Cat Johnson 💋

New Years Eve. A time for reflection, goals and resolutions, change, introspection, and a chance to look toward the future.

All of this has never been more true for me than this year because at the close of 2009, Linden Bay Romance will be shut down. No I don’t think someone will be waiting by the computer to disable the website at midnight tonight, but then again, I don’t know, perhaps these things can be set up in advance. What I do know is that as of 2010 I go from an author with over 2 dozen published full length novels, novellas and short stories, to one with just a handful.

So what am I doing? For one, I have made my Facebook page, which had been private for a bit because of some issues, public again. I need a strong web presence to build my career and for better or worse, Facebook is part of that marketing plan. I am trying to focus on reworking my backlist to get them back out there. And to keep my sanity I began that cooking project I told you about in the last post.

How is that going? Well there have been ups and downs in the Julia Child department. Successes include the yummy Cream of Mushroom Soup and the incredible Leek Quiche, complete with homemade crust so flaky and good it was like heaven. Even so, after a Quiche Lorraine and 2 Leek Quiches, the husband did ask “You’re not making another quiche again tomorrow, are you?” So I guess I’ll take a break on the quiche for a bit.

Failures include a horrible Garlic Soup, so bad I went back and checked the recipe numerous times to make sure I hadn’t forgotten any ingredients. My CIA-trained (the Culinary Institute not the covert organization) chef friend who spent 6 months cooking in France commented “Julia Child’s recipes are outdated. You should have roasted the garlic and added potatoes.” So there you go, not my fault entirely, though I do think I poured the hot soup into the egg yolks too fast, which made it ugly.

I had full intentions of trying French Onion Soup the following day, which proved to be 4 degrees out and I decided it wasn’t worth braving the weather to get the ingredients. So my cooking is stalled for a bit, which is good because it is incredibly time consuming and I had edits on 2 books to complete, and of course, my entire backlist to rewrite and peddle.

That is the state of the union on this New Years eve. It looks like I am snowed in for the duration, which is fine. I could use a day in after this hectic holiday season.

Meanwhile I wish you all a happy, healthy and safe new year. Now go forth and enjoy the dawn of 2010.

Cat

On a good note, my free reads are back up for download on ARe.

As a testament to the fact I will do pretty much anything besides what I am supposed to be doing, today I read Julie Powell’s “The Julie/Julia Project” blog from 2002 and cooked two recipes out of my new cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. (To see the beginning of my new obsession click HERE)

Yes, I should be working on Jack (Red Hot & Blue, Book 2) to submit to my editor so I can get a date and get my now out of print backlist back out there. Instead I made Quiche Lorraine for breakfast and Cream of Mushroom Soup for Dinner, with food shopping for ingredients wedged in the middle there.

How did the recipes come out? Well I cheated on the quiche because 1) I had no lard to make fresh crust and 2) I did have a frozen piecrust. Aside from some over spillage onto the cookie sheet in the oven, it was very tasty. The soup was easier than I thought though I kind of had to cheat there too. I am SURE I had half & half in my hand in the foodstore. I know I put it in a shopping cart. Then I remember pushing said cart down the aisle when my husband said, “Um, that’s not our cart”. So there you go. Some poor soul has my half and half, and I had to make my cream of mushroom soup with skim milk rather than the cream the recipe called for that I was going to substitute half & half for. Julia Child is rolling in her grave, I am sure.  I didn’t skimp on all the butter the recipe called for, but I did kind of make the diet version. Though I felt no guilt having a big bowl of it for dinner, I am sure it will be better when I have the cream.

So what did all this cooking do for me today besides mean that yet another day went buy that I didn’t write? Well, my hands are pretty dry from doing all those dishes from all those pots that seem unavoidable in french cooking. I now want one of those sexy 1950s housewife aprons I saw on Amazon.com by Jessie Steele. I was inspired to clean the kitchen, though I didn’t get to half of it. And I am getting creative with the leftovers because french cooking leaves a lot of waste. The egg white and the mushroom stems and onions left from today’s recipes that I could have thrown out will be a tasty Mushroom Onion Eggwhite Omelet for my breakfast. (I get very creative when procrastinating and using leftovers. It’s kind of an art for me.)

So that’s it for today. Have to get back to my cookbook and see what I want to make for New Year’s Eve.

Bon Appetite!

Cat