Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Very Hungry Baby
The day after her birthday, we had a party. We made lots of cake:
Not only did we make the very hungry caterpillar out of cakes (two chocolate, two yellow, two carrot), but the plates and napkins are also VHC-themed. And the other foods we had available were also taken from the book.
She is, understandably, very excited.
She started out very dainty, taking small bites with a spoon.
That didn't last long.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Happy Birthday Sweetpea!
This time last year, Lauren was finishing up a few hours of labor with one final push and the midwife was extracting our broad-shouldered daughter. It was a bloody mess, but we were all so happy to have it done, especially Lauren, who made it to the finish line without the aid of drugs.
So... how to celebrate her first birthday? How about dropping her off at our nanny's house for roughly 12 hours so we can go to hear the Chicago Symphony? Yeah, that sounds about right.
We're having a real birthday party for her tomorrow. You're all invited, except that there won't be enough cake for everyone and most of you would have to stand outside because we'll quickly run out of room in our apartment. Feel free to bring gifts; think gold, frankincense, or that other stuff that I can't seem to spell this morning and don't have time to look up. I mean, she already has plenty of toys, so what else does she need?
So... how to celebrate her first birthday? How about dropping her off at our nanny's house for roughly 12 hours so we can go to hear the Chicago Symphony? Yeah, that sounds about right.
We're having a real birthday party for her tomorrow. You're all invited, except that there won't be enough cake for everyone and most of you would have to stand outside because we'll quickly run out of room in our apartment. Feel free to bring gifts; think gold, frankincense, or that other stuff that I can't seem to spell this morning and don't have time to look up. I mean, she already has plenty of toys, so what else does she need?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Book Pre-Review: The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook
I'm calling this a pre-review because it just doesn't seem right to review a cookbook after only trying one of the recipes. That said, I'll stride boldly forward into what amounts to a book review.
One of the surprise gifts I received for Christmas this year was The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Diana Bucholz. I didn't quite know what to make of it and figured I probably wouldn't find much use for it. I mean, something like that just doesn't sound like something that would come off my cookbook bookshelf all that often.
I did, however, at least take a look through it, and I realized a few things. First, there's a lot of food mentioned in Harry Potter. Under each recipe's name is a synopsis of the scene in which a particular dish is mentioned, and I really hadn't realized how much food comes up. Second, while I was expecting hokey recipes for magical foods like every-flavour-beans, what this really ends up being is a cookbook that tours the food traditions of the British isles. To be honest, when I saw some of the names of these foods in the Harry Potter books, I probably assumed that they were fictitious dishes. Treacle Tarts? Spotted Dick? But they're not. Besides the scene setting, each recipe also has a little blurb about the recipe--its origins or the traditions around it or some cooking tip. And these were really interesting; I found myself paging through the whole cookbook just to learn a bit about British food.
So far, I've only tried one recipe--a pumpkin tart that has a layer of bittersweet chocolate between the pumpkin filling and the homemade crust (it didn't call for lard in the text of the cookbook, but clearly this was a recipe that called for lard from the very soul of its being). I'm not sure I've ever had pumpkin and chocolate together, especially not such a dark chocolate flavor, but this was really good. I'm looking forward to trying more dishes from this cookbook, because it really looks like what we have is not a frilly cookbook attached to a Harry Potter theme but a good cookbook attached to a frilly theme.
And that is one place where the cookbook gets into trouble: its organization is basically thematic ("Good Food with Bad Relatives," "Treats From the Train," "Recipes from a Giant and an Elf" and the like). It can be a real pain finding something when you want it. The index isn't bad, but if you don't know the name of something, not having grown up under a monarch's rule... well, it can still be hard to find some things. The author does very kindly let us supply our own Muggle sorts of magic--food processors, for instance--to replace house elves and wands.
One of the surprise gifts I received for Christmas this year was The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Diana Bucholz. I didn't quite know what to make of it and figured I probably wouldn't find much use for it. I mean, something like that just doesn't sound like something that would come off my cookbook bookshelf all that often.
I did, however, at least take a look through it, and I realized a few things. First, there's a lot of food mentioned in Harry Potter. Under each recipe's name is a synopsis of the scene in which a particular dish is mentioned, and I really hadn't realized how much food comes up. Second, while I was expecting hokey recipes for magical foods like every-flavour-beans, what this really ends up being is a cookbook that tours the food traditions of the British isles. To be honest, when I saw some of the names of these foods in the Harry Potter books, I probably assumed that they were fictitious dishes. Treacle Tarts? Spotted Dick? But they're not. Besides the scene setting, each recipe also has a little blurb about the recipe--its origins or the traditions around it or some cooking tip. And these were really interesting; I found myself paging through the whole cookbook just to learn a bit about British food.
So far, I've only tried one recipe--a pumpkin tart that has a layer of bittersweet chocolate between the pumpkin filling and the homemade crust (it didn't call for lard in the text of the cookbook, but clearly this was a recipe that called for lard from the very soul of its being). I'm not sure I've ever had pumpkin and chocolate together, especially not such a dark chocolate flavor, but this was really good. I'm looking forward to trying more dishes from this cookbook, because it really looks like what we have is not a frilly cookbook attached to a Harry Potter theme but a good cookbook attached to a frilly theme.
And that is one place where the cookbook gets into trouble: its organization is basically thematic ("Good Food with Bad Relatives," "Treats From the Train," "Recipes from a Giant and an Elf" and the like). It can be a real pain finding something when you want it. The index isn't bad, but if you don't know the name of something, not having grown up under a monarch's rule... well, it can still be hard to find some things. The author does very kindly let us supply our own Muggle sorts of magic--food processors, for instance--to replace house elves and wands.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Take Me Back: Rhode Island Edition
What takes you back in time?
For me recently, it was an app I downloaded for my iPod Touch. Specifically, it was an app that allowed me to listen to the NPR station out of Rhode Island. For the past few days I've been listening to WRNI and it's taking me right back to my two years living in Providence. I listened to a lot of NPR since I never had television beyond what little would come through the rabbit ears, and as a result I felt plugged into national and international events and especially to the events and politics of Rhode Island. Of course, I was living in the capital and RI's such a small state that it's relatively easy to be plugged into the goings-on, but NPR was what took me there.
While listening the last few days, it was the little details that really took me back: hearing the traffic reports that reminded me of the roads I used to drive, the exits I used or drove past, the local landmarks. Hearing about Linc Chaffee being sworn in as the new governor took me back to the 2006 election, when Chaffee--a popular Senator despite being a Republican--was rather reluctantly voted out by RI voters as national politics trumped local politics (Chaffee's defeat helped usher in Democratic control of the Senate). In case you're curious, Chaffee has become an Independent, which was a better description of his politics all along.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think the programming schedule may have changed since I lived there, but one fixture was On Point, which comes out of Boston's WBUR. What a great show. Tom Ashbrook is really a great host (he's a perceptive interviewer and today Lauren and I loved hearing him--politely--smack down a listener who was straying way off topic) and the programming on the show is routinely interesting.
I also heard that the school where I used to teach sponsors the NPR station--I always knew it was a great place, but its support of a great NPR station sealed it for me.
For me recently, it was an app I downloaded for my iPod Touch. Specifically, it was an app that allowed me to listen to the NPR station out of Rhode Island. For the past few days I've been listening to WRNI and it's taking me right back to my two years living in Providence. I listened to a lot of NPR since I never had television beyond what little would come through the rabbit ears, and as a result I felt plugged into national and international events and especially to the events and politics of Rhode Island. Of course, I was living in the capital and RI's such a small state that it's relatively easy to be plugged into the goings-on, but NPR was what took me there.
While listening the last few days, it was the little details that really took me back: hearing the traffic reports that reminded me of the roads I used to drive, the exits I used or drove past, the local landmarks. Hearing about Linc Chaffee being sworn in as the new governor took me back to the 2006 election, when Chaffee--a popular Senator despite being a Republican--was rather reluctantly voted out by RI voters as national politics trumped local politics (Chaffee's defeat helped usher in Democratic control of the Senate). In case you're curious, Chaffee has become an Independent, which was a better description of his politics all along.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think the programming schedule may have changed since I lived there, but one fixture was On Point, which comes out of Boston's WBUR. What a great show. Tom Ashbrook is really a great host (he's a perceptive interviewer and today Lauren and I loved hearing him--politely--smack down a listener who was straying way off topic) and the programming on the show is routinely interesting.
I also heard that the school where I used to teach sponsors the NPR station--I always knew it was a great place, but its support of a great NPR station sealed it for me.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Render Unto the Lard What is the Lard's
To help meet my resolution, on Friday I brought home two coolers full of pastured pork from a small farm, along with some extra pastured chickens and a bag of fat. More on that later.
To get all this, I had to drive to a small-scale meat packer that Google Maps told me was an hour and twenty minutes away. I was kind of in a hurry and kind of driving on back roads, so let's say I made good time. Seriously good time--it was more like an hour, maybe less, for me to get there.
And that's even accounting for the time it took for local law enforcement to pull me over!
The guy was really nice, though. He informed me that I was going 73, I apologized, he asked if I'd had any tickets, and I said not in several years. He checked license and registration, allowed that the road wasn't very busy, but cautioned me that 73 might be a bit fast. And then sent me on my way. Fair enough.
I told the guy who carried my pork out to the truck about my good fortune and he asked me what the officer looked like. "You mean, other than wearing a uniform and driving a car with lights? No idea." He told me that it could be this guy who, besides law enforcement, is also a priest. Apparently the only class of citizens that he never lets off from a speeding ticket are nuns. In fact, other officers will call him in if there's a sister behind the wheel and he'll go and really throw the book at them. Not necessarily the book, but a book anyway. The point is, Father Burn-Rubber-Don't-Burn-in-Hell ain't letting none of the nuns run.
I don't know whether that's the guy who pulled me over, but I'm glad to know he exists.
Oh, but I was going to tell you about lard. Besides the half-pig that I paid for, they gave me a bag full of fat--the good fat for rendering into lard, not the back fat. Three pigs-worth, for the price of none.
Saturday, I started cutting up the fat into little bits when Lauren stopped me short. "What are you doing?"
"I'm rendering lard. I told you about this."
"In the house?"
"Yes?" No. No, I wasn't. Lauren had no intention of living in a porky-smelling house. We compromised: I borrowed some crock pots and set up an operation in our garage. And just so our garage didn't end up smelling like a pork chop--although that would be a delicious way for the tools and spare lumber to smell--I set up a fan in the window.
I read instructions all over--books, the internet, everywhere--and then barely followed any of them. One said to add water. Another didn't use water, but did add baking soda. I have no idea why either of those things is a good idea, but I failed to do either. Twelve hours later, I had a lot of liquid fat and a lot of cracklins. I brought the first crock pot up to the kitchen to sort the two out from each other, and within roughly 3 seconds Lauren was ready to vomit from the smell pervading our house. Or, as far as I could tell, lightly scenting our kitchen and nowhere else.
It just goes to show, we all see--or smell--the world differently. She's a lot more sensitive to smells than I am. It kind of makes me feel like I'm missing something, though all in all it's probably an advantage. How sensitive does a nose really need to be, anyway?
But I digress.
At the end of the day, I ended up with 6 1/2 pint Mason jars full of lard. Some of you may be saying: why would you want that? Isn't lard the byword for ill health, for clogged arteries and coronary failure? Sure, but I think it's gotten a bad rep. As one article on rendering lard put it: "the paranoia that doomed lard was both uninformed and incorrect. We are now learning that lard has a greater concentration of good HDL, and less bad LDL than does butter, has no harmful trans fats, and in fact, is nature's second most potent source of vitamin D."
So there. Put that in in your fryer and smoke it.
To get all this, I had to drive to a small-scale meat packer that Google Maps told me was an hour and twenty minutes away. I was kind of in a hurry and kind of driving on back roads, so let's say I made good time. Seriously good time--it was more like an hour, maybe less, for me to get there.
And that's even accounting for the time it took for local law enforcement to pull me over!
The guy was really nice, though. He informed me that I was going 73, I apologized, he asked if I'd had any tickets, and I said not in several years. He checked license and registration, allowed that the road wasn't very busy, but cautioned me that 73 might be a bit fast. And then sent me on my way. Fair enough.
I told the guy who carried my pork out to the truck about my good fortune and he asked me what the officer looked like. "You mean, other than wearing a uniform and driving a car with lights? No idea." He told me that it could be this guy who, besides law enforcement, is also a priest. Apparently the only class of citizens that he never lets off from a speeding ticket are nuns. In fact, other officers will call him in if there's a sister behind the wheel and he'll go and really throw the book at them. Not necessarily the book, but a book anyway. The point is, Father Burn-Rubber-Don't-Burn-in-Hell ain't letting none of the nuns run.
I don't know whether that's the guy who pulled me over, but I'm glad to know he exists.
Oh, but I was going to tell you about lard. Besides the half-pig that I paid for, they gave me a bag full of fat--the good fat for rendering into lard, not the back fat. Three pigs-worth, for the price of none.
Saturday, I started cutting up the fat into little bits when Lauren stopped me short. "What are you doing?"
"I'm rendering lard. I told you about this."
"In the house?"
"Yes?" No. No, I wasn't. Lauren had no intention of living in a porky-smelling house. We compromised: I borrowed some crock pots and set up an operation in our garage. And just so our garage didn't end up smelling like a pork chop--although that would be a delicious way for the tools and spare lumber to smell--I set up a fan in the window.
I read instructions all over--books, the internet, everywhere--and then barely followed any of them. One said to add water. Another didn't use water, but did add baking soda. I have no idea why either of those things is a good idea, but I failed to do either. Twelve hours later, I had a lot of liquid fat and a lot of cracklins. I brought the first crock pot up to the kitchen to sort the two out from each other, and within roughly 3 seconds Lauren was ready to vomit from the smell pervading our house. Or, as far as I could tell, lightly scenting our kitchen and nowhere else.
It just goes to show, we all see--or smell--the world differently. She's a lot more sensitive to smells than I am. It kind of makes me feel like I'm missing something, though all in all it's probably an advantage. How sensitive does a nose really need to be, anyway?
But I digress.
At the end of the day, I ended up with 6 1/2 pint Mason jars full of lard. Some of you may be saying: why would you want that? Isn't lard the byword for ill health, for clogged arteries and coronary failure? Sure, but I think it's gotten a bad rep. As one article on rendering lard put it: "the paranoia that doomed lard was both uninformed and incorrect. We are now learning that lard has a greater concentration of good HDL, and less bad LDL than does butter, has no harmful trans fats, and in fact, is nature's second most potent source of vitamin D."
So there. Put that in in your fryer and smoke it.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2010: The year in books
The period before and after Jan 1 seems like a good time for looking back on the year. Some probably prefer doing it earlier, but I didn't get around to it. In today's post, I want to look back at 2010 through the lens of the books I read.
Unless I missed recording some of them--a distinct possibility--I only read 24 books this year, and six of them were re-reads. That's down from 43 in 2009 and 53 in 2008. Gosh, maybe having a baby had something to do with that?
I've reviewed a number of these on my old blog and on Goodreads, but if you want my thoughts on any of them, just ask in the comments. I'll sort them by category and author rather than order read, and I'll mark the ones that were re-reads (R). Also, the ones that were audiobooks (A).
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
Iorich by Steven Brust
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (R)
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (R)
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson (R)
Turncoat by Jim Butcher (R)
Changes by Jim Butcher
Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip (A)
Fugitive Prince by Janny Wurts
Grand Conspiracy by Janny Wurts
Peril's Gate by Janny Wurts
Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (A)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)
Fiction
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
World Without End by Ken Follett (A)
Hester by Paula Reed
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (A, R)
Non-fiction
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitehead
The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton (A)
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (A)
Columbine by David Cullen (A)
There are a lot of audiobooks there because we've listened to quite a few while driving. Sometimes Lauren and I listen to them together (the fiction) and some of them I listen to while I'm driving and Lauren's sleeping or on my mp3 player, for instance when walking the dog (that's all the non-fiction).
The re-reads have either been for a book club (American Gods) or because I was getting ready to read a new book in the series.
I've also had a lot of books that I partially read without finishing. There was Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway and Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, which I read along with the forest gardening book mentioned above--I was preparing for a presentation, which I finished, and will probably get back to those books eventually. I started listening to a history book, Through a Distant Mirror, but I found myself wanting to take notes all the time, so I couldn't very well listen to it under the circumstances when I would normally listen. I started reading Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts, as a preview on the Kindle app of my new iPod Touch, and I will read that now that a paperback copy has arrived in the mail. I similarly started Aristotle's Ethics and A Christmas Carol on the Kindle app. I'm currently re-reading Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice, part of my re-read of the whole series in preparation for the final volume coming out in March.
And that's that. How was your reading in 2010?
Unless I missed recording some of them--a distinct possibility--I only read 24 books this year, and six of them were re-reads. That's down from 43 in 2009 and 53 in 2008. Gosh, maybe having a baby had something to do with that?
I've reviewed a number of these on my old blog and on Goodreads, but if you want my thoughts on any of them, just ask in the comments. I'll sort them by category and author rather than order read, and I'll mark the ones that were re-reads (R). Also, the ones that were audiobooks (A).
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
Iorich by Steven Brust
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (R)
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (R)
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson (R)
Turncoat by Jim Butcher (R)
Changes by Jim Butcher
Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip (A)
Fugitive Prince by Janny Wurts
Grand Conspiracy by Janny Wurts
Peril's Gate by Janny Wurts
Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (A)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)
Fiction
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
World Without End by Ken Follett (A)
Hester by Paula Reed
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (A, R)
Non-fiction
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitehead
The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton (A)
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (A)
Columbine by David Cullen (A)
There are a lot of audiobooks there because we've listened to quite a few while driving. Sometimes Lauren and I listen to them together (the fiction) and some of them I listen to while I'm driving and Lauren's sleeping or on my mp3 player, for instance when walking the dog (that's all the non-fiction).
The re-reads have either been for a book club (American Gods) or because I was getting ready to read a new book in the series.
I've also had a lot of books that I partially read without finishing. There was Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway and Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, which I read along with the forest gardening book mentioned above--I was preparing for a presentation, which I finished, and will probably get back to those books eventually. I started listening to a history book, Through a Distant Mirror, but I found myself wanting to take notes all the time, so I couldn't very well listen to it under the circumstances when I would normally listen. I started reading Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts, as a preview on the Kindle app of my new iPod Touch, and I will read that now that a paperback copy has arrived in the mail. I similarly started Aristotle's Ethics and A Christmas Carol on the Kindle app. I'm currently re-reading Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice, part of my re-read of the whole series in preparation for the final volume coming out in March.
And that's that. How was your reading in 2010?
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Resolved
I don't routinely make resolutions for New Year's. Sometimes I do, mostly I don't. This year, it seemed like a convenient time to make a change.
It is this: in the next year, I intend not to eat meat that I don't feel good about.
Philosophically, I've been against industrialized meat production for several years now. From the treatment of the animals to the healthfulness of the meat itself to the environmental costs of the methods of agriculture that I'm calling "industrial," there are a lot of things not to like. I've long believed that the facts of industrial meat production are not necessarily an argument for vegetarianism, because there are alternative agricultural methods that give the animals a better quality of life, that produce healthier meats for us, and that can be a benefit to the environment rather than a detriment.
And while we've supported just such a farmer, buying beef and chicken ever since we arrived in Indiana, I've also continued sending my dollars to the meat industry by buying meat at grocers that comes from I know not where, by eating meat from fast food restaurants (and slower restaurants, too), etc.
So, as I said, my intention is to eat only meats that I can believe in. This is, admittedly, only a step in what I believe to be the right direction. It's not going to solve the world's problems, it's not going to make me the healthiest guy in the world, and it's not even going to get me into full compliance with what I should be doing.
But it's a start.
It is this: in the next year, I intend not to eat meat that I don't feel good about.
Philosophically, I've been against industrialized meat production for several years now. From the treatment of the animals to the healthfulness of the meat itself to the environmental costs of the methods of agriculture that I'm calling "industrial," there are a lot of things not to like. I've long believed that the facts of industrial meat production are not necessarily an argument for vegetarianism, because there are alternative agricultural methods that give the animals a better quality of life, that produce healthier meats for us, and that can be a benefit to the environment rather than a detriment.
And while we've supported just such a farmer, buying beef and chicken ever since we arrived in Indiana, I've also continued sending my dollars to the meat industry by buying meat at grocers that comes from I know not where, by eating meat from fast food restaurants (and slower restaurants, too), etc.
So, as I said, my intention is to eat only meats that I can believe in. This is, admittedly, only a step in what I believe to be the right direction. It's not going to solve the world's problems, it's not going to make me the healthiest guy in the world, and it's not even going to get me into full compliance with what I should be doing.
But it's a start.
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