Free books: It's the June GLC giveaway!
The books have been claimed! | As is the case every month, the first person to write in and request one of the books linked below gets it for free. Limit one per person and you must request a specific book and send me your mailing address — although we won't use your email or postal address for anything other than sending you the book. Email me for a free book while they last!

Claimed: Sent to Heather of Eugene, Oregon!
Big Food | "Buy food in bulk and reap the savings-without waste or an endless parade of leftover meals — with this superb cookbook filled with ideas for cooking creatively for an average-sized family More and more Americans are purchasing their groceries today in large quantities at warehouse clubs. But our meal planning and cooking habits have not caught up with this trend. At last, here is the first cookbook designed to help shoppers make the most of the money-saving and culinary rewards that these clubs have to offer — without having to eat the same dish four nights in a row or trash the unused portions." By Elissa Altman —Amazon.com (List price: $18.95)

Claimed: Sent to Allison of St. Louis, Missouri!
Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World | "Before the advent of chemically preserved foods, people relied on ingenious natural preserving methods to survive winters. Shephard (coauthor, United Tastes of America), the creator of several food television programs in England, chronicles the history of food preservation in detail, from salt-cured pork, fermented soybeans (an Asian staple), fish buried in sand (in Africa and Northern Europe) and wines made from rice, to Bird's Eye dinners and freeze-dried astronaut food. Shephard argues that food preservation has been integral to human progress, allowing us to advance from subsistence hunter-gatherers to explorers and traders who can travel the globe and even outer space. While her focus is food, other interesting tidbits emerge: in 1800, archeologists found and consumed a jar of honey in Egypt, then discovered the body of a small baby preserved inside. (In fact, from the Neolithic era onward, Aryans, Sumerians, Babylonians and Cretans often buried their dead in honey.) One of the book's strongest sections covers explorations. The preservation of food was vital to early explorers like Marco Polo, who needed supplies to last through long, arduous journeys. (On one American Northwest expedition in 1801, Lewis and Clark brought '193 pounds of portable soup, twenty barrels of flour, fourteen barrels of parched corn, forty-two barrels of salt pork, two hundred pounds of beef tallow, and fifty pounds of pig lard stored in whisky barrels.') Shephard's straightforward tone and accessible scholarship make for a thorough and intriguing history." By Sue Shephard —Publisher's Weekly (List price: $15.00)

Yep, just email me for a free book while they're still available! Posted at 8:43 PM Central Time

How not to get malnutrition, or, help me create the ultimate grocery list
Seen over at MetaFiler (thanks Katie!): "I'm moving out next year, and while I do know how to cook, I am pretty clueless when it comes to a healthy diet. I've eaten Chinese food all my life and I get a pretty even portion of meats and vegetables and fruits, but since I will be doing my own shopping next year... What I'm looking for is a complete (or pretty damn good) list of all/most essential nutrients, and which foods contain them. Ideally, I could eat all the items on the list over a month/two months and at the end of the year end up well-nourished and scurvy-free." Posted at 8:32 AM Central Time

A Long Line for a Shorter Wait at the Supermarket
"Show New Yorkers a checkout line and they'll tell you whether it's worth the wait.

Starbucks at 9 a.m.? Eight minutes, head to the next one down the street. Duane Reade at 6 p.m.? Twelve minutes, come back in the morning.

But now a relative newcomer to Manhattan is trying to teach the locals a new rule of living: the longer the line, the shorter the wait.

Come again?

For its first stores here, Whole Foods, the gourmet supermarket, directs customers to form serpentine single lines that feed into a passel of cash registers." Posted at 8:37 AM Central Time

The Weird Things People Eat Around the World
"Half the fun of traveling is getting out and enjoying all sorts of foods you're not used to eating. A simple trip to the corner market or grocery store in a foreign land can keep you amused for hours. Take the example above for instance: Cone Pizza! This picture was snapped in Seoul, South Korea, and you know what? It looks pretty damn tasty. Can I get one in the States yet? Anywho, check out some other weird foods from around the world, and be sure and share your own experiences in the comments!" Posted at 9:47 PM Central Time

The Best Supermarkets in the World
"American supermarkets take notice! This is what a supermarket SHOULD look like! MPRIES is a family owned Austrian supermarket chain that employs up and coming architects to design the most amazing supermarkets I think I've ever seen. They use interesting materials, exciting and unique lighting, and each store has its own site specific design. Attention to detail is seen not only in the outside but the inside as well, giving customers an extremely comfortable environment to shop in." Posted at 8:56 PM Central Time

Grocery lists in Advertising Age
Check out this excellent column in this week's Advertising Age: Paper Trail: What Grocery Lists Reveal About Shoppers by Lenore Skenazy. It's all about my new book, "Milk Eggs Vodka," and this little web site right here. Posted at 8:25 AM Central Time

More "Milk Eggs Vodka" book events
On the radio: I'll be on the radio here in St. Louis Wednesday, June 13 around 10:30 p.m. Central time talking with the two Johns on KMOX 1120. Listen in as I talk and joke about my "Milk Eggs Vodka" book, published by HOW Books.

In real life: If you can't hear me on the radio try to come see me at Left Bank Books the following evening, Thursday, June 14 at 7 p.m., for a reading and signing shindig.

At the cash register: And if neither of those events is an option for you, why not go to your local bookstore or Amazon to get a copy of the book: "Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found?" It's a real, actual, published, hardcover, full-color, completely strange and hilarious book based on this very site! Holy cow!

More info here: www.milkeggsvodka.com/blog. Posted at 12:57 PM Central Time

Look! Some folks won a free copy of "Milk Eggs Vodka!"
A hearty and heartfelt congratulations to Laura (who needs bleach and eggs) and Amber (who shops for Cosmo, chocolate donuts and pads, but only "once a month"). Laura and Amber were the winners of the "Milk Eggs Vodka" book giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest (I'll probably do another soon!). Take a look at the sampling of the community grocery list y'all created:

• British Mars bar
  
• salami
  
• cheeses
  
• olives
  
• dried vegetables
  
• Hershey's Special dark chocolate bar
  
• 5-grain bread from the bakery
  
• shredded cheese
  
• alcohol
  
• ice cream
  
• milk
  
• avocado
  
• black rice
  
• dried figs
  
• chocolate covered peanuts
  
• bleach
  
• eggs
  
• toilet paper
  
• peanut butter M&Ms
  
• Cosmo
  
• chocolate doughnuts
  
• pads
  
• lowfat sour cream
  
• saltine crackers (store brand)
  

More about my book at milkeggsvodka.com. Posted at 8:14 AM Central Time