Monthly Archive for August, 2011

Food For Thought – Carbonara

“I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘cooking’ but I can make noodles. That means I can boil water, put the pasta in and wait until it’s done.” -Devon Werkheiser

While watching, I watched Anthony Bourdain eat carbonara and it looked amazing. I realize I couldn’t possibly replicate the dish on the show, but I wanted to try to find something close. It didn’t take me long to find a recipe; one of my favorite food blogs, Closet Cooking, had a recipe for spaghetti alla carbonara with peas.

Ingredients Bowl of Carbonara

  • 1 package spaghetti
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup peas
  • ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
  • ½ cup bacon

Directions

Cook spaghetti al dente. While pasta is cooking, slice bacon into bite sized pieces and fry. Drain pasta, add eggs, cream, peas, cheese, bacon, and pepper. Stir thoroughly and serve hot.

Options

If you want to make a vegetarian version, omit the bacon. However, the bacon is really delicious.

I’ve experimented with different types of pasta such as angel hair and fettuccine as well as making my own.

Published on August 31, 2011 in Food For Thought. 0 Comments

Laptops In The Classroom

“UNIVAC: a device, which contained 20,000 vacuum tubes, occupied 1,500 square feet and weighed 40 tons; there was also a laptop version weighing 27 tons.” -Dave Barry

Keyboard

Freakonomics linked to an article on the Yale Law School website discussing laptops in the classroom and I was reminded why this discussion is so annoying.The argument against laptops in the classroom is essentially that they are distracting to both the student using them as well as those around them. A lot of the evidence indicates that people are bad at multitasking. I’m not even going to disagree with that. If you’re IMing, playing on Facebook, whatever, while in class, you’re probably not paying much attention to the lecture.

Laptop bans, however, don’t make you pay attention. They just force you to be more creative. Daydreaming has long been a popular classroom activity. Cell phones, especially these days, provide just as many outlets as a laptop does. My personal favorite, the college newspaper crossword puzzle, was so popular in my undergrad that I had a few professors who tried to ban that.

I wish that professors spent more time making the classes not suck than trying to ban laptops and crossword puzzles. I can only speak to my personal experience, but I paid attention in classes that were interesting and well-taught. I didn’t in the classes that weren’t. And I took my laptop to all of them.

Published on August 29, 2011 in Hodgepodge. 4 Comments

Book Club Follow Up

Up next, is The Botany Of Desire by Michael Pollan on September 30th.
Published on August 28, 2011 in Book Club. 0 Comments

Misogynists Hiding In The Closet

“Knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.” -Lord Chesterfield

Closet doorI love Manboobz. (Totally safe for work, unless you work for a Men’s Rights organization. If you do, why are you even reading this?) I read the website regularly and I’m amazed by the sheer number of people who espouse such horrible, vile views. I realize the anonymity of the internet allows people to say things they might not always say in polite society, but this is what fuels my amazement. These people clearly exist. Where are they?

I have lots of male friends, all of whom are intelligent, generally well-educated, and mostly liberal. I don’t befriend dooshbags so I know I select-out the vast majority of the people featured on Manboobz. Even my friends, unfortunately, occasionally espouse views I find offensive. I was recently told by a friend that the yes means yes theory of consent was “absurd”, during a discussion of the DSK case. But that doesn’t amount to the stomach-wrenching bullshit that appears on Manboobz.

My inability to find extreme misogynists in real life is, in part, because I am a woman. I mean, if you’re going to refuse to take an elevator at work because you’re concerned about false rape accusations, you probably aren’t going to chat me up at the bar. Especially about how you, ya know, hold extraordinarily hostile viewpoints towards my gender. Even if I know Men’s Rights Activists, I don’t know who they are.

Do I know a bunch of closeted misogynists? Are the men (and even women) that I interact with hiding their corrosive opinions because they are aware of how un-politically correct they are? Or are these people so difficult to interact with that they are segmented away from society?

Published on August 27, 2011 in Feminazism. 4 Comments

Book Club Discussion – Dead Until Dark

I was long addicted to True Blood, the TV show based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris and I am now addicted to the books themselves. I’m on the eighth book in the series and I only started the first one a month ago.The writing is not particularly impressive, though I feel as though it improves through the series. I feel as though the quality of the writing is on par with other, similar fiction series that I’ve read. If you can read a Nora Roberts novel, you can read this.I get the impression that Harris is making up the fantasy characters as she goes, rather than having planned the characteristics of the vampire, fae, weres, etc. ahead of time. I am a big reader of fantasy and I find this slightly irksome. In the series Vampire: The Masquerade, there is a detailed explanation of vampire history based on Biblical stories (vampires are descendants of Cain.) I enjoy having that history.The first book is nearly identical to the first True Blood season. (This starts to change in the second book and while there are plot similarities, they really diverge.) A number of the TV show characters have had their appearance improved for TV. In the novel, Terry is portrayed as a fifty year old, Vietnam vet, rather than a young Iraq vet.

I actually like a few of the characters better in the book. I think Sookie is funnier and less irritating during times of duress. I also like Bill’s character better, he’s a bit more raw. I also prefer Sookie and Pam’s relationship in the book to their relationship on the TV show. They are practically friends in the book.

However, there are a number of things I much prefer in the television show. I enjoy Arlene in the show more than in the book. Lafayette is a minor character in the book and his character on the show is why I started watching it.

I want to get back to the eighth book. Your thoughts?

Don’t forget to check out @orphanani’s review as well.

Published on August 26, 2011 in Book Club. 14 Comments
Need More?Like What You See Here?Copyright
E-Mail
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Google Plus
 Powered By Wordpress
Need More By Social Media Widget
Social Media Icons Are Magic Marker
Twitter Feed By Xhanch
TwitPics By My Pictures Widget
Share Bar By Sexy Bookmarks
 © 2008 - 2012 Neamhspleachas.Com
All Rights Reserved