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A Christmas Carol December • 19 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in 1, Books, Film & TV, NYC life, Writing & related....
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‘Tis the season for Dickens!

Stumbled upon a great reading of an adaptation of the Dickens holiday classic given at  The Strand Bookstore by some of the WQXR hosts (including Jeff Spurgeon and Midge Woolsey). Apparently, it was the sixth annual such event and no secret–the place was packed to the gills! It will be on my calendar for next year…

First Edition of A Christmas Carol

On a related note, Mary Beth and I recently went to see the latest film version… Disney’s A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis… in 3-D and IMAX–all the way, baby! A huge fan of the original, I’m a tough audience. There was much to admire in this work–but the technology (and/or maybe the financial constraints of the technology?) seemed to hold back certain aspects of the story. I missed some of the Dickens’ atmosphere–the visions of the food vendors at Christmastime, so glowingly described by the author. I missed some of the minor storylines that so enriched the text (the bachelor Topper and the plump sister in the lace tucker hiding behind the curtains at nephew Fred’s party…). Intimate, humanizing scenes like that were cut in favor of a protracted “action” scene which featured a  miniaturized Scrooge (Jim Carrey) being chased down… I wonder who makes those decisions…?

Anyway, the technology also seemed to hem in (rather than enhance) Jim Carrey’s usual childlike spontaneity. The contrast was especially apparent because Mary Beth and I saw him in person in Grand Central Station during the film’s pre-opening promotional tour.  Carrey is truly a wonder of physical exuberance! Zemeckis was on hand as well for the sneak preview, and I do applaud his dedication to the work…

Valerie as the Ghost of Jacob Marley

There was a fantastic exhibit about the making of the film — including, admirably, much about Dickens’ original work. Most fun was the ability of the visitors (like me) to put ourselves into the technology.

After all this exposure to A Christmas Carol, I just ordered a copy of The Man Who Invented Christmas, about the circumstances and influences that led Dickens to write the story, in the hopes of learning more.

Valerie Peterson as Scrooge from Disney's A Christmas Carol

Valerie as Scrooge

Cookie Craft Christmas on ParentsTV December • 19 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in 1, Cookies, Film & TV.
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Here’s a link to my post on Storey Publishing’s blog–about Janice and my cookie decorating demonstration on ParentsTV. It has some detail and pictures about getting ready for the appearance, and a link to the YouTube video of the result!

Janice and Juli Auclair on the set of ParentsTV

Janice and Juli Auclair on the set of ParentsTV

Thankful for… November • 26 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in 1, Everyday Wonders, Food.
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My "tart" sans garnish, which will be added on site...

Big blessings covered (family, friends, health, etc.), there are a number of smaller joys I was thankful for this week… like the GAP “curvy” jeans in “tall” obtained 25% off with free shipping (woo hoo!)… and the fact that the recipe for  Ina Garten’s Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart works just as well in a 9″ springform pan as it does in a 11″ tart pan. I just made sure to chill it longer, so the thicker layer of filling set properly. I’m bringing it to Thanksgiving dinner…

WhiskyFest November • 25 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in Cocktails, Food.
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WhiskyFest 2009 - Famous Grouse Scotch Whisky

Valerie with The Famous Grouse

Downloaded my WhiskyFest pictures…  Great event–I went purely for research, of course. Took this Famous Grouse shot in honor of Denise and Jamey Reagan, who turned me onto the brand, “Scotland’s best-selling blended Scotch.” Apparently, those Scots are well ahead of me. It’s moderately priced, with delicate amounts of smoke and honey–great for drink testing…

Brilliant Swedes Prove Chocolate is Healthy September • 18 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in Everyday Wonders, Food, In the News..., Swedish & Italian.
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Food of the gods...

Food of the gods...

According to The New York Times, Swedish researchers have linked eating chocolate with increased survival rates from heart attacks. Score another one for those Swedes!

(Click here if the link doesn’t work, then click again on word “here”…)

Books and Julia Child, Julie & Julia and Books August • 6 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in Film & TV, Food, In the News..., Writing & related....
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Last night, I was fortunate to be a guest at a Julie & Julia film screening for Random House employees. The profusion of press coverage has focused on topics like the gloriously mouth-watering food-on-film (warning: do not see it on an empty stomach!); the joys of a warm, mutually supportive marriage; the fantastic performances, including Meryl Streep’s transformation into Julia Child, etc., etc.

Of course, I was struck by the spot-on portrayal of… book publishing!Julia Child's The Way to Cook

In my former life on the other side of the publishing fence, I briefly worked with Julia Child, marketing reprints of two of her books for a division of Random House. She was delightful and I enthusiastically joined the cult of JC, embracing her The Way to Cook as an everyday, go-to reference. (For those who think she’s all duck-de-boning and saving the liver, fyi: her method of hard-boiling eggs ensures there’s no green rim around the yolk, and that the suckers are E-Z-2-peel for your humble egg salad.)

After that, Julia was unbelievably gracious when I saw or wrote her–which was amazing, given the number of people with whom she was acquainted and with whom she corresponded. A few years later, when I was Doubleday, I marketed Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch and became immersed in Julia’s life story, then re-visited it through her own eyes (in collaboration with her grand-nephew, Alex Prud’Homme) in the more recent My Life in France–one of the two books on which Julie & Julia is based. Admirably true to the facts of Julia’s story, among many other delights, the film  gives audiences a realistic peek into the trials and tribulations of writing a book and getting it published. In addition to the joy of seeing one’s first book accepted–and then in print–filmgoers will see some of the down-and-dirty details aspiring writers may not realize:

• Julia’s magnum opus Mastering the Art of French Cooking took eight intense years (and two other people) to write.

• Julia struggled to play fair while resenting that one of her two co-authors doesn’t do nearly her share of the work.

• The book gets dumped by its first publisher–even Julia Child struggled with rejection and self-doubt.

• An intensive, eight-year project nets three first-time authors a $1,500 advance in 1960

The Joy of Cooking 1931• Related bonus cookbook publishing trivia: Irma Rombauer paid $3,000 to self-publish The Joy of Cooking in 1931. (I’m guessing that detail is from Stand Facing the Stove, a book about the publication of the Rombauer classic. And I loved the brilliant Frances Sternhagen–a.k.a. Brenda Lee Johnson’s mother in one of my favorite TV shows The Closer–as Mrs. Rombauer, who apparently didn’t feel the need to test all the recipes–caveat cooker.)

• Judith Jones, Julia’s editor, uses a morass of index cards to come up with the best title for the book–a method based pretty much on gut instinct and, for some,  “what does sales think?” and which, to this day, remains unchanged save for the invention of word processing. (Judith Jones’ food memoir, The Tenth Muse, offers her own perspective on publishing Julia Child, among other cookbook writers and, in advance of her forthcoming second book, launched her own blog called judithjonescooks.com. FYI, today’s post includes her thoughts about the movie.)

Ms. Jones also has a presence in the “Julie” portion of the film. Taken from Julie & Julia, Julie Powell’s memoir of her year cooking and blogging through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, that storyline follows the title character (played by Amy Adams) projecting a more current version of writerly angst. You see the hope, then wonder, then self-satisfaction when an underemployed, born-writer finds out there are people following her life and work on her blog. And you see a writer who’s not immune to disappointment, even with sudden and obviously gratifying media attention and the promise of a book advance presumably much more generous than Julia’s was.

I’ve been a fan of Nora Ephron since I read–and laughed and cried over–her roman à clef Heartburn during my very first job out of college at Random House (and I couldn’t help but think about that book–and her own history–when I later taped Carl Bernstein for a Doubleday video). So I like to think that, in addition to her storytelling talent and her filmmaking skills and her ability to convey the passions of lives well-lived and to capture some deliciously gorgeous food, Ephron’s firsthand knowledge of publishing and love of books informed her writing and directing this seriously delectable film.

And I like to remember that, before there was a Julie & Julia on the big screen, there were all those great books!

Sophie Blackall/New York Magazine August • 4 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in In the News..., Writing & related....
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I’m addicted to New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix.”

The Approval Matrix

The Approval Matrix

I regard it the same way I do The Daily Show–as an opinionated roll-up of the interesting and absurd goings-on in the news I’m too busy writing/testing cocktail recipes/watching Bones re-runs to ferret out all by myself.

So I was delighted when I opened this week’s NYMag issue (August 10 – 17) to the last page to find “A Brooklyn artist named Sophie Blackall” plotted in the BRILLIANT area of the Approval Matrix’s “taste hierarchies,” because (drumroll)…

… Sophie helped illustrate Cookie Craft! Her drawings add a touch of whimsy to the book (as Alison Kolesar’s renderings of the cookie decorating techniques add usefulness).

Among Sophie’s many and varied illustration projects are a number of gorgeous, gorgeous children’s books–and it’s wonderful to see her get recognition for her, well, BRILLIANCE.

Cookie Craft - Dog Stealing Cookie!

Sophie Blackall's cookie-nabbing dog in Cookie Craft

Marshmallow Fluff Moment May • 20 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in Everyday Wonders, Food, NYC life.
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No lie:  this past Saturday night, I was telling Liz (friend) and Janice (friend and Cookie Craft co-author) about my love of Marshmallow Fluff and my profound realization that, should I be so lucky to someday get on Thom Filicia’s Dress My Nest (my latest makeover show obsession), the iconic Marshmallow Fluff jar would be one of my three “style” items. (OK, so what do you talk about on Saturday nights?)

My collection of Marshmallow Fluff jarsMy collection of Marshmallow Fluff jars

Then, weirdly, a mere four days later, I get a notice from the Astor Center about a class on… Marshmallow Fluff! It turns out that the world is on the cusp of an MF moment, and I have tapped into the Fluff zeitgeist.

To prove I am not just a Fluffer-come-lately, I am posting a picture of my empty jar collection… And I feel the need to picture the gentlemen who invented Marshmallow Fluff in 1917, because they don’t look particularly Fluff-y:

H. Allen Durkee

H. Allen Durkee

Fred L. Mower

Fred L. Mower

Arguably MF is best-known for being one of three ingredients in the Fluffernutter. Some months ago, I tried the version at Peanut Butter & Co. on Sullivan Street and found it skimpy on both the Fluff and the PB—the filling to bread ratio was way too low, making for a dry sandwich. Perhaps they were having an off day or maybe they were just trying to sell more milk. In any event, as a result of the disappointment, and despite the danger of having a jar of peanut butter in the cabinet (i.e. the danger of my polishing off the entire jar in two days), I have since found it much more satisfying to make my own Fluffernutters.

Still life with Fluff

Still life with Fluff

In case you’re thinking “Well, that Valerie’s really into junk food,” I’ll have you know that Marshmallow Fluff contains only corn syrup, sugar syrup, dried egg whites and vanillin. Notice there is no “high fructose” in front of the “corn syrup”… It’s also fat-free and, according to the official website there are “no artificial preservatives, stabilizers or emulsifiers.” It’s also gluten-free, Kosher and (lucky for Janice) vegetarian, because it has none of the gelatin that’s in solid marshmallows…

Currently, Marshmallow Fluff sells for a reasonable $1.39 at my local Morton Williams, where the price of other items (organic milk, yogurt, bananas) have been rising at an alarming rate. For fun-per-ounce, MF may just be the biggest bargain in New York City. In fact, I almost hesitate to post this for fear that you, my vast blog audience, will increase its popularity and drive up the price…

A snowy NYC day… in mid-May? May • 18 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in Everyday Wonders, NYC life.
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BondStFilmShootSnowWhen I opened my blinds this morning, the day looked grey and I saw that the cobblestones of Bond Street were wet. At first I thought it had rained last night, then I noticed patches of white—atop a car, along the curbs—looking every bit like the half-thawed accumulations of winter. Then I remembered… IT’S THE MIDDLE OF MAY! Upon closer inspection, the snow didn’t look quite dirty enough, and it was curling up at some of the edges… Sure enough, at the end of the street is a film crew, or maybe it’s the Law & Order TV folks (God bless Dick Wolf for taping in New York City!)BondStFilmShoot

Bond Street has changed over the years, gotten more gentrified. On the corner, just across Lafayette from where the film crew is shooting, there used to be a place called Bob’s Used Furniture Store. I say “place” because it was more of a outdoor stand with furniture than an actual store. There was always a motley crew of downtown kids stripping furniture outside on the street, then slapping on one of the two or three generic finishes that went on practically everything. I bought several pieces there over the years, spotting them at odd times of the night, running to the ATM (Bob accepted only cash) while praying nobody else would spy my prize and usurp it by offering him more money. Invariably, two of the refinishing kids would help me haul the piece to my apartment at hours well outside of the building’s approved delivery windows. I remember trying to go unnoticed at 11 p.m. on a Friday night with a hoosier baking cabinet whose finish was still tacky…

Hello world! May • 15 • 2009

Posted by Valerie in NYC life.
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WordPress was kind enough to name this post for me… Although they allow me to edit it, it seems fitting… Hello, world!