The Orangette Reading
photo from this morning. The lilacs in the city are in bloom!
It’s easy to add up the ways Molly has influenced my life because all of them are tangible and concrete. I make the oatcake recipe she borrowed from 3191 Miles Apart for many play dates, always to accolades. Her writing introduced me to The Breakfast Book, the now-most bespattered cookbook on my shelf, the foundation of many cozy mornings. Her blog introduced me to my now-internet friend Andrea of Book-Scout, the blonde bookworm of Portland.
I was so happy to be in a basement in Wellesley last night, listening to Molly talk about her life. Happy to have a new book in my hands, full of stories of food and experimenting and taking risks for dreams. Happy to leave with my friends and walk next door to share crusty bread and pink cocktails and split a butterscotch budino at the end.
At the reading I spotted Jess Fechtor of Sweet Amandine, a food blog she writes from Cambridge. I’ve liked Jess’s writing for a long time, and it was treat to meet her in person. She was towing along her littlest newborn daughter and accompanied by her friend Andrew Janjigian (on twitter here), associate editor of Cook’s Illustrated and pizza-dough-expert. It just so happened that I’ve had several concerns the last few times I made pizza, namely: 1/ does parchment paper placed on top of my pizza stone negate the crisping power of the stone? 2/ Is the new baking steel now more legit than the long-favored baking stone? These questions jumped to the front of my mind when Andrew mentioned he occasionally teaches pizza-making classes out of his apartment! I was delighted he allowed me to corner him for a few minutes with pedestrian-sometimes-baker concerns. Please forgive me for finishing up this long tangent, but for those of you who also love homemade pizza: Andrew recommended getting a super peel to solve the depended-on-parchment problem, and verified that the baking steel was the real deal, not just a trend.
Anyway, there we were, waiting for Molly to sign our books, surrounded by more books, lined up next to people who were just as curious about the next food-book event in Wellesley: a book signing with Jeni from Jeni’s Ice Cream, talking about dough, and good writing. It was my ComicCon moment: the happy glory of these are my people and we are happy here.
6 Comments
Julie
Jeni’s ice cream book is my go-to and I’ve given it + ice cream maker + a sleeve of Sweet Bliss containers as a gift several times. VERY envious that you will meet her! AND someone from ATK? Lucky girl you.
bridget
I clicked over to Sweet Amandine–what a good blog. Thanks for the share. And seriously, last night was great.
Melanie Yarbrough
Incredible!! I so wish I could have made it; Orangette has been one of my favorites for some time. I know what you mean about counting her influences; she inspired me to make polenta for the first time, and it’s officially in my repertoire. I can trust that any recipes she shares will be tried and true, and there’s something special about finding a place like that on the Internet, isn’t there?
Liz
Lucky girl!! A couple of nights ago I received my autographed copy of Delancey in the mail. It felt like Christmas; truly it did.
Your night sounds like a perfect evening, one you can reflect on years down the road. Wish I could’ve been in your shoes! 🙂
Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time! Hope you have many more. 🙂
andrea (book-scout)
this makes me so happy.
wish i could’ve teleported myself to wellesley for the night. or teleport you to portland in june. 😉
xo
http://www.bookscoutblog.com
Jess
We love those oatcakes, too! Mia likes to work the biscuit cutter. It was a pleasure meeting you at Molly’s reading, Rachael, and I’m so happy to discover your beautiful blog! Thanks for your kind words about Sweet Amandine. Hope to see you again soon.