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08/25/2008 Archived Entry: "See You In September"

Please forgive me for not writing in such a long time. I am frantically trying to finish my “Big Book of Southern Italian Food & Wine,” with more than 300 recipes from all six regions of the Italian south -- Campania, Molise, Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata (also called Lucania), and Sicily. Not to mention wine notes, ingredient side bars, and my sometimes lengthy stories -- travel, cultural, and personal.

The research took 12 years. Now I am in write-cook-write-cook-write-write-write-cook mode. I have had to close out the world because my deadline was over a week ago and I am not nearly finished. I am doing my best to complete it before I leave for Italy on Sept. 17, for a three-week photo shoot with award-winning food photographer Alan Richardson. We will be visiting all six southern Italian regions, and that (whew!) required me to make an efficient plan. The logistics are complicated, including other people’s schedules, car rentals … well, I don’t need to go into the details. Then I have a Cook at Seliano session from Oct. 12 to 18 and I haven’t done my lesson plans yet!

Meanwhile, you will definitely:
SEE ME IN SEPTEMBER

On Sunday, September 7, from 1 to 4 p.m., I’ll be at the WILLIAMS SONOMA STORE IN CEDERHURST, LONG ISLAND. “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited” is the reason for my visit, and I’ll be cooking up matzo meal pancakes while I talk informally and autograph books. I think I should be allowed to say it’s a nice hostess gift if you are going to someone else’s house for Rosh Hashonah, or to break the fast on Yom Kippur? Okay, you can buy it for yourself, too.

Here’s something funny that happened on the book promotion trail this past spring, when I signed many books to daughters and daughters-in-law. The scene goes something like this: “Could you sign this to my daughter, Jennifer. Maybe she’ll cook something.” Or, “Could you sign this to my daughter-in-law, Yoko, she loves learning about our traditions.”

“It’s a new world,” as my grandmother used to say, and I lately find myself saying all too often.

THEN:
On Sunday, September 14, 7 p.m., at TEMPLE BETH EL IN SPRING VALLEY, New York, I will again emerge from my book-writing cocoon to give my illustrated lecture based on “Jewish Home Cooking,” and to do some general schmoozing while signing books.

The temple is giving a serious discount from the cover price, $25 instead of $35. Admission to the event is $10.

Call Susan Klein for more info or to reserve: (845) 356-2000.

I have never visited this community, so I am particularly excited about it. And I may be in a particularly celebratory mood. By then the book should be finished.

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