I am a Food Evangelist, pressing recipes on my friends until they cry for mercyThe longest I've managed to stay on a diet can be counted in hours and on one hand. I am terrified of making phone calls to people I don't know, even if it's to get my washer repaired or hire a sitter. I once successfully gave up drinking for three days until my children and husband begged me to just have one beer.I have been kept alive, literally and figuratively, by the affection and support of my family and friends, whose sum total is my proudest boast and matters much more to me than my bank balance or intelligence quotient.To make money I've written grants, waited tables, tended bar and worked in the admissions office at an alcoholic treatment center. I have two children, a Master's degree in Comparative Literature, a standard poodle who gets suicidal when I leave the house, and an annoying habit of either talking-too-much-while-speaking-too-loud or having absolutely nothing to say, sometimes within the same five minutes.