Katie Holmades

Dawson's Creek 20th Anniversary, Party Food, Side, Snack, Tapas, Vegetarian

After kicking our celebration of Dawson’s Creek’s 20th anniversary with my dear friend Joshua Jackson, aka the erstwhile Pacey Witter, I knew I had to follow-up with a date with Pacey’s endgame *spoiler alert from fifteen years ago* Katie Holmes.

While Katie and I have had our ups and downs throughout the years, her finally emancipating herself – with Suri’s help, obviously – from Tom Cruise reaffirmed our bond. Fun fact: I was one of the few people to know about her relationship with Jamie Foxx.

Don’t get it twisted though, our relationship started out extremely strong on the set of the Creek. She was just starting out and my boy Ang called me after directing her in The Ice Storm to see if I would teach her the ways of TV and mentor her career.

Another fun fact: I taught her the importance of an asymmetrical smile.

Given how busy I am, Katie and I haven’t been able to hang out as often as we’d like so she was thrilled to accept my invitation. Plus it is a new year so both of us are feeling the crappy mantras about new us-es and decided it was time to deal with any and all of our leftover Cruise-related issues.

He most definitely wasn’t an ex of mine or anything and we didn’t have any Scientological related issues, obvi. Because neither of those things would ever happen. Ever. Right?

It was an emotional catch-up, honouring her greatest work, working through our feelings and devouring a big batch of Katie Holmades.

 

 

Full disclosure, I’m not a huge fan of dolmades but Katie loves them AND these ones are good enough to win me over. Spicy and packed full of a herby, lemon punch, they are the perfect snack for working through trauma whilst celebrating milestones.

Enjoy!

 

 

Katie Holmades
Serves: 12.

Ingredients
½ cup long-grain rice, rinsed
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
½ tsp cumin
small handful oregano, roughly chopped
small handful mint, roughly chopped
small handful parsley, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 lemons, zested and juiced
100g feta, mashed
40 vine leaves
½ cup olive oil

Method
Cook the rice in boiling salted water for about ten minutes, or until almost cooked. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking and leave to drain and cool for about ten minutes.

Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and add the spices, herbs, tomatoes, garlic, lemon zest and feta in a bowl, stirring well to combine.

To assemble, place 2 heaped teaspoons of rice mixture in centre of a leaf, fold in the sides and roll to close. Place upright in a saucepan and repeat the process until all done and the dolmades are tightly packed.

Combine the lemon juice with the olive oil, pour over the dolmades and cook over low heat for an hour, or until leaves are tender. Cool to room temperature before transferring them to the fridge to chill completely overnight.

Devour cold, greedily. Preferably as part of a Abi-Maria GoMezze Plate, Nick Iadanzipasto Platter or a Charcucirie Fields Board.

 

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Adam Brodatoes

12 Days of Chrismukkah, Side, Snack

Congratulations – we’ve made it to the end of another year. With 2016 being a particularly shitty one I knew there was only one cast I wanted to celebrate the festive season and The O.C. sure delivered, making the 12 Days of Chrismukkah a bright spark of a tragic year.

I mean seriously, I had to lose my mother-figure Zsa Zsa too?!

As I mentioned at the start, scheduling this little event was fraught with danger, what with needing to keep Tate’s (sometime) diva antics at bay and keep the narrative poignant and true to the heart of The O.C.

Because if nothing else, this blog holds its relationship with the truth to be more important than anything else.

While we started with the chris- of Ryan Atwood, it is without further ado, that I’m very excited to announce that I spent the twelfth day of Chrismukkah with the more  -mukkah half of the equation, my dear friend and portrayer of the creator of Chrismukkah himself, Adam Brody.

Fuck – take a deep breath and say that sentence out loud. Terrible. Sorry I couldn’t be bothered changing it.

As you know, I’m a dear friend of the cast Gilmore Girls in addition to being a creative force on set, which is where I met dear, dear Adam. He was playing Lane’s boyfriend Dave but I knew that he would be perfect for the role of Seth, so worked hard to lure him away from ASP and over to our new show.

Which in retrospect, probably added to my feud with ASP over the abandoned missing triplet amnesia storyline.

While I was unsuccessful in luring him to my bed, I was obviously able to convince him to take the role which I would argue, played a critical part in the show becoming the phenomenon that it was. After getting him the job, I quickly became Adam’s closest confidante and have unofficially guided his career ever since.

In the Land of the Women (working with Meg)? Me.

Scream 4? Me.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith? Not me.

See the connection – my advice is good and when he doesn’t listen he stars in a terrible movie that fostered a terrible relationship. Game, set and match.

Anyway, Ad and I have both been super busy lately – what with him starring in the upcoming CHiPs movie, which I encouraged him due to my close relationship with Erik – so I haven’t been able to see him since little Arlo’s christening last year … because yes people, I’m godfather to both Seth and Summer’s daughters.

In your face.

Since Seth was a chip – pun surprisingly not intended – off the old Sandy’s block, I had to go with my carb-tastic Adam Brodatoes.

 

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There is nothing better than a baked potato. I mean, yes, mash and potato bakes are amazing but a simply baked potato, in duck fat from Mindy’s recipe no less, is life affirming. Crispy and golden on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside and cream all through your shorts.

Enjoy!

 

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Adam Brodatoes
Serves: 4.

Ingredients
1kg washed potatoes, cut into large chunks
¼ cup duck fat, reserved from the Roast Melinda Duck / Portumn Reeser Gravy

Method
Place the potatoes in a pan of cold, salted water and parboil for 5-10 minutes. Drain and shake to rough up the edges.

The more edges, the crispier the potatoes.

Transfer the potatoes to a fresh baking tray, toss generously with some searing hot duck fat, season generously and bake for an hour.

Remove from the oven and devour as quickly as the heat will allow.

 

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