kitchenmage

BSP: The Pioneer Woman said, "Bravo!"

Ask anyone who knows me if I am good at PR and they will tell you yes. They won't be wrong, but there is one huge exception: me. I am an abject failure when it comes to promoting myself. Writing a book is one thing, but the author bio can leave me stumped right til the day the book goes to print.I hate it so much that I don't even have an About page. (bad blogger!)

I am trying to change that. Starting now. One step at a time:

1. Pioneer Woman read my cookbook: Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids
2. She said very nice.things.
3. I asked if I could quote her. (Okay, this was a bit more traumatic than that, but we'll pretend...)
4.  She said yes. (Eek!)
5. I squealed. Luckily I was in the privacy of my kitchen,
6. This post happened: The Pioneer Woman Reads! (my cookbook)

Phew! That was only a wee bit painful. Do I get a gold star now?

Sheila Lukins, so long and thanks for all the inspiration!

From the archives, in memory of Sheila Lukins who died of brain cancer a few days ago. Lukins, co-author of Silver Palate cookbooks was one of the earlier influences on my cooking as an adult. Fortunately, I had a chance to thank her personally (in email) a couple of years ago.

As an unapologetically enthusiastic cook, I own a lot of cookbooks. A quick survey from where I sit reveals four bookshelves-one with easily 125 books-and six piles of books in varying states of precariousness. Books with recipes make up the bulk of these, but McGee, Nestle, Pollan, Schlosser, Parsons and others contribute a couple dozen reference books to the clutter in my office. It should be noted that I can only see the dining room and my office.

Out of sight, the guest room has a bookcase of food essayists, designed to be read in small bits: Reichl, Steingarten, Bourdain, the annual Best Food Writing series. Two more boxes, utterly untouched, sit where they were shoved under the entryway bench a few months ago "until we build more bookshelves," an event I expect to happen real soon now. Like next year.

the cookbook whisperer

As an unapologetically enthusiastic cook, I own a lot of cookbooks. A quick survey from where I sit reveals four bookshelves-one with easily 125 books-and six piles of books in varying states of precariousness. Books with recipes make up the bulk of these, but McGee, Nestle, Pollan, Schlosser, Parsons and others contribute a couple dozen reference books to the clutter in my office. It should be noted that I can only see the dining room and my office.

Out of sight, the guest room has a bookcase of food essayists, designed to be read in small bits: Reichl, Steingarten, Bourdain, the annual Best Food Writing series. Two more boxes, utterly untouched, sit where they were shoved under the entryway bench a few months ago "until we build more bookshelves," an event I expect to happen real soon now. Like next year.

Fall into Cooking with free recipes from new cookbooks

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Amazon has had a wee bit of a tweak here and there - mostly flyout menus that behave more like you might expect software to act - but there are also some new featured sections. My personal favorite is, of course, food related: Fall into Cooking

At first, it looks like a lot of shiny new cookbooks, and it is, but scroll down a screen, past those cookbook titles, however tempting they may be, for just a moment. (I promise, you can go back later.) On the left sidebar, see where it says...

Cookbook for a cause

While I am currently off in writing land and this site languishes (which might seem more appropriate in August when it's hot and humid and thus languishy), I'd like to take a moment and point out a project in which I had a wee smidge of involvement.

And They Cook, Too is a cookbook comprised of recipes donated by all sorts of bloggers, some of whom you might know, many of whom you probably haven't heard of yet. Spearheaded by Ginger Mayerson and Kathy Flake, all proceeds from this book will go to Doctors Without Borders, an admirable organization whose members travel the world providing medical assistance in that superhero style of running into the places most sane people are running away from.

There's a list of contributors here if you want to tease yourself, and find some interesting new blogs in the process. But really, it's only 15 bucks, so give up your take-out espresso for a week and give a little for the cause.

My contribution? Well, it's a stream of consciousness semi-recipe and might even make you laugh...at my pain. But that's what writer's have pain for: to make others laugh at it.

Cookbook for Doctors Without Borders

Kathy at What Do I Know? and Ginger of The Hackenblog are creating a book to benefit Doctors Without Borders, which is a most worthy organization. They are looking for recipes, short essays, some artwork, poetry, and so on. (note to writers: I even read the legal stuff and it's fine, you retain copyright, etc) I've offered my Fish Tail Soup recipe as a sort of cross between humor and cooking. Check out the idea and see if you've got something to contribute to this great project.

Books, bread, and buckets of rain.

Don't you just love "odds and ends" posts? If not, why are you here? (Uh, nevermind, don't want to drive away all three of my fans!) I've got a number of accumulated things to write about; today's random accumulation is brought to you by the letter B.

Let's start with a bit of trivial cuteness. River staring balefully at the buckets of rain. More on that later.

Books
On my list of life's small pleasures, there's not much better than a new cookbook. Even better is free cookbooks. Today, I've got a slim new volume titled Very Pesto, which I won over at Cooking With Amy—see, all that trivial herbish information does come in handy! Although I've yet to make a recipe from it, I am having fun deciding where to start. One thing I really like about the book is that it has recipes that can be made in most seasons. (Meaning it's not all basil, which I love, but Nov. is not the time for it.) There's fennel pesto, which sounds like it would be amazing on salmon; thyme and/or oregano pestos; and a sage pesto that I am thinking about for a condiment at Thanksgiving. So much fun and I haven't even started cooking yet. Thanks Amy!

Cookbook Meme

Wow, I've had this blog a month and haven't been memed yet. So when I came across  Spiceblog's cookbook meme, and already had the pictures on my camera, it seemed like a natural. Without further ado, here's shelf #1.