MIA for Writing Conferences

Just an FYI that I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks, so there'll be no updates until early/mid-August. First stop is Napa Valley for the Napa Valley Writers' Conference. I'm psyched to be in Tayari Jones' fiction workshop and will be discussing one of the pieces from my linked story collection. It's been one of the hardest stories for me to tackle and I finally (read: finally) found the right way in which to tell this character's story, so we'll see if I'm on the right track. Some of us attendees have been connecting via Google Groups and I'm already indebted to their generosity and kindness regarding rides and such. And I'm super stoked about staying in a cottage during my stay in Napa. Pics will be taken!

After that I'm headed to New Mexico. First few days will be with a friend I met at the Postgraduate Writers' Conference three years ago (and you know how much I loved that conference) to see the sights of Albuquerque before she drops me off in Sante Fe for the Glen West Workshop. I'm also excited to be in a workshop with another author I admire, Sara Zarr. The workshop is YA focused and I'll be workshopping another story from the collection from a teenage boy's POV. So I'm intrigued to hear what others think, and to see Santa Fe.

Needless to say there'll be lots reading and artist immersion (and possibly drinking) over the next two weeks, well at least in Napa Valley. And then it's residency application season!

So far I've been blown away by the manuscripts I've been reading for both conferences and I cannot wait to meet my workshop groups.

When I get back I promise a nice summary of events and then a cookbook giveaway of Rasa Malaysia's Easy Chinese Recipes. (Thanks to the generosity of Tuttle Publishing.)

Have a great summer. Stay busy and creative! 

Mandy's Blogger Book Club: "America, You Sexy Bitch" by Michael Ian Black & Meghan McCain

Book Blogger and fellow book enthusiast Mandy (aka the Well-Read Wife) is holding her first ever Mandy's Blogger Book Club. The inaugural book is America, You Sexy Bitch by Michael Ian Black and Meghan McCain.

I was glad to attain a copy at Book Expo last month and psyched to participate in Mandy's book club. Other bloggers can feel free to participate by visiting Well-Read Wife or reading the book and posting about it as well.

In my review I'm going to tackle a couple of questions Mandy has posed about the book for discussion as well as my overall thoughts about the book.

America is told from the perspectives of Meghan McCain (daughter of Senator John McCain and political blogger & pundit) and Michael Ian Black (comedian and actor, for me best known for The State). It's like a journal entry from both interspersed about their 30 day travels around the heart of America from Vegas to Tennessee to Louisiana to DC.

We start off learning how anxious Michael and Meghan are to actually be delving into this project not really knowing each other, but having decided to ride cross-country in an RV talking to the heart of America. Michael has said Meghan is one of his favorite Republicans and Meghan notes that she is a fan of Michael's. Having seen Meghan handle her own on Bill Maher's show I liked her side of things. While Meghan is conservative when it comes to the main aspects of the Republican party (small government, fiscal conservativeness, freedom to bear arms) she is very much open to other platforms that have been considered more "democratic" or liberal in nature (same sex marriages and the legalization of marijuana).

As someone who considers herself a liberal it's nice to get to know the perspective of someone raised Republican and still connected to the party as a young woman. Meghan has had premarital sex, doesn't always go to church, and can drink many under the table. She's not ashamed of this but apparently these aspects of her personality, and what makes her relatable to a younger audience, seem to be chastised by the harder conservatives catering to the overtly religious. I think Meghan could be a great representative for her party and rather than being shoved to the back as some "little girl" she should be pushed to the forefront more as someone that a younger generation can relate to, especially when it comes to the Republican party, who is often considered "out of touch" and catering to an older sect in society.

Meghan loves her country and proclaims that "Freedom doesn't come free." Michael is elitist and jaded and can't understand organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans. And I can't disagree that many of us liberals may become that way and openly say how sick our country makes us, whereas Meghan can say we must take the good with the bad.

Michael and Meghan foster a kind of big brother/little sister relationship along the way despite their differences in opinion on many things. And it's noted at the end that when looking at the way Michael and Meghan live their lives one may put Michael in the more conservative category (married man in a quiet neighborhood in Connecticut with two kids and a nice house who has a lot of "White guilt" and is averse to drinking and strippers [you have to read how he handles himself in Vegas to get the info on that]) and Meghan more in the liberal end (lovely young fashionista who does not leave her house without having make up on, dates, drinks, and dances living in major cities and who loves, loves Vegas as a getaway). Meanwhile their interiors are completely switched. Intriguing, no?

What I enjoyed was learning more about how both Michael and Meghan listened to the other side. That after awhile it wasn't just about yelling louder to be heard but taking in what  your partner is saying and responding to it in a way that makes sense while also considering their opinion. I think both represent what America needs more of: listening! Each side is too eager to paint the other bad and even Obama who wanted to be "the great uniter" hasn't succeeded because the other side is just not willing to listen. So what do you do?

One of Mandy's discussion points is that Michael notes America needs a mission statement, a clear declaration of what our goal is as a nation and I agree. America has always considered itself the "Land of the Free" but this seems to contrast a lot of what we're being told these days. No freedom for same sex couples, no freedom for the poor, no freedom for immigrants, and a staunch protection for corporations and the rich who can aid in funding political campaigns.

Meghan's comment of "Freedom doesn't come free" seems quite trite to Michael initially but upon thinking about it further and meeting more people from destitute areas of the U.S. where race is still a dividing line that it isn't something to be laughed at when considering it further. People have died for various freedoms earned and people died to right many wrongs. So while it may sound cliche it's not, not when you really ponder the truth of the matter.

Overall, I'd recommend America, You Sexy Bitch because it really gives you a clear vision of people who are malleable in their consideration of the bigger picture. It's not staunch liberal criticism or conservative hooey, it's a mixture with both sides learning more about different religions like Mormonism and Islam and talking to rich and poor while learning what makes people lean the way they do whether they are working class or middle class or straight up poor. It's also funny to read how Michael and Meghan relate to each other and look deeper into themselves. The kind of reflections they note are both humorous and heartfelt.

America, You Sexy Bitch was published by DaCapo Press (part of Perseus Book Group). You can currently find it in hardcover at any bookstore.

CookOut NYC - June 8th Edition

Governor's Island is a great place for a picnic, and a cookout. This past weekend CookOut NYC was held at Governor's Island and provided lots of food, drink, and music for attendees after the July 4th holiday. Like 5 Boro Picnyc, CookOut NYC was publicized by Food Karma Projects and had many vendors available like Jimmy's No. 43, Alobar, and Madria Sangria along with various types of beer including Six Point Brewery and Blind Tiger Ale House to name a few.

The ferry unloaded patrons of seeking to get in some NYC history, a nice bike ride without the worry of traffic (namely cabbies), take families to enjoy the graphic design museum and do workshops, or just lay back and enjoy the sights surrounding the Hudson River.

What I've enjoyed about the environment at the Food Karma events has been the laid back atmosphere. No pushing or shoving. People standing quietly in line for food. A nice camaraderie with the crowd and vendors, learning more about local vendors, and good eats all around.

Upon entering you'll be greeted by staff offering you a Whole Food's monikered beer coozy. KIND Bars and Popchips (two snacks I relish, no pun intended) gave away free goods to patrons. I was excited to see new flavors from both including the Sweet Potato Popchip and the Madagascar Vanilla Almond and Cashew & Ginger Spice KIND Bars.

On Saturday there was a kimchi eating contest for Mama O's Premium Kimchi. And Mama O's remained smack dab in the center of the green on Sunday offering samples of his goods along with spicy tacos including his spicy kimchi. For the man who won the competition (having eaten over 2 jars of the spicy blend) I hope he has health insurance. Tasting just a tad of this kimchi (containing the ghost pepper, the hottest pepper known to man) I am pretty sure it burned a hole through my esophagus to the point I couldn't properly enjoy the bulgogi within the taco. Spraying the lime didn't help. But I'm sure it's good nonetheless. There were varieties of kimchi laid out for the crowd and I think I found a new favorite with the Oi version.

Having learned some of Kheedim's secrets of making Mama O's Premium Kimchi (his mom was also at CookOut NYC!) there's a nice balance and variety in the kimchi he offers and a dedication in the way he makes it wanting to spread more knowledge about it and share his Korean heritage.

Sunday had a best burger and best hot dog contest going on between booths. Attendees could vote by writing their support on the booth's oaktag what they thought of their hot dogs and/or burgers.

Spicy was the theme of CookOut NYC it seemed. Spicy mustard at the My Friend's Mustard booth. Bison burger with caramelized onions and spicy mayo from Alobar. The spicy kimchi eating competition and tacos I mentioned earlier (which you could also have gotten extra spicy, wowza). There was also a race to the finish for the best spicy hot dog using Sabrett's Hot & Spicy hot dogs with jalapeno (spicy but not overly so that my mouth couldn't enjoy the merge of flavors). My personal fave was Rich Pinto's Catering which also happened to be the first I tried. They also offered some cold and tangy potato salad that was a great contrast to the hot hot dog. I do hope they won a nice prize.

"Wanna slap my cajun ass?" a high-spirited man at The Penthouse Boys booth asked me.

"Sure!" I responded. I received a dollop of sauce atop a piece of chicken and sausage, both seared and blackened Cajun style.

"Wanna slap my cajun ass?" he asked another patron.

The man behind me looked cautious and confused at first, after deciphering the message he agreed taking a sample of what they had to offer.

Slap My Cajun Ass sauce is noted as being "blissfully hot." But even for a wimp like me it was pretty tame. Tasty, but tame.

Of course there were pallet cleansers and items available once you were done (or at least taking a break) from meat. Brooklyn Grange was welcome with fresh from the rooftop farm with greens and vinaigarette. Meal KU (homemade meal cooperative) also had freshly made ingredients for their watermelon cucumber salad. Meal KU allows for members to post pictures of food for others to order.

On the dessert end I was very happy to see Melt Bakery there! I was introduced to Melt Bakery a couple of years ago at the Hester Street Fair. Their staple is ice cream sandwiches, but I tried their deep fried pumpkin pie made me a convert and it was the first thing I asked when I saw Julian Plyter. He said that they'll have the deep fried apple pie once a year (sad) but also informed me Melt Bakery's storefront recently opened and that they are also available at the Highline (super happy).

My friend Lesley had the classic (chocolate chip walnut cookie and vanilla ice cream) and was in love. It's a good portion for an ice cream sandwich and very tasty. Even after a few burgers and hot dogs Lesley considered getting another one. After setting my mouth on fire with spicy kimchi I was glad to enjoy the lovelet (red velvet cookie with cream cheese ice cream) to soothe my mouth and enjoy on a hot and humid day.

Other desserts available were the Van Leeuwen truck and Wooly's Shaved Ice.

CookOut NYC isn't just about lounging in the sun, but also learning about local businesses and where their items (namely condiments) are available in the NYC area. Every business wants to make a name for itself and fairs like this are the best place to start providing attendees the opportunity to try something new and potentially gain a new favorite food and restaurant in the process. I'm always glad for the chance to get to know more about the eateries in NYC and to try what they have to offer and spread the word.

Many thanks to Food Karma Projects, and Sebastian Cervantes for connecting the food blogger community with the CookOut NYC event; to Food Karma Projects founder Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy's No. 43 for hosting the press party for this event; to Jackie Gordon for keeping the tri-state food bloggers in the loop; and to Kheedim Oh for teaching us food bloggers the secrets (well, some of them) of his kimchi at the CookOut NYC press party. 

Winner of "Herbivoracious" and my Twitter Giveaway!

Saturday was the last day you could put in for the Herbivoracious cookbook giveaway. I got the winner the old-fashioned way: I wrote the names down on small slits of paper, put them in a bag, shook it up, and closed my eyes as I grabbed a slip. And the winner is:

Carol Sue!

Major congrats! I'll be emailing you for your address and will send via USPS this week. Hope you enjoy it. And even if you didn't win, Michael has many recipes from Herbivoracious on his website where you can test drive some. If you like what you see/try than I highly suggest getting a copy from Harvard Common Press. It's a great book to have on-hand, especially for those, like myself, seeking to make more veggie heavy dishes with flair.

One giveaway ends and another begins. Yes, I'm feeling particularly giving now. Call it post-Book Expo warm fuzzies.

Since I'm getting close to the 500 follower mark (or have hit it by the time this posts) on Twitter I have decided to hold a giveaway for my followers.

Here are the rules:

1) You're automatically entered if you follow me on Twitter. No need to tweet or comment or anything.

2) Once I get to the 501 mark (as followers tend to waver 1 or 2 per day) I'll randomly choose a winner using Random Number Generator. I will only enter numbers 1-whatever # followers I have that day.

3) I will pick two numbers randomly. From there I will count the followers (yes, count) in ascending order (bottom to top) and determine which follower corresponds with that number. Hard work, but someone's got to do it.

4) If the number corresponds with a spammer or corporation or family member (sorry, but I gotta stay somewhat neutral) they will not be counted and I will randomly pick another number and find the follower that corresponds as long as they are an individual and not related to me.

5) I will announce the winners via Twitter and DM them. If they do not respond within 48 hours I'll repeat steps 3 & 4 to find another winner.

6) Once I get in touch with winner we'll discuss which prize you'd like and I'll get it ASAP. Meaning within the week if possible/available.

So I'm sure you're wondering what the prizes are? Since my website/blog is based around my love of the written word and baking it only seems fitting that the prizes reflect such. So, two lucky, random winners will get a choice between:

• A book (whatever genre) at a $25 (USD) value or less OR
• Dessert from one of the bakeries I have interviewed (check my baking page for direct links to interviews) at a value of $25 (USD) or less. Sorry to say that this doesn't count Cupcakes in Rome as she is located in Italy, however if YOU are in Italy you may be in luck! Please note that some bakeries only deliver to the NYC/tri-state area so we can try and work out another dessert if you have a hankering and are out of location.

Update as of July 14th: A couple days after this post originally pubbed I reached 504 followers and chose two winners randomly from Twitter. They were Jacob G. Adams and Ajit Dhillon! They both chose books. Well Jacob chose a book and Ajit got a $25 Amazon giftcard. So congrats guys and glad you enjoyed your gifts! Thanks again for following!

I'll have another cookbook giveaway in August thanks to Tuttle Publishing for Bee Yinn Low's (aka RasaMalaysia) new book. So stay tuned!

Thanks for following and reading!

Tuttle Publishing at Book Expo: An Introduction to a Publisher Merging East & West Cultures

At Book Expo of America (BEA) I noted visiting the Tuttle Publishing booth. I had received an email about their having items available from their cookbooks. And as I love books (particularly cookbooks) I knew had to stop by. I follow Bee Yinn Low on Twitter and via Facebook and her book was recently released by Tuttle for making Chinese cuisine. Tuttle Publishing is a leading publisher of books on Asia while also including Europe, Australia, and the Middle East in the mix. Many of their titles center on providing information on Asian culture ranging from cuisine to language to architecture. At BEA Tuttle provided samples of some of the cuisines in their new cookbooks. Namely desserts from Sushi Secrets by Marisa Baggett and Paleo Indulgences by Tammy Credicott. A trend with many of Tuttle's cookbooks seems to be 'easy.' Allowing for a range of possibilities from the novice cook to the one who spends many hours in the kitchen perfecting recipes. What was most interesting to me was the possibility to make dishes that are exotic and seem difficult in my very own home and learning the step-by-step techniques that could quell my concerns of difficulty.

Samples from Sushi Secrets were delicious. One that stood out for me were the lemon mango bars, citrusy (but not too much), light, and sweet so that the fruit flavors melded well and the texture was that of a lemon bar but a bit more solid and less gooey. What struck me was that Marisa is someone who has specialized in sushi and made it her own with a southern twist which also makes it accessible to those within the United States. It's not just a 'fun time' treat that you may be afraid to try but a dish you can do with lots of variety in your own home and compile many different flavors (some classic, some fusion).

I have to say that I was floored by the pecan sandies from Tammy's  Paleo Indulgences book! These were sugary, crispy goodness that I could not get enough of. I was caught between not wanting to be the glutton that returned to the booth over and over for a taste and wanting more to be able to properly identify how delicious it was. As someone who's made gluten-free items these were not brittle to the touch and I was informed by one of the Tuttle reps that the treats were not only gluten-free, but soy free and made with natural ingredients rather than saturated items. So, needless to say I will be purchasing both of these books ASAP.

And speaking of purchases....

Tuttle Publishing is being quite generous to Book Expo attendees and customers in general by offering a 40% discount on your entire web purchase from now until mid-July. Enter code BEA2012 to get an automatic discount on books purchased through Tuttle's website.

And please stay tuned! In August I will be doing a review and giveaway of Bee Yinn Low's cookbook Easy Chinese Recipes. If you're also a fan of Bee's you know she has a knack for making great dishes look simple and has some great sponsored giveaways! Thanks to Susan Robertson & Rowan Muelling-Auer (Tuttle Publishing) for helping with the giveaway!