8:45 a.m. I worked late the night before so would usually sleep in, but I have a deadline due.
9 a.m. Breakfast. My husband has been craving chilaquiles so I make his brother Mike’s recipe, a quick and easy stovetop method. Hmmm…I really should put it up on my Web site. I take a few photos.
9:30 a.m. I shower and get dressed before tackling e-mails and meeting a deadline.
10:05 a.m. I make final edits to an article due this morning and send it off to Experience Scottsdale, the official travel site for Scottsdale. It was a fun assignment where I moderated a roundtable discussion with three talented chefs: Mel Mecinas of Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North, Beau MacMillan of Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, and Charleen Badman of FnB. It will run in the winter issue of the Scottsdale Visitor Guide.
10:15 a.m. I work on e-mails and my Web site. My inbox is filled with press releases, restaurant announcements, food and beverage events and requests for coverage. I answer the time-sensitive ones, add events to my online calendar and compile a list of questions for an upcoming interview with celebrity chef Scott Conant. I’ve also been asked to mentor a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and chat with Emma, who is studying to be a travel journalist. I’ll be taking a hardhat tour of the new Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Spa, and I invite her to join me.
11:30 a.m. My husband and I head out for Tomaso’s Italian Restaurant’s 40-year anniversary celebration and luncheon. Mayor Stanton has also designated it Tomaso’s Day, so there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
12 p.m. We arrive at Tomaso’s Italian Restaurant where we celebrate with fellow media professionals and friends of chef/owner Tomaso Maggiore and his family. A delicious four-course luncheon includes casarecce pasta with langostinos and lemon-caper prawns with cauliflower and ricotta croquettes.
2:10 p.m. Back home, I check e-mails and update the Web site. I add event recaps, press releases and work on the recipe section. I’m participating in Fry’s Taste of Italy campaign and received a gift basket of imported ingredients for inspiration. I’ve created and posted a recipe for stuffed lumaconi pasta, and now I’m adding photos of last night’s antipasti platter (pictured).
3:20 p.m. I work in the garden fertilizing citrus trees (Meyer, Lisbon and Ponderosa lemons, grapefruit, lime, kumquat, Valencia and Moro Blood oranges) and planting winter produce including lettuce, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, radishes and beets.
