Barefoot Contessa & Book Signings

Ina Garten had a book signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore two doors from Mrs. A's Cupcakes&Cookies. I have always admired her and have watched many segments of her TV show on FoodNetwork. Very gracious and always cheerful, her new kitchen/entertainment barn is drool-worthy. I got to the bookstore early but couldn't make up my mind whether to do this or not. Buy a book, get a number and then wait. So I went back to the bakery but Kylie said, GO MOM!!! So I went and OMG, lines all over the place, my number was 321! I calculated that would mean 50 numbers etc, roughly around 1:30. I took a peek and there she was signing. So I went back to work and then at 12:30ish, I told Kylie I was going to check, and voila, they let me through to almost near the stairs, It went so fast and I realized I wouldn't have any photos so I tapped the shoulders of the two guys ahead of me and bribed them with a cupcake or cookie if they would take my picture and email it to me. Thanks Eric Jahn, (he did come across and after meeting),after greeting and getting the book signed(while wearing my icing stained apron), he and his friend got their cookies.
I remember Nancy Silverton of La Brea being a bit snooty and impatient. I remember Debbi Fields in her 4 inch heels, left handed that she is, standing for 4 hours straight without let up, signing her cook books at the downtown Mrs. Field's stores with lines waiting, but each book signed with a name, a little note and the flourish of Debbi with hearts. The book store signing of Ina Garten was strictly just her name, no personalizing and if it wasn't the current book, a book plate was given in lieu of the autograph. I wonder now, if I had only known then, I could've met JK Rowling at the Bookstall in Winnetka during her book signing stint when she was just getting known. (I still kick myself when I remembered seeing the news vans and wondering who she was!!!aurghhhh) For sure I passed up Rick Tramonto signing his Osteria book because I have actually met him at Panera in Deerfield where I had a stint as assistant manager and found him buying his sandwich for lunch and seeing him there with his kid on week-ends. So much for having foie gras daily, sometimes you need to eat tuyo (ok, I mean regular people food). I remember getting Martin Yan's autograph during a book signing at Cook's Catalog's warehouse sale where I bought my first mixer years and years ago. I am waiting for Anthony Bourdain and line up once more for that quick signature amidst a sea of faces and be proud of the squiggle that makes the book more important to me. ha!

bits and pieces

escape from realities serves a purpose, that of relaxing one's mind during what could be stressful depressing times. I have chosen a few bits of happiness.
Cooking, mentioned this time and time and again. so, on to the next.
DandanBell: watching him grow smarter each day curls and all. Times with Maddie strolling to the bookstore and just wandering through magazines and books while she takes quick reads in the kiddie section until I shout it's time to go. Ooops, I forgot all about her today as I was too busy gabbing on the phone with my VBF Beng. Suddenly, I realized she wasn't around when I got to the store and voila, there she was puffing and panting saying " Lola, you left me!!!" OMG. Freaked out a bit and then made sure she was with me the whole time afterwards. With a snide aside from Sam, you aren't going to forget Daniel while I go check out some coats, right? Smirk.

Hunter and his anghit hair, Lynne with her wistful Hi Lola and my little whisper, do good in school so your dad doesn't freak out (but seeing so much of me in her at that age, huh? what's that on the board? Where did those numbers come from????) Taylor and his always perky self until he gets tired and cranky.

And then there's Twilight. With a drought of Harry Potter and the movie not till next year, Cedric Diggory died to become Edward Cullen, the vampire. The posters are all over the place, got some magazines and surf the net (after reading about HP stuff). Robert Pattinson will be at Hot Topic in La Grange sometime next week or this week, or today, whatever. Told Migay I wasn't going to line up like a teeny bopper for that. But, I did cajole another VBF to take me to Equus and I did wrangle a trip to New York just to see Dan Rad play Alan Strang. So there, that tells you that the wizard beats phantom and vampire any time. LOL. If it were DanRad, I definitely would camp out and be in line to say hi. But I can wait even if I am mesmerized by the Cullens and the entire Twilight phenomena. No midnight showing for me, but definitely yes for HP.

So am relaxed now as I just finished some fried rice for Les as a pale exchange for a sumptuous dinner with my sister tonight. Cooking again, Leveriza (leftover rice and whatever can be chopped and tossed into it for fried rice). Back to where I started.

turkey time again

As I face a bit of depressing downturn at Mrs. A's along with every other business in the US, getting a lift from the election results, and counting my blessings even as the coins are not dropping in fast enough, I realize that cooking is the way to cope.
As always. And tonight is the first turkey night. Got a turkey breast 7 pounder for Thursday night dinner. Threw in a spaghetti squash now that I know how to work on it (butter and paprika), some great longganiza from a private sausage maker, rice and hmm, what to do with the potatoes? Turkey is not the Thanksgiving type of flavoring. I opted for the PuertoRican Goya adobo salt mix taught to me by the wife of an aunt's brother. Made life easier feeding the five kids when they accepted the non-thanksgiving flavor of turkey. Phewwww.

So it takes me away from the realities of business being so slow, it's scary. I just finished making my first (canned) pink salmon patties, checking out the ingredient list from the can's label and then tweaking it to my own liking, as in using mustard panko instead of bread crumbs, adding more lemon and fresh parsley, onion and a hint of garlic. Last night was beef stew night but it came out like a non spicy caldereta. What's next? Maybe mechado or morcon, and a run at the chicken breast stuffed with spinach, greek style.

Hoping of course that we could all be here for dinner. It really is a bit of stretch to cook meals daily to fit everyone's schedules, so I decided to cook when I know I have time and can plan rather than cook uu-rada each time and not have enough.

Come to think of it, I have to force myself to bake once more if I can get over my mental OCD about getting my ingredients into the mise en place I am used to, as I want to make sans rival, chocolate crinkles, food for the gods and some other cookies to add to the store's repertoire.