New Blogger Alert!
Laurie Powers, editor of Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street recently launched a new blog. Visit www.lauriepowerswildwest.blogspot.com to take a look. The blog features interesting tidbits from and about the book, offers details on the life and times of Laurie's grandfather and author of Pulp Writer, Paul S. Powers, and provides other miscellaneous musings. Welcome to the wonderful world of blogs, Laurie!
For your Linking in Lincoln Thursday this week, I have a few random links of Omaha, some book related, some not, all wonderful.
The first is from a lit blog called The Refrigerator Door by blog and book author Melanie Lynne Hauser. In a post inviting her readers to buy three books, she mentions two writers she met in Omaha at the (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest.
Cult Moxie chronicles Omaha's culture. In this post, they talk about Silent City, an Omaha-published literary quarterly.
Omaha Review is general review blog of the city. Their tag line is "Be a Local."
It's not a blog, but it's a link to one of the top zoos in the United States!
Here is the website for Nebraska's "largest and most distinguished art museum," the Joslyn Art Museum. And to learn more about the west, visit Durham Western Heritage Musuem.
If you're ever in Omaha and need a bite to eat, you may want to check out the Omaha Dining Reviews blog for suggestions.
Our hearts go out to Omaha, Nebraska!
On this last Thursday of November, I'm sitting here wishing I ate breakfast, especially after perusing the blogosphere for recipe reviews and experiments. Admittedly, and as most of you may know, I am a vegetarian, so my ventures tend to fall on the non-meat pages. Nonetheless, I think I came up with an eclectic list of food sites this week.
I begin with Paper Palate, a blog collective that looks at food and wine in printed sources (such as magazines and cookbooks). You can find the list of all blogs associated with the Paper Palate on their About page.
The Ethicurean is a blog about all things food--from growing, to production, to plate. They ("a writer, an engineer, an editor, a graphic designer, a couple of techies, and a speech-pathologist-in-training") write cookbook reviews and post lovely pics of organic farm life on their sidebar.
Curious Cooks looks at food from a scientific point of view. Harold McGee also writes a New York Times column called "The Curious Cook." His blog includes recipes!
I think I linked to this cookbook blog before, but I really adore it.
Finally for this week, visit The Cook's Kitchen: What you need, what to buy and where to buy it. Editor Cate O'Malley is very clear about recipes and directions.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Per my promise, here are links to traditional Thanksgiving desserts for your very special Linking in Lincoln Thursday. I know, it's not quite Thursday yet, but it's close enough. Plus, who wants to go shopping or who wants to bake on Thanksgiving? I don't! So check out these recipes and make a list for today for pie tomorrow! So, Linking in Lincoln is a Wednesday this week.
By the way, before I begin, it's snowing here. Huge white flakes are flurrying around, sticking on rooftops, but not on ground. Makes me want hot chocolate or coffee or tea. Today, my Joy of Cooking calendar states, "It is the American custom to drink coffee or tea with dessert, although the European practice is to offer them afterward, accompanied perhaps by chocolate truffles or amaretti." Being that I'm in America, I'll probably serve coffee with our dessert, but maybe we can migrate to the living room later with tea and truffles. It'll all depend, of course, on how much food I stuffed myself with at the table.
Moving on, the traditional and coveted Thanksgiving dessert in my family is sweet potato pie. My grandmother was often accused of buying canned potatoes and pre-made pie crusts. That was never the case, of course. She just had a recipe that has been in our family since the 1800s. She got it from my great-great aunt Mamie. I still don't have the recipe, but I'll get it one day.
Until I get that recipe (and if I'm in a sharing mood, I'll share it with you then), I may try one of the recipes I've found in the blogosphere. Being vegetarian and respecting vegans, the first recipe comes from JournalNow.com: Veggin' Out. It calls for margarine instead of butter, soy milk and egg substitute. Notes of an Anesthesioboist presents a sweet potato pie recipe that calls for ginger snaps. Chowhound has a discussion on their board with a few recipes.
But what's that you say, dear reader? You prefer pumpkin to potato? There are many posts on pumpkin pie, too! The first comes from LAist under a post titled Thanksgiving is Easy Part 4: Pumpkin Pie. 101 Cookbooks has a couple of spiced pumpkin pie recipes. Straight from the Farm has a candy recipe called Inside Out Pumpkin Pie Truffles.
And before I leave you for the week, I give you The Sietch Blog's vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu.
Have A Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is only a mere week away. Are you in charge of the turkey this year? Or in charge of the tofurkey? My migratory family will be migrating throughout the States, but I've decided to stay in Lincoln this year. I will be tackling the ornery and slippery tofurkey with my little family of two. I'm debating on making sweet potato pie, a mix of collard and mustard greens (greens are hard to come by here in Lincoln. Not sure why), candying some yams, saucing some cranberries, and corning some bread.
Of course, if I were to cook a real bird, I wouldn't know the first step. I don't know the first step in cooking a tofu bird (would that be contracted to tird?) either, so I thought that I'd do some hunting on the blogosphere for ways with cold, whitish food to prepare for next Thursday. What I found was good, if sometimes disturbing and sometimes creative. First up is a post (with pics and links) of "manly" ways to make turkey from the blog Mental Floss. Not only does the post suggest a bacon wrapped turkey, but they offer a turducken (that's turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken).
The San Francisco Chronicle has an annual Turkey Training Camp. Blogger Chef Ben of Cooking with the Single Guy attended this year's camp and took detailed notes, excellent pictures, and wrote a wonderful post on the experience. You won't only learn some tips on preparing the bird, but on preparing the whole darn feast!
Cooking for Two has a turkey for two recipe. It involves bacon and a crock pot. But for a traditional turkey roast, visit Serious Eats' post How To Roast a Turkey.
Before moving on to the non-bird--or the tird--here are some related turkey post: A quick post on turkey facts; a call for Thanksgiving mishaps; general advice on preparation; and a post entitled "Turducken (Churkendoose; Chuckey; Churkey; Qua-duc-ant; Osturducken)."
Now for the tofu! You can go out a buy a prepared tofurkey, or you can make one from scratch. Either way, it's quite possible to have a fully vegetarian--if not vegan--Thanksgiving Holiday. For instance, do you want gravy but don't how to go about it without pan drippings? Try this golden onion gravy. Or maybe you don't even want to relate to the bird at all and want to eat something that is shamelessly vegetarian. Try this recipe for tofu stuffed with brown rice and mushrooms (I may try this one myself). The whole meal can be vegetarian, and the blog Happy Vegetable has a delectable Thanksgiving menu. There's also a picture of an extremely cute bunny noshing some strawberries on this post.
Since Thanksgiving is next week Thursday, I'll post Linking in Lincoln on Wednesday, November 21st. It'll be a very sweet post.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
I'm going to qualify this post--and each additional linking Thursday post for November--with this warning: November's Linking in Lincoln post will revolve around food. So if you're on a diet (what an evil word), be forewarned that some of these weekly links may lead you to temptation.
_____________________________________________________________
I want to say it's that time of the year when marshmallow consumption goes up in my small household but, sadly, marshmallows are used year-round in my home. I like them in trail mixes (my favorite is 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup marshmallows), in cereal, in fruit salads. The other member of my home can take them or leave them, but for me, they are a necessity.
Marshmallow use does go up slightly in the fall because the season of hot cocoa starts when the clocks fall back an hour. The white, fluffy snack is a must for a good cup of hot cocoa and our little household loves hot cocoa on cold, autumn nights. Our recipe is very simple and often depends on our mood for consistency or sweetness. As a rule, we tend to make it the old fashioned way with cocoa, sugar, and milk and not a commercial mix. When it is all done, we fill our cups with chocolate, top it off with marshmallows, then go and sit snuggly under a throw and the warm glow of the television. Or the radiating gleam or the computer. Or with a good book.
But on to the links. That is why you came, right? As you have probably guessed by now, this week's links are about chocolate!
First off, why not start at the beginning? You can read a history of hot chocolate from whatscookingamerica.net. They also have some recipes on the sidebar, such as Mayan Hot Chocolate. For a story and a biscotti recipe to go along with a good cup of chocolate, check out this post on Food Blogga.
Now to the chocolate exclusively! Entertaining a large crowd? Home-Steeped Hope has a recipe that will satiate 22 chocolate lovers. If you're entertaining adults on a cold November night, you can try out this Chocolate Kiev from Slashfood.
These next few sites are of recipes for hot cocoa mixes. You can prepare them, use them now, store for later, give as gifts, etc. The first mix comes from The Grinder and a post titled "Building a Better Hot Chocolate." It involves white chocolate chips and just sounds yummy. Welcome, Please Come In has a couple of chocolate mixes and a recipe for spiced tea. There is a simple hot cocoa mix recipe on Feeding Time at the Zoo.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
____________________________________________
In the spirit of this month's Linking in Lincoln, you may want to check out an interview of writers Maggie Pleskac and Sean Carmichael posted on this blog on 10/31/07.
As promised, I have for your enjoyment a list of links related to science fiction and fantasy. Five mere days to Halloween, you may be in need of ideas for costumes and party themes. Maybe some of these folks' other worldly posts can help you out.
Fantastic Reviews offers posts of sci fi, fantasy, and horror books every week. A Storm of Words reviews all kinds of speculative fiction.
SF Bookworm talks about all things science fiction books, including publishing news and book fairs.
To read reviews of television shows and books and about October beer, Of Science Fiction may be a site to visit.
The blogger over at Stainless Steel Droppings is almost as excited about Halloween as I am. Almost.
The quintessential blog to visit is SF Signal.
Finally—but definitely not least—Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog has posts on books, zines, comics, movies, and her own personal world.
Tune in next week when I'll highlight UNP's sci fi and fantasy books on Monday, Tuesday, and Halloween. Enjoy your weekend!
Since Linkin' Thursday falls before Halloween, we'll have our special Halloween edition today. Did I tell you that I love Halloween? I don't even have a costume yet. I never have a costume until the day before or the day of October 31. Ah, well, what are you going to do?
I have my Mozilla Halloween skin on my browser and I have some links opened up to ugly, creepy, crawling things, such as this bison cockroach (my horrible homage to Bison Books) over on Ugly Overload, scary and freaky things like this ghost swing, and Halloween specific, horrible things, such as Ghost Droppings.com.
First off, here are the other Halloween themed sites. If you're like me, and you don't have a costume, Scar Stuff may give you some ideas. Halloween Addict will post about "all things black and orange from the Autumn season through October 31st," which is only six days away. If you have some free time at work (or school, or home, or the coffee shop) and you want to take a virtual trip, check out the Virtual Haunted Mansion.
For readings literary--or semi-literary--maybe not so literary at all, you might want to check out these themed lit blogs. The Blog Monster offers reviews on recent comics, scary movies. I like their rating system. FantasyBookSpot isn't exactly creepy, but fantasy can sometimes be horrible. Patricia keeps tabs on blood suckers on her blog, Patricia's Vampire Notes, with authors interviews, books reviews, and commentary from the masses. Hellnotes has posts on everything horror, including fiction reviews and author interviews.
I think that's enough frightening links for today. Tomorrow, I'll have a very special Linkin' Thursday on Friday (ahem) to look at the other side of the holiday: Science Fiction.
Before I begin, I'll like to give a shout out to some folks from Lincoln, Nebraska.
People who know me know that I am NOT a bike rider. Well, I ride the stationary bike at the gym, but I haven't been on a bike for about a year (one year and ten days, to be precise), since I broke my leg on my bike. Since then, my stomach sinks every time I walk by my bike in our little apartment.
Regardless of painful memories, I like the idea of riding bikes. And I encourage bike riding. But I must admit that the idea of this post came from the announcement here at the UNPress about an interview Kevin J. Hayes, author of An American Cycling Odyssey, 1887, on the blog RocBike. I loved the imagery and the style of RocBike so much and the style of all the cycling blogs I've found after I learned about RocBike, I decided to devote a Thursday to cycling.
The first I found this week was KC Bike Commuting, which is maintained by a gentleman who is devoted to finding alternative transportation in Kansas City.
Bike Hugger describes themselves as a "bike culture blog." It's a collective site, meaning there are many different bloggers blogging about the same subject. I just love the name.
Visit the blog Carbon Fork with its interesting tag line, "Will Bike for Food."
Lastly, I have to wave back east to my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the folks of The Pedal Pusher Society. I'm directing you to this particular permalink because the video is funny as all get out and reminds me of home, down to the blue (recyclables) and green (garbage) dumpsters behind the women mounting their bikes! And under the about The Pedal Pushers, there is this wonderful quote: "We are women and trans folks dedicated to creating a gender-inclusive
biking community. Let's ride, let's fix our own bikes, let's go on."
cycling adventures!
__________________________________
Also available from the University of Nebraska Press: Need for the Bike by Paul Fournel, translated and with an introduction by Allan Stoekl;
The blog Tomato Nation is having its third annual donation challenge for DonorsChoose.org, an organization that supplies students in need with resources. You can find Tomato Nation's challenge page here. You can also win prizes with your donations, anything from review CDs, signed MSCL DVDs, compliments of Ms. Claire Danes, and books from the University of Chicago Press, and books from the University of Nebraska Press!
Now, you may be asking, "What books can I win from the University of Nebraska Press if I donate to the Tomato Nation's challenge?" Then, I'd answer, "You can win Branch Rickey by Lee Lowenfish, Only a Game by Bill Littlefield, Because a Fire Was in My Head by Lynn Stegner, Pulp Writer by Paul S. Powers, and Into that Silent Sea Francis French and Colin Burgess. You'll also get a couple of journals: NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture and River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative."
Then, you'll say, "I better get on over to Tomato Nation then."
Then I'll say, "You best! And while you're there, enjoy the blog!"
