could

Leighton Meester be any more adorable?

review: The Silk Road Gourmet - Laura Kelley

This is less a standard cookbook than a survey of Eastern European/Asian cuisine and how the food varies from country to country--the author includes a 1-2 page summary of each nation's history and its effects on their food preparation, as well as an overview of the basic flavors one might expect to encounter in a meal from this region.

Of course, the picture is not complete without actual recipes, separated into meat, vegetables, grains, desserts, and side dish sub-sections for convenience. Each recipe is accompanied by an explanation--of the author's own experience with the dish, or why in particular this food is important in relation to a certain country. I have yet to cook from this book, though paging through it, I've highlighted at least 30 recipes I'd like to try, and think that I would be able to cook in the near future on my student's budget (and as a novice cook--I've only begun to cook for myself regularly this year, now that I'm no longer living on my college campus with a cafeteria meal-plan).

The Pros: Includes a wide variety of dishes from many different food groups, with clear, concise recipes that seem feasible for even a cooking "beginner" like myself. The "history" element of this book is fascinating, though the book is formatted so that these elements don't detract/distract from the layout of the actual recipes, if one wanted to use it solely as a cookbook.

The Cons: The "paperback book" format this is published in makes the book awkward to cook from in the kitchen, as it doesn't stay open on its own (a solution would be to jot down the instructions on a separate sheet for cooking, or to make a photocopy). Also, as someone who loves to see pictures of the food she's considering preparing, the lack of photographs/illustrations was frustrating.

I'll update my review once I have actually tried these recipes for myself. I'm really tempted to attempt the Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Walnuts or the Meatballs with Lemon Sauce soon! I think R will appreciate the reprieve from the Italian cookbook I've been using for the past couple of months.

I give it 4/5 stars.

i'm feeling

considerably less rage after taking some time off my obsessive need to google and then read everything I could by that Spearhead group I posted about this morning. I went out, with Sofie (or So--, if you rather), and saw Owl City and The Scene Aesthetic (accompanied by Spencer Mertel, the frontman of a favorite Seattle band, Man Without Wax).

Owl City was good; he basically played through his album with an accompanying band. I'm always nervous about seeing electronica acts, as they rarely are able to incorporate their sound into a memorable or interesting live show (a notable exception is PlayRadioPlay!, who's rewritten his music on guitar for live shows and is quite dynamic onstage). Owl City was no exception, really; he stood in one place and did his best to emulate his recorded sound exactly. Still, it was fun, and I enjoy his music and lyrics so it was worth singing along, etc.

The Scene Aesthetic I'm loyal to as a Seattle native (Andrew de Torres and his band Danger: Radio rule the local scene--TSA is de Torres' acoustic side project), and I love Andrew's voice, which was good once he'd warmed up a bit (about halfway through the set), but I'm not a fan of his partner, Eric. He doesn't play any instruments, and really doesn't sing well, either. Still, Spencer was there backing them up on keyboard and guitar, so I was happy. I tried to find him post-show to beg MWW to come east for a show, but the venue parking lot is ENORMOUS, so no luck.

tl;dr Owl City was good, for an electronica act, and The Scene Aesthetic made me happy as a Seattle native, but otherwise was forgettable. Still, for three hours of fun with Sofie, and a chance to get out of the house? Definitely worth the $15.25. :]

just when i thought

that people on the internet couldn't behave any more stupidly, I see this: The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky.

Science fiction is a very male form of fiction. Considerably more men than women are interested in reading and watching science fiction. This is no surprise. Science fiction traditionally is about men doing things, inventing new technologies, exploring new worlds, making new scientific discoveries, terraforming planets, etc. Many men working in the fields of science, engineering, and technology have cited science fiction (such as the original Star Trek) for inspiring them when they were boys to establish careers in these fields.

The current generation of boys will not have this inspiration from science fiction, at least from science fiction on television and in movies. That’s because there is an undeclared war on real science fiction on TV and in movies. The former Sci-Fi channel, now “Syfy”, is a good example of what has been happening to science fiction on television. In 1998 Bonnie Hammer took over the Sci-Fi channel and declared that “more female viewers were needed”. Over the next several years, the Sci-Fi channel became increasingly feminized losing many of its traditional male viewers in an attempt to go after women viewers. This included making the logos “warmer and more human” because the logos before were “too male and too dark”. The biggest change was in the feminization of the programming shown on the Sci-Fi channel. The re-imagined re-delusioned Battlestar Galactica is a good example. (Many of you might not be aware but there was an original Battlestar Galactica series shown in the late 70s.) While the original series had its problems, it was more standard science fiction with men doing and accomplishing things. The new series instead had lots of relationship drama, men whining, and men generally unable to find their way out of a wet paper bag. The new Battlestar Galactica was so feminized that one of the main characters from the original series, Starbuck, (who was a man) was turned into a woman.

ads;lfkajsd;flaskdjfd WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

And on it goes. The comment page just gets worse, as dissenters begin to post and other users on the site ("The Spearhead" - titled completely without irony) chime in with agreement. The author himself comes back to add comments like this one:

Wasn’t the mancession supposed to put a stop to men being gainfully employed? We need a manpression (man + depression) where men lose all gainful employement and only women have good jobs. We need engineering to go overseas completely. Anything less is hating women.

I don't even know what to say to that sort of argument, so I'll just leave you with this:

Many boys who would have gone on to make scientific discoveries and invent new technologies will not do so since they will never be inspired by science fiction as boys.

THAT'S RIGHT. TAKE OFF THOSE SHOES AND GET IN THE KITCHEN, LITTLE BROTHER. YOU'LL NEVER BE AN ASTRONAUT NOW.

i must have had

an extremely interesting dream or two last night, as I woke this morning to find I'd removed my pillowcase and laid it flat over the top of my pillow instead. Jamming my pillow back into its case post-laundry day is one of my least favorite chores (it's so hard to get it positioned right!), and I can't say this was the happiest I've been in the morning. :|

i'm working on

budgeting this semester, for serious. I'm actually feeling pretty good about it--my parents give me $75/wk for groceries, and post-budget, I've been spending $35-40/wk, which is awesome.

I'm also looking into getting a barista job part-time, because I miss it, and the cash and coffee discounts will do me good. 10-15 hrs/wk would be nice to work, so I'm dropping my resume at a couple of places.

So, budgeting. Besides coffee (I brew it myself now, instead of buying it at SBUX/on-campus), I've resolved not to buy any more DVDs, and to only shop for clothing once a month. This week I'll probably go out and buy a dress (since I spend so much time at orchestra concerts and choir recitals lately, thanks Robert and Sofie), and maybe some khakis, but I shouldn't need to buy more clothes before my parents visit in late October--and I can get them to buy me things. ;]

Hmm, maybe I could even convince my mother to fund my dress-shopping. She'd be psyched to see me in anything formal, after all...

salvete~

I am not going to Latin this morning.


Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that I have a history quiz this morning and some surprise!homework due. I have excellent time management.

this has been making the rounds

on my LJ friendslist lately. The editing is awesome, and uhm, it's kind of hilarious.

i know i've been

spending too much time with R when suddenly I've rediscovered my love of classical music.

Currently, my playlist includes Mussorgsky, Bach (as performed by Wendy Carlos on the synth), and Debussy.

just look at

this sexy motherfucker! How is he so awkwardly endearing?

you know what's

passive aggressive? The target of my passive-aggressive comment smiling, then turning to another and loudly asking what he/she thinks constitutes passive-aggressive, and where the line is crossed into "aggressive." All without ever acknowledging the passive-aggressivity of my first comment.

Well played, bitch. Well played.