I started this blog a few years ago when I turned twenty-five, and it began as a place for me to post about cheese, pottery and other things I thought were interesting over the course of that year. Now, even though my "Year Twenty-Five" is behind me, I keep this site as a way of collecting things I feel inspired by and/or would like to eat.
Read a write-up of this 75-year-long study here, and go to the Amazon page for The Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study, here.
A bunch of people who study genetics just released a study in Nature that found there are WAY more genetic markers related to schizophrenia than we previously thought. Also, they found that there is likely a relationship between the immune system and this disease. From the abstract:
Pretty cool. It will be really interesting to see what direction the research goes in the next decade or so.
On my "to read" list. Check out an excerpt here.
A tidbit:
"It has a certain nourishment. The mental physique is muscular. That gives you a certain stride as you walk along the dismal landscape of your inner thoughts. You have a certain kind of tone to your activity. But most of the time it doesn’t help. It’s just hard work. But I think unemployment is the great affliction of man. Even people with jobs are unemployed. In fact, most people with jobs are unemployed. I can say, happily and gratefully, that I am fully employed. Maybe all hard work means is fully employed."
Not sure if I totally buy it, but Cain's description of the "perfect customer" aligns closely enough to my own experience to give me pause...
http://www.filmsforaction.org/news/your_lifestyle_has_already_been_designed/#.U6m-cGpcoWY.mailto
"In life, you will become known for doing what you do. That sounds obvious, but it’s profound. If you want to be known as someone who does a particular thing, then you must start doing that thing immediately. Don’t wait. There is no other way. It probably won’t make you money at first, but do it anyway. Work nights. Work weekends. Sleep less. Whatever you have to do. If you’re lucky enough to know what brings you bliss, then do that thing at once. If you do it well, and for long enough, the world will find ways to repay you."
- Jonathan Harris
This is another quote I liked. Harris says he saw written in a bathroom stall: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. The world needs more people who have come alive.”
I recently took my first-ever camping trip. It was wonderful! While I definitely have to acknowledge the great company of my friends, the following are the things I enjoyed most:
Despite the fact I was liberated from my phone for the most part (also something I enjoyed!), I did manage to snap a few pictures. I've collected some of my favorites below:
Another awesome find from Swiss-miss. This documentary asks questions about "the future of fashion" and I was completely fascinated for the full 46:55 minute run time. If you can't handle all that long-form content, I would suggest starting at 13:30 to learn about how Suzanne Lee is experimenting with growing her own materials to make clothes. You can also read about Suzanne and her work on her TED profile, here.
While I am definitely dealing with a bit of post-holiday depression (especially with this freezing cold weather - brrrr), the good thing about the holiday season being behind us is that I have more time to post on a regular basis! And as a result, I have been getting lovely notes from my friends sending me all things cheese-related. For this post, I have my friend Steph to thank :)
I have been thinking a bit about how while I thoroughly enjoy building my list of cheeses, I also want to learn more about how to cook with cheese. It is intimidating! Some of the flavors are so complex I wouldn't even know where to start, and I cringe at the thought of wasting a $10 hunk of deliciousness by misusing it. The most I have managed so far is this quiche I made for Christmas - with half-pound of Gruyere...
But it would seem that I am not alone! Steph sent me this article from the NYT, and it turns out even someone who works with fancy food for a living can be intimidated by the idea of cooking with cheese.
In the article, Suzanne Lenzer describes how she teamed up with her cheesemonger friend Liz Thorpe to tackle some inventive uses of cheese in familiar dishes. To learn the full details about their La Tur salad dressing and goat cheese tomato bisque, definitely check out the article.
The thing I am most excited about it this cheese chart Lenzer included, which represents Thorpe's "six families of cheese":
This will be an awesome a resource - and not only in my attempts at cooking with cheese - I think it does a great job organizing cheese into categories. As I progress through my sampling this will be very helpful in terms of keeping track of flavors, methods and textures. Stay tuned! I'll be sure to share any successes I have in cooking with cheese (and to hide any miserable failures :P).
I had a friend from work send me this article from Mental Floss and I just thought it was the greatest thing ever! You should definitely check out the whole thing, but I've pulled my three favorites to highlight below.
Takeaway: Presidents get bored and doodle too!
Thomas Jefferson - Spaghetti Machine
James Garfield - Hot Dog Genealogy
Dwight Eisenhower - Self Portrait? (Not bad, Ike!)
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