Black Friday is now a foodie event!

I've been having a blast playing around on G+ lately...and getting to know some of the G+ people  and local power-users. From brunches to pumpkin carving, Google keeps us busy with all kinds of fun activities.

But tonight's event was hands down the best!  I got to participate in an After-Thanksgiving Cook-Off with two other food bloggers in a live Goggle Plus hangout. The event was hosted by Austin foodie Mary Helen Leonard from Mary Makes Dinner.  The challenge was to go beyond the standard Turkey-Day leftover fare (sandwiches, turkey tetrazinni and such) and create a delicious meal using common leftover food.

I had a great time coming up with my recipes (they came to me at about 2 a.m.!  A plus to insomnia!

Since we're vegetarian, there's no turkey to play with.  And the Tofurky is always gone by the end of the meal.  So I came up with a way to use the veggies and stuffing that I always over-make.

The soup was made up of chopped veggies from the vegetable tray (peppers, celery, carrots), extra onions from when I was cooking the stuffing, leftover corn, leftover mashed potatoes and extra cherry tomatoes from the salad.  Adding some Southwestern spices into the mix (cumin, garlic, onion powder, chili powder, cilantro) gave it just the right amount of flavor.  Then I finished it off with some cream for the perfect after-Black-Friday-shopping comfort.

The soufflés were a way to use up some of that stuffing and the sweet potato casserole.  I blended the sweet with some heat, by adding Cayenne, chili powder, hot paprika, and fresh black pepper, then whipped it up with a couple of eggs and some egg whites.  The stuffing went into muffin cups, and the soufflé cooked on top.  The result was just what I hoped...crunchy, savoury crusts filled with smooth, slightly spicy puffs.

It was crazy getting ready for it, but once the event started, my natural "hamminess" kicked in, and I had fun! My daughter was camera operator...and part time food thief as she snatched the leftover mash potatoes, and grabbed the final bowl of soup right after food taster Natalie put down her spoon!  My other kids were watching remotely, so it became a family event (right down to my other daughter's G+ comments of "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mom!!"

If you want to see the video (I haven't even seen it yet!) check it out on Google+  Then please vote for your favorite chef.  Of course, I'm hoping it's me, but we can still be friends even if don't (or not! LOL!)

Here's the voting link on Mary's blog...G+'s are great and much appreciated, but that's not the voting that counts for this!

Fan-girling over a favorite author

Okay, so I didn't exactly go all fan-girl when one of my favorite authors spoke last night at Book People in Austin.  At least on the outside.

But inside that calm exterior, I was waving my hands in the air and shouting as William Gibson, author of some of my all-time fave books like Neuromancer  and Spook Country stepped to the podium. I resisted the impulse to shout "I've read your books for years! And I loved all of them (well, except Idoru). "

I have spent hours and hours tucked into a comfy corner of my couch or even my bed lost in this man's words!  That's worth more fan-girling than just liking a song or two from some band, right?  But no, I sat calmly and listened, snapping pictures as he spoke, along with about 200 other fans and geeks in the standing-room only second floor of the bookstore.

He talked mostly about his newest book, Distrust That Particular Flavor, but also spoke about the crossing of past and future in our conceptions (for instance, when we talk about future life, we usually use pictures and designs from 1940's -50's science fiction even though the future they were talking about is mostly now in our past!)

He had a bad cold, and warned fans that the warm handshake he usually preferred might be a health hazard this time, but that didn't stop most of the audience from lining up to get their books signed.  And risking sharing some germs in the process.

Hmmmm....now that I think about it, I wonder if there was other people  internal fan-girling (and fan-boying) last night? So tell me...have you ever done the internal silent scream over a favorite writer?  Or is this my own particular brand of geekdom?

Where an Austin Blogger Creates....

No, there are no cowgirl hats or even guitars in my blogging room...just because I moved to Texas doesn't mean I changed!  Okay, maybe just a little.  I have developed a new appreciation for the Blues.  And I now don't scream when I see the forecast calls for temps above 100 (I just hide indoors!)


But my office is more about the me who grown and changed through years of living in Florida, the Rockies and rural Pennsylvania.

Of course, there are baskets and files filled with booklets and brochures about Austin events for my Austin blog....and piles of menus and business cards to inspire future posts.

There's also a bulletin board filled with inspiration from now and years gone past, where everything from bumper stickers to pages from old books share space with photos and postcards and bits of ads where the color or the font is far more important than the product it's trying to sell.

My blogger world is also home to less-than-pristine antique dolls rescued from auction shoppers eager to use them for parts....because they remind me that things don't have to be perfect or new to matter.

And it's where I keep pictures of my kids

and my husband

so I can stay grounded in what really matters in life. 

My office where the posts of this blog and A is 4 Austin come to life, where I explore other people's blogs and images, and where I test new ideas. 

It's more than an office...amid the stuffed animals and antiques and more-pens-and-colored-pencils-than-anybody-really-needs, it's my creative home.