Begin The Beguine

Ah, why does it take so long to do what I want to do? Is it because what I have to do is taking longer than I thought it would? Honestly? Yes. I have about 60 lbs of laundry yet to be picked up from 2 different laundries that I dropped off when I had a car for work. I still have not gone thru the stacks of 'junk' mail.....maybe it's not all junk....I can't just throw it away without taking a peek. What if the Polar Bears need money from me again?
Or my subscription to Entertainment Weekly is about to expire? I have at least pulled the bills and the periodicals and the catalogues (job hazard) as I picked up my mail the past 2 months. I didn't totally neglect my personal life....just almost.

Last night I signed up for a casting website. No big deal, right? I am an actress after all. But this site is just for reality shows (Reality Wanted.) I know, I know. But tell me the truth: deep down inside, there is one reality show, or game show that you would love to be on. Admit it!

I am not only admitting it, I am confessing. And professing. Publically. And throwing my name into the hat for the opportunity to either be on a game show and win oodles of cash so I can fulfill my dreams on my own, or hope to be cast on a show that will allow me to expose and exploit my talents and dreams so that I may make a life that allows me to live the dream of making a life from my talents.

In the meantime, I need to get back in the groove. I started this blog so I would get back into a routine of experimenting with new recipes and perhaps finally send in that book proposal for a cookbook. At the very least, share my food creations with others to enjoy and get some feedback. I love to make people happy with food.

It's almost noon on this crazy Sunday we all love and hate simultaneously in NYC, Puerto Rican Day Parade. I'm going to skip the festivities as I live in Spanish Harlem (the best kept secret in Manhattan) and we have the priviledge of hosting the big block party for Puerto Rican Day the day before....so yesterday was Boricura everywhere from dawn to midnight and then some. So today I am sneaking across town and picking up a pile of old food magazines from a fellow Freecycler (awesome Yahoo! group for recycling) in hopes of finding inspiration. Then I'll sneak in a movie on this super hot day; something funny is in order....mindless, simple, amusing.......haven't seen 'Horton Hears A Who'.......is that still playing? No matter, I'll find something. Then I'll schlepp my bag of goodies home and eat and take a nap as tonight I shall celebrate Shavuot for the first time. I'm very excited. Up until dawn dancing, drinking, eating, swimming, studying the Torah at the JCC and then celebrating the dawn with a special blessing and meditation on the rooftop.

So, an exciting day ahead. Maybe there is a new cheesecake recipe on the horizon to mark all of the above situations: Dulce de Leche Cheesecake, anyone?

Better late Than Never

So here it is, May 31st and I'm just making my way back here.
Every time I say I'm not going to get so involved in a film project (or TV show or commercial or whatever) to the point of pushing my personal life aside, I find myself actually believing it to be true. Yet here I am, 3 weeks later than I said it would be, mail piled sky high, laundry even higher, fridge is half-full (with only half of what is needed to make anything of substance) and me eating my words once again.

I won't go into the details of why I am not going to be finishing this film project to it's fruition, but suffice to say it is a blessing in disguise. Finally some time to devote to baking and writing and experimenting. But most of all, eating well and enjoying it.

I promised to make a birthday cake for a co-worker: cookbooks scattered across the counter with me calculating which part of which recipe will marry with the part of another to allow me to use GF ingredients and make a cake that passes muster with all. That cake never got made.
I did managed to squeeze a few hours out of another Sunday afternoon to bake a cake for a baby shower for the girlfriend of a dear friend in LA who happened to be visiting her little sister in NY for a ballet recital. A luscious and decadent Victorian Sponge Cake piled high with Cream Cheese Frosting. And since it was a baby shower, the requisite pink plastic bambinos were necessary. I didn't tell anyone they were left over from a public art installation that I participated in this past summer on Roosevelt Island. My contribution to 'The Encampment' art installation detailed the history of the Foundling Hospital during the late 1800's and explained the high mortality rate of the infants unfortunate enough to be born there or transferred there. I was going to use all the plastic babies to represent actual lives lost but in typical fashion, I ran out of time. My project was bigger in scope than time allowed. So what to do with bags and bags of teeny tiny plastic babies? Why, use them to decorate a cake for a baby shower!

I had the brilliant idea of using pink cotton candy to spin around the cake and let the babies float upon (there was no way I was making pink icing!) It looked beautiful. When I did it. At home. Before traveling across town. By the time dinner was over and the cake was to be served, the cotton candy had started to melt. It was still quite lovely, but not the vision I had imagined. definitely a decorating technique to be saved to just prior to serving. But oh was it good!
So good in fact that after everyone had had their first slice and a few were ready for a second, the baby mama's Father had decided to claim the remainder of the cake for himself. I'm not sure if it was a compliment or just peculiar manners, but he decided the cake needed no icing and began to scrape it off the entire cake, leaving blobs of my beautiful butter-cream based cream cheese icing (I never said it was low fat!) in piles on the platter. He said good cake needs no icing. So I suppose I'll end on that: my first GF Victorian Sponge Cake so good it was preferred naked! Like the baby's bum it was celebrating.

Wishing For More Time

It is a sad fact that I barely find time to fuel my own body these past days with all the goodies I have been perfecting over the years and now want to share with the world. It's not so easy being Gluten-Free and having a sweet tooth and a foodies palette. But it can be done. Sometimes I even amaze myself with my creations!

Currently, I am working on a new film project, as yet untitled, directed by Nicole Holfcener, starring Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt. Oh, and Amanda Peet; I just don't understand her appeal and until she proves herself to me as an actress, this is a film starring Keener and Platt!

As the Decorator for the film, I am working hand in hand with the Production Designer,Mark White ('Transamerica', 'The Ten', Boiler Room' .....) and we are putting in some serious hours already. Quite typical when the Production gets behind, the Art Department suffers immensely and is under the gun constantly.

Last night before leaving the office, I received a call from the Caterer for the shoot. Regardless of the size of the budget of a film, food is a major priority for all the crew. A well fed crew is a happy crew and a happy crew gives their all to make a great film. But this is the first time ever that the caterer has _called me_! I always have to befriend the Caterer and the Craft Service peeps to beg for 'Kim Friendly Food' or as the rest of my fellow comrades know it, Gluten-Free. So I am about to make a list of simple ways to make my life on set happy and event free when it comes to food. Bliss! I'll still travel with industrial size bottles of Pepto and my RX for my tummy, a sublingual anti-spasmodic (just in case of accidental ingestion of some trace anount of gluten), but for someone to be concerned about my health and well-being before we even start shooting.....heaven!
I'll check in Monday after the first day in set and see how we do.
Eat well, Be well, Stay swell.
-k