A Writer Afoot » lost recipe for happiness

Award news for THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS

Barbara Samuel — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:21:05 +0000

Sorry to be absent so much lately. I’m working hard on the 2011 book. it’s the most ambitious I’ve undertaken so far, and it’s taking all my writing huevos to get it on the page. I did write a post on setting for Writer Unboxed yesterday, and it has generated some excellent discussion. Please join in.

IN OTHER NEWS: I am delighted to let you know that THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS is a RITA finalist. Quite a powerful panel of books, and I’m honored to be in such company. Happy, happy, happy.

I’ll write a post about my deep and visceral reaction to Tucson one day soon. In the meantime, I’m studying Spanish and have gone back to cello. Thinking hard about a vegetable garden this summer. Needed some hobbies that were not related to words and writing!

Will get back to posting regularly soon, I promise.

The Monday After

Barbara Samuel — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:59:47 +0000

It is the Monday morning after the busy, family- and food-rich holiday of Thanksgiving. Technically, I should be digging back into my book, because I didn’t work at all last week, but there is a sweet quiet in my office and I find all I want to do is soak in it. I turned Pandora radio to the Baroque Classical station and although the dog is sitting very, very close by to be sure I don’t forget he needs his walk, I am alone for the first time in five days.

Now, I realize that many people do not like to be alone all that much, but writers tend to require vast amounts of solitude. Coming into my office this morning felt like entering a church. My sanctuary, complete with altar in the corner, and all my books and music, the posters on the wall and the calendars, all my tools of creativity. There is a small, stuffed orange bear that someone gave me at a conference, while I was in the midst of writing The Lost Recipe for Happiness, which has a restaurant named The Orange Bear. I took it as a good sign.

It is not a particularly tidy place—there are too many little collections of things, too many papers and photos and feathers and books for that—but I do like to keep it clean, and most Saturday afternoons, I collect all the scattered notes I’ve written, the sixteen pens and dry erase markers I’ve been using, the printed pages from the MIP, and put everything where they belong. This Monday morning, nothing has been put away because I was busy with Thanksgiving, and that’s the way it should be. I forget that I need a transition day after a big rush—after Thanksgiving or a vacation or the RWA conference. I need to collect myself, come back to the quiet of my mind.

It isn’t that I don’t love Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorites. (“They’re all your favorites,” said my ex once.) I love big fat turkeys and stuffing and an ambling walk with family members. I love having my children around, adore the luxury of time to listen to them talk about their lives. I love the cooking, the preparation, all of it.

I also love this, the Monday morning after. Christopher Robin and Miles are off to work. Ian is back to his home in Washington DC. There is no shopping I must accomplish, no urgent cleaning tasks. The dishwasher is humming with an ordinary load of breakfast dishes. Outside it is a crisp blue Colorado day. In my office, my sanctuary, I am writing.

As I put words on the page, at first in a scattered way, then a little more solidly, I feel my spirit coming to light, nourished by this simple, ordinary act. Here is where I am most myself, here in this quiet, coolly lit room, putting words on the page. Here, when I am in my own mind. Here, where I have space and time to reflect and think and imagine.

I know we aren’t supposed to identify ourselves by the work we do—that it is somehow seen as a flaw of our essential humanity—but honestly, I am a writer. That’s not just what I do. It is a huge part of who I am. It is how I process everything. As I write these words, snippets of the holidays come floating back—the laughter of my eldest son, the pleasure my father took in the apple-blackberry crumble I made for CR, the huge amounts of help my youngest son offered getting things ready and clean and together, the walk I had with my mother. There are the small, poignant moments of recognition—this is Sasha’s last Thanksgiving. Ian has found his home, and it is a long, long way from me. The comfort is that he’s doing work he loves as madly as I love mine, and only the proper choice of a spouse will make so much of an impact on his quality of life.

This is all part of my post-holiday ritual, coming into my office with an extra cup of coffee, grounding myself with the act of writing. My dog needs a walk, and I need to read the pages I’ve been writing, and then, perhaps, by the end of the day, I’ll be able to write a page or two. By tomorrow, I’ll be fully back, and ready to write more productively.

How do you ground yourself after the big roar of a major holiday? Do you have rituals?

Slow cooked, spicy, chunky apple butter

Barbara Samuel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:37:52 +0000

Technically, I suppose, apple butter is smooth. I originally made this recipe last winter and pureed it afterward. Since, however, my main use for this particular condiment is in my morning oatmeal, I have found I much prefer it to be left chunky. Recipe is adapted from one I found at The Art of Homemaking.

SLOW COOKED CHUNKY, SPICY APPLE BUTTER

Apples enough to fill a crock pot–about 10-12 good sized apples.
2 T cinnamon
5-6 whole cloves
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped and broken into pieces
6-8 oz hard apple cider

Wash, core, and peel the apples. Slice them into good size slices and fill the crock pot. Add the spices, salt and cider, and cook on low for 18-24 hours. Smell it like every good thing all night long, and stir sometimes to keep the spices moving. When they’re very dark and soft, use a potato masher or two butter knives to break the apples into small chunks. Ladle into jars and freeze, or if you eat it as fast as we do, just pile the jars in the back of the fridge. Also very good on French toast or buckwheat pancakes.

Do you have an easy winter recipe to share with us?

The first (work) day after the big rush to the end

Barbara Samuel — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:45:28 +0000

First, a happy note for the day: THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS has just gone into an 8th printing! Thanks to you guys. I’m so thrilled.

Anyone who has ever written had to work to deadline knows the giddy feeling that arrives just afterward. I mailed the new book to my agent and editor last Friday, collapsed on Saturday and watched many episodes of Brothers and Sisters back to back, and yesterday did my spiritual activies (including Nia), and went to the movies with CR and Miles. (STAR TREK–and even better than I’d been hearing. Fun, fun, fun!)

The book is not entirely finished of course–this is just round one. Now everyone will read the book and make comments, suggestions, and as my brain clears, I know from experience that I will think of things I want to improve, or remember threads that I’ve dropped. The recipes are still in progress; I ran out of time to test before mailing and have a few that are not quite where I want them to be. And then there will be copy edits and galleys and we should be getting art fairly soon (as the book will be out in January).

But today, I’ve been working such a long time that I’m sort of lost over what to do with myself today. Putter? Sleep? Clean my disaster of an office? Read all day? Eventually, I suppose I should return the wretchedly overdue library books (please tell me I’m not alone on my bad habit of running up library fines!). Maybe I’ll just lie on the sofa and daydream.

I’ll have to get back to work soon enough. What do you do with a vacation day?

Blogging on food television at RTB today

Barbara Samuel — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:13:33 +0000

Come talk with me about Top Chef and the pale imitation Chopping Block at Romancing the Blog today.

Lost Recipe arrives today in Australia

Barbara Samuel — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:49:09 +0000

The Lost Recipe for Happiness debuts in Australia today (February 1). I just heard that it’s on the cover of Good Reading magazine, and I’m absolutely delighted by the wonderful reviews I’ve been getting from Down Under.

Meanwhile, the US edition is going to a 5th printing next week. (This is me falling over in a faint.) THANK you, my friends!

I’m so jazzed about this Australian release. (You can read about snow and cool off. ) I’d love to hear about any sightings. New Zealand, too, of course.

Interview at Modern Girl Style

Barbara Samuel — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:31:43 +0000

Haven’t been the most attentive blogger the past couple of weeks. Things will slow down soon and I’ll be back nattering on as always. In the meantime, here’s a link to an interview by Kamela Mirich, at Modern Girl Style. (Such a hip and attractive site!)

Anything interesting in your world? Talk to me.

Juan's Carne en su Jugo

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:15:02 +0000

Alison Kent won an ARC of the Lost Recipe for Happiness, and she made one of the dishes, a soup that is one of my absolute favorites in all the world. I go to a restaurant on the westside of Colorado Springs just to eat this particular soup. It took me ages to get the recipe right (since, for some reason, they don’t just give it away to anyone who asks!), but the version in the book is a winner. Check out the photos Alison posted. There is also a review of the book here.

The soup is made with beef, bacon, cabbage, peppers and lime or lemon juice, among other things. Delicious for a winter day.

I will have some food-related contests going on very soon, but at the moment, it seems you cannot post responses to my site at barbaraoneal.com and that kills the whole point, doesn’t it?

4 more days.

Elena changes her clothes

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:14:41 +0000

A NEW COVER FOR THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS

This is quite a big change. As my agent said, “If you look at it objectively, this is a pretty interesting example of different ways to look at the same book.”

Remember when I showed you the cover for my new book, The Lost Recipe for Happiness? This is was it:

Not everyone loved it madly, so the art department went back to the drawing board. This is the new cover:

What do you think?