Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

The EPIC Mac n' Cheese You know that feeling you get when you're traveling and you feel almost overstimulated by the amazing food you've been eating, but there's something a little not right...you realize that what you're really wanting is some "home food." That happened yesterday.  Yannick and I were supposed to run to the market to get stuff for dinner and today, so I offered to make Mac n' cheese--I based it extremely loosely on Mark Bittman's recipe--and what I made was pure magic! Normally I just use Vermont Cheddar, but as they don't have that here I used half Irish Cheddar, half Dutch Gouda. Oh my sweet and gentle Jesus!! WAY BETTER with real European cheeses. Nadine requested it again for dinner tonight. Yannick and I agreed. :)   Today we'll be going out to see a few more things here, but we're going to stay in tonight and get to bed early. We want to have the car packed and be on the road tomorrow by 9a.m.; we'r...

Before I get started on this blog about dieting, let me say a few things. I hate the word "diet." I hate when I talk about this "new way of eating," and people make this scornful "diets never work," face. And though I may agree with them, it still pisses me off. Especially if they're those naturally skinny types. I want to scream, "well, EXCUSE me for eating my emotions since 1991! And besides that I am fighting against some chubby genes!" The whole reason I decided to try Mark Bittman 's, " Vegan before dinnertime ,"--or "Vegan until 6," as I call it--is 1. for the most part I respect Mark Bittman and 2. my friend Sierra did this and found it worked for her.  I am not a dieter by nature. I know most fad diets either don't work because they set up unrealistic expectations or shouldn't be done because they aren't good for your body. The difference with Bittman's is that it's a damn way of life, whi...

I will now take this opportunity to answer the questions I've been asked about the Farm's ENORMOUS Thanksgiving feast (previously mentioned in this blog.) The final number was somewhere around 160 people. Everyone fit in the Farm's dining room and the room connected to it. We DIDN'T wind up spilling into the living room, which was a damn miracle. :) Yes, we did have leftovers. In the days since Thanksgiving, on the menu: turkey noodle soup, turkey pot pie and turkey chili. I am not a turkey fan, so the days following Thanksgiving are torture. What was the secret to my stuffing?!--I've gotten this question about a dozen times. Answer is BUTTER!! Butter makes everything better. If we slathered butter on the world's problems, then things would just seem so much better! No? The recipe I used is Mark Bittman's How to cook Everything . The recipe is below: Mark Bittman's Favorite Bread Stuffing: 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter 1 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup ...