22 Jun A Little More Conversation
You know, I remember a time when there was actually such a thing as spring – and I miss it. Summer seems to hit us like a sucker punch these days, and whatever the cause for our warmer weather (I personally think it has more to do with natural weather cycles), it’s damn hot outside. For once I’m happy to be stuck in the air conditioning on a sunny day, plugging away at my laptop. Though the pool is inviting, I must say.
Like you, we are putting forth our best efforts to stay out of the hot kitchen this time of year, so we’ve been sure to incorporate quite a few grilled or quickly-cooked dishes in this month’s recipes to make it easier on all of us. In fact, June’s Mise en Place is a Summer Smörgåsbord with an array of colorful, light and refreshing dishes that are ideal for inviting friends over, and involve a lot less work.
Since we are partial to grilled seafood above all during the summer months, shrimp is starring as our Main Ingredient for June. Whether grilled, marinated or served in a salad, shrimp makes a wonderful choice for lighter fare that is easier on the body and needs little preparation. Lemons are not only an appropriate complement for our choice, but also add a tart sparkle to all sorts of dishes, so they have made their way onto our Indulgence radar for the second half of the month. Pucker up, people.
And though we are trying to keep the oven off, there are some indulgences that are simply worth the extra bit of heat. In this case, we’re speaking of soufflé. Pastry Princess Monica Glass has created a special tutorial this month, The Art of Soufflé, to take the fear out of this ever-pleasing dessert, and with the help of Jacques Capsouto from Capsouto Frères restaurant in New York City, she has put together a complete how-to that will serve as your guide to getting that puffy creation just right. She has also adapted Monsieur Capsouto’s Raspberry Soufflé recipe for the home kitchen, and it is an ideal treat to serve for summer brunch. I encourage you to go forth into the kitchen with courage, and take on your fear of the fallen soufflé.
Now, on a completely different note, you may have noticed that we’ve been tweaking our blogs, podcasts and various pages, moving things around and changing highlighted content. That, my friends, is because – wait for it – we’re getting ready to launch a whole new site in the coming months. Our activities have expanded to a point where the Gilded Fork as a magazine is only part of our work, so we are shifting things a bit to highlight our other activities, particularly the Culinary Podcast Network. Of course, that now presents us with a very interesting challenge: finding the umbrella name that captures everything we are doing here in the space of food and new media. You see, not only do we want to celebrate the sensual pleasures of food, but we also want to implement the latest technology and gadgetry to make the experience here rich, exciting and personal. As we’ve said before, our goal is nothing less than to change the face of food media.
And that’s where we need your help. The name, ah the name; we’ve dabbled with food words, we’ve tried to invent new ones, but nothing has yet inspired goose bumps of rapture. As a result, we are looking to you for some fresh inspiration, and ask you to join us in this act of creation. The genius who assists us in bringing the name to life will be rewarded with a bounty of gourmet goodies from our boutique, not to mention our heartfelt gratitude for helping us to preserve a few brain cells. Every one of them counts. You can either post your ideas in our revamped Discussion Forum, or send an e-mail to editor[at]gildedfork[dot]com.
You know, it’s interesting how some things come to light in the midst of planning others. We sometimes ask ourselves, “Why don’t more people comment on articles, or interact with us more on our blogs and podcasts?” That, of course, led us to wonder if we would indeed be able to engage you in this creative process. What we realized is that if you aren’t communicating with us as much as we’d like, it’s our own fault.
The onus is on us to invite you into our home in a compelling way, and to engage you in a way that encourages interaction. Perhaps some of our conversation is pointed too much outward instead of inviting a return volley (unless it’s a controversial issue, in which case we get *plenty* of feedback!); but we get a special thrill when a reader or listener reaches out to us – there’s nothing quite like it.
As a result, we want to open our front door wider, and add more chairs to our table, because you are invited to help us craft this entire experience. How do you want to spend your time with us? We are so grateful to see that most of you come back repeatedly throughout the month, as it means you find real value here – in fact, nearly 100,000 of you do! With that many food-inspired brains working together, we envision the possibility of creating a completely unique food experience right here in this space – and we’d like to create it *with* you. Your conversation will help bring that to life.
Your feedback also enables us make little adjustments to enhance your time here and make it more efficient – perhaps you have burning questions about some of our recipes, or the way we list recipes drives you crazy – we are opening the virtual suggestion box to get your feedback.
There are several ways you can talk with us:
– We have overhauled our discussion forum to make it even easier to
communicate with us and your fellow Gilded Fork readers. Just register with
an e-mail address.
– Comment on our blog and podcast posts
– If you have a headset, record a message on our Mobatalk recorder in the
sidebar
– Call in to our reader/listener line with a regular or mobile phone at 845-704-
7094
We’ve also created links from our podcasts and videocasts directly to the source files, which you can listen to or watch in streaming audio or video, or in the PodShow Mashboard. If all of that sounds like gibberish, we’ve also created a How to Listen & Watch post in the forum.
All of these nifty little gadgets are for your enjoyment, and we hope you’ll give them a try. We realize that a lot of new technology can seem unwieldy, so if you have a hard time with any of these widgets, just post a note in the “How Do I…?” section of the forum and we’ll come to the rescue.
We invite you to explore, to share, and to help us build your ideal virtual food and wine world. We look forward to talking *with* you!