For a teaser of the SHOW go to http://fayedelicious.blip.tv/

Kelie and I are frozen solid like a couple of pre global warming ice floes, so I couldn’t talk about the show yesterday. (Mondays are Dinner Confidential Report Day.)  We think our plan is working.  So then what do you do?  Who thought about that?  I am convinced now that the fear of following a dream has a teeny weeny bit to do with fear of failure, and much more to do with fear of success.

The problem is, or the good thing is, we are sticking to the plan. We decided that if an emotional hurricane or a scheduling tornedo blows in, we stick to the plan.  If a problem occurs, we have a meeting (either at home with lots of snacks–we like popcorn, or at a place with good coffee and cake), to come up with a Plan A and a Plan B of how to solve the problem.  We look at A, then B, decide which one is best, fix the problem, then keep going. It’s mothermode–no matter what happens, no giving up.

To recap last week:

1.  We had finished our DVD for the pitch piece (that took us one year and we stopped working on it when we ran out of money.)  We needed copies.  Check
2.  We had about 10 people we wanted to send it to.  We needed to choose our top three–who was connected, combined with who cared.  Check

3.  On a whim, we sent the piece to a guy on Food Network, who happens to live in my neighborhood.  He asked for a treatment.  We looked up how to write a treatment on the internet, and started writing.  We sent it off to treatment professional (a husband of a friend of mine.)  In exchange for the advice, I made a big box of cookies and sent them off to California.  Treatment:  Check
4.  We needed to figure out our approach to these people.  What were we going to write in the letter that would be doable for them without asking too much in our request for assistance.  We changed our wording from would you like to produce the show–to a much less threatening–do you know anyone else who might be interested in taking the show forward, and a back up plan of do you know someone who might act as our mentor?  Check

5.  We needed a good looking package.  Kate’s Paperie.  Check.  Beautiful blood red envelopes with creamy paper, and a little sassy silver envelope for the DVD.  Italian paper clips.  Check.

6.  We called Kelie’s connection in the business.   We were asked to overnight everything.  We called my connection.  We were asked to mail it in.  We picked the third to mail the package to–because I’m sure she has connections, which is a necessary, but mostly because she is one of the nicest people ever, and would be behind us no matter what.  You need this on the list.  Actually all of our first three people are like that.  Very important.  Check.

7.  Now we are waiting.  Check.  Check.

The only thing to eat while you wait are snacks.  Homeade popcorn with butter (you need the fat when the nerves kick in), Chocolate Covered Pretzels from Fairway, Fresh Pineapple chunks,  and toasted almonds with red pepper and cinnamon.

Last night I made dinner in about 4 minutes.  I could tell you that they were pork chops, but I don’t eat pork chops.  It’s just that in real life you know I don’t have an apetite for anything but vegetables or chicken at the moment, which is way to boring for the rest of the world.  Anyways, either pretend it was pork chops (organic if possible) and season them well with salt and pepper and rub your best olive oil into them.  Stick them under the broiler for about 3 minutes per side, leaving them to rest for a minute before cutting into them.  How thick they are ultimately determines how long you cook them, but they should be about as firm as that fleshy bit between your index finger knuckle and your thumb nuckle when you make a loose fist.  (and still a little pink)  If you are stuck like glue to chicken, just throw a chicken breast in the oven with the skin and bone attached, sitting on top of about 3 garlic cloves and a sprig of thyme, salted, peppered, and olive oiled.

On a separate sheet pan, throw on a big mix of carrots sliced on the diagonal, an onion cut into thinnish wedges, yukon potates, skin on, cut into thinnish wedges, and celery cut on the diagonal.  Toss everything with salt and olive oil and roast at 450 degrees until tender.  Scrape the pan juices into a frying pan, add a knob of butter and about the same amount of flour, and whisk over medium heat.  Crush on in one of the cloves of garlic.  Spill in your own chicken stock, or a little white wine and continue whisking until slightly thickened.  Pour over the chicken.  This is beautiful with mushrooms as well.