Friday, September 26, 2008

Baltimore Book Festival

I haven't been posting very much lately. I have been quite busy (life gets in the way, you know), and my modem almost blew up, so a replacement is on its way. For now, I'm just standing in the nporthwest corner of my living room, tapping into someone else's unsecured wireless. But I do hope to be at the Bawlmer Book Festival this weekend. Several food-related authors / Food Network personalities will be there, such as the following (all will appear at the Food for Thought stage unless otherwise noted):

  • George Duran, host of Secret Life Of... and Ham on the Street, touting his new book Take This Dish and Twist It (Sunday @ 2:30, to 5:00)
  • The original Next Food Network Chefs, those Hearty Boys - Dan Smith & Steve McDonagh. What happened to them, anyway? (Saturday @ 5:30, to 7:00)
  • Jeff Henderson, who discovered his passion for cooking while behind bars, and is now hosting the Head Chef Project, a Food Network show that looks much more interesting and worthwhile than silly fluff like, oh, I dunno, Semi-Homemade? Paula's Party? Anything with Guy Fieri? The book du jour is Chef Jeff Cooks (Sunday @ 5:30, to 7:00)
  • Martin Yan - not a FN personality, but he predates it and is one of the tried and true PBS chefs - Yan Can Cook is right up there with The French Chef, The Frugal Gourmet and so on. His new book is Martin Yan's China. (Saturday @ 1:00, to 2:30)
  • and one of the original food bloggers, Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts (Saturday @ 4, to 5:30). I will at least be there for that one.
Not exactly food-related, but since she's named for a food, she deserves a mention: Sweet Potato Queen "Boss Queen" Jill Conner Browne will also be at the festival promoting her book The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit (Sunday @ 5:30 to 7:00 in the Literary Salon). And speaking of sweet potatoes: did you know there's a Sweet Potato Festival in Shrewsbury, PA, this weekend, too?

If you are a foodie author that I missed, feel free to plug yourself in the Comments section. Happy book hunting, y'all!

UPDATE (9/27) - I did get down to the Book Festival, but with much torrential rain that soaked me down to my socks - I even went into the Walters just to see if they sold any overpriced rain ponchos in their gift shop (no, though a small umbrella costs $24.95). I ran into Julie (Kitchenography) and Elizabeth (Strawberries in Paris) at Adam Roberts' book reading/cooking demonstration - his first. Adam made a delicious tomato sauce with penne pasta, which we in the audience got to taste, and he described the way to make perfect roasted chicken. He also encouraged budding gourmets to try and don't be afraid to fail in the kitchen (he gave some high-larious examples of some of his own past failures). Afterwards, the three of us got to meet Adam, who is a very nice guy. We were able to give him and his partner Craig some recommendations on some good places for crabs, dinner and brunch. Plus, Adam signed my thoroughly drenched copy of his book How to Shop, Chop and Table-Hop Like a Pro (damn rain). So Adam, I hope you Craig enjoy the rest of your night and day in Baltimore, and that you liked our recommendations!

Also: Adam's fellow NYC-blogger Emily Farris, author of the Casserole Crazy blog, is at the Food for Thought tent on Sunday at the same time - 4 PM. I had to admit, I don't make a lot of casseroles. Maybe Emily's book and blog will give me some more inspiration? I'll have to check it out.

6 comments:

Pigtown*Design said...

julie and i are meeting at donna's at 2:30.

Pigtown*Design said...

i bailed. i had already been soaked to the skin earlier.

Anonymous said...

Yay! So glad we got to catch up!! :-)

I'm going to make that chicken this week and put up our pictures with it!

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying my copy of Adam's book. Hope yours has dried out! (Good lord that was a lot of rain.)

Anonymous said...

So jealous I missed it. Adam told me he was coming into town, but I had a catering event all day Saturday.... We stayed so late we almost didn't make it home, due to half of york road beeing flooded out. Very glad you guys were able to talk to him, and give some crab recomomendations. He does mention you in his posting today. Whohoo!

John said...

It was great, and I saw the post! Of course, like a dumbass, I posted my comment twice, since it hang long enough the first time that I published it again, thinking it didn't take. It did. They both did. D'OH! I hope Adam deletes the second one.

I had to dry each page individually with a hair dryer. The book is all wrinkly now but it works!