First up today is Stacie Waters, founding Owner and BIG Cheese at Bilinski Sausage Company.
Stacie is CEO and owner of Bilinski Sausage Co, a third-generation family business, headquartered in Cohoes, New York. Under her direction, Bilinski’s transformed from a regional old-world sausage company to a one of the country’s most innovative and respected organic meat processors, committed to making sausages from responsibly-raised organic chicken and simple, every-day ingredients. Stacie grew up in the meat business, but began her career in the technology industry after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. Later, she earned a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and served as an advisor to the US government on national security policy issues. In 2004, she returned to New York’s Capital Region to reinvent and grow the family business. Stacie lives in Clifton Park, NY with her husband and two sons and enjoys hiking, training for triathlons, and inventing new flavors of sausages in her home kitchen. Learn more at bilinski.com
Stacie says: “Back in 1989, our family created a better-for-you sausage made from chicken — the first of its kind — because we believed that sausages could be made responsibly and still be delicious. From our first chicken sausage over 25 years ago until now, our values have remained unchanged. We believe that real food is made simply – building from the ground up, we use only whole ingredients that are sourced, grown, and raised with integrity.” Follow Bilinski on Facebook and Twitter
Later in the program I’ll be talking to Michael Fontaine, Editor and Translator of a very cool book “How To Drink – A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing.” The manuscript was published in 1536 by Vincent Obsopoeus.
A spirited new translation of a forgotten classic, shot through with timeless wisdom
Is there an art to drinking alcohol? Can drinking ever be a virtue? The Renaissance humanist and neoclassical poet Vincent Obsopoeus (ca. 1498–1539) thought so. In the winelands of sixteenth-century Germany, he witnessed the birth of a poisonous new culture of bingeing, hazing, peer pressure, and competitive drinking. Alarmed, and inspired by the Roman poet Ovid’s Art of Love, he wrote The Art of Drinking (De Arte Bibendi) (1536), a how-to manual for drinking with pleasure and discrimination. In How to Drink, Michael Fontaine offers the first proper English translation of Obsopoeus’s text, rendering his poetry into spirited, contemporary prose and uncorking a forgotten classic that will appeal to drinkers of all kinds and (legal) ages.
Arguing that moderation, not abstinence, is the key to lasting sobriety, and that drinking can be a virtue if it is done with rules and limits, Obsopoeus teaches us how to manage our drinking, how to win friends at social gatherings, and how to give a proper toast. But he also says that drinking to excess on occasion is okay—and he even tells us how to win drinking games, citing extensive personal experience. Get a copy NOW!
Complete with the original Latin on facing pages, this sparkling work is as intoxicating today as when it was first published.
Michael Fontaine is professor of classics and associate vice provost of undergraduate education at Cornell University. His books include Funny Words in Plautine Comedy and The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy.
Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2015 Chateau Bel Air Gloria Haut-Medoc
This wine has a ripe, clean and pure bouquet with attractive dark cherries and blackberry scents, neatly integrated with the oak. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy ripe dark cherries laced with spice and black tea, nicely structured with an almost heady but attractive finish. Enjoy this lush Cru Bourgeois over the next five to seven years. 75% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc