Good Day Google+ - Reading, Writing and Blogging

Ah, what life. Hey everyone, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and welcome to Good Day Google+. And like I always say, it's a great day when you get to be on Google+ and hang out with some of your friends and just enjoy the day. It's Friday, TGIF. Boy, it seemed like a long week to me, and I'm getting my energy back from last weekend's conference and then just driving about. I did get a new car, so I'm excited about that. And what happens when you get a new vehicle is you want to drive it all the time, so I've been doing that. Now I'm kind of tired of it. It's still pretty, it still looks good, but I've put enough miles on it for now. I can go back to being kind of a little more relaxed about it, but I've got to—

Now you gotta go wash it.

Yeah, well, yeah, no, no, I don't wash it. I may, but you never know. I want to find someone professional to do that. We leave jobs for professionals nowadays. It's like cutting the grass.

I just want it especially shiny.

Professional.

What did you get? What kind of car did you get?

Oh, it was nothing that major, but I got a Ford Edge. Mm-hmm. And I traded in my Honda Pilot after 7 years, and I got the Edge. I was actually looking at the Escape because I had driven that on the Ford EcoBoost Challenge with the guy that's on the commercials and everything. And the Escape was really pretty cool, but it's just a little small, and going down from the Pilot to that was a little hard. And the Edge is very luxurious, very nice ride. I'm very happy with it. Got a really cool metallic sunset color. Leather. So I'm happy with it. Oh, I did— when I was at the EcoBoost Challenge, though, I was driving a Fiesta, and after 2 laps I was flagged because the guy said I was burning up the clutch. So I was not allowed to drive that anymore. He's like waving, no, no, no, you're done, you're done, I'll drive you. So he whipped me around the course a few times at a radical speed. But yeah, it was I haven't driven a clutch in so long. This is an automatic too, so I'm happy. But anyway, we're on Good Day Google+, my favorite show. My wife is actually finishing up on Mia's show, and they're still going longer, so that must be going really well. And let me introduce our panel, going from my left to right, or right to left, right to left. Boy, I'm bad with these. We have my very lovely Maggie Unzueta, who's on every other week with us making us cocktails or food, and I think I Are we still in cocktail mode?

I'm actually bringing wine and I spilled my wine, Chef. Look, do you see it? I'm so sad. Wine is a religion in some countries.

Where did you spill it? Not on a carpet. Or is it white?

No, no, it's a red wine. But yeah, I'll talk about it later.

We'll get back to that. And since Aslan's saying hello, we have Lynn Bloor here today with us, and we're here as part of our education for Big Fun Education with Annabelle. But we're always happy to have you here, whether you're cooking something up or just gracing us with your presence.

Thank you, Chef.

Thanks.

I'm pleased to be here. It's Friday. It's been a hot week, and we finally had some rain. Good to be here.

How is it across the pond? Has it been pretty hot this summer?

It's too hot for me. I was born and bred in the tropics, but anything above 25 degrees Celsius, I can't take it. I can't take it. It's been too hot. But you know, it's good for the tomatillos. I'm growing tomatillos again. I always do them every summer, so it's good for the tomatillos. They're finally happening.

I was just talking to Mia Voss yesterday, and she got tomatillos and had never cooked with them, and she is loving them. I'm going, oh my God, you live in Colorado and this is your first attempt with tomatillos?

Wow, yeah, I cook like with tomatillos every other day.

We can only do that in the summer, I'm afraid, and you know what, they're not easy to find even in the summer, so really the only way to do it is to grow them.

Well, good, I'm glad you're growing your crop of tomatillos, excellent. And Annabelle Howard, so nice to have you join us today, and you've got your project going, and I'm super excited about it and want to help you any way I can. And you're from across the pond, but you're living in Connecticut now.

That's right. Thanks so much. Yes, I sound like I'm in England, I think, but I'm actually in Connecticut. My mum is really glad that I still sound English.

Did she think you were going to lose your accent that quick?

It was one of the things she told me when I left about whatever it was 30 years ago. Look, it's alright, I've got used to the idea of you living in America, but do not start sounding American.

You really should try and learn the American accent just to screw with her a little every now and then.

It's funny, a friend of mine moved out there and we told her the exact opposite thing. Don't get a British accent, no offense.

No, I get it, I totally get it. It's fun having kids that sound American. When they were really young and I was just out in the playground or something with them, I could disown them and pretend to be the nanny.

The nanny! Oh my God, that's funny. That's funny when they're really bad.

Oh well, we'll be talking. Little kids with heavy British accents though, that's the cutest thing in the world. They sound like they already went to college, I don't know.

It does tend to make you sound a little smarter, unlike the southern accent, which sometimes deducts IQ points, you know, easily. And being a southerner, I can say that. I've lost most of my, my southern accent, though only when I drink heavily, and I don't do that very often anymore, does it come back. So we'll stay with what I have. And Andy, it's great to have you here today. So good for you to join us, and you're on your porch and enjoying the weather except for the killer mothbees.

I'm good, I'm good.

You're good.

It shows up, so yeah, warning to everyone, I just might freak out. Yeah, not going to freak out everybody. But no, so yeah, I'm really glad to be here. You know, it's, it's, I love, I love Google+ and I like, you know, I really like the concept of your show. It's just, it's fun for the sake of fun. So let's, let's get started.

It's all about entertainment and things that are having fun. And we have a newbie on, and Alisa, is this your first HOA or have you been on one?

No, I've been on a few, but I will say it has been a little while, so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

We're very happy to have you here today, and we'll be talking about your blog and some of your things that you do, because, you know, everybody's interested about eating, first of all, and eating better is always a good thing. So, you know, it's nice to have some different perspectives on how we can improve our diets. So let me see, it looks like Maggie has popped something up here. Will there be a tomatillo tutorial? Boy, try saying that. That sounds like it could be fun, a tomatillo tutorial.

Woohoo! Maggie and I can do a joint thing. Maggie can turn it into wine. Maggie, can you turn tomatillos?

Yeah, I can definitely pair tomatillos. I think I have a salsa verde recipe on my blog that shows a little bit on how to work with them, but a video, yeah, let's do it. I'll pick the white.

I think we need to get Larry involved in that too if we're going to be doing a Tomatillo tutorial. I just like saying it.

Tomatillos.

Let's start, I'm going to start back where we ended and I'm going to let Elisa take the stage right now and talk a little bit about her blog and what you do. So we're going to start with you if you don't mind, is that alright?

Sure.

Okay, why don't you tell us a little bit about your blog and GoDairyFree.org?

Okay, well, I think what a lot of people don't know is that I've been around for a very long time. Probably, you know, started back in the days with Elise Bauer and such, but since I'm in a niche market, which is for dairy-free living, a lot of people don't know, you know, my website's been around that long, but I've grown to have a really big following over the years and published a book and basically created the site to give resources for enjoying dairy-free, whether or not you need to be dairy-free or you choose to be dairy-free. It's just sort of— but then we draw in a lot of people too that just want to try some different foods or have a health goal or things like that too.

What are some of the benefits of going dairy-free?

Well, for myself personally, I started it because I have a milk allergy that I was born with, so It was a little bit more out of necessity, but on the same token, millions of people— there's a lot of different types of allergies out there now. Millions of people either have allergies or lactose intolerance, but for those people, there's obvious benefits. Not being sick and not having anaphylaxis is always a good thing. Dr. Pompa: Yes. Dr. Cates] But then other people— I don't like to step out as a doctor at all. I go based on what— because I'm not one— I go based on what people tell tell me, and I get emails all the time of people who see skin problems resolve, everything from acne to eczema— I guess it's eczema— and people who have, who just feel better. They're, they, I'm trying to think of some of the really big benefits. I mean, it just runs the gamut of symptom resolve. I get tons of emails and comments from people who have arthritic pain, and when they cut out dairy, it goes away.

Really?

Yeah, which that one was a big surprise to me. That's nothing I'd ever thought of, but over the years I've had so many people give their stories on that. So there's just this whole big range of people it doesn't agree with, or even athletes who find they have better performance when they cut out dairy, that sort of thing.

I know I've always found that dairy will cause more mucus in me. I have some asthma. That's one of the worst things. But what are the other telltale signs? Like, say, I don't necessarily know I have a dairy allergy. What could tell me that I might?

Well, see, that's a tricky question because of all the new science out there now coming out, the different conditions. In my family, I've actually had experience with some new ones, but, you know, there is classic milk allergy, which is becoming more common, which is like peanut allergy, and that actually is anaphylactic reaction to milk. There's lactose intolerance, which is purely the digestive tract. All symptoms are digestive related. And then there are new— newly discovered, I should say, types of allergic reactions in which you're reacting— your cells are reacting differently than, say, an anaphylactic reaction. And those, they're still learning what all the symptoms are. Sometimes they're purely GI related, but you're not actually having lactose intolerance. You're actually— you have an allergy to the protein in milk. And like I said, Some people, they're finding some people have joint pain. Some people get migraines. Some people, it's really— yeah, migraines are another big one I hear. It really seems to vary. I would say the biggest symptom that people get, whether it's an allergy or intolerance, is the digestive tract though.

Mm-hmm.

That's the big wake-up to it.

That and you mentioned the mucus. Yeah, a lot of people get sinus infections and things like that too.

Yeah.

Alright, well, that's good. Now, what have you replaced dairy with? I mean, it's in so many things we eat and make.

Well, you know, I do some work, you know, with substitutes and creating, you know, alternatives, but I'm really big on using the foods that are there and just creating good food. I mean, I think our culture forgets how much— particularly in America where we put cheese on everything, you know, forgets how many flavors there are in the world and how many amazing foods there are. So rather than trying to reinvent things all of a time. I mean, I do those things because a lot of people want to know, "Well, how do I substitute this? I want this dish." I really try to focus on really the foods that don't need dairy and how amazing they are. I mean, you can create entire menus without dairy and people never even know they haven't had it.

You're not as much about replacing them to make them seem like they have dairy and it's to learn about all the other foods we've been missing out on because we're so heavily dairy-oriented.

Exactly.

I like that you own it. It's, it's like vegan things, you know, I've had, I've had vegan, you know, chocolate chip cookies. I'm like, no, that's, that's not a chocolate chip cookie. Don't call it that. Make it— there are awesome vegan food, you know, foods that are classified vegan. That would be great. You know, it's take, take its strengths. So that's, that's fun. Great.

Very good philosophy. Looks like Aslan has pulled something up. Let's see what we got there. Oh, very good. This is my first time watching the show. Where's it been all my life? Well, we just started last September, Carrie, so you haven't missed a that long. So I'm glad you're here today and stopped down at the show where you've been drinking heavily and bring back that southern accent. Well, you missed one because we did have one a few weeks ago, and we actually pulled it the next morning because it was a little out of hand. A 2-hour wine tasting got completely out of hand towards the end, so luckily not too many people did see that.

I didn't know this was also an hand food show, so I saw her with the bottle of wine, I got myself a beer. There you go. Nice day out at Chapel Hill. So I'm okay.

Actually, oh, everybody's drinking.

I'm not, I'm not drinking actually. I've got water. It's 10 AM here.

I think that'd be a little early.

Yeah, you still got 2 hours, 2 hours.

I've got a question for Alyssa. Do you find that perhaps different people react differently? I mean, being individuals that you know, while one might have these symptoms drinking cow's milk, as we call it in our household, because we're a very low dairy household, the person next to you is not going to be manifesting any symptoms at all. You know, each individual is different in that some people are perfectly fine having dairy products without any side effects.

Definitely. I mean, I, you know, I like to be clear with people. I didn't name my website Go Dairy Free because I thought everybody in the world should cut out dairy, but I named it that because I wanted it to be a positive thing, you know, kind of like the Just Do It with Nike. That was where I got the idea, was I wanted it to be like, you know, if you need to go dairy free, just do it, you know, and enjoy it. Not— not because there are millions of people out there and cultures even that have evolved to tolerate dairy, and that may not have as high a prevalence as reactions to dairy. That's perfectly fine with it.

I know I talked to a macrobiotic one time, and his first statement to me was that we are the only species that drinks milk after a certain age. All the other animals, once they've grown up to a certain age, they just don't drink milk anymore. It's not part of their diet. He tried to get me to put apple juice or orange juice on my cereal. That didn't work.

Ew. I love orange juice.

That was not a happy thing. Cap'n Crunch with apple juice.

I actually have heard that before, too, that people were saying it's pointless, that you can get all the nutrients you need other ways, and it's not necessary. I like a glass of milk. A milk and an Oreo or a nice fresh chocolate chip cookie, that's perfect.

We had, when I was, I think over 20 years ago now, when I first looked into going dairy-free, and I came across a book, and this is an amazing visual sentence. Can you imagine lying underneath a cow and having milk? Would you do that? So why would you go buy a bottle of cow's milk?

I might. If I got a bowl of cookies next to me.

Die hard.

Yes, that's utterly ridiculous. Alright, so now that that's been said, let's talk to Andrew a little bit. How you doing today?

Right now that you have that mental image of me under a cow.

Under a cow. I hope your wife's not watching this so she doesn't have that mental image of you under a cow.

But yeah, I've just been, you know, we're busy, we're moving stuff into the house today, but as far as work-wise, I'm getting ready I'm hoping to go to PubCon in October, which is going to be exciting. My first social media conference. So, you know, I'm going to get to meet some awesome people in person. You know, Mark and Eric and Dustin and all the guys from my show. Most, if not all, will be down there. So it'll be a little social media hangout reunion. Or first meeting.

Where's that at?

It's going to be in Vegas, which is another bonus. That's October.

October, I remember seeing that.

It's only about $450 for a networking pass, which is not too bad, and the rooms are $98 a night. I mean, for Vegas on the Strip, that's— I'll take it. I mean, that's great. Can't get that around Philadelphia.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah, but no, so that's exciting, and with work, you know, just a lot of work. I've been really busy. You know, I was Technically, I was bought out by my now partner, so we're just kind of pushing the business, trying to get the bigger clients and start making better money.

Cool. Do you want to tell everybody what your business is?

Oh yes. We do all under the sun marketing. It's whether your business needs a website, needs AdWords, PPC, Google-type advertising, or you just want some social media presence, or do you need a catalog print I mean, we— what I've really done is, I mean, I've worked on, you know, I've done photography before, I've done web design myself, you know, I now have the experience with social media and the AdWords. So it's— we kind of pride ourselves, we can become part of a company and we'll help you do whatever it is you need to do. I mean, that's really it. It's not even just marketing at this point. You know, it's where we'll be idea guys, kind of business logistics, I think might be the best term for it. But yeah, you know, help things get done.

Are you working with any size business?

We're looking at— well, I mean, we're trying to work with larger businesses now, you know, trying to upgrade obviously. But no, we still work with small businesses. Definitely those who also— we try to find a small business with room to grow. You know, that business that could become a national business with several locations, something like that. Or, you know, right now I'm working with a jewelry company that's e-commerce.. And that's something that can expand exponentially. I mean, they can create— get a shipping warehouse and start shipping this stuff out. So definitely room to grow there, and it's going really well. You know, and all they— all we did for them was a website, and the SEO on the website is doing the work for us, getting, you know, at least a sale or two a day without any kind of social media or marketing advertising whatsoever, which is great. It's nice to see it working. And be like, actually, you know, once I told them, I was like, you need a website, it'll sell by itself, and it's actually doing that. So it's nice to know that my promises are being fulfilled. That's good.

How long did it take for them to start selling?

Selling very quickly, actually. Only, they were in a niche, they do Ukrainian and Polish jewelry as well as crosses and crucifixes. So they're, the competition, I mean, it kind of sucks. A lot of it's China, and it's actually very overpriced considering, you know, most everything else from China is usually cheap, but it's actually really overpriced, and they're a good 50% under the market price for everything they sell. And it's just, when people find the site, they buy it immediately. I mean, you do the calculation on how much the silver's worth, and you're like, that's a good price. Yeah, so it's one of those, you know, it was a family business. They were— the only way they could sell was going to a bazaar or a show. Um, so now they sell every day, which is great.

You changed their world. You just changed their entire world.

Yeah, their sales are up 600% for the year. Um, and that's huge for a business. So, and this is with just the website. I'm trying to convince them to do the full marketing gamut and really kind of go out, you know, and see what we can do. You know, it's launch a real business. Um, you know, they're all still working their day jobs, but my goal is that they can quit their day jobs and just run their business.

Are they a local business? Is that how you found them?

They're local. They're Ukrainian as well. I'm Ukrainian, if I didn't mention that as well. That's why I have the very confusing name. Usually you see, I leave my name as Andriy on my profile because I have a unique name. I don't wanna make it easy for people, but I like it. I'm unique, I'm different. So, but here I'll put Andrew because it's conversationally easier. But yeah, so they're Ukrainian and I friend of a friend connected me with them, and they had been, they had been quoted astronomical rates on websites. I mean, e-commerce sites are expensive, but for a small business just starting out trying to make sales, I gave them a deal that would make it work. You know, we do a little bit up front, and then as they were making the sales, they were paying me back over time so that they weren't totally out of pocket, and it was kind of based on whether or not I would succeed. Which is good for the business.

It's always good to hear a success story too where something really works. I like hearing that because you hear so many times so many people are saying, I went through that this morning with actually some people about how it's great but it's not great because of all these reasons. Well, you just said how good Google+ was and now you just shot it full of holes. To me that's not an endorsement anyway. But no, it's good to see it's working. So, alright, let's move on to Annabelle. Annabelle, boy, you've got me excited about big fun education. I love to read, and that has been my saving grace throughout my life, was that I could read. So when I needed to learn something, you know, I'm— and I had to teach it to myself, library— now online, of course— but I'd hit the library, take every book out on the subject. So That was great. So tell us about what you're doing.

Well, thanks. Big Fun Education was doing a social media project earlier this year called Macbeth Goes Social, and maybe some of you saw, saw some of that. We're a nonprofit, and we particularly support the arts, and now we're sort of incorporating everything through a new community called Reading Without Borders. It's new, it's 4 weeks old. We have, I think we have people in there from 26 countries already. We have close to 200 people, and not in small part due thanks to Aslan, because Aslan spotted it, and while she was part of Macbeth Goes Social with her kids and has, and likes this new initiative. So we're basically trying to match up Google+ people as volunteers who can volunteer to read with or listen to a kid reading for 20 minutes a week. And so you can volunteer without leaving Google+. Pretty good, huh?

Oh my God, that's brilliant. That is so cool.

I'd like to read a book to kids. No, sign me up. Send me a message.

Sign me up.

I'm down.

I'm all about that.

No, I do voices too. Like, I actually, I was a counselor for about 10 years in camps and all that, and I love this stuff.

Oh, awesome.

Step number 1, join the community. I just put the link on the event stream. Great.

Oh, well done, Aslan. So, yeah, let's go back to Andrew.

You do voices?

I used to act way back when, and I I mean, I get into it. I like doing that for the kids. It's, you know, kind of help them get into the story too. It's not just someone reading it.

You have to give us one.

Later, later. We'll publish one of them. We'll do a Google+ Stories series. We'll do videos for kids. Wait. OK. We could pick out stories, like get stories with multiple voices and actors, and act out the story through the Hangout. And send it to kids too? I don't know.

I do have something along those lines coming up as well because I've created a series of adaptations of classics and also original plays built around poems, and I had them published 30 years ago on paper, and they sold across America and 10 other countries. And now the rights have reverted to me, so I got grants through my nonprofit to convert them into digital properties that are interactive. With actors doing the soundtrack. And, um, and that's what I used in Macbeth Goes Social. I took our digital version of Macbeth, and then I wanted to make it a connected project. So we had over 200 kids in 6 countries collaborating together. It was translated into Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and Italian, and multilingual performances. And we did table readings with our original cast and kids in Argentina, for example, things like that. Aslan again and Larry did a phenomenal cooking show because, as you guys know, everybody loves food and it's a way to get into a topic that feels relaxing and comfortable and, you know, no one's being put on the spot. We all love food. So I thought, well, when I connected with Larry, who then introduced me to Aslan, thank goodness, I thought, well, food, food, food and classic theatre, not sure, not sure. And then of course I remembered in Macbeth there's a feast where the ghost shows up and everyone talks about the ghost and the trauma, but no one's talking about the food. Oh, I see a sweet little face behind you, Maggie.

That would be my redhead.

I have a redhead.

Yeah, he's running around right now. That's the reason why I'm not drinking right now. There he is. Excuse me. Don't mind him.

He's great. So we did, you know, so what did they cook for the Macbeths? And we came up, we had a dramaturg from the Yale School of Drama involved as well, just to make sure that we were, you know, flying right, getting the details across. And we did one, Asling created the sort of historically plausible meal, if you like, and showed how that happened. And then The dramaturg and Larry came up with a thematic dessert which was Pilate's Thumb, which is— Pilate's Thumb was something mentioned in one of the witches' speeches and spells. So we had kids in 3 countries in real time making marzipan from scratch, which was something that was very popular in Shakespeare's day, and sculpting it to look like a thumb and putting food coloring on it to make it look grisly and just have real fun with it. And then the pictures of those kids, we said, okay, now eat it. And it was just hilarious. It was so funny. So we had a lot of fun there. We try to, in Big Fun Education, we try to create sociable, memorable learning experiences, and we believe there are many, many, many points of entry to anything, including a classic play. So for Reading Without Borders, we really want people reading in all sorts of languages We want volunteers to record themselves reading a little bit by way of showcasing themselves and what they care about reading, and then teachers can sort of shop around and see who would be a good match for their kids and then get in touch. And we want the kids to take ownership of it. We don't want it to be just, you know, sort of the adult bobblehead doing the talking. We really want to bring more student voices to Google+ So they're gonna take turns, and the first time it will be you who reads something that the teacher and the kid think would be interesting to them. And then the second time, we want the kid to bring something to the hangout and that it have a connection to the last thing you read. And they can say, "Well, I'm reading this today because," just as by way of opener, and then read— the kid reads, and then you authentically switch roles, and the adult respectfully listens to the child. And tries to make connections. And then there's a sort of an improvisational sort of conversation that happens. And then because it's an HOA, other people can add their comments and other people with expertise will, you know, add value. So we're really hoping to make this into something that will spread globally.

We have the perfect platform to do it on, Annabelle, and I think the more people hear about this, you're going to have a lot of people willing to help and lend a hand. I mean, You can count me in on anything you need, and I'll try and talk Lisa into doing some readings too. She is a reading teacher. And, but, you know, excellent, excellent, excellent.

Just now I'll have to poke Dustin Stout too, because he— I know he wants to get into acting also. It's, it's definitely a perfect, uh, you know, merging of the two worlds.

I have to say, I have to say something though. It's, it's, um, it will be You have to give your time consistently. Annabelle is asking for 20 minutes, 4 straight weeks at least, so that the child has a certain level of consistency with the same adults and there's continuity. Definitely. I thought I'd point that out. So find a time where you can do just 20 minutes a week for 4 straight weeks. That would be great.

That's not asking too much, I don't think. Even in this busy world, 20 minutes is good. We'll try and encourage people to sign up for that. First, like you said, I know you listed— let me pull it up here— steps to do is join the community, and you listed a link for that, correct, Lynn?

I did, yeah.

Okay, and then do a profile post with your picture and then level up doing by doing an HOA step 3. So with the HOA reading, this be then us reading so you get a sample of what we can do.

It's a sample, and also some people might like to do— I put in a category, I've organized it by categories, interests, not by age group. And the categories are things that kids might be very interested in that they don't really get to go deep enough at school. Technology, business. You know, some 10-year-olds are very interested in business already, and it would be life-changing for them to be able to read about business with someone who knows something about it. Teachers can't know everything about everything, so we put categories up, but one of them, if you want to just— if you don't really want to get involved right away with a kid, if that seems like too much, I put a category up there called Good Night Stories, and I'm hoping that people will just read a short good night story and You know, that's a good way of showcasing yourself, and I think the kids, you know, then maybe a whole class can listen even to your story, and maybe we can do those in other languages, the same story in 25 languages, who knows. I did a Hangout with students in Ukraine, by the way, Andrew, which was phenomenal. I created another community, gosh, over a year ago, I think, called Mystery Hangout, and in that one it's organized geographically and teachers get together and then they just surprise their kids by being on screen and you have to figure out where the heck are the other kids. They use Google tools live, they use Google Translate, they were saying a few things in Ukrainian, it was so cute, we loved it.

Oh yeah, I can read in Ukrainian as well so I can read my favorite, my children's books that I've got hidden away.

Absolutely, yeah, that would be great.

So I think that's important to let everyone know too, is we're not asking someone to come on and just read Green Eggs and Ham. We're asking them to read something maybe they're more familiar with in terms that a child can understand. So there's a lot of—

Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. That might be a little too heavy.

Annabelle is also looking for specifically as well STEM readers, aren't you, Annabelle?

Yeah, Google has shown interest in the community and they're encouraging me to get kids doing more reading in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. So we have some pretty heavy-duty people already signed up in those areas. It's just phenomenal, literally some sort of rocket scientist.

How did I not hear about this before? This is awesome. I'm also a mechanical engineer.

Beautiful.

I'm perfectly matched for your thing. I'm already in there. Right now. That's awesome. Yeah, now I have more stuff to do on my list, but that's worth it.

Hey, now this is a worthwhile task to add to your list. You know, a lot of times we have an opportunity to change people's lives, and those are the opportunities that we need to take. I mean, and that in turn changes our own lives. So, you know, this is an excellent opportunity to do that.

That's right. We did a Hangout this week about it, the first one, and I sort of blurted out You don't have to be Mother Teresa to volunteer. You know, you really don't. There's so much in it for me when I volunteer. You really do get such a fabulous feeling. I think there's even science to prove that people who volunteer, you know, feel happy and blah, blah, blah. There's a lot in it for you to volunteer. And making a connection with a small kid who lights up when they see you again each week priceless.

I see that even with my own son because sometimes, you know, he'll go to these camps, these summer camps and things, and he's made connections with these older kids.

Yeah.

And, you know, we'll walk around the campus and you'll see, you know, an older kid coming in because he's volunteering or whatever. He'll be like, oh, hey, hey, that's my friend. So that's his friend, you know, and he loves it. I love that. I love knowing that he's inspiring him in some way or another, you know.

Yeah, these are important skills, and, you know, especially in this day and age where a lot of us are going to have to in our work, and the kids are going to have to present themselves on screen and have confidence and learn to listen in real time. You know, you can't ask that person again once they've gone, they're not in the building, and it's just so much confidence that the kids get. I've seen amazing things happen in hangouts with kids, and they tend to really warm to it quickly, and then their sense of self-esteem and image, you know, really improves. I think it's a powerful tool.

Well, you know, when I first started doing HOAs, I didn't want my son on here, and slowly he's like— we just saw him— he's like, "What's going on over there?" You know? I would love to do just a little HOA session with some of his other little friends. One of my best friends lives in Switzerland, and I would love her daughter to meet with my son via an HOA. I haven't done it yet, though.

You just want them to get married so you guys can become one big family.

Yes.

Are you kidding me?

She just bought a house, like a gorgeous house in Switzerland.

I'm like, um— Let's go. Skiing every day.

Yeah, oh yeah, there you go. And chocolate, are you kidding me, the chocolate.

The cheese.

Oh yeah, the cheese. Let's not even go there.

Gotta love it, gotta love it. Well, since we have Maggie talking too, why don't we jump right over and why don't you tell us a little about the wine you have today.

I'm gonna circle back around here and go back to Alyssa because we were talking about allergies and things. And this is actually an organic wine. I'm so sorry, Santa Julia, forgive me. This is Santa Julia. It's made with organic grapes. It's a Cabernet Sauvignon. And it's from Mendoza, Argentina, which is a wine region, if you guys don't know. Anyway, so I love, love, love, love, love their Cab that's just, it's not labeled organic. And I don't really know too, too much about this winery. But just recently— I'm not going to have any of this. Oh, and it's a screw-top. Nom nom. Anyway, so let me go back. Just a couple months ago— Chef, when was it? I was up in Central Coast just doing a little wine tour. And I was sitting there with a winemaker. And he's pouring me some wine, and we're having a little chatting around. And he said something like— He told me where this wine was sourced, and I saw the label, and it didn't say organic, and I know this area, and I know it's an organic area, and I said, "Hey, why don't you have the organic label on here?" And he said something like, "Oh, it's because we add sulfites, but it's almost 100% organic. It's just that we added sulfites." Okay, so people are talking about sulfites, and I wanted to talk today about sulfites because it's really bugging me. It really, really bugs me when I hear— Hooray for screw tops!

Yes, Asli.

Yes, you're right. I mean, I think it's just—

I don't know.

I was going to say, aren't there also— there's a cork shortage. So a lot of the wine companies, I've heard, are switching, or they're using those crappy plastic ones. I don't know if you ever saw them, like the fake corks. They're terrible, and they fall apart. They fall in the bottle. It's not good.

If they fall into the bottle, you're talking about something that's old. This is great because this gets— It makes you want— okay, there are a couple things about it. Wait, wait, I want to talk about sulfites. Just really quickly, this gets a better tight close, so your wine will more than likely last you longer. Like, this will last me about 3 days. Well, probably not, knowing the way that I drink.

One dinner.

I go to bed, go to bed. It's 10 AM. I'm here in Coronado. I'm not about to drink wine. And Chef, each time that I do your show and I have my little sippies and I'm making my little cocktails, the rest of the day it's like, hey. I have such a chillaxed day. But anyways, little guys running around, I prefer not to drink here. Where was I with this? Oh, Soul Flights. I swear I have not been drinking. This is eau naturelle. This is natural. This is eau naturelle, yes. Where am I? Sulfites. Okay, so sulfites. A lot of people, there are a lot of misconceptions with sulfites. Sulfites, if someone says, "Oh yeah, I can only drink organic wines because there aren't any sulfites," okay, that's just, yeah.

Say it. Say it.

All right. Anyways.

I'm still spoiled with no children here.

Well, yeah.

Enjoy.

Enjoy while it lasts. Anyways, OK. So every wine has sulfites. It's just a natural component of it. If you did not have sulfite, your wine would turn into vinegar. Yeah. I don't want to drink vinegar. This is nice. But it's a natural component. You might see something that says no sulfites added. Somewhere in here it says it. No sulfites added. Some people have an intolerance to, or sensitive, I think the word is they're sensitive to sulfites. But anyways, I was talking to this winemaker and he says, "Yeah, I can't label it organic just because I added some sulfites." And that drives me insane to think that people are refusing to drink wine because it doesn't say organic or no sulfites added or blah blah blah blah blah. Moral of the story, kids, drink wine.

It's also a problem with the entire green movement and food labeling in general. People are getting very— there's like two extremes about it. I get— I don't think that we should be unregulated, but I also don't think that it's to the ridiculous extent it is. Now people are just using green and organic labels just because they're like, "Oh, I want to be on the green bandwagon. Those greeners will buy everything." Exactly.

Exactly.

Instead of focusing on the health aspects of it. Right.

I want to say another thing about sulfites before I forget. White wine has more than red, and everybody who tells me they don't know, oh, look, white wine has more sulfites than red. Oh, and dried fruit. Dried fruit has more sulfites than— shrimp has sulfites. It's just a natural component of our daily life. And I get it. There are people— and one of my best friends— oh, God. God help me. I hope she never watches this show. But she tells me, she swears she has to drink organic wine. And she comes over to my house, and I'm pouring her a glass of wine. She's like, oh, is it organic? And it's like, no, it's not organic. What are you talking about?

These people would not have survived 40 years ago.

No. Here's another— exactly. We actually have less sulfites. Yeah, in our wine than we did back in the day.

There were more—

there was more wine because again, it would turn into sulfur. We don't have, you know, modern technology was not, you know, anyway. All right, so sulfites are okay. Of course, don't be scared of non-organic wines, and cheers.

All right, hey, I just have to watch all the shows with Maggie. I actually really appreciate that, Maggie, because I get— I deal with the sulfite. Believe it or not, sulfite is a top 11 allergy in Canada. People are getting actual, like, anaphylactic allergies to it. I don't know if it is in the US or not, but it's— it is completely blown out of proportion with the green movement. It's like nitrates. Like, nitrates are naturally occurring, and everybody wants everything to say nitrate-free, even though they're in all types of foods naturally. And I didn't know that about sulfites, so I really appreciate you sharing that. That's quite interesting.

Well, the other thing about sulfites is— and I understand that there are people who will have that intolerance or do have that in their body. But I was reading recently somewhere that it was like less than 0.4% actually have that intolerance or whatever it is. It's like gluten.

Yeah?

It's like gluten. People overshoot the gluten. I would think gluten a little more than sulfites even. But I've heard a lot. Like, I'm allergic to gluten. No, you're not. He would have died by now.

Ridiculous.

I completely understand that there are people who have that. I get it. I'm completely compassionate about it. If that is you, that's you. And my girlfriend is convinced that's her. That's fine. I will buy her organic wine. In fact, I think I did buy this originally for her. But yeah. I'll buy another bottle. I'm sure Santa Julia will be happy. But anyway, so, oh, and I do have a review of one of their wines on my blog, so I'll put that link later because I do like it. And this is under $10, come on.

What was the name of that winery again?

Santa Julia. Santa Julia. I am a Spanish speaker if you need someone to read in Spanish, Annabelle.

Oh, we do, we do. We have two already, but we want more.

I'm a native Spanish speaker. That little redhead spoke to completely in Spanish. So yeah, try that.

Little redhead bopping around, "Si señor." You speak French as well, though, don't you, Maggie?

Yeah, I do speak French. Oh, so would I— I thought I was going to say— you got to stop me here, Michelle.

You are so giddy. I could just watch this for the next hour, by the way. Just you just talking about things. Just go for it.

Oh God, help me. At one point you're just going to say, Shut up. No, no, I'm just kidding. Oh, but I was going to say about when I was studying French— and I studied it for a bazillion years— one of the things I did was I would take little kids' books and I would read it. I would read— I read "Les Petits Prince," or I read— what was the other one? "Green Eggs and Ham." I read those kind of books in French. That was cool. "Madeleine." Oh, I love "Madeleine." She's so cool.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, Madeline was originally French, right? I mean, it was French and then— okay, alright. Just like Babar. I liked Babar. I was always a Babar fan.

Me too, me too. Hey, wait, Andrew, are you really drinking?

Oh, hell yeah, it's afternoon. I'm also— we're dealing with movers, so I'm not going anywhere today. I work from home.

What am I gonna do?

Drink beer. That's what you're gonna do.

Exactly. It's really nice out too.

It's like blue skies, just Yeah, I had half a beer the other day and it did me in for the Food and Booze Show. I was done.

Do you not drink much anymore, Chef? Because I do remember you saying on one of your shows, "Mmm." Yeah, it's rare that I'll drink.

You know, I have a bottle of limoncello and a bottle of tequila in the freezer for special occasions, and a bottle of Prosecco. They're always kind of on hand, so when I do drink, that's what I enjoy drinking, but for the most part, yeah.

So when I come see you, Chef, I will be bringing my own booze.

Yeah, that might be a good idea.

Lisa drinks wine. Lisa loves wine, so she'll drink with you.

Yes.

So when are we going to do a live Chef Dennis HOA meetup? Meet up with some bottles of wine, huh?

We can do that.

That might be fun.

We were actually talking about doing a wine— like we did a food Food and Booze Beer Show Wednesday, so we could do a Food and Booze Wine Show. It won't be like the wine tasting where I opened up 6 bottles and had some of each because I was—

That was a fun show, let me tell you. It was so funny to see you guys incrementally get drunk. It was so great because it was like, oh yeah, this is great, this tastes good. At the end of the thing, it was like, this was all good.

Well, I'm happy the last two bottles were kind of dry because I didn't enjoy them at all.

But you do.

I'm going up to Napa, Sonoma in October, I think, to meet some winemakers and chat about wine. So maybe we can do something then.

Absolutely.

You brought up a good point. I've never understood, like when I've gone wine tasting, by the time I hit the third one, it all just tastes good. So I don't really understand how people can objectively wine taste. You kind of hit a certain point, you're just like—

Well, isn't that what the spit bucket's for, right?

Oh, you mean you're not supposed to drink it?

You're not supposed to drink it. Really?

No.

You actually want to know how I do my wine reviews? Because I write for a wine company. Well, I write for a couple of wine companies. But anyway, so what I do is I open it up, I look at it, I smell it, I take a sip, I write down all my notes. And then I go do stuff. Like, I go walk around, and I'll go to the bank, go to the post office, go socialize on G+. I'll come back. I'll do it all over again. I'll taste it, smell it, write down my notes. And then I don't write it until usually the next day. That's usually how I do my reviews.

See, I've got my own food and booze show now. My wife just gave me pizza. She is the best wife ever. I'm sitting here drinking beer, and my wife's giving me food. I won.

Here's a quick comment. I want to throw a few comments up. My sister, Mia Voss, "That's probably because you are a booze hag." Thank you, Mia. I appreciate that. Christopher Vogelman is in the house. He said he'll attest to the dried fruits with sulfur bother him wheezing, but I haven't died yet. Thank goodness, Christopher. Treated patients with food sensitivities that do have immunoglobulin— oh, I can't even say it— immunoglobulin reaction.

Say that one drunk. Just say IgE.

It's easier.

Thank you. Not classified as allergies, so thank you, Christopher. Also, we have some great people here. Coach Moore's in the house. He's having a lot of fun with it. Kim Boltman is in the house saying, "A belated response to your grown-up reading list." Reply Andrew, she has a copy of 1967 World Best Fairy Tales and not the Disney version.

Yeah, I was telling her I liked, um, it was, uh, There's a Monster in My Closet. It was, I mean, it's gotta be 40 years old at least. Mayer, I think, the author. I linked to the Amazon one in the event, so I glanced at the author, but, um, I mean, some of my favorite children's books have got to be about 40, 50 years old at this point. Just great stories, and they're still being used. You know, that, that one was used for Monsters, Inc. It's basically the inspiration for it, that, you know, you got scary monsters in your closet, but they're not so scary once you meet them. So that's neat.

But yeah, I always had vampires in my closet. They were, they were scary.

I was, I was actually trying to think, there was another children's book that it had to do I— there was a little girl was the main character in the story, and at some point she got sucked into an escalator, or she had a fear of getting sucked into escalators, or— it's gonna really bother me.

That sounds like my mother-in-law.

But it was about like fears and stuff like that, you know, like getting over stupid fears. And I had this— it was an audiobook that I had, so I had a book and then I had the tape of it. So it had like— it was reading it in all the voices and everything. That's kind of what really first got me into books with the full audio experience.

Gotta love it. Well, let's hop back over to Lynn, because we haven't spent— we've been talking to her a lot, but we haven't spent any me time with Lynn. So you're involved in education because you homeschool.

Yes, I do.

You were also an educator prior to that, though.

Yes, I used to teach economics and English to 17- and 18-year-olds. That's what I did for a living until I got married, had kids, and stopped working to raise my kids. So what Annabelle's doing is really, really good. But of course, as you guys all know, I'm on G+ primarily. I started off with food stuff and branching off in all various directions now, as you can see somewhere. Is it on this side? This side. Voilà.

I love that. That's really cool. I have lower third envy.

I'm testing things out. Next time it might be something else. I just, when I'm bored, I sit there and play with my Photoshop, so that's what I do.

Yeah, I have Photoshop, but it just gives me headaches when I turn mine on, so it just stays there.

Yeah, you just gotta, all you gotta do is create a nice big one, save for web, and you need that transparency. Make sure that little transparency is clicked. But yeah, any kind of transparent image works. We, uh, Dustin made these nice ones for us, the social media hangout ones. I was too lazy to make my own, so I'm just using this one.

Gotta love it. Yeah, you lost me on transparency, so that's alright.

Yeah, exactly, right, okay. I don't do manuals and instructions, Chef. I just get in there, and then when I get stuck, uh, help! It's like, you know, when you get cabinets and you start building them, I don't read instructions, I just start.— and then my husband has to come in and save the day.

Hey, what I always tell people, you know, you can always Google it and find a YouTube walkthrough. You know, literally every single thing you would ever have to do in Photoshop has a walkthrough, and it's done, it's free, it's there. So, you know, don't be scared, Jeff. You could get in there, figure it out.

You know, there's a lot of things I can learn that way, and I've learned so much from books and manuals. But there's just something about computer stuff that just— it just doesn't click. And I've been trying to learn Photoshop for probably 10 years. I bought 3 different versions of it, you know, so I keep hoping one day that it will. But I'm one of those people, I need someone actually sit with me physically, do it, let me learn it once or twice, and then I'll be able to do it from then on. But right now it's like, ah, if you saw how many books I sold when we moved that had Photoshop in the title.

Somewhere.

Photoshop for Dummies.

That one I had more difficult manuals or more complete manuals and even video series, but it's just not working for me.

It could be like the car wash, you hire someone to do that.

Yeah.

That's—

Well, you probably do, don't you, Jeff?

And you did that Food and Booze logo. Awesome, by the way. The Dustin logo. For the video show, it's beautiful.

You've got someone doing your banners and stuff like that. Why you don't need to do it? You've got someone doing it for you.

I mean, I have fun on Canva now. I do like Canva. Yeah, I've made some pretty cool things there, but you know, when I needed my logos, I went to a professional, you know, and I found the difference. I've had some excellent web designers that were not those kind of people. People, not logo designers. I found out that there is a big difference and I met someone that did them for me and he did a great job. I have brand new logos now. I have business cards that I didn't print on my computer for the first time in my life.

With those little— with the Avery business card, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I always had my work—

You got to get them properly done. I mean, it's— when you just look at the difference between two business cards. I mean, it's— and same with the logo, you're right. I mean, I deal with businesses who go, well, I have a logo, and I go, okay, send me the logo image, and it's a Word document because they used a font and a clipart. That's—

That's what the Reading Without Borders logo is. It's clipart with—

Oh, well, we'll get you something. I'll do something for you. We'll connect after this. No, you definitely deserve something for that. That's free of charge.

Thank you very much.

You've got 2 volunteers there already. Someone's working on it already, I believe.

Oh, good, good. So if you don't like theirs, let me know and we'll do it again. I got lucky. I married a graphic designer, so I can contract her for whatever work I need.

Brilliant. I married a playwright, so I've got plays.

Oh, see there.

I married a teacher.

Divorced.

But we won't go into that.

But did—

oh, imagine— oh, I can't do it, can't say it.

No, don't, don't, Aslan. Oh boy.

Teacher supported Nick. Well anyway, guys, we're coming to a close of the show. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for being on. We're going to run right down the panel one more time and see if you have any calls to action. Lisa, any place, anything you'd like to tell us about anything you're doing or let us know where we can find you on everything?

You can definitely find me on GoDairyFree.org. I post pretty much every day. I'm on Google+, obviously Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and I also am the senior editor for Allergic Living magazine, which is a print magazine. And so you can find me there too.

Good.

I have a book coming out in fall.

Oh, very nice. And I still love print magazines. You know, there's certain things I'll do on ebooks, but magazines, I like to hold them. There's something special about a magazine in your hands. And Andrew, so any, any projects you have coming up?

No, mostly just, just working. I actually have to get to work on— I'm optimizing Chris's site right now. Christopher Vogelman is in our audience right now. I was working working on his site, and so I got to get back to work basically. But yeah, if you need me, I mean, I'm always on Google+, the Social Media Strategy Community, but also, you know, if your business needs anything at all, wheelmedia.com, and I'll pop the link in the description. But yeah, this was a lot of fun, and I had a blast meeting everyone. You ladies are the best, and yeah, I'll be talking to you guys after and circling.

Sounds good. Annabelle, and I know we have your call to action as Big Fun Big Fun Education, if you'd like to tell us again what you're looking for, what you'd like.

Oh, thanks. Yeah, I guess, what is it, follow the page Big Fun Education and then join the community Reading Without Borders. That would be awesome. Volunteer to either read or be a teacher and tell us which students you'd like to match up. Or there's a million other things on there as well. I've got, gonna get a little category of what you can do if you don't want to read. What you can do for us if you don't want to read.

Excellent, yeah, because there's always a way you can help.

Thanks so much for having me. It was really fun to connect with everybody who likes eating and reading.

And drinking.

And drinking, there you go. And Lynn, anything— you have your show on Sunday, I know. Anything else you have coming up?

Yeah, we're in Belgium for Savor the Flavor this Sunday, and Wednesday sees the pilot episode episode of my third HOA series. Third HOA series. It's all about beauty and style. You don't want to miss it. Nice. Because you know I've got almost 200 pairs of shoes, it had to be done.

Do you really? The Imelda Marcos of the blogging world.

Just better looking.

Much better looking. Oh yes. Alright, and Maggie, anything you'd like to leave us with? Anything you're doing, you have planned?

Oh boy, I've got a lot going on. I don't even know where to start. But just check out my blog. I've got everything I do, I do on there. I blog at least 3 or 4 times a week. So there's that— or I post, rather. So there's a lot going on. And just follow my stream on G+. I try to mention it as much as possible. I'm pretty social here on G+ for the most part.

Yep, looking good. All right, yeah, and I'm Chef Dennis. And you can find me pretty much everywhere as @chefdennis, except for Google+ where I am Chef Dennis Littley because they made me add my last name. So that's okay. But other than that, we had a great—

Well, actually, they made you do it. Now you can actually go back, right? Because now you can have whatever you want.

I know, but there's no— I've been on here long enough and it's fine. Everywhere else though, it's easy to find me. But thank you so much everyone. It's been a pleasure and I look forward to seeing you again. Have a wonderful weekend and have a great day on Google+. Bye-bye.

Thank you.