This Blogger Is Cooking Her Way Through the Entire "Top Chef" Cookbook

For my Penn Foodies series, this week we've featured a restaurant entrepreneur, a couple who had their blog turned into a cookbook, and now today a chef (and blogger) on a mission!

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Carolyn Anne Dizon (W'90, Parliamentary Debate Team) is cooking her way through the entire Top Chef The Cookbook and has shared it with all of us. She is now over half-way through the cookbook, and along the way she blogs about the process on her BravoTV Blog "The Cookbook Chronicles", shows step by step photos and overall explains things to the home cook. In addition she discusses the episode the dish was featured on, and also blogged about the past season 5's Top Chef's weekly episodes.

How did Carolyn become such a foodie? Her roots started at Penn...

Per Carolyn,

"I have always been cooking, was an avid follower of Julia Child since my teens, did tons of cooking in elementary school and high school, and at Penn, during my senior year, had a "cooking club" with my roommates where we would all rotate each night one of us taking on the role of making dinner. I also tried to perfect pumpkin pie my senior year at Penn - I think I may not have succeeded in that endeavor - I remember for one version (I made about 8 versions), I forgot the eggs, and the less-than-perfect results were launched out the window of my rowhouse apartment onto 40th Street, much to the dismay of my roommates and friends!  But seriously, I believe that during my sophomore year when I lived in High Rise East, I was one of the few people who actually made use of the kitchen!

My blogging started rather spontaneously.  I always had been doing my version of "blogging" by musing on "whatever" - often reality TV shows - to many friends via email and we'd keep a running dialogue going.  Recently I met two women through friends of mine who both work at BravoTV.com.  I told them what a fan I was of the show and "impressed" them with my knowledge of all kinds of trivia from the show.  I guess they were impressed because they asked me if I wanted to audition to blog for the Top Chef cookbook.  I jumped at the opportunity and after sending two sample blogs got the position." (find out more about why she's doing this blog HERE)

The hardest dish to prepare for Carolyn?:
Halibut with Grapes and Fried Leeks

Per Carolyn,

"I love my blog for this recipe because it is an AMAZING dish using classical French technique (which I feel is key to any properly trained chef - it provides the foundation for them to branch out from after).  This recipe required a lot of steps, has great photos, was a huge success (totally a "clean plate club" meal), and the blog is a little funny because the blender basically exploded when I was blending the sauce - still I battled on, which is precisely what I would hope any home chef/cook to do as well. 

+ Carolyn's BravoTV blog: "The Cookbook Chronicles" HERE

+ Carolyn's personal blog:  TheSassyFoodie.com where she'll be blogging all about the current "Top Chef Las Vegas" season which starts tonight!

+ Follow Carolyn on Twitter

Delicious nuggets from my "Penn Foodies" series HERE

More posts about Penn Alumni Bloggers HERE

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From Blogging At Penn to Publishing 200 Gourmet Recipes For Any Budget

In continuing my "Penn Foodies" week, after yesterday's story about this restaurant entrepreneur, today I bring you a post about yet another set of Penn alumni working together. 

Great story here. Two friends (and now dating!) write blog at Penn, get approached by publisher and now have book!

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Alanna Kaufman (C'08, DP, City News Editor, Kite and Key Tour Guide, Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor) and Alex Small (C'08, DP Photo Editor) published a new book called The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: 200 Gourmet Recipes for Any Budget which features high-quality recipes at low costs, and is aimed at cooks at any skill level (or no skill level!).  The idea for the book stemmed from their food blog, Two Fat Als, which they began writing while at Penn.  Both the blog and the book include anecdotes about their experiences cooking at Penn and in Philadelphia.

How did they get started?

Per Alanna,

"After finishing our editorships at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Alex and I had a lot of free time on our hands, and we began cooking.  Though our kitchens were tiny and poorly equipped, we starting making dinner each night and recording our dishes on our blog, Two Fat Als.  The blog was designed to show other college students that it was possible to create tasty and sophisticated dishes on a low budget.  Alex has always been a great chef -- his Colombian mother and Jewish father put him to work in the kitchen at an early age -- so he taught me basics and we continued to develop our skills together. 

Cooking for the blog moved us to explore different food markets in Philadelphia (the farmers markets, the Italian market, Redding Terminal), and we would often have friends over multiple nights per week for dinner. 

After a literary agent found the blog online during our senior year and suggested that we write a book proposal, we found Adams Media and The Frugal Foodie Cookbook was born!"

Alanna and Alex's favorite meals for friends at Penn which they served pre-Walnut Walk their senior year (from their book):
Apricot Brandy Baked French Toast +/-

 

Per Alana, "The day we first heard from our literary agent was the same day as our Walnut Walk during senior week. We were hosting a huge pre-walk brunch for our friends -- we made the apricot brandy baked French toast from the book, as well as cinnamon buns and an asparagus frittata. That was one of our favorite meals for friends at Penn and everyone stuffed themselves in preparation for a long day."

And one of Alanna's favorite recipes (from their book):
Black Bean Soup +/-

 

...And this isn't the first Penn alum who wrote a blog about saving money as a student at Penn and then got discovered.  Remember THIS Penn alum whose blog got turned into a book and then was hired to write on "Scrubs"?!

Get in touch with Alex and Alanna! twofatals at gmail.com

Delicious nuggets from my "Penn Foodies" series HERE

More posts about Penn alumni authors HERE

Other money saving tips from my "Pinching PENNies" series HERE

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Website Wednesdays: His Colorful Crayon

From Scott Shrake's (GSAS'96) Huffington Post blog, to Rachel Goldberg's (C'96) National Protrusion site, it seems like our alumni have much to say about today's political climate.



And now it's time to add another humorous political site from our alumni to the mix: Al Bingham's (C'92, Mask and Wig, Philomathean Socitey, Friars) The Purple Crayon.



Per Al, this site is all about "political humor that makes no distinction between Red State or Blue. The pen may be mightier than the sword but The Purple Crayon is more colorful."



Some highlights of his site include:

• Passing the Clintons' tests


• NYTimes Launches Missile: Navy Vet McCain Takes Out Satellite Lobbyist


• Purr-fect Storm: Socks the Cat Joins Growing List of Superdelegates to Endorse Obama

Apparently other media sources are reading Al's blog. Per Al,

"I think the NYTimes is worth reading, especially the Caucus Blog. Also firstread.msnbc.com. Assuming you're interested in politics, of course. If you're not really interested in politics then you should check out The Huffington Post's humor site 236.com (most of the news, some of the time) ... especially on the days when they're cross-posting libelous material from The Purple Crayon - my political humor blog - albingham.typepad.com. Apparently folks from Politico.com, CNN, MSNBC and a bunch of people in the House and Senate read The Purple Crayon from time to time... which is an indication of how low the media and politicians have sunk in the Stewart-Colbertian sense."

Check out Al's site here



Find out more about what led Al to start blogging and to which alumni he gives thanks and credits!



Got a site you want to promote? Submit it here!



My previous Website Wednesday posts



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Website Wednesdays: Media Maven Musings

In addition to singing well and being the creator of a popular improvised musical troupe, add "blogger" to Jonah Platt's (C'08, Off the Beat Musical Director) list of achievements.

Started in January of 2007, Jonah's site Media Maven Musings offers trustworthy, humorous and Penn-educated (wink) opinions on all things tv/film/music related. The site has had nearly 100,000 unique views since its inception, and has been linked to from dozens of sites around the web, including USAToday, Showtime.com, and many more.

Check out Jonah's site here

Got a site you want to promote? Submit it here!

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How did Penn fall to the bottom of THIS list?

Dartmouth Cords featured above

For the most part I enjoy some a capella groups (i.e. Off the Beat).

Not everyone is like me.

Ivygateblog.com editor Jim Newell (C'07, 34th Street Editor and Chief) DESPISES all capella groups ...so much in fact that he has started a "Worst A Cappella Group in the Ivy League" tournament based on bad submissions.

I hate to say it but he has a Penn a capella group in his first round.

Click here to vote in Jim's head-to-head a capella group grudge matches

Do you agree with some of these submissions? Comment below!

Have you taken a peek at the 500+ Penn related videos we've got (divided neatly into categories? :)

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Caroline Rothstein (C'06): Don't call this spoken word poet "granola"!

The more I write about alumni and undergrads, the more I'm realizing that not only is there a lot of talent out there, but our Penn folk have some powerful opinions and voices.

One such alum is Caroline Rothstein (C'06, The Excelano Project), a spoken word poet currently living in New York City. Her poetry is honest, real, personal, and political.

...Listen to the power behind her poem below, "They Call Me Granola" (put your headphones on..not safe for work). This is great...:




This past year, Caroline also self-published a book of her poetry called "What I Learned In College." Books are $5 and can be purchased by emailing Caroline directly at caroline.rothstein@gmail.com.

In addition to spoken word, Caroline keeps a blog that she began upon moving to Atlanta. You can find her adventures throughout the United States and deep into the streets of Manhattan.

Click here to listen to more of her poetry

Click here to learn how Caroline got started in "spoken word"

Check out another Penn alum specializing in "the spoken word"

Click to see what other 2006 Penn grads are up to
Sign up for daily emails to get notified about alumni and undergraduate updates! (click here to see a newsletter)

Click here to read "Life Worth", an excerpt/poem from Caroline's chapbook* "What I Learned in College"

*A chapbook is a book of poetry. It's typically a book that a poet puts out on their own, so mostly self published/printed, etc.

---

"Life Worth"

He’d just bought a pair of shoes
Hundred dollar sneakers, shopping bag, right hand

He walks down Central Street in Highland Park, Illinois –
a brand name sidewalk with affluent stores
He knocks on the pharmacy window to buy Gatorade and a bag of pretzels but they wave him away –
It’s 4 PM on a Sunday and they are closing up shop

A senior at his high school pulls an illegal U-Turn
An elderly man stops short to avoid collision, skids onto the curb,
and throws my brother into the side of a store building
His head cracks open, his eyes close shut,
and his sneakers fling into the air as his spleen develops cuts
They do brain surgery, put him on respirators,
Rabbi Mason prays by his ICU bedside but he never wakes up
I’m crouched over his bedside begging him,
Yelling at him “Josh, wake up! Josh, please, wake up!”

He was only shoe shopping,
Walking side by side teenage girls that purchase emaciation on a hanger,
Which is really just a metaphor for
Shirts sewn in sweat shops by starving children
And studies say that executing killers costs more than
Keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives
And funeral prices are on the rise:
Cremation packages start at 2000, the average casket is 6000
28 dollars a month to purchase an orphan on the internet
13 bucks for a Japanese picture bride to weed the fields and strip sugar cane
Not too much for a mail order bride –
Choose her nationality, her body shape, and human pedigree
And since this is an unregulated business,
I don’t have fancy statistics to insert here: ____
About how many women are bought by strangers yearly
As we get a price check in aisle five
To bargain lives that we further judge when they die

My family goes to trial so the killers can pay for our loss in insurance
There’s no way to judge but the judge sits there asking me:
How much was his life worth?
My fifteen year old brother had 20, 000 dollars in savings
From selling beanie babies at a hundred times their cost
On an ebay auction block
650 dollars to buy an African teen on a Southern auction block
How much is a life worth?

We purchase human beings from fruitless trees
We consume materials and will them to our offspring
We hang child labor on manikins
We dangle death next to cash registers
We kill children in store front windows

And judge their worth in finances even though
The only bank in heaven is the locked vault of karma
The only currency in heaven is a set of intangible beliefs
The only worth in heaven can’t even be proven
How much is a life worth?

He was fifteen years old walking happy on a sidewalk
He was fifteen years old shackled standing on an auction block
He was fifteen years old starving sewing in a sweat shop
How much is a life worth?

Josh, wake up, Josh, please wake up
How much is your life worth?
It’s worth waking up every day to face the misery of death’s reality
It’s worth becoming straight edge
to never miss a single moment of sobriety
It’s worth my living breath to overcome death
Josh, you are what my life’s worth

---

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Jessica Gold Haralson (C'08) wants you to check out Playboy for the articles...

"Porn is awesome. Many women my age understand porn is just sexual stimulation — not competition.”

Got your attention?

This quote comes from undergrad aspiring journalist and college magazine editor Jessica Gold Haralson (C'08) in this month's Playboy college edition. Jessica was invited to speak at a college roundtable of journalists from colleges with an interest in sexuality.

Jessica is quite the emerging writer with a unique voice. She started a campus smart-sex magazine, works at Penn’s Kelly Writers House, and is currently interning at smart smut publication Nerve.com. She edits the Nerve Video Blog and is a research assistant for Nerve culture blog Scanner. In addition, she serves as an editorial/PR assistant to Philadelphia-based journalist Stephen Fried.

Last year she started Quake Magazine (her erotica publication) and per Jessica, "it is no longer a print publication, but look out for an online version this winter."

Be sure to bookmark that one!

If you’d like to know more, please shoot her a line at jgh@sas.upenn.edu. She would love to hear from you!

Click here to visit Jessica's website

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DuelingTampons.com featured in Daily Pennsylvanian!

Earlier this week I was interviewed by Penn undergrad Alissa Eisenberg (C'10) for an article about DuelingTampons.com that came out in today's Daily Pennsylvanian.

Click the image above to see the article larger or click here to read the digital version in the DP online!

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Scott Shrake (GSAS '96): Ultimate Washington Insider

Have you heard of Arianna Huffington bloggers?

They're out there and one of them is Penn graduate alum Scott Shrake (GSAS'96)

From the Arianna Huffington site, "He [Scott] has been a marketing copyeditor for Borders and Discovery, and a writer for the Wharton School at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, as well as for the University of Michigan. In those jobs and as an editor at UsedWigs.com and a writer at the Philadelphia City Paper, he has interviewed many famous people, but their fame hasn't rubbed off on him... yet."

So what does he blog about?

Per Scott, "My angle at the HuffPo Politics blog is that even though I moved to D.C. a matter of months ago and I don't work in politics and I'm kind of long in the tooth to be making a new start, I am trying to become the "ultimate Washington insider." I am carving out a niche for myself among Arianna Huffington's bloggers as the guy on the ground in D.C., the one going to parties and court cases and whatnot."

Check out the article he just published on hecklers and learn why he "in a way" may consider himself one.

Click here to check out Scott's archives

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