Shameless Promotion Department

All Over The Place, and Back Again

I’ve said more than once that I’d write here even if nobody read it. To be honest, the last few years have been tough, and while I’d love to say I got all creative and such I sorta didn’t. Life, work, and aging have taken their toll. There’ve been a good few times I thought about packing it in – and literally every time I did, somebody would come out of nowhere to tell me how much the dug a post, or a recipe or the site in general.

that kind of thing truly warms my heart – and if a guy ever needed a clue that what he was doing was something he should keep doing, those would be it.

so I’m pulling back a bit -losing the aspirations of a big, gnarly website, and settling back to a relatively simple recipe and food blog here at WordPress. As you can see, all the design stuff went away – what I’m doing, for the time being, is stripped down to a fancier version of how I create – you won’t see my notes, bibliographies, work ups, trial work, etc, but the end result here won’t be gussied up much.

I’m thankful to be able to do what I do, and ever beholden to those of you who, perhaps unbeknownst to you, said something at exactly the right time. I’ll be here, keepin’ on.

Houston? We’ve fixed the Problem

I guess we all have gremlins in our lives. Mine has been a consistent, working email sender for this here blog.

After screwing with a seemingly endless stream of plugins that work for a while and then don’t, or screw up the entire site when they suddenly become incompatible with the latest software, I discovered that my host provides a perfectly serviceable tool for this job.

If you’re subscribed, (and if you’re not, or were, please do – The handy subscribe form is over there to the left.). You should get a once a week email via RSS feed in PDF form, covering the latest three posts. It’ll come from urbanmoniqueblog@gmail.com.

They’re set to come out on Thursdays, so that you’ve got ammo for the approaching weekend. If all goes as planned, you’ll see the first one next week.

Thanks for hanging in, reading, commenting, and sharing – it’s why I do this.

We Got a Winnah!

A couple of weeks ago, an old friend PM’d me to say that the local paper, the Bellingham Herald, was running a national holiday recipe contest, and thought I might be interested.

I allowed that I was, and then noticed that the deadline for submissions was that very day. I thought about if for a sec, and what I figured was the perfect thing came to mind.

Back in 2017, I did a Thanksgiving Sides & Sweets post, and Pumpkin Flan was found therein. I took a look at that, edited it a bit, (as in, tweaked for a mass audience), rummaged around and found an image of that glorious stuff, and sent it in.

The contest was run nationally by McClatchy, so to be honest, I really didn’t expect anything to come of it.

I was wrong, in the best sense of the word. I ended up taking the local dessert prize, and I won a hundred bucks to boot. I’m kind of ridiculously thrilled.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

I’ve often said that I’d write about food and cooking even if nobody read it. While that’s true, people do read what I write, and then they go onto make what I’ve written about. Some faithfully reproduce my recipes, and some, be still my heart, go on to make them their own – that seriously floats my boat.

To those why find mistakes and point them out to me, thank you – I’m my own editor, and sometimes I miss – I genuinely appreciate the help!

So here’s to the folks who make my stuff and let me know – especially during these trying times, y’all make me very happy indeed.

If you’ve cooked from this site, show your work, please! If you find something that works better or you like more, share that too.

Blessings.

Nancy Swenson did up Chicken ala Diane, prompting her Hubs, Steve to say, ‘you can make that again!’

John Joyce did the low and slow cook on a rolled roast – here he’s slicing that up for French Dip sandwiches – Looks stunning, yes?

Jenny Lynn Talton-Proulx rain with the Clafoutis et Flaugnarde post and turned out her own amazing blueberry version – Here’s what she had to say about it – “Today’s flaugnarde. Local fresh-picked blueberries. Changed the recipe slightly: Used 4 cups of blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, put cast iron pan in oven to pre-heat while I pulled together the ingredients. When ready to assemble, pulled pan out and added 2 T butter and a layer of organic corn meal, then the layer of chopped pecans, the blueberries, and the custard mix. Put in oven for 25 minutes. Switched around and baked for another 25. Let it cool completely then ran a knife around the perimeter onto a plate. Then flipped it right side up onto another plate and dusted with powdered sugar. It is so freaking good and Mario loves it. Made a stabilized whipped cream to top it all off!”

As Monica said, ‘that looks sooooo good!’

Status Report

as prolific as I try to be, I must of course have a real job in order to pay the bills. I’ve just made a major shift out of restaurant management, into an Area Manager position with Schwan’s, here in my home town.

This move will cancel too many years of 2-3 hour daily commutes to and from work, as well as blessing me with a Monday through Friday work week. I couldn’t be happier about those changes, frankly.

I’ve got to learn a whole lot in a relatively short time period, so during the transition, new posts will be few and far between. Fortunately, there’s something like fifteen years of good stuff here to revisit and revise. I’ll be leaning on those archives while I get up to speed.

That said, what I post may well still be new to you, so stay tuned! By the same token, please do poke around and see what’s here. I’ll be back on track with weekly new posts just as soon as I can.

if there’s something you want and can’t find, or if you’ve got a specific request, drop me an email or message, and I’ll go to work for you.

Thank You for being here, it’s deeply appreciated!