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By Tysen  , on April 18th, 2010 
By Kathryn , on February 6th, 2010 Bear with us as we figure out how to format this better, I’m stumped and am about to maul the computer.
This year I received several new cookbooks. I have been reading through them and trying out some new recipes. Here’s what I got, with some early reviews:
by King Arthur Flour
While this book is cumbersome (based on the picture and description I had no idea there would be 612pages!); however, there are lots of ideas and good foot notes for working with the various flours to make all the different types of baked goods. So far I’ve made Lemon-Barley Scones (pg. 88) and Banana-Oat Pancakes (pg. 8). Both were very good, although Tysen’s comment on the scones were that they were too moist, not dry like he remembers scones being. The main focus of this book is substituting a lot if not all of the white flour called for in recipes with whole grain flours (whole wheat, barley, buckwheat, rice, rye, spelt, oat, and corn). I’d already been substituting half of my all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour in breads and muffins, but now I have a lot more options. I’m going to have to come up with some spiffy storage system to contain all my flour types in the near future!
by: Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind
I’m in love with this cook book. With it being winter, the lackluster produce selection at the grocery store has left me missing our CSA from last year. I didn’t sign up for the winter share which started last week because I was feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of all the various winter greens we were going to get. Now that I have this cookbook, I think I could manage and create some delicious meals. So far, I’ve made Red Taters and Green Grannies (pg. 253), Company Muffins (pg. 232), Nutty Sweet Potato Waffles (pg. 234), Potato Soup (pg. 236), and Wild Rice Vegetable Bake (pg. 261). The waffles and soup were great. I even froze a 4 waffle portion of the batter so that waffles could be made again at a later date. I’m looking forward to the Spring CSA starting up April 1st.
by Doris Janzen Longacre
I’ve just started reading this book. Actually, until this Christmas, I never read cookbooks; I always just perused them for recipes. But this year’s books all have good intros explaining why you should change your eating habits (i.e. skip pre-packaged and convenience foods, eat more whole grains, eat complete proteins – important for vegetarians, etc.). My only complaint about this book is its religious background. I nod right along with the author when she harps on the North American diet, but I could do without the references to Jesus. I just made Cinnamon-topped Oatmeal Muffins (pg. 71) this morning and both Arcadia and Tysen had one and they enjoyed them.
by Harold McGee
This book is still sitting on our bookshelf waiting to be read. It is also a much longer book that I expected at 896 pages; however, I’m looking forward to reading it. Over the last several years I have enjoyed trying new recipes and cooking for my family, and I think becoming knowledgeable about the science behind my cooking will help me branch out to try new things in the kitchen (gasp – without a recipe!). We’ll see.
By Tysen , on April 5th, 2009 I finished two books recently. The first was The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. I started reading this one right around the time of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. It took me a while to read, n ot because I wasn’t interested in it, but rather because I must have thought it was educational. Reading stuff for school has always put me to sleep, especially on the metro. I feel like I now have a better understanding of what evolution is all about. Everybody seems to have a vague idea of evolution, but few people actually understand the arguments about how it works. If they did, there wouldn’t be so much fuss about it. The Blind Watchmaker was well suited for my ease of understanding because of it’s many computer and technology references and analogies. If you want to play with one of the examples from the book check out the biomorph computer program. When you first run it the biomorphs are all 1 pixel and hard to see. Keep clicking and they’ll grow bigger.
The second book that I finished was The Golden Compass (Northern Lights) by Phillip Pullman. I read The Golden Compass in about 1/5 of the time it took me to read The Blind Watchmaker. With all of the talking daemons and bears I was reminded of the Redwall series, so this book was easy for me to enjoy. Easier still with all of the physics and fantasy science. I haven’t seen the associated movie but it will be interesting to see how they toned the book down, which I am sure they did. I’ve got the other two book in the His Dark Material trilogy and I’ll give a better review once I’ve read them all.
 
By Kathryn , on March 2nd, 2009  A few weeks ago I finished the latest Jeffery Deaver novel, The Broken Window. Jeffery Deaver writes murder mystery fiction and I really enjoy his Lincoln Rhyme series. Rhyme is a quadrapelegic who spent his early years (pre-disability) categorizing trace evidence. Now, he works out of his town home and helps catch criminals using trace evidence. In this novel Rhyme is trying to catch a criminal who is using data mining software to learn both about his victims and the persons he frames for the crimes. There is a lot of information in the book about the data mining company and the types of data collected on everyone. Its scary to think all that information is out there, from the shoes you buy, the places you eat and shop, people you associate with, etc. The book really highlights the pros and cons of collecting this type of information on everyone. Definintely makes you think!
I recommend reading Jeffery Deaver if you are into CSI type programs. My only problem with reading Deaver is that it takes me a while to get into his books. Its mainly because he does a really good job of introducing the characters and setting the scene early in his books. This pushes the action of the novel further into the book. But, I promise if you stick with it, you’ll enjoy it. I always try to figure out whodonit, and the story keeps you guessing until the end.
By Tysen , on February 13th, 2009 
I just finished reading The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Apparently it’s a part of a CoDominium series, but I didn’t know that when I started reading it. I picked it up because some list on Wired or another sciencey-techy blog featured the book or maybe it was the specific planet in the book. The gist is that the humans meet alien species and then have to figure out what to do about it. Unlike other books in series that I read which are either predictable (Redwall) or never turning out the way I think they should (Star Wars), The Mote in God’s Eye was a nice change of pace. I previously read Ringworld by Larry Niven so I felt I had some idea of the way he writes, but the other author helped mix it up enough to keep me guessing. I like this book more than Ringworld, so if you have to choose go with this one. If you look at this book from the right direction you might see it as a cautionary tale in case humans never escape the planetary bounds of Earth.
By Kathryn , on January 20th, 2009  With Arcadia getting on more of a traditional sleep schedule, I’ve wanted to get back into reading. I was going to read one of Tysen’s deep thought books, but decided I needed to start with something much simpler. While home last week I trekked to the library and picked up a copy of Stuart Woods’ new novel Hot Mahogany. I like reading Stuart Woods because he writes short chapters and the books go really fast. He has a few character series, of which I’ve read all of his Stone Barrington and Holly Barker books. Hot Mahogany was the latest book in his Stone Barrington series and was about stolen antique furniture. Stone is an unorthodox attorney who helps recover a man who’s antique mahogany secretary was stolen. The story is good because it keeps you guessing as to who the culprit is and takes you on side stories to keep it interesting. If you are ever looking for quick reads, Stuart Woods is definitely an author to check out.
By Tysen , on January 16th, 2009  I just finished reading Best Things Fathers Do: Ideas and Advice from Real World Dads by Will Glennon. It was successful in getting me to think about all the things I will have to think about as I raise my kids, but it wasn’t very exciting to read. It came off feeling like a really long High School essay on parenting. Too much of the advice was flowery and lacked action specific information.
Also, I’ve updated the WordPress theme we’re using to the newest version. It’s called Atahualpa and I am on the verge of donating money to the guy who makes it. There are only a few features I need, one being a way to save all of my settings. I only spent all day choosing them and I would hate to lose them. Chances are there is a file or something I copy, but I haven’t looked very hard. If there was a import/export settings built in I would be set.
What do you think? Does it look good?
I also played around with several favicons. Here are the three I made today:
  
Also, also, I added two new categories: Books and Music. This way we can easily share what we are reading and listening to.
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2010.04.18 17:54:46 | 
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