Your Virtual Goody Plate

Last year December was an awesome month on the blog. I held a series of posts and discussions called "Making Christmas." We covered Christmas music, decorations, cards, gifts, traditions, events, books and movies. It was awesome - you guys are awesome. If you missed it, go back and check it out. It really made the season more special and meaningful to me.

So I wondered - What could I do blogwise this year to set the month apart? I wanted to reach out and give all my friends far away a big hug. Or bake you a plate of cookies.

That's it!

Yes, I'll make you all a plate of goodies. The hugest, most massive month-long virtual goody plate ever. In fact, I have been baking it for months in order to get pictures and tastes and comments to share. Inspired by the success of Slow Cooker Week and my insatiable love of baking and blogging, there will be a new Virtual Goody Plate (VGP) recipe here every single day for the month of December. I have most of them lined up but there are still a few open slots so if you have a holiday treat winner we can't live without email it to me. It's not like I hold a monopoly on good recipes - far from it. It has to be a cookie/square/bar/ball or otherwise belonging on a goody plate for the most part.

I'll tell you now, there will be a lot of chocolate. And a few surprises. It has been fantastic having an excuse to try so many recipes. A lot will have pictures but not all of them. When I came up with the idea a few months ago I figured out that I'd have to make 2 goodies a week to get 31 pictures, and that just didn't happen. But I am making an effort, so thanks to Mom & Dad and all my local friends who graciously received goodies all fall.

After all, I'm on a diet.

I leave you with this quote from food writer Elizabeth Wood in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, December 1955:

"Yes, there is a Mrs. Claus. She's YOU - busy making visions of sugarplums come true. No gift is more welcome than goodies from your own kitchen."

See you tomorrow!

Sighting

I lived in New York for three years and saw one - ONE - celebrity: Uma Thurman walking down the street in Tribeca. Ed saw more since he was in Manhattan every day. And I got all kinds of stories of sightings from friends - Keanu Reeves in the line at the movie theater, Luke Wilson jogging in Central Park, Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz filming at a park. Well today I had a sighting. A most unlikely person - one that I just saw on TV last night in fact - in a most unlikely place.

I was at the gym, warming up with laps on the track and who do you think I saw on a treadmill? Carla from Top Chef. Of course I thought, no way, it's just a resemblance. But she is kind of a distinct-looking person, glasses and hair and all, and each time I passed her I became more and more sure. I also remembered she was from DC, so that kind of sealed the deal. Later she got on the elliptical machine next to mine and I got a better look. Pretty sure, sure enough to post about it anyway. Unless she's got a sister.

I delved deep into my - granted, shallow - reservoir of social protocol, trying to come up with an appropriate way to approach or ask her, but in the end I came up empty-minded and let it - and her - go. Maybe I'll see her again. In the meantime, I'll just have to..."watch what happens!"