Amber

When I was younger, we used to go to a restaurant in Los Angeles, the long-gone Scandia. It was one of those places where they would wheel up the salad cart, and toss a big bowl of salad right at your table. Since some members of my family went there a lot, they made a special salad for us, which had lots of finely chopped vegetables in it, as well as little cubes of avocado.

It was always fun for a kid from the sticks of New England to sit in that restaurant, installed in a high-backed booth, watching the celebrities and the hoi-polloi mingle and eat nearby. But as much as I loved the salad, and straining my neck every time someone walked in the door, I couldn’t stand those slippery little green bits in there and would eat around them as politely as I could. Needless to say, nowadays, I can put all those avocados that I missed out on years later, on the same list with all those New England lobster platters that featured twin lobsters for $8.99 that I didn’t order when I was growing up.

Continue Reading Avocado Coconut Ice Cream...

by Logan Sachon

Carolyn Parkhurst’s collection of “teenage expansion packs” including birth control options for American Girl dolls are fantastic. God bless progress.

“Molly (Jefferson, IL, born 1934): Molly is a modern girl and is eager to be well-informed about ‘the birds and the bees’! Her friends have already notified her that a woman can’t get pregnant the first time she has sex, or any time that she and her beau achieve congress while standing up. For extra security, she’s filled her Hope Chest ($72) with supplies: a box of rubber condoms, and bottles of Coca-Cola and Lysol for emergency douching.”

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by Logan Sachon

Kim O’Grady applied to a lot of jobs. So many jobs. Kim O’Grady got 0 responses. Kim O’Grady was like, “What is UP with this, I am a qualified applicant, a gift to my field, anyone should want me. What is GOING ON.” Then as an experiment Kim O’Grady added “MR.” in front of “Kim O’Grady.” An invitation for an interview came the next day, and a job offer the next week.

Kim is a dude so this all worked out for him but maybe the rest of us should try it anyway and then show up in a dress and be all, a HA.

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Lettuce has been harvested for millenia—it was depicted by ancient Egyptians on the walls of tombs dating back to at least 2,700 B.C. The earliest version of the greens resembled two modern lettuces: romaine, from the French word “romaine” (from Rome), and cos lettuce, believed to have been found on the island of Kos, located along the coast of modern day Turkey.  

But in Ancient Egypt around 2,000 B.C., lettuce was not a popular appetizer, it was an aphrodisiac, a phallic symbol that represented the celebrated food of the Egyptian god of fertility, Min. (It is unclear whether the lettuce’s development in Egypt predates its appearance on the island of Kos.) The god, often pictured with an erect penis in wall paintings and reliefs was also known as the “great of love” as he is called in a text from Edfu Temple. The plant was believed to help the god “perform the sexual act untiringly.”

Salima Ikram, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo who specializes in Ancient Egyptian food explains Min’s part in lettuce history. “Over 3,000 years, [Min's] role did change, but he was constantly associated with lettuce,” she says.

The first of these depictions appeared around 1970-80 B.C. in the The White Chapel of Senusret I, though there may be earlier examples, Ikram says.

This relief, from the funerary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, for example, depicts Min’s harvest festival. At the center is a statue of Min. Behind him, a procession of priests holds a small garden of lettuce. Min is also sometimes depicted wearing a long, red ribbon around his forehead that some say represents sexual energy.

“One of the reasons why [the Egyptians] associated the lettuce with Min was because it grows straight and tall—an obvious phallic symbol,” Ikram says. “But if you broke off a leaf it oozed a sort of white-ish, milky substance—basically it looked like semen.”

When the butt of modern Romaine lettuce is cut off, a similar substance oozes from the plant and gives it a bitter flavor. Lettuce’s scientific classification lactuca sativa, is derived from the Latin word for milk and shares the same root as lactose, the sugar enzyme found in dairy products. (Ed. — corrected thanks to feedback from reader joelfinkle) (While we’re talking etymology, raw lettuce dishes known as herba salata (“salted greens”) gave rise to the English word “salad.”) Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book provides further options for what the lettuce milk of the “ithyphallic god of increase” may represent:

Lettuce was sacred to him because of the “straight vertical surge” of their growth, milky juice they exude which could be taken as a symbol of mothers milk or semen.

Ancient Egyptians used the lettuce differently than those who would come later. The leaves had a greenish blue color and were often removed from the plant due to their bitter taste. Instead of being part of a meal, the seeds from the bud of the flowers were harvested and pressed for their natural oils which were used for cooking, medication—even mummification. Lettuce oil was a standard in the Egyptian materia medica and even today is used as a traditional remedy for hair regrowth.

The Greeks and Romans later popularized the leafy veggie as an appetizer during the 81-96 A.D. reign of Domitian. When they first introduced a set order of courses, the meal included a salad at the beginning to stimulate the appetite and also at the end to encourage digestion, according to author Gil Marks. It was still considered a medicinal goldmine by the Greeks and Romans, but for a different reason than the Egyptians—they believed it helped people sleep. Under Domitian’s reign, as the story goes, the ruler would force his guests to eat lettuce before the meal so as to make them struggle to remain awake for the remainder of the visit.

Another interesting lettuce-related story in Ancient Egypt, not for the faint-of-stomach: In Egyptian history there are many battles between the Egyptian deity Horus and Set, the god of the desert. Though the argument was usually over which of the two had the rightful claim to rule Egypt, one rather odd battle involves lettuce. According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, as interpreted by Ikram, Set at one point tries to overpower Horus by seducing him and then having intercourse with him. Horus places his hand between his legs, catches Set’s semen and throws it into the river. “Horus [then] tricks Set by basically spurting his sperm and throwing it into a lettuce plant, ” Ikram says. Because Set eats the semen-covered lettuce, in the eyes of the gods, Horus was dominant—at least until the next battle.

We all have good intentions when it comes to eating well and exercising. However, such as the case with most things, most of us are creatures of habit and it is hard to break the routines we have been in for most of our lives. Here are some tips to help you make healthy eating habits more permanent.

Plan ahead
When you're trying to eat healthy, it's easy to get sidetracked by a busy day at work or unexpected events in the evening. The better prepared you are with healthy snacks and pre-planned meals, the easier it will be to stay committed.
 
Give yourself a break
While I am an advocate for eating whole, real foods, sometimes healthy convenience foods have a place in our intake for times that are crazy. I love the convenience options at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods including salmon burgers, turkey meatballs, veggie burgers, pre-cooked lentils, whole foods hot bar, etc. Take advantage of these still healthy options.

Don't diet
Don't remove or restrict anything from your diet, especially the foods you love. If you try to be perfect, your healthy eating habits will not last. The trick is to keep unhealthy foods to a minimum. It's okay to partake in a less-than-nutritious meal once in awhile. Just move on and do better next time.

Get creative in the kitchen
Make sure your meals include a variety of foods and keep them satisfying. Eating the same things every day can grow old and cause you to grab something you should avoid at the last minute. Eating healthy does not mean grilled chicken and vegetables every night!

Include lean protein and healthy fats in every meal and snack
These nutrients keep you energized, make you feel full and stabilize your blood sugars, helping to prevent crashes or energy dips later in the day, which may cause you to overeat or make less healthy choices.

Keep track of your food intake
Writing down your food choices keeps you accountable and allow you to see trends in how you feel in relation to what you eat.

Find support
Find a friend, family member or co-worker who will support your commitment to healthy eating. Work with a professional who can provide accurate goals and ways to achieve them. Take advantage of trusted resources and become knowledgeable about what you are eating.

Totally sweet! I created an extremely helpful infographic for Craftsy regarding decorating tips and their appropriate uses. This is the small version--for a bigger and more detailed version, check out the Craftsy post! 

 

By Rachel Wilkerson, 2013 APW Writing Intern

Over the past couple years I’ve found myself frustrated by the way our culture talks about friendships. Or, more important, by the way we don’t talk about friendships. While the dominant narrative seems to involve every woman having Best Friends 4-Eva who all know each other and hang out together every weekend (thanks, Sex and the City!), we tend to remove friendships from most discussions on relationships. I find it a little bizarre that we take for granted that every woman will have a best friend who will have the power to lift her up, and yet we don’t talk about making friends, keeping friends, or what to do when friendships start to hurt us. We also avoid discussing the fact that many of us just don’t have friends anymore because we’re all moving around too damn much. I, for one, would like to see more women’s magazines devote as much space to the topic of friendship as they do to romantic relationships. “101 Ways to Please Your Friends This Weekend!” “Exactly What To Say to Blow Your Friend’s Mind Tonight!”

In the spirit of giving friendships the attention they deserve, let’s talk about friend relationships… which are not so different from romantic ones when you get down to it. And if you’re thinking, “Well, shit, Rachel, I already struggled with that for years and now you’re telling me I have to start over? The rejection never really ends?” I’m here to tell you… yes. Sorry. But the good news is, we can take what we learned from years of being told by women’s magazines “How To Land A Man!” and apply it to the process of making new friends.

As someone who has moved around quite a bit in the past ten years before finally settling in Houston where I had no friends, I like to think of myself as the friend version of a pick-up artist. (But I’m far less creepy than the romantic PUAs, I swear.) Here are some things I’ve learned in the past few years about the fine art of friend courting.

1. Figure out where your potential friends hang out. When I was dating, I knew I would meet guys by going where the guys were. Sometimes this meant online dating sites, but more likely it meant bars, cool events, parties, etc. Similarly, when trying to make new friends, you can start by putting yourself in a position to meet other people who are your age with similar interests. For me, it’s been going to boutique workout studios and attending their workshops and social events; the smaller atmosphere makes it easier to bond with other people there, and, eventually, faces become familiar. If that’s not your thing, are there other classes where your potential peeps might be? I’ve found that Groupon/Living Social/etc. are good ways to find out what like-minded people are doing in your city. Even if you don’t buy the deals, you might discover new places to try out and meet potential friends. It might take some trial and error, but eventually, you’ll have that moment when you just think, “Oh! These are my people!”

2. Make your intentions clear. I’ve found the easiest way to make friends is to let people know I’m looking. Why is this such a taboo thing to say? Most of us are cool with telling people when we’re single or putting our relationship status on our Facebook profiles, so we shouldn’t feel awkward about saying we need to make new friends. There’s no shame in it. I’ve been set up with a lot of new friends simply because I’ve been open about my desire to make new friends. And when I meet someone new who I seem to click with, I’m now comfortable saying, “Oh we should hang out some time! I just moved here and haven’t met a lot of people yet!” So many women breathe a sigh of relief at that statement and confess that they, too, need to make new friends and have been struggling with it. I also often friend potential new friends on Facebook, which feels like the equivalent of saying, “What’s your number?” when dating.

3. Don’t be shy. I never went to a bar hoping to meet guys and then hid in a corner all night; I put myself in a position (at the bar, batting my eyelashes and sticking my tail up like Bambi) to hit and be hit on. You kind of have to do the same thing when making friends. Have an opening line, the same way you would with potential dates. Good starting points: jump into a conversation that you find relevant to your shared interests or just give a compliment. Once you’ve started up a conversation, friendship can easily follow. You tell someone you like her yoga pants… the following week, you overhear her say she’s attending the studio’s inversions workshop, you say you are too, suggest you meet a little early for breakfast because you’d like to be friends, and boom—now you have a friend date! And all you had to do was just be nice and friendly.

4. Come up with good friend date ideas. Unlike when I was dating, when I waited for the other person to ask me out and make the plans (and, if they didn’t, I just texted them something inappropriate at 1 AM to get the ball rolling), I had to be a bit more aggressive with courting friends. So don’t just say, “We should get together sometime!” Whenever a guy said that to me, I’d think, Eh. Whatever. Probably not going to happen. But if, after a long discussion about, say, sushi, a guy said to me, “We should get sushi sometime!” and then suggested his favorite sushi place… well, I went from interested to naked in no time at all. So if you hear about a cool event going on in town? Invite your potential friend. This will also help you nail down a date and time so it’s more likely to happen; I find that coffee and happy hour friend dates just always seem to get rescheduled.

5. Don’t expect sparks to fly right away. You probably went on a lot of bad or just “eh…no chemistry” dates before meeting a great significant other, so why would you expect that you’ll hit it off with every friend you meet? You won’t. But I’ve found that while sometimes it takes a little time to decide if you really click with a new friend, unlike in dating, you aren’t keeping yourself from meeting more friends if you “settle” for someone. So if it’s a no chemistry thing, hang in there, and if she invites you to group events (like, say, her birthday party), go! You might find that you connect with her friends more than with her.

6. Know when to quit. While I believe that making new friends is a worthwhile effort, it’s also a lot of effort, and, much like dating, your heart has to be in it. There have definitely been times when I’ve felt pressure from older friends or acquaintances to make new friends in Houston, and, frankly, this got under my skin much the same way it would if someone was constantly telling single me that I should find a boyfriend. After a year of courting new friends, I found that most days, I’d rather spend my limited free time video chatting with my old friends than going on a “blind date” with a potential new friend. Or, hell, wandering around Target by myself for an hour because that is a glorious Friday night for me. I now have a couple friends in Houston who I could call in an emergency or when there’s a new exhibit at the museum that looks interesting, and a bunch of childhood and college friends in other states who I talk to regularly thanks to modern technology.

But… everyone says that you find love when you stop looking and, despite the fact that I pretty much told anyone who would listen I was on a man hunt just before I met Eric, my guess is that friendship is the same way. So play the game if and when you want to, but don’t feel bad when you don’t. I mean, everyone knows a woman’s real best friend is her dog anyway; I have two and they love the same things I do (waking up early, grooming, growling at people who come near our food) and they call me every five minutes… just like a BFF should.

Photo by APW Sponsor Christina Richards

[Photograph published with permission by Richard Austin]

This is the cutest picture I have ever seen and probably ever will. It's taken by the award-winning British photographer Richard Austin.

Think that's cute? Take a look at his other amazing cute animal photos on his website here, including, oh, a pig and a pint, or ducklings in a cup, or how about this super wide-eyed otter with a teddy bear?

I am surprised that his site has not broken the internet yet.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

• Not all of us live in Brooklyn! In fact, the vast majority of us do not live in Brooklyn.
• Most of us don’t get money from our parents! Nor do we want it! Assuming that everyone has parents who could or would bankroll a life in NYC or SF is fatuous. What many of us want and most of us have are jobs.
• Yes! Jobs! We have them! We get up and put on work-appropriate clothes and then go to work and do our best and come home.
• We did not all study humanities! Of those who did, lots have great jobs! And even if some don’t — did you make no stupid decisions when you were 19? Do you think that maybe someone who is deeply in debt with few job prospects maybe has learned his or her lesson without your public concern-trolling?
• Not every 20-something female who is making a movie/writing a book/running a blog needs to be compared to Lena Dunham. Lena is insanely talented and telling an interesting story. But: It is a story. It is not the only story.
• Yeah, Boomers: a lot of us are narcissistic. Also, we’re in our 20s. 20-somethings are to narcissism as teens are to contentless rebellion, or 50-somethings are to weird, expensive hobbies that bring them joy.
• We grew up with a model, and set of assumptions, that proved untrue. During our childhoods, unemployment was low, houses gained in value, a bachelor’s degree left you prepared for a variety of employment opportunities and investing was a sound decision. Now all of those things aren’t the case. It’s our job to deal with that, and that’s fine. Generations have faced much worse. But it’s easy to distrust a system that melted down so spectacularly just as it was time for us to buy into it.
• Seriously: is this just a need for an older generation to feel anxious about the next one? Do you really think humanity has devolved spectacularly in the past 15 years, and there is something uniquely wrong with us? Do you just need something to rile the readership up? What is the deal?

One of the funnest* parts of book publicity are the emails and comments I get after every TV appearance. Here’s a very representative one:

It really is kind* of this stranger to take a moment out of her no doubt rich and fulfilling life to inform me of something I’d previously never noticed*. I definitely did not spend years of my life thinking that I’d be pretty if only it weren’t for my gap*, and never opening my mouth to smile so that it was this awkward grimace thing which immediately dropped off my face*.

(Note: everything marked with a * is a lie. Just so we’re all on the same page.)

I had braces, but the gap was more powerful. I thought about cosmetic work. I almost wrote a check for it. 

And then one day I woke up and said, fuck it. This is stupid. This thing is a part of you and if you spend one more second angst-ing about something that is not a problem and does not impact your life then that’s on you. How much time had I wasted on this already?

If you want to, you can spend your entire life picking out things to hate about yourself. You can find a new non-reality-based appearance concern to fixate on each and every day, if you want.

Or you can do your best to accept that it doesn’t matter to anyone but you, then actually smile in pictures.

Squid Burlissimo

Quick-cooking.  Low-fat.  Fresh-tasting.  How could squid not be part of your everyday kitchen?

Well, the squid part kept me from cooking them for a long time.  Big bodies you need to clean or frozen blocks you need to defrost and use.  But that changed at the seafood counter at Wegmans.

They're easy there.  Sold cleaned -- either as tubular bodies or bundled tentacles. You literally just slice them and cook, no harder than a fish filet.  We go with bodies.  Buy maybe a 1/4 pound per person.  Then find recipes that keep me from deep-frying them into crunchy calamari.

My current recipe was adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe in the New York Times.  Sautéed squid with lime, hot pepper and mint.  Served -- by accident -- on toasted bread when I misread Clark's recipe and then decided that I liked the change.  It's a fresh little dinner, great flavors and dedicated to the famous Duke and Duchess of Burlbaugh.

Squid Burlissimo
serves two, easy to double if you cook in two batches

4 tbl olive oil
1/2 pound squid bodies, cleaned
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small Thai pepper, seeded
1 lime
1/4 c. chopped mint
thin slices of crusty bread -- 2 large or 4 small

1) Rinse the squid, then drain and dry with a paper towel.  The bodies are long tubes, pointed on one end and open on the other.  Slice them into 3/4-inch-wide rings.  Pat dry, then put in a bowl.

Watermelon & feta salad

2) Heat a skillet large enough to hold the squid over high heat.  Let the pan get very hot.  Add the oil to the pan.  Then add the squid.  Sprinkle with salt and cook them for one minute without touching them.

3) Flip the squid.  Add the garlic and hot pepper.  Cook one or two more minutes.  Cook the squid until it gets firm and opaque.

4) At the same time, toast or grill the bread.

5) Pour the squid, oil, garlic and hot pepper into a clean bowl.  Squeeze the lime to pour juice over the squid.  Add the mint and stir.  You want a bit of oil at the bottom of the bowl.  Add a 1/2 tsp if you don't have enough.

5) Put the bread on plates or a serving platter.  Spoon squid onto the bread.  Spoon a bit of the oil on each slice.  Serve immediately.

Consider serving with a salad made of cubed watermelon, feta and basil.  Dress with a little olive oil and salt.

Andrew Johnson has been diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson's Disease and recently underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery to implant a brain pacemaker that supplies his brain with regular and reliable electrical pulses. In this incredible video, Johnson turns the pacemaker off and you can see the effect that DBS has had on his life.

Understatement of the year at the end of the video. Wow. Johnson writes about his experience with Parkinson's on his site, Young and Shaky. (thx, eamon)

Tags: medicine   Parkinson's Disease   science   video

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The National Archives and Records Administration has issued a draft of its Strategic Plan for FY 2014-2019 for public comment (comments due June 28, which is not a lot of time).

I’m just reading through it now for the first time and am struck by the change in the description of NARA’s mission from the existing plan to this one:

From the 2009 Strategic Plan:

MISSION
The National Archives and Records Administration serves American democracy by safeguarding and preserving the records of our Government, ensuring that the people can discover, use, and learn from this documentary heritage.We ensure continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their government. We support democracy, promote civic education, and facilitate historical understanding of our national experience

From the current draft:

NARA drives openness, cultivates public participation, and strengthens our nation’s democracy through public access to high-value government records

That’s quite a shift in emphasis, wouldn’t you say? Nothing there about preservation, although perhaps the authors think that’s implied. And “high-value” records? I suppose that’s thought to be an improvement over lengthier descriptions of the qualities of records makes them worthy of preservation, but that seems like a very clumsy way to describe it.

This certainly reflects a shift to try to make the archives appear more action-oriented, rather than a passive custodian, but I think something may have been lost along the way. What about you, any thoughts on the “as-is” and proposed “to-be”?

 

 

Facebook has made many changes to their updates since their conception.  Some good, some bad.  The one that really bothered me was the inability to see every update of the pages that I had liked.  Even if I liked a page and wanted to get notified when they made a post, I was unable to because facebook filtered out what content I could see.

Boo.  Hiss.

But that has changed now!  You can easily see all the updates to your favorite fan pages, and I will show you how to do it in 10 seconds flat.*

*Actual time varies.  Some folks people read fast.  Some folks read slow.  Some people skim and screw up the directions and have to go back and re-read.  And by some people I mean me.

Simply pull up the facebook page that you want to follow.

 

If you havent already, “like” the page.

Let your mouse hover over the “liked” button, and this box will pop up.  Right under ‘Show in News Feed’ it says, “Settings”.

Click on “Settings”.

Once you click on “settings” you will be allowed to choose the frequency with which you view that pages updates.

 

Choose “All Updates”.

And there you go!

Feel free to stop by the iambaker facebook page and choose the ‘all updates’ option.

Then we can hang out together the way we were meant too.