Birthday the 41st
Chris and I decided going to NeonCon in Las Vegas last weekend would be a good excuse to meet in the same city and also celebrate my birthday a little early. I have to say, it was a good idea. I was able to attend NeonCon, where I sat in on some great panels and saw several game industry friends and colleagues who I normally see only once or twice a year if I'm lucky. Heck, I even got to sit in for a little while on an actual roleplaying game! I was also able to see my dear husband and spend some QT with him and he splurged on me in honor of the event, taking me to a superb dinner at Bouchon and then to see Cirque du Soleil's pinnacle show, O. Good friends, good food, good fun. Nothing about that not to like except maybe that it had to end as Chris and I headed back to our separate domiciles.
My reading for the trip was a book that Michael Ruhlman fervently recommends. The book is called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham and it's right up my alley. I could tell you all about it but really, this video from Ruhlman is what got me to pick it up so it seems only fair that I pass the experience on:
Had Something to Say - Cooking from michael ruhlman on Vimeo.
I received a handful of other books on food and cooking for my birthday as well. My mom picked me up a book from Oprah's former spa-chef Rosie Daley. Pramas surprised me with a book off my Amazon wish list called The Soul of a New Cuisine (A discovery of the foods and flavors of Africa) by Marcus Samuelsson (an Ethiopian orphan of the TB epidemic in the 70s, adopted into a Swedish family). VERY interesting book, very different from anything else in my collection. I also received The Elements of Life, a Thai cookbook that leans heavily on traditional beliefs about your "home" element (I'm earth) and what is "right" for you to eat not only based on your "home" element but also the "elements" reflected by the weather and the time of day. Not the sort of thing I know anything about or am necessarily going to buy into but I'm certainly interested in recipes for Grilled Shrimp and Mango salad; Spinach, Tofu, and Glass Noodle Soup; and Ice Cream topped with Bananas with Ginger Sauce. The book also includes recipes for traditional remedies, massage oils, sachets, facial scrubs, and hair conditioners.
The most recent book I've started is called Food Security for the Faint of Heart by a British Columbia-based author named Robin Wheeler. Wheeler spent time living in some remote wilderness areas and it caused her to rethink how she got her food, what she did with it, how to be better prepared in an emergency situation, even just how to get through inconveniences like power outages without losing the contents of the freezer. I'm probably not going to start foraging for wild foods or any of the woman of the woods kind of stuff that Wheeler has done but I figure it can't hurt to give a little more thought to an emergency preparedness kit, or to have a plan for what to do in the event of another winter snowed in on the hill like we had a couple of Christmases ago.
Kate's been sick with a hacking cough since I got back from Vegas so we've been keeping things mellow around here. I sent her to school one day but she seemed worse after a day at school and the next day spent the whole day asleep on the couch and woke me up in the middle of the night with her coughing. So, we're keeping mellow, curling up under covers, and doing a bunch of reading.
My reading for the trip was a book that Michael Ruhlman fervently recommends. The book is called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham and it's right up my alley. I could tell you all about it but really, this video from Ruhlman is what got me to pick it up so it seems only fair that I pass the experience on:
Had Something to Say - Cooking from michael ruhlman on Vimeo.
I received a handful of other books on food and cooking for my birthday as well. My mom picked me up a book from Oprah's former spa-chef Rosie Daley. Pramas surprised me with a book off my Amazon wish list called The Soul of a New Cuisine (A discovery of the foods and flavors of Africa) by Marcus Samuelsson (an Ethiopian orphan of the TB epidemic in the 70s, adopted into a Swedish family). VERY interesting book, very different from anything else in my collection. I also received The Elements of Life, a Thai cookbook that leans heavily on traditional beliefs about your "home" element (I'm earth) and what is "right" for you to eat not only based on your "home" element but also the "elements" reflected by the weather and the time of day. Not the sort of thing I know anything about or am necessarily going to buy into but I'm certainly interested in recipes for Grilled Shrimp and Mango salad; Spinach, Tofu, and Glass Noodle Soup; and Ice Cream topped with Bananas with Ginger Sauce. The book also includes recipes for traditional remedies, massage oils, sachets, facial scrubs, and hair conditioners.
The most recent book I've started is called Food Security for the Faint of Heart by a British Columbia-based author named Robin Wheeler. Wheeler spent time living in some remote wilderness areas and it caused her to rethink how she got her food, what she did with it, how to be better prepared in an emergency situation, even just how to get through inconveniences like power outages without losing the contents of the freezer. I'm probably not going to start foraging for wild foods or any of the woman of the woods kind of stuff that Wheeler has done but I figure it can't hurt to give a little more thought to an emergency preparedness kit, or to have a plan for what to do in the event of another winter snowed in on the hill like we had a couple of Christmases ago.
Kate's been sick with a hacking cough since I got back from Vegas so we've been keeping things mellow around here. I sent her to school one day but she seemed worse after a day at school and the next day spent the whole day asleep on the couch and woke me up in the middle of the night with her coughing. So, we're keeping mellow, curling up under covers, and doing a bunch of reading.