lookie lookie

Say hello to my little friend....

just another day

Yesterday started as a normal day.  It was Valentine’s day, I had a plan for my day – go grocery shopping on my way home from work and also pick up a gift or two.  The day did not remain normal.  Having expectations for things sometimes comes with its downfalls...things happen.  Life happens.  Clearly, it was nothing catastrophic.  Work was hectic, the interweb was down and I had to use my phone to do follow-ups, forgot my phone charger, no one had one at work...by the end of the day, I was dead.  Out of touch with any and everything.  The mister knew I was going to the grocery store before I got home, but he didn’t know I was going shopping – as he wasn’t supposed to b.c it was a surprise for him!  When I got home, an hour later than expected, he frustratedly left for an audition, an important one where an important person specifically requested to see him...think I'd feel the same.  He was expecting to be on a certain schedule.  Nothing wrong with it, we all do it.  I try to remind myself to “hope for the best and expect the worst.”  It limits the disappointment, or so it seems...sometimes.

14.feb.2012
Yo, DJ!

I was just having a conversation (read shared blog post) with my best girl friend about telling stories with points.  [Side note: she’s really the best, I’m like totally in love with her.]  I’m not very good at it.  Rory give me a hard time about it too...I tend to ramble and get lost in my details and tangents...which, sure, is good from time to time...but all the time?  I don’t know, maybe I will take a story telling class and get my points all lined up.  Or maybe I just accept that that's the way I work after 30 years.

Back to yesterday, while there were some let downs there were also total positives...it was Valentine’s Day after all.  It was also our mini-celebration of our 7 year anniversary.  Seven years!  Man.  It doesn’t seem like that long, or it doesn’t feel that long.  I guess that’s what happens when you fall in love and decide to spend the rest of your life with someone and that someone if the right someone.  Everything just sort of fits.  It works properly.  Even when there are problems, you work them out.  I’m glad to say that we don’t fight all too often.  When we get mad at each other, we’re typically able to come to common ground and we just don’t disagree on a ton of stuff.  I’m a lucky girl who’s madly in love with the man she’s going to marry.  That’s all.  A friend of mine tonight, after I said Rory was off for a whole month, told me I was "so understanding."  Sure, I am but that's also just part of what our relationship is.  We've learned to make it work.  It's very hard from time to time but I think it's also good for us.  It's made us value each other, everything about each other.  The good's, the bad's and even the ugly's.  In the end, I think it makes us love each other harder and fuller.  That's what I feel, full.  So cliche, but Rory kinda completes me. He makes my life full.  When he's not around or off on one of his distracted ways its hard but in the end, at the root of it all there is so much love and patience and kindness and joy and positive emotion that the good truly does outweigh the bad. Really.

Now on to the food!  Yes, it’s a recipe post.  I’m excited, it’s been FOREVER.  Plus it was my instagram yesterday so, even better. (Actually I had two, both in the post)  I made lamb with a yogurt mint sauce, broccoli rabe and hasselback potatoes. Then store bought pound cake w. strawberries and homemade vanilla whip cream. Delish.

14.feb.2012
Nom, nom, nom

Lemon-Garlic Lamb Chops with Yogurt Sauce

Slightly adapted from epicurious

For yogurt sauce:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, minced
a big handful of chopped fresh mint

For chops:

fresh lemon juice from 2 lemons
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
a good shake dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (1/2 to 1 inch-thick) shoulder lamb chops (I asked my butcher for shoulder chops and he sold me a whole shoulder, thought of roasting the whole thing but just ended up cutting my own pieces – I guess you could do the whole thing but think you’d need to increase the marinade)
1 tablespoon water (plus whatever you feel like you need, probably used ~ 1 cup)

Make sauce:
Put a cup of yogurt in a doubled up piece of cheesecloth, make sure you have enough to tie this up.  Then tie the lose ends to a spoon and rest the spoon over a large pot, be sure to put a bowl under the cheesecloth/yogurt concoction so you catch the liquid.  Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for like 30-40 minutes…so worth it.  Mix in the garlic, mint, and salt and pepper to taste.  You can do this a day ahead of time if you want to, just make sure it comes to room temp before serving.

Prepare chops while yogurt drains:
Stir together lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and 2 tablespoons oil in a shallow baking dish. Add lamb chops, turning to coat, and marinate.  Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for a little over an hour (I had the time) just be sure to take the lamb out of the fridge so it comes back to room temperature.  Remove lamb from marinade, reserving marinade, and season with salt and pepper.  Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté chops in 2 batches, without crowding, about 2 minutes on each side for medium-rare.  I had to go back and heat these a little longer, so be sure to check the meat and do sauté to the appropriate done-ness for you.  Transfer to plates. Boil reserved marinade in skillet with water 1 minute and pour over chops.  Serve w. the yogurt sauce.

Now for the potatoes…so yummy, they were sweet and spicy from the pesto.  Rory doesn’t like pesto, I knew this and still made this…he even LIKED the pesto.  Goes to show you can’t judge all pestos by the cover...wait, what?! Oh, before potatoes, I really didn’t do anything to the broccoli rabe.  I blanched it, then sautéed it with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes until they were done.  Easy-peasy!

Hasselback Potatoes with Spinach Cashew Pesto
Barely tweeked from Joy the Baker

For the Potatoes:
4 russet potatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
coarse sea salt
olive oil for drizzling
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Thinly slice garlic cloves – try to keep them consistent, this is near impossible for me…just try to get them pretty thin.  Set aside.  Clean the outside of your potatoes well.  So your potatoes don’t slip around and you don’t slice off a finer, cut a small part off the bottom of the potatoes…I picked the wonkiest side. (You can do this with onions too so as to not have the onion roll around while you’re sobbing through your slicing)  Slice into the potatoes creating ribs, don’t go all the way through the potatoes, so everything stays connected.  Slide garlic slices in between potato slices.  This is a lot harder than it seems, you may have to be a little rough with these buggers, but not so rough that you break them apart.  End goal, keep them in original potato shape!

Put 'em on a baking sheet, salt them, well.  Put a tablespoon of butter on each potato and drizzle with oil.  Bake for about 1 hour. Every 15 minutes, baste the potatoes with the oil and butter deliciousness that is happening.  (When I was doing this, I wished that I had put the potatoes in a deeper dish, I kept fearing that the mixture would pour over onto the bottom of my oven, so...a suggestion?) When cooked through and crispy, remove from the oven, top with spinach pesto and serve.

For the Pesto:

2 loosely packed cups of spinach

3 garlic cloves

1/4 cup toasted cashews

juice from one fresh lemon

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup olive oil

Put everything (sans oil, salt & pepper) in the bowl of a food processor.  Blend until spinach is broken down and, whiles still blending, slowly pour in the olive oil.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. 

Cook's note: this makes a TON of pesto, after dinner I grabbed a piece of parchment paper and put 4 globs (about the size of a silver dollar pancake) of pesto on it and put in the freezer.  I meant to grab them last night, but just put them in their own ziploc bags in the freezer.  These are perfect for a pesto pasta dinner down the road...now you don't have to make the pesto!

I hope you enjoy these recipes, it always makes me so happy to cook. To cook something I've never eat but have read about somewhere else that someone else tried...I always want to know what I can do with it.  

What'd you make (do) for Valentine's day? 

xo

DEEE cember

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Do you like to try to guess your gifts ahead of time?

I do. :( I feel bad about it. I try to put it out of my head but I do try to guess...even if I don't tell you I think I know what I am getting...I try guess what it is the person is giving me. I'll admit it, along a similar line, I have fantasies about my fiance coming home and surprising me just to hang out. He's on the road a lot so I think that this is a way that I express my missing him. I create these elaborate things in my brain and hope they happen...even though I know that they won't it still makes me really excited. 


Monday, December 5, 2011
What was the first gift you ever made another person?


The first gift I made had to have been born of my father genius to do what all children should do on Mother's Day - make brunch! I'm sure that was the first "gift" I made. I also have a tendency to make my family cards. One year I even made a work of art for my family. They each had a similar drawing of a building from from France, then I found quote approprite to each member of the family and painted it on the canvas. Not terribly creative but I think everyone liked them.


Tuesday, December 2, 2011
What was the most disappointing gift you received as a child?


I don't remember every having a gift disappoint me. Especially as a child, they were presents. And no - this was not a cop out.


Monday, December 1, 2011
What was the first tangible gift you remember receiving?

The first tangible gift I remember getting, hmm. Wow, my brain initially told me to tell you about my little yellow chair I received on like my 4th  birthday but I can’t remember actually “receiving” it, you know? I don’t remember opening the box.  I know I said “just what I’ve always wanted” because I’ve been told, at that birthday party, that was my response to everything. We had just moved to Scottsdale, AZ, I had no friends my parents knew a handful of adults so they invited them over to our house so that I could have a birthday party.  Everyone played along and brought gifts and I was ecstatic, hence the “just what I’ve always wanted” response to everything…I mean, I was four and had a houseful of adults looking at me as I opened ever gift there was. And, I’m sure after the first time, someone laughed and I loved the response so I kept doing it.  Attention hog much, NO WAY.

That was my gut reaction but when I thought about it, the first gift I remember holding in my hands and feeling that overwhelming feeling a child gets when they open a gift they never knew they wanted but it was the best thing ever.  I think it was like 1987 and I was 6 or something and my dad’s parents had come up to CT to celebrate Christmas.  My family had a tradition of opening one gift of our choice on Christmas eve, I think we’ve since dispelled that tradition as this 30yr old didn’t do it last year, or the year before for that matter. Anyway, it was the night before Christmas and all through the house, everyone was waiting for me to pick a gift...because it takes FOREVER it has to be the right gift. Finally I settled on the gift from my grandparents, it wasn't too light and it wasn't too heavy, you could hear something moving around in tissue paper. Not LITERALLY moving around, I was shaking it a little. I opened the box, there was no wrapping paper, just a dark green box with a white ribbon. I opened the box and slowly pulled back the white tissue paper to reveal a beautiful china doll. She was gorgeous, she had pale skin, lightly pinked cheeks and lips and a plain dress. I loved her and hugged her. I was so happy. She was so delicate. That't it.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I just decided to make whisky vanilla extract.  I used two big Madagascar vanilla pods split in two then a cup of Irish whisky and popped it all in a jar.  Shook it once or twice and stored it under my sink, I'll be back in a week to check on it but it's supposed to take a month or so...so, we'll see.

Ever made home vanilla extract?Better luck with vodka or bourbon?


xo

Comfort Food

Before we get to the deliciousness that is below, know that if you decide to make this pot pie - it takes some time, and having that time is really really nice because you don’t feel like you’re in a rush.  Albeit, we made it fast and it was still amazing.  But slow and steady really wins the race...I may have felt rushed b.c I was also making chocolate chip cookies for out dessert. That’s my own fault for reaching for more...I could have bought cookies.

Also, totally random side note, when I cook for myself I don’t go fancy nor do I always go awesome...like I just make a quesadilla with really just cheese and that’s it.  If I have greens, it’s greens and an egg. And, even if its gross, I’ll still eat it because I took the time to cook it! Terrible, right?

This recipe calls for shredded chicken.  I assume they don’t sell shredded chicken so you have to cook and shred your chicken.  I poached chicken breasts in milk and water until they were done, barely let them cool then pulled them apart.  I then just started chopping it up because my hands were burning and like I mentioned, I was in a hurry.  These biscuits are also awesome and really easy.  I’d make them on Saturday morning for a homemade brunch.

Enjoy this! And thanks to Joy, she really does know how to make amazing food...can’t wait for her cookbook, which I pre-ordered!

Chicken Pot Pie with Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits
Makes one 9×13-inch dish with 12 biscuits

For the Biscuits:

• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 1 t granulated sugar
• 1/2 to 1 t coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/4 C chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 C (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 4 oz (half of a brick) cream cheese, cold
• 3/4 C buttermilk, cold (if you don’t have buttermilk, take a T of of white vinegar and then enough milk to make a C and let sit for 10 minutes, then get 3/4 C from it.  So easy! You can even use lemon juice)

For the Filling:

• 4 T unsalted butter
• 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 2 C chicken broth
• 1 1/2 C whole milk
• 4 oz (half of a brick) cream cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 t fresh ground nutmeg
• 3 C shredded chicken meat (I used 3 decent sized chicken breast - might have been too much)
• 2 T butter or olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1 1/2 C thinly diced carrots
• 1 C diced zucchini (optional)
• 1 1/2 C frozen peas, thawed

Make your biscuits first, really simple, really quick.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, black pepper, and chives.

Add butter and cream cheese to the dry ingredients.  Use your fingers to quickly incorporate the butter into the flour.  This is one of those, use your hands add the love type recipes, it’s really the best way to get the best results.  Break up the butter and cream cheese with your fingers until there’s some the size of oat flakes and some the size of small pebbles.

Make a small well in the center of the fat and flour mixture.  Add the buttermilk.  Using a fork, combine the wet and dry ingredients, make sure you get everything moistened.  Dump the biscuit dough onto a lightly floured work surface - at this point you may think the dough’s a little weird it’s okay, just go with it.  Knead together until dough forms a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick.

Use a round, 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter to cut biscuits.  Gather the dough scraps, knead a few times, and cut out more biscuits until no dough remains.  Place biscuits on a small cookie sheet and place in the fridge until ready to bake.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Dice onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, and thaw the frozen peas.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.  Whisk in the flour, this will be really thick, heat for 1 minute.  Turn heat to low and add the chicken stock.  Whisk until no flour chunks remain now, whisk in the milk and add the cream cheese.  Turn your heat back to a medium/low temp, stir often until cream cheese has melted and the mixture is the consistency of warm, thick pudding.  Add chicken, lemon, and nutmeg, stir then add salt and pepper to taste.   Remove mixture from heat and set aside.

In a medium pan over medium heat, melt butter.  (I added all of the veggies at once, you could do it like Joy and go layer by layer I think this is better but remember I was on a time crunch.) Add onions and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add minced garlic and saute for one minute more. (At this point, if you wanted to kick up the heat, you could add a few shakes of red pepper flakes.)  Add carrots, zucchini, and peas.  Cook for  about 3 minutes.  The vegetables will not be entirely cooked through do not worry!  Remove from heat and add vegetable mixture to the creamy chicken mixture, stir to combine.

Spoon filling into a 9×13-inch pan.  Remove the biscuits from the fridge and place them on top of the filling.  Brush the tops of the biscuits with heavy cream, buttermilk, or egg wash.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until biscuits are puffed and golden, and the sides of the pot pie are bubbling.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Chicken Pot Pie will last, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days...if you can make it that long, we for sure didn’t.

Enjoy this so much … treat yourselves to it! xo

on a whim

I decided to make granola.  I looked at a few different recipes from sites I love (shutterbean & big girls small kitchen) and made an easy bastardized version of their granolas.  It smells great.  I hope it tastes good and that I can wait until tomorrow morning to eat it.  I really think this is the kind of thing you can put anything crunchy in. Walnuts? Pumpkin seeds? Other fun crunchy grains? Whatever.


Fall is the time for baking, so get on it.  I recommend some explosions in the sky blasting in the background and, this might sound dumb, but as you mix an bake have an intention.  Are you making this to help you be smarter about what you eat?  Is it because you love your partner and want to make the something yummy?  Is it for that friend of yours that is going through a rough patch?  Whatever it is (it could even just to celebrate you - we don't do it often enough) just think it while you work.  You'll end up putting so much love into something so simple you will be able to taste it. Enjoy!

Tuesday Granola
bastardized from here and here


Ingredients
3 C rolled oats
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/2 C raw sunflower seeds
1/2 C (+ more) mix of raisins, dried blueberries, cranberries, and cherries (what, what trader joes!)
1/2 C raw millet
1/2 C honey
1/2 T cinnamon
1/2 C canola oil (you can probably use olive oil to give it a more savory quality)
salt to taste


Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all of your dry ingredients in a big bowl. Once mixed add the honey and the oil to coat.  Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet, set your timer for 10 minutes and bake.  Take out and stir around, then do this 2 more times.  Once your granola is a nice even toasted brown color, you're done.  Let cool completely before putting into air tight containers. While its cooling - continue to stir it around to keep it all broken up. (The other recipes said they made about 6 cups...I think thats what I got?!)


xo

b-i-r-f-d-a-a

i must first begin with the facts that a) my birthday was a month ago and b) my celebration began on friday when my boss took myslef and my co-worker out to lunch and then called it a day!  we got to the restaurant (the standard grill) and ordered pimms...i had never had a pimm anything before and lemme tell you...this drink was delicious! we had H.M.S. PIMM’S, which consisted of pimm's cup no. 1, cointreau, lime juice, prosecco, winter berries, cucumber and mint. yum. and simple...you can probably make them at home. who am i kidding, probably? you can. period.

so good! i had mussels for lunch, with fries? bien sur. then for dessert we had a pecan pie that we all split and the waitress brought us all a glass of champagne...it was a really kickin' friday afternoon.

i'm 29!

whats nice (and not nice) about having a birthday so close to easter is you get to celebrate with family. the downside of that is going to an easter egg hunt with at least 50 children who range from 2 - 11 and having conversations about basement flooding and what company you should use for the repairs. it was all sorts of hilarious. it was nice because i love my sister and brother-in-law and i really enjoy spending time with my niece and nephew, but it was also very suburban.

i even got to make my own birthday cake with macy (my niece)! we used a basic white cake recipe from epicurious. [my birthday was now a long time ago...but the food and post are worth sharing] i will share the recipe but i gotta admit...not sure i am a fan of white cake. its sort of dry - or at least thats how ours ended up and the description said it would be moist...was not. it might be because there's no yolk, how do you have a cake without yolk?  you dont. you have white cake. 
i wanted to make something really simple and maybe a little messy (at least looking) for my cake. i didnt want a lot of sweet stuff, so i just whipped up some heavy cream and tossed some berries with a pinch of sugar then layered.
Classic White Cake
adapted from here
ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk
Directions
1. make sure you have 2 9-inch round cake pans, buttered (really well)
2. set your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven
3. combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, mix well.
4. place butter and sugar in a bowl, beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very soft and light. beat in the vanilla. 
5. whisk together the egg whites and milk by hand in another bowl until just combined.
6. reduce mixer speed to low and beat in 1/4 flour mix, then 1/3 milk mixture, stopping and scraping down the bowl and beater after each addition. (this may have been where macy and i messed up the cake) do this in this ratio until all combined.
7.scrape bowl well w. a rubber spatula, pour batter into the prepared pans and smooth tops. (i always tap my pans on the counter top, i think i say someone on the food network do this once to "get rid of air bubbles." its now part of my baking regime.)
8. bake layers for about 30 - 35 minutes, until they are well risen and firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean (also, where we may have messed up - i didnt check both, make sure you check both...also, our cake didnt really rise). cool the layers in the pan on racks for 5 min (seriously - no more, i think also may be where we messed up!), then unmold onto racks to finish cooling right side up.

see! she was happy with the final outcome, but cooking with a child under 10 is tough, she got bored very quickly. maybe there's a way to make baking/mixing/stirring into a game and that way she'd be all about it?


on to dinner. yes, i got to choose and make dinner on my birthday. you may laugh/gawk/shock, but hey, i love cooking, remember? (not to mention the salmon was cooked by my bro-in-law and my sister and i kept swapping positions) so, i chose mushroom risotto, asparagus and salmon. my big sister is sort of hilarious. we keep switching back and forth with the risotto...she got sooo bored of stirring. like mother like daughter? nah, my sister has a better attention span than a 7 year old. for the most part. all we did with the asparagus was boil them a little with salt water and then with the salmon, we baked it with olive oil and salt and pepper.

mushroom risotto
adapted from here
ingredients


1 oz dried porcini (1 cup)
3 3/4 cup hot water
5 1/4 cup reduced(low) sodium chicken broth (42 fl oz)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 fresh cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 lb Arborio rice (2 1/3 cup)
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup finely grated parm-reggiano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black peppper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

directions
1. soak the porcini in 1/2 cup hot water in a bowl until softened, about 20 minutes. lift them out, squeezing liquid back into the bowl. rinse off any grit that may remain and coarsely chop. pour soaking liquid through a sieve line with a coffee filter or a dampened paper towel into a 3 to 4 quart saucepan, then add broth, soy sauce, and remaining water and bring to a simmer.
2. meanwhile, heat oil with 1 tablespoon butter in a 4 to 5 quart heavy potover moderately high head until foam subsides, then saute onion, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. add garlic and fresh mushrooms and saute, stirring, until mushrooms are browned and any liquid they give off is evaporated, about 8 minutes. stir in porcini and cook, stirring, 1 minute, then add rice and cook, stirring,, 1 minute. add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed, about 1 minute. (MAN...that is a lot of stirring.)
3. stir 1 cup simmering broth into rice and cook, stirring constantly (serious?) and keeping at a strong simmer, until absorbed. continue cooking and adding broth, about a cup at a time, stirring frequently (come on!) and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until ice is tender and creamy looking but still al dente, 18 to 20 minutes. thin with some of the remaining broth if necessary. 
4. remove from heat. stir in cheese, salt, pepper, and remianing 5 tablespoons of butter until butter is melted.
5. if reserving some risotto to make risotto cake tomorrow, set aside 3 cups and cool to room temp, then chill covered with plastic wrap.
6. stir parsley into remaining risotto and serve immediately.

all in all. it was really lovely. just my sister, brother-in-law and me having dinner and drinking nice wine. we of course had cake, but the first pieces went to my niece and nephew, duh...you can't go to bed without dessert people, we all know this! too cute. 
i know its way way way past my birthday, but thanks for bearing with me. 


xo

geeking out over shakespeare

my shakes co just recently held auditions for an all female version of Julius Caesar which we will mount in Feb. (the 18 - 28th to be exact!). i am thrilled to be working on this project. when going into the audition, i was unsure of what the outcome, i only knew i wanted to be in the show.

i realized i was geeking out over shakespeare the night before when i was preparing all the sides for the audition w. my lexicon out and two different versions of the text. i love shakespeare. he feels so much more powerful than a lot of the shows i see or read now. i dont know if its that the language is so much more elevated or the context and content seems so much more heavy then what we discuss today. i mean, people die in shakespeare, come on people. i've loved the classics since college. i took a restoration comedy class in college and it was one of my favorite courses, reading all those texts and learning all that history. i have always been blow away by the language and the precision with which the authors of the time wrote. the fact that the word "china" has multiple meanings depending on the context and the fact that you can skew the meaning by how you use it and where you use it is so fascinating. maybe i should've been a linguist instead of an actress.

i'm playing cassius amongst a cast of 7 other talented women and our director and a.d. are fabulous....i am excited for this challenge. i know its going to be a lot of hard work, but well worth it... !

happy holidays!

the artist is C. Carey Cloud