tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41318687058316315312024-02-08T10:33:46.347-07:00Cayenne SeaKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.comBlogger368125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-75060178928811850102009-12-31T19:32:00.000-07:002009-12-31T19:32:47.677-07:00Books Read in 2009Well, my reading goal for 2009 was to read 25 books. Not a lot, but in 2008 I didn't read very much at all, so it felt doable. And it was! I read 44 books total. (Why didn't I finish just one more? I'm only 70 or so pages from the end of one of my current reads.)
Books Read, January through December, 2009
01 – J13 - Weather Makers, Tim Flannery, Review
02 – J15 - The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-32538920584659150532009-12-24T23:00:00.001-07:002009-12-24T23:04:26.616-07:00Recipe: Piroshky
My sister and I made piroshky today. It's a Russian sort of stuffed meat bun. I think there are as many ways to make piroshky as there are people in Russia, but my brother-in-law's method includes meat, cabbage, and of course dill.
Here's a kind of sort of recipe and a how-to.
Filling
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lg onion, diced fairly small
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups cabbage, slicedKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-10687345092049670522009-12-23T19:17:00.004-07:002009-12-24T23:04:49.526-07:00Recipe: Pfefferneuse
These aren't quite as dry/hard as most commercial pfefferneuse I've had, but they're still drier than I'd prefer. (I like soft cookies best.) The flavour is pretty amazing though. Well, if you like spice cookies. And I do. Yum.
Pfefferneuse
Makes many dozen. (I made these in the photo a little larger than I've done in the past, but slightly smaller sized will result in about 9 dozen.)
3 Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-13490378772675821542009-12-23T13:26:00.000-07:002009-12-23T13:26:19.480-07:00Cookies for Christmas Hey look! I made cookies yesterday. I don't know what inspired me to bake the day after getting my H1N1 shot because OW my arm hurts but I guess I just had too much to do. Today is officially Blame the H1N1 Shot Day. As in: "I'd love to help unload the dishwasher, but I can't really lift my arm up right now. Sorry!"In any case, I made four kinds of cookies yesterday - shortbread cookies (leftKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-81922605105798320782009-12-17T20:20:00.003-07:002009-12-17T20:28:55.040-07:00Lemon Chickpea Lentil Soup
It's been quite a while since I've felt like talking about food. Since I've felt like COOKING food for that matter. I think in the last several months, I've only made two things I've thought were worth a damn. This is one of them.
It's not so cold now, but we had a really cold cold-snap last week and I kept thinking about soup and how it was soup weather and then my iPod would be on shuffle Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-30558109388232587012009-11-28T20:08:00.000-07:002009-11-28T20:08:42.123-07:00Review: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott CardIt's been quite a long while now since I read Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, but since I've still got a couple books left in this universe to read: here's a quick blurb.
Opening paragraph:
Speaker for the Dead travels far into the future of Ender Wiggin's life. No longer the boy found in Ender's Game, Ender is a man who travels from one colony to another speaking on behalf of the Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-59092731021795316022009-11-27T21:59:00.001-07:002009-11-27T22:00:37.133-07:00Review: The Chrysalids by John WyndhamThe Chrysalids by John Wyndham is a post-apocalyptic novel describing a society some thousand years into a future where some catastrophic event, called Tribulation by survivors in Labrador, has laid waste to most of the world, rendering much of North America uninhabitable or gone wild with mutated plants and animals. Animals and plants with mutations are destroyed; mutated people are either Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-28755045913071205962009-11-15T20:31:00.000-07:002009-11-15T20:31:09.971-07:00Review: M is for Magic by Neil GaimanNeil Gaiman's M is for Magic was a disappointment. I hate to say that because I love Gaiman and don't want to feel that way. And generally his books are so good that when I feel kind of iffy about something, I feel like it must be my fault rather than his. How could it be my fault when an author's book doesn't live up to my expectations? Well, in this case, I didn't notice that it was a Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-8268473423971277932009-11-13T21:26:00.000-07:002009-11-13T21:26:23.987-07:00Review: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
When William Gibson first wrote his cyberpunk novels, Neuromancer and the rest, in the early 80s the idea of the internet, of cyberspace, was so new and unknown that it might have turned into anything. It was all (almost all) speculation then, what the technology might become. Now that the internet has become a ubiquitous presence in nearly everyone's life, I don't think there's so much room toKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-38848553216775920392009-11-11T20:02:00.000-07:002009-11-11T20:02:37.776-07:00Origami Quilt, Attempt #2
I spent a massive amount of time today crawling around hands-and-knees on the floor pinning this sucker back together. I did it once before, two years ago, but after leaving the quilt rolled up and/or stuffed into one of those zip-up pillow bags and/or shoved from one storage location to another, it was in very wrinkled shape.
So yesterday, besides sewing all those blocks for Modify Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-65460743120994025772009-11-10T19:28:00.004-07:002009-11-11T16:25:19.079-07:00Modify Tradition
I've started following a new quilting blog called Modify Tradition, which is attempting to create a modern looking sampler quilt using traditional blocks. They're talking a lot about different elements that often appear in modern quilts, most of which has been pretty interesting.
In any case, below the cut will be close-ups of each of the blocks and a little blurb about each.
So first upKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-42775580455906550542009-11-08T17:41:00.003-07:002009-11-10T19:42:19.141-07:00Notes about this blogSo I decided to blend my three blogs here into one. I haven't been keeping any of them as up to date as I'd like, so I suppose I thought maybe I'd keep on top of it a bit better if I don't feel as if I have so many things to tackle. If I update once a week on any of my given subjects - books, crafts, or food - I think I'll be happier than if I feel that I need to do something with all three.
Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-70217486590972289612009-10-25T21:23:00.001-06:002009-11-08T18:38:16.373-07:00Review: Ghost Story by Peter Straub
One of my favourite websites, The AV Club has a monthly book club (link leads directly there), which I've never quite managed to participate in because either the book hasn't arrived on time, I haven't been interested in the book, or I haven't finished reading the book by the discussion dates. (In that last case was the lovely Little, Big by John Crowley. I never did write about that book Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-6373633051582567342009-09-15T23:49:00.003-06:002009-11-08T18:39:27.571-07:00Channa Masala with Curried Potatoes and Peas
So it's been a while. I don't know. You know, I cooked and took pictures and blah blah blah but I guess I needed a break. Maybe I still do. We'll see what happens, I suppose.
I've had a craving for Indian food for a while and the last time I tried to make it - Butter Chicken from scratch - it really didn't work out. I mean, it was okay, but I do think my garam masala is dead (I don't make my Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-38569419327507152942009-08-17T16:39:00.002-06:002009-11-08T18:40:17.732-07:00Review: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
When I bought Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (well, "The Ender Quartet," really) I knew next to nothing about it. I knew it is a highly regarded science fiction novel, originally published when I was a young child. (The story the novel was based on was published in 1977, the novel in 1985.) I knew too that it seemed to be a polarizing book – people loved it or hated it without so many opinions Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-11212861431616023352009-08-14T22:39:00.001-06:002009-11-08T18:40:54.146-07:00Review: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes was the winner of Canada Reads 2009 on CBC radio. Basically, the idea behind Canada Reads is that a panel of famous Canadians each choose a book by a Canadian author, which they think Canadians should read. On the radio program, the panellists defend their choices, eventually eliminating four of the books and choosing a winner. I'm not really sure where it Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-14798013216745634392009-07-31T22:19:00.002-06:002009-11-08T18:42:26.696-07:00Review: Adverbs by Daniel Handler
There's not a lot I won't try if given the right incentive, so when a co-worker friend offered me a hard-cover copy of Daniel Handler's Adverbs, free, since she couldn't remember either buying it or borrowing it, I decided to give it a try. I liked A Series of Unfortunate Events (with some reservations), so why not a novel for adults by the same guy? She did warn me that it was impossibly Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-60799437642375794102009-07-31T21:43:00.001-06:002009-11-08T18:44:43.402-07:00Review: The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
So Miriam Toews' The Flying Troutmans. I was expecting, because of previous experience with Toews' work, that this would be a story about Mennonites and possibly also the clash between their culture and Canadian culture. I wouldn't have been bothered if that's what I'd gotten because I quite enjoyed A Complicated Kindness and it's something that Toews does well, that sense of connection to a Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-35438596299047524892009-07-30T21:23:00.001-06:002009-11-08T18:45:31.712-07:00Review: Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Like a lot of people, I'm a sucker for mostly anything with Neil Gaiman's name on it. (Not so much movie tie-ins or merchandise, but otherwise.) My latest bout of Gaiman-induced spending resulted in my owning M is for Magic and Interworld, a novel co-written with Michael Reaves.
Interworld is an adventure story for pre-teens (at least it read about that level to me) featuring Joey Harker, a Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-85514097496835929392009-07-26T21:13:00.000-06:002009-11-08T08:38:20.307-07:00Review: Born on a Blue Day by Daniel TammetTwo memoirs in such a short period of time is unusual for me, and two dealing with brain disorders no less. The first, of course, was The Man who Forgot How to Read, which I reviewed about a month ago, but read around the same time as this, Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. This book deals with the way Savant syndrome, a form of Asperger's syndrome, and Synaesthesia combined in Tammet, record Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-53485394812585947052009-07-26T19:00:00.002-06:002009-11-08T18:01:00.515-07:00Retread Review: Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland[I wrote this review in 2007. Just digging up some old stuff to add to the collection here. It might be interesting to read some of these books again and see if I've got a different perspective now. Probably I won't bother though.]
I read most of Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby in one go last night, laying in the bathtub and letting the water get cold around me. I think I absorbed a pound of Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-83151888973514275522009-07-26T18:52:00.002-06:002009-11-08T17:59:26.775-07:00Review: JPod by Douglas Coupland
So jPod. jPod was my most recent favourite-new-tv-show-that's-bound-to-be-cancelled. And was. There were a lot of problems with jPod, mainly related to the fact that CBC was staffed by a bunch of poor-decision making tools. They advertised, but not enough that I ever learned what date/time the show as to premiere or even air. Then they moved it to a new night, mid-season, but once again didn't Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-16125741528508428982009-07-23T21:50:00.000-06:002009-11-08T08:38:20.314-07:00Review: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut is one of those iconic American writers who it feels like everything I know has read except me. I recently bought a boat-load of books (well, okay, 11 or 12 of them, which fit in a smallish box delivered from an online bookseller's warehouse in Ontario), including Slaughterhouse-Five. I don't know why I choose that book in particular and I didn't even read a synopsis before buying Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-44505294381570346022009-07-23T20:54:00.000-06:002009-11-08T08:38:20.317-07:00Review: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David SedarisWhen You are Engulfed in Flames is the 3rd book from David Sedaris that I've read. The first was Me Talk Pretty One Day, which had me laughing like a maniac in public places. It was a great experience and sing I'd come quite late to his books, I had several others to choose from to read next. Unfortunately, I picked up Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, which was only so-so. I can't really Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131868705831631531.post-91888785530427426162009-07-19T17:06:00.000-06:002009-11-08T08:40:04.957-07:00August Fields Handbags A while back now, I made a set of hand bags for a craft exchange I was doing online. I could make anything I wanted, and when I found this gorgeous collection of fabrics - August Fields from Amy Butler - it sort of snapped right into place. What I loved about it, especially, is how summery it is. The colours are gorgeous and the prints fun and if I'd made the bags a bit bigger, they're the Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18309375626451755440noreply@blogger.com0