Sunday, May 12, 2013

Two today!

I'm going to link here a recipe 24 Carrots posted in its own blog for Chilled Fava Bean Soup.

It's not the kind of food you would normally see on this blog, even if I maintained it. While 24 Carrots makes fresh and good food, you've got to be blessed like me to get it cheap. My first exposure to this company was that for awhile, it was donating catered food to the attendees of Sandals Church's Tuesday program. It quit doing that, and I quit going to the Tuesday program, so I miss it. But I've already had one opportunity to have it again, and I hope I have more.

You can't even really make fava bean soup cheap. Fresh Good and Cheap relies on a military commissary for most of its food. The rest of it is purchased locally at Fresh and Easy or the Rubidoux (old town) Stater Brothers. Neither one f thoe stores have a lot of fancy food, although I might find fava beans at Fresh and Easy if I looked hard.

If not, the fava beans aren't likely going to be included. My other local options are some Latino markets. That's it. I'm, for the most part, boycotting all stores in the City of Riverside, so that means I don't shop at my nearest Trader Joes, nor my nearest Sprouts. The next nearest of these, and the absolute nearest Whole Foods stores are kind of far, like Orange County, or maybe, Rancho Cucamonga. Getting there is doable, but not when you have to share a car with your husband, who is not at all into fancy food. And  not when you can barely afford what you do eat.

But if you can find and can afford fava beans, please feel free to enjoy 24 Carrots recipe.

With four blogs

I am sure this one is neglected way too much. But as a foodie, I can't help but be excited about the new project I am taking on. I will be promoting one of the largest catering companies in southern California, 24 Carrots. I know one of the owners from church, and I have experience getting people's news into the news. I have worked for a public relations agency, and I've done it on my own. They believe, as do I, that we can work together to promote 24 Carrots in media all over the place, especially Orange County.

For 10 years, I've had a name for what I do, which is Pen Porter. There wasn't much need for me to use that name at first. Until 2006, what I really did was write stories for media. That started back in high school, and was my full-time job for most of the time from 1984 to 2003. When I couldn't wok in journalism anymore, I came up with the idea for Pen Porter. But at that time, my idea was to market stories to national magazines. I did not have much success. Because I lead a fairly boring life, and because I haven't focused much on this aspect of my work much for seven or so years, I've only sold onestory to one national magazine. I have been published in two, but that's because the second one turned a Dameron Communications press release into a feature story, and gave me byline credit, but no financial renumeration.

Even up until last year, most of my paid work has been because of my journalism experience, not my PR experience. I was paid very well in 2012 to write a series of articles about California government for a news-focused website. And that led to another opportunity to do a well-researched, and well-compensated report for another client. I also changed the focus of this blog to food in 2012, somehow thinking it could become a fantastic well-followed food blog. Yeah, right.

My well-paid writing opportunities haven't been happening in 2013. Instead, I have been blessed to be able to promote a few local businesses through media releases. It became clear though that I can do that more effectively if I am an official business. So, on May 6, Pen Porter went from an idea to a business officially registered with the County of Riverside and the City of Jurupa Valley. I was busy with two clients since then, but now I'll be even busier because 24 Carrots needs and deserves a lot of PR!