Andi Winter's Blog

In F1 there is a tradition of the “summer break.” For four weeks, there are no races, and there is even a total work stoppage for 2 weeks, where no team is allowed to do ANY work whatsoever.

Sounds nice to me.

So allow me to be generous and say that I’ve been on an extended “summer break” with posting (and for cooking) for the F1 cookbook. Kind of like Andrea Kimi Antonelli* and Bernd Maylander** at the Monza practice sessions last weekend, my life went cataclysmically sideways. As much as I enj...

Photo of grandstands at 2005 F1 Monaco race. Just to give you a sense of the “Crown Jewel of F1”. Photo credit: Ivan Ethan Loh (Flickr)

The worst part of traveling is making an effort to avoid any news or social media when there are F1 races happening.

Okay, so maybe the truly worst part is Economy class seats, or the guy in the seat in front of you who immediately reclines his seat ALL THE WAY once the wheels lift off the ground. Or trying to get to the lavatory but someone ALWAYS slips into i...

I think I might like Miami!

¡Ay, caramba!

I am pleased to inform you that the F1 Cookbook is back on track (so to speak)! And the credit goes to, of all places, Miami!

We went simple with this race’s menu. Some intense research revealed that Miami’s representative dish (aside from ceviche, Stone Crabs, and Burger King) is the cubano sandwich, with Key Lime pie a close second. As for drinks? Mojitos and daiquiris!

So our 2024 Miami race menu* consisted of:

Cubano sandwich with potato chipsKey ...

Yeah, I need to work on my photo staging. But the pineapple pastry and Taiwan beer were good!

After the quasi-disaster that was Japan (Suzuka), China (Shanghai) looked to be a solid redemption. I had a plan, I executed the plan, and I ended up with “eh?”

To start with: the Shanghai race menu:

Shanghai Scallion Oil Noodles (traditional Shanghai dish)Chinese Smashed Cucumber SaladChinese Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (humbao)some sort of tasty Chinese dessert found on the shelves of the Asian grocery ...

No food update, but enjoy this beautiful photo of cherry blossoms

Ah, Japan.

It’s been far too long since I’ve been there (2017 was the most recent trip). I think with longing of department store basements with incredible bakeries (and disturbingly high priced fruits), fast and reliable trains and their stations with their locally sourced and specialized bento lunches, vending machines in the middle of rice fields with heated cans of coffee in the winter…

I was looking forward to revisiting my ...

Melbourne dinner, and so very Aussie

Aussie Aussie Aussie! The third race of the 2024 F1 season took place in Melbourne, Australia, and wow, was it a doozy (race details at the end of the post). And honestly, so was the food!

I researched the “national dish” of Australia, and overwhelmingly, Australians say “roast lamb”. So for a second race in a row, we had lamb (not that I’m complaining). Instead of going “roast,” we went with a slow cooker approach. I will admit I wasn’t entirely sure this wa...

Jeddah race dinner (well, made after the race)

I’ll admit that I’ve become a bit of a Formula 1 fan over the past few years, to the point that yes, I pay for the full F1 streaming subscription so I can watch ALL of the race lead-up content* as well as archived races when it isn’t a race weekend**.

So yeah, you could say that F1 has become an obsession for me.

Another obsession fascination of mine is world travel and culture. While I have my passport and desire to see the world, alas time hasn’t ...

Heads up: to celebrate “Read an eBook Week” Smashwords has a massive sitewide sale now through March 9, 2024. And my books are all FREE (or 100% off, whichever sounds better to you) through the week.

This includes older titles as well as my most recent release, Second Chances.

You can see all of my Smashwords-available titles here.

Enjoy!

It’s really weird to realize that the last time I published a book it was, oh, almost EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO.

I apologize for the shouting.

Life went sideways last year. Actually, it went M.C. Escher-ways. And despite my best intentions (like publishing a book a month), that didn’t happen.

However, I did discover a deep and abiding respect for taking a time out for self-care.

But it’s a new year, and life seems to have settled down to a relatively drama-free state (for now), so I’ve been able to g...

I spent most of my time the last two years writing, and realized that perhaps I should focus a little more on getting my writing out into the world.

And seeing as how I am a fan of challenges (National Novel Writing Month, a Story a Week, just to name a few), I thought that maybe what I needed was a publishing challenge.

While my initial goal was to publish a book a month in 2023, I’m running slightly behind on that. But that’s okay! I figure that if I manage to publish more than four books this...