Phone Tag

For a little while this past fall and winter I was without a camera. This pretty much sucked, but I made do with my Blackberry's camera.

I decided to do a great camera phone clean-up, and thought you'd be amused by some of the photos on my phone...

Like this one, especially:

This glorious piece of snow sculpture appeared the morning after one of the gigantic snowstorms that hammered us (heh) this winter. Sadly, it only lasted a few hours before some self-righteous person with no sense of humor knocked it down, presumably for "the sake of the children".

This picture was taken by me during our recent block party... and I have absolutely no idea what Amanda is doing to the back of my head.

More pictures from the snowstorm... taken after stumbling out of a wine bar.



Our bedroom is HELLA COLD in the winter, so we are forced to pile on the covers. Apparently Deb thought I looked cute, but as I remember it, I was just cold and drunk. (Are we seeing a theme here?)

This past fall I went apple picking with Amanda, Arizona, Chris and his adorable son Aidan.

Do these gourds look phallic to you?

SUNGLASSES! (me, Amanda, Arizona)

Aidan tackles a caramel apple like a champ:

Amanda opted for the peanut-covered caramel apple:

Trying to capture the beautiful fall sunshine streaming through my kitchen window:

From the living room window:

On a recent hike down Forbidden Drive, the dog took a moment to freak out on a sandbar:

My good friend Caitlin came to visit a few weeks ago and we did a Philly-style bar crawl. Here she is exhibiting her phone number cards from Sisters, which sadly, did not contain any phone numbers. (The lesbians just weren't biting that night!)

Deb caught this picture of the dog sleeping on my head this past winter:

Farmer's Market Haul

Money's a little tight lately, but that's not stopping us from accessing the best fruits and vegetables of the season. I'm so grateful to live in Philadelphia, an extremely farmer's market-friendly city.

Deb and I were recently wandering around Rittenhouse Square, enjoying the gorgeous weather, adorable babies toddling about and rich people doing whatever it is that they do in the middle of a day on a Tuesday. We stumbled upon the weekly farmer's market, and with only ten dollars in our pockets, we took home all this produce:

(It was actually a pint of sugarsnap peas, but you know I had to get all artsy with this photo...)

Plus a pound of this grass-fed, pastured ground beef for Deb:

She cooked up two of the patties with a little sauteed red onion, chiffonaded basil on a bed of Swiss Chard picked from our garden!

The produce was so incredibly gorgeous that I was inspired to create a simple Farmer's Market Pasta. Check out my recipe-- I'm super proud of this one!

A pound of humanely-raised ground beef, 2 zucchinis, a pint of cherries and a pint of sugarsnap peas for ten dollars. Good for our wallet, good for our health, good for the planet.

Greek Festival!

It's that time of year again... time to stuff ourselves silly with baklava and spanakopita and dolmades at the St. George's Greek Festival!

I persuaded my cast to join me in the festivities between shows today, and I think they were glad I strong-armed them into coming.

Lauren shows off her spanakopita:

Alex enjoys a Greek salad... perhaps a little too much.

And what would the Greek Festival be without a shot of Ouzo? Opa!
Although it was stifling hot under that tent, it was absolutely worth it to enjoy these Greek delights. There was a live band and a group of teenagers dancing-- what's better than that? We rolled away from the church stuffed to the gills, dreams of phyllo dough dancing in our heads.

Container Garden 2010!

Hello, dear readers, how have you been? Since my last posting, I have been dealing with show drama (sick actors, no understudies, oh my!), looking for some sort of job to keep myself occupied with over the summer (4 months off is a little non-stimulating, not to mention not very well paid...), having house guests (Leah and Kris and Anthony, on their annual migration from NYC to Brevard Music Center) and fighting off the aforementioned plague that has been passed around the Walnut Street Theatre like a bad penny.

Throughout all of this, I've actually managed to get the container garden up and growing, and with the help of my amazingly creative girlfriend, I must say it's looking pretty stellar:

I decided to grow a huge variety of things this year just because well, I could. Here's the run-down, in vaguely left-right in the picture above: 2 zucchini plants, echinacea, bronze fennel, rosemary, sensitive plant, oregano, 3 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, geranium, sage, cilantro, thyme, a rosebush, salvia, 2 petunia plants, dianthus, begonia, basil, jalapeno pepper, swiss chard, bell pepper, wildflower mix, strawberries, morning glories, potato and verbena.

And I want to grow more. I'm always looking for new plants (and containers!) to try out. Any suggestions?

I've already got little baby zucchinis-- I can't wait for these babies to be ready to eat! Look how cute:

I'm excited to see the echinacea bloom:


And this has to be my favorite botanical purchase of the season. There's an awesome dude at my local farmer's market who sells plants that his daughter grows from seed. This little guy doesn't have any consumable parts, but it is a neat party trick. It's called a sensitive plant, and it looks like this:

But when you touch or shake it, the leaves fold into themselves like this:
So cute, right? Pictures really don't do it justice. You'll just have to come over to my house and touch my plant.

My heirloom oregano is looking good these days:

And this is bronze fennel, a gift from my new friend Adam Erace:
(More on that topic later...)

The tomatoes have already started to flower, leaving me with visions of those round globes of summer dancing about my head:
I was fully committed to growing only heirloom and organic tomatoes this season. For the life of me, I just cannot remember what variety this particular plant is, maybe Brandywine? Anyway, I also have Silvery Fir Tree and Black Cherry varieties in containers, all purchased at my local farmer's market.

I had been rather staunch about only growing vegetables and edibles in my garden, but this year I decided to loosen up and add some flowers as well. After all, it's important to entice those bees!

Deb rigged me up a beautiful hanging system for some colorful blooms:

I've really fallen in love with the begonias:

And on a total whim, I purchased an heirloom yellow potato plant. I can't wait to see how my tubers turn out!

Mmmm, Swiss Chard. Love me some leafy greens!

An okra plant, recently purchased at the farmer's market.

The thyme is growing like a weed, which is good because it's probably my favorite and most-used herb.

And my strawberry plants came back from the snowy grave! I planted these babies last year and experienced a rather disappointing haul, but after their winter hibernation they are up and running!

My green beans are a little out of control already:

I bought a packet of seeds at Whole Foods labeled "Fairy Garden" and this is my first fairy bloom:

Today's harvest:

So hopefully now things in my life will start to settle down and I can enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of my labor.

Until then, dear reader, I'm thinking that my beautifully green deck may indeed be the perfect place to crack open a beer on one of these unseasonably hot nights we've been having.

On Street Festivals and Block Parties

It's official, Summer has begun. And by "official", I mean SARA HAS DECLARED IT THEREFORE IT IS SO.


Kicking off my personal summer season is the annual Italian Market Festival, mere blocks away from my house. Beer being sold on the street, mangos on sticks, Italian music, the parade of Saints... there's just so much to see.

But I had one goal. Funnel cake. Where in the hell was the funnel cake?! I haven't had funnel cake in A WHOLE YEAR! Where is it??!

Oh. That sure is a handy sign.

This is my FUNNEL CAKE face, biatch!

Deb's plate is on the left. Mine is on the right. I do not know how she consumed the entire thing. She's so talented. I'm totally jellus.

And best of all, there was a block party happening ON MY BLOCK. Our neighbors and all-around-cool-cats Scottie & Tara closed down our section of Warnock for a rockin' party to celebrate Tara's 30th birthday. They even had a BAND!!!
It was a hipster-o-rama fest, let me tell you that. If it was hipster-related, it was there. You had your strange haircuts, your ironic tattoos, your fixies propped everywhere, your weird facial hair, your pitty mixes roaming about, your biking fanny packs, your keg of PBR.


And best of all, my favorite hipsters were there too!
(l-r: Beth, me, Arizona, Amanda, Dalice. I don't know who that random girl behind us is, but her shoulder tattoo was rad)

Viva la summer!

New Gaydar

(Click for an enlarged image. Courtesy of STFU Homophobes)

Also, watch this NOW:



New post with lots of pictures coming soon...

Summer Plans

I know, I know. I've been neglecting this blog again. But I hope that the above picture of our stupid doggie will ease the pain of my absence...

It's not that I don't love this blog, I swear. And it's not that I love my other blog better either. I double-dog pinkie swear. (Okay, I really do love writing recipes.)

Anyway, I know my excuse for not posting is always "I'm busy", but really I swear it's true. Without going into the gory details, let me just say that this show has been one of the most profoundly exhausting experiences of my life. Don't get me wrong, it's great, and you should totally come and see it. But it's big-- HUGE-- bigger than any show I've done in the Studio and therefore the process has been nutty and trying and weird and ultimately (I hope) rewarding.

So what's happening in my life now? The show's open, I'm looking forward to having my days free. After weeks of working over 60 hours and dealing with... personalities... I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have the whole day free, to stroll in to work around 6pm and be done at 9:30pm. Before you call me lucky or get all jealous, trust me, I've EARNED this.

My season ends on June 27th and I have the summer off. In the past I have simply gone on unemployment and tried to relax before the next season starts up again, but this summer I think I'm going to switch it up a bit. I find that while having one month off is glorious, four months becomes so very tedious. I'm poking around for a part-time job that will let me collect partial unemployment so that I can keep my brain active and yet still have time to loaf. Hopefully this new game plan will allow me to have the Epic Summer of Hanging Out and a little extra pocket change to boot.

Do I sound a little vague to you? Don't worry dear readers, things will be all clear soon. Until then, you'll find me cleaning my house, cooking a lot and catching up on all the reading I've been putting off. On my nightstand right now: Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection, by Jessica Prentice which explores seasonal eating across many cultures and gives the modern reader a chance to reconnect with those ancient and valuable traditions. I'm really enjoying it! Up next I'll be tackling Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, which I ordered soon after I finished his American Gods. American Gods was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I cracked it open on my birthday and it's themes have had a profound effect on me during this winter/spring of my weird journey.

Okay, now I'm sounding really nutty. I'd better stop while I'm ahead. Until then, dear readers, I leave you with the (hopefully sincere) promise to keep this blog better updated.