I skipped my weekly morning writing session at a coffee shop yesterday morning — it was really, really cold, and I just wanted to spend the morning in my pajamas reading Raised Right by Alissa Harris — so I’m feeling a little behind starting up today. I actually was really lazy yesterday, so I have the bulk of my weekend project list to finish today… going grocery shopping, making chicken noodle soup, doing laundry, writing our BAND discussion for February, catching up on reviews, and completing my first day of week four of Couch to 5K. It’s going to be a busy day!
Fresh from her stint at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris (chronicled in her first memoir, The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry) author/chef Kathleen Flinn isn’t sure where her path leads. The idea for her next project comes after a chance encounter in the grocery store. Flinn notices a woman filling her cart full of processed foods. When she gets up the nerve to ask the customer about it, Flinn discovers that the customer wants to eat better, but feels overwhelmed choosing and preparing healthier options.
I’m finally back to blogging, woo! But instead of posting here, I’m over with a guest post for Sheila at Book Journey while she’s having fun in Honduras.
If you head on over to Book Journey to read my post, you’ll learn which of these stylish young ladies, circa the mid-1990s, is me and what we’re doing. Plus, there’s a recipe for my favorite cookie in the entire world.
You might remember me writing about Keys to Good Cooking by Harold McGee before on the blog. I previewed this book back in August and promised a review in the future as part of a TLC Book Tour, but my tour date is here and I’m just not quite comfortable writing a review yet.
See, the book got to me from the publisher a little later than expected, and then just a couple of days later I managed to sprain my ankle playing soccer. Yesterday was the first night I got home and was able to stand long enough to actually cook something (and it was from the slow cooker, which is kind of like cheating).
I am not the world’s most impressive chef, but I’ve always wanted to be a good cook. I’ve debated signing up for cooking classes, but end up skipping it because of expenses or time.
As a cook I like to have recipes, but tend to not follow them exactly. It drives my boyfriend crazy when I don’t measure – too lazy to wash all the measuring utensils – or just guess on how long something should cook. This works out for me about half the time, and the other half I get something weird that doesn’t quite seem right.
Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!
This week making vacations smarter, Diana Wynne Jones Week, and how gamers and mentors are building a better world.
One Sentence Summary: To learn to be a chef, journalist Bill Buford follows the path of celebrity chef Mario Batali from the kitchen of Batali’s restaurant in New York back to the origins of Batali’s cooking education in rural Italy.
One Sentence Review: Buford’s profile of a chef and his restaurant were more interesting than Buford’s own attempts to learn the origins of Italian cooking, but the book’s look at what it means to be a chef from the inside was readable, and made me happy I don’t lead that life 
