Home Girl Blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm going to enjoy the next few days napping as much as possible and doing everything else in between meals and trips to the bathroom. 

Thanks so much for reading Home Girl Blog in 2013! 

See y'all in 2014! 

Reel Inspired Meals: Different Oatmeal a la The Women of Brewster Place

The Film (based on book by Gloria Naylor)

The Women of Brewster Place (1989)- A TV mini-series (back when network TV had those) starring Oprah and a bunch of other people. It's about an ensemble of strong-willed female characters who live in an east coast project housing development and ride the ups and mostly downs of life in the projects. 

The Scene

The Women of Brewster Place is one of those films from the 80's (like The Color Purple) with many memorable quotes and scenes. I haven't watched it recently but, like The Color Purple, it makes frequent appearances in my brain world. 

The Inspiration

The conversation about beige bras and oatmeal between lesbian lovers, Lorraine (played by Lonette McKee who looks like Lena Horne 2.0 if you ask me) & Theresa aka "Tee" (played by Paula Kelly). 

Lorraine is trippin' because she's closeted and in denial about being "different". She tries to illustrate this in a monologue about how she wakes up every day, puts on a beige bra and oatmeal same as the day before she first kissed a girl and the day after. Tee points out that the fact that Lorraine didn't go to school the next day gushing about it in the girls lockeroom shows how different she indeed is, inspite of her life-constants, beige bras and oatmeal. 

 I found  a youtube clip! The link is cued, but just in case, it starts around 4:58. Watch it here. 

Also, I should note, oatmeal shows up in another scene where Tee spots the nosey old neighbor lady spying on her through the window as she makes meat loaf. During her angry screaming rant through the window she says something like, "Wanna see something really freaky? I put oatmeal in my meatloaf!" Because we're strange and awesome, me and my brother quoted that line all the time after we saw it. We still do at random moments. Also, that was the first time I found out there was even oatmeal in meatloaf. Clearly it made an impression because the one or two times I've ever made it in my life, I look for the recipe with oats in it rather than breadcrumbs. So yeah, The Women of Brewster Place and oatmeal are kind of married in my brain so it naturally inspired this recipe. 

The Eats

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashioned oats (If you prefer steele cut oats, fine, but it will need to boil longer)
3-4 cremini mushrooms chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 of a red onion diced
3/4 cup water
salt and pepper to taste 

Directions:
In a pot over medium heat, sauté the red onions in olive oil until they start to carmelize a bit then add mushrooms. Salt and pepper them as desired.

Once the vegetables are soft, add the water and increase heat to bring it to a boil. This will create a kind of broth. Add the oats to the boiling water and cook according to directions. 

While that cooks, you can slice and sauté red onions and mushrooms to top the finished dish like this...

When the oatmeal is done, bowl it up and top with shaved cheese, or additional stir-fried vegetables like I did. Add a side of kale or even eggs and you got yourself a pretty healthy, savory meal. 

Oatmeal with red onions and mushrooms. That's Different!

Reel Inspired Meals: Spaghetti Carbonara Inspired by Heartburn

The Film (based on book by Nora Ephron)

Heartburn (1986) starring Meryle Streep (Rachel) and Jack Nicholson (Mark). Two divorcees meet, fall in love, get married, have babies and hit the rocks because Mark couldn't keep it in his pantalones.

The Scene

I was home alone and took advantage of having the TV to myself. Netflix suggested Heartburn because I LIVE for romantic dramadies and I couldn't resist watching young Jack Nicholson (hot much?) and Meryle Streep. I love 80's movies because the fashion feels like home and they make me feel nostalgic for things like phones with coily cords, 80's love songs and shoulder pads. So I clicked play.

The Inspiration

During post-coital TV watching after their first night together, Rachel leaves Mark in bed to go into the kitchen for a snack. She returns with a huge serving bowl of spaghetti carbonara with two forks and two spoons for properly spinning the perfect pasta bite. She can't believe she cooked for him after their first romp, with a full mouth he raves about how he has never had a better spaghetti carbonara, I google to see what's in carbonara and the rest is the Homegirl Blog history.  

The Eats

After browsing through a few recipes online to get a great feel for how to make spaghetti carbonara, I headed to my neighborhood grocery store to gather my favorite of all the ingredients from the recipes I had read. 

Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti
4 oz panchetta (Italian cured pork belly, but some recipes call for slab bacon)
2 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
4 cloves of garlic
1 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano
parsley and pepper to finish

I bought pre-chopped pancetta and pre-chopped garlic in a jar because why not. 

Directions:
In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil and cook spaghetti according to directions. While the spaghetti cooks, mix the eggs and cheese in a bowl and set aside. Then, in a deep frying pan or shallow pot, sautee the pancetta in olive oil until crispy. Add garlic.

When the pasta is done, drain it but don't rinse it. Save about  half cup of the pasta water in case your sauce needs more liquid. Remove the pan with the other ingredients in it from the heat and add the spaghetti and mix. Last, pour the mixture over spaghetti and panchetta mixture.

The hot pasta will cook the egg and melt the cheese creating a creamy coating on the pasta. Add parsley and pepper to taste.

Mangia!