Category: books

I hadn't done a holiday wish list in years, before starting up again a few years ago at the request of my significant other's mom. Despite our sharing a common interest (loving to cook), since she rarely comes to see us in the City, she thus doesn't know what books and tools I have or do not. I get the impression it allows her to make some more informed gift choices.

I keep the Amazon wish list widget on my bookmarks bar so I can add things from anywhere I am on the web. That way I can tag adorable patterns on etsy or a Malificent pop vinyl doll on a geek news site. But somehow, every year, I end up with a stack of cookbooks in my list. Even though I have long been out of room for even 1 cookbook more on my shelves.

Here are the cookbooks that made my list this year:

• Everyday Food made the list because of how often I make recipes from the magazine's pages.I love that on a whole, their recipes are always relatively quick and easy, yet do not rely on canned or processed food shortcuts to achieve the speed-to-table.
• Both Bi-Rite and Cooking My Way Back Home are San Franciscan-authored, and focus on taking advantage of all the amazing seasonal produce and handcrafted food stuffs available to us in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have a feeling these two would give me a ton of new ideas for using up my Farmers' Market bounty.
• And finally, Mozza. This one made the list due to my admiration of La Brea Bakery founder Nancy Silverton, and the fact that other than my well-worn Marcella Hazan paperbacks, I actually don't have a real Italian cookbook.

What's on your wish list this year?

Walking back from the neighborhood nail salon, enjoying the sunshine and light breeze, I started to become incredibly envious of Molly Wizenberg, whose book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, I'd been reading while the polish dried on my toes.

I've long been a fan of her blog, Orangette. I like the long rambly stories that end in a recipe for something yummy. But while reading the book, I felt a wave of envy come over me, because so many of her stories told a tale of a truly engaged family, with a shared love of good food.

I started to think about what my imaginary book of recipes would be like… But mine was a childhood wherein I thought green beans were only available for purchase as a frozen food item, and my birthday cakes were from a boxed mix (though their amazing chocolate bar thick icing was made by hand.)

Yes, some of my initial forays into cooking and baking were beside my mother and grandmother, but on the whole it was really the absence of family around that prompted me to learn to bake, and later to cook. My joy in procuring treats from the farmers market came from moving to San Francisco and making my first trek to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, probably in 1997 or thereabouts.

It was there at that market that I discovered how different strawberries can taste when grown by different people in different locations around the Greater Bay Area. And fell in love with my favorite artichoke producer, Iacopi Farms. And the avocados from Brokaw. It opened up a whole new food world for me.

But back to the book. If you are a fan of the blog, you will find the book to be a thoroughly enjoyable, quick read. She starts out with her father's potato salad. If you read this recipe and think yum, like me, you will want to keep reading– and dog ear some recipes for trying out soon. Highly recommended.

Around my house, we’re doing everything we can to keep ourselves spoiler-free for the final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Although our copy of the book doesn’t arrive from Amazon until tomorrow, we had to start early with our spoiler-blackout tactics, thanks to the multiple bootleg PDF copies floating around and being voraciously consumed by fans.

Last time around, the World of Warcraft forums were overflowing with spoilers disguised as controversial posts. This year, amidst early reports of spoilers being in the forum post titles themselves despite Blizzard assertions that spoiler posters would potentially be banned from the forums, that became a no-click-to zone. For that same reason, my household’s in-game general and trade channels are turned off. I don’t want to find out who dies in the end until I actually REACH the end of the book tyvm.

I’m also avoiding Salon.com after a livejournal friend noted they have a spoileriffic article. I’m just waiting to see someone on the street with a homemade t-shirt spoiling it for the rest of us. I am sure it is only a matter of time…

Continue reading “Keeping Harry Potter Spoiler-free”

Stacey’s Annual License to Save Sale, 7/19-7/21

For three days only, Stacey’s Literary License members save 20% on everything (excluding periodicals) in the store. Their loyalty program is free to join –sign up at the Mezzanine Service Desk. In addition to this special sale, they give you a $10 certificate every time you spend $200 (it’s cumulative not a one-shot thing), plus 10% off every book you buy every day.

And as they mention on their website, this Saturday, July 21st is Harry Potter Day — might as well get that hefty hardcover for less.

"How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time" is the kind of book you really should buy for your high school best friend if you’re the kind of girls who spent hours on your bedroom floors reading Sassy and debating the latest "Cute Band Alert". I’m going to stop by Stacey’s on my way home and grab a copy.