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cruisingkitty

There's a lot about me most people don't know. I live, cook, bake and write about it all on a sailboat. Yep, in the winter too! I'm the Baking & Desserts Feature Writer for Suite101.com and I love it! In my past life I was a caterer, chef and pastry chef.

  • Website
  • Location: Rhode Island
  • Favorite foods: Grilled pizza, sushi, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, chicken parm, cheesecake, Lake Champlain Chocolates, chai, marinated flank steak, fried egg sandwiches, eggs benedict, molasses cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies. Is that enough?
  • Last bite on earth: Sushi

Cook the Book: 'The Modern Baker'

My biggest success was getting an order for 1200 Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pies from the Ritz Carlton!
My biggest blunder was putting 24 of them in the oven without the chocolate!

Italian Caprese Salad Bento Box. Do they have to be Japanese?

Absolutely! I do this lunch at least once a week. That is, until tomato season is over :-(

Weekend Book Giveaway: 'The Saucier's Apprentice'

It was my first Thanksgiving as an 18 year old newlywed bride. I was so excited to host the most holy of foodie holidays by myself and impress the family. I bought an 18 pound turkey, prepped it, stuffed it and stuck it in the oven. I spent the rest of the day fussing over the many side dishes. Five hours later the apartment smelled wonderful! When the bell rang, all 12 of my guests sat down to a perfectly designed Norman Rockwell table. I asked my new 19 year old hubby to do the honors and carve the turkey with the shiny new carving set.

He tried his best to carve it properly, but he kept hitting something. We were all baffled, but I tried to keep my cool. He got down to take a peek inside. It was just sausage and apple stuffing after all! He pulled out all the stuffing and there in the deepest crevices of the turkey was all its innards. The totally cooked neck, liver and giblets were stuffed up as far as they could go, still in the bags! Poor turkey!

Everyone had quite a laugh on me! To this day, some 30 years later, I still get razzed about my first Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, when I finally grew up, I turned out to be quite the sophisticated foodie with my own wholesale bakery and catering company! Who's laughing now?

Cook the Book: 'A Platter of Figs'

Pumpkin!
Pumpkin Cheesecake with a molasses cookie crust
Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream
Pumpkin Pound Cake
Pumpkin Raisin Muffins
Pumpkin Nut Bread
Did I say Pumpkin?

Sunday Brunch: Serious Bacon-Cheese Hot Dogs

After drooling over this recipe, I made them for a Labor Day cookout. They were awesome and everything Ed said they would be! Thanks so much. They were the hit of the party! I'll be making them again real soon!

Others using your blog content for their blog-help!!

I'm sorry you have to deal with this. This happens to me way too often. I just joined Flickr for groups that I'm associated with, but it was against my better judgement. It doesn't seem to matter though, as I've had photos lifted right off my blog, as I'm assuming you did.

In this day and age when the web is exploding with food porn, recipes, info, etc, it's bound to happen. That doesn't make it right. Because of this, new, and I'm ashamed to say seasoned bloggers, think that everything is free for the taking.This just isn't so. Not only are photographs copyrighted, but certain recipes are too. Even though a recipe's ingredient list can't be copyrighted per se, (there are exceptions to this rule) the rest of the copy can. Big cookbook celebrities have copyright notices in the front of their books, but that doesn't seem to stop some thieves from typing out a recipe word-for-word, with little to no thought to read the fine print.

I write for an e-zine magazine that owns the copyrights on all material for the first year. I've had many bloggers think that because it is JUST a recipe they can cut & paste it onto their own site and make it theirs. There's a copyright notice at the bottom of every one of my articles/recipes stating this, but they've had the nerve to copy everything BUT the notice! Some will credit me, some leave a link, others do nothing. The company has a cease & desist letter that we send out demanding it be taken off-line. Some have argued with us, most back off.

It's very frustrating to deal with. I feel for you. It's a violation, but try proving it. It wastes precious time and effort to fight for what's rightfully ours, and it ultimately reduces our trust in our fellow men/bloggers.

Anyway...my rant is over. I hope you get to the bottom of this. Nice blog BTW. I can see why...oh, never mind!

How many do you read?

Because I've had some photos submitted on Photograzing, I tend to stay here and lurk. But, there's a whole world of fantastic small blogs out there today, and you have to go find them. I discover new and exciting blogs from cruising PG,TasteSpotting, Food Gawker and Slashfood.
BIG blogs are the Walmart of everyone's blogrolls. Most everyone has a few of them sprinkled here and there. You never really look at them, but you keep them because it looks good. I found myself in that situation a while ago, thinking, when have I clicked on that blog last and why not? I weeded through most of them. Other than that, I like to support the blogs on my blogroll. Sometimes it's reciprocal. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
I like to comment on each I find, but then there's the reply. Do you continue to chat? If I don't, I feel guilty and neglectful. In the end, there's only so many hours in a day to stare into a computer screen. I've become an obsessive food blogger. I can't stop!

Oh, my favorites? Besides the above:
Apartment Therapy the Kitchn
Culinate
Cakespy
Blake Bakes
Just Baking
The Daily Tiffin
Tuesdays With Dorie (any of the members blogs there)
What's for Lunch Honey?
Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy
The Noble Pig
The Knead for Bread

There are more, but I have to go eat!


Cook the Book: 'A16 Food + Wine'

Shenandoah Vineyards Zinfandel 2004 Paul's Reserve. We were in Amador County, CA a few years back and stopped at one of the prettiest vineyards. We paid our customary fee to get the etched glasses and snuggled up to the wine bar.
We spent a little extra to taste the reserves. This one knocked-our-socks off! It was deep and bold, the jammy fruits went down like honey! "That's it", I said, "Let's buy a bottle!" That was just before the airlines changed their rules on flying with liquids.
We dragged a mix-and-match hodgepodge of 34 bottles home with us...carry-on! We saved that bottle for our anniversary. The aroma was intoxicating when we popped the cork. We let it breathe a bit, poured a sample, swirling and sniffing. We closed our eyes, took that first mouthful and held it in, swishing it around our mouths. All at once, the two of us opened our eyes and oohed and aahed together. The sounds we made as we drank the rest of that bottle most likely sounded vulgar to anyone within earshot, but we didn't care. When the last drip was squeezed from the bottle, we both had a bittersweet moment of sadness. This perfect bottle was gone. We had only brought back only one. To be honest, we really did have moist eyes!
While we were visiting family out-of-state a year and a half later, we found a store that carried wine from the same vineyard. We didn't care what it cost and ordered a case of 12. Each time we open a bottle, we close our eyes and see the vineyard, smell the dusky foliage and dream of Amador County. As I write this, there are still 3 bottles with dust on them, waiting for more memories. That's MY favorite wine moment! Now, where did I put that corkscrew?

Cook the Book: 'Chocolate Epiphany'

Lake Champlain Chocolate Truffles!

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Homemade New England Clam Chowder & Grilled Pizza! And a box of Devil Dogs for dessert because I can!

Cook the Book: Bobby Flay's Grill It!

If they were free, I'd take any of these in a heartbeat!
Mario
Bobby
Jamie

Cook the Book: 'Sweety Pies'

Great-Grandma's Chocolate Cream Pie! She always made a little bowl for me with the leftover pudding. I loved "Pudding Skin" then, as much as I do today!

Cook the Book: Serves One

Real Easy! Toast and Bananas!

Cook the Book: Grill Every Day

Marinated Flank Steak, Red Bliss Potato Salad and Strawberry Shortcake!
Although Grilled Pizza is quickly becoming a weekly thing!

Baking with Dorie: Lemon-Lemon Lemon Cream

I just made my French Lemon Cream Tart for TWD, and it really is Most Extraordinary! I think I'm in love!

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