What can I say - blogging can be a real rollercoaster of emotions sometimes.
Take this week for example. I will freely admit that the past 7 days have been my unhappiest since I started blogging. Why? Because I have had persistent software issues for no apparent reason - and a hell of a time convincing Typepad that there was a problem! The bottom line was that since last Friday, I could not open my own blog reliably as it just kept crashing Internet Explorer. Pretty fundamental! After a week of ditching my entire sidebar and very, ahem, animated correspondence with Typepad because of their wrongly treating it as a load-time issue, I was ready to throw in the towel and stop blogging. But thankfully this morning they tracked the problem to their Share This widget and, having deleted mine, all now seems to be fixed. At least it means that my side-bar has been cleaned up as a result of all this drama...
But...my mood brightened considerably when I picked up a copy of the July 2008 edition of the BBC's Olive magazine - because I'm in it! They do a great feature called Pro vs Punter, where they send a food professional (a chef in this case) and a reader (moi!) to the same restaurant (Cafe Boheme) to review it and then print the reviews side by side. It makes for an interesting comparison, I can tell you. And on Wednesday this week I'm pleased to say that I finally made my local hometown newspaper! The Eastern Province Herald (in their 11 June La Femme supplement) did a piece on my win in the SA blog awards and used a picture taken by my very own Nick. So now at least my father has tangible evidence of the success of "this blogging thing" that his daughter does and, as an added bonus, there was a (completely unrelated) picture of my brother in the same edition!
(By the way, as part of the general overhaul of my sidebar, some of you might have noticed that under the "Click here for..." typelist, I have now made a special page keeping track of all CookSister's awards and media mentions. For those of you who missed it, I've also included a link to the mp3 file of my BBC radio interview.)
And now for the reason behind the rather lovely photo above, which I took at Borough Market last summer. Time is marching on and June is half gone, so I thought I'd better get a move on and announce a theme for Waiter, There's Something in My..., the popular monthly foodie event hosted in rotation by Johanna, Andrew and me. In keeping with the summer season (well, in this hemisphere anyway!), I have decided that the theme will be berried treasure - absolutely any recipe in which berries take centre stage. It can be a beautiful berry pavlova, or a tangy berry glaze for meat. It might be a healthy berry smoothie or a decadent berry ice cream. It can be an unusual local berry dish (I know Pille will love this one!), or even a frozen or tinned berry recipe for those in the Southern hemisphere. Let your imagination run riot - the possibilities really are endless. The only requirement is that you use berries - small fruit, growing on a bush or vine as opposed to a tree - not just any old fruit. If in doubt, e-mail me and I will put it to Johanna and Andrew. Our majority decision will be final ;-)
Here are the rules for participation:
1. Write up your berry recipe and please link back to this announcement in your post. Please note that it MUST be a new post featuring your dish - I will not accept a link to a post you had already put up before this announcement was made - and the post must not be entered into another event as well (photography events like DMBLGiT excluded).
2. E-mail me. Please make sure that Waiter there's something in my features in the subject line.
3. In the e-mail please include:
- the URL of your entry
- your blog's name
- the name of the dish
- your approximate location
4. The deadline for entries is Sunday 6 July - slightly later than usual because I will be on holiday and probably without internet for a week until this date. I'll get to the roundup as soon as possible after my return... but if you can get your entries to me earlier (pre-28 June) this will speed things up :)
Congrats on those media appearances!!! And I can certainly do a berry thingy. You're accepting wild berry recipes, aren't you? :)
Posted by: Pille | June 13, 2008 at 06:49 PM
berries berries berries berries... ummm, what to make... ? Do gooseberries count? Yes, of course they do... wait, can I actually GET gooseberries...
Posted by: Andrew | June 13, 2008 at 08:00 PM
And a very fetching picture it is too. Congratulations, media darling!
Posted by: Charlotte | June 13, 2008 at 11:59 PM
Congratulations on the mention!
Posted by: Bordeaux | June 15, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Congratulations, how exciting - your blog is great!
Posted by: Nicisme | June 15, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Congratulations on your BBC Olive appearance. I was in the June issue this year and it was the absolute highlight of this year. I'll try to come up with some Indian berry idea for this event.
Posted by: Mallika | June 15, 2008 at 09:34 PM
Hi Jeanne - I really enjoyed your piece as always (and can I say your review was better than 'the pro'...? :)) Looking forward to reading more of your fantastic stories, take care. kxx
Posted by: keiko | June 15, 2008 at 10:14 PM
Just returned from a lovely weekend in Hermanus... Congrats on your two media features. I had my mom here from PE and sge will try and hunt down a Herald for me. I am seriously thinking of a berry recipe and will send entry soon.
Posted by: nina | June 16, 2008 at 03:16 PM
Congrats on your multiple media mentions, what a terrific boost that must be, especially after all your typepad woes. I'd been trying to leave comments for ages, but the screen kept freezing up every time I tried. You weren't the only one either, The Perfect Pantry was affected too. I will give some consideration to dried or frozen berries, being winter and all down around this way.
Posted by: neil | June 17, 2008 at 12:46 AM
sjoe - looks like you are now part of the rich and famous?
Congrats on the exposure....
can I have your autograph :)
Posted by: Minette Willard | June 17, 2008 at 08:28 AM
Pille - as I said, this event practically has your name all over it :) Of course we'd love wild berries!
Andrew - gooseberries are great (see that alitteration thing I did there? See? See??). I was wondering about getting physalis but can't remember when their season is...
Charlotte - *blush*!! Picture was taken in my own garden by non-photographer hubby so am quite pleased with how it turned out. Can't look like a hag in your local newspaper now can you? ;-)
Bordeaux and Nicisme - thank you both!!
Mallika - isn't it funny how inordinately proud it makes one to appear in print?? I saw you and some of the othe bloggers last month - it was a great article :) Look forward to Indian Berried Treasure!
Keiko - you are too kind, as always :) And I look forward to seeing many more of your inspirational photos!
Nina - thanks! And glad to hear you had a lovely time with your mom. If she can't find a copy I won't be surprised - my dad probably bought the entire supply ;-)
Neil - you have no idea how stressed out my blog troubles made me!! I was just walking around in a foul temper all day every day. And this is my HOBBY that I do for FUN ha ha ha! Would be lovely to see some dried/frozen berry recipe from you - berries are some of the few fruit that don't suffer unduly by freezing or drying in my opinion :)
Minette - oh how you make me laugh! Slightly famous, within the confines of my hometown - perhaps. Rich? Sadly not at all! Damn.
Posted by: Jeanne | June 18, 2008 at 05:16 PM
Perfect, the husband hit the farmstand on the way home and bought as a wealth of blackberries.
Posted by: FJK | June 19, 2008 at 09:36 PM
Congratulations Jeanne! I love that column in Olive, I must make sure I pick up a copy of it. It's also great to hear about your hometown newspaper. I also wanted to say I am so glad you have your sidebar sorted out. I must say it loaded really fast today and your site usually takes a long time to load in firefox - must have been the widget then! Finally, I have that berry recipe in my head already!!
Posted by: Helen | June 20, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Congratulations Jeanne! I love that column in Olive, I must make sure I pick up a copy of it. It's also great to hear about your hometown newspaper. I also wanted to say I am so glad you have your sidebar sorted out. I must say it loaded really fast today and your site usually takes a long time to load in firefox - must have been the widget then! Finally, I have that berry recipe in my head already!!
Posted by: Helen | June 20, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Well done on the publicity/reccognition!!!!!
You are not the only one with Typepad issues....although mine were not so serious.
I wish I had access to berries... strawberries are done and the others are so outrageously expensive. Wait... I have bramble berries.... Hmmmmm
Posted by: katie | June 23, 2008 at 08:47 PM
Hi jeanne,
I just sent you my strawberry panna cotta entry! hope you got it:)
Posted by: Mansi | June 25, 2008 at 09:24 PM
Well done on the home and away media coverage. And I can so sympathise with technical problems. Have had me flinging in the towel more than once but I always come back. GO figure. Will definitley try and enter the berried treasure thing. If I was marooned on a desert (or dessert island) it's the only kind of treasure I would want
Posted by: african vanielje | June 29, 2008 at 01:49 PM
Just sent you my entry. Thanks and I'm looking forward to the roundup.
Posted by: Jude | July 04, 2008 at 06:20 AM
Hi Jeanne,
I just sent you my entry. I hope you got it.:)
Posted by: TBC | July 04, 2008 at 09:27 PM