This post is from from my other blog here

Things have been busy over the past few months. Each day we've been writing recipes, testing recipes and gathering together a comprehensive body of work for the MMGTCFD. (the Guys Cookbook).

And then we started writing a fiction novel, fiction inspired by all the interesting daily observances of a thirty-something woman and her nanny. At a rate of 5,000 words per week it is like a freight train coming from Coogee and is pretty, well, spicy...

More significant that my writing schedule is the new opportunity for my company, Mighty Media Group, to represent one of the hottest new visual artists in Australia, Athena X. (www.athenax.com) Athena is an amazing Greek Australian who is as intellectually stimulating as she is physically beautiful. Her work is evocative and provokes thought on topics such as modern humanity and our need to connect to others and our many internal faces. Who are we? What masks do we wear? What erodes our souls? Check her work out! I will personally be handling her media strategy, branding and will take a strategic position next to her to make AthenaX one of next year's hottest new brands.

Athena X and I commence this journey with a trip to one of the World's Biggest Art Exhibitions, Art Basel Miami on December 6-9th in Miami, Florida USA. Athena will meet various members of the art community and concrete plans for her 2008 Exhibition Schedule. (New York, Dubai, Art Basel 2008)

If you're around, drop me a note. We'd love to see you and Athena and I make the Veronicas look like, well, silly schoolgirls.

X

Stephenie

This post is from from my other blog here

Things have been busy over the past few months. Each day we've been writing recipes, testing recipes and gathering together a comprehensive body of work for the MMGTCFD. (the Guys Cookbook).

And then we started writing a fiction novel, fiction inspired by all the interesting daily observances of a thirty-something woman and her nanny. At a rate of 5,000 words per week it is like a freight train coming from Coogee and is pretty, well, spicy...

More significant that my writing schedule is the new opportunity for my company, Mighty Media Group, to represent one of the hottest new visual artists in Australia, Athena X. (www.athenax.com) Athena is an amazing Greek Australian who is as intellectually stimulating as she is physically beautiful. Her work is evocative and provokes thought on topics such as modern humanity and our need to connect to others and our many internal faces. Who are we? What masks do we wear? What erodes our souls? Check her work out! I will personally be handling her media strategy, branding and will take a strategic position next to her to make AthenaX one of next year's hottest new brands.

Athena X and I commence this journey with a trip to one of the World's Biggest Art Exhibitions, Art Basel Miami on December 6-9th in Miami, Florida USA. Athena will meet various members of the art community and concrete plans for her 2008 Exhibition Schedule. (New York, Dubai, Art Basel 2008)

If you're around, drop me a note. We'd love to see you and Athena and I make the Veronicas look like, well, silly schoolgirls.

X

Stephenie

I recently read a book called A Million Little Pieces. It is a book about a 23 year old man who goes into rehab. He is a real loser, addicted to everything and completely out of control. The book is pretty graphic in demonstrating the horrors of addiction and did my head into a point where I looked at everything I did in my life to make sure that I wasn't addicted to anything. I even reduced my wine intake at dinner just to prove to myself that I could.
    More relevant to this forum, there was a part of the book where the writer was talking about this terrible rage that he had towards his parents. This anger took on its own persona and was called the Fury. It  was a big, black ugly monster that spoke loud and resounding in the poor man's head. He couldn't hug his parents, and when they did anything loving to him, he shrank back in disgust.
    During his time in rehab he worked with a therapist. The therapist noted that he was extremely angry. She work shopped him on why. Was he ever abused as a child sexually? Mistreated by his parents physically? Did any one else abuse him as a child like a carer or relative. NOTHING. No abuse in his history. His parents were loving, normal and supportive, even through his addiction.
    There is a time in rehab where the family members come for family group. It is meant to be a time for confession and healing. From what it sounds like, it is terribly painful for all parties but part of the process of regeneration.
    During this man's family sessions, he tells his parents that he is angry with them. He describes this rage in great detail. The parents are horrified and the mother is weeping. She is sobbing.  She is bereft.
    The therapist asks the parents if there was anything, anything at all in the child's history, from day 1, that would have created this reaction in their son. Through the tears the mother explains that her son was born screaming. He screamed and wailed for the first 2 years of his life. They fed him, changed him, cuddled him and the infant was inconsolable.  They took him to the heath care provider and they could find nothing obviously wrong.  The child continued to scream.
    Some time later, they finally went to a specialist as their economic position could now afford one. The doctor noted that the child had SEVERE ear infections, and had them for an obvious long time. The child had been screaming in agony for years and the parents didn't address it. They didn't know. How could they know, the mother kept saying.
    It was a very powerful and haunting chapter especially because I am a parent. TO think that this man developed a resentment that went all the way back to the cradle was frightening. I think in the past, parents thought that the kids would never remember any of their first year experiences so they did what they wanted, not appreciating that those early years were creating a personality imprint that would structure this person's entire personality and being.
    This chapter also made me introspective. Who am I? How do I feel about my mother? What happened that influences these feelings. I also have purposed to give my son the most loving, happy environment in all his points of contact, from carers to we parents.
    The book is a great gritty read if you can handle to vivid descriptions. It is part autobiography, part fiction, but powerful nonetheless.

This post is from from my other blog here

People ask me what my new project is about. Although the title has been a working one six ways from Sunday (ranging from Gourmet Foreplay to the Idiots Guide to Cooking for a Date) I am loving it. I have been working feverishly on recipes and testing things in my kitchen for the last two weeks. Beyond the road test however is the market research, and that has also been pretty fun.

    When I begin to talk to some yummy co-ed about my work (I love it when they ask what I do and I explain that I provide the top way to get busy!) their eyes light up. I share how my book will give them very easy steps to creating a memorable night of food, conversation and atmosphere. Although the recipes are that good, I've been offering the secret weapon to getting it to happen for them. Over Easter weekend I asked about 100 guys what they thought about my idea for a cooking for a date companion, and hands down every guysaid they would be interested and it had nothing to do with me being on the cover only wearing a smile (which I am not doing by the way...I've had a child). Now, I can't tell you what that weapon is or there would be no reason to read the book now, would there.

    Some of the delicious things I have road tested this week were the Whole Baby Snapper Asian style  (it does not involve any Thai Lady Boys lipsyncing Barbara Streisand, fear not) and a terrific Chicken Paella with Sausage and Rosemary. Both were 'get your clothes off' magnificent and rediculously easy to prepare.

    I love food, and I love entertaining. Men cooking is one of the sexiest things I know. Because I know what a turn on cooking is (I get alot of kitchen sex, thank you) I want to do my part for humanity and share the love, so to speak. I hope you love my ramblings, recipes and ultimately, my how-to book.