Photo Styling Project. Chef'n's New Ice Cream Making Product, the Sweet Spot, Now Available at Williams Sonoma

Our photo crew (that would be Kristin Zwiers and Kat Spellman) was excited to do a shoot for the new Chef'n Sweet Spot ice cream maker for the Williams Sonoma website.  Anytime you spend the day with ice cream and creative, talented people is a good one. Right?

Head on over to Williams Sonoma to purchase one of these simple, fun products that instantly transforms cold cream and sugar into ice cream with a simple scraping motion. No liquid nitro involved!

Writer Rebekah Denn examines Twitter in the food world

This month's Seattle magazine features a great article by Rebekah Denn: "SHORT ORDER REVIEWS: In Seattle where restaurants, chefs and food are topics discussed and debated with more fervor than politics, Twitter is giving foodies inside access to the conversation, 140 characters at a time."

Denn included me in the mix, writing, "Twitter followers must determine which sources they consider reliable, rather than rely on gate-keeping editors. And that reliability is harder to judge due to the fact that every Twitterer has an agenda— or sometimes, several.

Kat Spellman, publicist for Spur Gastropub, finds Twitter a valuable business tool, learning immediately, for instance , when (Ruth) Reichl (Gourmet magazine’s editor) ate at Spur. But she also follows luminaries she admires on Twitter, such as Mark Bittman of The New York Times. She was thrilled when she tweeted Bittman to compliment him on his chocolate soufflé and he replied.

The self promotion that’s clearly a top agenda item for some is only effective when done in a low-key style…"

As a Twitterer who enjoys wearing multiple hats online, I'm honored to be included and even more thrilled to be recognized for rocking a "low key style". Love it!

Thanks for the opportunity Rebekah. Illustration for Seattle magazine by Ken Orvidas.

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Kat Spellman sounds off in this month’s Seattle magazine

I just can’t stand by while folks play the game of buy-wear-and return… treating retailers who have generous return policies, like Nordstrom, as their own personal free wardrobe supplier. August’s Letter to the Editor section of Seattle magazine includes a sidebar discussion in response to the May article “Recession Diet”. I'm quoted.

The article touched on trends like: touting your own flask to a bar with friends and surreptitiously sipping from it, instead of paying for drinks there (don’t get me started on that one); nanny sharing (an idea I embrace if the nanny knows up front, is fairly compensated, and isn’t saddled with a bad kid-to-nanny ratio) , and the longstanding trend by gals I disdain (you know who you are) of buying an outfit, tuckin’ in the tag, and wearing it out on the town… only to return it to the store for full money back the next day saying, “It just really didn’t fit…” Ughh.

In this month’s issue Seattle mag included my reply to this piece: “The idea of abusing Nordstrom's return policy was utterly shameful to Kat Spellman of Seattle. ‘WOW. Shame on Dionne and her pride in her wear-and-return policy of buying items,’ Spellman said."

Photo from Seattle magazine. Click on blog title above to read Karen Johnson’s entire article, Recession Diet. Can't wait to hear what you all think!