kitchenmage

What 'Brown' did for me today

UPS just dropped off a copy of the book!

Under normal circumstances (in which I had two functional arms) I'd gush and carry on a bit more, so maybe my misfortune is good for the rest of you. Just imagine me dancing about with a book in my hand (for added color, add a bright purple cast) babbling inanely...

The book looks marvelous, and I love that it is full-color on every page! It makes the step-by-step images clear and truly useful. In the day of online food sites, it is sweet (and truly rare) to get 400 photos into a cookbook, particularly for 20 bucks! ($13.59 if you order now)

If you click through to the Amazon page. there's a video with the world's cutest costar and you can 'search inside' the book for a hint of what's inside.

Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids

In other news, someoneElse ordered a bluetooth headset and the latest version of  Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I should be back to writing by next week...starting with how I broke the arm. But I am warning you, it involves a grassy knoll and three lateral breaks; If I tell you, I have to kil...oops! was that the outLoud voice?

ouch! posts will be thin...

...for a bit.

Lamp-lit Dinner on Grays River Covered Bridge

The Willapa Hills have a bit of a magical out of time quality to them. My friend, Kathleen, laughs at me when I invoke Brigadoon, but there is a certain…something. One example of this is Grays River, smaller even than evenTinierTown, and just a few miles west of here.

Its major claim to fame is the Grays River Covered Bridge, the last bridge of its kind in Washington that is still in use. Built over 100 years ago to let farmers on the south side of the river to get their products to the steamboats on the opposite shore, the bridge is a visible reminder of the times when this county was accessible only by boat.

Suitable for a starring role in the Bridges of Madison County, the Grays River bridge was rehabilitated in the 1980s - essentially rebuilt and refaced with original and additional local timber - and now looks much like it did when it was first built.  Wood walls, wood floor and a tin roof of the type that was installed to help protect the original bridge from the inevitable decay that is the fate of wood in the fog valleys.

My friend, Robert Michael Pyle (an award-winning author acclaimed as one of America's leading nature writers), who lives in an old Victorian farmhouse (built by H. P. Ahlberg, who drove the original bridge project to completion) perched above the bridge has said "The bridge symbolizes Wahkiakum County... it joins people together and links the present to the past."

The bridge will be dressed up and on display this Saturday when for one night, Washington State's last covered bridge will be closed to vehicles and open for dinner.