Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Saving Money?

14Nov09

My mother raised me to grocery shop carefully. She was such a stickler for coupon use that she tells me that when I was very small, I thought coupons were REQUIRED to make a purchase.  I was raised to comparison shop, to clip coupons, to be ultra-price-sensitive.  Even so, this woman terrifies me:
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Mmmmmmm Ray’s Hellburger.  You might have heard of it, it was on the Daily Show after Obama and Biden visited (note: clip mentions Smith!!).
I can tell you this:  since then, it’s been busy.  Don’t-try-going-on-a-weekend busy.  It was busy before.  It’s painful now.  But it’s really good.
The burger can be “au poivre” (coated in cracked pepper, [...]


Pie-cosahedron!

31Aug09

Taking a brief break from burgers, I bring you pie, plus math.  Which usually ends up being pi, but isn’t here (click picture for instructable):

If I were still at Smith, with access to the shop at Smith or Hampshire, I would be VERY tempted to make this.


Five Guys

29Aug09

This will be my first in a series on my favorite burgers. Burgers are all the hype. From Hubert Keller to former Top Cheftestants, really good burgers or sliders are gaining a place in fast food and haute cuisine.
I like burgers. I mean, they don’t even have to actually be good for me [...]


Plenty of people want to kill the president. This is pretty much just true, no matter which president in which country.  The risk increases if you’re particularly unpopular or particularly popular, and it also increases if you’re in a hostile area. I have to assume that lots of people want to hurt Barack Obama, [...]


Food at Smith College was pretty amazing for college food. They (usually) knew what was in everything, there was desert all the time (even if I usually couldn’t eat it), and there were enough dining halls so that (even if you had to go to more than one) you could almost always get a [...]


Not even a month ago, (most of) a family I’m friendly with came to visit Washington DC.  They were on a whirlwind tour, taking the holiday break to show off more of the country than just their (adorable!) classic New England town to the local high school’s two Turkmeni exchange students.  It was bitterly cold, [...]


Look, I know I’m not the only one rushing to agree or disagree (or both) with Mark Bittman’s recent NYT Article, but here are my thoughts about what- over and above the obvious standards- is useful to have around:
Stock:  Bittman suggests not bothering at all with canned/boxed stock.  I’m not buying it.  Yes, I can [...]


Major Failure

15Dec08

I usually post when I make yummy things.  Usually the things are either good and easy to make, or really good and a little bit harder.  You might get the impression that I eat well all the time.
Of course, you don’t hear about night before last’s stir fry that was perfectly fine, just not perfect, [...]


When I still worked at the Smith College library, one of the staff librarians asked me what my favorite food was.  I… didn’t have an answer.  She assumed that this meant I didn’t like food.  Not the case— I actually like too much food to be able to give that answer.
Here is as concise a [...]