Sylvia's Scenario

Meet Joy Wilson, aka  Joy, the Baker , cookbook author and popular food blogger.  Today, Barbara and I went to her book signing for her third and latest cookbook called  Over Easy .  It was fun to meet her in person, get her cookbook and hear her speak.  I really need this cookbook because it's all about brunches.  With all the family brunches I've hosted since we moved back to Seattle, I really need some new ideas and this book is chock full of delicious recipes.  Joy lives in New Orleans, one of my favorite places.  And she has a recipe for beignets, of course, and lots of other wonderful treats like strawberry shortcake doughnuts, breakfast sausage pretzel rolls, spaghetti quiche, a whole chapter on sandwiches and cocktails that include the Aperol Spritz that I drank all over Italy in September.  I am excited to start trying all her recipes.  She is such a fun person and recently started having cooking workshops at her house i...

My birthday presents keep coming in.  I've been known to celebrate the whole month of July and this year is no exception.  Since my birthday , I received a selfie stick from Lauren which, as you can see, still takes practice to use...and a Seahawks 12th man flag from my best friend, Marge, who came over to visit after we arrived back in town.  I'm now ready for Seahawks football to start and you can't live in Seattle without a 12th man flag.  It's been a steady stream of visitors since we arrived  June 28th  of people stopping by with housewarming presents and birthday presents.  Can't complain about that!  Last night, my sister surprised me with another birthday present of a night out for dinner and then to the  Book Larder , a local community book store that holds multiple events each month. Last night, they hosted guest author, Jessica Fechtor, of   Stir   and author of the food blog,  Sweet Amandine .  I ha...

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...

I recently returned from attending our national conference for dietitians in San Diego on September 24-27 and was refreshed to get updated on all the latest research, as well as having a little fun in San Diego!!  This is a good event for all of us dietitians to go to because it keeps us abreast of current recommendations backed up by studies.  For example...have you see the blogs going around about "Unprocessed October" where they are trying to get people to eat "unprocessed" food for a month?  Well, I think its a fun idea, however, I went to a session called "Fresh Look at Processed Foods" and basically, the definition of "processed foods" is everything we eat unless it's pulled straight out of the garden!  Even bananas are considered a processed food!  The home grown tomatoes we can ourselves  are "processed foods".  So, as a dietitian, this conference is good at keeping us grounded with the scientific community so we don...