Cookbookaholic

Coupon for You!

If you listen to the show locally in Charlotte, then you know that Bob & Sheri endorse  the restaurant 131 Main. It’s very nice. In fact, we had our Secret Santa luncheon there back in December.

Now, Bob & Sheri get to eat there all the time. They’re lucky like that…but I must admit that I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve had there. In fact, I still drool when I think about their Wedge Salad, drenched with blue cheese dressing and tons of crispy chopped bacon topped with Thai Steak. Yowza….now that’s a great meal!

Anyway, Bob & Sheri and 131 Main have launched an online campaign. You go to the 131 Main page on our website and download a coupon for a free item (no other purchase necessary!). Last month was a coupon for a free appetizer. But this month is…wait for it…Desserts!

Sheri loves, loves, loves the Banana Crème Pie…but I think I’d like to try a slice of the Key Lime Pie with graham cracker crust. Plus, there's a brownie smothered in nuts, ice cream and caramel. Hmmm….now I can’t decide!

There are 131 Main locations up in Lake Norman, down in Blakeney and the original over in Dilworth. Click here for the downloadable coupon:

http://1079thelink.bobandsheri.com/a/go/131main

Be sure to use it before the end of April!

I Got Proactive

Okay, so not the acne treatment ProActiv but the actual got-off-my-rear and did something “proactive.”

When I’m lucky enough to get a new cookbook in the mail, it’s usually through a company called Open Book Publicity. It’s run by two great publicists named Emily and Leslie. They were very early arrivals to the Cookbookaholic party and have kept me on their mailing list. I’ve had some amazing cookbooks come my way thanks to their efforts.

Recently, I got a wild hair and rang up the good folks over at Cision. They gather contact info on all tv/news programs, radio shows, newspapers, magazines and bloggers. If you’re a publicist looking to contact media outlets for your clients, Cision can probably help you put together a list (for a nice price). I spoke with a couple of very nice people in their Internet/blogger department and within half an hour, they emailed me a copy of my blog’s listing! It’ll be added to their system with all the other thousands of bloggers out there…

Who knows how long it’ll take to get more publishers to look in my direction? I’ll never know unless I give it a try…

 

Luncheon!

Earlier this week, I attended a local Charlotte PRSA luncheon over at Byron’s South End. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to attend a PRSA meeting and I was thrilled to be there. The luncheon featured a presentation from a noted social media guru (which was awesome and informative)—but let’s talk about the luncheon part!

Feast your eyes on this!

I had the pecan-crusted chicken breast. It was so tender and amazing…very delicious, all brown and buttery! I was in awe of how much of the pecan crust stayed intact. (I could never pull that off in a million years) It was topped with a nice dijon mustard sauce--not overpowering, just creamy with a little zing. The green beans were fresh and crisp; and the potatoes were very creamy. For dessert, I chose a slice from a gorgeous chocolate layer cake with a rich chocolate frosting. Wow! Very nice….I could get used to lunches like this. 

Even better than the lunch? Finally meeting my Facebook friend Nan Gray! Nan and I have been FB buddies for a while now and she actually confesses to reading this blog. God bless her!  Nan let me snap this super cute picture along with her colleague Erin.

Great lunch, great people.

 

Four Amazing Words

Oh my gosh…oh happy day! My stop by the used book store pays off in such a huge way. For a cold, bleak February morning—it almost feels like Christmas!

I arrived a few minutes before the store is scheduled to open. So, no big deal I’ll just wait. And then I waited…and waited. Could they be on vacation? Snowed in, still? There’s no note on the door. Hmmmmm….

After twenty minutes of waiting, the lady that owns the store drives up and opens the door. I head straight to the cookbook shelves and start looking. Almost done with one shelf (with no luck), I turn my head to the left and spot something—whoa—it was right beside me the whole time.

Remember the garage sale up in Davidson where the husband did most of the cooking? He recommended The Pat Conroy Cookbook back then and I’ve had it on my radar ever since. I’ve just found the first printing of the paperback edition. Woo-hoo!

A look over to the left and I spot one of the most gorgeous words: Caramel. There’s a whole cookbook about caramel! Oh, how amazing…must grab it. Even the cover design looks like gooey, creamy caramel. Yum.

Back to the original shelf I was searching. Unbelievable! One of the cookbooks I put back after my last visit is still here.

Out of Our League from the Junior League of Greensboro. This is the new, blue hardback edition that was printed for the twentieth anniversary. I’m so psyched that it’s still here. It’s waited long enough, it’s coming home with me!

How could this visit get any better? Honestly, how could it?

Before I head over the cash register, I detour by the “wall.” This is the staging area behind the cash register where the books are almost ready to go onto the sales floor. The only thing needed is a price tag. If you find a book in this area and the owner, Carol, is there, she’ll give you a price. You can buy it and she won’t have to find space on the shelf for it. That’s what we call…wait for it…winning!

I’m busy trying to spot the tell-tale plastic spiral spine of cookbooks but every type of book known to man is all packed together here. About two-thirds down the first shelf, I spot a familiar shade of green and my heart skips a beat. She’s here…

The green gives way to the familiar black and white smile dressed in elegant dress, pearls and holding a platter of pound cake. It’s Betty Feezor.

I immediately see the plastic spine is in terrible shape. I gently pull her from the stack, hold her up to Carol and say, “Why didn’t they love her better?”

I’m almost heartsick. The top and bottom are gone. The middle section, while almost whole, is still split near the middle. I’ll gladly take her home but let’s face it: it’s a bleepin’ Betty Feezor. Even if the spine is hanging together by a thread…it’s still a treasure. I hold my breath, say a prayer, give it a shot and ask the price.

“Because of the condition of the spine, five bucks.”

Four amazing words: Betty Feezor, five bucks. That would bring my total for the four cookbooks to twenty bucks. And what a coincidence, I actually have twenty bucks left in my wallet. This is one of those days where it all comes together and makes sense. I really like days like this.

Inside the book are some gems. I’ve got several recipe clippings from The Charlotte Observer tucked inside. “Brandied Fruit Starter,” “Quick Friendship Cake,” “Peppermint Eggnog Punch” and “Sweet Potato Balls” have made their home inside the pages. 

The former owner or owners have also handwritten several recipes on pages and the back cover. Notes and ingredients are packed into margins and squeezed anywhere and everywhere they can fit. There are some in a small, precise handwriting slanting to the right, a couple are in a larger, looser, elegant cursive and still others in a large, bold and wide penmanship slanting left. A recipe for “Crazy Cake” pops out and grabs the attention.

I guess they did love her after all. Loved it enough to add their own special recipes to stand along side the ones from Betty. 

Unbelievable ending! Now, time to turn the car towards South Carolina and go visit with my mom. I’m sure she can’t wait to see the stamps and cardstock I found for her. And I can’t wait to sit down and spend some more time with Betty. She deserves some tlc don’t you think?

 

Cold February Morning

Okay, so the last sale that actually mentioned “cookbooks” in the ad started on a Friday. When I finally got in the house, it had been picked through thoroughly. As I was going through the listing for a cold Saturday morning in February—there are only a handful of sales—but one mentions cookbook! I’m so there…

Mapping the address showed it to be well out of my usual driving range. In fact, I see an air field is not too far away! Wow…that’s pretty far out. But they mention cookbooks and there’s only one other sale that looks promising…so I’m in.

Saturday morning was cold and bleak. And thanks to extensive road construction, the exit my GPS wants to take is closed. Now, its cold, bleak and I’m bleepin’ lost! Sure, GPS chick will “recalculate,” but I suspect I’ve just tacked on an unexpected extra 10-15 minutes to the journey. Picked over again? Argh!!!

I finally arrive and it looks like a serial crafter has decided to sell off their supplies. There were three rows and each table was packed with everything from paint sets to cardstock and yarn.

There were boxes all in a row, but I’m only seeing songbooks of old country favorites and hymns. After box number four, I start to uncover the cookbooks. They’re small, but I’ll take what I can get. Then, I lift up another batch of songbooks and find this…

                      
 

Now, this was worth the trip! I find some more, grab some rubber stamps and paper for my “crafty” mom and head to check out.

I hear the gal handling the money joke that something from every aisle in Michael’s is somewhere in this sale. Then, an older man calls out to her, “Angie, how much for this old tricycle?”

Ah, another Angela—that’s cool. By the way, Angie tells me that the price for each cookbook is twenty-five cents. Oh, yeah! Here’s what I got…

The Complete Outdoor Cookbook (Yvonne Young Tarr), Favorite Mexican Cookin’, The Children’s Cookbook, Today’s All-Purpose Cookbook (Home Economics Teachers), Washburn’s Cooking (Washburn Graphics Employees), Mountain Makin’s in the Smokies: A Cook Book (Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association), Cook Books by Good Books: Cookies and Cook Books by Good Books: Breads.

The second garage sale turns up zero cookbooks—but I do snag this super cool cake stand:

Lots of driving for such an early morning! I’m on the opposite side of town and decide to head on down the road to see my mom. I’ll deliver her new rubber stamps and cardstock paper. Plus, I’ll get to swing by my favorite used book store to check out their cookbooks. Maybe I’ll get lucky?

 

Love the Smell of Banana Bread!

Ever notice that bananas are fine for about a week and then they immediately go downhill and turn into yucky, speckled mush? It looks terribly nasty but the smell of banana is really intense. What a great time to bust out the Banana Nut Bread recipes!

After writing about the four cookbooks I found at the thrift store back in January, I went flipping through them looking for a recipe. I noticed that the Two and Company church cookbook had that awful smoker’s house smell. It’s really acrid—especially when you start turning the pages. That unleashes the bitter smell, ugh! But, when comparing Banana Bread ingredients, it had the more interesting looking recipe.

I doubled the amount called for walnuts and when baking, this was the most wonderful smell. It really counteracted the pungent smell of the smokey cookbook.

Here’s the recipe! 

Banana Bread: The Recipe

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

½ cup butter

¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (about 2-3)

½ cup milk

1 Cup finely chopped walnuts 

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and bananas to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat until light. Add flour and milk alternately. Fold in walnuts and mix thoroughly. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (or until tester comes out clean).

Please Explain This

One of the items on my grocery list was to replenish my supply of syrup. As I was walking through the cereal/syrup aisle, something caught me off guard. Can you spot the problem?

Do you see any Mrs. Butterworth’s on these shelves? Any where at all? 

What kind of world do we live in where Mrs. Butterworth’s can’t be found in my local grocery store? There should be a whole row of that gorgeous gal! How does this happen? I’m shocked, amazed and appalled.

Luckily, I found some at a grocery store near the office. Crisis averted…

Your 2010 Donations...My 2011 Finds

Over the Christmas holiday, I heard that the week leading up to the New Year is the busiest time for last-minute donations to thrift stores. People are trying to clear out some old items and claim some donations on taxes. About the second week back in January, I took a chance and made a thrift store run to see if any of those last minute donations included cookbooks.

And apparently, they did! I came up with these four finds:

 

Two and Company (St. Thomas’ Church/Garrison Forest, Owings Mills, MD), A Taste of Heaven (Charity Baptist WMU/Kannapolis, NC), Party Receipts (Charleston Junior League/Charleston, SC) and Recipes from the Heart Cookbook (The Pampered Chef).

I was pleasantly surprised with what I found; but, we’re not yet at that point where people call me first before they donate their cookbooks. How do we get people to call me first?

 

Only Fifteen Away...

From maximum bookshelf capacity? Hee-hee! No, just kidding. Well, maybe...

Actually, I just checked the stats for my blog. According to them, I am only 15 pageviews away from reaching 25,000 lifetime pageviews. That's a lot of clicks for the past two years! Well, for me anyways.

Okay, it's not knocking down the doors of any internet viewing records--but I don't think that's too bad for one gal's misadventures during Saturday morning garage sales, on eBay and banging around the kitchen.

If you've been a frequent visitor to my blog--I thank you for coming around! I've been hitting a few garage sales here and there since January. I just may have some interesting tales (and cookbooks) to share with you!

So, please keep clicking on over!

 

Avett Brothers Hold the Mayo

Again with the emails! On Friday, Producer Angela (from Keith Larson’s show on WBT) sent around an email announcing a tray of sandwiches from local Laurel Market had arrived. Now, a side effect of working at a radio station is free food…which is nice. Restaurants will drop off platters of food in hopes that it will get mentioned on the air. If it gets dropped off in the newsroom, it disappears forever and the rest of us never hear about it.

Luckily, the word got out! Plus, these Laurel Market sandwiches were special because they were “inspired” by the music of The Avett Brothers. Frank was awesome enough to run over and pick up a sandwich for both of us.

There were three choices of sandwiches all named after an Avett Brothers song. I got this one:

“Pretty Girl” is described on the Laurel Market website as prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, horseradish sauce on cranberry walnut bread. The mozzarella was really thick and creamy and wonderful. The fresh basil leaves must have been at least ten deep!

The other two sandwiches they feature are:

“Gimmeakiss” with geneoa salami, pastrami, mayo, jalapeno pepper, sweet pickles, cucumber, red onion, fresh cilantro on baguette.

“Kick Drum Heart” has avocado, egg (over easy), spicy mustard, Bibb lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper on toasted sourdough.

Here’s the website for Laurel Market: http://www.laurelmarketdeli.com/

p.s. I dropped the camera right before taking this sandwich photo. The zoom lens was stuck in the open position and wouldn't close up. After a few minutes and a lot of pushing, pulling and twisting--it finally started working again. I don't think the image is as "focused" as previous photos....?