Orson Welles Drank What???

One night while watching Julie & Julia, we hit upon the idea of combining our love of movies and food by cooking and eating our way through the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies. And what better place to showcase this epicurean quest than right here on Scroungy Pizza!

We begin our journey with the classic, Citizen Kane. As many of you know, this film chronicles the life of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane and stars the brilliantly talented Orson Welles. Welles also wore the hats of director and co-screenwriter. Despite the popular belief that the title character is based on William Randolph Hearst, Welles has been noted as saying that the Kane is actually a composite of characters from that era. Regardless of the truth, Hearst was infuriated by the film.

While discussing this project with Jaime's mom, she suggested researching Orson Welles favorite libation. It only took a short internet search to discover his drink of choice was Negroni: equal parts Gin, Vermouth and Bitters. In the spirit of Scroungy Pizza, we completely lacked any super girl tools for mixing cocktails. Armed with plastic measuring cups, a make shift martini shaker (read: 2 glasses) and mad improv skills, we set off to make the NASTIEST alcoholic concoction on the face of the earth. Jaime could only drink half a sip due to the horrid stench of the gin. Brave Courtney made it through a couple more but then promptly poured it down the drain, praying it would not eat through the pipes.

We'd be lying if we didn't tell you that it took a bit of time for us to become invested in the story. However, we were especially nabbed by Ruth Warrick who played Kane's first wife, Emily Monroe Kane. Of course Welles was his usually amazing self. *SPOILER ALERT* The end of the movie left us both jumping off the couch to try to save precious Rosebud from the furnace. Why the name "Rosebud" you might ask? Well we discovered an interesting bit of trivia... Screen writer Herman J. Mankiewicz insisted that the name was taken from a bicycle he had as a child. However, Rosebud was also Hearst's name for the clitoris of his longtime mistress Marion Davies. Too bad Kane isn't based on Hearst, right?

Although we both understand and appreciate all forms of art in general, we have a sincere acceptance for the nuance that is classic Hollywood. In fact, we were amazed that neither one of us had seen this movie before. The film itself truly does have it's place in cinematic history.

Next up, Casablanca and Blanquette de Veau...but pay attention because there's sure to be a Scroungy Pizza twist! We may even have a special guest...

In the Beginning....

While we were planning a weekend road trip to Venice Beach, we were both hungry but neither one of us had the money or desire to leave the house to grab dinner. So between Jaime's pantry and Courtney's refrigerator we discovered that we had enough stuff to throw together a make-shift pizza. Our first concoction was a yeast-free pizza dough topped with Jaime's home-made tomato sauce (on half) and store bought pesto sauce (on other half), then some rough chopped onion, pine nuts and shredded cheese. We were instantly hooked, Scroungy Pizza was born...and it was goooooood!

Yeast-free pizza dough:

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup water

1 Tbsp cooking oil

Mix ingredients and roll or hand press onto lightly greased pan. Add toppings, bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes.