Cooking Mania

Once every couple of months the photographer from the local paper comes to the house to shoot pictures for two food pages. He stays about three hours and takes a zillion pictures for each column. He typically uses 3 or 4 pics for each column, one in the teaser thing above the masthead (it has a name, but I forget -- shoot me, I'm just a freelancer) and a few for the food page itself.

Sounds easy, right? Here's what has to precede his visit. First, I developed food page ideas for my editor for six months ahead, and got her approval. Before he arrives for the coming two food pages, I have to have written the two food pages, so that I can prepare the recipes from them. Typically I make two recipes per food page for pictures, sometimes more. So for a given "shoot," I prepare 4 or more dishes.

Several days or weeks before he arrives, I research the topics and write the articles.

Four days before he arrives, the house gets a thorough cleaning.

Three days before, the kitchen gets one.

Two days before, I go to the grocery and buy all the ingredients. That night,
I lay out the ingredients in groups for the various dishes. If I need to borrow a stock pot or double boiler from a gf, I make those arrangments.

Then I go through my dishes for plates or bowls that will complement the
colors in the dish. I also look for little items to put in the pictures. If the
dish would go with wine, I select the wineglass. And so on. I also try to find
linens that will complement it all.

If I don't have the perfect plate, I go to the thrift shops in search of.
Usually a plate costs 30 cents at the thrift shop.

One time I did an article on school lunches so I ordered a plaid lunchbox
online, way ahead of time. I also picked up ziplock bags with designs on them,
and cute little notes to include in lunches. I made it a point to use these
things for LO so that it wasn't a total waste, although the plaid lunchbox is a
decorative item in the kitchen.

The day before, I make all the recipes that will store well. Some things will look
glutenous or otherwise yukky in a photo if it has waited overnight. Those
things, I make the day of.

The night before and the morning of, I clean the kitchen thoroughly again. He is taking pictures of it, after all.

Usually he comes in the afternoon, but this time he is coming at 10am. This really shortens the window for my cooking on the day of!

February's food page will be about Chocolate Trifle. I am making 3 different recipes of it, one that uses brownie mix and pudding mix; one from Paula Deen using homemade "blondies," dark rum, and real whipping cream; and my favorite, the Double Chocolate Raspberry Trifle, which uses pound cake, real whipping cream, Grand Marnier, fresh raspberries, white chocolate, and semisweet chocolate.

I am making all these today.

The March page will be all about risotto. Fortunately I am just making two of these, one with butternut squash and one with asparagus, as I have to have them hot for his photos.

So what does one do with three Chocolate Trifles once the pictures have been taken?

I've invited all the women I know to come by tomorrow night and have a bite.
Some are bringing coffee; some are bringing wine; one is bringing champagne.Sort of makes all the work, worthwhile.

NOTE: "Worthwhile" is one of the only words in the English language to have 5 consonants in a row. Can't type it without remarking on it....