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LAPL at Home | Catching Up

I’ve had 30 books out on loan for the last couple of months.  This is just some of what’s been at home.

It’s been a bit since I’ve written about anything, really.  And books?  Well, it’s been even longer.  Russel Simmons’ Super Rich was much more interesting* than I expected.  Five Ingredient Fix, not so much.

Still looking for my pliers and at books about making jewelry.

N♥

*I appreciate that RS is speaking from his own place of truth and connecting to people.  I’d been reading the book on the train, occasionally trying to hide the cover.  As I was close to finishing, a middle-aged white man notices the book and tells me that was touched greatly by it.  This was not the audience for the book I was expecting and in some ways that’s the point of the interconnectedness of our human experience and the common pursuit of sustainable happiness.

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LAPL At Home | But I Don’t Even Make Bread…

i’ve got 26 books and one french film out on loan.  this is just some of what’s at home…


Aesthetics & Intuition…

Why didn’t anyone tell me about The Well-Dressed Home?  I know I probably wasn’t listening or was taking a blogosphere timeout.  But, really, couldn’t you have hit me over the head or something?  It’s on the wishlist (♥: Mommy!) and this will be the second time it’s come home with me for an extended stay.  I spotted Life’s Too Short To Fold Fitted Sheets during a Chronicle Books search of the LAPL catalog.  I don’t like to fold much, so this might be the “Do Less” manifesto I haven’t been looking for.

Winter’s Got Me Thinking About The Hog And Hearty Cooking…

I have a confession to make: I have pork fat in the freezer.  No meat, just fat.  I got kinda excited when I saw it in the store.  I cut up some and threw it in the pot with onions, garlic, bay leaves and dried black beans.  Hello, Ecstasy.  Glad you could join me. So, I’m thinking about the pork.  No, beef or chicken or other critters.  (♥:Eeeek!)  And what did I get from the library?  Um, Pork & Sons, The Country Cooking of Ireland and River Cottage Cookbook.

It’s going to be a bit River Cottage-y around here for a while.  The Bread Handbook looks to be an interesting read.  Reading, yes.  Doing, I don’t know.  I haven’t even made biscuit bread in ages.  So love the simple beauty of Gavin Kingcome’s photographs.  The Meat book and Preserves handbook are in the Holds Queue.

Return Engagements and Explorations…

All too frequently, time passes too quickly and I don’t have enough of it to go in deep on books that at first glance seem right up my alley.  Will definitely be spending some quality time with Tamasin Day-Lewis’ Supper for a Song.

I thought I’d revisit Baked while I wait in the queue for the new book.

I live in LA, yet most of my Latin American influenced cooking is based on flavors from the Caribbean.  To be completely honest, I’m not all that adventurous when it comes to real Mexican food.  I know I’m starting small with Antojitos, but I gotta start somewhere.

Ummm…

Another Confession: I got a little squeamish cutting up the pork fat.  I think the tide is too easily turned.  The pictures of all the meat in different states of being isn’t really helping.  Where my beets at?

N♥

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ummm, so how’s that going?

i don’t really want to talk about it.

Remember how I was going to start taking book breaks.  I was going to try to read things besides cook, crafty and showmehow books.  Things Fall Apart was top of the list with a nod to the diaspora.

So, how’s that going? Kinda, not?  I’m in recipe-ville.  I’m all about cooking and stuff.  I’ve watched a lot of telly, too.  (♥:Excuses.) Fine.  Seriously, I want/need a comfy reading chair.

Remember that denim and print tote bag.

So, how’s that going? Huh? Uhhh.  I know.  The Make:Stuff List is growing and I’ve yet to get beyond the ideas in my head.  Arrggghhh.

I’ve got to live by the writing on wall.

Nikki♥

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i’m going to try | book breaks

i need to do something about this not reading thing.  it’s weird.

I miss reading.  I miss really getting lost in a book.  Being taken to a place in someone else’s head with my own mind painting by the numbers given.  All I can seem to handle right now are the pretty how-to/lets do! cook and create books.

I can’t seem to sit or sit still.  I’ve got this attention deficit issue that isn’t helped by my best friends ibook and dsl.  I hang out with them so much that I don’t give myself any non-visual stimulation time.  And I have to get working on making a comfortable space in the apt to just chill.  The chairs are good for writing, not reading.  And the new bed is all warm milk and counted sheep.  I can’t keep my eyes open.

So while I look for curl up-able seating, I’m instituting book breaks.  An hour a day.  Okay, maybe 30 minutes.  Just to get started.  Get my head into it, without my back complaining too much.

And since I have to start somewhere.  I think that somewhere is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Nikki♥