I am such a sucker for this stuff. Admittedly, when I first started browsing the site I had a moment of “AH! What did you do to those books?!?!”; but I concluded that this art is worth buying two sets of worthy volumes.
Guy Laramee, thank you for these inspiring images! And thanks to Christopher Jobson of Colossal Art & Design for collecting them.
My favorite landscape:
Copyright 2010-2011, Christopher Jobson
See them all here.
-o- Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry fail to collect 10,000 signatures in VA
I’m no fan of these men, but I was surprised and even felt kind of bad for them when I got the alerts informing me of their failures to meet the requirements (10,000 signatures on a petition) to appear on the Virginia primary ballot. Here’s the CNN video.
I know people who still think Gingrich will get the nomination, though I think Romney is still a more likely nominee. Especially now: is Gingrich’s story of his divorce from his first wife true? CNN‘s take.
Anyone want to weigh in?
-o- Random House’s Best-Selling eBooks of 2011
The top mystery/thriller eBook this year is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. The top science fiction/fantasy eBook is A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. The bestselling history eBook this year is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.
See all the lists on their site.
-o- The Washington Post‘s 5 Myths about Christmas
I think a few of this are a big broad/ambiguous, but they are interesting to read! Visit their website to read more.
-o- Incredible Sporting Images
BBC News posted a selection of awesome pictures from sporting events from Getty Images’ archives. Views them all here.
(Of course, I love the second one the most! )
-o- Newsworthy Male Faces of the Year
Also from BBC – 12 men who populated the news this year. The featured headlines include screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar win for The Social Network and Herman Cain’s suspension of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
See them all here.
-o- Some of The Washington Post’s best photography of 2011
See the selection here.
-o- Twitter: A Year in Review from Mashable
Mashable collected a list of 2011 Twitter milestones, from the #Occupy phenomenon to their new record for most tweets per second.
Check out the gallery.
As I am sure you have noticed, I am still learning about graphics and design. I have decided to try a new look; let me know what you think!
For Brian’s birthday, we invited his family and my family to our apartment for a little party. I stressed sooo much over the food but it ended up being delicious! I served three salads at the beginning of the evening. They all went over very well and were relatively easy to prepare. Enjoy!
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-o- Caprese Skewers -o-
serves 10-12
Ingredients:
1 pt. cherry or grape tomatoes (any color)
25-30 fresh basil leaves (I purchased a fresh plant and mined the leaves)
1 lb. boccacini (mozzarella balls)
2 tbsps. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
sprinkling of kosher salt
sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper
Method:
Slice the tomatoes in half (I found it easiest to slice them horizontally through the middle). Slice the boccacini in half. Wash as dry the basil leaves. Collect all the ingredients and a bunch of skewers/toothpicks (I used 4 in. toothpicks, but you could also use long wooden skewers and serve the mini salads in tall glasses, or small party toothpicks).
In a pie dish, combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
You can begin with either a folded basil leaf or a piece of mozzarella, but you want the tomato halves to be last so you can stand the finished product up on a plate. Assemble the skewers, moving them to the oil and balsamic mixture as they are completed, and then to a platter.
Drizzle the remaining dressing over the platter. Either serve immediately or chill for up to two hours, covered.
Finished Product:
Inspiration: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe’s Caprese Skewers
-o- Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken and Sourdough Croutons -o-
serves 10-12
Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1 1/2 heads Romaine lettuce
1/2 loaf sourdough bread, cubed
3 oz. fresh Parmesan cheese
Your favorite Caesar dressing (or make your own! I didn’t – I used Ken’s Lite Creamy Caesar – but here’s one I considered: I’mTopsyTurvy’s Creamy Caesar Dressing)
Method:
Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Marinate in about 2 tbsps. of Caesar dressing in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350. Toss the sourdough bread cubes with 1 tsp. of olive oil on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for about 15 minutes or until just hard, tossing occasionally. Remove and set aside.
Wash, dry and chop lettuce. Set aside.
Heat a grill pan or a frying pan over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray. Grill the chicken for 6-8 minutes on each side or until done. Let cool and slice.
Just before serving, toss the lettuce with the dressing. Add the croutons and chicken and toss again, gently. Top with shredded or shaved Parmesan.
Serve with more cheese alongside.
Finished Product:
-o- Roasted Beet Salad with Wilted Greens, Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese -o-
serves 4-6
Ingredients:
Salad:
6-8 medium beets, greens attached
3 tbsps. hazelnuts, chopped
2-3 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled
3/4 – 1 lb. mixed greens (or baby spinach, or arugula, or whatever you like!)
Dressing:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. minced shallots
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
Method:
Salad:
About two hours before you want to serve the salad, preheat the oven to 350. Separate the greens from the beets, leaving the top intact; wash the greens and set aside. Wrap the beets loosely in foil with a few drops of oil in each packet. Roast for about an hour until tender and the skins peel away easily when you rub them with your fingers.
When cool enough to handle, peel and chop into bite-sized chunks. Set aside.
Toast the nuts in a pan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Watch carefully; nuts burn easily! Remove and set aside. In the same pan (and with a splash of water, wine or chicken stock if necessary), wilt the beet greens. Let cool slightly.
Toss the young greens with the dressing (method below). Top with the wilted greens, the beets, the crumbled goat cheese and the hazelnuts.
Dressing:
Combine all ingredients in a Mason jar and seal tightly. Shake to combine, taste and adjust if needed. Store in the fridge and shake again before serving.
Note – you may not need all the dressing. Start out with half and add if necessary.
Finished Product:
Inspiration: The Kitchn’s Roasted Beets and Sauteed Greens with Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese
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Happy Monday to me! I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger award by one of my own all-time favorite bloggers, Ashley of Lifevesting.
The Rules:
-o- Indulge- Travel, Adventure, & New Experiences
-o- Acid Free Pulp
-o- dancewithshadows
-o- Mixed Gems
-o- FicFaq
-o- Life of Roya
-o- overextended
-o- ctolle
-o- booksandboston
-o- Snobbery
-o- Lost Yarn Loft
-o- Good Girls Inc
If your blog is here, it’s because it has given me something to think about, something that has made me happy, or something that I’ve plotted stealing from you (kidding, kidding)!
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-o- I love to travel. Throughout my life, I have been back and forth across the United States at least three times and I have been to all 50 states and most of the Canadian provinces. I’ve also been to several European and a few African countries. My all-time favorite places include Prince Edward Island, Madrid, the coast of Maine, and Rome.
-o- I am an early riser and would be supremely happy if I could be in bed by 10 pm every night. I envy night owls and cherish the random times I wake during the witching hour, but I am at my best in the morning. There was one year during college in which I’d fall asleep at eight or nine, wake up at four, read in the bathtub with pillows and blankets until six, and then sleep again until eight or so. Some of my favorite reading experiences are from that year; such as the time I read The Old Man and the Sea for the first time and in one go while the rest of the East Coast was sleeping.
-o- I am a literary snob who found herself totally immersed in the Twilight series and will love the Harry Potter books forever.
-o- I was born on the summer solstice and my partner was born on the winter solstice… and I really wish I could find that significant rather than coincidental.
-o- I prefer soccer to any other sport, and due to my father’s diligent love for the game I have been lucky enough to see 6 live World Cup games between the United States and various rivals at two tournaments – the 2006 tournament in Germany and the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Look for me in Rio in 2014!
-o- Brian and I adopted our cats Dinah and Sabina from a bona fide crazy cat lady, and then became so besotted with them that we let them get away with anything… that and they find themselves featured in many blog posts. Among these are: Sabina has taken up residence in a shopping bag, Curled up kitties, Kitties in Sweatshirts and Picture Show: the Best of Dinah and Sabina Together.
-o- If I could only pick one genre of music to listen to for the rest of my life, I’d struggle for awhile between something sensible like jazz or soul and my go-to favorite, girlie rock (Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Katy Perry…). And I’m not ashamed.
Thanks again, Ashley! This made my day!
-o- Kim Jong Il dies at age 69
CNN‘s coverage on Kim Jong Un, the successor; The Washington Post‘s coverage of the event; The New York Times‘ story on the anxiety in the region.
-o- 7 new apps to download this week
From Mashable; see the piece here. My favorite? “Santa’s Big Helper”… if you can stomach the idea of downloading a Christmas app (and then using it to trick your kids…)
-o- Michelle Bachmann on Kinsey’s estimate of the gay population
When asked by a self-proclaimed “gay-friendly Iowan” if she was aware that 10% of Americans are gay, Bachmann replied that those numbers were according to “the Kinsey report” and have been known to be wrong for years now. Bachmann’s husband, who works at a clinic long-suspected of trying to “cure” homosexuality, backed his wife, informing the questioner that Kinsey’s work is no longer considered “valid.”
Dr. Kinsey is famous for his research on human sexual behavior in the 1940s and 1950s; he shocked the world when he claimed 10% of the male population was gay. Studies and polls since then have come up with numbers from1%-8%. Here’s the story on CNN’s political ticker blog.
-o- 21st Century Publishing success stories
21st-century publishing seems a terrifying field, but it is the industry I want to be a part of. I found this article from The Guardian on successful publishing in the digital age inspiring.
-o- 10 most popular Twitter pics this week
Also from Mashable – see all the 10 most popular photos on Twitter this week here. Among them? Taylor Swift’s new red shoes, Justin Bieber shaking hands with Barack Obama, and a conversation between Santa and Jesus.
-o- Eat This, Not That’s NEW Worst Supermarket Foods
Reading these lists can be upsetting, but it’s so worth it! Slideshow, List.
-o- The Ultimate Christmas Gift
With the holidays looming, I would venture to guess no one has time to make these this year. But still, drool over the photo on Gojee and file it somewhere for the day you are determined to give them a try!
How would you interpret the phrase “the psychology of fiction”? In their feature in the Scientific American, Keith Oatley and Ingrid Wickelgren posit that the emotions fiction evokes are real, despite the “unreal” qualities of the stories and characters. They highlight 10 books that have a seemingly universal power to sway the reader’s mind.
The 10 novels:
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Mrs. Dalloway: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid
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Do check out their feature; scroll over each title to learn more about the novel.
I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, Anna Karenina, and Beloved. I have The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Middlemarch on my shelves. I agree that some of these books have affected me emotionally; indeed, Beloved is the first novel I read that pursued me. A wonderful professor, Dr. Michael Wenthe, taught me the book while I was in college. For my related assignment I rewrote the scene in the forest when Sethe begins to choke from Denver’s perspective. Then in graduate school I spent three class session teaching Beloved to an advanced and very engaging group of students. And just this week I edited a chapter of Dr. Anton Trinidad’s dissertation which is partly about the emotional effects on readers after experiencing Beloved.
To this list I would add 1984 by George Orwell and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I would also add The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, one of my all-time favorite books (though not a novel).
Any other suggestions for this list?
-o- Supreme Court to rule on Arizona’s immigration law
Over the objections of Obama’s administration, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether or not Arizona can enforce its immigration reform law.
-o- iPhone Apps for the Foodie
Mashable collected a list of 9 fun iPhone apps for food-lovers. Find the gallery here. My favorite – Eat St. keeps you updated on the location of food trucks in your neighborhood:
-o- “Magic Mushrooms” are back in the lab
It has been almost 40 year since President Nixon termed the former Harvard University psychologist Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” His crime? Promoting the use of hallucinogenic substances – such as psilocybin, the main ingredient in the magic mushrooms – for therapeutic benefit. And now, psilocybin is back in view. Check out Bloomberg‘s article here to learn more.
-o- 25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer
Jocelyn K. Glei collected tips from 25 authors; find them all here at the99percent.com. While I enjoyed reading through it, what I really like is the Hemingway quote Glei grabbed from a 1954 interview published in the Paris Review.
When asked by the interviewer what aspiring writers can do to train themselves, Hemingway answered: “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.”
-o- Holiday Food Festivals
Epicurious compiled a list of food festivals happening across the United States this December. Find it here.
-o- FoodGawker’s all-time most-gawked
If you love food or just food photography, check out this collection of recipes here.
-o- Exciting football weekend!
I wouldn’t dare to pretend I care more about this than I really do, but yesterday was an exciting day to be even a quasi-fan.
Scores:
the Baltimore Ravens beat the Indianapolis Colts, 24-10
the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns, 14-3
the Houston Texans beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 20-19
the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Miami Dolphins, 26-10 (Whoo hoo!)
the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 41-14
the New York Jets beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 37-10
the Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 34-28
the Atlanta Falcons beat the Carolina Panthers, 31-23
the New England Patriots beat the Washington Redskins, 34-27
the New Orleans Saints beat the Tennessee Titans, 22-17
the Denver Broncos beat the Chicago Bears, 13-10
the Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-19
the San Diego Chargers beat the Buffalo Bills, 37-10
the Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders, 46-16
and in probably the most exciting game yesterday, at least on the East Coast…
the New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys 37-34
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That’s all for today!
Book lovers of the world, unite! If you haven’t seen this site, you have been deprived.
Go ahead… start fantasizing…
This one is via sexxtape; check out her blog, it’s intriguing!
Thanks to my favorite AJB for finding this!
twomuffinsinanoven 