Bragworthy

I have received the holy grail, and I am bragging about it to everyone I know!


Behold!!





and I got the ARC of the second too! (I just didn't have it with me at work, when I took the photo). Stay tuned for reviews on SFRevu later in the fall. So far, I'm most impressed by the apparent retail of these books, less than $30 each, and about 700 pages. If you are looking for that perfect gift to keep your husband/wife/child/sibling/cousin/friend out of your hair for a good long white, this is it.


and I also got the ARC for the new M.John Harrison, Nova Swing. It's a psuedo-sequel to Light (and the covers of both books are negative opposites of each other, which is just the coolest thing. I need to post a photo of the books next to each other, so you can see it in all it's glory). He writes so. . . halucinagenically. A nice contrast to Martin, don't you think?


i'm gonna go dive in my Martin.

fajita platter

not only has it been a while since I posted, I've also gotten back on the book reviewing bandwagon. and that means lots of clickable reviews for you! as I teased you about last time, there are now reviews up for Ian McDonald's Brasyl, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Paul Park's The Tourmaline. Go read, and then hit the library or your favorite bookstore. tell 'em skiffy sent you. when the clerk gives you that "what??" look, quickly snap a photo with your handy dandy camera phone, and e-mail me the picture.

The clickfest continues. . . elsewhere in the book world, I've had a few run ins with Reading under the influence, and I've decided Gary Wassner's GemQuest would make an excellent anime series.

new book aquisitions include Food and Wine Magazine's cookbook of the year 2005, and a fun cute read called Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl, a reknowned food critic that I've never heard of. the book is funny, but I bought it for the 4 star restaurant cheat recipes. That cookbook will keep me happy for a long time, not to mention it's got gorgeous photos.

Library aquisitions include Peter Watt's Blindsight, which i kept hearing a lot about online. I'm about 70 pages in, and the hallucinations have begun to subside. it feels little like Charles Stross, a little like the movie Event Horizon, and just maybe a little like Sagan's Contact. The freakishly semi-lobotimized and self-mutilated crew is chatting with aliens, who know the word cocksucker. I'd love to know where aliens with a 200 word vocabulary learned that word. I'm pretty sure I read Watt's Starfish a few years ago, and didn't care for it at all. But this Blindsight things is f'ing addictive. Also in the library bag are Paul Park's The White Tyger, (no surprise there), and something called City of Oranges: An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa, by Adam LeBor, which starts in the 1920s and follows families, via interviews, to their present day situations. I do not know yet, if this will be good or not.

I could have sworn I heard someone say Fajitas. oh wait, that was me. This is obscenely easy, and tastes almost like you're at Don Pablos.

Cilantro Lime Fajita marinade for approximately one pound of chicken or steak
2 limes
2 scallions, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp coriander

I highly suggest using fresh cilantro instead of dried. it's one of those herbs where it really does make a difference.

cut your meat into 1/2 inch wide strips, and lay in a dish that will hold it all in a single layer. if you want, add some sliced sweet peppers and onions. roll the limes around on the table a few times (it helps loosen up the juice). cut them in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl. mix in all the other incredients. pour the marinade over the meat, and leave in the fridge for a few hours. when ready to cook, remove meat and grill or broil till cooked to your liking. sautee the peppers and onions in as little liquid as possible in a frying pan on the stove. serve with tortillas, shredded cheese, and salsa.

sharp salsa (pico de gallo)
half a small onion, diced, or a bunch green onions, diced.
3 medium to large tomatos, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes, or 2 hot peppers with seeds, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
good pinch salt.

blend all ingredients, serve immediately.

ok readers, you got books, you got food. what are you still sitting here for?

it's too hot to think.

it's too hot to think. it must be too hot to buy books, as well. Or maybe I just don't want to sit in the stuff car for the 15 minutes it takes to get to Barnes & Schnoble?

I managed to go 2 weeks without buying books! aren't you proud of me?? but i did hit the library. got my grubby little hands on Ian McDonald's Brasyl, and Paul Park's The Tourmaline (book 2 in his Roumania series), some Manga, and a Japanese cookbook filled with ingredients I've never heard of. I'm nearly done with Brasyl. It's good. it's really freakin good. but it's really hard to read. Props to McDonald for setting an quantum computational epic in Sau Paulo. Good for him for sprinkling the novel with all flavorings of Brazilian slang and culture. too bad only about a quarter of the Portuguese words are in the glossary in the back. Too bad even more that I don't speak a lick of Portuguese, or know jack about South American indigenous peoples and their religious pantheons. So the books is rather hard to follow. But I must be enjoying it, since I'm 50 pages from the end and can't put the stupid thing down. Stay tuned for a full length review. Same with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I owe both of these books at least 600 words a peice. maybe more.

I'm still working through Pandora's Closet, and it's quite enjoyable. Not every story is a gem, but it's very nice that each story is short, so I can read one each night before I go to bed, even if I go to bed really late.

Should have some thoughts next time on the Paul Park book, as I haven't even cracked it yet. But i remember the first book in the series A Princess of Roumania being light, fun, and surface. and easy read. I could really use something like that right now.

it is too frackin' hot to cook. but i do it anyways. this side dish is easy, quick, cheap, and yummy hot or cold.

Potatoes & Mushroom

12oz fresh mushrooms (any kind you liked)
1.5 lbs potatoes
4 garlic cloves, minced
leaves from a bunch of parsley or basil
salt & pepper
more parsley or basil, to garnish
shredded cheese (optional)

pre heat oven to 350. slice potatoes & mushrooms. in a large bowl, toss mushrooms and potatoes with herbs, garlic, salt and pepper (to taste). grease a large baking dish that will hold everything in a shallow layer. pour everything in the baking dish and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until potatoes are just nearly cooked. stir it up once or twice while it's baking (this is not a caserole type dish). sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on top, and bake another five minutes. let cool a few minutes, garnish with herbs, and enjoy!

and it's even easier to make than it looks.

Just Desserts

I haven’t posted enough desserts. Scratch that, I haven’t posted enough easy desserts. If you can’t make this one, you shouldn’t have a kitchen. I’ve know this recipe since I was about 8 years old.

Rice crispie treats
1 stick butter
4 cups mini-marshmallows
6 cups rice crispies.

Melt the butter in a large pot over low-med heat. Add the marshmellows and stir well. Remove the pot from the heat, and stir in the rice crispies. Once it is well blended, pour into a large rectangular baking dish. Using wax paper, press down on the mixture so it flattens out and filled the bottom of the dish. Refridgerate till firm, cut with a pizza cutter or sharp knife. Enjoy.



See? Wasn’t that easy? Damn. . . I need to go buy some rice crispies. Cuz now I really want some rice crispie treats! I know. . . books will distract me! Until I can find some healthy snack that doesn’t involve butter and sugar.

So I went to B&N over the weekend, hoping to find Fullmetal Alchemist volume 6, which appears to be out of print. Looks like I’m going to have to hit e-bay. It does appear, however that B&N is about the double or triple the size of their graphic novel/manga area. Take that you crappy romance section! I love manga. I spend more money on this crap during the year than I spend on clothes. So no FMA, but CLAMP is putting out 3 volume omnibus editions of some of their most popular Manga, and I am now the proud parent of xxxHolic, volumes 1-3! For $14! How can you beat that??? Damn you CLAMP, and your witty snarky romances, your intense fashion sense and your fabulous artwork! You sucked me into Tokyo Babylon, and now you’re doing the same thing with xxxHolic! Although I have no idea how to pronouce xxxHolic (ex-ex-ex-Holic? Ex-holic? Triple-ex-holic?) it’s a really fun story. Yuko is a witch of sorts, and she’ll grant you any wish you want, provided you really want it granted. Her price can be all sorts of things: your time, your memories, a portion of your soul. The more you want the wish to happen, the higher the price. Did I mention she’s got a set of soul-less freaky twins who work for her, a house full of goodies, and a wicked fashion sense? What I would give to Cosplay her! The CLAMP ladies have a fun habit of overlaying their plot-lines, as in Yuko mentions things that happen in Tokyo Babylon, and there is a LOT of crossover from their new baby, Tsubasa. Ladies of CLAMP, you’re going to get me to put out tons of cash to catch up on Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa, and the rest of Tokyo Babylon and xxxHolic, aren’t you?



If you skipped that paragraph because you’re not into Manga and you have no idea what I was talking about, this paragraph is for you. I’m also reading The White Plague by Frank Herbert. I’ve never read this before. I’d heard all sorts of bad things about it, but I’m quite liking it. it started out all fast and furious, mad man tries to get his revenge on the world, especially on those IRA nuts whose bombs killed his wife and children. Herbert’s characterization is strained, I know he can do better. When he’s talking about lunatic John O’Neill, he does a great job developing him a serial killer. And I kinda of want to feel bad for O’Neill, since now he’s got this split personality thing going on. But he’s such a damn bastard. And the worldwide plague thing is interesting. What else would force governments and peoples to work together, than a global plague that only kills you if you are of a certain nationality, and has 100% mortality in females? The conversations between government officials are fascinating, as they prepare to write off entire corners of the globe, just to save pockets elsewhere. Herbert, you are a master of the big picture. White plague? Kinda like black plague, except it turns your skin white, ‘steada black.



Also the plate for the next few weeks: still digging through that Cthulhu short story book. I’m finding that as much as I enjoy short sf/horror stories from the 20s and 30s, I don’t think I enjoy 300 pages of them. Question of the day: is Cthulhu over rated? And I got more. . . manga! From the library!

Potatoes make Eifelheim better

so i'm struggling through Michael Flynn's Eifelheim. this book is turning into a chore. but i'm nearly done, so i might as well get through it, so i can write a cranky, snarky review and bitch and complain about how Flynn can't get through a damn page without at least one untranslated phrase in German, Latin, or French. it would be nice if knew any of those languages. which i don't. grrr. knowing my luck, i'll be the only person who didn't like this book, and everyone else who reads it will rave about it!

but there is a reward in sight!! today i learned about library reciprocal borrowing! with my local library card, i can get books from the library in the next city. how different could libraries be, you ask? VERY different. and i came home with Edelman's Infoquake, Vandermeer's Shreik, and volume 1 of Cowboy Bepop, and 1 & 2 of something called Tokyo Babylon that looks cool. now if i can only find a library that owns the entire collection of Blame and Trinity Blood, i'm all set.

speaking of Manga, i got my copy of FullMetal Alchemist volume 3 today! Thank you Amazon, and thank you M for that Amazon gift card!

so many good books, i don't know where to start. the kitchen is a good place.

this dish turned out so much better than i expected, that not only will it go hand written in my cookbook, it will make reading Eifelhiem for another 2 hours much easier.

Garlicky roasted potatoes

1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, and or small heirloom potatoes
non stick cooking spray
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely (2-3 tbsp)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp lemon juice
salt & pepper

preheat oven to 450. clean and quarter potatoes. use a baking dish no smaller than 9x9. spray baking dish with nonstick spray, and put in potatoes. sprinkle potatoes with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and salt & pepper, and put them in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

meanwile, make the garlic topping. in a saucepan, put the rest of the olive oil, and the garlic. cook over medium-low heat until the garlic begins to turn golden, about 2-3 minutes. you might need to add a little more oil, if it begins to burn. remove from the heat, and let cool. shortly before the potatoes are ready to come out of the oven, add the parsley, rosemary, and lemon juice to the garlic mixture, and mix well.

after you've taken the potatoes out of the oven, you don't want to pour the garlicky mixture onto the hot pan (you just don't. it will stick, and burn.). either pour the potatoes & garlicky mixture into a serving bowl and mix well, or pour the potatoes into the saucepan you made the garlicky mixture in, and mix well.

i love potatoes. they are good medicine for annoying books.