Yesterday morning, I was interviewed by Shelagh Shapiro, host of Write the Book, a local radio program out of Burlington, Vermont, on community station, "The Radiator," at 105.9 F.M., WOMM-LP. Shelagh was lovely to look at - a statuesque blonde - and a charming person. Although a very interesting experience, I'm relieved it's over. I agonized beforehand, as I always do before a public performance. What questions would she ask? Would I be able to answer them? Would I stammer and hem and haw? Would I sound like a fool?
Well, all that worrying is over, and now I begin to wonder how Shelagh will work her magic editing all my babble and making it into a coherent program of interest to listeners. The show will air at 2:00 p.m., on Monday, November 4th (my sister's birthday). If you aren't able to catch the program on the radio, it will be available on the internet perhaps a couple of days later on writethebook.podbean.com/ . I'll let you know exactly once I've found out for sure. (See my post of 11/5/13)
Unfortunately, the worrying and anxiety are not over. I'm already onto my next "appearance" - Behind the Book: A Panel of Vermont Authors at the St. Albans Free Library, Saturday, November 2nd, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. More details about this event, and my three fellow authors, can be found on my "Talk Schedule" page.
Shortly after Shelagh left, I drove my sister Miriam to the airport for her return to Evanston, Illinois. We had a good visit, albeit too short. We actually got in some cooking together. She brought some recipes for us to try. We chose one - a saffron butter cake. We had to do a little experimentation with the glaze (in particular, adding some Grand Marnier), but it turned out to be a delicious cake, and thankfully, not ruined by the addition of too much saffron. Try figuring out how much a "pinch" of saffron is (and it called for two of them). Miriam checked on the internet and came back with something like 15 or 20 threads. Now, I'm pretty anal, but the idea of counting threads of saffron, was too much, even from me. I just grabbed what I felt was a pinch and prayed hard. My prayers were answered.
We also made a main dish from a cookbook Miriam had given me as either a Chanukah or birthday present a couple of years ago. Aromas of Aleppo is a coffee table size (and weight) book of recipes and stories about Syrian Jews. We chose a meatball recipe to try out which called for tamarind concentrate in the tomato base sauce. The author wrote to start out with something like 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to be added to the sauce. She also wrote that the amount of sugar necessary varied with the family. We added the 1/2 teaspoon and our mouths puckered up. We continued adding, little by little, and neither of us could say how much was added before it tasted right to our palates, but it was a lot. The final sauce was strangely reminiscent of our Hungarian grandparents' stuffed peppers.
I also cooked up several Japanese dishes, a couple of which Miriam had never tasted before. She really enjoyed them all, even the jellyfish and cucumber salad. I think she ate some of the leftovers for breakfast yesterday before her departure.
Happy reading, writing, listening and cooking.
Well, all that worrying is over, and now I begin to wonder how Shelagh will work her magic editing all my babble and making it into a coherent program of interest to listeners. The show will air at 2:00 p.m., on Monday, November 4th (my sister's birthday). If you aren't able to catch the program on the radio, it will be available on the internet perhaps a couple of days later on writethebook.podbean.com/ . I'll let you know exactly once I've found out for sure. (See my post of 11/5/13)
Unfortunately, the worrying and anxiety are not over. I'm already onto my next "appearance" - Behind the Book: A Panel of Vermont Authors at the St. Albans Free Library, Saturday, November 2nd, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. More details about this event, and my three fellow authors, can be found on my "Talk Schedule" page.
Shortly after Shelagh left, I drove my sister Miriam to the airport for her return to Evanston, Illinois. We had a good visit, albeit too short. We actually got in some cooking together. She brought some recipes for us to try. We chose one - a saffron butter cake. We had to do a little experimentation with the glaze (in particular, adding some Grand Marnier), but it turned out to be a delicious cake, and thankfully, not ruined by the addition of too much saffron. Try figuring out how much a "pinch" of saffron is (and it called for two of them). Miriam checked on the internet and came back with something like 15 or 20 threads. Now, I'm pretty anal, but the idea of counting threads of saffron, was too much, even from me. I just grabbed what I felt was a pinch and prayed hard. My prayers were answered.
We also made a main dish from a cookbook Miriam had given me as either a Chanukah or birthday present a couple of years ago. Aromas of Aleppo is a coffee table size (and weight) book of recipes and stories about Syrian Jews. We chose a meatball recipe to try out which called for tamarind concentrate in the tomato base sauce. The author wrote to start out with something like 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to be added to the sauce. She also wrote that the amount of sugar necessary varied with the family. We added the 1/2 teaspoon and our mouths puckered up. We continued adding, little by little, and neither of us could say how much was added before it tasted right to our palates, but it was a lot. The final sauce was strangely reminiscent of our Hungarian grandparents' stuffed peppers.
I also cooked up several Japanese dishes, a couple of which Miriam had never tasted before. She really enjoyed them all, even the jellyfish and cucumber salad. I think she ate some of the leftovers for breakfast yesterday before her departure.
Happy reading, writing, listening and cooking.