We Went to Japan

...e eye of a Daruma doll to bring good fortune. Daruma dolls for sale at the festival. Our time in Japan was just before Sakura (cherry blossom season). A few trees were blooming early and the stores were full of Sakura themed goods and foods. There’s even a Sakura themed Domino’s pizza meal. Tokyo was immensely fun to wander at night and I kept thinking of the class I took on Frederic Jameson’s book Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Cap...

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Saturday Linkages: Water Shaming, Scotts and Robot Houses

Smarter urban water: how Denver turned to ridiculing waste http://gu.com/p/4va3t/tw Grid-It: Knoll your everyday carry http://boingboing.net/2014/08/20/grid-it-knoll-your-edc.html … In Our Garden: Four Surprising Fruits http://thehorticult.com/in-our-garden-four-surprising-fruits-that-are-now-in-full-swing/ … Sneak peak of a LIGHT-UP ROBOT-FACE Tree House http://relaxshacks.blogspot.com/2014/08/sneak-peak-of-light-up-robot-face-tree.html?spref=tw...

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One Secret for Delicious Soup–A Parmesan Cheese Rind

...hard rinds. They are magic flavor bombs. All you do is add them to soup or bean dishes. Add them at the start of cooking, because they need a good long while to soften up and release their flavor goodness. They don’t make the dish taste cheesy, but rather add that elusive umami (rich, savory) character to the dish. I think it would be redundant to use the rind if you are already using meat or bacon fat or the like in your soup, but for vegetable-b...

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Solar recipe review: Moroccan Chickpea Tagine (Works on the stovetop, too)

...an likely pull this out of your pantry right now. If you have fresh cooked beans or your own canned tomatoes it would be all that much better, but this is a good recipe for busy days. The resulting stew is comfort food, spicy and sweet. My one critique is that it is perhaps a little too sweet. It calls for raisins or currants, and I used raisins. The raisins ended up being preternaturally sweet–perhaps due to the slow cooking? They’d be fantastic...

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