for 4 hours and then when bedtime came couldn't fall asleep until 4:30am! Then I woke up at 7:30am this morning to drop Joe off for his ride to a San Diego Math Conference. Then couldn't fall asleep again-off to my usual Saturday appointments and then took a little trip to the new Cafe Gratitude here in LA. It's an all vegan restaurant and the food was amazing! The message is even more amazing! According to my lunch 'I am cool', 'I am dazzling', 'I am magical', and 'I am grounded'. They were all SO delicious! 'I am cool' was a Mint Chip milkshake, 'I am dazzling' was a caesar salad with avocado, capers, and brazilian nut parmesan, 'I am magical' was a veggie burger with all the fixin's (came with a side salad), and 'I am grounded' was roasted red potatoes with garlic & olive oil, spicy cashew nacho cheese, and pink sea salt. It was an amazingly decadent (and huge) lunch! So delicious. I love their plates (they say "what are you grateful for?") and all their recipe and other inspiring books. And as I said the food was delightful! I left feeling inspired, fulfilled, grateful, and full! :D

I have now spent my day watching movies and snuggling/napping with the pup and breaking for a few nice sunshine filled walks. It has been delicious. And a need repose from the tough end of the week. Colonel didn't seem to mind too much either! Hope you chickens are having a lovely weekend too! xoxox

Sunny With a Chance of Vegan Jambalaya!!!

So the most delicious dish was consumed today-vegan jambalaya! Vegan Dad's blog to the rescue for my Mardi Gras cravings! So so so tasty and just what the tummy ordered-check his blog and eat this scrumptious dish!

In that same spirit of Mardi Gras I am trying to veganize paczki! My big experiment will take place tomorrow and I will let you know the results. If I can get my fave polish treat to be vegan and delicious I think I will become this year's Polish Vegan Queen of Mardi Gras!! :D

Also went to the most random event ever today. I won 4 tickets from a classic rock station here in LA to go to LA Cosplay-it was a charity event for a Japanese theatre here in LA so they had voice over actors (voice of Spongebob guy, voice of Bubbles from PowerPuff Girls lady, voice of Animaniacs characters, etc.) judge a costume contest of kiddies & teens dressed up as anime characters sing Japanese pop songs (J-Pop) or anime theme songs or interpretive dance. It was the most random hilarious thing I've ever gone to. We laughed the whole time. How a classic rock station got tickets to this thing and how I won them are just amazing to me. So funny. The kids were super cute though-just definitely not my kinda thing. Overall a hilarious and weird experience that I would recommend! :)

Hope your week goes well chickens & that you don't catch the plague that has re-surfaced in my life! :) x's & o's

Drizzly With a Chance of SICK AGAIN!

BLAH! The plague is upon me again! How & why I am sure I don't know (unless it was that pesky boyfriend of mine)! All I can say is I hope that it doesn't knock me out like it did last time! Hope you are all avoiding this virus going 'round!


I'll get back to you when the pressure headache fades a bit, xoxox chickens!

Windy With a Chance of BBC America...

Oh friends-how I love BBC America-always have loved BBC but catching up on The Tudors is just a delightful part of my evening de-stress from work ritual now-a-days! Love!

Also-let's talk quickly about how sad I am 31 days of Oscar is done on TCM! I love it every year & am always saddened by the end of the month-good thing TCM always plays AMAZING movies all year. My friend Natalie and I have decided that my perfect job other than actress would be to take over as TCM Host & Historian from Robert Osbourne and that hers would be Lad Programmer-but she insists Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell would be played EVERY day so that people would learn to "LIVE LIVE LIVE"! Ha! It would be pretty brilliant if the two of us could pull that off though!

Oscars...glad that King's Speech swept so much but I was just bored by the ceremony. I think it just fell flat but I still had a delightful time! We went to one of the restaurants I work for-they had a red carpet, a photo booth (we took 2 sets of pics), they had prizes for who picked the most winners (I picked 12 out of 14 on their ballot & won-woot!), had delicious food (I had an all vegan meal while Joe & our pals ate their meaty hearts out), and tasty cocktails (mmm whiskey sours). It was a great time & a fun excuse to dress up and go out!

Now I'm off to snuggle with my little pup and nibble on some delicious mint chip Kind Kreme! :)