Brunette Ambition (27 page)

1 egg

¼ cup jarred roasted red peppers, drained and sliced

1 slice Manchego or your favorite cheese

1.
Drizzle the olive oil in a heavy skillet and set it over medium heat.

2.
Take the piece of bread and scoop out an indent in the center with a spoon (it shouldn’t go all the way through).

3.
Sprinkle the bread with sea salt and grill it in the pan on both sides.

4.
Crack an egg into the indent, cover the pan, and cook for about 2 minutes (you don’t want the egg to be fully cooked before you flip it).

5.
Using a spatula, flip the bread and egg together, and let it cook for 1 minute more.

6.
Flip it again and put some roasted red peppers and a slice of your favorite cheese (I really like Manchego) on top, cover, and cook until the cheese melts, about 1 minute.

NOTE: If you don’t want to make this in a pan, invest in a panini press. It’s one of the best tools in my kitchen, because you can make gourmet, professional-looking sandwiches in less than five minutes. If you make your egg in a hole this way, you’ll need a second piece of bread to top it.

Vegan Jalapeño Grilled Cheese Sandwich

This is sneakily healthy! You can use regular cheese, obviously, but I’ve found that most people don’t know the difference!

2 slices Ezekiel bread

2 teaspoons vegan margarine (or regular margarine)

2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese (or regular cream cheese)

3 slices vegan pepper Jack cheese (or regular cheese)

1 or 2 teaspoons jalapeño, seeded and minced (see Note)

1.
Place a frying pan or heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

2.
Spread the margarine on one side of each slice of bread.

3.
On the opposite sides, add a thin layer of cream cheese.

4.
Place one slice of bread, cream cheese side up, in the pan, and top with the pepper Jack cheese. Grill, open side up.

5.
Once the cheese has melted, add the jalapeño.

6.
Top with the second slice of bread, cream cheese side down, and flip the sandwich. Keep grilling, flipping until the sandwich is nice and brown.

NOTE: If you like a lot of spice, you can cut the jalapeño into very thin rounds. Be careful not to burn your mouth.… Never touch your eyes immediately after handling a hot pepper, and always wash your hands immediately after touching one!

Mediterannean Nachos

One of the wonderful things about a concept like nachos is that it pretty much works with any sort of toppings that you want. I like this version with blue corn chips and hummus. You will need to modify the ingredients for the amount of nachos you want to make (it’s easy to make enough to feed a big crowd).

Blue corn chips

Hummus

Onion, chopped

Red bell pepper, chopped

Yellow bell pepper, chopped

Black olives, chopped

Pepper Jack cheese, grated

Feta cheese, crumbled

Tapatío Hot Sauce (optional)

1.
Preheat the oven to 400˚F.

2.
Place the chips on a baking sheet.

3.
Add dollops of hummus (this doesn’t need to be precise or perfect).

4.
Sprinkle onion, peppers, and black olives across the top (you can sauté these first, if you like, though I like them crunchy).

5.
Cover the top with pepper Jack cheese.

6.
Bake until the cheese melts, about 3 minutes.

7.
Sprinkle the crumbled feta on top. Add a few dashes of Tapatío Hot Sauce, if you like things spicy.

WHY COOKING FOR FRIENDS IS THE BEST

If you haven’t noticed, cooking is very important to me—it’s one of the biggest ways that I display love for people. My favorite thing to do is to open my home to friends and show them how much I care through home-cooked meals. While it’s always nice to text and call and reach out to make sure that all of your friends are doing well, it’s always important to make an extra effort—making everyone dinner is so much more special than hitting a local restaurant. It takes time and energy, but it’s so worth it.

My girlfriends and me on my twenty-sixth birthday.

The Spotlight

1.
In times of need, your relationships really get tested. Whether it’s something as intense as loss or just needing someone to talk to in the middle of the night, it’s those times when you see who is really there for you.

2.
You don’t need to have a night out on the town to have a fun night with friends. I find that I have way better relationships with friends who are happy to just relax at home.

3.
Good friends are hard to find. Take your time developing those relationships. It’s more important to have a few good friends than a thousand minor acquaintances. Work on your friendships in the same way you’d tackle anything of importance in your life. And be judicious about the special people you let into your circle.

4.
You don’t need to impress your friends. You should always feel like you can be yourself, without judgment.

5.
Your best friend network is your family. Take care of your relationships with your relatives the same way that you care for your closest girlfriends.

Ten Movies to Watch with the Girls

Funny Girl

(Because it’s about Fanny Brice’s struggle between her passion for the stage and passion for a man she loves.)

500 Days of Summer

Katy Perry: Part of Me

(Although it’s a movie about her music career, it really does show the arc of her relationship, which is something I found to be very relatable and personal. My friends and I
love
watching this movie together. I’ve watched it about seven times.)

Can’t Hardly Wait

The Princess Bride

(Duh. Obsessed.)

Clueless

Heathers

Marie Antoinette

Jawbreaker

Overboard

MY TOP TEN MOVIE SNACKS

1. Popcorn with truffle salt

2. Grapes

3. Chocolate-covered goji berries

4. Pop chips

5. Seaweed paper

6. Yogurt-covered strawberries

7. Vegan chocolate coconut ice cream

8. Gummy bears

9. Chocolate-covered blueberries

10. Teriyaki-spiced nuts

CH 10

MY LIFE WITH
GLEE

“To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people’s views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it’s also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do—bad or good.”

—BARBRA STREISAND

I
grew up on the Broadway stage, and because of this, Broadway always felt like home—I knew I could probably always find a place there. And while that really was good enough for me, I was always curious about TV and movies and continued to audition for other things. Despite my best efforts over the years, and even though I was climbing the proverbial ladder on Broadway, I never managed to book anything big. This wasn’t upsetting so much as discouraging: Casting directors frequently told me that I wasn’t pretty enough for TV, that I was too ethnic to ever be mainstream. One manager told me that as soon as I got my period and was, accordingly, old enough for plastic surgery, I should get my nose done immediately. After hearing these sorts of suggestions from decision makers enough times, I started to believe them. And since I wasn’t going to get plastic surgery or change the way I looked, I figured I’d stick to a life on the stage, where I had always been accepted. I did a little spot on
Third Watch
, and I did a few small parts on soap operas when I was younger, but other than that, it was the theater for me.

But just as those managers were wrong to tell me that I’d never make it outside of Broadway, I was just as wrong to believe them, since the fact that I don’t look like everyone else is exactly what’s opened the most doors for me. The industry has changed a lot since then—there’s a lot more diversity in terms of who gets to be a leading lady—and I think that shows like
Glee
really put that trend in motion.