I’m in California this week doing a whole series of events to promote my book Food Swap. How lucky am I?

On Sunday, I joined the SF Swappers, the San Francisco food swap group that I profile in my book, for their July swap. I bought some of my garam masala spice mix to trade, the recipe for which is in Food Swap, because it was an easy item to bring on an airplane. And, boy, was I glad that I did because the offerings from the other swappers were really impressive, including chimichurri, salsa, jams, baked goods, Asian slaw, energy bites (which made a great breakfast for me this morning), hummus, cookies and more.

On Tuesday, July 26, I will be appearing at Book Passage, in the iconic Ferry Building to talk about why food lovers should become food swappers and to sign books. I will have samples too (ahem, Rum Vanilla Caramels, ahem) because it’s just cruel to talk about all the wonderful food that people bring to food swaps without having any actual food to share. The Ferry Building is a total foodie Mecca with local favorites like Acme Bread, Cowgirl Creamery, and Humphrey Slocombe ice cream (insanely good), so I am pretty excited to spend time there. If you’re in San Francisco, definitely come by on Tuesday at 6 pm. Did I mention I have caramels?

So as not to leave out the East Bay, on Wednesday, I will be appearing at Preserved in Oakland for a Food and Culture swap and naturally to sign books as well. Preserved is a cool kitchen store focused on traditional methods of home food preservation and DIY projects. I am going to have to resist the urge to buy all the things because I have no way to get them home in my suitcase!

After my event at Preserved, I will leave the Bay Area and head for Sacramento to attend IFBC, the International Food Bloggers Conference. This will be my third year attending IFBC and that fact alone should tell you how much I enjoy this conference. I am excited to see friends, to learn from inspiring speakers like Sean Timberlake of Punk Domestics, Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes, Kristen Doyle of Dine & Dish, and Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites, and to discover why Sacramento is called the farm-to-table capital of the country.

Of course, while in Sacramento, I just had to squeeze in some events for Food Swap. On Friday morning, I will be appearing on Good Day Sacramento to demo some recipes from the book. Then on Saturday at 1 pm, I will be at the Belle-Cooledge branch of the Sacramento Public Library to talk about food swapping and sign books.

So if you are in the Bay Area or Sacramento, please come out and see me at one of these events! And if you have friends in the area, be sure to let them know about my appearances. I hope to see some of you this week in sunny California