Facing Down Rejection

because I spent so much time entering my work this year in the form of poetry, short stories, article queries I got a lot more REJECTIONS and although it hurts (this week I got 4), it also means I'm participating in the process and not just sitting on the sidelines. So thanks to my critique group and my writing buddies for putting on the pressure to make my goals. I think next year at the same time I will say I received a lot more ACCEPTANCES! Have a Happy New Year!

Collage Exchange

O.k. I'm probably not ready to participate in this art exchange but it sure is fun to dream. The Collage Museum has a Baker's Dozen Art Exchange with a deadline of March 21, 2007.Click on the link for International Collage Exchanges from the home page.

another creativity site worth exploring

Another writing website that explores creativity and writing that I found on Writer's Digest website. Tera Leigh has found her calling.

Altered Art and Writing

After doing my Artella art piece I was very inspired to continue exploring the altered art medium, I hope to find an online class or one locally that will give me the basics to explore the medium. I just found another website that combines writing and art. This looks like another site that will take up many hours of exploration.Soul Food Cafe.

Baked Brie and a New Year's Eve Menu

After working at a catering company for more than 10 years, I swore I would never serve a baked brie for a dinner party...but tomorrow being New Year's Eve...and not really having a menu pulled together I heard myself saying "how about a baked Brie?" for an appetizer. Although you can buy them premade they really are much better made yourself. all you need is puff pastry, egg wash,something pretty to put on top of the brie i.e. caramelized nuts or apples or pears or even my favorite a cranberry-pear chutney. Top the brie with something encase it in puff pastry, use a paring knife or small cookie cutters to cut out a decoration on the top; showcasing your nuts,pears, apples or chutney, brush with egg yolk beaten with a tiny bit of cream and bake in a HOT oven until puff is brown and cheese is oozy. Let cool slightly and serve with baguette and grapes... I never met a guest who didn't like the soft cheese with the rich puff pastry. You can also get really artistic with the top of the brie making tiny apples of puff pastry with whole cloves for stems or tiny bunches of puff pastry grapes. Stay tuned for the New Year's Eve menu.

16 Sparrows

When I saw this companies tagline, I knew they would have products I love. "Where sarcasm is folded in half". I was raised to embrace sarcasm.
Warning some cards are PG 13 rated.But I'm still laughing at their simple graphics and their honest messages.

Mon keys

This Christmas my sister got a festive sack of monkeys. Sock monkey, plastic hopping monkey, and a bouncing half-ball, half- monkey. Had I seen these they probably would have been her favorite Christmas gift.

Blizzard is Here

A couple of pictures of the garden in the middle of the December 28th Blizzard in Colorado Springs.

Cookbook Critic's New Recipes

Thanks to Jene, for sending me this link. Maybe she sent it to inspire me and it did.
An article on NPR by cookbook critic T. Susan Chang also has some great recipes.

I love hearing that people who get paid to write and critique cookbooks can fall into the pattern of the same old dinners too.

Getting Organized

I love New Year's Day. A new year always means another chance to get it right. I'm always positive the new year will be better than the last. I've been spending about 1 hour a day trying to get my office more organized. Great office supplies help. My sister's present of these amazing Cavallini & Co. file folders inspires me to get my filing under control. But then again I am an office supply junkie. I covet office supplies like most women covet shoes.

Another Blizzard in Colorado?

I know I used to enjoy the snow a lot more when my business didn't depend on good weather. Missing out on walk by traffic is not favorable for a restaurant or for most retail stores.I was hopeful when the weather report said snow would start at 6 p.m. Unfortunately it started earlier, much earlier and we will probably end up closing early. Hopefully no one will get caught unaware as many did last week.

Poetry Geeks Stop Here

If you have never been to New England in the fall, it should be on your list of places to visit. Well, that's if you love everything about autumn like I do. Pumpkins, mums, maple syrup at Vermont pancake houses, apple cider, painted leaves, rolling multi-colored hills, antique shops with REAL ANTIQUES not stuff from the 50's. On my trip this year to Massachusetts for my sister's wedding we stopped off in Amherst at the Emily Dickinson Museum. We chose the "This Was A Poet" tour. The highlight for me was getting to read her poems outloud at the end of the tour. Which just happened to be under the only tree on the property that survived since the Dickinson family lived there. Quite an experience for a poetry geek like myself.

Other fun gifts

I love buying and receiving gifts from Perpetual Kid. I just saw the ABC Cookie Cutters that would have been perfect for my sister who is a baking fanatic. These cutters include a "bite" out of each one. I wonder how many people would take one of your decorated Holiday cookies if there was a bite taken out of each one.

Great gift for a writer-any day

Two of my favorite Christmas gifts were writing journals from PaperBlanks. I received a small pocketsize one and a larger journal size. They both have magnetic clasps, momento pockets and are beautiful to look at. Paperblanks also carry sketchbooks, address books, dayplanners and other beautiful but quite useful gifts.

Making Dinner

For as long as I can remember and continuing today my mother has made dinner every night, 7 nights a week. We rarely if ever ate out, the exception being vacations. Being a chef I rarely if ever make planned dinners. After 20+ years of cooking for others I have fallen into some unhealthy and boring meals. Starting January 1, 2007 my personal challenge begins. Here's why I think I need to start making dinner.
1. It's healthier
2. It tastes better
3. I will save money
4. Planning before will save me time, anxiety, stress
5. I have a feeling taking the time to slow down and plan will help me in other areas of my life that need planning, commitment and follow through.
6. As a beginning food writer I need to love food again. As a chef I know the technical stuff, I need to bring back my passion for food.

I plan on designing the menu for the week on Sunday and prepare 5 meals a week. Because my husband is a chef he still enjoys cooking so Sunday is on him and Saturday is my free day. Giving serious thought to this scares me, it is a real challenge. I know most people do this without thinking or actually enjoy making food every night for their family. I want to enjoy this too. I hope to use part of my cookbook collection to find foods I used to love making and use this blog for recommending recipes, foods, easy, good for you dinners and maybe new food products. I will not rely heavily on convenience foods but try to keep dinners as simple as possible. Wish me luck!

Planning a Cook's Garden

As soon as summer ends the gardening catalogues start arriving in the mail by the bushel basket, I try not to get carried away and only order seeds and plants I know will flourish in our Colorado climate. But I always order seeds from Cook's Garden. I have never been disappointed by their seeds and because they are also cooks they have great varieties of culinary herbs, flowers and vegetables. They also have recipes on the website. My part of the garden is herbs and flowers; after 7 years it is still fascinating to see it come back every spring and summer.

Mystery Muse

This year I discovered Artella Words and Art and it has become one of my all time favorite websites for creativity. I participated in their Mystery Muse program where you make an art piece for another participating artist and you receive one in return. My gift from a fantastic artist in North Carolina is one of the best gifts I ever received. Kind of like a Secret Santa program in grammar school but without the Life Saver Sweet Storybook.

Food Websites

Epicurious is still the first website I go to when I am researching recipes, ingredients, food trivia etc. I love their online food dictionary when I find a "new" ingredient in a recipe.

Food Writing

I took this online class this year and I highly recommend it. Food Writing

If you are wondering if you could be a food writer or have thought about becoming a food critic or just want to have fun with food words this is a good place to start.

Plus there is a money back guarantee if you decide before the second lesson it won't work for you.

Writing Goals and Gratitude

Author and editor William Arthur Ward writes, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” How many times in 2006 have you thought that you should write a real, handwritten, thank-you note instead of sending another quick email? Have you thanked your writing mentors, your critique group, and your family for their words of encouragement when you felt like giving up? If published, did you remember to thank your editor, your agent, your fans?

Recent studies by Dr. Michael McCollough and Dr. Robert Emmons have found that people who are grateful have “higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy.” All of these qualities are much admired in a writer, beginning or published. If that’s all it takes, for 2007, my first goal is to express more gratitude.

Vintage Cookbooks

I love to read vintage cookbooks and they can be found at almost every garage sale, tag sale and thrift store. Putting together a menu from any of them is sure to make for an interesting dinner party. A good website to check out for some very unique books is appropriately named Old Cookbooks . I like using older, bad condition ones for collaging recipe books, recipe boxes and files. Another good source on the Internet is Vintage Cookbooks.

Last Minute Place for Gift Certificates

I found many of my Christmas presents in this catalogue Uncommon Goods this year. Interesting, fun items that I don't see many other places. Good stocking stuffers too!

Found Stuff

I thought this website Found Magazine would be a good place for story starters.
They post a different object, piece of ephemera, letter, photo, shopping list every day that people find in their daily travels...there is even a place where people could write in if the found object is their's.

Procrastination?

How did 20 days go by since my last blog? 36 entries is one of my writing goals for this year and when I made the goal I thought it would be 3 simple entries a month. But this will be the mad dash of blogging until 12/31/06 is over!
Yes, there were many days where I didn't touch the computer, other than to check my email, writers must write...hopefully 2007 will be more together and less frantic towards the end of the year, I can only hope!

Finding Focus

If I looked over the past year, I'd definately say I had a strong beginning, a waning middle and a strong end. Because of my critique group and Lauri and Jene I've made much more progress on my writing life this year. But there is still a lot of work to do. I'm happy to say I finished an online food writing class that inspired me to concentrate more on my food writing than ever before. Next year, Countess Arugula is going to challenge me to "fall in love" with food again. After 20+ years as a chef, 2 restaurants and countless dinners, I have lost my love of cooking and like any relationship you have to work on it. My challenge is to make dinner 5 nights a week and blog on my feelings, menu's and food finds...right now my frequent dinners are rotisserie chickens, Chinese food and pizza, either homemade or bought I know the relationship is worth saving because when pressed I can still feel the old spark there...

43 Things

I've always been a list person. Books to read, movies to watch, daily "to do's" so when I found this website 43 Things, I started my list. It's interesting to read other people's things, places to travel or people they want to meet.

Making my writing goals

As usual, it is down to the wire again this year when it comes to completing my goals. But deadlines do make me a lot more productive and when there's money at stake even more so...putting out more queries means more rejections which even the toughest writer would admit can sting... but if I'm going to do this I have to be open for rejection. I just spent 30 minutes on an email query this morning and was rejected within 5 minutes. OUCH!!

himonkey.net

This is a great website if you're feeling down or need to find something fun to cook. Hi! Monkey! makes me happy and I'm very impressed with the recipes and films.

Power of Language

I found this book, One Thousand Beautiful Things at a library sale, its cover torn but intact, its pages clean but brittle. Published in 1947, it is a compilation of prose and poetry from the world’s best literature. Two years after WWII ended, I imagine it was a popular book in many American families bookcases. Patriotism, as it is today, is a familiar subject throughout the 400 pages.

More than one hundred years after Longfellow wrote the passage Indian Summer I read the words and I am there. That is the power of language. Great language makes the sense of place leap from the pages and I am lost in the chapters. A good short story like a good poem is hard to forget.

Short stories are my favorite genre. Authors including Raymond Chandler, Lorrie Moore, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Munro, and Dorothy Parker have inspired me to write in the genre. When I am done reading a good short, I am left with a simplicity and thoroughness that many full-length novels seem to miss. Classic shorts such as Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Guy de Maupassant The Necklace seem timeless in their choice of theme.

To study the genre I recommend classic short stories like Ernest Hemingway’s In Another Country or Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People. Many of the classics can be found online. Poe, Joyce, Hawthorne, Twain and many other early writers all wrote in the short story genre to develop characters, hone their writing, and enchant their fans. They also had a market that supported their craft.

For modern shorts, I like The Best American Short Stories collections that is published every year by Houghton Mifflin Company. These stories are nominated to be in the collection. They are chosen from award winning literary magazines and popular magazines such as The New Yorker, Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly.

Does your writing have all the elements of a good short story? Conflict, plot, language, insight, character, theme and setting are necessary elements. Will your readers get lost in the pages? Are your characters original and thought out?

I’m putting One Thousand Beautiful Things on my writing reference shelf next to my Writer’s Market, my thesaurus, and my dictionary. I hope that it will inspire me to write short stories that will transport my readers to another place.

Lazy Writer

I'm procrastinating again about writing so I thought I'd at least do my blog writing so all is not lost...the best comment I ever received about my writing was that I'm a good writer just lazy, that comment was from a very talented poet...my uncle, whom I admire and respect very much.
Sometimes the truth hits you hard between the eyes and it changes the way you look at things. So today is another day to work at it, another step closer to success, another step closer to accomplishing goals.

TUSCAN FOOD

Tuscan food is of the earth. The food is meant to be an accompaniment to the classic wines of Tuscany. Unlike most of Italy where meat is used for flavoring, the Tuscan diet is heavy with wild game, cured meats, homemade sausages, including ones made with wild boar, and the most famous of Tuscan meats Bistecca alla Fiorenta, or steak Florentine. This is traditionally a three inch Porterhouse, marinated simply in olive oil and garlic, grilled over hot coals, until medium rare and served over a bed of arugula or grilled vegetables.

Another Tuscan favorite is porchetta or roast stuffed suckling pig. This is available in most village butcher shops one day of the week. Find out what day and don’t miss it. Tender suckling pig is flavored with aromatic spices such as rosemary, thyme, sage and pepper and roasted leaving a crisp, crackling crust surrounding the succulent meat. Add a crusty loaf of traditional pane toscano and a wedge of Pecorino Toscana, made with sheep’s milk and you will understand the Tuscan love of simple delicious foods.

Pappardelle, a flat homemade noodle is often served with a rich sauce such as hare, wild boar or duck sauce and will be found on most menus in the Tuscan region. Another restaurant favorite is fritto misto lightly fried foods such as chicken, rabbit, artichokes, cauliflower and mushrooms.

Vegetarians can also find rich, hearty food in the region. The classic bean soup, ribollita, literally meaning re boiled is a flavorful vegetable soup thickened with day old bread. Bruschetta is also a way for a restaurant to showcase their local fresh ingredients. Thick bread is grilled, rubbed with fresh garlic and topped with items such as sautéed wild mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and basil, or cheese.

The desserts of Tuscany use the best of the region in simple ways. Most of them use simple ingredients such as figs, raisins, ricotta cheese and sweet wines such as Marsala. Paneforte di Siena is probably the most famous of all Tuscan desserts; this flat sweet confection dates back to the Middle Ages.

If you really want to experience Tuscany through its food, try a cooking class, such as the one offered by five ladies at www.tutti-a-tavola.com. This is a unique experience in the heart of the Tuscan region, in the town of Radda in Chianti. Olive oil tasting, wine tasting and market visits enhance the classes.

Book Recommendation

This is one of those simple, straightforward books that makes all of your excuses seem really lame. If you are struggling with writer's block or just want to know what worked for another fellow writer, read this!!

Crested Butte, Colorado

One of our favorite places to go in the summer. We rent a cabin by the river with no telephones, computers, or television. We cook amazing meals on the grill, venture out to town, take white water rafting trips, write, and relax.

Paris in the Spring....I mean Autumn Time

I vow to go back to Paris one day, just not in November. Although it was beautiful, it was so cold that we spent a lot of our time walking very fast to keep warm. Just another excuse to sit in a cafe, people watch...and drink chocolat fraud (hot chocolate) there's a good reason why its "I love Paris in the Springtime"

The food was of course, incredible... some noteworthy foods..

All the food in the Jewish quarter. Falafels, gyros, fresh salads, kabobs, pastries. Inexpensive, delicious and filling.




almond croissants...these are hard to find in the afternoon...so get up early to find them at the local patisserie

coquilles, (scallops) bought in the shell at the market

the best I ever had in my life and I've eaten lots of scallops having grown up in New England We brought them back to the apartment and prepared them very simply, in brown butter, shallots, and table cream

Lost in Cyberspace

I'm back after losing my blog for months, although I guess it wasn't really lost I just couldn't find it. Thanks Lauri for helping me out.