Archive for January, 2008
January 27, 2008 @ 9:18 am | Filed under: Links
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Class of 2k8 is a group of children’s-book authors whose first books will be published in 2008. They are offering a contest with giveways of their books.
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A great new home for Danielle’s blog. Don’t forget to update your feed!
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Creepy as all get-out. How radio frequency ID chips implanted in consumer goods may quietly destroy our privacy in the not-at-all-distant future.
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I think I already put this recipe post in my Google Shared Items, but I want it here for easy access. Black-eyed pea salad, yum.
January 26, 2008 @ 9:21 am | Filed under: Links
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Children’s book author Anastasia Suen announces the start of a new blog theme for Mondays: a roundup of posts about children’s nonfiction.
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Flash video showing constellations and planets visible in Northern Hemisphere.
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Do virtual public schools blur the line between public education and homeschooling? A Mississippi senator has submitted a bill which would require MS homeschoolers to conform to public school benchmarks.
January 25, 2008 @ 6:49 pm | Filed under: These People Crack Me Up
:::sound of silverware rattling in kitchen:::
Me: "Rilla, what are you up to in there?"
Toddler, emphatically: "NO!"
January 25, 2008 @ 9:53 am | Filed under: These People Crack Me Up
A notice:
Bitter Lesson 17
from "How to be a baby!"Don’t hang on the oven door, as it is liable to fall open and hurt you badly.
(For the record: the oven was not turned on at the time of the incident which led to the above words of wisdom; and the only thing "badly" hurt was a toddler’s dignity.)
(As for Bitter Lessons 1-16, I do not know what they are, but I’m told a certain big sister is compiling a book.)
January 24, 2008 @ 9:21 am | Filed under: Links
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The lastest edition of the CM Carnival, hosted by The Educational Life.
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Yes. Exactly. What she said.
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One of my favorite blogs has moved to Wordpress. I am loving Becky’s new pages. Yippee!
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Silvia at Po Moyemu puts out a call for submissions for a new carnival.
January 24, 2008 @ 7:44 am | Filed under: These People Crack Me Up
Beanie on Handel’s Water Music: "Mommy, this may sound funny, but just being near it makes me feel warmer."
January 23, 2008 @ 9:22 am | Filed under: Links
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GoodReads’ most-read fiction books of 2007.
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Goodreads’ most-read nonfiction for 2007.
January 22, 2008 @ 10:49 pm | Filed under: recipes
"Anne Shirley!" she exclaimed, "what on earth did you put into
that cake?"
"Nothing but what the recipe said, Marilla," cried Anne with a
look of anguish. "Oh, isn’t it all right?"
"All right! It’s simply horrible. Mr. Allan, don’t try to eat
it. Anne, taste it yourself. What flavoring did you use?"Vanilla," said Anne, her face scarlet with mortification after
tasting the cake. "Only vanilla. Oh, Marilla, it must have been
the baking powder. I had my suspicions of that bak—"
"Baking powder fiddlesticks! Go and bring me the bottle of
vanilla you used."
Anne fled to the pantry and returned with a small bottle
partially filled with a brown liquid and labeled yellowly,
"Best Vanilla."
Marilla took it, uncorked it, smelled it.
"Mercy on us, Anne, you’ve flavored that cake with anodyne
liniment. I broke the liniment bottle last week and poured what
was left into an old empty vanilla bottle. I suppose it’s partly
my fault—I should have warned you—but for pity’s sake why
couldn’t you have smelled it?"—Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
You remember how excited I was to make that tortilla soup. I checked the pantry for ingredients yesterday and thought about it all night. Mmm. Now, astonishingly, I was out of diced tomatoes. Diced tomatoes are my little-old-lady-stockpile item. I usually have half a dozen cans. I buy them every time I shop; it’s a compulsion; I can’t explain it—and yet today? Out.
But I found a carton of Trader Joe’s roasted tomato and red pepper soup: this seemed like a tasty substitute. And I had some pollo asada, which promised to make a delicious-sounding recipe absolutely stunning.
For what happened next, I believe I shall blame Alice. It’s her fault for being so engaging on the phone. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
We were chatting, and I was merrily assembling my soup. Sauteed the onions and the chicken: smelled good already. Added the tomato/red pepper soup, half the carton. Frozen corn, a can of black beans, lots of garlic, a can of green chilis. Mmm. I rummaged in the fridge to see if there was a carton of chicken broth open already. There was, almost full. I poured it in, added pepper and cumin.
It looked delicious. My mouth was watering. I had to taste it.
I was expecting that savory, spicy, cumin-and-chili tang. You may imagine, therefore, my bewilderment at what was unmistakably a sweet flavor. And what was that, nutmeg? Cloves? What on earth?
In a sudden panic I checked the tomato-pepper soup ingredients. What if Trader Joe had served up a nutmeg-spiced soup? Had I blown it, mixing this into my spicy Latino dish?
But no, the ingredients reassured me. Tomatoes, peppers, no nutmeg, no cloves. I tasted the soup again. Odd. So very sweet! Really pretty horrible. Definitely a strong taste of—what? Ginger? Cinnamon?
And that’s when I noticed the little yellow teacup on the golden carton of chicken broth. A teacup? On broth?
Oh, no.
Oh yes.
"Break from the everyday" indeed. Black tea, vanilla, spices (nutmeg! cinnamon!), and honey. Just add milk! And tomato soup! And onions, garlic, chicken, and green chili!
Oh, I am a brilliant cook. My recipes? You will not find the like of them anywhere. Food Network keeps ringing my phone off the hook. I’m sorry, I tell them. I already have a job. Three or four of them, actually. I cannot be your next Food Network Star. Yes, "Melissa’s Melting Pot" is a fabulous name for my unique and eclectic kind of culinary fusion. But I’m sorry. You’ll have to get by without me. Tell you what, you may give my recipe for Tortilla Chai Soup to Rachael Ray, with my compliments. I’m pretty sure Alton Brown could get some good mileage out of it as well. There must certainly have been some interesting chemical reactions happening in my stew pot.
Well, the Food Network may be heartbroken, but my story, like Anne’s, has a fairly happy ending. I am glad to say I saved the soup. I sieved it and rinsed off all the vanilla tea broth. Saved the good stuff, the chicken, beans, veggies. Tried again with the rest of the tomato-pepper soup, some salsa, and, yes, actual chicken broth made from chickens. Not from a fancy tea concentrate Scott bought me as a present, and which it causes him great pain to know was poured down the drain. I am sorry, babe. But the soup turned out to be pretty good, didn’t it?
I think it was that hint of nutmeg beneath the cumin.
January 22, 2008 @ 9:20 am | Filed under: Links
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$8 PDF download of cut paper patterns by Amy Karol (Bend the Rules Sewing). Nice Valentine’s gift.
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Wow. Fairly stunning video. Evidently the air is so cold that as the waves break upon the shore, the spray freezes. Great chunks of slushy ice are piling up against one another. A chilling sight!
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From blissbyheather. Instructions w/ photos for making a small fabric bag w/ wrist strap.
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Gorgeous. I can’t stop hitting replay.
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Such a lovely giveaway package! The Bantry Bay books and more.
January 22, 2008 @ 7:59 am | Filed under: Current Affairs, Education News & Issues, Homeschool Legislation, Special Education, Special Needs Children
I meant to blog about this last week but need more time to do some research. I haven’t lived in New York for six years and am not totally up to date on the education regulations there any more. But this recent development shocked me and it most definitely needs to be talked about.
So I was glad to see that my college classmate Andrea has posted a letter to Governor Spitzer addressing her concerns about the NY Board of Regents and Department of Education’s reinterpretation of the federal IDEA law. Their recent ruling, if you haven’t heard, will deny free, public-school-provided special services like speech therapy and OT to homeschooled children in New York State. These services will continue to be available to children enrolled in public and private schools.
These special services are paid for by the taxpayers. In other states, the public schools are required to provide the same special services to homeschooled and private-schooled children as they do to public-school students. Federal law mandates this. It is under this law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, that Wonderboy is able to receive necessary speech therapy and audiology services through our local school district, even though we are officially registered as a private school under California education regulation.
Andrea speaks eloquently to the importance of such services:
I am not a zealot. I am a concerned parent who, at great personal and
financial sacrifice, is trying to provide her two, exceptional children
with the tools needed to become life-long learners and independent,
creative problem-solvers capable of living their lives to the fullest
their capabilities allow…This
act by the NYS Ed. Dept. (revoking services to home schooled IEP kids)
feels like a slap in the face for families whose financial and emotional resources are already spread thin to breaking.
Andrea suspects that the policy change has more to do with funding problems than anything else. No matter what the cause, it is hard to believe that the state would choose to interpret the federal law in a manner that excludes homeschoolers but includes privately schooled children. This is stunningly inconsistent.
