I began my career as a newspaper reporter, working for the now-defunct alternative weekly, The Seattle Sun. After earning a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, I worked at a number of publications, including The Providence Journal in Rhode Island. I also taught journalism classes at the University of Vermont.

Articles that I have written about food, travel and lifestyles has appeared in The New York Times, Gourmet, Eating Well, The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Living, Smithsonian, People, Travel and Leisure Family, Nick Jr. , and Woman's Day. In 1994, I won the Bert Greene Memorial Award for Food Journalism given by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. I am a contributing editor to Eating Well magazine and a commentator on Vermont Public Radio, with occasional commentaries on NPR. For the past 15 years, I have written "Food," a weekly column syndicated by United Media to more than 500 small newspapers nationwide.

BOOKS AND PROJECTS:
In 2005, Perigee Books, a division of Penguin, published Barbarians at the Plate: The Taming and Feeding of the Modern American Family. For this book, I traveled around the country interviewing working parents and kids about meal times. Thanks to all the families for sharing their time and recipes with me. I collaborated with Jimmy and Maya Kennedy, owners of River Run, a tiny restaurant in Plainfield, VT, on a cookbook: River Run: Southern Comfort From Vermont, (HarperCollins, 2001).

NBC "Today" show personality Al Roker tapped me to help develop and test recipes for two cookbooks, Al Roker's Big Bad Book of Barbecue (Scribner, 2002) and Al Roker's Hassle-Free Holiday Cookbook (Scribner, 2003).

Vermont Life Magazine published Fresh From Vermont in 1992, with text by me and recipes by Chef David Miles of the New England Culinary Institute.

A proud moment in my career came in the fall of 2001, when I was one of a small group of neighbors who helped launch the 2002 Men of Maple Corner Calendar, featuring the nearly-naked (but extremely intelligent!) men of the community. This fund-raising project - featured on NBC's "Today" show and media throughout the world - went on to garner about $500,000 for the Maple Corner Community Center and other charities. Unfortunately, the calendar models retired after the 2003 edition.