Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

My friend Beth got a little outdoor fire pit for her back yard.  She lives in a beautiful house in Mar Vista, just west of us.  She and her husband have worked so hard renovating their home and installing beautiful drought tolerant landscaping.  They have awesome parties loaded with southern delicacies like sweet tea vodka and 8 hour-smoked, pork butt.  Everyone loves it there, it's just a nice place to be.

A few weeks ago Beth mentioned that she was going to throw herself a birthday party.  As usual, I was super excited.  We brainstormed a little and I said that I would make some homemade marshmallows to roast on her new fire pit at the party.  It made me think about camping trips when I was little and cold winter nights with my friends, circled around the flames.  Who knows, maybe I'd even bring some graham crackers and chocolate...

But then the news came that The Husband and I booked a gig that night and I was going to have to miss all the fun.  I was so bummed to miss the party but I figured I would make the marshmallows anyway.  I mean, I love this girl like a sister and if I can't be there at least my marshmallows can.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe and made the yummiest batch of 'shmallows I've ever tasted.  I toasted and ate like four of them before I had to force myself to walk away (for fear of passing out on the kitchen floor in a diabetic coma).  They had the yummiest consistency.  Not at all like the store bought kind.  The are more substantial and when toasted, they develop an almost creme brule type crust around the outside while turning to pudding inside.

Since I missed the party, I think I should make it up to myself by going 'camping' in my back yard more often.  Maybe I'll spend a little time outside around a flame (even if that flame is a brule torch).  Maybe I'll surround myself with friends and sing campfire songs (or because we're work-a-holics, the 'idea' of friends and our ipod doc).  Perhaps I'll sit under the stars and think about life (or maybe just the moon, because I live in LA and we never see the stars).  It's not perfect dream but it will do.

Happy Birthday Beth! I love you this much...

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Robotic Edition)

I think I may have hit the awesome, nerd, Christmas present jackpot.  Well to be honest, I didn't hit it.  Gabe and Etta did.  They are a couple of funny people who cohabitate.  We know them.  They have a dog, an awesome logo and they just made a movie.  Yeah, you could say, we have a lot in common (except, for the logo part I should work on that one).  Gabe and Etta (Diani and Devine) pitched a little project on Kickstarter that went... how shall we say...fuckng crazy.  Here is thier original pitch...

It went so well that their project was funded many times over and now it's DONE.  As a matter of fact, the books are showing up tomorrow morning.  Hard copy, illustrated versions of Huckleberry Finn, except Jim... is a robot.  Here's a peek....


You can buy the robotic edition of Huckleberry Finn here. 

You're welcome.

Tom Kha Gai Martini

Yes, like the Thai soup, but only vaguely. Tom Kha Gai is such a yummy awesome savory soup whose prominent flavors are coconut milk, lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaves.  Sounds like a drink to me.
I came up with this martini last year as a way to deal with all the amazing citrus that I scored on the ranch. The Kaffir limes were especially intriguing to me with their wrinkly skin, all puckered and slick.  And they smell uh-mazing.
I have since seen them at Whole Foods for a few bucks a pop. I would say that the flavor of these Kaffir limes are so distinct and fresh that they are totally worth it in these martinis. The first thing I did was I infused a bottle of vodka with a stalk of lemon grass. Nothing fancy, I basically just put a bunch of beat up lemongrass (if you smash it, the oils come out) into a bottle and let it infuse on a shelf for about a month.
I had this in my freezer all ready to go when the Kaffir limes came my way, so everything was fresh.  Not sure if the Kaffir limes will be around in January still, so I'm sure you can infuse the vodka in a week if you want to try this asap just stick some more lemon grass in there.

Then I made an infused simple syrup.

Kaffir Lime Simple Syrup
The Rind of 2 Small Kaffir Limes
2 Cups of Sugar
1Cup of Water

I took the rind of two small Kaffir limes and placed them in a sauce pan with 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. I brought it to a boil and let it cool and stew a little. Once the syrup cooled on the stove top, I strained out the rind pieces and transferred the liquid to a squeeze bottle.

Here's what you need...

Tom Kha Gai Martini
1/4 Cup Lemongrass Infused Vodka
1/4 Cup Coconut Water (optional dash of Coco Loco if you like creamy drinks)
1 Tablespoon Kaffir Lime Syrup
Juice of 1/2 a Key Lime (or regular limes)

In a shaker filled with ice, combine the ingredients and shake it up.  Put it into a sugar rimmed martini glass and party.  It's perfect for holiday cocktail time.  Beware though... they are strong and taste like wonderful.

My Heaven

Last year, in the beginning of November I stayed with some friends at an amazing hill top estate just north of Los Angeles. My buddies invited us to relax for a few days while they house sat for some old family friends. I spent two days there and returned with a fresh head and a kind of peace that I hadn't felt since returning from my honeymoon. But, most of all, I felt inspired. Inspired to cook, to grow things, to live a better life. Here's why...

...it was paradise up there. We were out of the smog and congestion of the city. The new rains of November had begun to turn the hills green and everything smelled fresher than I knew possible. This house and the property it sits on, were so memorable, so special, that I think I now have a clear idea of what my dream home would look like but mostly, what it would feel like.

True, it was a fancy piece of real estate, but what made the property particularly amazing was not it's size or the amenities that it had. It was how the house and the hillside that it was built on, worked together. The house was very much part of the land, unimposing and harmonious. There was an enormous herb garden and a dozen amazing fruit trees...

lemon...

Kaffir lime..

Buddha's hand...


orange...

a donkey...

a chicken coup,

a ten million dollar view...

and a stunning pool with a pool house (okay that part was kind of fancy).

The homeowners are huge foodies so to top it all off, the kitchen, oh the kitchen... was perfect. Everything in this kitchen was in the right place, a thick solid chopping block with a prep sink just off to the side of the stove, a grand refrigerator that was stocked to the gills with everything good, a pantry with a thousand beautiful oils and vinegars and fresh spices from around the world. Baskets hung from the ceiling used for collecting the days harvest. There was an impressive collection of the greatest cookbooks ever printed. Anything you could imagine, it seemed, had been made in that kitchen. Apparently the homeowner used to teach cooking classes there. I would pay for those classes, if not simply to just be in that kitchen again.

After a day of sunning ourselves by a deep blue mountaintop pool and drinking wine from my friend's family winery. We needed a substantial meal. On the menu that night were grilled beef kababs (grass finished and organic) with couscous and a blood orange sauce, leafed brussel sprouts with pancetta and pomegranates and cheesecake prepared by the lady of the house as a "thank you for housesitting" gift (like that was needed).

Cooking in that kitchen was divine. At one point, I was so blissed out, so deep in the mojo of prepping dinner, inundated with a feeling of purpose and connectedness, that I didn't notice The Husband sitting alone at the kitchen table staring at me. He had a Cheshire Cat smile on his face. "What?!" I said, when I saw him. "One day," he said "I'm going to buy you a kitchen like this. I will." I laughed at him. "I'm serious," he said "I will."

So while I'm waiting for that to come true (and saving every penny for a house of our own), I'll just think back and remember the house of my dreams, the garden, the animals, The mountains, the pool, the kitchen, the meal, the wine and the salted caramels that we ate while sitting by the fire.


I took home a basket of loot when I left the next day. I came up with some fun recipes to make with the citrus fruit (yes mostly cocktails, so what?).

More to come...

Our Movie, Featured by Kickstarter!

Lets all snuggle up and explore tricking women on the internets shall we?

Something Beautiful

Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi on Nowness.com.

Happy Place

Now that we've wrapped the movie and are knee-deep into post-production, I'm finding myself with a lot of free time. It feels like college, right after finals, when you come home and don't really know what to do with your hands. It's fantastic, don't get me wrong, but as a person who prides herself on always moving, always working, always going... it's absurdly frustrating. I can only organize the kitchen, storage shed and costume closet so many times before I get all Stepford-y and wanna' eat a pound of chocolate in the dark.

So to beat my frustrations, between auditions, I walk sometimes and do yoga sometimes and pour a glass of wine at 4:00 most times. I'm trying to see this time as a mini vacation for the unwilling. A time where I am free to find inspiration for what's next. One thing that has been exciting me lately has been trolling through my photo cache. I've been rediscovering all these fertile memories and images of all kinds of happy places. I thought I'd share some of my fall favorites, maybe you need a happy place too...

Nature's stained glass at Stanford


Public art by Andy Goldsworthy


Dogs sitting in chairs.


Cheese counters everywhere.


Last year's Halloween costume (Dora & Diego).


The "Press For Champagne" button.

Is it 4:00 yet?