About
My husband complains that since I started blogging, we have no more undocumented meals.
Sorry dear, as long as the lighting is good and the battery’s charged you’ll just have to keep your elbows off the table and chew with your mouth closed.
I’m a freelance independent writer who loves food, travel and theatre. I’m not, repeat not, a professional chef. While I’ve never been to culinary school or cooked in a professional kitchen, I survived a stint waiting on tables during my undergrad degree. Within a few months, that job gave me more anxiety dreams than four years’ worth of final exams. I now serve readers — virtually, at my own pace.
Other than a few stress-filled semesters as a waitress (the term we used back then), my culinary influences are my mother and Canadian Living. Fresh ingredients, well-balanced flavours and nothing too complex are the only things I look for in a recipe — those and an absence of visceral organs or beets. Of course, when it comes to baking the “nothing too complex” rule goes out the window. See my post of choux pastry swans for proof.
When I’m not blogging, my writing appears in various regional, national and online publications. An extensive portfolio languishes on my website but in a nutshell, I’ve had an eclectic career so far. I’ve written about fruit wines and gourmet jams for Edible Toronto, waxed poetic about cookie baking and corn-on-the-cob for The Globe and Mail, made some uncomfortable confessions in More Canada, dished the dirt at Canadian Gardening and interviewed Olivia Newton John. While my posts occasionally make Reuters UK Lifestyle News, I have yet to achieve fame and fortune.
If you read through the archives, you’ll know I have a sweet tooth, a passion for chocolate, coffee, coconut milk, cilantro and ice cream. Perhaps my initials prompted me to gravitate towards words that begin with C?
I could go on, but you’ll have to excuse me. I think I smell something burning…
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The new blog looks wonderful, Charmian! I like the layout and the new header.
Well done.
Lisa
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I’m down with the “absence of visceral organs” … but … beets?! Really?! Who knew?! LOL
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Lisa, thanks so much for the kind words. Glad you like the results. It was a lot of work, but worth it!
Diva, yup, I’m anti-beet. I want to like them. I’ve tried to like them. Really. But I just can’t. Hope I haven’t disappointed you too much.
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Nah, that’s cool. If you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll admit … I don’t like cucumbers. Same deal … have tried many times, but no go. Sussssh!
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Charmian Christie Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Okay, Diva. Here’s the deal. I won’t tell anyone but you have to eat my beets and I’ll take the cucumbers off your hands.
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Congrats on the new site, Charmian! Can’t wait to see what you cook up over here… Not sure what the big deal is about getting your name wrong – I’ve always liked the name Christie quite a lot
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Charmian Christie Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Christie, it was so confusing when we worked together. I never knew if people were referring to you or messing up my name again.
Thanks for dropping by to comment on the new site. I’ve very excited and loving all the new WordPress features. Now I’m wondering what took me so long.
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Charmian,
Congratulations on the new site. It looks fresh! I love it! I’ll have to change the link from S.P. of A now.
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Charmian Christie Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 AM
Thanks Francesa. That’s so kind of you to do to that work. The redirect on this is so clunky (a combination of my lack of tech skills and Blogger limitations).
Glad you like the fresh look. That’s what we were going for. I think Melissa did a stellar job.
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