Tell me a little about yourself, why don’t you.
Here’s what I may or may not already know:
1. You are functioning at a literacy rate well-exceeding elementary school levels.
2. You like food, unless you accidentally got here Googling porn (which does not necessarily exclude you from liking food as well).
3. You have a little extra time on your hands.
4. You were the nicest, smartest, and most popular girl/boy in your class.
5. You are stalking me.
The rest, frankly, is a blank. I’d love to know more. Seriously.
Food for the Thoughtless 
OK, CAL graduate, about the time AW was leaving wierd posters all over town about some restaurant she was starting.
Foodie before my time, loved to cook in the early 70s, watched the original Julia Childs shows in black and white, on KVIE in Sacramento, my hometown. Remember her as funny but endearing, and didn’t realize she would set me on a path that would involve my own love of cooking.
First volume of Mastering the Art was my 1st cookbook purchase, which now includes all the rest of hers, plus a few more by various authors…ever seen “”How toPlease a Husband” c. 1930? It contains a recipe for toast, very detailed, with the line “butter generously, care being taken to cover the edges”.
I’ve lived in Danville for 20 years, where I raised 2 exceptional daughters on my own. Oldest is an amazing cook, but #2 recently complained she lacked the cooking gene, while making some delcious lemon shortbread in my house. Had her use the microplane to make 1/4 cup of lemon zest, and lead her to ask for similar cooking utensils for Xmas.
Probably TMI, but you asked.
My first “about you”. How does it feel to expose yourself thusly? And, yes, I did ask.
Now please tell me how on earth I can get a hold on a copy of How to Please a Husband?
Wow, this is NOT easy. Hi, my name is Annapet and I love food. I bake a batch of macarons daily.
Hi Annapet! You make them daily? It’s something I’ve never attempted. Perhaps I should give them a go. I think your blog might just inspire me…
Thanks for visiting!
Hello, Michael! Yes, I do make them daily…crazy. Today with Blueberry French Buttercream. I should swim more laps, really. Have a fabulous weekend!
Hello! Found you through a link on Squidalicious. Love your blog voice – very engaging. I don’t know if I’d call myself a foodie, but I also went to CCA – the not as fabulous and very short lived San Diego branch – about ten years ago. I went just long enough to know that working in the restaurant world is not for me! I much prefer the other side of the table. I am a vegetarian and a cookbook collector. (I also have a copy of “How To Please A Husband.” Ha!) I seem to gravitate toward food blogs for my leisure reading, though I don’t really think of myself as a very good cook. I also have my own blog, but I am new at writing for public consumption and I don’t quite know where my posts are headed as yet. I started it as a way to deal with some residual grief over the deaths of my father and friend and a means for letting off steam about parenting an autistic child. Probably more than you wanted to know, but there you have it! Oh, and absolutely loved the Cherpumple post.
Thanks, Bokchoy.
Squidalicious, huh? Do you know the author of that blog or did you wander over there? I’ve known her for…oh… a long, long time. Since we were four. She has never ceased to amaze me in all the years we’ve been friends.
My blogging advice to you is this: If you’re concerned about writing for public consumption, don’t be. Just write as though you are writing for yourself and/or the entertainment of a few friends. Death is something tricky to write about but, as with anything as emotionally complex as the fall out that surrounds it, it’s a wonderful cathartic thing to do, if only to help clarify your feelings. There may be somethings you wish to keep private, other things you feel you want to share. Just go with your gut. Whatever the case, just keep writing.
Michael
P.S. Okay, does EVERYONE have this “How to Please a Husband” book except me? I am putting it promptly onto my wish list.
I don’t know Squidalicious in person. Probably got there through a wordpress autism tag or something – love her writing. My son is seven and autistic with many similar issues. And yes, “How to Please a Husband” is a definite must-have. My mom has a book called “How to Boil Water.” I’ve been coveting that one for years.
hello micheal
Iam foodi and love to try new food, never been to greek resturant. I have heard about coffee reading but never had one. After reading you’r blog I really like to get a reading. If you please let me know which resturant in bay area have good greek food and good coffee reader.
thank you
Hello neelee. Sorry for the tardy response! The first place that comes to mind for great Greek food and Greek coffee is Kokkari Estiatorio. Have you been there? If you’re lucky, someone might just read your coffee grounds!
Michael, I just wanted to thank you for the delicious skordalia recipe from your blog. I think your version was even better than the one you served us at the restaurant in San Francisco last month. It is certainly a recipe where the finished product is greater than the sum of the ingredients. Dori
Dori– So very glad you liked my recipe. And, yes, I would have to agree with you (whole-heartedly) about the finished product being greater than its parts.
Thanks so much for stopping by my little blog and taking the trouble to comment.
Michael
I met you over a delicious hot cruller break, which only portends good things about our relationship, I think. 😉
Now I visit here and find out that you’re a freaking brilliant writer, too. YAY.
You may very well be right, you know. I can’t wait to work on your project!
lol, why didn’t I notice this? Although *tapping finger on teeth* it’s probably because most people have “about me”s, you have an “about you”. I might just rip off you idea, thank you in advance. 🙂
I make soup. And sauces. I used to make “cooks”. *sigh* Life happens. I also have scars all over my arms because I’m a really good grill, but that’s a little tmi.
I write. You probably noticed.
I can’t remember how I found you. Probably following a link from one of the food blogs I read. I landed on the tuna-tini page…and blinked. Love your blog. 🙂
You used to make “cooks”? Is that code for something else? I’m delighted that the Martuna made you blink, ‘coz you’re one of my favorite readers.
Cheers.
You’re a brave man, Michael, for actually INVITING strangers to blather on about themselves. Do you do that in person too?
Since you’ve already visited my blog, you probably already know more about me than you ever wanted, so I’ll keep this short. I’m an artist-turned-food-writer-of-a-certain-age. By “age” I mean “the ice age.”
And like many others here, Julia was an early influence. The very first croissant I tasted was one I baked using her recipe.
Yes, I do. Since I like to blather on about my own damned self, I think it’s only fair to give others equal time.
HI Michael,
This is totally random, but here goes….. Im casting a new Food Show for a major network and we are looking for a host. I found your blog, I love it, and would love to talk with you about the show. If you are interested, please email me at foodiecasting@me.com
I hope to hear from you!
Kemper
Hi Michael
Did you ever respond to Kemper Jackson? Is he for real? I hope so because you would make a great host for a food show.
Susan
Yes, she is real. And thank you, but I took a pass. It was a lovely invitation, but it just wasn’t “me”. Whatever that might be.
hmmm. i’m a graduate student in health administration. i’m slightly obsessed with all things blog: food, design, etc. i’m in the process of deciding on a job offer in san francisco, so i found your blog somehow through my endless efforts to get to know the city. i’ve only been to sf once (just recently), and felt a very strong connection with everything that makes up sf. just trying to decide if my budget can manage it. i’m contemplating making my boyfriend, dog and cat live with me and all of our belongings in a 500 sq ft studio just so we can give it a whirl. i think i’ll bookmark this fab food blog.
Rachel,
If you feel such a strong connection to the city, by all means, make it happen. Seriously.
And I really want to thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. It makes me really, really happy that you did.
In no special order:
* I am, indeed, stalking you, but in that benevolent, want-to-read-what-you-write way, not the boiling-your-bunny way
* Julia was not an early influence of mine. My mom, vocational cooking school, and Jeff Smith taught me everything I knew about cooking until I was well into adulthood
* I am only slightly taller than I am round
* I am queer, a parent, an atheist, and polyamorous
* I used to write seriously (poetry and journalism); now I do it for fun
I’m so glad you decided to post something here!
Julia wasn’t an early influence of mine, either. The only cooking I watched on tv were the guest segments on Dinah! when she’s whip something up with Burt Reynolds or Robert Goulet or someone of that ilk.
Jeff Smith was/is a total creep/asshole who made my friend Lizzy cry when he entered her cheese shop.
It’s so rare that I have stalkers, you know. So thank you.
I was so totally disappointed to find out he was a creep. I loved his show so much. Then after I found out people (like Craig, his erstwhile assistant) disliked him and even were suing him, every show was tainted. I still have fond memories of watching the show with my mom; we made a few of his dishes, though, including a rather expensive Peking Duck, and they all *sucked*. Still, I hear I am a wonderful egg cook, and I owe that all to his show.
happy monday. update: baking macarons on a weekly basis now.
I am currently full of admiration for you– I’ve never dared to make macarons. Perhaps you will give me the courage to give them a go.
Michael!
I adore your blog! I can’t recall how I originally came across it but I look forward to your updates. Actually; as I pause for a moment, I believe I came across your culinary blog after reading from another of your forums – a lovely personal story about riding the school bus and “popularity” – yes, that was exactly how I found myself here. I suppose that’s rather close to stalking, isn’t it?
Oh yes, but about me…
Poor, single mom with a rich imagination and an abundance of creativity. A sometime Computer Programmer, Insurance Broker and Administrative Zombie. Currently a school bus driver with vague literary aspirations – a 50-something zoomer who is crazy about roller-blading, food and literature and doing my own thing.
xo,
Juddzz
I am so delighted you stopped by the “About You” section. I love it when people take the time to share a little bit about themselves with me. And I adore anyone who adores my blog. (Wink).
Thank you very, very much!
Hi Michael,
I found your blog while looking around for what people had to say about the Negroni. I was considering the issue because a friend had just sent me this link:
http://www.findeatdrink.com/Index/Drink/Entries/2010/9/9_recipe_negroni_sbagliato.html
Being ever intrepid and a great fan of interesting things on the grill—I’ll invite you over for grilled pizzas sometime—I dutifully marinated some oranges and set out to make this drink. Now I’m with you that the Negroni is a species of perfection, so I’m never happy when somebody borrows the name for a lesser concoction however inventive. The “Sbagliato” is already a problem, and with the sugars from the orange, there just isn’t going to anything left of that beautiful ballet of bitters that is a Negroni. That’s when I decided that Joe Campanale is trying to make the wrong drink and we should ditch that sparkling wine distraction. Those yummy slices of burnt orange should be in this:
Grilled Orange Americano
1 grilled orange wedge
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet red vermouth
2 ounces soda water
This could well become my standard aperitif for a grill party. Anyway, this is a drink I thought you might like to consider. Glad I found your blog.
Found you on eater today. I’m a waiter, and I now love your blog. I now shamelessly promote my blog, which is a food blog that is of no threat to you…because my blog is also about cats, pandas, my sex life etc.
Best to you…I’ll be reading!
Shaun
http://beefpiranha.wordpress.com/
Shaun,
It’s a pleasure to serve you, fellow waiter. If you manage to include cats, pandas, and your sex life into the same post, I will definitely be reading you as well.
Michael
50 something retired school teacher who has moved to the big city to start part 3 of her life. Found your blog through a tweet. I love to cook most times, but seldom use recipes except as jumping- off places. I love to eat at all times.
Okay, HOW did I miss this? Apologies.
I love that you say you’re starting part 3 of your life. I’m nearing the end of part 2 myself and currently assessing my progress.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog.
Michael
Michael,
Heaven help me, I can only hope for a day where that happens. But I won’t force it, pandas just hate it when you “ask.”
:)Shaun
Pandas are shy creatures. Except perhaps when one succeeds in getting them drunk on tender bamboo shoots that one has soaked overnight in plum wine. Works like a charm every time.
24, recently married to a Marine Officer who is also my high school sweetheart (but it was prep school, so it’s not as cheesy), living in North Carolina against my wishes, daughter of a gay man (and a straight woman), food blogger who’s waiting for someone to offer her $1 million to write a book about food memories (or for more than 1,000 visitors a month), and absolutely, utterly, unequivocally in love with your blog. your voice is clear and entertaining, and your recipes make me hungry.
Oh, you can’t fool me. Prep schools have a high cheese factor, too. It’s just much nicer cheese.
If that person of organization who offers you $1 million for your book deal, please send him/her/it my way. I’ll do one for half that.
I’m really glad you decided to stop by and share a bit of yourself with me (even though it tok me two weeks to get back to you [I’ve been in hiding]).
Hope to hear from you again!
Michael
After 16 years (to the day) as owner of Menu Works (a menu design and printing company) I sold the business and went to work for the new owner. This career led to an appalling obsession with food photography, which shows no signs of relenting. In 2009 I did a 365 project. Photograph each of my breakfasts for a year. They are posted on flickr under my identity as wikipix. Now I’m just getting started with a blog called The Food Reader and am still finding my voice in this new endeavor.
I think it would be a greater personal challenge for me to eat 365 breakfasts in a year, let alone photograph them every day. Cudos. Please send recipe for morning energy bars. Much needed.
If you’re looking for your voice, I suggest you don’t go very far looking. Just be yourself and write about what interests you. Don’t worry about trying to be anything other than yourself because it’s exhausting work and you’ll wind up having a nervous breakdown in the middle of one of your breakfasts. You’ve got your own voice. It may take a little while to warm up, but it’ll come.
Thanks for visiting,
Michael
Happy Holidays, Michael!
And the same to you, Annapet.
Will 2011 see the coming of your much-awaited blog?
Happy New Year.
Ciao- welcome to my world- another SF’r gone expat. Turning 30 in SF and being a single woman, spending much to much time at places like the Stud and Hamburger Mary’s I fled to France and Italy for a break before moving up to the wine country to break out on my own as a pastry chef after 7 years in a 5 star hotel. J’adore France, but my first trip to Italy was my last. It is now home. I turned in my pastry chef title to become cooking teacher. We all now know it was Catherine de’ Medici that taught the French to cook! Found the boy of my dreams who is now my house-husband, I spend my time Over a Tuscan Stove http://www.divinacucina-blog.com