It's National Goat Cheese Month!

Don't pretend you had no idea. You know you did.

Okay, so everyone tends to get a bit...over zealous... with the months these days (um, apparently August is also National Catfish Month, National Peach Month, and filed firmly under a category quite aptly named "Didn't See That One Coming," I will note that in Tipton County, Tennessee, August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night), but goat cheese IS kind of awesome so I thought I'd share my latest recipe, and by recipe I mean I chucked the following foods into a bowl and prayed to the gods of appetite not to forsake me.

They listened. All those animal sacrifices DO work!

At any rate, I know I'm also slow to catch on to fads of any kind (that's definitely a New Englander thing) but the internet has been all abuzz lately with talk of beet and goat cheese recipes.

So being a true, die-hard fan of goat cheese, I thought I'd take a stab (no pun intended) at a beet and goat cheese salad.

Again, to reiterate, I'm not a cook, I'm an artist, which means I can't give you exact amounts or reproduce exactly what I've cooked, ever. This is also why I'm an actor, people... the key is to keep people's expectations low, and if I hit my mark and remember all my lines on set I get a treat and a pat on the head from the director.

K, here we go!

Ingredients:

Goat cheese
(I like the non-seasoned goat cheese from Trader Joe's)

Beets
(Trader Joe's also has ready-made beets, but serve them cold for the salad)

Arugula

pecans or another type of candied nut
(if you don't like nuts in your salad, because I don't either, make sure the dressing you use is sweet to bring out the flavor of the goat cheese and beets.)

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar
(to make up for the lack of sweet nuts, I used my blackberry ginger balsamic vinegar and it freakin' rocked)

Toss everything in a bowl until the goat cheese is creamy. Also, you might need something hard or crunchy to give the salad texture. Next time I make it I'm gonna try those Chinese dried noodle things. I'll let you know how it works out.

So go forth, celebrate August in all its monthly awareness awesomeness, and eat goat cheese and peaches and catfish and your neighbor's zucchini, just not all at once.


PS I got the picture here, with this story. Apparently dogs like goat cheese just as much as humans :)

happiness is a warm list

I'm recovering from the bummer that was yesterday with a list of things that are making me happy right now. It's cheaper than drowning my sorrows in a swimming pool of Rocky Road. (Also, easier on the thighs.)

I am really craving owning a hammock again (I owned a small chair hammock at one point, and it might still be in my mom's garage), and this one looks super-comfy.

Lately I've been putting fresh sliced strawberries in all the lemonade I've been drinking. I've been getting them at the farmer's market, but Trader Joe's has organic ones on sale for $2.99/1 lb container. Awesome! Also, they are now selling sweet potato fries, so maybe I can learn how to cook them for my very self. And then dump a large amount of bleu cheese dressing on them.

I found the EASIEST recipe on the planet for chocolate croissants. I served them up for guests at dinner the other night, with sliced fresh strawberries on top (noticing a theme? I'm obsessed) and they came out AMAZING. Ready for the recipe?

Grab chilled Pillsbury crescent rolls from fridge/supermarket
Unroll into triangles on cookie sheet
Place about 10 chips of semi-sweet chocolate chips on the larger end of triangle (usually makes two rows of chocolate chips)
Follow instructions on crescent roll package for which temperature to bake at
Bake about 9 minutes, until crescents are golden brown and chocolate is oozing out just a bit
Eat. Then celebrate how awesome you are.

Totally easy, right? One of my favorite things to munch on in Paris was the chocolate croissants -- and they weren't all dry and flaky like the ones in the U.S., just doughy with just a bit of crust to them. These are a fairly good substitute until I can get my butt back to France.

I just got this book and I am so excited to read it, you have no idea. Jane Austen + Zombies = loveliness.

I also just got the first half of the last season (got all that?) of my favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica (what? I'm a nerd and I'm okay with that) and I Can't.Wait. for season 4.5 (the second half of the last season) to come out on DVD on July 28th. FRAK! Why do I have to wait so long?!

And finally, I am celebrating the fact that my very first post over at Examiner.com is up! It's not the most fascinating post I'll do on an actor's life in LA, but give it a read and lemme know what you think! (Oh, and try to be nice in the comments section, although I know all of you guys already are. My blogging partners-in-crime have been encountering some swirling negativity out there in the comments section these last few weeks, and we in the blogging community are wondering if it's the weather or a sugar-low.)

Have a perfectly lovely rest of your Thursday, people!

Damn Near Perfect weekend, indeed

Friday:

Went with my friend Alli to see Munched, a dark comedy staged play about a mother who is jailed for over ten years for committing Munchhausen's by Proxy on her five year old daughter. The play is told from two people's point of view -- the mother, now released from jail, and her daughter, now grown and in her mid-twenties, who only knows her mother from other peoples' opinions on what may or may not have occurred.

Also, grabbed a cheeseburger and fries near the theater. Cheeseburger could have been better. OhMyGod the fries ruled. I think they were garlic fries.

Saturday:

Skipped the grilled cheese invitational because I had plans to do tea (is that not the best excuse for missing an entire park full of grilled cheese sandwiches? "Sorry, I have mid-afternoon tea to attend to.") After a fantastic breakfast at the best-kept secret in Studio City with my newest Escrima classmate, (and, yes, I caved and bought a book at the cutest bookstore ever that is attached to the cafe), I headed off with my friend Stacy to high tea over at the High Tea Cottage (what makes tea high? Wait, should I not ask that?) and sipped decaf English Breakfast while eating a spinach and mushroom crepe, cream puffs with strawberries, and a Damn Near Perfect chocolate cake for dessert. I am taking my moms (my mom and aunt are identical twins) here soon. Very soon. Oh yes I am.

Then some friends and I hightailed it over to the Sherman Oaks Arclight, where we watched the Disney Earth movie (James Earl Jones' narration puts me in my happy place) and then we headed back to their place, where we had bison(!) and I contributed to the dinner with a strawberry feta salad. (Thanks, Mandy, for the granny-smith apple tip.) Want the ingredients? (I don't do recipes very well -- just kind of throw things around and hope for the best.)

1 carton of strawberries, sliced in fourths
2 granny smith apples, sliced into cubes
1 package feta cheese crumbles
1 package of spinach

and one good tossing with blackberry ginger balsamic vinegar. I use this one and I love it. (It's also good on sliced fresh mozzarella and tomatoes.) It's important to use a balsamic vinegar, I think, to bring out the flavor more and not drown it like dressing would. That's my theory, anyways. At any rate:

YUM.

Sunday:

Busted out my 20 sided dice and played Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition, and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon gaming with my friends at the local gaming and comic book store. There, I said it. And, AND!! I had FUN.



Damn Near Perfect weekend, indeed.