It’s the South from those in the know. With stories culled from both established and debut writers, this year’s New Stories From the South, edited by Madison Smartt Bell, illustrates the Southern experience as it is today: post-Katrina, with an ever-changing economy, and a new influx of races from Asia to South America. The South may still be recognizable, but it’s certainly no longer predictable.
Grow, harvest and eat as a family. Kids love to help out in the garden and to keep them interested there is the (almost) instant gratification of fresh flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland’s The Family Kitchen Garden offers a slew of ideas and activities relating to the garden—and all are child-friendly. Offering crafts, information on growing seasons, plant varieties, and recipes for family meals, there is something for everyone year-round.
Oriental Summer Rolls are one of August’s highlighted recipes and can be made with fresh peppers and herbs plucked straight from the garden. But not to worry, even if you can’t grow your own, you can still indulge in this seasonal snack…
Oriental Summer Rolls
This dish is great for getting the kids involved, as there is lots of rolling and filling. Serves 4.
There are many conflicting views on what will lead this country out of the current economic recession, but Louis Foreman, the executive producer of the Emmy award–winning PBS show Everyday Edisons and the co-author of The Independent Inventor’s Handbook, is certain that innovation will be on the forefront of the recovery effort.
According to Louis, there has never been a better time in recent history for innovation: “It has been innovation that has led this country out of recessions in the past, and it will be innovation that creates new opportunities in the future.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and one of the world’s great innovators, agrees. Addressing the recession in a recent interview he announced that “We’re going to invent our way out of this problem [recession]. This is a very inventive country. And, in fact, everywhere I travel all over the world I meet young people working on alternative energy and all kinds of new technologies that are going to make our economy more productive.”
And if you look back over time, many amazing inventions were developed during the recessions or The Great Depression. A few examples:
1930s Great Depression – Scotch Tape, Revlon Nail Polish, Miracle Whip, the Fluorescent Light bulb 1950s Recession – McDonalds, Hula Hoop, Pampers 1970s Stagflation – Post-it Note, UPC Code, Microsoft 1980s Recession – Diet Coke, Microsoft Word, MTV
Who knows what amazing inventions the current recession will produce? Ask Louis Foreman in a couple of months, when he wraps up his whirlwind tour of nearly two dozen cities, speaking to local inventor groups around the nation and, perhaps, giving his feedback on the Next Big Thing of 2010.
These are women you may know: the adult caretaker, bound to her dying mother’s side; a single mom trying to pull together Christmas for her two sons; a woman attempting to date a divorcé with a child. Jill McCorkle’s collection of short stories, Going Away Shoes, offers a glimpse of women navigating the realities of today’s world, sometimes messy, sometimes filled with uncertainty, but all moving forward to reach a place of new awareness. Filled with insight, the stories are told with an equal combination of wit and spirit that everyone can relate to.
Welcome to the world of treacherous toothpick fish, Mike the headless chicken, a supermodel secret agent and Walking Corpse Syndrome. With unbelievable—but true—tales, Alien Hand Syndrome by Alan Bellows is an addictively readable collection that touches on historical events gone awry, nature’s nightmares, man-made disasters, mad scientists and disordered personalities…You can’t make this stuff up! Read an excerpt from the book, “The Naga Fireballs”, below. The Naga Fireballs A fire-breathing river perplexes citizens and scientists
Every year in October near the end of Buddhist Lent, hundreds of people gather after dusk at Wat Paa Luang, a 450-year-old temple on the edge of the Mekong River in the Nong Khai province of Thailand. Though they cannot predict the exact times or locations, a little patience usually earns spectators a view of a small, pinkish sphere rising out of the surface of the river. The glowing ball lingers above the river for up to a few moments, then ascends rapidly and silently into the atmosphere until it is lost to the eye. Most such nights there are dozens to hundreds of the fist-sized wisps flying skyward. Unlike so many other outlandish claims that photography cannot adequately capture, the Naga Fireballs have been witnessed by thousands of people for hundreds of years.
Join six of Workman’s most popular lifestyle and health authors for a very special event at the luxurious Fairmont Scottsdale resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the Season of Personal Discovery weekend, these writers will share with you their knowledge on how to live your best life, today, and be in top-top shape in mind, body, and spirit. You will be transformed.
Wit, wisdom and observation served up in 140 characters or less. Twitter has become the ultimate vehicle to deliver your thoughts (succinctly) to the world, and David Pogue, the New York Times’ “Circuits” columnist, has channeled the ingenuity of social networking by posting humorous and provocative questions to his almost 500,000 followers.
The result? The World According to Twitter, which recounts the best responses received (25,000 thoughts winnowed down to 2,524) on any number of topics, from the silly (make up a concept for a new TV show that’s probably doomed), to the profound (what’s the bright side of growing old?), to the squirm-inducing (describe your most. embarrassing. moment. ever). Gives new meaning to “keeping it short but sweet”.
Chef Eric Ripert shares some simple recipes for a gourmet lunch for kids or adults on the Early Show. In the video below, he demonstrates 3 recipes from A Return to Cooking; Smoked Salmon Croque-Monsieur, Salade Monique, and a Peach and Plum Tart. The dishes looked so delicious, the Early Show folks started digging in before Chef Ripert even finished cooking! For the recipes, visit the Early Show website.
It’s the return of The Cake Mix Doctor, and Anne Byrn’s latest book is full of brand new recipes that turn ordinary cake mix into unique, delicious treats. Below, Anne shares some snapshots from the photo shoot for the book.
Workman Art Director Lisa Hollander, photo stylist Susan Sugarman, and her assistant work out details before shooting begins on the 163 cake photos in The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!
A huge slice of the Smith Island Cake waits to have its photo made. You cannot imagine the temptation present in this New York loft studio where cakes were frosted, sliced, photographed, then sampled, for five delicious days.
You can see from the fuzziness of this photo why I am a food writer, not food photographer. This darling Blueberry Muffin Crumble Cake, is one of my favorites in the new book. And I promise it will look a lot better in the book than in this photo.
A sumptuous Chocolate Chip Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting rests on the cake stand. There’s a funny thing about photography sessions. Once you’ve seen one cake, you’ve seen them all. I love this cake and yet the food stylists and art director aren’t thinking about how gorgeous this cake looks on that stand. They’re thinking the next cake and the next…
It’s the South from those in the know. With stories culled from both established and debut writers, this year’s New Stories From the South, edited by Madison Smartt Bell, illustrates the Southern experience as it is today: post-Katrina, with an ever-changing economy, and a new influx of races from Asia to South America. The South may still be recognizable, but it’s certainly no longer predictable.
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