martinimade

shameless self-promotion, 329 in a series + a picture

This winter, the vermin in my office have grown bolder and more thirsty.

 

Should I call OSHA?

Two from the local almost-daily: why the Superbowl should be like Thanksgiving* and why I hate the dang phone.

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* I wound up not making ribs due to supermarket fail. I did, however, make these most excellent slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches. Yum. And Yum.

qotd, ah, romance

"My husband and I have been married for 18 years and a couple for 24. I feel I know a thing or two about long(ish) marriage. I know that if you are lucky, you argue less over time, because you grow wise enough (or maybe just tired enough) to stop trying to change each other. Over time, trust triumphs passion; understanding becomes more important than discovery. The term 'true partnership' -- once so dry and adult and boring, boring, boring -- turns into a kind of ideal. You wake up every day, look at the pillow next to you, and think, Oh jeez, you're still here? And then you think, Thank God."

-- Kristin Van Ogtrop in her editor's note in February's Real Simple.

for purposes of stalking

Typepad lists and I don't seem to be getting along right now, as evidenced by the fact that it refuses to bend to my will.  And, so, a new plan.

There will be signings and readings and whatnot coming up in the next couple of months. I'll keep updating this post when new info leaks in. I would love to see you and/or deface your books (any books, really, not just those written by me) if you'll be in the area. Also, if you have any can't miss stops I should make while in these areas, please tell me.

* Sunday, March 21 from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Capital Region Knit-in in Troy, NY.

* Saturday, March 27 at  1 p.m. at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH.

* Tuesday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at the Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta, NY. (Also, should you want a signed Sweater Quest but won't be in the area, email the Toad. I can drop in and personalize them, too, before they are mailed.)

* Thursday, April 1 at some time in the evening at Om Yoga in NYC. (Knitting. Yoga. Can't go wrong, no?)

* Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA.

If more are added -- and I hope more will be because this is the fun part -- I'll update this post.

And, Anna, if the offer of 20 folding chairs still good...

biting the heads off of kittens since 2010

In almost every movie about the theater that has ever been made, there's a scene where the cast stays up on opening night to get the morning papers so that they can check the overnight review. If the review's a good one, the show lives. If it isn't, well, they just keep drinking while they pack*

In publishing, that iconic scene is also played out, only with Publisher's Weekly and significantly less ballyhoo. If you get a good review there, everyone breathes a little bit easier. If not, well, there's a reason you always have a bottle of gin nearby.**

The PW review for Sweater Quest is in:

A writer, professor, and mother with a penchant for “obsessively knitting,” Martini has spent plenty of time putting needles to yarn. In fact, she explains, knitting was central to her emergence from the postpartum depression she chronicled in 2006's Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood. Several years and a second child later, she's looking for a new level of knitting challenge, not to mention fodder for this second memoir. Her trademark humor and honesty make for an engaging read (for example, she writes, “Both kids and craft have taught me how to deal with frustration so acute that I'd want to bite the head off a kitten”). Despite that, her grand knitting/writing project for 2008 was an Alice Starmore Fair Isle sweater, for its complexity of pattern, colors, and knitting technique. Martini casts on and explores the history of knitting, details visits and calls to fellow knitters near and far, and describes Starmore's determination to protect her brand and copyright. It's a lively, interesting blend of personal quest, knitting history and Starmore biography certain to appeal to knitters—and to readers who enjoy taking on (or reading about) a worthy personal challenge. (Mar.)

Hereafter, I would prefer to be referred to as "she who bites heads off of kittens." Update your address books.

And, lo, we are all breathing a little bit easier.

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* It doesn't really work like this anymore. Not sure that it ever did. Still, makes for a nice dramatic moment.

** For bad reviews and wicked gnarly papercuts.

many things make a post

* Choose Your Own Adventure: Planet of the Helicopter Parents.

* Yoga and Dinner? (I think if I tried to eat right after a yoga class, I'd simply throw up. Your milage may vary.)

* For the Firefly fans: Kinetic Typography. Man, I miss that show.

* From Fish to Infinity: the column that might help me get over my mental block about math.

* I was a girl journalist, which is why all of the movies with girl journalists falling in love with their subjects tick me off mightily. Frankly, I was never all that tempted by the people I talked to. Not that they weren't all lovable in their own ways but because I was just doing my dang job. 

* Alien planets in your spice rack. This is not a euphemism.

* Katie Granju's Elizabeth Edwards post kicks serious ass.

* John Oliver thinks the future should hold rocket boots.

* If you click through no other links in this post, click through this one: Allison Silverman's award speech.

* Stolen from Gwenda: Justine L explains Mansplaining, which I've come across more than I can even begin to enumerate, and Things Dorothy Parker Might Have Said, Had She Been A Mother.

seriously yum

Before the cookie porn, two quick SF/F links from the weekend:

* John Scalzi on the Amazon/Macmillan debacle. He nails pretty much all of the salient details here and does so with exceptional panache.

* Writer Kage Baker died on Sunday, far too young. To quote Jeff VanderMeer, from this excellent remembrance, "I would like to think that this is not the end, that [Kage has] merely been assigned by The Company to some new mission." She will be missed.

In happier news, the Diva and I made macarons this weekend. I was inspired by Bakerella's recent post about a visit from Tartelette and couldn't help myself. 

My results weren't nearly as pretty --

 

 

but were pretty dang tasty. And gluten free, so the Diva can eat as many as we'll allow.

Some notes:

-- I did the basic cookie, without any food coloring or flavors, a choice I made because I didn't have anything appropriate in the house. The filling is a simple ganache, from Ruhlman's Ratio. Rather than equal parts chocolate and cream, however, I went lighter on the cream because I wanted the filling to set up a bit more. 

-- I don't own the right size pastry bag tip so just cut a disposable pastry bag to a size that looked right. It worked well enough.

-- For next time -- and there will be a next time* -- I need to grind the almonds even finer and cook the cookies a smidge longer. This will help with the texture. It's not bad, just not right yet.

-- These couldn't be easier, really, as long as you know just a little bit about what egg whites can do. Really. give it a try.

* insert maniacal laughter here.

  

qotd, a two-fer

"Dave and I think it would be great if someone went around to people's houses, knocked on the door, and said to them, "I'm not here to sell anything. I'm here just to say thank you for doing the best you can with your life when you can; believe what you want to believe to get you through life without hurting anybody; we respect that and support it.

Oh, and wear more hats."

-- From Lisa Horstman's blog. You need to read the whole post, if only to see the illustrations.

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Also, since it's timely enough that I don't want to save it for next week, some of the more amusing commentary I've read on the State of the Union address:

Looking out over the frauds and lightweights and bland hunks of man-cheese that make up the assembled political establishment, and beyond them to a spavined and impotent political culture that would embarrass any self-respecting monkey house, and beyond that to a country willing to abandon almost anything it once deemed important to the first huckster who turns up weeping on cable television, Barack Obama must have been sorely tempted to let out one final, mighty guffaw and close his first State of the Union address with the words, "And I am the only president of the United States in this room, motherfuckers," after which he would return to the White House and eat Mitch McConnell's gonads on toast.


-- From Charlie Pierce's column in Esquire. The rest is well worth a read.

food stuffs

* In a previous post about what you'd make for a visit from Anthony Bourdain, Catherine commented that she'd make her granny's biscuits and chocolate gravy. I thought I'd run across most of the unique dishes the south had to offer (and tasted all the ones that didn't involve intestines) but had never before heard of this chocolatey, biscuity goodness. Lo and behold, this month's Saveur put it on its 100 things list:  Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy. I might have to wait to try it until I make it to Knoxville again, simply because I lack cold enough hands for biscuit making. But, yum.

* Speaking of Bourdain, I now want to go to Brittany in the worst way. I'll even put on a dorky striped shirt if it helps me get there. 

* In that same Saveur -- the list issue is my perennial favorite -- the editors included a piece on Lupini Beans. I remember my grandmother offering up dishes of them as snacks. We'd suck those tender, salty legumes out of their shells with abandon. I couldn't resist buying a jar when I went to the grocery the next day. The Cora brand beans are so salty I can't even eat them. Either my sensitivity to good old NaCl has changed or I need to brine my own. Or, maybe, I just need to find another brand. Hrm. Anyone?

* I made a cake last weekend.

 

The recipe is from Cook's Country and is called "Washington Cream (not a) Pie." Here's my thing about Cook's Country and its sister publications - would it kill Christopher Kimball to make it easier for subscribers to use their websites? I'm already paying you for the publication, so clearly I value what you have to offer, but to also have to pay for access to the site for recipes that the magazine promotes? That's just irritating, especially to those, like Kimball, who are big fans of thrift. 

Anyway. About the cake.

The printed magazine recipe directs you to the website in order to download additional recipes for white cake and the interior custard. The only instructions provided were for the chocolate ganache and assembly. In order to get those missing bits, the site wanted me to give it all sorts of info, which I'm not going to do, since I'm already a subscriber and they have all of this stuff already. Seriously, Kimball? Seriously?

Anyway.

I punted, which turned out to be the right choice. The cake part was meh, if only because it was a box mix (it was a busy day and I had 19 other things to cook). Fortunately, the cake only serves as a vehicle for everything else. The ganache was good, tho a little to bitter when put against the rest. For the custard, I used Ruhlman's ratio for Vanilla Sauce and took the Bavarian option. 

OMFG. So good. I've been eating the leftover out of the plastic container with a spoon. Whipping up your own batch is beyond easy. If you can separate eggs, you can do this. then the base sauce can be turned into anything from ice cream to donut filling to creme brulee. 

So, overall, Washington Cream (not a) Pie for the win. And Kimball can suck it.