Finished up the Earth tier treat boxes and sent them out today. It’s supposed to be an autumn dragons theme — it’s still technically autumn, right? Until the solstice? Am I making that up? Shhh…
This is what goes in the Earth tier this time around:
• smoke marshmallow
• passionfruit / dragonfruit marshmallow
• tamarind-chili marshmallow
• rose, vanilla, and cardamom leaf cookies
• gruyere-crusted butternut squash scone
• spiced pumpkin muffins with cashew and crystallized ginger
Okay, I have to admit, I started laughing when I pulled this new ‘basmati rice’ jar out of the box, and realized how small it actually was.
Apparently, I hadn’t paid attention to the dimensions when ordering, and had just assumed it would be at least twice this size. As a South Asian, I would never imagine someone would make a rice jar that’s just going to hold a day or two’s worth of rice!
The jar is by potter Rae Dunn, and I actually think it’s quite lovely, and I’m going to be happy to have it sitting on my counter. It’s honestly just as well, in fact, because we’re trying to eat a little less white rice, and I’ve got a reasonable-sized glass jar of Sri Lankan red rice on the counter behind the wee basmati jar. (Red rice is much lower carb / lower glycemic index). Small jars are good for storing occasional treats!
We’ll keep the actual big bags of rice in the pantry, where they always were, and will refill the counter jars as needed, and it’ll all be fine.
But it does just make me laugh. Itty bitty jar of basmati rice! My grandmother would be bewildered.
Hm. Just got a note from Mascot asking if we want to keep storing Feast copies in their warehouse for about $400 for another year. I said yes. The note also mentioned that we’re down to 872 copies, which is nice to see — we’d originally done a 2000 copy print run, so despite the pandemic cancelling all our launch activities, we’re more than halfway sold-through, it looks like.
And the praise for the book is still pretty glowing everywhere I see it, which is lovely. 4.5 stars on Amazon still, with 36 reviews, which is great! (If you feel inclined to leave a review, please do — they boost visibility a lot, in Amazon’s weird algorithms. It needn’t be a long review!)
Of course, there may still be some returns, so you can’t take any of these numbers as gospel, but it’s nice to see the stock-on-hand trending downwards. I have a hundred or so copies in my basement, and some at Jed‘s too, if I’m remembering right, and I’ve sold a few hundred to my dad at cost for him to give away to friends and family, so it’s not as if massive profits have come in.
But still, it seems reasonable that by next year this time, we might actually have sold all the copies left, and I won’t be paying Mascot for storage anymore. That’d be nice!
Vegan Serendib we’re planning to do print-on-demand, so less profit margin / book, but no big up front costs for printing or storage. If either book experiences a big surge, we might consider doing a print run again, but it’s so expensive for a big hardcover cookbook full of color photos, that seems fairly unlikely to me. We’ll see, though! You never know.
If you’re thinking of getting it as a holiday gift for someone, and want it signed and/or with curry powder added in, do order early if you can. I’m unlikely to run out of cookbooks, but shipping has had a lot of weird delays, and I’d hate for someone to not get their gift in time.
Well, this is very fun. You remember how we had to cancel all kinds of book launch stuff when COVID descended, back in March 2020? Here’s a little sign of book life returning — I’ve just dropped off both hardcover and paperback copies of Feast at our local butcher / grocery Carnivore Oak Park, along with some of my small batch hand-roasted Sri Lankan curry powder.
Locals, if you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy of Feast for yourself or a friend or family member (they make GREAT holiday gifts, if I do say so myself), I’d love it if you’d support one of our local stores and stop by to get your copy from Carnivore. And if they run out, don’t worry, I can always bring them more…
I added a little care package of confections for the team too — dragonfruit chocolates, cashew milk toffee, passionfruit marshmallows, mulled apple cider marshmallows, chai spice meringue kisses. The young men there always take such good care of us; it’s nice to give them something back. (If you’d like Carnivore to carry my sweets, tea towels, and/or soaps, do swing by and let them know. )
If you’re looking for food recommendations, it’s a great place to pick up all kinds of things, locally sourced from small family farms. You want sushi-quality fish? They can take care of you. You want a quick and delicious weekday dinner? My kids love their ribs & tibs pasta.
I know vegetarians might not expect there’d be much for them at a butcher, but Carnivore also carries milk and eggs and onions and potatoes and cheese and soups, plus a host of artisan jars and cans of deliciousness, like gourmet Rancho Gordo beans.
For the non-veg, I’ll note that their pork shoulder makes a gorgeous tamarind-pork curry (recipe in my cookbook, of course), and my kids & Kevin adore their Italian sausage and hot links. (Okay, the hot links are too spicy for Anand, but otherwise…) We had the latter for dinner tonight, and again for lunch today. Yum.
More party pics from Lori’s friend, John. Look, I actually sat down with friends for a minute! Booksellers (from Forest Park’s history and mystery bookstore, Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore) sold lots of copies of _Death at Greenway_, I think!
Isn’t that set of jars adorable? I’ll be using them for sambols and chutneys in the future, I’m sure. Link here.
Um, I feel like I end up stuffing more and more in the treat boxes every time I do them. I just want people to feel VERY SATISFIED that they’re getting value for their money. Is that so wrong?
Happy with the decision to move to doing them three times a year instead of four, though — they do take time. Stephanie and I took about three hours working together just to pack up the higher tier boxes on Monday.
Every time I have to reassess whether it’s worth my time to do them, but I really enjoy the process of coming up with the theme, figuring out what I’ll include, coming up with new recipes and home items. And it also gives my business some steadiness of income, which makes it easier to make sure I can make payroll. Writing pays me better, but it comes in fits and starts. Patreon is nice and steady.
Also happy that we’ve shifted everyone to larger boxes, so we can include ice packs in all of them going forward. Maybe not necessary for the winter box, but the rest of the year, I think it’ll make it much less likely that chocolate or marshmallows or lollipops will melt while sitting in a warehouse while shipping. We’ve had some disasters in the past. Live and learn!
*****
I *think* this is everything that went in this time around:
SOL SYSTEM TIER ($15 / month, shipped 3 times / year):
• all of the above, plus:
• Chive and Cheddar Scones
• Honey Pull Apart Bread
• Orange Spice Tea
• Lavender Wall o’Plants sachet
• Bee & Flower soap (sweet orange & lemongrass)
• a Serendib card and envelope
MILKY WAY TIER ($20 / month, shipped 3 times / year):
• all of the above, plus:
• more of various sweets
• Morningstar Sedge Tea Towel
INTERSTELLAR TIER ($30 / month, shipped 3 times / year):• all of the above, plus:• Sri Lankan Butter Cake (an entire cake!)• Fruit & Flower Tea (cornflower, calendula, mango, passionfruit, etc.)• Morningstar Sedge Scarf• homemade Sri Lankan curry powder & A Taste of Serendib
Quick note — we could use some more test cooks for Vegan Serendib. If you test 5 recipes, we will send you a digital copy of either Feast or Vegan Serendib, and if you test 10 recipes, we will send your choice of hardcover, too! If you’re interested, drop your preferred e-mail in the comments. Thanks!
Did Sunday sit-down dinner again, first time in a while. With school starting, seems like a good time to reinstitute the practice.
Have sort of forgotten how to do it — didn’t have the energy to get the kids to help, easier to just cook on my own, and didn’t plan it out well either — my ginger-garlic chicken and cauliflower poriyal aren’t a great pairing; too similar in flavor. Still, everything was tasty, and we chatted and laughed quite a bit, and everyone else took care of clearing the table and doing the dishes, so we’ll call it a win.
