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hello again
Apr. 30th, 2015 07:19 pmHi everybody!
Not much to say--mostly I'm posting just to post, since I don't want to disappear for weeks at a time.
I've finally read Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice--I got an Advance Readers' Copy ages ago from work, but the cover was so ugly that it put me off even after everybody started saying how good it was. I'm dismayed to discover that the hideous ARC cover is used on the real book too, because that can't be helping Leckie's sales.
Anyway, it is good. The plot is a bit weak, but since I'm not a plot-focused reader, I thought the worldbuilding in particular more than compensated. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
Otherwise I've mostly been reading a lot of cookbooks from the library.
To my surprise, I quite liked POI 4x19, "Terra Incognita." ( SPOILERS )
No major cooking to report. I've been using my frozen (homemade) focaccia dough in various things and discovering that no matter what, it's weird and difficult to work with (it's a v v wet dough, so slack that it doesn't really rise despite the cookbook's assurances that it would--and I didn't put too much water in, because I measured everything out in grams). It doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't taste so great that I think the effort is worth it.
I've discovered that among the virtues of my new interest in Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cooking is that fact that many of its basic ingredients--courgettes/zucchini, aubergine/eggplant, capsicum/peppers--are among the most reliably inexpensive vegetables at the market. Lamb, alas . . . I've given up waiting for lamb to go on sale and will be making meatball and green wheat soup tomorrow with beef only. I'm sure it will be fine.
I'm feeling a bit guilty about how seldom I've cooked Indian food in recent months, especially when I consider all the spices I have. It's so labor-intensive, though, and one recipe can dirty every dish in the house. Also I still don't have a blender, which makes a lot of the recipes difficult to achieve. (I know the vast majority of Indian homes likely don't have a blender, but they do have a mortar and pestle, which I also don't have. And grinding spices in a mortar and pestle is a skill that I suspect one needs to practice from childhood.)
Ah, well. Knowing me, my interest in it will revive eventually.
And now I'll say goodbye before this Starbucks chair permanently destroys my spine.
Not much to say--mostly I'm posting just to post, since I don't want to disappear for weeks at a time.
I've finally read Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice--I got an Advance Readers' Copy ages ago from work, but the cover was so ugly that it put me off even after everybody started saying how good it was. I'm dismayed to discover that the hideous ARC cover is used on the real book too, because that can't be helping Leckie's sales.
Anyway, it is good. The plot is a bit weak, but since I'm not a plot-focused reader, I thought the worldbuilding in particular more than compensated. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
Otherwise I've mostly been reading a lot of cookbooks from the library.
To my surprise, I quite liked POI 4x19, "Terra Incognita." ( SPOILERS )
No major cooking to report. I've been using my frozen (homemade) focaccia dough in various things and discovering that no matter what, it's weird and difficult to work with (it's a v v wet dough, so slack that it doesn't really rise despite the cookbook's assurances that it would--and I didn't put too much water in, because I measured everything out in grams). It doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't taste so great that I think the effort is worth it.
I've discovered that among the virtues of my new interest in Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cooking is that fact that many of its basic ingredients--courgettes/zucchini, aubergine/eggplant, capsicum/peppers--are among the most reliably inexpensive vegetables at the market. Lamb, alas . . . I've given up waiting for lamb to go on sale and will be making meatball and green wheat soup tomorrow with beef only. I'm sure it will be fine.
I'm feeling a bit guilty about how seldom I've cooked Indian food in recent months, especially when I consider all the spices I have. It's so labor-intensive, though, and one recipe can dirty every dish in the house. Also I still don't have a blender, which makes a lot of the recipes difficult to achieve. (I know the vast majority of Indian homes likely don't have a blender, but they do have a mortar and pestle, which I also don't have. And grinding spices in a mortar and pestle is a skill that I suspect one needs to practice from childhood.)
Ah, well. Knowing me, my interest in it will revive eventually.
And now I'll say goodbye before this Starbucks chair permanently destroys my spine.
