I'm finally blogging about moi again after a year's worth of technical difficulties. I simply refuse to call this an end-of-the-year-wrap-up because that is just so annoyingly tacky. However, here's what I've been working on of late, and it just happens to be nearing the end of the year.

My cookbook with Ten Speed Press will indeed be out in June of '09. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It And Other Cooking Projects: Make Your Own Bacon, Cheese, Marshmallows, and More is a collection of project-based cookery for the kitchen crafter and food enthusiast. You WILL make sausage, cheese, crackers, booze, render your own lard, churn your own butter, etc., all from the comfort of your cramped urban kitchen, with the fewest tools possible. I'm reviewing page proofs now and it is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Oh, and the photos by Jennifer Martine are simply stunning.

YOU!  Yeah, you.  I'm thrilled to announce that I have just sold my first cookbook -

DIY Kitchen: 25 Edible Crafts for the Weekend Warrior
Make - Don’t Buy - Olives, Ketchup, Cheese, Salumi, Crackers, Dressings, and More

To Ten Speed Press who, so far, is awesome.   Should I send out a birth announcement or something?  I'm very excited about this.  More to come as this develops.

It's true.  We are.  Just ask any of them.  And to celebrate my laziness, I'm going to post several month's worth of what I've been working on below.

 I have two upcoming stories in the Feb. ish of San Francisco Magazine - one a travel piece on totally interesting Sonora, and one profile of Yelp that is sure to garner me a one-star review by their devoted audience of regular site users.

Naughty, naughty me.  I have completely forgotten to introduce you to my new mistress - CheapBastardSF.com.  Yup, you guessed it. This baby gives updates and supplmental info on the greatest guide book for penny-pinching in San Francisco.  Read it, learn, or school me.

So, I wrote this story recently for the Chron'sFood section on play cafes.  It doesn't really have much to do with me or the piece that I wrote, but the paper's readers started a holy blog war about taking children to restaurant both here (on the comments page below the story online) and on the Chron's parenting blog, The Poop.  I had no idea this was such a hot button issue.  I feel honored to have been the catalyst in such a fervent debate.  Meow!  Let the battle of the breeders versus the non-breeders rage on...

Can you smell the scorch of the presses? The Cheap Bastard's Guide to San Francisco is out and about and demanding your attention. It's the tightwad's city guide that all the movie stars are talking about! Check it out and give me your honest - as long as it's positive - opinion. PS: Please buy 742 copies.

..This time on The Ditty Bops - a cute and green girl band. 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/31/DDA1R9PQR1.DTL&type=printable

Nope, not my uterus....just the magazine.

This month's ish has a story I wrote on making your own baby food.  In addition, Emmett and I are featured on the Contributor's page - though in truth he did very little of the writing. 

My story on MobMov, the mobile guerrila drive-in, is on the front page of the Chronicle for July 30, 2007:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/30/DDAIR9BH32.DTL

check it - Emmett and I are on RookieMoms.com, schmearing our mugs all over the scene....

 http://www.rookiemoms.com/cheap-week-in-san-francisco/