gfron1

The problem with waking up at noon in December is that now there are only 3 hours of daylight left! We went to the grocery last night and got some breakfast things. With all of my years of Spanish, its all useless here. I have no idea what anything is based on the language, so we just essentially shopped in the dark. We think we go some salted butter. We know we got eggs - not sure of anything special about them, typical bread with a hole in it, and some type of cheese. We're not picky. It'll work. We're off to walk to the docks.

Miserable weather! But since we live in a place that gets sun 340 days a year, I'm not complaining. After 18 hours of travel we settled into our airbnb and found a little kabob place. Meh, it was ok. But I connected with the Olo staff who recommended Emo or Sea Horse - for a chef friendly restaurant. Now we'll debate the options for tomorrow night.

That's the one. We have so much to do! I keep hearing about boutiques and festivals and markets in outlying communities. I've linked up with the local slow foods group and I'm hoping they'll drive us around.

I also read about a milk/cheese bread that I need to get at some point...

It was quite the ordeal to get my knives through customs to Canada, but here's a pic with my new Mokuzo hand-made sayas using Bocote wood. Really beautiful work by http://mokuzotoronto.com .

Love that idea. Don't know if its feasible. But love it. Btw, I opened up sales on ABQ and it sold out in 7 minutes! Crazy. Just Crazy.

Just drafted this letter to potential guests. Its so big city that its turning my stomach (ok, not really that bad), but we have to get tix sold quickly to lock things down. Any thoughts/revulsions before I start sending? and anticipating the question - we're working with booze distributors in each city to essentially use their license for tastings. Some want us to pay, others are giving the booze to promote their product. In ABQ we are actually using the site's license since its in a closed restaurant.

The tunas are the magenta fruit on the rim of the paddles (nopales, napolitos). Hackberries are one of my favorite, but one of the most time intensive ingredients that I forage - taste like a sweet date, but theres virtually no meat, so its all about steep and infuse. The sites vary by city. Most are in private homes, but ABQ is in a currently unused restaurant - I'll use that as my base to re-load for the rest of the trip.

Our trip is just days away. Tuesday, December 9th No plans, maybe Soul Kitchen for dinner Wednesday, December 10th Ferry to Estonia Tallinn Christmas Market 10am-6pm Dinner at Neh We'll miss this, but In Helsinki – Terra Madre Day at Mariankatu 15 Thursday, December 11th Back to Helsinki, nothing planned - probably the Christmas Market Friday, December 12th Vanha Kauppahalli market stalls for food Ravintolo Perho catering school restaurant Alko booze store Dinner at Restaurant Ask Saturday, December 13th St. Lucia Day (festival of lights, parade; Swedish-speaking areas) - one of our dog's name is Lucia, so we'll be going Dinner at OlO Sunday, December 14th No plans Tyler's to-do list: Temppeliaukio Chapel in the Rock National Museum of Finland Temppeliaukio Church Awe-inspiring, copper-topped 1969 "Church in the Rock." Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral Orthodoxy's most prodigious display outside of Eastern Europe. Lutheran Cathedral Green-domed, 19th-century Neoclassical masterpiece. National Museum of Finland The scoop on Finland, featuring folk costumes, an armory, czars, and thrones; the prehistory exhibit is best. Seurasaari Open-Air Folk Museum Island museum with 100 historic buildings from Finland's farthest corners. Suomenlinna Fortress Helsinki's harbor island, sprinkled with picnic spots, museums, and military history. Senate Square Consummate Neoclassical square, with Lutheran Cathedral. Helsinki City Museum Tells the city's history well and in English. Ateneum, The National Gallery of Finland Largest collection of art in Finland, including local favorites plus works by Cézanne, Chagall, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Sibelius Monument Stainless-steel sculptural tribute to Finland's greatest composer. My to do list: Herkkutalo – food gifts Mariankatu 15 http://www.herkkutalo.fi/ Cheese shop: Hakaniemen Kauppahalli 95-97 00530 Helsinki Hakaniemi Market Hall: Satumarja store for dried mushrooms and berries Matti Kuusela’s stall – get the bread cheese Lentävä lehmä – small producer cheeses

Shelby, Tyler is being left behind to take care of our foster son...plus I don't think he would enjoy this demanding of a trip. He's more of a wanderer. I'm more of a charger. Smithy, the foraging angle is one I was thinking about. What's the point of a locavore menu if it travels? I've debated if I could do a bit of foraging each morning to add a local flare - I'm sure I could find a few things: prickly pear tuna, cholla fruit, hackberry, maybe some black walnuts, possibly some dried oyster mushrooms and easily juniper. And wouldn't it be amazing if I hunted a deer in the morning and served it that night...but that would be illegal What's fun to me about all this is that we're going from idea to conception in 3 weeks. I've talked about pop-ups in ABQ and just did one in Tucson, but I'm really relying on my supporters to pull this off. In just one day we confirmed ABQ and TorC. Cruces, Scottsdale and Tucson and pretty much secure. Flag and Santa Fe are my challenges, but folks are working on locations for me. I need all of this confirmed and the bulk of the tickets (we're doing a ticketing system for this) sold before I go to Helsinki on Sunday morning for our 10 day vacation. Yow!

Wait! I could go to Florida, fix up a food truck, travel I-10 through New Orleans, hit Austin and end up in LA. And I could get a film crew to follow me until I have a huge fan base that's waiting for me in every city! it would make for a great movie! My lead server and I are doing this together. Interestingly, my co-author is coming too to be my 2nd server because she happens to be at a downspot in her life.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but moving an entire kitchen and dining room for 8 consecutive nights is much easier than cooking lunch and dinner every day

That's a good question and fortunately there are 2 answers. First, is that we've been told that these will fall under private events since they will be pre-sold and not open at the door. The second is that the licensing is for the kitchen, not the person, so we just have to get into the right space.

Since my little town has a pretty small customer base, and I have fans around the region, AND because the 1st week in January always sucks for sales...I'm taking my restaurant on the road! I know people who do pop-ups, but what about traveling pop-ups. Has anyone heard of this? I'm thinking I'll rent a van, load it with 10 days of equipment and food and do a new city every night. I've already done some feelers through FB and Instagram, and the response is a bit overwhelming. Here's where I'm going: Monday, January 5th, Tucson, AZ Tuesday, January 6th, Scottsdale, AZ Wednesday, January 7th, Flagstaff, AZ Thursday and Friday January 8th & 9th, Albuquerque, NM Saturday, January 10th, Santa Fe, NM Sunday, January 11th, Truth or Consequences, NM Monday, January 12th, Las Cruces, NM The plan is 24 guests per night for a 10-course dinner. $100 a head which includes all but the gratuity (don't get me started on that debate). Looking forward to telling you all about it - lots of crazy logistics for someone who specializes in local foraged fare! On the side - if anyone is interested in attending, please don't post here, just PM and I'll get you details.

How long are you planning on holding the spheres? Typically they would be used within an hour or so if not immediately. Maybe I'm not understanding the concern.

Last food photoshoot was yesterday. On instagram I say posted that and said "I won't miss these." One of my followers asked why. I already do 70 hour weeks at work, and adding a photoshoot on my day off is just fatiguing. My spouse made it clear yesterday that these had better end soon. I was very much in the dog house yesterday. But we finished. Now there's just pics of me, my dog and nature. I also received my first non-professional recipe testing results. All I can say is - if you ever do a book, do this! Regardless of if you use a professional tester, having friends with widely varying skill levels do recipes is so useful. This recipe was for an almond teacake with foraged Russian olives. She couldn't get Russian olives so she used my substitution of kalamata, but she didn't even know what those were. I had salt listed in the steps but not in the ingredients. She expected a tall fluffy cake, but its a tea cake so it wasn't. Questions about what folded into what. All really great feedback from a non-baker with limited knowledge. This was a recipe I hadn't made in a number of years and didn't review it except for basic editing, so the tester gave me exactly what I needed. Very much looking forward to getting the other testings back this week. In other news, my hardcore reviewer should pass off his notes today.

I hired a bunch of local home cooks to do some non-professional recipe testing. I picked the 6 recipes I think are mostly likely to be made, but also the most tricky. I'm getting really amazing feedback. Some things are basic - ie cook times; others are about substituting things that I never thought would need substitutions; and then there are the tough ones about understanding the steps. I want to work through this feedback and fix my recipes, then expand the learnings into the other recipes. I have a couple of professional testers who are asking to work on the book, but I'm waiting til we have the publisher confirmed just in case they're going to pay for the testing.

Great way to go into the holiday! This morning I sent a proposal, full manuscript, a few photos and a cover letter to my preferred publisher. I didn't expect a response, at least not for a long, long time. Instead, 90 minutes later I received this: What he is agreeing with me about is the need for foraged ingredients to be more universal, and recipes to be accessible. This is very good news.

Two updates. First is I just farmed out a slew of pre-recipe testing to friends. I flagged about a dozen recipes that need special attention - extra hard or ones that I've not shared through my cooking classes or that don't get made daily in my kitchen. These are just friends...you know, like the people who will actually buy the book. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do with the recipes. After that I'll wait to see if a publisher is going to require and/or pay for recipe testing. One of the professional testers who contacted me suggested that often times the publisher will pay for that service (obviously it comes out of my cut). The other thing is publishers. I talked with a friend who is a JBF book winner, and we talked strategy. She said that yes, an agent is the way to go if you can. She also gave names of a few more publishers to consider - I'm holding off until I get the final hard edit back (hopefully today). And most importantly, she said to give up on an October 1st release date. While it may happen, there are pros and cons. The pros are being included in holiday shopping lists, the cons are you have to stand out in the vast sea of books. She prefers a May release because she gets more airtime with TV stations. So I have let that stress go. If its out in October I do think the book will stand out. If not, it'll do just fine.

I needed some space from my recipes so I haven't looked at them in about a week. This morning I did consistency checks on my grams and cups for some of the oddball ingredients like acorns and amaranth. Good thing. Found and fixed many inconsistencies. I got 1/4 of the manuscript back from my friend and he is editing hard - really good, significant fixes. This morning I heard from my preferred publisher who was open to receiving a submission. This whole business scares me. It feels as if you get one chance and if you blow it, you're done for. Up until now I haven't communicated with my preferred publisher, but this is the one. They've handled comparable books, they're big enough to get the word out, and small enough to have some flexibility. I'm going to sit on my response for the weekend and hone it a bit more. What I really want is for them to just ask for the whole manuscript because I think its in good enough shape now to be seen by a publisher. The good news is that he wanted to see the photos - those will get his attention I'm sure. I'm also still working on an agent. I've decided that an agent is the way I want to go because I want to keep my designer. If I go directly to a publisher they will push to use their own designer. I believe (possibly erroneously) that an agent can have a deeper conversation with the publisher about how they will make better money if my guy can do his job right, and they don't have to pay their guy. We'll see. Final photoshoot scheduled for Monday.

I've always bought Cortas brand because its available but surely there's better...go!

Remember that a gift is as much about the giver as the receiver. When I screw up, I comp; and often I overcomp. Its because I feel bad, recognize my mistake, and want to make sure there is no confusion that the mistake was unacceptable. Simply say, "I really don't want anything comped - just making sure you know that things aren't normal tonight." And if its a night off for the chef, tell the chef via email so s/he can fix it. Regulars pay me back nightly by filling my seats and referring more customers. That's all I need from them.

I've had 3 proof readers go over the manuscript and they're finding less and less. I just sent off to a hard editor (friend), and once he's done I'll send to a professional content development editor. Getting closer and closer.

Good question, and one I'm learning about quickly. Amy Gentry, the author, has no rights anymore. Even if she re-wrote she would have to get permission. Gastronomica (U of CA Press) holds the rights. Best Food Writing licensed the rights, so they don't hold ownership - they just did what I'm trying to do. Assuming UCP gives me rights, then the next question will be - can I use the name Best Food Writing 2014 in the marketing of my book. Its all very interesting stuff. The author just wants me to have it and use it, but she has no say in the matter.

Just sent in my formal request for rights to use the Gastronomica/Best Food Writing 2014 story about me in the cookbook. The author offered to do a re-work on it if necessary for content (there were a small handful of factual errors). Yay!