Secret Financial Life of Food on “Hot Grease” radio

Butter and Egg women unite!

Last week I had the opportunity to talk about my new book with the ebullient Nicole Taylor, one of my favorite radio hosts. Her show, Hot Grease, airs on the awesome Heritage Radio Network.

Listen to the episode here: Hot Grease - Episode 128 – The Secret Financial Life of Food

Or: Download MP3 (Full Episode)

A comment from the show: “I think that commodity prices are not going to be based entirely on American eating habits… It’s my belief that we’re going to see commodities being traded on a more global basis.” [26:00]

Where You’ll Find Me This Weekend

There’s no need to stay thirsty this weekend!  (okay, long weekend, since I’m including Monday). Here’s what I’ll be up to – please come out and say hello!

Saturday, December 11: Holiday Spirits Bazaar (Brooklyn, NY). A one-night shopping and tasting extravaganza, benefiting the Museum of the American Cocktail. I’ll be signing & selling books, and serving up some Sparkling Ginger Daisy Punch!  Buy tickets here.

Sunday, December 12: Heritage Radio Network. Along with cheese expert Diana Pittet, I’ll be talking with cheesemonger Anne Saxelby, host of “Cutting the Curd,” about monastic heritage in cheeses and liqueurs. 

Monday, December 13: Monastic Liqueurs and Cheeses, a lecture and tasting event with cheese expert Diana Pittet and me, presented by The Culinary Historians of New York. (National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, New York — Excuse me, but have you seen what the NAC looks like all decked out for the holidays?!? Wow.) An amazing raffle basket also will be available, including a limted edition 500th anniversary bottle of Benedictine. Buy tickets here.

Announcing Drink.Think, a new reading event

It’s been rather quiet on this blog the last week or so.  But that doesn’t mean I’ve been lounging about drinking Margaritas (well – drinking, yes, but lounging, no). Rather, it indicates a furor of activity going on behind the scenes that’s prevented me from blogging.

What have I been up to? Writing – that’s a given. Creating bespoke cocktails for a new client (more on that soon!) Heading out to Brooklyn for an interview and a Sangrita with the Heritage Radio Network. And setting up a new pet project called Drink.Think.

Drink[dot]Think is a reading event focused around beverage writing. It will feature new and established writers reading from their work about drink and food — but with drink always taking center stage. (And no, not always alcoholic drinks, either). Please check out the site for more details! I hope to see you on October 5 for the inaugural reading.

Spice & Ice in the WaPo spirits column!

A quick brag, and a heads up for next week:

Spice & Ice was featured in the Washington Post’s spirits column (Doctored with pepper, by Jason Wilson)! 

This is a very big deal…not just because of the considerable space devoted to the book, but also because Wilson clearly took the time to experiment with many, many recipes from the book…and because he still says outright that he “enjoyed the book” (whew!), and that the ideas in the book “pushed me in new directions.” Wilson has a reputation as a particularly harsh critic, so I consider this high praise indeed.  I don’t think I breathed until I finished reading the column!

Check out also what he did with the Zapple recipe from the book; it’s an interesting adaptation.

And a quick heads-up:  on Monday, December 14, I’ll be on the Hot Grease show with Nicole Taylor, on the Heritage Radio Network. You can listen live or catch the archived version online. Nicole is all about the “good food movement,” so in addition to talking about Spice & Ice, expect to hear also about how the movement extends to cocktails.