The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.
If you wondered where I’ve been and what’s happened to me, well, I’m back. I have an enormous backlog of posts that I’ve yet to write, so I’ll be working on catching up in the next several weeks. Thing is, I’ve had some stuff to do lately, like:
(1) finishing a busy semester (five classes! four preps!)
(2) dual-couple job search (city-hopping for a week during Spring Break)
(3) getting a new job (!)
(4) planning an out-of-state move
(5) bought a house (whaat…)
(6) traded in & bought a new car
(7) making plans for initial upgrades to new home
So, there’s that. Plus, as the new recipes and photos have been piling up, I’ve been procrastinating. Here’s a new post after four months, then!
Positive Contact, a limited release cider/beer combo from Dogfish Head.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a local bar and tried one of their craft beers–Dogfish Head’s Positive Contact. It’s a combination of cider and beer, and it has a great balance with an herby, slightly spicy kind of flavor. More information is here. Honestly, it’s one of the best beers I’ve tasted in a while, worth even the rather high price per glass the bar was asking (though I only had one; at $7, that’s a lot to pay for beer). Unfortunately, though, it does have a limited release, and it isn’t available everywhere. But if you can find it in your local bar or grocery store, definitely try it!
Pastagate: Quebec Agency Criticized For Targeting Foreign Words On Menus : The Two-Way : NPR.
The above article explains the crazy lengths the Quebecois will go to excise other languages from their province. Kind of makes you glad the US doesn’t have a national language.
Ever wonder how they make ribbon candy, that classic hard candy only sold at Christmastime? Here’s a video of Hilliards Ribbon Candy, demonstrating how they make it. Looks so easy!
Watch the video here.
Which I’ve forgotten about recently. “Recently,” as in, since September, which I think is a decade in blogging years. But the semester is over now, so I can get back to posting more frequent updates. These updates will be coming soon as I have a list of 25 or so recipes backlogged to share here.
I’m also thinking, in addition to my more frequent posts about wine, to also add posts about beer recommendations. I’m still much more of a wine than a beer girl, but my case of Leinie’s in the fridge speaks otherwise at the moment.
Comments always welcome! Otherwise, I have no idea if anyone is out there listening. (Much like teaching, really.)
It’s taken me awhile to get the hang of Twitter. At first I expected to use it in the same way I use Facebook, which is to get updates from friends and to make it more personal. Then I discovered that Twitter is much more interesting when you follow news sites, bloggers, and celebs, things that are more difficult to navigate in Facebook. It’s also easier to use the networking site publicly, as Facebook has too much personal stuff on it I wouldn’t want most people reading about 🙂 So, I’ve developed my Twitter feed as a food news feed. I post things there that I find on the web or from other Twitter feeds. Please follow and RT!
Twitter: @ejfleitz
[PHooDie, my weblog, is not named after the term “Phood” as it is found at the above linked site. They define “phood” as a combination of pharmecuticals and food…whatever that is. Anyway, my “PHooD” deals with more academic approaches (hence the capitalized letters) and has nothing at all to do with drugs. Really. –EJF]
[Recently my boyfriend made me ramen for the first time. I thought the noodles themselves were good, but found the flavoring way too salty. I’ve been trying to think of ways to use the noodles without the flavoring packet, since it is so incredibly cheap (8 cents per serving). I found this blog post, 50 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles, and am curious to try some of the recipes. My boyfriend said he’d bring over a carton of ramen packages and we could try them sometime…I will let you know the results. EJF]
This website (http://www.keyingredients.org) is the homepage of the traveling Smithsonian exhibit, Key Ingredients: America by Food. I visited the exhibit in May when it came to the Historical Center here in town. The website has a lot of interesting and useful links.
From the website:
“Key Ingredients: America by Food will be traveling to 150 rural communities across the US through 2008.
“What exactly are kolaces, spaetzle and pierogie? Most of us eat day in day out without giving a second thought to the wealth of history and culture that shapes our dining habits and taste preferences.
“Our recipes, menus, ceremonies, and etiquette are directly shaped by our country’s rich immigrant experience, the history and innovations of food preparation technology, and the ever-changing availability of key ingredients.
“Curated by Charles Camp, Key Ingredients: America by Food explores the connections between Americans and the foods they produce, prepare, preserve, and present at the table – a provocative and thoughtful look at the historical, regional, and social traditions that merge in everyday meals and celebrations.
“The exhibition and web site are developed by Museum on Main Street, a partnership of the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils in service to museums and citizens of rural America.
“Through a selection of artifacts, photographs, and illustrations, Key Ingredients examines the evolution of the American kitchen and how food industries have responded to the technological innovations that have enabled Americans to choose an ever-wider variety of frozen, prepared, and fresh foods. Key Ingredients also looks beyond the home to restaurants, diners, and celebrations that help build a sense of community through food.
“Key Ingredients stimulates comparisons of “back then” and “right now,” “over there” and “right here.” The exhibition will engage audiences everywhere, creating conversations and inspiring community recollection and celebration.
“Each of the 150 venues hosting the exhibition is planning events, programs, and local exhibitions to link their own collections and local food specialties to the national story told in the exhibition.”
Here’s my review of the exhibit, from my other blog:
I went to the historical society’s special exhibit “Key Ingredients: America by Food.” I figured it would be in my subject area so I should go and see how the Smithsonian talked about food and national identity. It was interesting in several ways, but probably not the ways the Smithsonian intended it to be. I felt it relied so much on sweeping generalizations and technological determinism (see last week’s comment on Bolter). It felt very mainstream and easy-to-digest (no pun intended). I was sort of disappointed that the exhibit didn’t interrogate these assumptions, but then again I wasn’t too surprised either. Pretty much the extent of the exhibit was interesting trivia about random food labeled “American.” I felt the Smithsonian curators were telling us things we already knew about our foodways traditions, and/or oversimplifying concepts that would have probably been more interesting in more detail. Finally, the lack of objects surprised me–I expect to see things, not have to read lots of text, when I go to a museum.
It’s interesting to observe how mainstream culture talks about cooking habits, and the way they assume that machines revolutionized cooking, rather than people using machines. The missing ingredient (yes, that pun was intended) in the exhibit, and maybe a lot of mainstream culture, is the agency of the human. The whole exhibit–and much of food studies discourse–is all, “food defines us,” “we are what we eat,” “technology revolutionized the way we cook and eat food,” etc. What I am trying to do is look at the other end of that spectrum and see what people (okay, women) did WITH food to gain rhetorical power in the public sphere.
–ejfleitz
Love me, love my food. 