four and a half minutes of me

roast potatoes, originally uploaded by shaunaforce.

It happens every day. When I walk into the grocery store across the street from us, one of the clerks exclaims, "Hey! I saw you on tv last night!" Sometimes, I see people stare at me on the sidewalk, trying to work out how they know me. Did I go to high school with them, long ago? Am I their childhood babysitter? Or do they just think they know me from seeing me on television? A few weeks ago, at a wine tasting at the EMP, a lovely wine rep looked at me and said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean for it to seem like I'm stalking you, but are you the Gluten-Free Girl?"

Wow. That was a marvelous conversation -- and an authentic person -- but it is just plain weird to be recognized this way.

Since July, the Food Network has been running a one-minute segment about me, used as an interstitial during certain programs. Three times a day. I can always tell when I have been on television again, because so many of you come to the site.

Hello.

When the wonderful people at SeeSaw Studios flew up from Los Angeles to spend the day filming me, I felt enlivened. Spending the day at the farmers' market with a boom mike behind me and an enormous camera on me, I didn't feel self-conscious. Why? Because I knew I was doing this for you, for all of you reading. I wanted to spread the news -- gluten-free means freedom. It means saying yes, instead of no. And it means feeling like part of this world, instead of always slightly apart from the norm.

That's my life, I have realized: saying yes to the world through food.

Plus, I'm a ham. I had a blast.

The funny part is that I still haven't seen the segment on TV. I have a dvd of it, and sometimes the Chef likes to drag it out when people come over. "Have you seen Shauna on the Food Network? Well, watch this!" I can't really watch myself anymore. Instead, I watch him beaming as he sees me.

Most of my closest friends have not seen the segment yet. And of course, those of you who live outside the US don't have the chance to see it.

Well, now you do.

Thanks to the lovely Lia -- whose new food blog, This Little Piglet, is a lovely, tart surprise -- I can now guide you to the segment. Lia let me know that the four-and-a-half segment now lives on the Food Network website, permanently.

So, if you would like to see me in my kitchen, being goofy and waxing poetic about the joys of potatoes, just click on this. (You'll see the logo for this website on the right-hand side. Click on that to play it.)

And, when you see me on the street, wave hello. I promise to wave back, especially if I'm at the market and have potatoes in my hands.