Free as a Bird

I slept in today.  Well, until 10.  That is late for me.  It is a beautiful overcast day today in Los Angeles, and yes i mean that in all seriousness, and I am going to do nothing.  Well if your definition of nothing is cooking a full meal for a friend’s birthday, having 15 of his friends over to share said meal, and then riding on over to the Troubador to see Mumford and Sons.  I am so EXCITED!!  On the menu tonight: Ground beef vegetable soup, Paula Deen’s Sweet Potato Buttermilk Cornbread, and Dulce de leche sandwich cookies thanks to my new obsession, and hopefully new friend after Valentine’s day, Joy the Baker.  (I am doing the most amazing thing on Valentines Day with complete strangers that i will tell you all about in due time.)  For space sake, i will just give you the recipe for the soup here.  If you want to find the cornbread recipe, just google it and for the Dulce De Leche cookies, just hit up Joy’s website at the link above and search in desserts. 

Vegetable Beef Soup

• 3/4- 1 lb. of ground grass fed beef
• 2 cans of organic beef broth or 3 cups homemade
• 2 cups water
• 1 large can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 2 med. onions, sliced
• 1 med. potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 can of corn (you can use a small one if you don’t like so much corn)
• 1 c. frozen or fresh green beans
• 1 small can or sweet peas, drained
• 1 c. frozen lima/butterbeans
• 2 tbsp. fresh tarragon/2 tsp. dried
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. minced parsley
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

All you do is combine all the above ingredients in a large pot, brown meat in a separate pan and break up to your liking, then add the meat to the pot and bring everything to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the veggies are tender.   So flippin’ easy and it freezes well too!  Also, all the above amounts of veggies are entirely adjustable, whatever you like, just add or take away.  I added the green beans and lima beans

I cannot wait to cook all day, drink wine, eat cheese, and listen to Andrew Bird in the kitchen.  Stay tuned tomorrow to hear how it all turned out.

something missing

When it rains in LA, it rains for days on end.  My yard fills up with water and puddles form around the edges of my house.  When the rain runs down the gutters and falls to the earth at the corners, it splashes loudly into these puddles and makes the rain sound a lot harder than it actually is.  It is 4am.  I love the sound of rain, but I can’t sleep because this no longer sounds like rain.  It sounds like a waterfall directly outside my bedroom window.  I can’t believe I am actually complaining about it.  My brain is wrecked with thoughts of triage.  Triage you ask?  A friend of mine takes from Lesly Kahn, a local acting studio.  Lesly holds a class called triage, which she as aptly named due to the fact that she categorizes incoming actors much as a hospital would incoming patients; based on level of need.  For triage, you must prepare scenes, so naturally even though it is weeks away, I am losing sleep over my choices.  This is my problem with prepared auditions.  Picking a scene and or monologue.  There are so many, and the pressure to pick the right one can be overwhelming for me.  But I miss acting.  I think I have been going about this all wrong.  I decided not to do mailings anymore.  It’s a waste of money and time, and honestly I don’t think it will help.  I want to be in class.  I need to be in class.  I was watching Oprah today, and she had Pink on, and she was saying how wonderful her performance was and that when people watch other people do extraordinary things, something in them challenges themselves to be better.  Now whether or not you would consider Pink to be an artist, I think this is so true of artists watching artists.  (Even if you aren’t an artist by trade or self-definition, some people have artistic souls and haven’t learned to let that out.)  When I watch someone do or accomplish something amazing, I usually cry.  I have wondered for a long time why this is.  I think Oprah hit the nail on the head.  It lights this fire in me to be better.  To do fantastic things.  To achieve more.  I miss the theatre.  I miss developing and growing as an actor, and subsequently as a person.  So, I am going to take class instead. Well, when I finally get my unemployment checks and pay my bills, then I am going to focus on study.  If you put the work in, things will come.  No career can begin without a solid foundation.  I have poured it, now it’s time to work on the framework.  Put up the walls and roof.  Paint the outside and do some landscaping.  How could anyone drive by and not want to come inside and see what it’s all about?  That is what I’m doing right?  Putting myself on the market?  Let’s hope for bulls.

Overcoming fears part 2

So last night i took my first class in a series of at UCB.  For those of you who do not know, the Upright Citizens Brigade is an improv and comedy theatre that was started in Chicago, went to New York, began a training program there and is now in LA.  They practice what is known as long form improv, or “Harold.”  Long form just means that the scene you are creating lacks a joke or gimmick and the scenes are longer than in short form.  Basically, you don’t have to be funny.  You draw the situations from real life and create characters and situations from what you know.  This is what hooked me last night because my biggest fear about improv is the pressure to be funny.  Of course there are people in class who are funnier than others, but it isn’t a requirement to do long form improv well.   Things you do have to do well is listen and think fast.  These skills are good for any actor and i hope to gain them as this workshop goes on.  We played some basic name games and did an excercise where everyone walks around the room and someone randomly stops, you stop with them, and they tell a fact about themselves.  What was interesting is that with every new fact, the following facts given by others tended to follow a pattern or have a common thread with the one before.  For example someone said “the first time i got drunk i was 15.”  Then “I was drunk on the empire state building when I was 15,” was said.  After that “I’m from the Empire state,” this might be followed by “The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite Star Wars movie.”  See the trend?  So you learn to listen and pick up on threads that begin to form so that you can carry on with a scene or moment.  It was a simple excercise but it made so much sense to me.  I can’t wait to see where the class goes.  Overall, I wasn’t scared once.  I even volunteered once or twice instead of waiting until the end to go as I have done every time in the past with improv.  The room was full of great people from all around the country and I am already beginning to trust them in class, which is so important for this kind of work.

On the agenda today, crashing an on camera techniques class at the foundation.  Well, not exactly crashing. I am on a waitlist.  But, I figured I’d have the highest chances of getting in if I just go on down there and wait to see if someone on the list doesn’t show up.  Can’t hurt right.  Meanwhile I have to go buy some small notebooks to log my miles in my car and log my spending, in order to begin my long term budget plan.  Still haven’t received my first unemployment check.  I finally got someone on the phone yesterday and they said that they are investigating my employment history because they have an employer on their list that I worked for, that i didn’t list.  I have gone through my W-2 forms and cannot find who they might be talking about.  Overall this entire experience has been a nightmare.  My advice to anyone who is filing for unemployment is to BE THOROUGH.  I thought I was being so but it has still taken almost a month to see a check, and it still isn’t over.

On that note

I am adding another thing to my daily routine.  Do something everyday that is for your career.  Today’s activity was a Taxes and Investment seminar at the SAG foundation.  While a lot of it went right over my head, I did absorb a few words of advice.  The three men that were on the panel all agreed that to follow a dream of being an actor takes perseverance and planning.  You have to plan for your financial future, no matter how much money you are making or how unpredictable your income may be.  Make an effort to resist this consumer driven world we live in and SAVE a little each month.  Treat your career as a business.  Oh yes, and open an account at the Actor/SAG credit union, which will be among the things I do tomorrow for my career.  Whatever your career is, I hope that you did something for it today.  And if you didn’t, there is always tomorrow.  Every passing moment is another chance to turn it all around.

Meditation

I am going to add this to my daily routine…

Anything worth having, Lee Anne, is worth thinking about, every day, for 5 minutes, in a dark room, wearing a really huge smile. Shamu slippers optional.Tallyho,     The Universe

pretty good day

Today was a great day.  I had coffee with an old friend who is also new…does anyone have one of those?  We went for a hike and then got a delicious BLT at The Oaks Gourmet.  The had St. Germain and the whiskey I have been dying to try from NY.  I can’t remember the name of it, I just recognized the bottle sitting on the counter when i was ordering lunch.  It’s the first whiskey made in NY since prohibition and I think that is pretty special.  I will have to make a trip back there when I have a little more money because they had some crazy cheeses and imported olive oil I would spend a fortune on.

Tonight I mixed 3 tbsp. olive oil, 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp of salt, pepper, and thyme, and a tbsp of parsley; dumped it all over a piece of salmon and marinated it for 30 minutes.  I wrapped it in foil and cooked it for 30 minutes at 375 degrees in the oven while I cooked brown rice in a cup of chicken broth and a tbsp of butter, and boiled about three cups of kale in chicken broth as well.  It was the simplest meal and it was so darn delicious.  You should try it.  I sat down in front of the t.v. and proceeded to watch this performance about 5 times before getting in the shower and heading out to ioWest to support L. Ron Jeremy in their 20th cagematch WIN!!!  Wish them luck…or broken legs!

What to do?

It’s an Earl Grey kinda sunday…but jazzed up with a little agave and lemon.  I want to get out of the house, but can’t decide which route to take.  Hiking at Runyan?  Farmers market Santa Monica?  Farmer’s market close by?  Or should i just go and stick my little tosies in the Pacific and enjoy the sunshine?  I have sat here, all morning, reading this, and i can barely pull my ass out of my new desk chair!  I can’t wait to meet this girl and drink some wine with her on Valentines Day, when she and two of her delightful foodie friends will throw a dinner party, which i promptly RSVP’d to.  Oh my goodness I can’t wait!

I baked a chocolate pie yesterday…the meringue could have been a tad bit higher, but overall it was delicious!  Next time i will make my own crust.  I had a pie shell in the freezer and i wanted to use it up.  I took it out of the freezer to thaw t for ten minutes and began casually reading the label, as i have been known to do.  To my dismay I discovered that frozen pie shells are nothing but 100% HYDROGENATED OIL!!  Sick!  I was already using it and i lacked the tools to roll out my own pie crust, but never again will i eat a frozen pie shell.  Plus, it isn’t that hard to make your own crust and it only takes three ingredients or so.  To do # 29…buy rolling pin.

On a totally unrelated note…i would like to start a business.  Or do something to make more money.  I would like it to be related to food and maybe travel.  Anyone got any ideas?

When it’s grey in L.A. (pt. 2)

You cook. You get lost in the smells of your kitchen.  You take random ingredients and combine them to create new, heavenly gastronomies.  Today I baked a yellow butter cake with chocolate icing for my friend Hemke’s birthday tonight.  I can’t afford to get him a gift so I baked.  While the cake was cooling and the icing hardening in the fridge, I made a tomato and basil egg-white omelette with the discarded egg whites from the cake recipe.  I topped it with salt and pepper and some shaved smoked gouda cheese.  Waste not, want not.

Tonight, before the birthday party, my friend Emily is coming over for dinner and I am making sweet potato, carrot, and ginger soup with quinoa cornbread and a spinach salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts, and dried cranberries.  I truly love these rainy days.  They are so therapeutic.  I hope you are enjoying your day, no matter what the weather is where you are.

Hittin’ the Mark!

The Universe is really on top of things this week…

  People who do all they can, with what they’ve got, from where they are, Lee Anne, no matter how puny their actions, how tiny their steps, or how futile it may seem, simply have more fun. Way.

Of course, to the uninitiated it doesn’t appear that way. To them it appears as if only those taking gigantic leaps, who drive cars with fancy wheels, have loads of friends, perfect bodies, and fly around the world in First Class Sleeper Seats, are having fun. But what they don’t realize is that we’re often talking about the very same folks, just at different points in their journey.

Coffee, tea, or a brand new Bentley?
    The Universe

focus

This is the advice the universe sent me today.  I am going to strive to remember this everyday.

Lee Anne, the trick is learning to maintain an unwavering focus upon your desired end result, your completed dream, the “finish line,” without insisting upon, or even contemplating, its means of attainment, no matter how logical, obvious, or tempting it may seem. Tallyho,     The Universe

Get alot done today…and enjoy every minute of it.  I have a “to do” list that is 14 things long, so wish me luck!