All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up

Last week I got a phone call from one of the editors at the local newspaper. Seems they were doing a review of a book I was in and they wanted to interview me and send a photographer to my house for a photo shoot. "Would that be okay?" she asked.

*snicker* Well, duh.

The first thing that came to mind was "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up."

My interview was on Sunday afternoon by telephone. And the photographer showed up at my house on Monday morning (after calling to push things back an hour because apparently I took second fiddle to the dead body that had been found earlier that morning).

The photographer told me what kind of shots he wanted and said that the editor had requested I wear a certain item. I set up a place for the photo shoot, put on the item and then smiled for the camera.

Unlike poor Norma Desmond, who was lost in a fantasy world where she dreamed of making a comeback in the talkies, I knew exactly what was going on and now I'll tell you too.

My name is Marilyn and I'm a member of the Red Hat Society. Some time back I submitted a recipe for a cookbook the RHS was planning. Because we Red Hatters embrace the philosophy that life is short and we should eat dessert first, the cookbook was aptly named "Eat Dessert First."

Two months ago I learned that out of over 1500 recipes submitted, my little recipe for Crispy Oatmeal Cookies had been selected to be one of the 200 recipes in the book. And the publisher sent me a copy of the cookbook as a thank-you gift.

That cookie recipe was the first thing I ever baked. My third grade teacher promised a cookbook to every student who brought in a sample of something they'd cooked at home. I don't know where that cookbook is, but I still have the original recipe my mother copied onto a piece of notebook paper for me.

The call from the newspaper was from the Food Editor. She's reviewing the cookbook and when she found out there was a local contributor, she wanted to follow up on that angle.

Instead of the deranged Ms. Desmond, my photo will probably look more like this:



Some of us will do anything to get our name in print. ;-)










"Eat Dessert First" can be purchased at most major booksellers and online as well. It's quite a nice cookbook and I'm not saying that just cause I'm in it. But if you buy it, I'll be happy to autograph my little spot in the book. ;-)

When the article goes live on the newspaper's website I'll post a link. And when I get my copy of the photo, I'll post that too.

In the meantime just remember that life IS short and sometimes it's downright fun to eat dessert first.

Update: You can read the article here. Guess I'll schlepp outside in the cold and get the paper to see which photo they used.