meat, books, and blows to the head

Having had a concussion this past weekend, am I exempt from St. Patty's day nonsense today? I think so. I'm now contemplating the virtues of getting a helmet vs. the pitfalls of severe helmet hair and bobble-headedness. And how often does some douche just blindside you from the left at a 90-degree angle? Probably too often, in snowboarding.

Anyway, tonight is the moist heat meat cookery lab (as opposed to the dry heat lab), where we're making one of my all-time favorite dishes, rogan josh, with meat from the little lamb we butchered last week. Yum! But I still feel a bit mentally foggy, so let's hope I don't lose any fingers. I also put together the grocery order for this lab, so let's hope I didn't miss anything important.

I just finished re-reading Ender's Game after starting the audiobook on my weekend Tahoe trip. I'd forgotten how good it is, but damn, it's good! It's far more about group psychology, adolescence and mental warfare than space battle, which is why I love it. I might have to finally pick up the rest of the books in the series.

I also grabbed Scott Pilgrim #5, which will no doubt be hilarious and offbeat like all the previous books. Scott Pilgrim, a funny, cheeky, slightly self-deprecating band musician, has to fight off the 10 evil ex-boyfriends of his awesome girlfriend Ramona (in mortal combat). The feel of the book falls somewhere between manga and webcomic. Love!

Um, I'm also about to start Heat by Bill Buford, the latest in my series of food-/culinary-related books from off the library shelves. I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is worth a read if only for the absolutely hilarious description of turkey sex that serves as the grand finale to the author's one-year experiment of living off the land. Otherwise, it's a great guide on how to eat seasonally and locally, especially if you have to wonder, on a farm, what could you possibly eat in January?

So, I think I heard that coffee is a bad idea when you're concussed, but I can't give up this fantastic blend I got from a local roaster. I like my coffee with hot milk, and this stuff is KILLER with milk. Makes a part of me bliss out and float away every morning. Also, dig the pseudo-scientific naming scheme - although I'm skeptical about the 30s lifetime (half-life?), I appreciate where they were going with that. Anyway, to be honest, Barefoot has some of the worst in-cafe ambiance but truly the best beans.