100 Posts, Paul Newman, and a Giveaway!

{Update, December 3, 2008: by the decision of the random number generator, the winner of the cookbook giveaway is Katrina of the Baking and Boys blog. Katrina, I'll get with you about the mailing details.}

I began this blog 4 months ago so that I could participate in the online baking group Tuesdays With Dorie. All I knew is that I would be baking the assigned recipes at least 2 weeks out of every 4 and would blog the results (those are the minimum TWD requirements). It turns out that I've done that, and more (I've not missed a week of TWD, even with a busy travel schedule). Give me a camera and a keyboard - and a cooking blog - and I'll average 25 posts/month, apparently. So here we are with my 100th post!

I'm celebrating with a giveaway:


My bookshelves are groaning under the weight of my cookbook collection, but there are a special few that I reach for time after time. One favorite is the Hay Day Cookbook, a now-out-of-print collection of fabulous recipes that feature fresh, quality ingredients, arranged by seasonal availability. For example the Fall section has some of the tastiest apple dishes you could ever imagine, and Summer features tomatoes, corn, and fantastic cold salads. Additionally, there are boatloads of how-to's, tips, articles, charts, and suggested menus.

The Hay Day Country Farm Market was a great specialty food shop/glorified produce stand in Westport, Connecticut. Paul Newman, one of Westport's more famous residents, was known to be a regular at Hay Day. Another resident, Martha Stewart, no doubt stopped by periodically for some produce (or maybe something from the prepared-food case?) Of course I never saw either of these luminaries (nor the lovely Joanne Woodward) on my occasional trips to the market, but the food pretty much made up for any disappointment!

My parents lived in a nearby town, and my dad stumbled on a used copy of the market's first cookbook. It quickly became a family favorite, and he had to track down a copy for me. (He had a used book business, but it was a lot harder finding specific books in the days before internet listings.)

Now that my girls have kitchens of their own, I thought I'd buy them copies of this out-of-print cookbook for Christmas (shh, don't tell them!) One for each girl. Two copies total. But counting to two seems to have been more of a challenge than I was capable of handling, and I've ended up with three copies (!) I can't think of a more deserving recipient for that third copy* than....you!

If you'd like your very own Hay Day Cookbook, just leave me a comment on this post by noon Eastern Standard Time on December 3, 2008. Be sure to include some way that I can contact you (your blog name/url or you could subscribe to follow-up comments - I will announce the winner in the comments as well as in the main post).
I will generate a numbered list of unique commenters. But here's a bonus: if you include a sentence or two in your comment about any one, or combination of, (a) Westport, Connecticut, (b) Paul Newman/ Joanne Woodward, or (c) Martha Stewart, I will enter you a second time. On December 1, I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner. I'll be happy to mail the book anywhere in the world, but it may be by slow boat!

I was in junior high school when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was released. Could there have been a better time to be introduced to Paul Newman? (Or Robert Redford, for that matter?) Sure, there was a minor love story subplot (the bicycle scene with the accompanying "Raindrops Are Falling on My Head" remains classic 1969 film footage), but this movie will always be, for me, the perfect Buddy Movie. With the perfect buddies.

Years later, when my girls were preteens, we were talking about movies and I mentioned Paul Newman. They scratched their heads for a minute, and then one of them said, "Oh, you mean the salad dressing guy?"

And really, Newman's Own, and the money it generated for charity, may be as great a legacy of this great man as his stirling acting credentials. My parents were at a party about 8 or 10 years ago, and ran into Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Paul asked my dad what his job was, and they chatted about that for a few minutes. Then my father asked Paul, facetiously, what was his line of work. Paul answered, completely deadpan, "I make salad dressing."


* The book is used, but a very nice copy. Here are the bookish details (as described by the bookseller from whom I purchased this copy): "Very Good Hardcover book with very Good Dust Jacket. Binding tight and straight. Pages clean and unmarked."