I've decided to write a blog of my trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to visit the Taste of Home offices at Greendale, WI, which is a suburb of Milwaukee.
I received a call (out of the blue) a couple of weeks ago from Bethany who is the PR person for TOH. As a field editor, I had received a survey by email about a month prior and she basically asked many of the same questions as the survey. I got a call back from her the following week with an invitation to come to TOH along with two other field editors and participate in some "field editor training".
Well, of course, I jumped at the chance. Wow, to get to see the TOH offices and meet the staff - how exciting.
So this past Wednesday (Sept. 3), I boarded the plane for Milwaukee. Bethany was at the airport to meet me holding a sign with my name on it. Pretty soon, we met the other two field editors as their planes landed. Diane from Ohio and Rachel from Virginia. We all hit it off immediately.
From the airport, we drove downtown to the Milwaukee Ale House where we met Jim and Shay who are the PR persons from Boston and New York who were going to train us. We still didn't really know what kind of "training" we were going to get but it sounded like fun.
After a great dinner and lots of laughing, Bethany took us to our Bed and Breakfast where we would stay. One of the owners, Marie, was on the kitchen staff at TOH so we had an idea that we were in for some wonderful breakfasts.
This beautiful 5,000 square foot Victorian home was completely remodeled by Marie and her husband, Andrew, who made all the beautiful stained glass windows. Here is a link to their website: http://bedandbreakfastmilwaukee.com/. They were very gracious and made us feel so welcome. Their home is absolutely gorgeous with many beautiful antiques.
Thursday, Sept.4
We met downstairs for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Marie had outdone herself with a Pear Apple Puff Pancake - and yes, it was a TOH recipe. We also had roasted, diced white and sweet potatoes (yum!) and sausage.
It was a cool, rainy day in Milwaukee. Very unusual for this Texan as we have not had very much rain all summer. It was delightful!! We rode to the TOH offices with Marie. Our day was a whirlwind of activity. We started by entering a conference room where we were given TOH aprons, calendar, and the new revised cookbook, plus a folder full of information. It was at this point, the editors all started coming into the room. We got to meet them all including Catherine Cassidy (Editor in Chief), Diane Werner, Food Director, Ann Kaiser, Mary Spencer, and on and on. And, believe me they were all as nice as they look in their pictures. Later in the day, I got called to the door and there was Love2Cook, himself. What a pleasure to meet him in person. I also got to meet Renee Jordan, General Manager of TOH, who knew me as MarineMom_Texas.
Jim, one of the PR people flown in, conducted the training on Thursday. We found out that we had been chosen to help demonstrate recipes from the newly revised second edition of the Taste of Home cookbook, on our local TV and radio stations when needed so this was a day to learn the "ropes" about broadcasting and how to demonstrate recipes. It was a long day and at the end they videotaped our demonstrations which we reviewed and critiqued the next morning (with lots of laughing, I might add - we were a fun bunch).
During the day we also got to tour the test kitchens, the "pantry" where they keep all the dishes they use in the magazines, and even got to participate in a tasting for one of the contests although we did not do any of the judging.
We got to see where they photograph the food they use in the magazine and of course got to meet all the staff in these different venues. Everyone was so friendly and made us feel at home. We felt like royalty.
After we finished at the TOH offices, we were then taken to the TOH Visitor's Center and the Country Store outlet. Wow, talk about fun. We had unlimited time to browse and found out that this particular Thursday, all hardback TOH books were half price. When we finally saw everything and made our purchases, we were taken to a wonderful Milwaukee steak house. We had an absolutely delicious, leisurely dinner with all of us talking about our day at TOH. After dinner we returned to the B&B.
Friday, Sept. 5
We again met for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Andrew had a pot of coffee waiting for us and Marie had another fabulous breakfast (yum!). We had a delicious breakfast quiche, sausage, blueberry bread, and fresh strawberries.
Today was pampering day. We had a make up artist/hair stylist give us a complete makeover. How fun was that!!! I felt like a movie star. We all met at the test kitchen and had a photo shoot. We had our pictures taken individually and as a group. It seemed like he took hundreds but it was all fun.
After lunch, we were videotaped. Yes, of course I was nervous. I think we all were but by the time we videotaped the same message for the 3rd for 4th time, we really got the hang of it. We told why we like TOH magazine and why we like being a field editor, both easy to answer. We were told that our videotape would eventually be on a new portion of the website that would be up and running soon about field editors.
After the videotaping, it was time to go to the airport. The rain had stopped during the night and it was a beautiful cool day with the sun shining brightly.
It was so hard to say good-bye to all our new friends at TOH - and to each other. We three field editors had become very close in these two days and felt like we had known each other for years. As we hugged at the airport and said good-bye, we hoped that someday we would be able to get together again. In the meantime, we have already emailed each other since returning home.
So ends my blog for now. I just wanted to share this wonderful experience and hope that more field editors will be able to do the same thing we did. We kind of think of ourselves as guinea pigs since this was a new experience for all of us - field editors and TOH staff. And, I mean it when I say that these people that work in Greendale, Wisconsin, at the TOH offices, are just the nicest, most friendly folks you will ever meet. They made me feel like I was truly one of the Taste of Home family.