Louis Armstrong was playing in the kitchen last night, sauntering out of some digital contraption I’m embarrassed to own. When I cook, I like to do so alone. For one. For just me. And I prop my little touch screen whatchamacallit on my chopping block and let some twisting dollop of jazz float around while I sauté mushrooms. It’s very silly. I spent some time with Rosemary Clooney, too. She was there for the carrots.
I can’t cook. I will say this if you ask me. I stand at my range with its black parts and its white parts and the metal coils that burn orange – at the oven I’m afraid to clean. I stand there and move a wooden spoon around and around in the pan. Until the vegetables shrink down – that’s so amazing! Look at that, there! What are they doing?? – and they smell suddenly like food. And I am proud. Louis Armstrong is prouder. I eat.
I don’t take pictures of my meals. I don’t cook in good lighting. I also don’t care. I have my dead jazz singers to watch over my solitary plates of dead plants. And it is good.
But the world of Food Blogging is just that – a world. Cosmos. Universe. All kinds of gargantuan space analogies. And plenty of people on our globe with more skills and better cameras are alive and eating and telling all of humanity about it. Because, why not? – food is such a good way to live.
Touting the release of her new cookbook direct from the popular food blogging website, Smitten Kitchen.com, founder Deb Perelman will bring the creativity and pleasures of her world to the Louisville Free Public Library’s Main branch tonight, Wednesday, March 27th. Join her for a taste of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook starting at 7pm.
The first cookbook born from the popular blog of the same name, Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook brings the spirit of her “obsessive home cook” candor to hard copy with more than 100 recipes to be tried, enjoyed and – duh – shared. Featuring her own color photographs and a variety of new ideas to whip up, entries include delights such as Apricot Breakfast Crisp, Mushroom Bourguignon, Leek Fritters, Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives and Rosemary, S’more Layer Cake and Lemon Bars – all concocted with the idea that cooking should be a joy, no matter your skill-set, from start to finish. Happy heart, happy belly kind of stuff. I can dig that.
Dial up York Street (that’s the Main branch, you know), get your free tickets and head out tonight for a meme-worthy gastronomic adventure. This evening I will do the same, but I will most likely be hovering over the little electric bonfire of my warm stove in my cold, cold apartment telling myself over mushrooms-getting-smaller: “Louis, I can’t cook, but this sure smells like food.”
I can’t cook – for anyone but dead jazz singers. It’s a pleasure.
The Louisville Free Public Library’s Main branch is located at 301 York Street. For tickets and more information, call (502) 574-1644. Also check out the event page.
Image: Courtesy of Photobucket www.photobucket.com
