little red fox

junk soup + crackers

This was our dinner tonight and is the title of this post. Could there be a more appetizing recipe title? Probably. But it's accurate.

Post-Thanksgiving we had all these vegetables left over and in the pot they went along with whatever else we had on hand that needed to be used--2 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, half a head of green cabbage, 3 little potatoes, a bag of lentils, chopped onion and celery, garlic, a large can of diced tomatoes, half a bag of frozen spinach, vegetable broth and bouillon, a few sprigs of fresh thyme and the ever-trusty liquid aminos. I made as big a batch as I could so I would have plenty left over to freeze in individual portions (cheap lunch!). I also threw in a cup or so of quinoa towards the end, stirred in some chopped kale and then topped it off with some fresh grated parmesan cheese. I think I have all the food groups healthily covered. All the junk we had left over=junk soup!

But in a backwards way--what inspired me to make this soup were these Sesame Flaxseed Crackers.

This is a kind of funny thing to make but I've really been wanting to try lately. Like most people I love bread and crackers and all that--especially with soups and stews. The two are married in my mind. So I came across this recipe (interesting blog, too) and used this pretty, lazy Saturday to give it a whirl.

The dough is enough for two separate batches. This one has a simple honey/water glaze per the recipe (you don't really taste the honey) and is seasoned with himalayan sea salt and cracked black pepper. While this batch was baking it occurred to me all the possible flavor combinations you could add to the dough--fresh garlic and red pepper; curry powder; fennel or caraway seeds...It was too late for me to do that but the second batch I glazed and sprinkled with garlic powder, red pepper flakes and sea salt and a touch of oregano--kind of a little pizza flavor. Very tasty! 

I don't know what I was expecting but it was a pretty easy recipe, surprisingly. I get intimidated with any recipe that involves a rolling pin but that part went just fine. The ingredients are really healthy too--it was all stuff I had on hand, and I love knowing what is actually in what I'm eating.

Here's a picture of the happy couple:

Sorry it's a blurry picture but I was kinda in a hurry to dig in :)

paper moons

(Photos found here.)

A little eye-candy for your Friday...

I never knew paper moons were an early photographic setting trend but here you go. I can't get over how beautiful these are. I think I'll have to draw some myself since I can't go and live there. 

We had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving night and I took zero pictures. BUT. I do have a new recipe--a carrot souffle, if you can believe it--that is a must-share. So delicious in the most surprising way, none of us quite knew what to make of it. So I'll get that to you--I just need to recover first :) I'm currently cuddled up on the couch watching Hot Saturday. I love this movie for many reasons (not the least being that it's pre-code) but especially for the scenes of 1930s nightlife--the dancing and drinking and everybody dolled up. Nancy Carroll's wardrobe is to die for, by the way. It's all so good and just what I need on this chilly, gray day. Well, that and some kitties, drawing supplies, over-sized sweatshirt belonging to husband, fuzzy socks and chocolate. But that's it.

i'm seasonal!

Well, this is something I've been meaning to do since I opened my etsy shop but I just couldn't quite get myself organized enough. Somehow this year--however "under the wire" this may be--I did it! I have a set of Christmas/Holiday cards in the shop and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I'm crazy about that mossy-green color. I had a more straight-up greeny-green picked out and then changed my mind at the last minute and I think it's exactly right.

The red background was a bit of an unexpected last-minute thing, too but with that green--yay for accidents!

I'm still a sticker-making-and-packaging-making-maniac.

Pretty cute as a set, I'd say. I'm really into making these paper ribbons for the card sets right now. It quite literally wraps it all up in a bow! Satisfying. (Smug smile.) And they're in the shop!

I don't know about you but I'm having a lovely lovely evening. I've been drawing and making stuff and getting orders ready to go out. And after that I'm spending the rest of the night drawing and baking--could be worse. I have to bake cornbread for my grandmother's famous-to-us-cornbread dressing, and my first pumpkin pie. We're cooking for a bunch of folks tomorrow and couldn't be more excited. It's mostly a pretty traditional menu but there are a couple of neat surprises--like a carrot souffle! How interesting does that sound? Very. Can't wait to report back to you!

Cheers to you all and have an absolutely divine next few days whatever you may be doing...

love nest

Since I've finally gotten around to doing up our little bedroom, I thought I'd share...

 

These are the pillows I made the other day. I bought the fabric because it was so beautiful--but I had no plans for it. Our bed has needed new pillows for a while and since we can't paint and I need color--voila! Made envelope-style with covered buttons...

This fancy flowery fabric is probably a tad too thin to be a pillow covering, but it was too pretty to resist and I'm weak.

I think the window might need a matching curtain, though, don't you?

I love my vintage telephone. I found this on ebay a few years ago and it works! It's so funny to talk on the phone and be confined to an area determined by the length of the cord--how old-fashioned to sit in one place and chat...

I also bought a vintage jewelry box a bunch of years ago that I just love--it's so girly.

 

Another gorgeous weekend--we must be doing something right. Waiting on Mr. Wood to come home again--he's been travelling a lot lately, huh?

Made a beautiful kale salad for lunch...

Chopped kale, parsley, lettuce, snow peas, red bell pepper, red onion, walnuts, pinto beans, ground flax seed, ground chia seeds, and nutritional yeast with an apple cider vinaigrette and a mug of green tea. Divine.

Also finished a drawing I started last night...

 

(Edith. Graphite on cardstock, 6x8)

I was watching Suspicion late last night and enjoying Joan Fontaine in all these beautiful 40s proper English ladies' dresses and hats and out of nowhere in a dinner scene was this tall blonde woman dressed like a man. She was nowhere else in the movie and then there she was in one scene and said 4 weird things and gave everyone around the table the hairy eyeball and you never saw her again. At least that was my experience of it. But it was really late and she hypnotized me. She reminded me of that large blonde lesbian in Pandora's Box who follows Lulu around at a party--know who I mean? I love her. It was so amazing and weird and it got me really inspired. I got to thinking about old-timey photographs and printed this onto a sepia-colored cardstock and popped it into a black oval mat...

 

(Edith. Print of graphite drawing, 6x8 in black matting)

And it was just the look I wanted. That doesn't always happen but when it does...dang it feels good :) I'm selling these in the shop also. Just 3 for now since that's all the mats I have. BUT--hopefully I can find some more because I think I want to do a whole series of these old-fashioned women in men's clothes. Got some ideas stirring...I also did one in ink, so that will also be something eventually perhaps... One simply never knows, does one?

Hope your Sunday is absolutely lovely...

waterloo bridge

Another film recommendation for you!

I'm a huge fan of the TCM Forbidden Hollywood Collections. I only own one (for now... :) but I've seen some of the films from the other two and I find them just thrilling and can't wait to see them all. In case you don't know--these are the films made pre-Hays Code and for the most part they have a raciness (read: honesty) about them that later movies of the 40s and 50s couldn't get away with. 

I finally saw Waterloo Bridge and it's now one of my new favorites. (There was a cleaned-up remake in 1940 with Vivien Leigh.) Not only do you get scenes with scantily-clad chorus girls (they had the best underwear back then!) and lots of great outfits, but oh my goodness the two leads: Mae Clarke and Kent Douglass are so wonderful, I hardly have the words. I want to see all of her movies now (like this one). She has such charisma! She's adorable and sassy, and so comfortable in her skin--you never feel like she's 'Capital-A-Acting'. Sexy and vulnerable at the same time with a deep belly laugh--I want to be best girlfriends with her! Oddly enough, Bette Davis has a small supporting role and seems so much stiffer and uncomfortable by comparison. Sadly, it seems Mae's career sort of dwindled away in the 40s but I have more research to do on her yet.

And he--(who mysteriously went by the name Douglass Montgomery later in his career) is this big, beautiful sweetheart of a man who actually cries a few times in this movie. There's one moment when he's exiting a shot and he's literally wiping away his little tears--I can't tell you how moving it was. And look for the scene when they're holding hands in the back of a car--he's precious. As much as I love old movies I never get terribly emotional watching them, but I teared up more than once in Waterloo Bridge. Especially because it got me thinking a lot about what it meant to be female at that time and not be born into wealth and priveledge. It's really quite moving.

way to go, girls!

The girls were so wonderful last night! They sounded and looked beautiful and I just could not be happier for them.

I am a very lucky lady to have so many incredible friends in my life. En masse they are an embarassingly rich collection of beauty, talent, intellect and crazy fun times and two of these dear, dear friends have a star on the rise and it's so exciting to watch. They are consistently classy, gracious, kind, sensible and where a lot of celebrities in real life can be disappointing (and believe me, I know), these girls get better the more you know them. And it's comforting to me to see great things happening to people who truly deserve it. At least parts of the universe function like you think it should :) Their new album is coming out in February--so keep an eye out and if you buy their music, know you are supporting some ladies who are salt of the earth sweethearts who have manners and were raised right.

Also thrilling was getting to meet the adorable Juli Anna! A fellow blogger and all around good soul who was so sweet to introduce herself after the twins played. One of the more amazing aspects of writing a blog is the gift of meeting like-minded people and feeling connected in a world that can sometimes give you the opposite sensation. It really is a present. In the midst of a big life adventure, the writing on her blog is always so positive and fresh with a serious intellect cooking underneath--and as I came to find out last night--unsurprisingly she is a writer as well! She also looked absolutely adorable but I have no proof as neither of us thought to get a picture of us together. Next time, Juli Anna! And truly it was so nice to make your acquaintance :)

After I forced a ridiculously healthy smoothie concoction down their throats (it's hard to eat well on the road!) the twins sped off into the glorious afternoon on their way to the next tour stop. Safe travels, girls! We're all so proud of you both.

(P.S. I'm actually not sure how this works, but Little Red Fox is on Facebook's Networked Blogs. You can follow it here if you like to do that sort of thing. Maybe you already subscribe to the RSS feeder thing? With Networked Blogs, it might be similar--I imagine you would be notified when I post but I'm not 100% sure. Isn't this the vaguest offer of not-quite-sure-what-ness you've ever kind of gotten or not gotten?? Sigh. I'm just trying to keep up. :)

new shoes kinda

Over the weekend I (meaning Mr. Wood) dyed some of my shoes black that really needed it. It was a big weekend. I actually love having shoes of different colors but I turned around recently and saw that I had no black ones. As I was recovering from my terrifying realization, I knew my emergency situation demanded a pair of adorable vintage gloves and luckily I just happened to have a pair laying around...(I've been wearing them every day--I just love them).

From left to right we have thrifted platform FLATS which is kind of my dream shoe. They were navy--and I love navy!--and I thought I would've worn them like crazy but...I don't know, I didn't. The second ones were these and I LOVED them in brown but...again I just didn't wear them. Something about that particular brown, perhaps... And the third ones were actually made for me to wear on stage in "Accent On Youth" last year. I was thrilled I got to keep my shoes because that doesn't happen very often. These were navy and cream and I just knew I'd get more wear out of black and cream. Plus I got to use my beloved ivory and black ribbon...

I feel like I have 3 new pairs of shoes, and all for the $7 I spent on some dye. Neato!

Did I mention it was a quiet week?

Part of it is that I've been quietly nesting here in our little home the last couple of days. I never quite decorated our bedroom in the almost 2 years we've lived here. That is not like me. The room has some odd architectual features (which you'll see here shortly) that I wasn't sure how to deal with and I just avoided it, plus we didn't paint it and the white walls weren't speaking to me. But we rearranged it a couple of weeks ago and it fired me up! So today I made some beautiful pillows for the bed with some of the prettiest fabric I've ever seen. Pictures to follow. It's looking pretty cute, I must say and I find myself not wanting to leave even when it's clearly time to...but that's a quality I like in a bedroom :)

Also I just got these in the mail:

 

Can you tell what they are?

They're sponges! I had heard about these before so I finally remembered and found them in Zummi's etsy shop. It's the best idea ever. I've always thought sponges sitting around with all that old food and whatever it is sitting on it, then you re-use it, then it sits there--they're really pretty gross plus I hate buying them. They always feel wasteful. But these--you use them until you feel like it's time to wash them--pop them in the washer and voila! You need not throw yet another thing away. Love it. They're also made from organic yarns, so it's all perfectly eco-friendly. I think they'd make nice Christmas presents, too, by the way...

She also threw in these little face scrubbies because she felt like they were late in arriving. So sweet, but I was totally fine with the amount of time it took. She makes them to order, after all!

I'm excited to try these little guys...

In other news: We've got rock and roll visitors staying with us the next few days while they're on tour. I'm very excited to see them play Thursday night. And for you NYCers--it's at Webster Hall in Williamsburg at 7:30 so come out and hear some acoustical ear delights at a very decent hour...

Right now I'm off to a commercial audition then coming home and cooking for the girls (a new recipe I'm trying and if we love it, it'll be on this blog shortly) before we head out to see this--I don't know about you but I shall be laughing myself silly all night long. Have a wonderful day/night wherever you are....xo

a bozo girl

(Little Bozo Girl, 8.5 x 11. Acrylic on paper)

Well it took me a day or two but the prints of this painting are up and in the shop!

Also I think I might be a slow person. I've been thinking about it and here's why: when I work, I work hard and continually but things still take me what seems like a really long time. That sounds like a slow person. Here I am 86 years old and learning this about myself...but better late than never!

Anyway--these prints turned out nice, I think. I'm using this off-white velvety cardstock I found while I was visiting heaven and I think I really like it. I like the textured papers too, but for a print...I think the smooth does the original a lot more favors.

Nifty little border for framing...
Now that I have my circus book (literally living by my bedside), images like this have taken up permanent residency in my subconscious and I think there will be some more paintings like this one to come.

I'm sure it will take me a while, however...

an autumnal soup

We had a low-key Saturday night over here. We've been fairly (ahem.) "active" lately so a mellow night-in was in order. There was a head of cauliflower in the fridge and it was do or die time: either cook it or throw it away. And since my brain defaults to soups this time of year--I threw this soup together. Its sort of a frankenstein of this one and this one (plus some of just me) and it turned out terrific. I was especially proud of myself since everything I used was something I already had. For most of you that's probably the norm, but it seems like I always have to make a run to the store (or Mr. Wood does, let's face it) and this time--it came together and no one was inconvenienced! I even got to use the chicken stock I made and froze a few weeks ago, as well as the last little bit of heavy cream left over from another night (and if I've thrown away one half-used carton of heavy cream, I've thrown away 1000--very annoying). So I got to feel thrifty which sends my self-esteem through the roof lately. And since a few of you have asked about fall recipes I thought this one would certainly fit the bill.

Start to finish it probably took an hour or so, probably serves 4-6, and as always, all the amounts are eyeballed and can be easily changed to suit your tastes. If you're vegan--you can totally leave out the cream and parmesan and you would still have a rich, tasty soup due to the roasting step which I think adds a lot of extra zip. The other thing I'd say is that if you like to make soup and don't have a stick or immersion blender--run don't walk. It's a quality of life issue, if you ask me.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH THYME AND PARMESAN

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, leaves removed and chopped up into big chunks
1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
3-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 quart of chicken or vegetable stock
olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 leftover rind of parmesan, or 1/4 cup or so grated parmesan
3-6 TBS heavy cream
s&p (I used white pepper)
Cayenne to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Put chunked-up cauliflower on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil (you don't need a ton), and a bit of salt and pepper. Toss with your hands to get it all lightly coated and roast, turning once or twice until the cauliflower has some nice golden color, about 25 minutes.

2. In a large pot on the stovetop, saute the garlic and onion in olive oil (3 TBS-ish) over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until they are translucent. Add the roasted cauliflower, being sure to scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom of the sheet pan and adding to the pot. (Serious flavor in there!)

3. Add the stock and give it a good stir. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn down to simmer. Add the thyme, cayenne, s&p and rind if you're using it. (If you're using grated parmesan, you can wait and add it at the end.) Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Here's a picture:

4. Add the cream (and the grated parmesan if you're using it). Take your magical stick blender and blend to your heart's content. Taste and salt if necessary. 

Additionally, you could:

• sprinkle extra parmesan on the top as a garnish.
• substitute milk or sour cream or even almond or soy milk for the heavy cream.
• We served it with a sliced pear and fennel salad and garlic toast and it was a lovely, light fall supper, but I thought a nice grilled ham and cheese would be equally delightful.

In other news I finally finished a little painting I had wanted to do for a long time.

(Little Bozo Girl, acrylic 8x10)

It's the same image from one of my sticker sets and also part of the banner of this here little blog. I had a few requests to offer it as a print in the shop and I thought that was a great idea--so here it is! Well...here it will be. I'm too slug-like today to be terribly productive so I'll figure out all those printing logistics and shop-listing things tomorrow. Because.....

I just bought this book online yesterday (which I'm sure will warrant its own post at some point) and I'm so excited to learn how to do finger waves finally that I am going to try and pin-curl my hair tonight and see what happens. This latest hair cut I got--it's too shaggy and...modern and so not me. This pains me deeply and the situation must be rectified immediately.

what actors eat

Just a quick dip into the blog to tell you that my friend Christy and her pal Lynn have a blog called The Actors Diet which is basically different actors talking about--and photographing--what they eat on a given day. They do a much better job explaining it on their site but I'm their latest guest-blogger and you can read it here! It was fun to do and it was nice to actually talk about my relationship to food which I hadn't articulated even to myself before. I certainly wouldn't call it tortured, but being in a (show) business that focuses on your image, as well as competing with all different types of women some of whom are very beautiful and/or very thin...well it can certainly raise some questions about how you think about yourself and your body and how you feel about food. Add to that the fact that I love food. I love eating it, cooking it, talking about it, looking at it, smelling it. I never want to be without wonderful, delicious, decadent food--and I want to work. It's hardly a conundrum, but sometimes it seems they are at odds. So it was good to sort of 'write it out' and discover I'm actually in a pretty good place and pretty healthy in the way I think about it. On the down side, I'd love to be thinner, but on the up side--I'm not a raging lunatic who's grumpy all the time. It's a give-and-take. I'll file this under "Good To Know."

Also in that file is that I think I miss my blonde hair. This picture is my headshot for acting (I didn't know what other pic to use for this post) and seeing it, it's pretty much confirmed that the brunette tangent was just that--a tangent. Twas fun...but now tis over.