Readers might not be surprised to learn that we’ve got our fair share of cooks, gardeners, animal lovers, and crafters around the Workman offices. But recently, an inter-office spy tipped us off to a superstar knitter so driven to purl and cable she refers to patterns as “porn for knitters.” She comes from a knitting family (her grandmother owned a yarn shop and her sisters are similarly inclined/obsessed); has around four projects going at any one time; tries to knit for at least a half-hour a day; prefers to watch movies at home because movie theater darkness cramps her knitting style; gives most of her projects away but keeps socks for herself; and owns around 50 pattern books that she uses mainly for inspiration (or, errr, titillation). In the rare event that she finds herself with a question, she always comes back to Stitch ‘N Bitch for, she says, the clarity of the instructions and illustrations. We give you… General Manager Jill Dülber!

Jill modeling her cape

A gift for a Workman baby

Baaaaaa

A sock is not a gift

Sheepy Time sweater from SNB Superstar, p. 220

The mothership

For many years her soup was her province, a closely guarded secret. If Seder was at our house, she would simply appear with her 16-quart pot, and no one was the wiser. How does she do it?, we’d all exclaim between slurps. Such flavor, such comfort. No one could beat it.

In later years, as her hands became shakier and her memory a bit slower, we worked together, and finally the many secrets of this celestial brew were revealed.

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking: YOUR mother’s soup is the best. Sorry. No, it’s not. My mother’s is the best on so many levels, and here’s why. She put the whole produce market into that soup!

How she would laugh when she would see chicken soup recipes from famous cookbook authors calling for two carrots and a stalk of celery. My mother used two POUNDS of carrots in that soup.

Most chicken soup recipes instruct you to add water to cover. No, no, no, said my mother. Two-thirds is plenty. The vegetables cook down and will be covered soon enough, because what you are looking for is that deep, dark, richly flavorful brew. Resist the temptation to add a cup of water to get another cup of soup, she advised.

Even if you’re not Jewish, you must use kosher chickens. The jury is still out on why they taste so much better. Is it the method of killing? The freshness? The salting? The blessing? Who knows, but there really is a difference. (Note: Kosher chickens are salted, so watch that shaker!)

Pack it in! Use as much chicken and vegetables as you can pack into your pot, or conversely, use as little water as possible, to produce the most intense flavor.

You must use fresh dill, and lots of it.

After cooking, reserve the carrots to be sliced into the soup later. Then squeeze the remaining vegetables well through a strainer for extra flavor. Purists will say, “But the best soup must be clear.” I say, give me a choice between clarity and flavor, and I’ll take flavor any day!

Lillian “Honey” Bart’s Famous Chicken Soup
While her exact ingredients would vary as the mood hits her, here is my mom’s recipe from a typical day.

2 chickens (3 1/2 to 4 pounds each) with giblets (no liver), quartered
2 pounds carrots (yes, 2 pounds, not 2 carrots)
2 large onions, cut in half
5 large ribs celery, cut in half
2 large parsnips
1 small sweet potato (6 ounces), cut in half
1 turnip (6 ounces), cut in half
1 rutabaga (6 ounces), cut in half
1 small celery root, cut in half (optional)
1/2 large green bell pepper, stemmed and seeded
1/2 large yellow pepper, stemmed and seeded
2 bunches dill, coarsely chopped (about 1½ cups)
1/2 bunch curly-leaf parsley (about ¼ cup)
3 cloves garlic
Kosher (coarse) salt and black pepper to taste
Chopped dill, for serving (optional)

Makes about 3 quarts

1. Place the chicken in a 12- to 16-quart stockpot and add water to barely cover. Bring just to the boiling point. Then reduce the heat to a simmer and skim off the foam that rises to the top. Add all the remaining ingredients (except the optional chopped dill) and only enough water to come within about two thirds of the height of the vegetables in the pot. (Most recipes will tell you to add water to cover. Do not do this! You want elixir of the gods or weak tea? As the soup cooks, the vegetables will sink and will be covered soon enough. Eight to 10 cups of water total is plenty for this highly flavorful brew.) Simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 1/2 hours.

2. Remove the chicken and about half the carrots from the pot, and set them aside.

3. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into another pot or container, pressing on the vegetables to extract all the flavor. Scrape the underside of the strainer with a rubber spatula and add the pulp to the soup. Discard the fibrous vegetable membranes that remain in the strainer. If you’re fussy about clarity (and we’re not), you can strain it again through a fine tea strainer, but there goes some of the flavor. Cover the soup and refrigerate overnight.

4. When you are ready to serve the soup, scoop the congealed fat off the surface and discard it. Reheat, adding more dill if desired (and we do). Slice the reserved carrots and add them to the soup. Serve the soup with matzoh balls and mandlen (soup nuts) for Passover and lukshen (thin noodles) after the holiday.

–Judy Bart Kancigor

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Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family and the recently released Workman Short The Perfect Passover Cookbook: Family-Tested Recipes for Matzoh Ball Soup, Kugel, Haroset, and More, Plus 25 Desserts. A freelance food writer and columnist for the Orange County Register, Judy started Cooking Jewish as a family project. To find out more, go to http://cookingjewish.com.

Looking to get more quality time with your buddies? Don’t sit and watch the game by your lonesome on your high-def gewgaw with your nonworking remote, people! It’s time to TAILGATE with the man Oprah called “the gladiator of grilling.” Yup, it’s Raichlen’s Tailgating! 31 Righteous Recipes for On-the -Go Grilling, by Steven Raichlen, who personally curated 31 perfect tailgating recipes from his bestselling Barbecue Bible cookbooks for your mobile grilling pleasure. Download it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other e-book retailers.

Newly engaged brides and grooms:  Once the mists of rrrrrrooomance have cleared and you’re ready to get down and dirty with some planning, do your and your family’s wallets a favor by checking out Your Dream Wedding on a Budget: 47 Cost-Cutting Secrets from America’s Favorite Wedding Planner by Mindy Weiss, featuring a goldmine of tips compiled from her be-all-end-all wedding planning resource, The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day. Mindy may be known for her blowout celebrity to-dos (favorite piece of Mindy news from last year = story of Hilary Duff and the lost tooth!) but now that she’s planning her son’s wedding, you can bet she has budget on the brain! Barnes and Noble,Amazon, and other e-book retailers.

Say no to store-bought cakes, and a hearty yes to making loved ones of all ages feel ultra special on their birthdays. Bring on the balloons, the streamers, and the kazoos! Then get to (not so much) work by whipping up one of the tasty treats from The Cake Mix Doctor’s 25 Best Birthday Cakes: Easy Luscious Layer Cakes, Plus Frostings, Icings, Tips, and More by Anne Byrn. The doyenne of cake mix guarantees your guests won’t be able to guess it came from a box–but we defy you to resist the temptation of announcing it to all and sundry! Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other e-book retailers.

And finally, January brings the undeniable urge to start plotting the year’s escapes. Get cracking! In Perfect Island Getaways from 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: The Caribbean, Bahamas & Bermuda, discerning travelista Patricia Schultz gives you a foolproof access card to 53 destinations in paradise. Why waste hours, nay, days, combing through endless travelers’ reviews on the web when you can grab the authoritative, vetted, to-die-for bucket list with the click of a mouse? Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other e-book retailers.

Because a launch isn’t a launch without a P-A-R-T-Y, we’re going to be feting these shorties and their fab authors with a virtual pub party featuring (virtual) cocktails, cake, bbq, and more! Stay tuned for details.

It all looks very orderly and civilized. But mere moments after documentation, the subjects of these photographs were gobbled up by a gaggle of hungry bookmaking elves. . . . Happy holidays!

• Thanking the Troops: LetsSayThanks.com gives kids (and their parents) an easy way to send a free patriotic postcard to military personnel serving abroad. Pick a postcard on their website, write your message, and Xerox will print the card and send it overseas. You can also send a virtual thank-you card to a service member through Defend America (ourmilitary.mil, click on “Thank the Troops”). These cards let solders know that we’re thinking of them here at home and appreciate their sacrifice.
• Making Poverty History: Cofounded by U2 front man Bono, the ONE Campaign (one.org) is a powerful grassroots organization that works with policy experts, activists, and political leaders to find solutions to global issues like AIDS, malaria, climate change, and extreme poverty. This campaign does not ask for your money, only your voice. Take one minute out of your day to visit their website and sign a petition to fight against these devastating problems.
• Wiping Away Shopper’s Remorse: IGive.com is a charity mall with over fifteen thousand organizations to choose from—from Action Against Hunger to your local YMCA (you can nominate your preferred charity if it’s not already on the list.) When you make a purchase through iGive, the retailer puts a percentage in your account. You can then redirect those funds to a partner charity. OneCause.com is another charity mall (with merchants like Dell, Disney, and Sheraton), where you can earn money for causes like American Forests and the American Cancer Society.
• Sweet Gestures: Do your macaroons come out perfect every time? Donate your cookies and other baked goods to your local Meals on Wheels (mowaa.org). During the holidays and for every birthday, volunteers provide homebound seniors with special goodie bags called We Care Packages—decorated shoeboxes or paper shopping bags filled with edible treats, toiletries and small personal items. Packages can also include a personal note with well wishes from volunteers. Visit their website to find your local Meals on Wheels chapter and look under the Volunteer Opportunities tab.

Impressive list, WorkMan! But you don’t have to be a superhero to change the world. Many of these activities can be done in 15 minutes or less, faster than the time it takes to get through holiday gridlock. There are plenty of ways to help others on a daily basis without having to donate millions or become a full-time volunteer. Pick up How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist (or if your a kid, Do Something!: A Handbook for Young Activists) to figure out how to start and discover hundreds of little to no-cost ways to make a difference. Trust me and WorkMan, “doing good” is just as satisfying as pumpkin pie or your Aunt Cindy’s cranberry sauce, and the best part is you don’t have to choose between the two!

–Editorial Intern Justin would like to wish everyone a Happy (Merry?) Thanksgiving

Things get off to a rollicking start. Authors Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry with Workman Group Publisher Bob Miller (left).

It was, frankly, just awesome.

Awesome to see how passionate people were about sharing their stories and turning them into books.

Awesome to see how hungry they were for the very real information offered up by Arielle, David, and their panelists, agent Larry Kirschbaum and Workman’s own Bob Miller.

But most awesome of all were the stories. People had stories. The winning pitch in particular is one none of us who attended have been able to stop talking about. (I won’t give it away now. In a few years, Oprah will be telling you about it. Seriously.)

It was one of those special New York City nights, where you remember why so many of us put up with this place. The people! The stories! The umm, crowds! And from my perspective, it’s a rare treat for an editor to be able to connect her work so tangibly to its purpose.

So thank you Barnes & Noble, Arielle, David, Bob, and Larry. And thanks to agent Jim Levine for snapping the pics.

For more info on The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, head over to www.thebookdoctors.com.

The runner-up (IMHO!) giving a pitch too good to spoil--you'll just have to wait for the book!

Agent Larry Kirschbaum (right) breaks it down with Pitchapalooza winner Verne Hoyt. None of us have any doubt that Verne's amazing story will one day be a Very Big Book.

Books were signed.

More books were signed.

The happy panelists, all stories and smiles.

I recently hit a brick wall in trying to help an author suss out her Facebook page, so what did I do but call another one of my authors, Arielle Eckstut, who has spoken to every social media expert you can shake a stick at.

The question? Here goes: On Twitter, it’s easy for authors to connect with other, like-minded authors and what the social media crowd calls “influencers” (basically, people with large, active online followings who have the power to steer conversations). On Facebook, if authors have set up a dedicated book page—as opposed to a personal profile—not so much. A quirk of FB’s professional pages is that they don’t allow you to “friend” or “like” other people or pages. And, as authors will learn from Arielle and David’s thorough chapter on social media, virtual friending and liking is an essential component of getting online love!

So what’s a Facebooking author to do? Arielle to the rescue:

1. Email everyone you know and ask them to “like” your page. (Don’t rely on Facebook’s “invite your friends” function.)

2. Through your personal FB account, find fellow authors, people with interests related to the topic of your book, influencers and big-mouths, and friend away.

3. Post status updates inviting all your friends to “like” your book page and/or send individual messages to same effect.

* Advanced technique: Ask a friendly influencer to tell his fans to migrate to your page. (Best if you have a carrot to wave, say, a particularly exciting dialogue, or a book giveaway.)

Whew. Lots of work, but until the next evolution of the book of faces, that’s how you work the system. Thanks, David and Arielle!

And I know authors feel the same. I was recently lucky enough to have tea with the fabulous Diane Leslie, family friend, novelist,  and moderator of book groups at Brentwood’s most excellent Diesel bookstore, and she had me in stitches with the assertion that her real-life connections didn’t count anymore, because she wasn’t friends with them online.

Point being, even the most experienced of authors (in this case, a model author—a former bookseller who knows every writer and book person in town) needs guidance on navigating these busy new waters. Which is why, for every author (or editor!) whose head is currently spinning, we’re very pleased to be able to offer a great free resource for a limited time only—the incredibly valuable chapter on social media from The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published. Arielle and David interviewed dozens upon dozens of experts in the field (Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mike Shatzkin, Debbie Stier, Workman author Ramit Sethi, and Workman friend Fauzia Burke, to name a few) and did an amazing job at distilling all the info into a totally accessible primer. Enjoy, apply, and, if you have any questions, ask away in the comments section or directly on the authors’ site.