LoveFeast Table

I was bound and determined to make it to the Baltimore Book Festival!  My husband and our friend from Holland, Albert, thought I was crazy.  It was raining buckets and there were flash flood warnings.  But, if the Book Festival was on, then I was going!   Kaya, my 14 year old, volunteered to brave the elements with me!  We headed off.  As we got closer to the Mt. Vernon area, the rain began to tapper off and the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds.  Maybe it’s a sign!!  Now to find parking…easy!  We’re definitely on the right track!  We parked the car and made our way to the Food For Thought tent.  There he was…The Amateur Gourmet .  The tent was more than half empty…(I must be dedicated, I thought).  Kaya and I brushed the puddles of water off our chairs and sat down.  Adam was incredibly approachable.  It didn’t take long to figure out why he is a popular food blogger!  Everything about his presentation made him feel like he was the guy next door.  A couple more people trickled in.  As I glanced around I saw a very hip, New York type girl..was it?  Yes, it was!  Emily Farris (Casserole Crazy) sat down.  Bingo!!  Maybe I can talk to both of them!  After Adam finished his pasta dish, I hurried over to the book tent to buy his cookbook. (It will make a great Birthday present for Chris Ann, I thought.)  After the crowd began to clear, I went up and first introduced myself to Emily.  I asked her for any advice…how she got her cookbook published…about her blogging experience (there were many more questions, but I wanted to give the appearance of being cool and professional…not of a momma exploding at the seams because she was out hob knobbing with people in the “real world”)  She told me about her journey with the casserole contest, leading to the book…then to her blog.  Adam’s story was a bit different…blog, to cookbook, to show with Food Network.  So, the theme is, there is no right or wrong way!  We chatted for a bit and I was so grateful for the tidbits of advice they passed on!  The best being, “Know what sets you apart.”  I know, without a doubt, what sets Chris Ann and I apart…our story and a lifestyle we live out!  So, we begin this great adventure of blogging our story and weaving for you a picture of what Love Feast means to us…

We couldn’t believe our good fortune.   We had invented our self proclaimed jobs:  food bloggers and cookbook writers and had decided we were big.  At least, big in our own minds.  So, bolstered by our gusto, guts, and the need to quite frankly, just get out of the house, we were going to do this thing.  We had psyched ourselves up, convinced our husbands (it didn’t take long, we’re a force to be reckoned with), and told our kids (mommies can’t be quitters)–there would be no turning back now, be it, rain, floods, lightening, or lack of chairs.   So,  here it was the first week of our new jobs and we had “events” to go to.  Kristin was going to go to the Baltimore Book Festival to search for cookbook authors and I was going to go to see The Splendid Table’s, How to Eat Supper book event, at the Minneapolis, Room & Board.  The whole week we had been dreaming, scheming, and piecing together our ideas for blogging and cookbooks.  We had been researching and had come across some blogs we likes.   Amazingly, two were both going to be at the Baltimore Book Festival.  The Amateur Gourmet the had helped us get some “how to” information.  We liked his honesty.  We liked his humor.  The Casserole Crazy gal was elevating casseroles of all things!  We liked her spunk.  We liked her hair.   So, Kristin, leaving her cozy Baltimore home, went out to find them there, in the pouring rain.  She was armed with an umbrella (or was it a lightening rod), a camera, and her son (filling in as personal assistant and documenter).  (We don’t have agents or managers YET, but teenagers work as well, and ours assure us we’re cool for moms. )  There was no knowing if anyone would be out in the torrents of rain, but then again, no crowd could be a good thing, a chance to introduce ourselves.   So off to the tents, Kristin went, I told her on the phone, “knock ‘em dead, don’t get hit by lightening and remember, fake it ’til you make it”  The journey was on!

Here we are!  Four friends toasting the beginning of our blog:  The Love Feast Table.  The purpose of our blog is to begin a discussion that we hope spreads about friends and family, and gathering at the table around good food, and of course life’s adventures!  We have had so many amazing memories around the table, many of those times we thought too good not to share!  So, we are going to begin a conversation about these memories, past, present, and hopefully future!  We are hoping you, the reader, will come join us at our table, sit down, and share your lives as well.   We want to hear your LoveFeast stories about how you live,  and the meals you share with your family and friends, and what makes a meal a memory for you!