There I am.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

To Corwin

I had a dream last night that seemed fairly long and involved. I was stage managing Lady Day at The Emerson Bar and Grill. You came in to give me sound cues. For some reason I didn't have a prep week and was also laying out the floor. I was doing it from memory from the show with Karole Foreman. Charlayne was there. It was the first day of rehearsal! Daniel Sullivan was directing but he wouldn't be there for two weeks so Charlayne and I were starting without him. (This actually happened on another show. I didn't remember that in the dream.) Because I had an old floor plan the door to backstage was set at centerstage and looked like the front door of the club. Charlayne wanted the door to be really ornate. Wooden with curly cues. It suddenly occurred to me that the door needed to be a door to backstage. Oh yeah! We both remembered it was off-centered. To the SL. We talked about a door again and you said.. "Hey, hey, hey! I'm right here." Oh yeah! In my dream you were also the Set Designer. (Sorry Ed Haynes) You helped us fix the problem. See! Jobs where none seem to exist! (My mind.)

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Steak Stew.

Okay.. This is all about things in my fridge. I have a very complete stew recipe. This isn't it.

Ingredients:

1. Steak you think is too cheap and too tough to eat as a piece of steak. Maybe 1.5 lbs?

2. A medium onion.

3. 4-5 cloves of garlic.

4. garlic powder.

5. 5 Bay leaves.

6. 1 Can (or more) of tomatoes. (NOT stewed, NOT flavored.)

7. 2-3 cups of water.

8. 1 cup of frozen farm style hash browns.

9. 2 large Russet potatoes.

10. About a pound of cut up carrots.

11. One bunch of celery.

12. Some pearl onions. (I had some in my freezer.)

13. Maybe some canned mushrooms you have in your pantry?

14. Two dashes of Allspice.

15. Paprika

16. Pepper

17. Sugar 1/2 tsp.

18. NOTE: you don't really need salt in this recipe. There is plenty in the canned mushrooms and the canned tomatoes.

19. About a tablespoon of lemon juice.

20. About 2 tablespoons of Lee and Perrins' Worchester sauce..More to taste.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Slightly freeze the steak. It makes it easier to cut.

2. Cut up the steak. Cut off as much fat as you can. I hate fat.

3. Spray cooking spray on the bottom of a Dutch Oven and add meat.

4. Cook until it just starts to turn brown. Add one sliced medium onion.

6. Once meat is browned add canned tomatoes. (I only had one can so I added 2 cans of water too.)

7. Simmer for 1/2 hour. Add about 12 ounces of cherry tomatoes. (Again.. what I had in the house.. Add whatever tomatoes you have! I cut them in half.

Some pics to help:

A. Cut the meat into smaller pieces and brown. Add at least 1/2 the onion.

Meat with most of the onions browning.

Make sure you've cut off most of the fat:

Ick.

When meat is mostly browned drain any excess fat and add a can of tomatoes.. and 1-2 cans of water.

Let it stew for about 1/2 an hour.

Add garlic, 3-4-5 bay leaves.. sugar, paprika, allspice, pepper, garlic powder, garlic, worschester sauce, lemon juice..

Add 1 potato peeled or .. as I did.. add a cup of shredded potatoes I had in my freezer.

Stew on simmer for 1 hour.

Cut up 2 potatoes. (Again.. what I had in my house.)

Cut off any dark pieces! Cut into maybe 3-4 equal pieces per potato.

Add potatoes to stew.

Cook for another hour... on LOW simmer.

Cut up about a pound of carrots. (I had those baby carrots in the fridge. I cut them in half)

Cook another 45 min.

Add a bit more onion and fresh tomatoes...

I found some mushrooms in my pantry! Yay! Added them with the pearl onions.

I threw in some celery leaves to add flavor.

Take this bread out of the freezer. (Of course you are just like me and have a ton of Arabic Bread in the freezer?!?)

Here are the onions and mushrooms.

In the last 30 minutes add the cut up celery.

The nice thing about stew is that you can clean up as you cook!

It is important to keep your stamina up!

Some flowers and a bit of vodka. (I have to drink it in a plastic glass because I've broken at least 3 glasses in the last month! Yikes!)

Enjoy my dear friends~~~

Yay.. STEW.

(It was great.)

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Burgers! A whole dinner!!
(meant to write this about a year ago.. but, well, you know!)

I've had some requests to talk about my hamburger recipe.
K. Here is one version.

You will need:
1. One pound of meat.. I like Jennie-O Turkey 90/10
2. Mrs. Dash® Garlic Herb Seasoning Blend 2.5 oz. Shaker
3. 1/8 Green Bell Pepper, 1/8 Yellow or Orange or Red Bell Pepper
4. Red Onion
5. 2 Pieces of really good corn!
6. Crudités (Tomatoes, Carrots, Cucumber)
7. Packaged Pasta.
8. Frozen Peas.
9. Cheese. Sliced Swiss or Cheddar.

(Final Picture)

Mise en place:

NOTE: I like to use ground turkey. Jennie-O 90%/10%. You can use ground sirloin or other hamburger.. Be careful of the fat content. Try not to use less than 90 to 10 or you will have way too much grease.

Defrost your meat.

LOL

Form your burgers into patties.

Push a depression into the meat:

Smooth it out.

Get ready! Stuff the middle with onions and peppers.

Turn your burger into a patty covering the middle!

Place it into the pan.

Season it well! I like to use Mrs. Dash. No salt! Yay!

Toss the extra peppers and onions into the pan.

Cover and cook the meat! I like to cover and put it on low while I prepare the rest of the meal. Because there are vegetables inside the meat it will not dry out if you keep the temp VERY low! (Like on 2.)

For this particular meal I made some pasta and peas...

directions on most boxes...

I also gently boiled some corn and cut up some crudités. You may add french fries or cole slaw or whatever... ha ha.

Before I serve the hamburgers I put a slice or two of cheese on top. Type of cheese? Your choice. We like Swiss, Cheddar, or Gruyere.

After the cheese, I add slices of either onion or peppers depending on the person eating!

Cover, turn off the burner and let the cheese melt.

Serve!! Yay!

Mary's Mushroom Fettuccine. (No More Politics Tonight!!)

(I just can't listen to the political news any more tonight.

I am cooking instead.)

Mary's Mushroom Fettucine.

Things you need:

1 pound of dried fettuccine or any pasta you prefer.

About 14 large white mushrooms.. sliced.

8 or so cherry tomatoes. I prefer heirloom cherry tomatoes. Sliced in half or thirds.

1 stick of butter. REAL butter, y'all!!

10 ounces of Parmesan cheese, grated.

1 bunch of parsley. (Not the Italian.. the regular!) Chopped.

2 1/2 cups of milk or half and half or cream or 2 percent milk.

1 tablespoon of flour.

1/2 tsp of white pepper. (Or more.. to taste.)

1 tablespoon (or more) of "Better Than Bullion" Chicken Stock.. You can also use Vegetable stock. (found in the soup aisle.)

Smidgen of salt.

Mise En Place. (Learned that from the Food Network!) "French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or " everything in its place". It refers to the setup required before cooking."

This all goes fairly quickly...

1. Put a dutch oven 2/3 filled with water and a smidgen of salt on to boil.

2. Make a roux.

a) Put 1 tablespoon flour into to small pot.

b) Add 1/2 cup of milk or whatever

c) Add 1/2 tsp of white pepper

d) Add Better than Bullion.. maybe 2 tablespoons... not much more... It gets salty.

e) MIX well as you heat it to a thick Roux. (Medium heat, y'all!)

3. Once roux is formed add 2 cups of milk or whatever. Heat to boiling. Keep an eye out.. It will over- flow.

4. Slice the mushrooms and the tomatoes.

5. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet or wok.

6. Add mushrooms and tomatoes. Cover and simmer until mushrooms look soft and brownish. (You can add more butter if you are having a hard time getting everything coated.)

7. Add roux and milk mixture to mushrooms and tomatoes. Simmer on LOW!!

8. Chop parsley.

9. Cook pasta according to package directions.

10. Drain pasta.

11. Rinse pasta (yes.. I know.. You aren't supposed to rinse the pasta... do it anyway.)

12. Pour pasta back into large pot. Add 1/4 stick of butter. Stir until melted.

13. ADD Mushrooms and Tomato Mixture.

14. Stir.

15. Add Parmesan cheese. Stir.

16. Add parsley.. stir.

17. Pour into a beautiful large pasta bowl and serve with bread!!

TA DA!!

Thursday, August 29, 2019

More and Later. My Career.

ART.
My lovely life. My choice. My calling from 4 years old to 65. A very full lifetime.
First was Mozart.. AH..Mozart.
Then was the baby Jesus.
Then was Christmas Music and holiday plays.
Then.. I felt Easter was ignored so I wrote a play in first grade to celebrate the eggs and the chickens and the bunnies.
We toured the school.
Then.. was some very difficult years in different schools.. trying to sing and belong to drama groups and then was a small college prep and DRAMA!
And MUSIC! And Singing and directing and acting and learning history and reading english and a great education.
Then ..
UCLA..
4 years plus one year of grad study for a CA teaching credential.
Bachelors and Credential.
Thanks UCLA.
Then.. High school teaching,
Then professional work.. then lighting then.. STAGE MANAGEMENT.
Self taught.
Then.. then.. the best friggin non union follow spot operator back when we used very dangerous carbon arc follow spots.

And.. lots more.
Later.

My Superman!

When I was a child I watched Superman with George Reeve and was in love! Superman forever! I read all the comics..

As I grew up, I watched Christopher Reeves as Superman..In love again.

Then.. Dean Cain became Superman. Oh, my. Loved him! Got a picture signed by him..

Started to realize all my superman fantasies were of 35 year old men. I was 10.. I was 21 .. I was 40.. then.. 50. Elizabeth Taylor married 35-40 year old men no matter her age. I am not Elizabeth Taylor. That is actually a really good thing.

I am in love with my husband.. after all this time, I know... He is my true superman and he is about to turn 67. I say to myself what a wonderful world and well done!

I must be Lois Lane.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Mary's Quesadillas! (Also Known as Mary's Leftovers)

Mary's Quesadillas!

Honestly, this is a "left-over" dish. I do this a lot! Whatever protein is left from the night before becomes the protein in the quesadilla. As a really good California girl there are things I always have in my fridge and pantry. (I was going to say larder, but I'm not really sure what a larder is! Uh.. Someplace where one keeps lard?)

Okay!

Ingredients:

1. Protein. Left-over ground beef. Left-over shredded chicken. Left-over steak. Left-over ground turkey or maybe just a goopy mushroom mixture!

(Picture of my Quesadilla Prep...)

2. Shredded cheese. At least 8 ounces. Yes.. I know.. You can shred your own cheese! I would rather use pre-shredded. I have wine to drink. (I almost ALWAYS have shredded cheddar or Mexican shredded cheese in my fridge.)

3. Cilantro. Cilantro is not only a staple in my house.. I also keep dried cilantro. (I like it in salads.) Dork. I know. (If you HATE cilantro.. worry not.. Just don't use it!.)

4. Red onions. I like red onions. Guess you could use yellow or white onions.. Red is pretty though. Amount? Not a clue.. I use about 1/2 a good sized red onion for all the things in this dish. So.. Buy one onion.

5. Canned Ortega Whole Green Chilis. Get the larger size. Gives you more with which to play.

6.. Really really good tortillas. I buy them special from a little shop in the valley. The cost is about $1.35 for 10. Wow! They freeze really well.

7. Pitted medium black olives. Acts as garnish and adds a bit of salt!

8. Cherry Tomatoes. More garnish.. pretty.

9. Random Lettuce. It is all about the garnish.

10. Sour Cream.

11. One ripe Avocado. (Yes! Again with the Avocado!)

12. Salsa, red and green (recipe later...)

SIDE DISH

1. Pinquito Beans - recipe later. (ha ha.)

OKAY, MARE.. HOW DO I MAKE THIS FASCINATING DISH?

Here we go...

1. Cut up your protein.. Use smaller pieces.. You will have a lot going into this quesadilla and left-overs from two people should make 3 quesadillas.. K.. This isn't rocket science. It will make how ever many you make depending on how hungry your family was last night.. La La.

Put the protein aside. (Since I used steak the other night, let's just call it steak.)

2. Use a really good cookie pan or cover your crummy one with Reynold's Non-Stick Foil. Works great.!

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Spread out the tortillas on the baking sheet as shown below.

5. Start Building!! Cheese first. Cover 1/2 of the tortillas with shredded cheese.

6. Add Steak.. (or whatever!)

7. Slice the green chilis into long pieces and add them to the steak and cheese. Reserve a few for later.

8. Add chopped red onion.

9. Continue building, adding the cilantro. Cilantro makes me happy.

10. Now it is time to add the final layer of cheese. Hooray! (So pretty!!)

11. Fold the tortillas over your magnificent creation and arrange on the cooking sheet.

12. Time to make them beautiful!! Did I tell you to reserve some ingredients from the building? Oh.. Uh.. Look over at the sink. What is left on the cutting board or in the colander? Use that.

(12.5.. I bought a Serrano pepper for this dish the other night. Just wanted to add a bit of different flavor.. I sliced some and added it to the build. Your choice.. but be careful.. These lovely peppers can add A LOT of heat.)

13. Let's make these treats look appetizing...

Cut some of the cherry tomatoes in half and arrange on top of the quesadillas.

Add some of the left-over green chilis.

Toss some of the red onion over the top.

Easy Peasy.