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I’m so, so excited to share this author interview because I absolutely adore this book! I’m also thrilled to share these fun photos from the book signing in Darien the other day. They the coolest women, just as they sound in the book, and we had a blast. Do you want to win a copy? If so, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and the exclusive giveaway! 😉

The book signing was at Kirby & Company in Darien, Ct.

It’s such a beautiful store and they really went with the rainbow theme of the book!

We are stretching boundaries of Cookbook Club this month for an interview with Clea and Joanna of The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals. I LOVE this book for sooo many reasons – it speaks directly to my organized Virgo heart! To be honest my favorite sections are the pantry and cookbook shelves sections because they obviously are incredibly relevant to me, but I swear this whole volume is amazing and is worth adding to your collection.

TSLN) The Home Edit is a goldmine of organizing advice! How long did it take you develop your organization style?

THE) Thank you! We’re so excited to finally be able to share it with everyone. Although we’re both extremely organized people, we come from different backgrounds. Clea worked in the fashion industry and went to art school, so her approach is very aesthetic-driven. Joanna comes from a traditional organization background, so that’s where a lot of the functionality comes in. From the start, our differences help us work really well together and it’s also been the reason THE signature style is what it is today. It’s definitely a collaboration!

TLSN) What is the most common organizing problem you encounter and how do you solve it? And, to add to that, do we all honestly have to start decanting our spices?!

THE) Too many items and not enough space. It’s why purging the items you no longer want or need is so important. If not, then you are essentially shuffling clutter back and forth— which is not organizing! Basically, we solve the space by viewing it completely empty. It’s the only way to properly decide on storage solutions that will fit the space and make items more accessible. Often times, it comes down to getting creative by maximizing vertical or floor space that was otherwise ignored.

You don’t have to do anything. Our rule of thumb is that organization isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. Storage solutions need to fit someone’s lifestyle and space measurements, or else people won’t maintain it. We love storing our spices in glass jars because it saves space and we can’t resist a good ROYGBIV moment. However, some people prefer to keep spices in their original packaging and use a turntable as an accessible solution.

TLSN) What’s the wildest organizing job you’ve ever had to tackle? Spill it! 

THE) We’ve organized an ENTIRE 5,000 square foot house. Every closet, every drawer, every shelf, literally all of it. It took about three weeks to complete, but it looked AMAZING at the end! That’s one of the many things we love about our job—being able to see a space completely transform.

TLSN) What’s next for The Home Edit? I’d like to request a line of ROYGBIV storage containers and labels in perfect cursive, please!

We’re OFFICIALLY launching an NYC team in April, AND we’re so excited to finally share that we will be launching an exclusive collection of products we designed with iDesign, which will be available ONLY at The Container Store in May!”

Two years ago my husband and I spent a fun few days in Napa Valley to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We instantly fell in love with the area, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be invited to return this fall to attend a seminar with Panasonic. They were debuting a really cool new countertop induction at the Culinary Institute of America with Chef Gabe Kennedy and I had a blast participating in the event. Here are a few highlights from the trip:

We spent a whole day on the gorgeous campus of the Culinary Institute of America’s St. Helena campus. The building is a former winery and contained all sorts of artifacts like giant collections of corkscrews and the Vitner’s Hall of Fame.

(Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Mirum Shopper but all opinions are my own. I am proud to work with Mirum shopper to bring attention to the Feeding American program.)

This month my kids are starting school. I took a little time off at the end of August to get my house together and prepared for the back-to-school routine and all that comes with it. That meant gathering school supplies, labeling lunch boxes and folders, shopping for bulk snacks, and buying the ingredients for many of our much-loved weeknight dinners I haven’t made since last spring. Getting everything organized is hectic, but I am grateful I can do it. I know how lucky we are that we can buy loaves of bread for lunches and offer a wide variety of snacks to my kids to choose from each day. Feeding my family without worry is a luxury and it is not something everyone can afford to do.

Today I am working with Ahold stores and Unilever to bring awareness to their Feeding America campaign. I am not including a “read more” jump in this post because I am not looking for clicks or “likes” or popularity points here. I want people to read and learn, to take a moment to think of the hungry in their own community – especially the children – and think about how they can help this fall.

This month Feeding America has partnered with Ahold Stores (Stop & Shop, Giant, Martin’s, and Giant Carlisle) and Unilever to help alleviate hunger in their communities. Making your own contribution is SO simple:

If you purchase $15 in Unilever products, you’ll save $5 on your purchase, and part of it will be donated to the Feeding America program. Each transaction provides 11 meals to people in need.

Here is a video that further illustrates how the program works. To help out even more, spread the word of this program by sharing this video using the hashtag #BuySaveFeed – each share is worth an additional donation.

It is not about donating money, or buying something you don’t want or need. It is simply about selecting some of your favorite Unilever products and letting them do the rest.

So, if you have the time this weekend I hope you’ll buy some Unilever products and help out this campaign. It will make such a huge difference in the lives of many. Together we can work to alleviate hunger in our communities and I am grateful that this partnership is taking place in mine.

I am a big egg-for-breakfast girl. It started a few years ago when I had kids and realized I had to eat a solid chunk of protein each morning in order to get me going and sustain me until lunch. The only catch is that our morning routine is very hectic, so over time I’ve devised a few easy ways to cook up simple, tasty egg dishes on the fly.

Every summer we visit my brother, Uncle Will of Burgers and Chorizo Wraps fame, at his home in Rochester, New York. We love catching up with him and Sancho at their home and taking in the sites of the city. I’d never visited Rochester before he moved there and we’ve come to know it as a lovely city. There are lots of fun things to do with kids and we always have a nice time when we see him. If you are planning to visit Rochester here are a few things that are really fun to do while you are there!

The Museum of Play: This amazing children’s museum is all about child’s play. My kids adore it and we always spend hours exploring the Sesame Street room, the moving train, and the construction playground when we visit. Last year we went and there was even a butterfly room filled with hundreds of live rare butterflies. I can’t say enough about this place. It really is a must see when you travel to Rochester with kids.

Wegman’s: If you’ve never been to a Wegman’s you must, MUST go when you are there. I would happily trade in all of my neighborhood grocery stores for a Wegman’s. It has everything I like to buy: organic produce, freshly baked goods, kids supplies, and a line of private label foods that rivals Trader Joe’s. One of the Wegman’s stores in Rochester has it’s own restaurant called Amore. It features outstanding fresh pastas and woodfired pizza. Since it is attached to Wegman’s you can walk out of the restaurant straight into the store to pick up necessities before you head home!

Happy New Year! I am excited to be back up and running for 2015. We have a BIG year ahead. The next book has an official publishing date: March 31, 2015! On that day all the copies of The Family Calendar: From Birthdays to Bake Sales, Good Food to Carry You Through the Year, will be available for purchase (you can pre-order it now!!!). Stay tuned for book tour information.

I am also back in cooking mode at home. I’ve been hard at work for my articles for Babble and Mom.me which will be published soon. I’ve also been naptime cooking our meals again. My daughter is back at school and my son is back on his regular napping schedule which makes things much easier. I love the holidays, but it is hard being off our schedule for so long!

Over the holidays I took some time to reflect on my kitchen and my goals for the new year. Here are a few of my resolutions if you’d like to see:

1) Organize!: For an OCD Virgo like me, organizing is rarely a problem. The challenge for me as how well I can organize since I love it so much. Nothing makes me happier than an orderly, clean pantry! Kidecals sent me these cool chalkboard labels last fall and I’ve been using them to label all the foods I keep in mason jars and OXO Pop containers. They are so handy and I love that they are reusable.

2) Return to old favorites: Since I develop new recipes all the time I sometimes forget to return to old favorites. This year I pledge to return to my archives and revisit meals for years past that we’ve loved like this, this, and this. One of the first things on my agenda is making Barbara’s Gorgeous Meyer Lemon Marmalade. Now is the time to preserve all that gorgeous citrus!

3) Continue renovation research: We are inching closer to drawing up our big renovation plans and I’ve been doing lots of research on appliances, materials, and design. The options can get overwhelming and intimidating at times, but I remind myself to persevere. As daunting as the project is, the more I research now, the happier I’ll be in the long run.

4) It’s Book Season!: I am bursting with excitement about the new book and promise to do my best to make this the best book season yet. Let me know what you want to see and let’s all enjoy this journey together.

5) Join me on Instagram: I am so grateful that so many of you join me on Facebook. But sometimes Facebook can be a real pain about who gets to see what post. This year I’m launching a daily photography journey on my Instagram account. Search the hashtags #familycalendar and #dailynaptime so see everything so far. I hope you will come along!

This summer I’ve been thinking about expanding my writing to encompass wines. I frequently suggest pairing food with wine at each meal but never go more in the depth than that. This is mostly because my wine vocabulary is somewhat limited and I don’t want to sound dumb when I try to articulate what kind of wine I like and why. The best way to remedy this is to dive into the subject ready to learn as much as I can. I won’t become a wine writing genius overnight, or even in a year, but I’ve got to start somewhere. Today I’m going to begin with writing what I know, which is about three summer wines we’ve been enjoying at home lately.