Fruitful Labor in Recipe Development

Last spring when I was hiking (and eating) my way around Phoenix, I received a message from Betty Crocker that confirmed that I was on the right path in my food career. After being laid off from my corporate job (that I loved) in February 2009, I decided to take a break from my traditional career and venture into my passions: food and sharing with others.

Some people thought I was crazy, but the people who really know me thought it was the perfect choice. Despite being laid off, I never stopped working. Work just morphed into another form where I traded business casual wear for jeans and conference calls for networking lunches and restaurant openings.

Within a few weeks of being laid off, I started blogging for WCCO-TV (our local CBS affiliate) and then picked up projects as a recipe tester for Robin Asbell's vegan cookbook, a restaurant feature writer for Twin Cities Food Finds, and a blogger for the City Pages Hot Dish column. All the while, I kept trying to meet new people to become further immersed in food and media culture.

Photo Credit:  General Mills website

One of my goals was to learn more about the recipe development and testing process. So, when I received a call from Betty Crocker asking me to develop recipes for an upcoming Bisquick magazine, I jumped at the chance. As soon as I returned from Phoenix, I got to work researching, developing, testing and tweaking recipes until the project was complete. Then I waited…and waited...until the magazine came out last month.

Finally, I can talk about Open-Face Egg Salad Sandwiches:

…and Pear and Cranberry Fruit Pizza:

…and a whole ton of other recipes like Chopped Vegetable Pancakes and Impossibly Easy Ravioli Pie! Grab a copy at the grocery store (near the checkout) or in the magazine racks of your local bookstore. Heck, I've even seen copies at CVS or Walgreens. It will be on shelves until February 15th.

It was a wonderful project and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.  I can only hope more projects like this will be in my future; I can't wait to see what happens!