Drum roll please! Presenting the cover of How to Cook a Dragon: Living, Loving, and Eating in China my second food memoir, which I finished working on this summer. Look for it in your local bookstore this coming January and likewise, I’ll be available for book group appearances.

Along with the book and my upcoming book tour, I’m really excited about the fall Asian cooking classes which I’m keeping my fingers crossed will be an ongoing event. Samantha and Acoy Cofino, owners of Open Arms Café, a charming breakfast and lunch spot featuring a global menu including my wonton soup on Fridays, located in Shelburne Village have graciously let me use their kitchen facility for my classes. The fall schedule includes a line-up of recipes from Bento Box In The Heartland, what to stock a Japanese pantry, for vegetarians out there: fall Asian vegetable sides dishes and appetizers, and lastly, I share my mother’s homemade udon noodle recipe.

Ah, as the aroma of fall, a perfume of crisp air, fallen leaves, and traces of smoke I love that sweet melancholy wave of impermanence. Remember to stop for a moment and take a mental sensory photograph that captures this moment in time ---the smell of the house, how the sunlight falls, your children at this age.

Have a lovely autumn.