Max-imum Tropical Delight

I think I've mentioned that Whit's brother, Max, is here (photo from his website, and more recently from here in Ghana). He was here with his son, Harper, in January, returned for a month in June, and is now here for two more months of sibling banter.

This stay is extra long because Max is writing another book (see below for his impressive credentials). This one will be about our crazy battery business and how it works within the Ghanaian culture. I can't wait to read it.

Anyway, Max lives in Maine now, but was a senior editor at People magazine in New York and, before that, the executive editor of Variety and Daily Variety, the showbiz trade publications, in Los Angeles. He has written many magazine articles (for Readers Digest, This Old House, Martha Stewart Living, Bon Appetit, Country Home, Smithsonian and many others), written for the New York Times Book Review, co-written a cookbook with a well-known chef, and published his first memoir, Man Bites Log: The Unlikely Adventures of a City Guy in the Woods, in 2004.

Then there's the sibling exploitation. Max also wrote a lot of the cultural questions for the original Cranium, although I wonder how much credit his brother gives him for its smashing success and awards... hmmm?

AND, Max L-O-V-E loves to cook - and we are the beneficiaries of this passion.

In January, Max decided our cheap imported Chinese cookware was insufficient to his needs, so in June he carried two huge cast-iron pots and a cast-iron skillet, maybe 15" in diameter - in his luggage. He immediately began using it to great effect. He used the skillet for a number of things, but Pineapple Upside-Down Cake took the cake. He made it about three times when he was here in June and has made it twice so far on this trip. It keeps getting better. I think this one should win a prize - especially since our gas oven only allows the use of the top or bottom burner, but not both at the same time, and has no thermostat!

If only there were a county fair in Ghana.
XO