This recipe is largely in service of my favorite new technique for peeling tomatoes: with a blowtorch.
The tip comes from a book I bought at Maker Faire called Chef’s Secrets, and Chef J. Bryce Whittlesey (who once worked at Keswick Hall near Charlottesville) instructs the reader that the blowtorch option prevents the tomato from [...]

I’ve posted the below review on the Goodreads site; of all the spooky literature I crave in October, this play might be my favorite.
Proof: A Play by David Auburn

My review on Goodreads

rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Proof” is ideal for the witching hours of the night, when you cannot sleep, idly [...]

I’ve just spent the weekend with hackers at Maker Faire in Austin, Texas.

Sitting next to the cool kids from the Austinist, who offered maps to let people draw their area landmarks,

I met inventors, idealists, and geeks and told them about the Knight News Challenge.

Wandering, I watched as the Austin Metal Authority forged [...]

Each time I visit, I fall harder for Austin, Texas–the pride in local, surfeit of vintage, and funktacular food entice me into scheming ways to make migas my regular breakfast.
Yesterday, the delightful Rosental Alves, who directs the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, invited me to talk to his journalism class preceding one [...]

My favorite tweet (read: Twitter update) of recent weeks was Lane Becker’s Thursday: “Can you imagine? A federal government that took typography seriously?”
It so happens that Thursday morning I was walking through a Miami airport terminal after my identification and boarding pass were checked five times, and I paused at prints on the walls from [...]

Something about Cambridge in the fall—the colorful leaves, undergraduates attempting to look morose in careful layers of (let’s acknowledge it, plaid) clothing, cadenced conversations rising from patios and bricked walkways—it feels as incredibly American as…apple pie ice cream from Lizzy’s on Church Street.

A bit precious, maybe, but delicious. To follow that, [...]

I’ve always been fascinated by the Italian whey cheese ricotta and its ability to go from sweet to savory to salty (ricotta salata). Turns out ricotta is easy to make (with cow milk substituting for sheep).
While it traditionally provides creamy inner layers for lasagna, fresh ricotta is even lovelier on top of pasta and [...]

The poetry world is rather upset this week about the “pirated poetry anthology” Issue 1, published as a .pdf (3,785 pages) by Stephen McLaughlin and Jim Carpenter.
A Kristen Taylor is included, and her poem on page 104 is titled “Coats made without courage”.
I find the project amusing and imagine the editors rounded out the [...]

I’ve joined the Goodreads book community, and I may post a review on kthread from time to time. Below is the first review I’ve written for the site, which is a very active community of readers and reviewers. Let me know if you’d like me to send the book to you now that I’ve finished [...]