Okay, let me just admit it right here. I’m a recovering packrat and an inveterate procrastinator. Neither has anything to do with Valentine’s Day—they’re not even particularly lovable personality traits in a mate. But as much as they occasionally cause me grief, they sometimes work out nicely. Like with this post, a nice little mix of items all loosely strung together around the notion of love—and all things gathered from here and there and just saved because, hey, you never know.

I’ll start with a book. Way back in August, Penguin Books offered to send me a copy of Kathleen Flinn’s charming The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School. It was just coming out in paperback at the time, and I should have read it right away. I should have reported on it here, and copies of the book should have made their way into numerous Christmas stockings. Instead, it languished in the well-intentioned pile of stuff I mean to read. Well, now I’m telling you about it as a possible last-minute Valentine’s Day gift—or just a fun foodie read for yourself.

Flinn’s book has an unexpectedly [and unintentionally] timely element to it. The events that inspired it came about when she was downsized out of a software job in London. Although it was first published in January 2007, well before the current global economic crisis, her experience of staring down the “what next” question is all too familiar to far too many people right now. What she decides is next for her is attending the legendary Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Continue reading “Valentine’s Day Round-up: A book, a song and a contest for the love of food” →