Rating: 2/5 This past weekend I had the opportunity of visiting with a brother- and sister-in-law, their daughter, and their newborn son. My brother-in-law also went out and bought Assassin’s Creed III (AC3) the day we arrived with the hope of getting at least part way through it over the weekend. We only played the...
Rating: 4/5 Marty Makary, MD, Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012). A vital issue, harrowing stories, and reasonable solutions. The problem is the corporatization of health care and the lack of incentives to improve health...
Rating: 4/5 David Wong, John Dies at the End (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010). David Wong is the pen name of Jason Pargin, senior editor at Cracked.com . If you’ve never visited the site, and you’re OK with a little coarse language, check it out. You will laugh out loud. This book is a fascinating cross between...
FallCon is a 26-hours-over-three-days boardgaming convention that happens in Calgary the last weekend of every September. This year was their 25th anniversary. Talk about overstimulation! There are hosted events, where you are taught the games by an “ambassador” (always the best way), and of course open gaming is...
Just made vanilla ice cream with vanilla beans for the first time. WOW! I don’t think I can ever go back to vanilla ice cream with extract ever again—even high-quality extract! Absolutely delicious! I just might eat this entire batch right now! Costco here in Calgary currently sells Rodelle-brand vanilla beans in...
Rating: 4/5 Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011). This is one serious piece of work! This 650-page tome presents an excellent high-level summary of the history behind the conflicts we are seeing today in the Middle East. It does what a good history book should do: that is,...
Rating: 3/5 W. Tecumseh Fitch, The Evolution of Language (Cambridge University Press, 2010). This is a textbook that surveys the state of research into the evolution of language. It does a high-level survey of our current understanding of human evolution, and Fitch then goes through seemingly each and every hypothesis...
Rating: 3/5 Robert Silverberg (ed.), Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929–1964 (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1970). I typically really enjoy historic science fiction, and I was really looking forward to reading this collection. I wasn’t totally disappointed. About half the stories were really enjoyable,...
Original Recipe: Wayne Gisslen, Professional Baking, 5th ed. (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009), p. 349. Ingredients Powdered almonds (60%) Sugar (80%) Cake flour (28%) [I just used all purpose flour] Coconut, grated (10%) Egg whites (100%) Sugar (80%) Method I don’t bother with almond flour because it is more...
(yields 2 quarts) Original Recipe: Cuisinart® Instruction and Recipe Booklet for the CIM-60PCC Series Ingredients 4 cups red raspberries (thawed, if frozen) 1 cup sugar 2 ¼ cups half-and-half, divided 6 large egg yolks ¼ cup skim milk powder 1 cup heavy cream 2 tsp vanilla Method Purée the raspberries in a food...