Does it work? 15: White bean chicken chili

I'm conflicted about chili. On the one hand, its near-infinite varieties, scalability, and freezable nature make it a wonderful thing to cook. On the other hand, I just...don't really like it. I mean, it's fine. I'll eat it. But kidney beans are kind-of meh, I never have beef on hand, and the flavor doesn't excite me. 

Enter white bean chilis. These have a different flavor than traditional chili, chicken as the meat, and no kidney beans - definite wins.

To that end, I vaguely followed Averie Cooks' Easy 30-Minute Homemade White Chicken Chili recipe, with some hearty modifications. 

Why all the mods? I'm currently trying to use up all the random things in our pantry/fridge/freezer/other pantry, as well as reduce food waste (by aggressively putting perishables in anything I can reasonably get away with). But that's the beauty of chilis; they can take pretty much anything. 

Substituted (1 of 16):

- Lemon juice for lime juice (I was low on lime)

Left out (3 of 16):

- Cilantro (would have been good, but I hadn't gone to grocery store yet for the week)
- Green chiles (see previous)

- Some white beans (I just didn't have enough)

Added (2):

- Lentils (I wanted a little bit more beany-ness. Lentils don't have to be soaked and pre-cooked, making them a great last-minute decision.)

- Bok choy (see LPT at end) 

Notes:

- I didn't use any of the garnishes (though I'm sure they would have been nice), nor did I blend part of the bean mixture before adding it. 

- The only thing I'd do differently next time is use less cumin; I think since there were no green chiles, there was nothing to even out the cumin flavor and it ended up overwhelming things.

- I added the bok choy stems with everything else, and then added the leaves at the very end to wilt. 

Did it work? Sure. Mine turned out more like taco soup than anything, but it was still tasty. 

And LPT: Whenever you can put in more leafy greens, do it. 

xo, 

Devo

Does it work? 14: Chicken Yakisoba

This time 'round, we're doing Homemade Chicken Yakisoba by Bydget Bytes. I love Budget Bytes. I did not love this.

Substituted (1 of 14): 
- Made-up concoction for Worcestershire sauce

Left out (1 of 14): 
- Sugar

I was pretty underwhelmed with this recipe. The sauce wasn't great, and just made the noodles and veg kind of...slimy. There were too many veggies, even though I used the amounts called for - the ratio of noodles to veg didn't really balance out.

Now, I did have high hopes for this. I had yakisoba in Japan and have been craving it ever since. Maybe if it had used real W. sauce it would have worked out? And like, halved the amount of veggies. And used different noodles.

So, does it work? Meh. SO liked it well enough.

xo,
Devo

Craft: Magnetic Spice Tins

Something I've wanted to do for a long time, and finally did. Did I spend three days working on it nearly non-stop? Sure did. Will it necessarily take you that long? Probably not.
This is blog post by Love Pomegranate House is what I mostly followed.

The most time-consuming part was sourcing the images and editing them. Partly this was because I wanted to be sure to get public domain images (so I could share them) and partly it was my lack of know-how about image-editing software and my inability to navigate a Mac.

I did my editing using Mac's "Preview"; though I have photoshop on this computer, I have no idea how to use it. If you know more about image manip than I do, editing photos will probably not be so arduous. Also, I sourced a bunch of images for you! Right here at this Google drive link you'll find links to all the images I used, as well as the edits I made.

Also in that Drive folder is a word document, with all the pictures nicely lined up for printing. Note that my containers are aprox. 2.44" square.

Note that all the images in the 72-96 DPI folder will come out slightly blurry. I've so far been unable to find higher DPI images for those particular herbs. But stay tuned! If I manage to source some 300DPI public domain images of say, nutmeg, you'll be the first to know.

This site on Wikimedia commons is a great source for images. It's mainly what I used, so you'll find there more botanical illustrations like the ones on my tins. This botanical.com site is good for looking up spices and images.

I've had these containers on my fridge for several months now, and here are a few things I've learned.

1) The powdery spices tend to gum up the lids (think: powdered ginger, cumin, etc.). I've had to transfer the ginger back into a shaker.

2) If I were doing it over, I'd use tins with screw-on lids. My lids are sometimes hard to pull off without a small explosion of spice.

3) Good for pinching amounts and getting your measuring spoons in; bad for sprinkling over pots.

4) LAMINATE YO' LABELS. I tried hacking it with packaging tape, but it's just not cutting it. Without lamination, all those pretty labels I worked so hard on will get gross and ripped as you cook.

I'm still pleased with how they look and how they allow me to see at a glance what spices we have. However. they're not as functional as I was expecting, which is aggravating. I think with some of the above alterations, they'd be much more cooking-friendly.

xo,
Devo

Book Review: If at Birth You Don't Succeed

I slowed down a bit, but not to fret - I'm still chugging away at my reading goal. 

6/33: If at Birth You Don't Succeed by Zach Anner. 

Two memoirs in a row! I had been intending to alternate fiction and non-fiction, but the fiction book I had was just too dense. 

This was rather better written than the previous, though the story order was slightly disjointed - lots of jumping backward and forward in time. It did make me literally[1] laugh out loud at parts (see: "With Apologies to Gene Shalit"), and moved me at other parts (his experiences with music and family were touching).  

As is often the case, this book could have been about 25% shorter. But take that with a grain of salt; Devo frequently thinks books could stand to be shorter. Or even made into pamphlets. 

If you want to watch, rather than read about, all of Zach's adventures, they're all on the Tube of You.

xo, 
Devo

[1] As Kory Stamper would say, "usage 1" - that is, actually "literally" and not "figuratively."

Book Review: As You Wish

5/33: As You Wish by Cary Elwes. It was alright; mostly I finished it because I, like many people, love The Princess Bride. I learned a few things (that William Goldman is a celebrated screenwriter; that Wesley and Inigo did their own sword fight), and enjoyed reading about how great Andre the Giant was. 

It wasn't well written, despite that "with" helper-author credit. Some of the turns of phrase made me roll my eyes quite dramatically. 

If you like The Princess Bride, give a go; it's not a taxing read. Then go watch the movie again. 

xo, 
Devo

Book Review: Everyone's A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too

4/33: Everyone's A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun. It's a graphic novel, which is not something I ever read, but I enjoyed it. It touches on a lot of my interests: dealing with death, linguistics (here's a nifty article about the misspellings), how to feel your feelings. 

These two panels are my favorite, and I'll probably share them whenever someone brings up death anxiety. 

I love this one for its sweetness and subtle inversion of the narrative. Hamlet says, giving voice to a very real anxiety we have about dying and the fear of what might come afterwards, 

Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovered country from whose bournNo traveler returns, puzzles the willAnd makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?

But the little aliebn subverts that, saying to the snail, "Maybe the reason they don't come back is because the afterlife is great." [1]

But even the aliebn isn't free from death fear. He's afraid of his friends all dying, and is comforted by the snail. "It's okay," says the snail. "Everything dies. No need to fret."

It's a sweet book. A little bit of existential dread, a little bit of linguistics, a little bit of the Giving Tree. A solid foray into the graphic novel genre for me. 

Currently reading As You Wish by Carey Elwes. 

xo, 
Devo

[1] See also: Season 6 of Buffy, when she returns from the dead...and *spoiler* (though it's over a decade old so you should really get on that) it turns out she was in heaven. 

Book Review: The Housekeeper and the Professor

Y'all, I am killing it. 3/33: The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa. This short, sweet book was quiet and lovely. I enjoyed learning about math and baseball (not things I know much about). I loved reading about kind people just being, well, kind to each other. A good meditation on memory and what it takes to form good relationships. Recommend.

***

I feel like a kid again, getting whole armloads of books from the library and actually reading them. Well, more or less. I had to give up on Rise of the Rocket Girls - while the subject matter was quite interesting (women in the space program! woo!), it had too much of that names-dates-places stew that I don't like. I'm not really one for biographies or historical novels, and this felt like that; too many random events, not enough narrative. That's personal preference, of course; if you want to learn about rockets and women and math, give it a go.

**

What should I read in my 1k Quest? Leave me a comment with your recommendation and I'll give it a shot. (No promises I'll finish it.)

xo,
Devo

Book Review: Word by Word

2/33: Word by Word by Kory Stamper. What a delight. Highly recommend. 

As a kid who sometimes read the dictionary for fun, who is now an adult linguist, this book checked off so many boxes for me. I loved learning about the process of writing a dictionary; I loved knowing that there are other people out there who care so deeply about style guides as I do; I loved her humor. I loved that even though she was quite obviously invested in the dictionary, and wanted it to be good and right, she didn't take herself or her fellow lexicographers too seriously. 

Here are some quotes: 

"[Old English] looks like drunk, sideways German with some extra letters thrown in for good measure." She's not wrong. 

"Adverbs look like everything else; they are the junk drawer of the English language (like so)." They're the junk drawer of every language, really. 

Describing a conference room: "...a small table, around which four editors can sit comfortably and six in introverted terror..."

xo, 

Devo

Book Review: A Natural History of Dragons

Prepare yourselves for many short book reviews because I have to read 33 more books to reach 1,000 on my read-list and I'm ready to knock that out.

So, here we go. Book 1/33. [1] A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan.

It's pretty much what it says on the tin: A naturalist's look at dragons. Oh sure, there's a little drama and some plot, but I'm thinking that's not really what Brennan wanted to write about. She wanted to write about science and taxonomy and discovery, and she did.

It was...fine. Not really my taste, but the dragon-lore and dragon-science were well put together.

Mostly it made me realize I'm getting tired of female protagonists who don't fit the social mold of the times - instead they are BRAZEN and SMART and PRAGMATIC. Just...give me a girl who likes to knit sometimes, y'know? Credit where it's due though, this protag had a little bit more social understanding, and realized she really couldn't be effective if she eschewed conventions entirely.

The illustrations were pretty.

xo,
Devo

[1] Yes, I know it's a totally random number. Sometimes life doesn't fit neatly into boxes.

The orange books

Here they are, in all their glory: 

The great thing about a home library is that you can arrange it however you want; its sections and shelves can be as idiosyncratic as you. So as you can see, even though this is the orange book section, not all orange books are orange (and some covers-that-are-orange are not, in fact, "orange books"). Orange books are about facts (What If?, Do Fish Drink Water?), economics (Undercover Economist, Freakonomics, When to Rob a Bank, The End of Poverty, An Economist Gets Lunch), and data-driven ways to change your life or surroundings (Barking up the Wrong Tree, Predictably Irrational, Reality is Broken, Nudge, The Design of Everyday Things, The Power of Habit [1]). Somehow this categorization makes sense to me.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is on the outer edge of this category, as it's very orange and full of facts, but more of a "just so" ethnography than truly an "orange book."

(Maybe it's real, maybe it's confirmation bias, but pop economics books seem to get orange or yellow covers, nearly without fail. If you have one that's not orange, please tell me!)

What ways do you organize your shelves? Do you have peculiar arrangements like mine, or are they all nicely alphabetized by author?

xo, 
Devo

[1] The Power of Habit is out on loan, but rest assured, it's yellow and goes in this section. 

Does it work? 13: Dan Dan Noodles

This cooking post is going to be different from the rest, because I went really far off-book with this meal. So far, in fact, that I'm going to post what I actually did in its entirety. All my cooking idiosyncrasies/preferences came to bear on this recipe adventure: my desire not to buy a bunch of new spices; my dislike of complicated procedures; and my health-mandated moratorium on meat.

Here's what I'm usually looking at when I cook:

I transcribe recipes into a short, easily scan-able form, leaving out all the faff. [1] This one is especially abbreviated, because it's essentially a stir-fry and a sauce, both of which I've made a bunch of times. 

Source recipes:

1 (link) is the most authentic, and therefore the most complicated. I used it to get an idea of what the real thing was supposed to taste like, and to guide my guessing/substituting.

2 (link) is a sort-of authentic looking vegetarian version; this is the one I relied most heavily on. Notably, I did not do her frozen-and-then-defrosted tofu thing because, well, I can't be bothered. I am curious about it, though, so maybe someday. 

3 (link) looked the least authentic, and the easiest. I used this in comparison to 1 to see how far afield I could go and still approximate something like the original dish. 

My recipe, interpreted:

Step 1: Combine listed sauce ingredients in a bowl.
- Used the Sambal Olek chili paste I had from making hot & sour soup. 
- I didn't feel like buying a bunch of roasted Sichuan peppercorns when I needed less than a teaspoon. According to the internet, black pepper and a little coriander is the closest approximation. This is probably the biggest hit to flavor (aside from the lack of pork, of course). 
- Making it again, I'd probably use slightly less soy sauce, just because it was plenty flavorful and soy sauce isn't the most healthy thing. 
- Used a little canola oil to thin it out. 

Step 2: Stir-fry the veg and tofu on med-high heat.
- I pressed the block of tofu under a giant book [2] for a bit while I made the sauce - that makes it easier to stir-fry. 
- Used about 4 shiitake mushrooms and 2 heads of bok choy, but the sauce and noodles could definitely have handled more. Every opportunity to throw in more leafy greens should be taken.  
- Yacai is pickled mustard greens, which I got from my trusty Asian market [3].  It was like, a dollar, so I was willing to take a chance on it.
- I didn't end up using spinach, but it would have been a fine addition. I didn't add extra chili oil either. 

Step 3: Cook the noodles. 
- I used whatever kind of rice noodles we had [4], and cooked them in a separate pot while stir-frying. 

Step 4: Put it all together and top with green onion. Serve and eat immediately.

My Franken-version was delicious: fresh and fragrant, easy, and healthy. I'll definitely make it again. 

xo,
Devo

[1] I have a deep desire to one day write a cookbook in this style - though Eat Tweet may have beaten me to it. 

[2] The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., for the curious.

[3] Usually I wander around the store three or four times looking for a new ingredient. But this time I took the advice from An Economist Gets Lunch and just asked the cashier. I pointed to my shopping list, said, "I don't know how to say this, but do you sell it?" and she took me right to it. Delightful. 

[4] I'm not trying to be coy here; I really don't know what kind they are, since I took them out of their original packaging. 

Les Mis in a Month: Final week

Finished on Saturday! It took a lot of listening and a little bit of skipping [1], but I made it through!

Am I glad I did it? Yes. Am I glad to be done? Double yes. I think if I ever read something this big again, I'll break it up into chunks: read for a few weeks, break, read some more. Hopefully it would help the reading fatigue. I'm afraid the second half of Les Mis didn't get a fair shake from me, since I was just so tired of reading it by page 700. 

That said, Hugo is dramatic as heck. Sometimes I couldn't help but laugh at Marius, Cosette, Valjean, Eponine - all of them, really. I know their lives were hard, and it's an epic tale told epically, but geez. 

Some thoughts: 
- Name play an important role; the main characters all get at least a few
- The story's really about saving Cosette, isn't it? 
- The sewer tangent was really not as bad as people make it out to be. Granted, I skipped it, but I think it was only 15 or 20 pages, instead of the 50 pages of the Waterloo tangent. 
- Marius is very irritating there at the end, forbidding this gentle, loving man from seeing his daughter. And he's not even man enough to do it directly! No, it's all, "take away a chair here," "don't light a fire" there. Passive-aggressive nonsense. He reminds me of Claudius from Much Ado in a lot of ways - jumping to conclusions, being extra, overwhelmed by love. 

xo, 
Devo

[1] For a regular book, I would have skipped a lot - about a hundred pages or so. When your book is 1400 pages, though, 100 is hardly anything. 

Les Mis in a Month: Week 3

I'm a little late, but here's the Les Mis thoughts for last week.

- Made it past page 1000, which feels like a milestone...can I count this book as like, 4 books on my read-list, seeing as how it's so long? I learned that it's 1900 pages in the original French to which I say: Slow Your Roll, Victor Hugo.
- I'm starting to get a little bored/fatigued. It. Just. Keeps. Going. The plot has drawn away from Valjean and towards Marius & Cosette, who I cared very little about in the musical and continue to care little about in the book. Their love scenes are hilariously dramatic in the book, though, which is a certain kind of entertainment.
- Find myself enjoying the minor characters more in this second half: Gavroche (who knew he was Thenardier's son??), Monsieur Mabeuf (seriously, I love him so much; his having to sell his books just about broke my heart), Marius' grandfather.
- I still have no idea what the revolution is about, why it's happening, or why Les Amis are invested in it. Seriously, I know more about Mabeuf's motivations and feel more strongly for him than for Enjolras.
- Hugo's tangent about argot was both fascinating and ridiculous.
- Still no sewers.

xo,
Devo

Les Mis in a Month: Week 2

I just rounded page 700, which means I'm halfway through and pretty proud of myself. Still haven't hit the infamous sewer section, though. 

Progress/Thoughts
- Gotta love Hugo: At one chapter's end he's all, "Let me tell you about Marius" - and then immediately begins the next chapter like, "So this Monsieur Gillenormand..."
- Names for the main [1] character, so far: 1) Jean Valjean; 2) Prisoner 24601; 3) Father/Monsieur Madeleine; 4) Monsieur le Maire; 5) Prisoner 9430; 6) Ultimus Fauchelevent; 7) Monsieur Leblanc
- Hugo is a fan of physiognomy 
- I care a lot less about this second half of the book, at least so far. 

xo, 
Devo

[1] YMMV on who's the main character, Hugo sure does

Does it work? 12: Sweet potato chicken curry

I've slowly been allowing coconut into my diet. Which is good, because then I end up with wins like this curry!

The recipe is Denise of Sweet Peas and Saffron's Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chicken Curry. Fair warning, I got a little bit creative with this one, but I don't think it's radically far from her recipe. I'll do my best to guide you through my process.

Substituted (3 of 19): 
- Chicken breasts for thighs (They're lower fat, which is good for my high cholesterol; also, did I weigh them? Nah.)
- Water + chicken bullion for stock (I'm lazy.)
- Lemon juice for lime juice (One acid is much like another, unless you're literally making limeade.)

Left out (1 of 19): 
- Spinach (I forgot! It happens when I'm faced with really long ingredient lists.)

Got creative/lazy with: 
- Thai Red Curry Paste

Real talk: Sometimes I get tired of buying random oils/spices/blends/pastes/etc. Even if I think I'll use them again, it's annoying to go hunt them down at the grocery store, annoying to have yet another tiny bottle of something-or-other [1], annoying to spend money I don't want to spend. This Thai curry paste was one of those times. I thought, "We have a lot of Asian cooking ingredients. I'ma wing it." [2]

Luckily, though, the internet exists so I didn't have to totally wing it: I used this recipe as a guide. I didn't measure anything, because the curry paste recipe makes 1 cup, and I only needed a tablespoon. Didn't have lemongrass, red chiles, white pepper, shrimp paste - but when there's a list of 15+ ingredients, I figure a loss of four won't make a huge difference. Of the spices and oils I had, I just added a bit of each spice to my flavor base and called it good.

I think the main thing this "winging it" affected was the heat - my curry came out very mild.

Other notes: 
- Remember: you never have to peel anything.
- I didn't have quite enough garam masala; it was fine.
- I did the unthinkable and used a separate pan to make the "flavor base". Being that I am opposed to slow cooker meals that take more than the crock-pot itself to make, this was a big step for me. I'm not sure how much it affected things, so if I ever make it without pre-flavor-basing, I'll let you know.
- I left mine in for 3.5 hours, and it was probably ready to eat at the 3-hour mark.

Did it work? Definitely! It was warm and filling on a cold and bleary day.

xo,
Devo

[1] I'm vaguely on a minimal-izing journey, so ymmv regarding lots of tiny bottles.

[2] Ten points to Gryffindor if you get my Finder reference.

Book challenge: Les Mis in a Month

I'm doing it. The unabridged brick and me, we're taking a journey together this month. If you want to join me, you have to read 50 pages a day to finish (so, a few more now to catch up). Despite being up to approximately page 275, which for most other books would be almost near the end - or at least halfway - 275 is barely a drop in this 1400-plus page bucket.

I'm reading it on paper and listening to the audiobook, in combo. Trying to set myself up to succeed, y'know. I listen to it when I take walks and then read whatever's left at the end of the day. Though I'm not a huge audiobook fan (nor am I a fan of this narrator), it's been helpful for Les Mis: not only can I listen while doing other things, the emotion of the narrator adds to the story. While Hugo is a big fan of description and repetition, he's not so much on description-of-dialog. Is the character sarcastic? dramatic? sincere? Because the book is from a very different time, and I've not studied this period of literature, I find it difficult to successfully interpret the emotional valence.

I'll give you weekly updates of my progress and thoughts, bullet-style:

- I'm slightly behind (need to read ~20 pages from yesterday, plus today's pages), but am mostly on track.
- The saintly bishop is my favorite so far.
- Valjean's waffling about whether or not to turn himself in is super anxiety-provoking. I know that feel, bro.
- The musical is sad; this is sadder (probably due to that Hugo-ian penchant for repetition).
- Though, I'm surprised at how close (at least so far) the musical is faithful to the book.
- *run into a dream sequence* Not even for you Hugo; I'm skipping that nonsense.
- The chapters are short, so you get a nice steady sense of progress.
- Themes so far: the beast within; honor (external) vs. honesty (internal); The Law and The Religion
- Those Thenardiers are truly awful, aren't they?

xo,
Devo

Book Haul, April 2k18

The time has come around again for my local library book sale, the place of 50¢ paperbacks and $1 hardbacks. It's a wonderful thing. I've gone three times so far - they put out new books every day of the sale, so it's worth going back a few times. 

1. The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

2. Being Mortal and Better by Atul Gawande
I prefer How We Die, but Being Mortal is good, and SO wanted them. It's a good thing I went back, because I didn't find these until round three.

3. [name redacted] terrible fantasy novel, for K. [1]

4. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
We slowly acquire our favorite series from this book sale, so we end up with random purchases like this and the two following.

5. The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde

6. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

7. Freakonomics (revised and expanded) by Levitt and Dubner

8. An Economist Gets Lunch by Tyler Cowen 
SO and I both enjoyed his article "Six Rules for Dining Out", so when I spotted this one I thought, Why not? It's only a dollar. Plus, it'll make a nice addition to our "orange books" section. [2] 

9. In a Different Key by Donvan and Zucker

10. The Science Book by National Geographic

and finally, these: 

...because I have a weakness for reference books, languages, and tiny things. 

I may go back yet again, searching for Chamber of Secrets [3] and any Terry Pratchett. (Discworld is remarkably hard to find used).

xo, 
Devo

[1] It's tradition. 

[2] What is the orange book section you ask? Some people organize their shelves by author, or title, or height, or decimal system. Ours are vaguely arranged by subject, but very idiosyncratically - such that we have a section of orange books, some of which are not actually orange. A lot of pop economics and like, life-hack-y books tend to have orange or yellow covers (see, e.g. Think Like a Freak), hence, orange section.

[3] It's the only Harry Potter we're missing, except #5. Which we are not even bothering with.

Does it work? 11: Vegan Coconut Curry Lentil Soup

This curry lentil soup by Vegangela was dang good. DANG GOOD, I say.

Most of the time, I don't read the intros on recipe blogs - they often have little to do with the recipe and more to do with traveling, or family, or sponsors, or...

But the intro on this recipe is actually relevant and helpful; she guides you through possible substitutions and changes, and encourages you to make the ones that best suit your diet/pantry/tastes/etc. It's a very Devo method :)

My changes are minor; but I'll tell you about them because I want you to feel empowered to cook with what you have. No need to go buy fancy ingredients! My substitutions are all artistic, rather than scientific [1].

Substituted (4 of 14)
- Powdered ginger for fresh (fresh is messy and time consuming; always remember to use *less* of a powdered spice than a fresh one - the conversion for ginger is about 1/2t powdered for 1T fresh)
- Cayenne for hot pepper flakes (they're literally the same thing, one is just more ground up)
- Water + bullion for vegetable stock (it's what I have)
- Green lentils for red lentils (they're the same, just different colors)

Left out (1 of 14)
- All the garnishes (it was good without them)

I made a few minor adjustments to quantities, based on taste and our ingredients on hand:
- Used about 1/3 can of coconut milk (it's what we had, and I'm not super jazzed about coconut anyway)
- Used slightly less curry powder (I think ours is hotter than regular American powder, as I learned when I made VERY spicy chickpea curry a few weeks ago)

And there you have it! A delicious, filling, vegan dinner. Try it out!

xo,
Devo

[1] Really, idek if they're even so far as "artistic" - they don't change the flavors or texture really at all. They just happen to be a slight variation on the listed ingredients.

Book review: From Here to Eternity

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but this book's cover is awesome. The turquoise parts sort of glow at you in low light. 

See? It's great. 

The content is also pretty great; I actually liked it better than Doughty's first book. I liked learning about different funeral practices from around the world, though the one that struck me most was the open-air pyre in Colorado. "The sign [reading PYRE] was handmade by a local potato farmer (also the coroner)..." I plan to be buried in a shroud, but if for some reason that can't happen: take me to the potato-farmer pyre sign. 

From Here to Eternity is a quick read, but has enough meat to it that it doesn't feel frivolous or light. Solid recommend. 

xo, 

Devo

Does it work? 10: Hot and Sour Glass Noodle Soup (+bonus)

Realized I hadn't done a recipe post in a while, so here's what I made for dinner last night. And despite the 6 month (!) interval, the recipe is from the same blog, Connoisseurus Veg. What can I say? Her stuff is tasty, including this hot and sour soup.

Substituted (6 of 15): Most were very minor changes, artistic more than scientific. 
- "rice sticks" for glass noodles (it was what we had) [1]
- Sesame oil for veg oil (why not)
- Powdered ginger for fresh (it's messy and time consuming to use fresh; I'm over it)
- Chicken bullion broth for veg broth (it's what we had)
- Lemon juice for lime juice (one acid is much like another)
- Kroger syrup for maple syrup (as per uzh)

Left out (1 of 15):
- Toasted sesame seeds (can't be bothered)

What I'd change: 
- I'd chop the snap peas in half or thirds, despite the recipe leaving them whole. It would make the soup easier to eat, rather than having big chunks of veg in there. 
- I'd probably add fried tofu next time, for protein (a suggestion in the recipe)

I loved all the different textures and flavors in this soup. The kitchen smelled awesome while I was cooking (ginger! garlic! sesame oil! cilantro!) and the flavors all came through even once it was cooked. Would probably be better with the glass noodles, but hey. Sometimes you gotta use what you have.[2] 

This is definitely going on the "eat again" list - not too hard, good payoff for the amount of work. 

I actually took a photo.

***

Now, the bonus section!
I made these avocado wontons for a protein accompaniment, and they were...fine. I don't think I used enough oil during baking, so they didn't turn out very crunchy. The inside makes good guacamole, but the wonton part doesn't really improve things. Too much effort for too little payoff. 

xo, 
Devo

[1] That's not a sponsored link (lol), just so you can see the product.

[2] Though, I did buy a little thing of the Asian chili paste, so now we have three different hot sauces...