I’ve been dreading the thought of writing those two words above.

Friends, I need to take a brief hiatus from posting to work on the redesign and refocus of Furey & the Feast. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, actually. When I realized just how important this little space of Internet is to me, I also realized that I wanted it to be much more than a blog for me, but most importantly, for you. We’ll be launching the redesigned/refocused version on June 1. I hope you’ll stop by.

If you stop in before then, you may notice some design tweaks here and there, and I’ll be posting short updates leading up to the Big Unveil, so it won’t be too quiet.

And, if you’re in the Southern California area:

I’ll be giving my first cooking demo at the Bloomingdale’s Home Store, Fashion Island, on April 17 at 1 p.m. It’s free! And I’ll be making a pureed mushroom soup and my Tortured Strawberries, a recipe that was picked up by the California Strawberry Commission for its iPhone app. There are two Bloomingdale’s stores, so be on the lookout for the Home Store. Address: 401 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 949-729-6835.

Also, I’ll be competing in the dessert category at the Grilled Cheese Invitational in Los Angeles on April 24. It’s going to be a hoot! www.grilledcheeseinvitational.com

Thank you all for your support. June 1 will be here in no time, and I hope you will like what you see.

As a kid, I’d spent some serious time in the cupboards spooning heaps of brown sugar into my eager mouth. I preferred brown over white, mainly because I believed its flavors were more interesting (and because I believed I got more of a sugar high).

As I got older, I slowly lost the taste for cloyingly sweet things like Big Stick popsicles, Gushers fruit snacks and Pixy Stix. The desire to fit all 6 feet of strawberry Bubble Tape in my mouth at once also went with it. But brown sugar? Not a chance. To this day, I’ll still sneak a little bit here and there. (more…)