I was scheduled to meet with Diane Werner, Food Director at TOH, on
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009, at Sam's Club in Plano.
I actually arrived at Sam's Club (thanks to my trusty GPS) a little early
and was informed of a time change. The demo and signing would be an
hour later, starting at noon instead of 11 a.m. So I settled myself in
the break room to wait for Diane.
It wasn't long and here came Diane, also not aware of the time change.
So, we had ample time to catch up on the past year (since I had last seen
her in Wisconsin a year ago) and to enjoy a quick lunch from the
snack bar.
It was at this point that we were also informed that there would be no
food demo that day. Nothing had been set up so we were going to sign
cookbooks and chat with customers.
We were informed by the management that an author was seated at our table
until noon, signing his book. He was Rickey Pittman and he was signing
his book, "Stories of the Confederate Southwest". As it got closer to
noon, we chatted with him.
While we were chatting with Rickey, a couple came up with a basket full
of TOH cookbooks they were purchasing for their daughters for Christmas
and were waiting for us to get started with the autographing. As Rickey
was leaving, I got a shot of he and Diane along with the lovely customer
called Mimi by her grandchildren.
Since I had a recipe published in the cookbook, they wanted me to sign my
recipe and Diane signed the flypage.
It was such fun talking to customers about the cookbooks. Before we knew
it, it was time to go. Diane had to catch a plane and I had a football game
to attend. (No, not the Texas/OU game but the TCU game).
The time had flown by and it was so much fun to see and talk to Diane
again. I might add that she had been on Daybreak and Good Day Dallas
the previous two days, doing her food demo. The day before, I had been
sitting in the waiting room of a local hospital while my husband was
having cataract surgery and glanced up at the TV and there was Diane,
giving her food demo!!! I was so glad I hadn't missed it.
I thoroughly enjoyed not only seeing Diane but being able to talk about
Taste of Home and the Cooks Who Care edition of the TOH Cookbook and the
Baking Cookbook.