Posts for category ‘food & drink’

- This is cool: Over the Rhine is working on a new album, with Joe Henry producing. Joe Henry’s Blood from Stars has been one of my most-played albums of the last six months, by the way, and I’m excited for this collaboration. But the really cool thing is that OTR started their own label and are inviting fans to help fund the new album by ordering it before it’s recorded. Linford explains it all here. Or, if you’d rather cut straight to the chase, go here. I, being impatient, went for Own It and am listening to demo versions RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND. Beautiful stuff, as you would expect.

- New post from me at Teen Fiction Cafe for In the News week, in which I discuss the special absurdities of local TV news. (Saw it on the news, the TV news / In a black and white video / Do you know what blood looks like in a black and white video? / Shadows, shadows…**)

- This is my neighborhood chocolate shop. Seriously, I go by this place like every day. I don’t go in every day, of course, since chocolate no longer has that place in my life, but I was in one day when they were filming and had to sign a waiver. I don’t have cable so can’t watch it myself. You can, though! Maybe you’ll see me buying a dark chocolate lemon creme.

*At first I titled this “Some Links,” which made me think of E.B. White and “Some Pig,” which made me think of other things Charlotte wrote in her web. (Now I kind of want breakfast sausage…sorry, Wilbur!) Random bit of Sara trivia: Trumpet of the Swan is my favorite E.B. White book. Ever since reading it for the first time, I’ve thought Billings, Montana sounds pretty exotic.

**Lyrics from John Prine’s masterpiece of a song, “Lake Marie.” It’s usually playing in my head at some point during any given week.

This weekend I got to see a dear friend rip into many exciting bridal shower gifts, spent quality time with writer friends Sara Ryan and Alan Gratz, and ate eggs Benedict at a new restaurant in town that all you locals should try out—Pago, in the 9th and 9th neighborhood. Their motto is “Artisan, Local, Farm Fresh.” The eggs benny were perfect, and the chef took my word for it when I said no runny yolk (they don’t always). The accompanying potatoes could have been crisper, but they were good, too. There’s an open kitchen and seating divided into a couple of areas so it’s not too noisy. I’m just happy there’s a new lunch place near my office!

As if all that socializing and food happiness were not enough, when I got to my computer this morning I found out that Once Was Lost received its first official review, and it’s a goodie from Publishers Weekly, with a star. As my editor and I were emailing this morning, we assured each other that we would be proud of the book no matter what the reviews said but, in conclusion, the star is good for our fragile egos. And it helps make up for all the crying in January and February during final revisions! Here’s my favorite little bit:

“Beyond delivering a gripping story, Zarr has a knack for exposing human weakness in the ordinary.”

If you’d like to read the whole thing, it may be found here. Or, if you’re like me and prefer to know as little as possible about a book before reading it, never mind! It is safe to click though—PW did a good job being thorough with their review without plot spoilers, for which I’m grateful.

But, life goes on. I’ve got a clogged sink and a list of errands and another book to write. Have a great day!

Until about an hour ago, I had an Internet-free weekend—yay! But I have the kind of week ahead that made me want to get some emailing and bloggy stuff out of the way before tomorrow so here we are.

- Here’s an interview with me over at Moonlight, Lace & Mayhem. In it, I talk a little bit about what I like about writing for anthologies. Anthologies such as…

- Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, which is apparently in a store near you! Oh, so you have the ARC? Well guess what, my story isn’t in the ARC! Mwwaaahahahah! (Through circumstances totally not in my control, I swear.) It is a great collection including contributions from so many of your favorite YA writers. So many!  Like Lisa Yee, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, John Green, Scott Westerfeld, MT Anderson and MORE. (If you’ve ever traveled to meet in person someone that you only knew online, Kelly Link’s wonderful story will make you squirm in the best way.)

Shop Indie Bookstores

At BEA, some of us supergeeks got together to celebrate the book through a random act of bowling. I took it very seriously.

Maybe I got swine flu from that bowling ball, or from Andrew Smith of Little, Brown, the fabulous publisher of Geektastic.

- Have you seen any or all of Michael Apted’s “Up” series? I have seen all of them. ALL OF THEM. On a recent episode of the fantastic radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge, one of the subjects of the “Up” films talks about how he got picked for it in the first place, and why he still participates even though he has some issues with Apted and the way the series is edited. As a fan of the series, I was fascinated to hear a participant talk outside of the context of it. You can listen to the segment here.

- Are you getting CSA this summer? Not sure what to do with all your veggies? I have invented something I like to call CSA Slaw, and it requires no cooking. Grate anything you got that’s grate-able: carrots, zucchini, raw beets. Chop finely whatever is choppable and edible raw: fresh corn, green beans, garlic. Toss it in a bowl. (I like to add cabbage, too, from the regular store since it’s not coming from CSA yet.) Make a dressing out of: equal parts plan yogurt and peanut butter, then add lime juice, salt and pepper and hot sauce to taste. I sometimes add good curry powder and possibly more garlic. You could use tahini instead of peanut butter if you like it and have it on hand. Mix all! Serve with something you grilled, or just throw in a can of garbanzo beans to make it a complete veggie meal for a hot night.

That ought to tide you over for awhile. And then some. (I need to learn how to write shorter blog posts, methinks.)

The web site should be working for everyone, and by “everyone” I mean those using Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Internet Explorer 8.x. In older versions of IE the images may look crappy. Or, they may not. Who’s to say? Okay, I do believe we can move on!

I’m doing CSA for the first time this summer, aka community supported agriculture, meaning every week I get a box of seasonal organic produce from a local farm. The best thing so far: last week’s bing cherries. Best cherries I’ve ever had in my life. This week there are yellow cherries, and they are good, but a little on the sweet side for my taste. But what I want to ask you about are shell peas. Which I guess are the same as pea peas. Just regular green peas, they are? Apparently I can eat them raw, in salads, add to stir-fries, make soup, whatever I want! What would you do? Maybe I should do something with shell peas plus the fresh garlic that also came in CSA…

Is it Wednesday already? Lordie. I’ve been super absorbed in my office project, and some other stuff. Like shopping. (PSA: Ladies, you are going to want to go to the Gap soonish before they are all out of their summer-weight cardigans, which come in the best colors I’ve seen in many-a-season. Also, adorable tank dresses with ballerina skirts AND POCKETS.)

I’m not sure how I even stumbled upon this Real Food Wednesdays thing, but I did, and since my brain is overly taxed by my slow-but-steady process of throwing crap away, I will take the writing prompt and post about fantastic whole wheat cinnamon waffles. I found the recipe on a cooking blog I like, long before The Diabetes. I love dense, whole-grainy, low sugar things like that, and got in the habit of always having a batch in the freezer, and used them (by the half – very filling) for peanut butter toast, as a snack with cheese, even under tuna salad. Oh, and also the regular waffle way.

When I was diagnosed, one of my first thoughts was, “I can’t have my waffles any more!”  The fact that I was worried about that rather than going blind or my feet falling off tells you something about what food means to me. But guess what? These waffles are so brilliant, they do not give my blood sugar a spike. I nearly wept when I discovered this. Of course I can’t eat them with syrup anymore, but love them with pb or butter and fruit-only jam along with a couple of eggs. They are full of stuff that is good for you, and very sustaining. Also, there’s lots of cinnamon in them, which allegedly does nice things for blood sugar.

Here is the recipe.

(I usually use 1 3/4 cup buttermilk rather than the yogurt + milk combo.)