Eat Drink And Be Wary

Food safety has fast become one of the nation’s top issues. Three thousand people die each year in the U.S. from foodborne illnesses. Another 48 million are sickened annually and our government fails to protect us. Many foods and additives that we eat every day have been banned for years in other countries. Our government food safety agencies move in reverse--cutting back on inspections, allowing food producers to inspect themselves, and permitting the vast majority of potentially adulterated foods to enter this country without benefit of any testing or inspection. How, in a country so advanced in most areas, could we have descended to this alarming state of food safety? One answer: Budget cuts and bureaucrats. Eat, Drink, and Be Wary examines the multitude of dangers in food production, transportation, storing, and preparation that result in this shocking number of preventable illnesses and deaths. It takes a broad and detailed look, in all food groups, at the problems and potential solutions in food safety practices, inspections, and enforcements. This book answers the questions and concerns of millions of Americans who have reached new levels of serious doubts about the safety of our food. Charles Duncan points readers to the dangers to look for in deli foods, raw milk, seafood, poultry, eggs, beef, and others. For consumers who care about the food they eat, this book details the dangers, offers direction for choosing safe foods, and provides a critique of our current system that suggests ways it can be fixed, or at least improved.

The joys, quirks, and questionable behavior that food and drink inspire fill this collection of award-winning commentary and you-are-there narratives. From Houston’s burgeoning culinary landscape to late-night revelry in Britain and Barcelona to a Hell’s Kitchen TV studio, the tales capture a way of life we take for granted no longer, when people freely gathered at tables and counters, shared food, raised glasses, and partook of drama and laughter and magic. Essays explore the staying power of food memories, the non-rational but abiding appeal of junk food, and the complexities of dinner parties and dining alone. The collection also chronicles antics in bars and spectacular shortfalls in customer service, from both sides of the kitchen door (including shenanigans at the Dallas cantina that pioneered the margarita machine); arch an eyebrow at pretentious foodies, over-hyped restaurants, market researchers, and appalling entertainment; and take delight in generosity, from simple gestures to once-in-a-lifetime extravagance. Beneath the wit and intricate, often outrageous detail is an intelligent, deeply personal understanding of the larger role that food and drink play beyond nutrition, which the author developed during 30 years of reviewing restaurants in Houston and New York and covering the specialty food industry nationally. She proves that writing about food doesn't have to be so darn serious. I wish it could all be this fun. -- Sue Reddel, Food Travelist Like going on a tasting tour -- with a menu that encompasses not just food but the deeply felt culture that surrounds it. -- Trav S.D., authorrama and laughter and magic.

Food. We use it to celebrate, to provide both comfort and energy, and to show our love. There’s something about mixing a pinch of this and a dash of that to create something new. And when you pair it with the perfect drink . . . *chef’s kiss* Stories can do the same thing. They can be a celebration, bring us comfort and energy, and help us express our love. And when the perfect character is paired with the perfect plot . . . well, then you have something worth devouring. So take a place at the table, and let’s see what’s on the menu. For starters, gather your pennies to bid for the last two jars of peaches for sale in an apocalyptic future. Follow it up with a slice of pizza guaranteed to bring love into your life. Dig into a shrimp and pasta dish so flavorful, you’d swear it was some kind of witchcraft. Grab a plate of “Lloyd’s Secret Surprise”—it’s out of this world! And for dessert, choose between some very memorable homemade cookies, a slice of chocolate cream pie worth dying for, or a life-sized gingerbread house—just make sure it’s not occupied before you start nibbling at the door. This collection of nineteen stories is packed full with hearty plots, meaty characters, and a surprising and mysterious twist at the end to serve as the perfect dessert. Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: Stories with a Delicious Twist is the seventh anthology edited by Lisa Mangum and published by WordFire Press. Profits support the Don Hodge Memorial Scholarship fund for the Superstars Writing Seminars.

The New England Fall Food Fest has begun, and for competitive cook Sherry Oliveri, it’s a chance to take home a prize—and take down a killer . . . Sherry’s hoping her Savory Shrimp Lettuce Cups will impress the judges, and she’s invited her brother, Pep, to serve as her sous-chef. The good news is that she takes first place in her category, the bad news is that it’s easier to win when your toughest competition is dead . . . After contestant Fitz Frye is found with a fishhook in his neck, Pep’s strange behavior doesn’t help his case when the police consider him top suspect. While Pep sits through a shakedown, Sherry searches near and far for the real culprit—before another deadly course is served . . . Includes Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen!

An Amish Bed and Breakfast Mystery with Recipes – PennDutch Mysteries # “Bubbling over with mirth and mystery.” –Dorothy Cannell “A delicious treat.” –Carolyn G. Hart Tucked away in a picturesque corner of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Magdalena Yoder's PennDutch Inn is the perfect locale for a cooking contest. Unfortunately, as Magdalena discovers when a corpse is found in the barn, some food is, literally, to die for... The killer is old Matilda, a cow accused of fatally kicking the CEO of the gourmet food company sponsoring the contest. Melvin Stolzfus, the local police chief, known to be two eggs short of an omelet, calls it accidental death. But Magdalena knows that a killer cow is a lot of bull. And when new evidence pins suspicion on Freni, the inn's own cook—who hopes her bread pudding will win the grand prize—Magdalena starts sniffing about on her own. But she'd better watch her back. The real killer has decided to cook another goose. And Magdalena may just be the next course on a murderer's menu.

When college friends Kate, Nina and Zo take holiday from their busy schedules on opposite coasts to join their former roommate, Hannah, for her wedding in Lake Tahoe, they not only bring suitcases packed with what-not-to-wear bridesmaid dresses, but baggage of a more emotional kind. Supported by a variety of eclectic characters determined to wreck havoc on their carefully organized lives, each woman is forced to come to terms with her past before she walks down the aisle. Zo must learn how to reveal a vulnerability beneath her bravado before she can finally open her heart. Kate needs to reclaim her identity before she can regain her strut. Nina must heal her own inner child so she can provide for another. Hannah needs to release a ghost in order to recover her spirit. A bottle of booze, a host of laughs, a hankie or two worth of tears, and seventy-two hours among those who know and love them the most is the perfect recipe for four women to Eat, Drink, and Be Married.