Up to my eyeballs

This is already a great week! I was anticipating a food friendly moment tomorrow, when UBS hosts one of my favorite Food Network stars, Nigella Lawson.

But today I was surprised at the book store by Babbo's pastry chef, Gina de Palma! I love her cookbook so much that I have a little trouble keeping it to myself. (Check out the rave I gave it in my last post!) She stopped into the store to sign stock, and one of the intrepid booksellers remembered that I loved her book, and promptly called my desk to see if I wanted to say hi. Heck yeah! I gushed all over Gina and her book. It's a little embarrassing in retrospect, but hey, who doesn't love a fan?

I've been preparing for my next foodie favorite, Nigella, for some time now. About 9 months ago I was chatting with her publicist about the possibility of a Seattle tour. I put together a proposal and in their infinite kindness, her publishers are sending Nigella to town.

One fun offshoot of the event was a recipe contest that UBS ran in partnership with the Seattle Post Intelligencer. We asked readers to submit their favorite "express" recipes, in honor of Nigella's new book, Nigella Express. Teams from the book store tested and tasted recipes (tough gig, I know!) and we culled the submissions down to nine finalists. These were judged by three famous local foodies (the always delightful Tom Douglas; the man with the flakiest croissants in town, James Miller and Seattle PI food writer, Rebekah Denn). You can read more about the contest here.

Now that Nigella's event is drawing near, I have been cooking in preparation. I spent the weekend shopping for supplies--we're featuring some delicious treats from Nigella Express--and I spent today cooking. If you swing by the event tomorrow you'll be able to sample Mirin-glazed Salmon bites, "Moonblush" Tomatoes and Rocky Road Bars. I'll have pictures tomorrow, and will post as soon as I'm able.

Until then, I'm up to my eyeballs in foodie fun!