Fame?

by Mara @ What's For Dinner? on March 19, 2010

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

I’m sorry I was such a tease this morning… I know you’re all dying to know my “big news”! I did get a couple guesses, but none of them were quite right!

Let me give you some background info before I get to the big announcement (Ok, it might not be that big, but it’s big to me!) Remember a few weeks ago when I posted about the amazing supper club that my mom was a part of which, by proxy, I was then a part of? Well, one of the women that joined for the first time on the night that I did, Amy, has a friend. Not just any friend. This friend happens to be an editor (or the editor?) of Make It Better, a Chicagoland magazine and website. It features all things local for food, dining, decorating… a sort of InStyle for the Chicago suburbs.

Well, this friend of Amy’s contacted her about talking to all of us in the supper club about our “appliances that we can’t live without” for an article. Of course, I was thrilled to be a part, told Laura (the friend) that my favorite appliance was my immersion blender, and even sent her the link to my post on the subject. I figured that would be it, and the article would show up as a quote from “one suburban woman”. WOW was I wrong. Next thing I knew, we were all getting emails from Laura to try and set up a photo shoot for the article in the magazine and on the website! We agreed on last night, and we were asked to wear simple and casual clothes, bring an apron and our favorite appliance.

I arrived at Amy’s house at about 6 p.m. and she had bunches of cheese, crackers, and olives out to nosh on.

Later, Tina brought this wonderful homemade prune, fig, and pepper jam which she served with this amazing cheese (I stink at remembering cheese names! Help me out ladies?) and crackers.

My mom and Liz arrived soon after with their appliances in tow. It cracked me up seeing a mixer in a bag, and an immersion blender in a purse! (Yes, my mom chose the same appliance as me! Great minds…)

Liz also brought parmesan crisps that she posted the other day, and they were SO delicious! I can’t wait to make them!

The photographer and Laura arrived, and they began setting up, and we started shooting! I don’t have pictures of my mom and I posing with our blenders, but I have others! It was so cool being a part of something that seemed so “official”! I kept joking that my camera was going to end up with “lens envy” or a “flash inferiority complex.”

I took a few shots just for fun

Liz with a very cool weeble wine glass

Amy stirring her amazing soup

Me and my mom

Mom, Tina, and Liz

Once all the photos were taken, we sat down to eat at this beautiful table, and dined on a delicious butternut squash soup with fried shallots, roasted asparagus, and two delicious breads: one multigrain from WF and one homemade Irish brown bread.

I was in charge of bringing dessert, so I did a little “Whole Foods Baking” by shopping in their dessert case. I found these beautiful dessert mousse shooters that I just had to get!

It was a great night… but I haven’t gotten to “the big news” yet! While we were eating, Laura asked “us bloggers” if we’d want to write guest posts for their weekly “What’s For Dinner” section of the website. Of course I agreed, and will start writing my first post soon! Then, out of curiosity, we asked what the readership was. The website has 20,000 subscribers!!! Our article about the appliances we can’t live without will be in the print edition of the magazine too, which has 52,000 subscribers! I can’t believe that my little blog is going to be exposed to THAT many people! It’s a little overwhelming!

I’ll keep you all posted as to when my first article will go up, but I need to ask: what should I write about?!

In case you haven’t yet checked out Liz or Amy’s blog after my incessant linking, you really need to! They’re both feature fantastic food and wonderful writing!