Amanda Rae Was Here...

My childhood friend Katie—known as The Aspiring RD in the blogosphere, isn’t she beautiful?—sent me an email last week, which was a nice surprise in itself, but doubly so when I learned that she had listed me on her blog as an Inspirational Blogger.

Sweet! I’m all about inspiration.

She breaks it down in her post:

As an Inspirational Blogger, I have to share 7 things about myself that my readers don’t already know, then nominate 7 bloggers that inspire me. It creates a kind of inspiring blog chain letter that will get passed along in the blogging community. Because we don’t a) share enough about ourselves already or b) talk about how we like ourselves enough….

Soon I found myself at #5 on Katie’s list: “I am only just learning to cook.” 

Baloney, I thought to myself. What about our epic culinary adventure in fifth grade?! Katie and I created an elaborate feast for our parents that not only featured Fettucine Carbonara with sauteed leeks of all things, but an authentic double-decker Boston cream pie to top it off. And we didn’t break anything or set the kitchen on fire.

Then I came to her list of 7 Inspirational Bloggers:

1. Amanda Rae Was Here – She is probably going to think this is a little weird, but Amanda is actually a girl I went to elementary and middle school with in the Berkshires. We were best friends and my first memory of cooking (Fettuccine Alfredo and Boston Creme Pie) was at her house. She is a seriously talented and entertaining writer whose apartment burned down, prompting her to drive cross-country and blog along the way. Check it out.

I laughed out loud. We haven’t seen each other in years, but we still think alike. She remembered the pie!

I’m skipping the “7 things you might not know about me” portion of this exercise, because there are (and should be) hundreds of things you don’t know about me, and I intend to keep it that way. This blog is focused on my adventures big and small; glean from those stories what you will.

7 of my favorite bloggers (aside from Katie, The Aspiring RD, of course):

1. Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York. Her mission from 2006-2008: cook all of her own meals while living in the restaurant capital of the world—no small feat! She’s an insanely creative home cook, and responsible for some of my all-time favorite recipes.

2. Tim Ferris of The Four Hour Workweek. This guy is a self-made animal and author of various motivational self-improvement books; whenever I need tips on public speaking, time management, or fitness, he’s my go-to guy.

3. Laura Crawford and Russ Roca of Path Less Pedaled. I met these unconventional travelers in October at a MeetPlanGo event i attended in Portland on a whim, and they continue to inspire. Short story: in 2009 they sold everything they owned to traverse the country by bicycle. (Other panelists that evening were equally inspirational.)

4. John and Sherry of Young House Love. I am a fiend for home renovation tutorials, and their daily routine (refurbishing their nest, building stuff, fixing stuff, landscaping) is exactly what I want to be doing at some point. Like, when I have a house.

5. Emily Shuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere: the girl’s got style—and grace.

6. Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman: I go to her mainly for cooking inspiration with trademark tongue-in-cheek instructions; she makes a mean chicken tikka masala)

7. Michelle of All Laquered Up…just because I’m a polish fanatic.

Some of these pursuits (fashion, manicures) may seem frivolous, OK, and most are totally unrelated to my own mission here. But I’m inspired by these bloggers simply because they spend every single day doing what they love.

Snacktime! Who are your Inspirational Bloggers?

[Ace Hotel, Portland, Oregon, October 18, 2011]

“Phoenix—hands down, bar none, the best pizza in America is at Pizzeria Bianco. Prepare to wait in like for 60-90 minutes, or show up an hour before it opens to (hopefully) get in with the first group.  If you’re alone, sit at the bar and watch him work. Order the Rosa and pick another one that looks good to you. This place is a church of pizza. “

So wrote JPC, he who recommended awesome food and drink in no fewer than a dozen locations across the country (Blue Bottle coffee in San Francisco; Kogi truck in LA). He is my Anthony Bourdain reference for all things food, and I haven’t had a mediocre eating experience after taking his suggestions. Dude, thanks a million.

As instructed, I ordered the Rosa (above): a white pie layered with Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic, olive oil, thinly siced red onion, chopped Arizona pistachios, and a sprinkle of fresh rosemary, plus some locally made fennel sausage thrown on there for good measure. I didn’t miss the sauce—which, I was told, is so fresh that it cooks right on the pizza in the brick oven.

It was a crust to trump all crusts--crispy all around, yet slightly chewy in just the right places.

And a perfectly charred posterior:

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You might recall the time I discovered the cookbook section of Powell’s City of Books in Portland and found myself at once overwhelmed and mesmerized….

Well, when I crossed the threshold of Omnivore Books in San Francisco and found a similar paradise contained in a single square room, delight was intense, like a body-enveloping hug from a long-lost love in a bathtub of warm, gooey chocolate fudge sauce.

Cookbooks, chef memoirs, culinary magazines, cocktail encyclopedias, foodie fiction—new, vintage, and rare—floor to ceiling, grouped by topic, and interspersed with quirky artwork and rare kitchen artifacts. I swooned.

The hearty buffet of colorful covers dazzled my eyes and enticed me to consume, consume, consume.

French pamphlets [“Almonds: Ten Way to Prepare Them”] called out to me:

I even noticed copies awaiting retrieval [American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza, because pizzaiolo Tom Tenuta of SoMa Catering in Richmond, Mass., loaned me his dog-eared copy to research an article I was writing that never made it to press, which I returned to him just days before my apartment, and everything in it, was destroyed. Close call, Tom!]

At the register, two of my favorite things: party guides and niche publications galore:

Hoping to maintain a clutter-free cabin, I scored the audio version of Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton, of New York City restaurant Prune. It’s so inspiring—narrated by the author herself!—that I’m beginning to think that the purchase may have been a mistake:

I find myself so swept up in her story while I’m driving that I cannot concentrate on anything else….like, California countryside around me.