Barney Saltzberg, known around the office for being a Good Egg and a Beautiful Oops-urtunist, recently took a break from working on his next book, Arlo Needs Glasses, to stop by the Workman offices.  In addition to his talent for writing and illustrating, Barney plays guitar, a hobby he shares with Workman’s group publisher, Bob Miller.  Watch the two play Jackson Browne’s “Song for Adam” below.  The song doesn’t have much to do with Arlo, an interactive book for kids (coming in April) about the elementary school rite of passage of going from two eyes to four, but we like it anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnLADagnCfU[/youtube]

Now that Thanksgiving’s over and the family has scattered  (at least for now), there’s a good chance they somehow manage not to feel so far away. Between FaceTime, Skype, email, and other modern modes of conversation, it’s fairly likely you’re not missing a beat — either you’re texting them or, more likely, they’re texting you. So, in celebration of this in-between holiday time and the When Parents Text blog’s 1^st year anniversary (a holiday in itself!), we present you with this lovely video:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31610446[/vimeo]

Do you want to make a GIANT difference this holiday season?

We here at Workman like to give back whenever we can. Every year we hold a food drive just before Thanksgiving. This year, we enlisted the help of our very favorite hungry giant to spread the word.

How can you resist? You can't.

And, thanks to our over-sized friend and our extra generous employees, we were able to collect 1,200 pounds of food for City Harvest, all of which has been distributed to food pantries throughout New York City.

If you’re eager to help those in need, here are some simple ways (with potentially giant impact) that you can give back to your community.

1. Find a local food bank and make a donation. Or find a soup kitchen and volunteer. These websites make it simple–just enter your zip code: FeedingAmerica.org, FoodPantries.org, AmpleHarvest.org.
2. Check out charities like Food For All, which has teamed up with over 8,000 grocery stores to make it easy to donate money to help end hunger around the world–just tack a small donation on to your bill.
3. Go to a click-to-donate website where all it takes it one click to make a difference, like: thehungersite.com and hungrychildren.com. Or you can test your vocabulary and trivia knowledge, while giving back, with sites like: freerice.com and freeflour.com.
4. Support the efforts of your local Meals on Wheels program by donating your time, or your always perfect specialty.
5. Help families around the world to feed themselves by giving to an organization like Heifer International, which provides people with livestock and the training necessary to care for these animals.

There are so many ways to help end world hunger. For details on the programs listed above or for more simple ways to help, check out How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist.

To feed a hungry giant, you just need giant food–and a giant heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Our current philanthropic mascot, the hungry giant, can be found in How Do You Feed a Hungry Giant? by Caitlin Friedman, and illustrated by Shaw Nielsen.

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And if you’re looking for more ways to help, check out How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist by Nicole Bouchard Boles.

In addition to 600 full color photos, destinations in 28 new countries, and everything else that’s packed into the new edition of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, the book now has a brand new home on the web, for when armchair travelers want to engage in some double-click traveling: 1000places.com.  There, you can preview a few of the places featured in the book, get a sneak peak at the app, download the aforementioned indexes, order the book, and more.

Elsewhere on the web, we’ve been engaging in bracketology for the first time as we follow HuffPost Travel’s Ultimate Places to See Before You Die Sweet 16 Challenge, now in round three.  Sixteen destinations were culled from the (already exclusive!) 1000, which voters then winnowed down to 8, and now 4.  There’s still a chance to vote in this round before the finals start tomorrow, at which point the one place to see before you die to rule them all will be selected.  Don’t weep for the losing destinations, though: we’re guessing Moscow’s Red Square and Ipanima Beach in Brazil will continue to appear on plenty of travel wish lists despite their crushing defeats.

Ah, Boston, that perfectly preserved Colonial town, located not far from Plymouth, where the pilgrims first docked. So it’s only fitting that this recipe for that most quintessential of Thanksgiving desserts comes from Boston, MA’s most renowned baker, Judy Rosenberg. The owner of the beloved series of Rosie’s Bakery shops, and author of the new Rosie’s Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book, Judy knows a thing or two about overcoming holiday pie anxiety. And you can turn out a worry-free, pumpkin-perfect pie by following her simple steps below.

Deep-Dish Pumpkin Pie

Makes 10 to 12 servings

Single-crust Basic Pie Crust 1 (recipe follows)
1 can (15 ounces) unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons (lightly packed) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons molasses
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and a baking sheet on the bottom rack, and preheat to 375°.

2. Roll out the crust. Fit it into a deep-dish pie pan and lightly prebake (see Note below). Let cool before filling. Leave the oven on.

3. Whisk the pumpkin, brown sugar, spices, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the molasses, milk, and eggs, whisking vigorously until smooth.

4. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Cover the edge of the crust with aluminum foil. Bake the pie until the top is shiny and set and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

5. Carefully remove the foil. Let the pie cool on a rack. Serve the pie warm, cold, or at room temperature.

Basic Pie Crust 1

Makes one 9-inch, standard or deep dish crust

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 9 pieces
3 tablespoons ice water

1. Place the flour and salt in a food processor and process to blend for 20 seconds. (Or whisk them together by hand in a large mixing bowl.)

2. Distribute the butter evenly over the flour and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 15 to 20 seconds. (Or rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips or cut it in with a pastry blender.)

3. With the food processor running, pour the ice water in a steady stream through the feed tube and process just until the dough comes together. (Or sprinkle the water over the mixture while tossing with a fork.)

4. Knead the dough for several turns on a lightly floured surface to bring it together.

5. Shape the dough into a thick disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

6. Roll the chilled dough for the bottom crust out to a circle 2 inches bigger than the size of the pie pan.

7. Fit the rolled dough into a 9-inch pie pan and trim the edges. Keep the crust in the refrigerator until ready to fill. If prebaking the crust (see Note below), refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Note: Lightly prebaking the crust: If you’re going to fill this crust and bake it again, cut the step 3 baking time in the Pumpkin Pie recipe to 12 minutes. In step 4, stop when the crust is very lightly golden, after about 3 minutes.

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Find 248 more mouthwatering recipes for the holidays and beyond in Judy’s luscious new book, The Rosie’s Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book!

What do Stephen King and Gossip Girl have in common, you ask? Perhaps more than we know, but today we’d like to say thank you to both of these cultural icons for their recent public displays of support!

Stephen King gives a shout out to A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick on page 342 of his new novel, 11/23/63. The passage reads: “I’d read a book called ‘A Reliable Wife’ not too long before leaving on the world’s strangest trip, and as I climbed into bed, a line from the novel crossed my mind: ‘He had lost the habit of romance.’ That’s me, I thought as I turned out the light.”

And Gossip Girl teased out a pregnancy plot with the mysterious appearance of a little-known book by Heidi Murkoff, called What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

Where, oh, where will we spot a Workman book next?

Dogs, dogs, dogs! We can’t get enough of them here. And as all dog people know, your most important responsibility is making sure your pup is in tip-top shape. After all, a healthy dog is the happiest dog! In the final installment of our family-friendly My Dog! video series, author and dog expert Michael J. Rosen takes you through a basic 60-second check-up to make sure your pooch is feeling fabulous.

Simple, right? Give it a try — and then go whip up some Liver Lover’s “Brownies” to thank your dog for being so awesome. Trust us, despite your human “eww-that-sounds-gross!” bias, your dog will love ‘em!

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For even more tips, crafts, recipes, and games, check out the official My Dog! website. And make sure to like the My Dog! Facebook page and follow Michael J. Rosen on Twitter (@fidosopher) to keep up on all the latest My Dog! news.

As its cover proclaims, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die is a traveler’s life list—the ultimate bucket list of things you need to see in this world while you can (last week we used the book to track Matt Lauer around the world). Each destination is intended to amaze, inspire, and make you appreciate the richness of the world around you. I’m not nearly as well-traveled as intrepid author Patricia Schultz, but I learned a lot while working on the completely revised and thoroughly updated second edition of the book (out today!), and you can bet that my personal “See Before I Die” list grew and grew.

One of the book’s online bonus features is a set of special indexes, which break down the book’s destinations into categories: “Splendor in the Glass, for example, gathers up all the world’s best vineyards, wineries, breweries, and distilleries. These lists are a huge plus for working on your own must-see list, but as I got really familiar with the book, I found that I could compile my own even more specific lists. I’ll start with a slightly embarrassing one.

The Unpronounceables: Places in 1,000 Places I Totally Didn’t Know How to Say

1. The Hebrides: Author Patricia Schultz recently returned from Scotland’s Hebrides Islands, home to rocky shores and scenic ferry rides. That’s “heb-ri-deez,” three syllables.
2. Curaçao: The tricky part of saying the name for this Dutch-influenced Caribbean island is the cedilla on the second “c,” which makes it “koor-uh-sou.”
3. Chichicastenango: This word looks intimidating, but it’s actually not so hard: “chee-chee-cast-en-an-go.” And luckily, the market in Quiché, Guatemala also goes by its nickname, “Chichi.”
4. Krak Des Chevaliers: This one is mostly confusing because it’s a castle (that served as a fortress during the crusades) in Syria, but the name looks French. It turns out it’s pronounced that way too: “krak de shev-uhl-yay.”
5. Old Tbililsi: Don’t be intimidated by the double consonants that lead off this city, an ancient river town and the capital of Georgia in Eastern Europe. Both the “t” and “b” get their own syllable, making it “tuh-buh-lee-see.”

And those are just a quick sampling—I didn’t even get to Scandinavia! Which brings us to another great thing about travel: you don’t have to be able to pronounce it to know you want to go there.

We love Mindy Kaling (writer for The Office, among other things) for many reasons, but one particular mention in her recent, revelatory essay on chick flicks in The New Yorker made her particularly endearing as of late. Here’s the relevant excerpt from her piece, but click here for the full scoop! The scene involves Mindy, cast as a TV writer who dreams of hitting the big time and writing for the movies, pitching ideas to a roomful of execs.

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After I finished pitching one of my ideas for a low-budget romantic comedy, I was met with silence. One of the execs sheepishly looked at the other execs. He finally said, “Yeah, but we’re really trying to focus on movies about board games. People really seem to respond to those.”

For the rest of the meeting, we talked about whether there was any potential in a movie called “Yahtzee!” I made some polite suggestions and left.

I am always surprised at what movie studios think people will want to see. I’m even more surprised at how often they are correct. Based on what I’ve learned from my time in Hollywood, the following titles are my best guess as to what may soon be coming to a theatre near you:

“Bananagrams 3D”

‘Twas the fifth and final day of “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” and he definitely landed himself in a spot worth spending the weekend at! His clues teased “a party of epic proportions” and while some readers thought this might be in reference to political parties rather than the more literal music and dancing scenario, I am happy to see that the latter won out,  because Matt washed up on the beach in Barbados!

If you missed the reveal, it’s worth a look, since Matt parodies the classic Old Spice commercial, ending up, appropriately, on a horse. (Watch it here!)

He’s taking some deserved R&R at the Sandy Lane Resort, which Patricia Schultz describes on page 1066 in the new 1000 Places to See Before You Die as “the jewel of the West Coast.” It’s one of the resort world’s classiest (and priciest) acts, with service that makes every guest, upon arrival, feel like Queen Elizabeth (and she did visit once!). But beyond the pink and white sand beaches , there are amazing waters to swim in and explore. The Platinum Coast (named for the fancy hotels and condos found along its edge) faces the Caribbean and offers up some of the “calmest waters and best beaches, and there is snorkeling with sociable well-fed turtles just offshore.” Matt noted these highlights, as well as the delicious food, amazing dancing, and celebrity vacationers, but he missed mentioning one of the most impressive sights: Harrison’s Cave, “site of a jaw-dropping collection of well-lit stalactites and stalagmites.” Please, someone, get me there, STAT!

In an interview later in the day, Matt confirmed that this, the 10th anniversary of “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” would be his last… Though I get that the travel can be grueling–it’s not often that one is asked to cross as many time zones in such a short amount of time–I just don’t buy it when he says, “It gets tougher and tougher to find extraordinary places.” Ahem. Matt. You say you’ve been to 51 locations over the years? I’ll admit, it’s impressive. But what about the remaining 949?

Perhaps he just needs Patricia Schultz to offer up a few dazzling recommendations!