Holiday Blues

About this time of year, I feel over loaded. Don’t you?

Instead of joy and holiday fun, I have cooking anxiety—what’ll I cook? Will it come out all right? Does my stove work? Will anyone want to eat it?

And oh Lord, there’s the shopping anxiety. Did I forget someone? Will everyone like what I get them? (Oops everyone and them is not grammatical. But will everyone like what I get him—that sounds terrible. Her—worse.) More holiday pressure to do it right! More pressure to be perfect. Even writing about the holidays trips me up.

Before anxiety overcomes me I channel Sissy LeBlanc. What would Sissy say: “When attacked by the holiday blues, a smart girl takes a glass of wine into a soothing bath and lets the rest of the world fend for themselves. It will help them appreciate her.” Rule number 106 The Southern Belle’s Handbook. (You won't find this rule in the book. Sissy just made it up.)

The Hard Life of the Writer Part II

This weekend celebrity food writers extraordinaire Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg http://www.becomingachef.com/blog.dwt.php (known to their fans as Kandrew--sort of like Brangelina) stayed at our house. We celebrated by opening a bottle of Louis de Sacy champagne which we were keeping for friends whom we knew would appreciate it.
Saturday night they took us to the spectacular Beverly Hills French Restaurant Bouchon where the chef gave us a tour of the kitchen and sent out delicious dish after dish including a fabulous beet tart and melon salad. My trout almondine with fresh string beans was cooked to perfection.
Sunday morning we ambled through the Beverly Hills Farmer's market before going home lunch by the pool of fresh corn (picked that morning), and an heirloom tomato salad Andrew made with Greek feta cheese, onions, and red peppers. For dessert we ate fresh strawberries and raspberries. We lazed around and swam (I told you writers have tough lives) until it was time to go to the Hollywood Bowl to see a sold out performance of "The Swell Season" --the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irgova who won an Oscar for best song in their film, Once. We capped off the evening with a visit backstage and a long chat with the charming Marketa.
Andrew and Karen flew back to New York this morning leaving us to our regular lives, but they tell me they will bring out an app: "What to Drink with What you Eat" based on their book of the same name. Soon we'll be able to check our phones and learn the perfect wine to order whenever we're out for dinner. Cool huh?