This substack is for you and by me. And while it’s lovely to be editor-in-chief, managing editor and test kitchen editor all at once, I want to make sure you folks are satisfied, so we can keep building our community larger and larger.
I’ve had many different editorial roles in my career, from intern at SPY magazine (back when we laughed at Queens realtor and “short-fingered vulgarian” Donald Trump) to an editor at Nickelodeon magazine (where I created slime cake) all the way to editorial director at Oxygen TV when it launched. Shortly after that I went to culinary school, trained as a chef and then went back to writing about food, but now with a confidence that allows me to say “Maillard effect” with certainty.
Since then I’ve written about food for the New York Times, Newsweek, NJ Monthly and Real Simple among other places. But! My resume is not what today’s substack is about.
It’s about you!
What do you want from The Secret Life of Cookies substack? Since I started publishing in December 2020, I’ve developed and published over 150 recipes. On occasion I’ve written about food history, and recently I promised you some “Gadget Lust” kitchen gear reviews and present guides.
Please help me shape the future of this newsletter and answer the questions below. You’ll find a “leave a comment” button under each batch of questions. Feel free to drop me an email if you’d prefer.
With the a long and festive cooking season ahead of us, what kind of recipes would please you? Savory apps and sides? Should I do another cookie countdown as in the past few years? Pies? Alternative Thanksgiving desserts? Great baked goods to give as gifts? A whole month of cheese-related treats? Air-fryer recipes? Dinners in 20 minutes or less? Things to buy from Trader Joe’s that you can transform into something better? Cookies, cookies, cookies?
What other kind of things would you like to read about? More food and kitchen history? Interviews with well-known chefs and non-chef celebrity types to find out what they’re eating and doing in the kitchen? Cookbook reviews? Grocery store product reviews? TV recommendations? World War I popular culture (I can put my graduate degree to use!) Musings on nothing in particular?
What about video? Would you like to see techniques and recipes being made?
Any other suggestions or recommendations? Thoughts, deep or otherwise? Would you like to help me choose a new carpet for the main sitting area?
Thank you so much for your input. I am so grateful for this community we’ve created.
I'd love a cookie countdown, great baked goods and the Trader Joe's idea. To be perfectly honest, though, I love this Substack so I'm good with whatever you come up with. I would, however, like suggestions on how to cook your baked goods for fewer people, i.e., just me. Should I just cut everything in half or do you have other suggestions?
Anything really. I do like food history - and here’s a tidbit I learned today. I follow Great British Tea Party on Facebook. It’s a good page with good texts & pics but today I learned something that made a lot of sense.
The UK had food rationing well into the 1950s. We had that here too, but it ended shortly after WWII. Not so in the UK. The war had so devastated their resources and food supply chains it took that long after the war to end rationing. And I surmise that’s why they had the reputation of having terrible food for so long.
Also, there was comment on that post from a New Zealander where food rationing didn’t end until the late 1950s. NZ had to export much of what they had to support England’s recovery.
We never really think of all the costs of war, do we.