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Men Who Cook
Sep. 17th, 2008 08:59 pmSo tomorrow, I'll be participating in a fundraiser for the Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier (MHAST) here in good ole Binghamton. The fundraiser is called Men Who Cook and the idea is that local businessmen and "celebrities" agree to cook something, enough for 300 people, if they only get a little sample of each dish. There are prizes for things like best food, best table display, etc. I'm there as a local celebrity, for the books of course, not the teaching (and isn't that somehow skewed?).
Which means . . . I spent my entire evening cooking. I decided to create something completely new: an artichoke casserole. Basically, I took an artichoke dip that I'm somewhat known for (because the recipe is a family secret) and I added pasta. I think it tastes good, but it's one of those dishes where the proportions make or break the dish. Too much of the pasta and it smothers the artichoke; too much artichoke and it tastes sour and you can't taste the pasta. Going from a regular dinner size to making enough for 300 may totally screw up the proportions.
But I don't care! It's all cooked and my intent with this is to go and have fun. I don't figure I'll win any of the prizes, but I'll get to display (and perhaps sell) some of my books and hopefully a few people will like the food too. I've got Amy as my sidekick helper for the event (you all remember Amy? she sat on George R.R. Martin's lap at the Zombies Need Brains party at World Fantasy in Saratoga and took tons of cool pictures and certainly made a name for herself there). It can't go wrong, right? RIGHT?!?
Well, I've done everything I can do for the event tonight. I think. *bites lip*
In other news, look forward to another writing project this Friday: Plot Synopsis Project Part II! A new batch of writers are going to post successful plot synopses and comments about the part of the process. For all you writers out there.
Which means . . . I spent my entire evening cooking. I decided to create something completely new: an artichoke casserole. Basically, I took an artichoke dip that I'm somewhat known for (because the recipe is a family secret) and I added pasta. I think it tastes good, but it's one of those dishes where the proportions make or break the dish. Too much of the pasta and it smothers the artichoke; too much artichoke and it tastes sour and you can't taste the pasta. Going from a regular dinner size to making enough for 300 may totally screw up the proportions.
But I don't care! It's all cooked and my intent with this is to go and have fun. I don't figure I'll win any of the prizes, but I'll get to display (and perhaps sell) some of my books and hopefully a few people will like the food too. I've got Amy as my sidekick helper for the event (you all remember Amy? she sat on George R.R. Martin's lap at the Zombies Need Brains party at World Fantasy in Saratoga and took tons of cool pictures and certainly made a name for herself there). It can't go wrong, right? RIGHT?!?
Well, I've done everything I can do for the event tonight. I think. *bites lip*
In other news, look forward to another writing project this Friday: Plot Synopsis Project Part II! A new batch of writers are going to post successful plot synopses and comments about the part of the process. For all you writers out there.
