Much thanks to Cat over at MetaPagan for including me on her list of favorites! The way this goes is:
- Put the logo on your blog.
- Link to the person from whom you received the award.
- Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
- Put links to those blogs on yours.
- Leave a message on the blogs nominated.
I read a number of blogs. Several of those I’d otherwise include on this list - Pandora’s Bazaar, The Wild Hunt, and of course, MetaPagan itself - have already been tapped by this. So, here, a few others (in no particular order but my whim and the order I pulled tabs up.)
1) Dianne Sylvan’s Dancing Down the Moon. I’ve known Sylvan online for years now, and always love reading her stuff, no matter what she’s talking about. Her posts range from a current series on runes, to the struggles of life, to all sorts of other topics.
2) Sia over at Full Circle News does a great roundup of information and topics currently of interest to the Pagan community - I look forward to her thoughtful comments in my RSS reader.
3) Donald Engstrom’s It’s the Journey, not the Destination. Many people know Donald through his work as a teacher in Reclaiming, but I got to know him through his relationship (and now marriage) to one of my tradmates. I adore talking to him: even though there are things we don’t always agree on, I always come away having learned something, or seeing something differently. Also, I adore conversations with people who are passionate about what they’re doing - and Donald definitely qualifies!
4) Lupa’s Pagan Book Reviews provide great thoughts (and details) about the good and bad of Pagan books. (I like her other writings, too). She’s starting grad school, so her time to post may drop off a bit, but they’re worthwhile gems.
5) Dw3t-Hthr’s Letters from Gehenna: The World on a Slant . This blog, from a friend since college, always makes me think. She’s also hooked into different parts of the blogosphere (and from different angles) than I am, which I find very healthy for my perspective. As she says: “I do all my weird normally and all my normal strangely. My blog is a repository of a variety of pontifications, on a variety of subjects including, but not limited to, religion, sex, BDSM, gender, sociopolitical neepery, the hell is wrong with people nowadays, and the art of living in the world one wants to bring into being while acknowledging that we’re not there yet.” Good description.
6) PostSecret is pretty widely known, but I didn’t start reading it until around this time last year. PostSecret is an art project wherein people send in postcards with a secret on them - which are then posted in the blog (and sometimes included in the printed books.) I read every Sunday, because there’s such a huge range of perspectives and stories out there, even when some of them are very painful.
7) Finally, for a professional note, The Feel Good Librarian is a rarely updated blog these days, but well worth the archives. It’s written by a librarian at a public library - and she talks about why we do what we do, and what kind of difference it makes for people. I reread it to remind myself why my job is a good thing, and also that what I think is a single, simple act can have a huge effect on someone else.
Conversation with a friend about my bread recipe reminded me of something.
When I say cinnamon, I actually do mean cinnamon. However, most stuff sold as cinnamon in the US is actually cassia, a closely related tree that’s less expensive to harvest. I tend to prefer actual cinnamon.
I buy almost all of my culinary herbs from Penzey’s (http://penzeys.com, but I’m lucky to have two stores within easy driving distance.)
They’ve got the advantage of being a remarkably inexpensive pick-me-up. Not only is just walking into their store space is a fantastic experience of scent (all of their stuff is available in smellable test containers), but their prices are such that I can walk out with 5 or 6 different small bottles of things for under $20. (And since I’m only cooking for myself, usually, this goes a long way.
While they’re not necessarily organic, they are very good about marking sources (and about indicating clearly what’s in mixes.) And their herbs and other items are consistently high quality, flavorful, and enjoyable to work with.
Currently on my herb storage shelf:
- Ceylon cinnamon (ground, since I usually use it in bread.)
- Dill weed (which I adore)
- Rosemary (my current bottle is from Spain, and powdered, which I like in bread at times.)
- Sweet Basil (French, as opposed to Californian: I like both, and tend to alternate.)
- Cardamon (Guatemalan ground)
- Orange peel (dried)
- Nutmeg (West Indies, ground - yes, I know, really, I should grind it myself, but in practice, I never manage that.)
- Tellicherry Black Pepper
- Parsley
- Spearmint
- Powdered wasabi (lovely in a little dusting in the center of onigiri.)
I also like several of their cheese mixes, and go through vast amounts of their Green Goddess dressing mix (which goes *very* well with a yogurt base: it makes a very nice dip. It does have a little sugar in it, however.)
I’m currently out of - but should get more of - their freeze dried onions, shallots, and chives, all of which are great when I want a little bit of something, but don’t want to make an extra trip to the store.
This is going to get long: I warn you now.
A couple of years ago, I began baking bread. I do it for ritual, I do it to eat at home. I bring it to potlucks (as I mentioned, it’s a money-cheap way to bring something people will love for potluck).
Here’s how I do it, with some links to some other options. Note that these are optimised for my particular preferences and needs (and I talk about what those are, as we go along). Adjust as makes sense to you.
Things that affect my baking:
- I am short: I hate kneading on the counter because it’s totally the wrong height. I knead in a mixing bowl, sitting on the floor so I can put my upper body into it. This is admittedly weird. Knead on the counter/table if you prefer.
- I live in a little tiny house. It has a little tiny oven (just big enough for a standard baking sheet, one rack, etc.) I am not fancy about my baking.
- I have very little storage space: I do not own a baking stone, fascinating other baking tools, or a mixer: I just don’t have space for them. This is the fairly minimalist version.
- I am aiming for ‘good bread’, usually, not the ‘ultimate best bread ever’. Those usually take more time than I realistically have.
- My preference for bread is a lighter (less chewy) crust, and reasonably dense. Your preferences may vary - the resources section has some other places to go learn more about variations.
Read the rest of this entry »
My rec for this week is not explicitly Pagan, but I do think it has a lot to say about how we view the world, how we treat other people, and how all of that fits together and how we develop community - and family. It’s also the reason I was too busy to post last Friday. [1]
Early this year, a group of immensely talented people (Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Will Shetterly, along with Amanda Downum) launched an online fiction project called Shadow Unit. Its official description is “Fanfic for a TV Show that never was”. What it really is is the stories of episodes on a show in a very slightly different universe from ours. (Go read Emma’s description here: she does it immensely better than I could.)
Season one finished right after Memorial Day. There will be a Season Two (and beyond that:they have a five year arc planned.) Right now is a good time to catch up.
All of it’s free - but they are doing this as donation-supported work, so if you like it, please throw a few dollars at the donation options. The authors appreciate it! There’s also a forum, a wiki, and other cool tools to help you sort through things. (I recommend checking the wiki for easter eggs and DVD extra content links.)
[1] Four of the five (everyone except Amanda) were at the Fourth Street convention I was at. Saturday’s panel that focused on Shadow Unit was fantastic.