Rurally Screwed » canning cookbook

A major milestone!

Jessie K — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:43:15 +0000

It’s been more than a year in the making, but my coauthor and I, chef Kelly Geary of Sweet Deliverance NYC, have officially handed in the manuscript for our first cookbook — about canning, published by Rodale, on shelves April 2011 – and we just received word back from our kind, gracious and obviously exceptionally brilliant and talented editor that she likes it. She really likes it!

This is a big sigh of relief as it means I probably, hopefully won’t have to rewrite it from top to bottom before it publishes. But even if it does require extensive revisions — which is often the case even when an editor loves the work — at least I will do so secure in the knowledge she doesn’t think we’re — I mean, I’M — a hack who just fell off the pickle wagon.

I’ve been validated. VINDICATED! (Cause in the mind of every writer lurks the conviction that you really do just suck and ought to go get a real job already.)

If I could booze it up right now, I would pour myself a giant glass of champagne and celebrate the news by dancing the merengue down at the coop with the chickens.

As it is, I’m pregnant, can barely see the tips of my toes anymore so I’ll have to celebrate by….eating another piece of venison jerky! Yeah!

What to wear to a CANNING MEETING?

Jessie K — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:45:54 +0000

I have to go meet my agent, coauthor, my book editor, plus the publisher’s head of marketing to discuss the canning cookbook. And it occurred to me that I’m not really sure what to wear to such an event. Do I dress in my finest lumberjack chic…you know, play the role of the back-to-the-lander to the hilt? Overalls? A sun bonnet with an apron? Perhaps accessorize with a carpet beater?

Or do I dress like writer girl — which for me anymore looks like Club Monaco meets Ross’s Dress For Less. But mostly Ross’s Dress For Less.

Any suggestions?

Can porn

Jessie K — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:12:48 +0000

I’m up in NYC this week meeting with my cookbook co-author Kelly Geary, owner of Sweet Deliverance NYC. As you can see, she’s been killing herself for the past couple of months creating all sorts of innovative deliciousness to appeal to the back-to-basics foodie crowd. Her commercial kitchen is in Brooklyn, the zenith of the artisanal, DIY blah blah blah “but is this beef grass-fed?” scene.

I’m staying with my friend Pauline in Brooklyn. Being in the heart of Brooklyn has made me realize to what extent I’m an unwitting member of the DIY hand-crafted foodie tribe, even though I like to think I’m actually above it all. When I open my refrigerator at home, I’m met with at least 17 jars of half-eaten home canned goods. My freezer is stocked with beef a farmer down the road gave us, and venison from a deer a neighbor shot for us. We only eat chicken slaughtered by hand by my husband. When I open Pauline’s refrigerator, I see 10 different kinds of artisanal cheese, grass-fed milk and organic grapes. Her dog eats holistic kibbles and bits. It’s two sides of the same coin, is it not? Or perhaps the same coin: WE ALL FETISHIZE FOOD.

I give you canning porn:

Jars of mustard made by Bob McClure of McClure Pickles, a "hot" pickle brand that came out of Brooklyn