Given the pitiful number of replies to the cookbook giveaway yesterday, I can only conclude that:

a) nobody was interested in that book, or
b) everyone was actually having a pretty good Monday and couldn’t think of anything whiny to say to earn the book.

Hopefully it was the latter, because this really is a beautiful cookbook. We do have a cookbook winner, however, and her name is Angela G. She wrote, “The dirt under my fingernails, my aching shoulders, and pinched back are all reasons why I deserve the organic cookbook you are giving away today. In addition to the 40+ hour work week I spend behind a desk I also work on an organic farm that provides weekly harvests of organic veggies and free range eggs to CSA shareholders in my small town.”

To check out Angela’s entire response, look below the jump. Congrats, Angela! E-mail me your mailing address and I’ll send “Organic Marin” your way.

In other news, tomorrow is National Bring Your Salad to Work Day. That’s according to Kraft Salad Dressings. I can’t imagine how they would benefit from such a day. Marketing aside, it seems like a good excuse to bring a crisp, cool salad to work for lunch. I’ve got some romaine, cherry tomatoes, green pepper and garbanzo beans lurking in my fridge this moment.

Next up, does anyone watch “The Next Food Network Star?” If so, it may amuse you to learn that someone on the Food Network’s Web team accidentally revealed the winner online before the finale ran. Oops!!

And finally, has anyone out there ever had a custard pie with fruit? As a lover of pies, I was surprised to realize that I never have had such a pie. A reader wrote in last night with his recipe for wineberry custard pie, which looks 10 times easier than actually collecting the wineberries for the pie. I’ll post the recipe, along with his beautiful picture, later today.

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Looks like the salad joint I talked about with much excitement in a previous blog entry has shut down. Over the past week or so, the Adobe Salad Works in the Roanoke City Market building has closed.
Not only have they closed, they’ve removed just about everything, including– or so it appears from the upstairs balcony– the countertops.
So much for my build-your-own-salad extravaganzas. And to think it was just May when I was rejoicing over the garbanzo beans and artichoke hearts.
I hate to see another restaurant fail in the market building. But the restaurant business in Roanoke has seen many failures before and will see many more, I’m sure. There are also simple retirements from the biz (in the case of Green Dolphin Grille) or the decision to move on before a business completely tanks.
Next week, I’ll write about a new place in downtown Roanoke that’s promising healthy dining options.
Meanwhile, do you know of any other restaurants that appear to have bitten the dust? You guys can be my eyes and ears.