Category Archives: On My Blogs

Pieces published on one of my other blogs that may be of interest.

In which I overshare…

Posted on December 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

In which I share a little too much about myself, in the spirit of our times: Changes (on my Simply Cooking blog).

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Tagged Changes

Don’t buy it, cook it!

Posted on October 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

I taught myself to cook a while ago, mainly by obsessively reading cookbooks and through trial and error. (One of my other blogs, Simply Cooking, documents this process.) One of those lightbulb moments came when I realized that I could make many things I thought I had to buy, and I could make them more cheaply and deliciously.

I think this is the primary thing we’ve lost touch with, due to agressive marketing by food manufacturers: We can cook all of these things for ourselves. People used to do it all the time, we can do it too, and it’s not really that hard. The techniques are mostly simple, and the ingredients are generally few and inexpensive. So here is my top-ten list of foods that you are better off making at home, with links to my recipes:

Certainly, many other foods belong on this list, such as bread and granola, but I don’t have my own recipes for them. I also plan to try making other staples, like mustard and ketchup. One of those other secrets that you learn once you start cooking a lot is that it’s actually fun. It encourages you to try new things, experiment and get creative, on a daily basis. What’s better than that?

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

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Tagged Cooking, Recipes

Some Ideas for Leftovers

Posted on September 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Over on my cooking blog, I have posted Some Ideas for Leftovers, which started out life as the answer to a Quora question. Check it out; there may be some useful ideas here.

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Tagged Cooking, Leftovers

Improve your cooking skills…

Posted on September 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

This is a short post on my cooking blog: How to Improve Your Cooking Skills and Knowledge. It started out life as an answer to a question on Quora. I hope you might find some useful advice there from this self-taught cook.

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Tagged Cooking, Skills

Make pasta!

Posted on September 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

Over on my cooking blog, I posted A Few Simple Pasta Sauce Recipes that you can make in no time at all. Right now, I am making a fresh tomato sauce with some pesto thrown in. Enjoy.

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Tagged Cooking, Pasta, Recipes

Review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Posted on August 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

Image via Wikipedia

I am discovering the weird and wonderful world of Philip K. Dick. Here is my review of the book that spawned Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on Books Worth Reading.

In brief: What’s most interesting about this novel is its take on the importance of empathy, especially in contrasting the human characters with the non-empathic androids they’re trying to kill. The experience of empathy has become a religious pursuit for most humans, as they use machines to empathically connect with one another and a spiritual leader named Mercer, and as they empathically connect with the animals in their care.This concept of empathy set against such a bleak vision of the future is particularly effective when contrasted with our current disregard for the planet and its rich variety of life while we still have it. We learn to value life only when it’s gone, but even so, we still feel compelled to destroy, to the point where we have to invent something — the androids — that we can feel okay about killing. When Deckard begins feeling empathy for them, he no longer knows who he is.

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Tagged Blade Runner, Book reviews, Philip K Dick

A Few Simple Pasta Sauce Recipes | Simply Cooking

Posted on August 8, 2011 | 3 Comments

On my cooking blog, I share A Few Simple Pasta Sauce Recipes at Simply Cooking.

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Tagged Cooking, Pasta, Recipes

Frankenstein: The First Science Fiction Novel? « Books Worth Reading

Posted on August 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Image via Wikipedia

This is an older essay on my books blog, but I still quite like it, and the classics never go out of style. Please read and let me know what you think of: Frankenstein: The First Science Fiction Novel? on Books Worth Reading.

In brief: The classic theme, and warning, explored in Frankenstein is that man should not play god. The dawn of the Industrial Age brought with it fear of what man and machines could accomplish, and the unforeseen consequences they could have. There is also a theme of the monster as isolated, without an identity, adrift in a world where he can make no connections and life has no meaning for him. Again, this poses a warning of the dehumanization that technology can bring. These themes resonate throughout the science fiction genre even today.