You know how it feels when you have a little surge of pride—pride that comes from knowing someone cool? I'm feeling that now because I know Potrero Hill-based artist and illustrator Wendy MacNaughton and just spotted her work in the Times (a few days late).

Wendy's become a regular here at 7x7. She did the mental map cover of our neighborhoods guide last year and she and I worked closely together to create the elaborate illustration for the "Tech to Table" story I wrote for our August food issue. I sketched it all out in a scribble of pencil and she made it into something real. It was a real back and forth with serious discussion including questions like, "Would tech nerds really have mint in their coconut water? Will people get that we're joking about the goat bacon?"

Wendy was in the New York Times recently with this cute little thing on snacks great writers have subsisted on. In fact she's got all sorts of cool nods to the food world on her blog.

I love the illustration below because you know exactly what she's talking about. In fact, the last thing I snacked on while writing was a Recchiuti Confections malt ball which was indescribably good. Oh-my-god good. I just called to make sure they're still available and apparently there are only ten more boxes left until they sell out. New ones arrive in October. Go buy a box of malt balls now, take a bite of one, and sketch it for posterity's sake.