Miami events

Excited to give away 2 more cookbooks to celebrate the Miami Book Fair! Who doesn’t love Mangoes or Fried Chicken? See below for a chance to win these books!
The Miami Book Fair International celebrates its 31st year, congratulations!  It is still the largest and finest book fair of its kind in the nation and encompasses over 500 author presentations, national and international book exhibitors, educational programming, children’s activities, music, dance, visual arts, theater and creative writing workshops.
The 2014 Fair will take place at the downtown campus of Miami Dade College, November 16-23 and Street Fair, November 21-23.
Check out their very comprehensive site for complete program and events here.
Please join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiamiBookFair or twitter and instagram @miamibookfair
 
Ready for Book Giveaway?  Keeping it simple, here you go:
1.  Subscribe to my free newsletter in right sidebar for meal ideas, videos, resources, tips and techniques, restaurant reviews and beyond. If you’re already a subscriber, just go to step 2!
2.  Leave a comment below why you deserve to win Jen Karetnick or Lee Schrager’s cookbooks?  Then email me eh at eleanorhoh dot com so I have your email if you win. Please specify if you want either Jen or Lee’s book.
3.  Eligibility:  Only for United States residents.

Closing date:  Sunday, November 23 Tuesday, Dec.9 at 12 midnight, ET.

Check back here for winners: Wednesday,Dec. 10 at 9pm, ET.

And the winners are…

Jeff Sampson for Lee’s Fried and True and

Vee Wong for Jen Karetnick’s Mango, congratulations!

4.  A random winner will be picked and contacted via email. Respond ASAP, otherwise I will pick the next winner.
 Your book will be sent directly to you through the publisher, good luck everyone!

Jen Karetnick works as the Creative Writing Director for Miami Arts Charter School and as the dining critic for Miami Magazine, blogger for Virgin Atlantic Airways, columnist for Biscayne Times and contributor for TheLatinKitchen.com. Her poems and essays have appeared recently or are forthcoming in December, Hospital Drive, Seneca Review, SLAB, Spillway, Submittable, Tidal Basin Review nd Valparaiso Poetry Review. A versatile essayist and journalist, she is the author/co-author/editor of 12 books. In Mango (University Press of Florida; $18.95) Jen Karetnick, aka the Mango Mama, takes readers on a culinary tour of all things mango. She invites you into her home, the Mango House, where many of these luscious recipes were created. She introduces you to the Mango Gang, a group of world-renowned chefs including Allen Susser and Norman Van Aken. These chefs make frequent use of the bounty from Jen’s ninety-year-old trees in their Miami restaurants, and in Mango, they share some of their favorite recipes.
On a personal note, I have actually been lucky enough to be a recipient of Jen’s amazing mangoes and I’m a huge fan of mangoes. I can’t wait to try some of the recipes in this book, mangoes are so versatile and one of the few fruits I don’t mind including in my savory dishes!  Jen has also attended my cooking class and is a Wok Star!
 
Lee Brian Schrager knows his way around Miami and good food. He’s a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the founder of the tremendously successful Food Network South Beach and New York City Wine & Food Festivals.  He’s appeared on the Today show and Rachael Ray. And he’s the author of The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook. Surprisingly, Schrager had only prepared fried chicken a single time before he began work on his latest book, Fried & True: More than 50 Recipes for America’s Best Fried Chicken and Sides, a crunchy, savory valentine to one of America’s classic dishes.  Schrager left no stone unturned in his quest to find America’s best fried chicken. Culled from four-star restaurants all the way to roadside fry shacks, Fried & True is the pathway to the next great fried chicken masterpiece and a tribute to America’s most beloved culinary treasure.
After a childhood spent in Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, and Florida, Eliot Schrefer attended Harvard University, where he graduated with High Honors in French and American literature. His first novel, Glamorous Disasters, was a somewhat autobiographical tale of a young man living in Harlem and paying off college debt while tutoring Fifth-Avenue families. After writing another novel for adults, he turned to young adult fiction with The School for Dangerous Girls, about a boarding school for criminal young ladies. That book was selected as a “Best of the Teen Age” by the New York Public Library, and his next novel, The Deadly Sister, earned a starred review from School Library Journal. Endangered, his fifth novel, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. His latest novel, also a 2014 National Book Award Finalist in Young People’s Literature is Threatened. When he was a boy, Luc’s mother would warn him about the “mock men” living in the trees by their home — chimpanzees whose cries would fill the night. Luc is older now, his mother gone. He lives in a house of mistreated orphans, barely getting by. Then a man calling himself Prof comes to town with a mysterious mission. When Luc tries to rob him, the man isn’t mad. Instead, he offers Luc a job. Together, Luc and Prof head into the rough, dangerous jungle in order to study the elusive chimpanzees. There, Luc finally finds a new family — and must act when that family comes under attack.
I noticed Lee showcased a cast iron skillet for frying chicken in his book and of course, I was thrilled since I am a huge advocate for cast iron wok cooking!