Christian Slater in Pump up the Volume

There are a few ferociously smart women in food writing, and I was lucky enough to have a kaffeeklatsch with two of them on the airwaves recently. Along with Rebecca Flint Marx (a blogger for the Village Voice site Fork in the Road) and Edible Manhattan deputy editor Rachel Wharton (an indie rock foodie who knew the right Weezer song to play during the first episode's battle about The City Vegetarian), and emboldened by a pitcher of Captain Lawrence beer, we went a little nuts talking about dieting. You can listen, and judge us, today at 5pm—or play it later.

It's a topic I feel strongly about. One of the reasons I found co-writing this book so interesting was because I am not, necessarily, a "healthy" person. Like many food nerds, I don't count calories and I love sugar, butter, beer and pork. My co-author's position on dieting was liberal enough—he sees room for meat and fat in moderation—to make me comfortable working with him, and the book taught me a number of things: Now I add agave to my coffee instead of sugar, and try (emphasis on "try") to incorporate more dark greens into my diet. Most importantly, I learned of the mood-saving properties of vitamin D-3 during the crazy-long northeast winter. But I have my own theories on when moderation is appropriate, and when it is not, and we three women had a lot to say about weight, food and gender, so give us a listen.

Also, though I try to keep up this site with weekly accounts of my to-ings and fro-ings (or recent articles), I have been off my game a bit. I've been busy writing about Cookie Takedowns here, writing tiny restaurant briefs there, and writing commercial copy for a swell specialty food company. Oh, and I've been editing a cookbook for these great folks! It's been a blast. More to come about that, a small nonprofit I'm starting, and all sorts of tasty tidbits in the coming months.