It all began with a cheesecake recipe (thank you, Susan!), now immortalized in the KCTS9 2010 Family Favorites cookbook. Then a few weeks ago I submitted another recipe on a whim, my rift on Mac & Cheese, Pacific Northwest style — gluten free, roasted cauliflower, unseasoned breadcrumbs, you get the drift. With  a couple of ‘helpful tips,’ and a blurry iPhone photo because it looked so good in my red casserole dish.

I have been to so many Marketing workshops, Internet 101’s, How-to-build-your-platform-as-a-writer lectures that I simply adopted the motto ‘never say no,’  always figuring I would learn a little more, and my name would be a little more familiar, if I just took the leap. “Do anything” might be a better phrase, if a little desperate, in the quest for the “platform.”

I have been published in an online journal before I even knew what line editing was, have written a book review on a tense climbing story, thought I have never reached any summit worth recording, jumped into several writer’s groups with total strangers, perfected my elevator pitch. But this is by far the craziest “yes.”

This Saturday I will be on the TV program, KCTS9 Cooks!, as a featured local chef, along with ten other professional and local cooks. They asked me. And I said “yes.” Trust me, I squeaked.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the many “check in” phone calls from the peppy, intrepid and persistent organizer, where I try to establish just how much I am handling dangerous objects while sweating profusely under TV make-up and on the air:

“Do I need to actually core the cauliflower with a large knife on the air?

“I LOVE when our chefs show a technique!”

“Do you actually want me to zest in my 8-10 minute segment?”

“I LOVE when our chefs zest on air!”

“Well,” I said after a pause, “You had better have bandaids on hand.”

There you have it. I will do anything, it seems, to promote Alexandra Dane. And get free snacks.

Wish me luck.