PURCHASE HERE
If you can buy the book right now…please do so. I know a lot of you are waiting to buy it for Christmas gifts, but the way that this works is that if I sell more books before a certain amount of time, it looks more desirable. You all want more representation and yet…here it is! And it took me a really long and hard road to get it to you. You want the representation, you also have to support and show up for the representation!
The book tour has been humbling. Because it let me know that I’m not as big of a deal as I thought I was. I love the people that showed up! I really really do. In my mind, I really thought the book was gonna roll out to something bigger. Humbled. I shouldn’t compare myself to my colleagues who also have the same publication date as me, but I am!!!!! I am comparing myself to them. And it feels like I’m the only one with small purchase numbers.
(sighs)
It’s early Sunday morning and exercising my typical morning routine; drinking coffee and looking out of my front door. The Merlot leaves of my dogwood tree are falling, occasionally fluttering to the ground. I’m eating persimmon cookies and persimmon bread. And watching my favorite soothing mountain-core gay grandpa on TikTok, Listen to Sleep. The persimmon bread is burnt sienna, dense, chewy, full of warming spices, walnuts, raisins and extremely flavorful. I don’t like hate raisins. They make me sad. Makes me want to research the purpose of raisins; more than likely a way to preserve. Because never would I have had the idea to take beautifully plump and juicy grapes and leave them out in the sun to shrivel up until they resemble a skin tag.
The persimmon bread was a wonderful surprise. I went up to Twin Peaks Orchards to get persimmon cookies. Yeah. I drove all the way to Placer County for persimmon cookies. Twin Peaks Orchards is very nearby my friend Moi’s house (my friend that suggested culinary school to me 13-years ago) in a town called Newcastle; an unincorporated area in Placer County, nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills. If you purchased my book (dear god, please stop procrastinating and buy the book because seriously?!), you may recognize the Twin Peaks Orchard name. I dedicated an entire section of my book to them and created a recipe using their amazing peaches and nectarines. I have visited their orchard in spring during their peach blossoms. I have visited in the summer during their stone fruit harvest. However! I was shook when I arrived on the farm and saw an endless sea of fiery foliage set against gnarled black tree trunks and limbs. It was striking.
I haven’t posted since I’ve gotten back from NYC. I don’t know if anyone cares about how it went, but it was AWESOME! It was a hundred million times better than my September trip. I feel like I got a lot done. And it was Mami’s first time visiting NYC! It was also her first time having room service. And room service she did. Several times. Almost every day. If you’re subscribed to the newsletter or my IG, you have already seen the video of her lying in the hotel bed and telling me about her day. You can see how excited she was in these photos of her in NYC…