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Yesterday I attended the second Random House Open House in New York City. I went to the first one last December and enjoyed it so much, I was happy to see that they planned a second one.
There were several panel discussions and we heard from such wonderful authors as Lauren Graham, from TV's Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, who has written a well-received novel Someday Someday Maybe, R.J. Palacio (the hit young readers book Wonder that many adults love as well), a panel discussion from the publishing team of William Landay's third novel Defending Jacob, authors Colum McCann, Marisha Pessl and Karin Slaughter discussing books and Food Network star chef Alex Guarnaschelli talking about her new book Old School Comfort Food. More on Alex in a future Weekend Cooking post.
One inventive thing they do at this Open House concerns their lunches. They create lunch sandwiches and wraps using recipes from Random House author's cookbooks. Such a clever idea! I chose the Roast Turkey Breast with Lemon and Sage Brown Butter from handsome chef Curtis Stone's book What's For Dinner? (I did not choose that because he is so hunky, I just really like turkey.) It was quite tasty.
Other options included a Hummus Veggie Wrap from Bobby Deen and Melissa Clark's book, From Mama's Table to Mine, a book filled with comfort food recipes at 350 calories or less, a BBQ Pulled Pork inspired by A Feast of Ice & Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook and a Mexican Lentil Wrap from Lucy Danziger's Drop 10 Diet Cookbook, whom we saw at December's Open House.
There are recipe cards available from the books for the sandwiches, which I think is terrific. I picked these three.
At the end of the sessions, there was a mixer with wine and a lovely dessert table that had many of us buzzing around it like bees on flowers. It was filled with cookies from Sara's Snackers, which I love. They had the Lemonade Cookies, Chipn'etzels, my favorite until I tasted the Dark Chocolate Drizzled Chipn'etzels. They are bite sized cookies with pretzels and potato chips inside and are too good for words.
They also had chocolate and butterscotch puddings from an upcoming cookbook Puddin' by Clio Goodman (October 2013), that was so smooth and creamy and delicious. Goodman owns a sweet shop in NYC.
I will have a wrap-up of the Random House Open House as soon as I go through my copious amount of notes.
Curtis Stone's Roast Turkey Breast with Lemon Sage Brown Butter recipe is here.
Clio Goodman's Puddin' website is here.
More information on Random House cookbooks is here.
Last year's post about Marcus Samuelsson at Random House Open House is here.
Oh how fun. What an awesome event and I love the way the lunches come from Random's cookbooks and that they are good enough to give us the recipes. I really must try to make it to the next event.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure which of the lunches I would have picked because they all sound so delicious.
I was thinking about those great lunches while I ate at my desk yesterday - these ones sound as delish as those on offer in December. Glad you had such a fun day - can't wait to read the re-cap!
ReplyDeleteI am jealous! This sounds like an incredibly fun event. Looking forward to reading your wrap-up. More photos, too?
ReplyDeleteI like Curtis Stone too!
ReplyDeleteoh wow, that sounds like a fun event. I would have gone for Mr. Deen's sandwich.
ReplyDeleteHi Diane,
ReplyDeleteI have never attended a publisher event, however I need to try and get myself an invite to one, as they sound like so much fun.
I think that your choice of lunch would have been mine also. I love turkey, (although over here in the UK we would probably have had chicken) and stuffing in a sandwich is always a hit with me, although I know that many Brits would turn their nose up at it!
Several fellow bloggers have 'Someday Someday Maybe' in their stack, so I shall be looking out for the reviews of that one, before I decide whether or not to read it.
I can't believe that I haven't come across William Landay before. I checked out all his books and he is definitely on my reading list, they are just my kind of reading.
Karin Slaughter is another of my favourites, so now I really am jealous!
I am so pleased that you had a great day and thanks for sharing it with us,
Yvonne
You have provided a fun armchair adventure for those of us who live far from the center of publishing. Vicarious enjoyment here.
ReplyDeleteThe event sounds like lots of fun and the food sounds delicious! I adore Curtis Stone - both for his hunky good looks and his cooking! lol I miss his show, Take-Home Chef - too bad I never ran into him in my grocery store!
ReplyDeleteSue
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