I’ve been on the road for a few days now—I’m in San Francisco now, kickin’ it old school with a Jack Daniels bottle from the mini-bar before heading out to my reading tonight at Books, Inc. at the Marina—and have done quite a few interviews and fielded enough questions to be able pick out my top five or so that I’m asked most often.

In this video, the author of Cleaving shows us how to butcher a leg of lamb...and a relationship.

Hi, everybody. Julie Powell here. I’m out on tour right now for my second book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession. Knives, meat and adultery, oh my.

Our cat Maxine died last week at the age of 17 without ever knowing that she’d been portrayed on the big screen. In mourning her this week, I can’t help but think about the movie version of Maxine with mixed feelings. Julie & Julia—well, half of it, anyway—is based on my 2005 memoir of the same name, and in that book, Maxine played a not-inconsiderable role.