Hey everyone.

Something very exciting is happening today. Seriously. I am guest blogging over on Glamour’s website (yes, that Glamour!). Christine Coppa, who writes the Storked! blog and is author of the recently released memoir Rattled!: A Memoir, asked me to share some tips on recession-proof cooking. So, of course I did!

Head on over to Storked! and check out my post (along with an absolutely delish recipe for Balsamic Chicken and Veggies). And be sure to leave a comment too!

P.S. You can also check out my interview with Christine Coppa on SheKnows.

Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely love my job, which involves writing about all different subjects from food to parenting to technology to local politics. It’s a really fun job that let’s me do my very favorite thing everyday. And sometimes as a writer I get to do some amazing things. I have covered a Super Bowl (in the pouring rain) and stood feet from the Vince Lombardi trophy while it was being presented to the winners. I have shaken Cat Cora’s hand and watched her give a private demonstration to just a few bloggers. I have gone backstage at television shows. I have also covered national  news from the front lines. Obviously, not everything I write about is this cool or sexy, but I love it all. I absolutely, positively love my job.

So when I say that this was one of the very best events I have ever been to, I am not mincing words. The PR firm that put it together, MS & L, did a phenomenal job. The roundtable tasting event was the most perfectly intimate setting I have experienced at an event like this. Although there were many agency folks there, they blended into the background while headchef and cofounder Tim Gannon did the entertaining. He told us about each dish, the components and answered any questions we had. It was well timed, well thought out, and perfectly planned. It was obvious that the people who planned this really understood who they were planning to reach … and reach they did.

Kudos (and thank you!) to MS & L for such a great event. And kudos (and thank you!) to Outback for a fantastic revamp of their menu. They really did do a superb job, and other agencies and companies should take a cue from them. Whenever you are planning an event, you need to reach out to the people you are addressing and this event totally did that. I love that they fostered conversation in a comfortable environment. Absolutely perfect.

Now, head on over to Well Fed on the Town and read all about the food.

It’s been a busy week. With deadlines hanging over my head everyday, a fantastic day on Wednesday filled with networking, and two busy kids who want to get into the Christmas spirit as much as I do, I just haven’t had a chance to write.

My apologies to my readers.

I wanted to drop in and share some of this week’s highlights:

• The Public Relations Society of America’s New York group held Meet the Mommy Media and I was one of the speakers! My partner in crime, Cate, and I had a fantastic time meeting some of the best and brightest women in the online momsphere. We also made some great connections while we were there. What an honor it was to sit on a panel with Stacy DeBroff from MomCentral, Victoria Pericon from Savvy Mommy, Kimberly Coleman from Mom in the City and Nicole Feliciano from MomTrends. I was enamored listening to these amazing women – and mommy bloggers – discuss some important issues related to public relations and advertising.
• Watch Martha Stewart on Monday! Cate and I also took a few hours to attend a taping of the Martha Stewart Show. We watched as Martha whipped up three types of cookies, chat with Jennifer Esposito and show off some special packaging ideas for holiday cookies. I definitely picked up some great tips while I was there. But Martha, if you are reading, feed your audience! It is so unfair to whip up delicious cookies and not give us one teensy bite. Regardless, thanks to Role Mommy for inviting us!
• You can now find me writing about Families & Technology at the new Family Eden blog. Family Eden is a recently launched virtual community where parents can set up spheres to manage their homes, lives and more. It’s a very cool concept.

So, how have you all been? Top Chef notes to come this week, along with a new cookie recipe, a deeeeeeeeee-licious shrimp recipe and more. Have a fantastic weekend!

Please bear with me. I will be back with great posts starting on Sunday on organic 360 Vodka, Grilled Balsamic Chicken, decluttering and more . . .

In the meantime, check out this nostalgic video. It’s totally worth the time to watch (only a few minutes). (Thanks Patti, you Late Bloomer!)

After the jump is a link to a podcast about my blog. Yes! You can hear the Sarah behind Sarah’s Cucina Bella!

First, the story:

When I got an email last month asking if I would be willing to be interviewed for a podcast by a local journalism graduate student, I almost immediately said okay. When she said she wanted to tape me in my home while cooking, I agreed . . . with very little hesitation. I figure, if nothing else, this would be a good learning experience for me . . . after all, I have spent the past seven years on the asking end of the equation. It’s high-time that I tried being on the answering end.

Gina came to my house on a Tuesday night. It was a rare Tuesday where both Shawn and I were home so he tended to the kids while I cooked and talked. On the menu was bacon cheddar barbecue chicken rollatini, mashed potatoes and some green beans. Gina interviewed me while I cooked, taping the sounds and my answers.

She was incredibly easy to talk to and a fantastic dinner guest. Totally someone I could envision being friends with . . . How do adults make new friends anyway? That’s still an enigma to me. It’s not like high school or college when if you saw someone enough it was easy to cultivate a relationship.

Anyway, for me, the funniest part of the podcast is when Gina describes the chaos of my kitchen (complete with a clip of me yelling at one of my dogs) . . . That was a pretty tame night for us. LOL.

So, without further adieu, listen, enjoy and be sure to delurk!

Click here: Food Blog Podcast with Sarah’s Cucina Bella

Here’s the details:

The Culinate Death by Chocolate Contest sends one reader, and one food blogger, on a trip for two Napa Valley to attend the Copia Center’s annual Death by Chocolate Festival on Feburary 23, 2008, featuring a day of chocolate and wine tasting, demonstrations by pastry chefs, and other sessions with chocolate aficionados and experts.

So, go here to VOTE FOR ME!!!! (Oops, I should tell you what I entered, right? It was my delicious Deconstructed Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies  — SO tasty.)

Oh, and the blog entries are being judged by the several esteemed people: pastry chef/blogger David Lebovitz, baking expert/blogger Dorie Greenspan, blogger Deb of Smitten Kitchen (winner of Culinate’s GrillMe contest in 2007), Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates, and members of the Copia and Culinate staffs).

Welcome to the new site. It’s still a work in progress, so do pardon the dust. The recipe archive is partially up, but it still has a ways to go. You can still locate recipes with the categories menu though. That will remain up until the recipes archive is complete. You might also notice that some posts have feed information at the end – that’s a glitch from moving the posts from Blogger to Word Press. The good news though? The comments are all here. And, if you are an email subscriber, the switch from the Blogger address to www.sarahscucinabella.com has gone smoothly as well without you having to do a darn thing.

In any case, Sarah’s Cucina Bella is up and running. Take a look around and visit often. You’re going to like it here.

Two years later, I’ve learned a few things. First, you don’t need to be a top-of-the-line chef to write about cooking. Anyone can write an interesting food blog whether you are a take-out queen, new to the stove or a professionally trained extraordinare. Did I have great skill when I started? No, definitely not. But I have developed my technique over the years. I have also been more open to trying new things and experimenting.

Another thing I have learned is that sometimes the best recipes come from mistakes. I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten an ingredient or added more (or less) than I thought a recipe would need and found the results to be perfect.

As some longtime readers might remember, I named this blog for my kitchen. Cucina Bella (pronounced cou-chee-naa bell-la) is named for my kitchen and literally means “beautiful kitchen” in Italian. This kitchen, which is in the first house I’ve ever owned, is more beautiful to me today than it was two years ago when I started writing. We replaced all the appliances when we moved in and replaced the flooring with a creamy tile. My husband and I have slowly made other improvements to the room since then including granite countertops. I have to admit, as much as I wanted the granite, I was hesitant to get it (hello! HUGE cost!) but it was so, so worth it.

Thank you to all my readers, whether you’ve been here for a few days or a few years. I can’t tell you how cool it is to know that when I write here, other people are listening.

Here’s to two more years of Cucina Bella!

But I have a cauliflower, spaghetti squash and a few other veggies begging to be cooked this weekend. New recipes are coming. I swear.

So after fighting with the store (who weren’t too helpful), the extended warranty contract company, etc, etc, it was fixed about a week later. Or so we thought (insert dark and dreary music here). A little more than a week after that, it broke again. The repair company came back and got it running. A little more than a week after that, kaput . . . again. Repair company comes back and finally admits that they can’t isolate the problem (which is a leak somewhere in the system) and it cannot be fixed. Contract co. says that if that’s the case then they will cut us a check for the fridge so we can get a new one.

That was two weeks ago. The contact co. has since said that they will do no such thing since no one’s found the actual problem yet. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve gone nearly a month with a touch and go situation with this fridge, and you want to tell me NO?!? Well, I reached my breaking point and decided that they can answer to the Better Business Bureau and the Department of Consumer Protection. This is just asinine.

So we bought a new refrigerator. Hopefully this one will last more than three years. Guess where we didn’t buy this one? There is no way that I am EVER shopping in that store again, after the co-owner was so rude when I asked for the loaner we’d been promised (if it ever broke) when we purchased it. Yes, yes, love the truth in sales.

In the meantime, I have a beautiful new fridge and a broken one in the basement that we hope will either be fixed (so we can eventually sell it with the house and take the new one) or we’ll be given a refund for.

Say hello to my new friend! It’s spacious, and lovely and shocker of shockers: stays cold. Aaahhhh, the simple things in life. I love the style and design (sorry about the lackluster picture, haven’t been home during the day to take a good one).

The best features? Room for full platters of food, a water dispenser INSIDE the fridge, and room for many, many gallons in the doors (leaving the shelves for more important items). I am so in love.

Now, back to cooking.