Just A Quick Note

I made my first newspaper submission today! Its for the Short Orders section of the Boston Globe's food pages -- mini features about a good little item. Mine was on the new Penzey's Spice store that opened recently in Arlington. I'll let you know what happens...

Update - she wrote back. Bad news: they already did my little story. Good news: she liked the topic and my style. I'm always open for suggestions if anyone finds a cool yummy thing!

Bagel Bake Bites

So I'm happy because I had a chance to try out one of the recipes I've been collecting for the "Egg Thing" chapter. Everyone knows Egg Thing - its that casserole-y kind of dish that you put together the night before, chuck into the fridge and then bake the next day for a yummy breakfast with little early morning effort. Anyhoo, this one does not make cut. The egg part is really, really good: a little (real) bacon, eggs, milk, cheddar, fresh parsley. The part about the bagels cut into 4 slices and then soaked in this goop overnight doesn't work well at all. They were mushy, oogy and caused a very soppy mouth sensation. Not one for the book. However, I would like to try the custard part with something else to see if it works better. Another Egg Thing recipe I have features croutons which works scrumptiously. I'll have to give this a little thought to see what I can come up with. The custard would be good rolled into some sort of savory danish-eque type thing. Maybe that's the next iteration....

By the way, I promise photos soon. I gotta figure out how to transmit from my phone to the fancypants new computer and then I'll be even more multimedia.

Help, Jane! Stop this crazy thing...

Its been a such a busy couple of days lately...Thursday's foodwriting class was sorta interesting; the instructor was the actual Food Editor for the Boston Globe. I found her a touch weird and a bit impressed with herself. Once I got over that, I did catch some good tidbits from her regarding writing freelance. In fact, my head was bursting with two great ideas at 4am on Saturday and I had to get up and write, write, write. I'm very excited by both pieces, but I really need some uninterrupted zzzzzs....

On Friday we had a big snowstorm which stranded Tim on the wilds of 128 in Peabody for over 2 hours. No traffic movement whatsoever, although he kept busy trudging around and assisting the policeman in assessing the situation. When he finally got home, he snowblowed the driveway and proceeded to haul himself and a snowshovel to the train station to un-igloo my car. So nice! His afternoon made my twenty minute delay in a veritable sardine can unmentionable.

I had to work on Saturday, which after waking up at 4 isn't a whole lot of fun. Actually, even if I woke up at a normal hour it still wouldn't have been a whole lot of fun. We went to some friends for a dinner party, which was a good time and a lot of food. A lot. It was up with the birds again today to go to church and then help orchestrate the going away luncheon for our rector.

I could really use a weekend after my weekend.

8 Trees

We had 8 trees cut down yesterday. The backyard looks like a whole new place. Unfortunately the tree guy called to say he was coming after I had left for work. I would have like to have seen it all go down, but alas, it was not to be. We've only checked it out by the light of the silvery moon, and it looks pretty cool. I'm anxious for the sun to rise this morning so I can take it all in by day. We knowingly destroyed the chipmunk family's residence and I feel bad about that even though they eat a huge majority of the birdseed we offer to our feathered friends. I hope they find another cozy spot before it snows in earnest. I think the big seersucker hostas and a newly planted conglomeration of daffodils were also eradicated, but you never know. They're tough and may return with well deserved fanfare in the spring.

No breakfast/brunch cookbook cooking yesterday. I won't be home for dinner tonight - stuffing thank-you notes for the National Federation of the Blind's annual fundraising walk - but I think we'll have breakfast for dinner tomorrow night. Actually, cancel that. I have a foodwriting class at BU then so that won't happen either. I think we're looking at breakfast food for breakfast on Saturday. How novel.

Here's the link to the class - it looks pretty interesting. Who would have thought there was so much to learn about writing recipes? http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/calendar/event.php?id=2921&cid=17&oid=0

First post ever!

A cuppa tea. When has that ever been a bad idea?

And just like enjoying a cuppa tea, its time to take a moment to savor my plans for my first cookbook. I am very excited about my project and am hoping to tantalize and regale food lovers fancy and plain with some yummy ideas served up with a side of brightly flavored haiku.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I have a rather consuming day job which makes creating rather inconvenient. However, I've grown accustomed to my paycheck, and its a hard habit to kick. YOU try it.

OK, more erudite compositions to follow. Now I'm off to catch my train.