The book giveaway winner is announced, plus some more news

The winner of The Enlightened Kitchen book is... emalie from Australia!

If you didn't win this time, stay tuned, because I have a couple more books to give away in the next couple of weeks which I am sure will be of interest to Just Hungry readers.

In other news: A while ago, I was interviewed by The Japan Times, the leading English language newspaper in Japan. That interview is now up on their web site, with a goofy picture of me (guess what's in that bowl over my head...)

In other, more personal news: After looking at hundreds of places online, and dozens in person, we've finally put in an offer for a house, which has been accepted! I'm very excited, but that doesn't mean that we are going to be moving in that soon, because of the way things work in France when you do buy a house. (There's quite a lot of red tape to work through.)

The house that we did finally pick and will hopefully be buying also needs quite a lot of work done to it - for one thing, it doesn't really have a kitchen! - so we are still going to be nomads for a while. I'm getting used to that though; while it is a bother to have to live out of suitcases and cartons, and work in unfamiliar kitchens, it's also a great opportunity to see how other peoples' kitchens are set up, and make notes on what works and what doesn't.

A kitchen really is the heart of a home, especially for someone who loves to cook as I do, and I would like mine to be efficient, workable and welcoming. I'll have some more thoughts about kitchens in general, and the one I will build (hopefully), in the upcoming months.

There's some more exciting news I'm bursting to share, but that has to wait for a bit... :)