One of the things that has been kind of perpetually on my mind is reading. How much I should be doing, what I should be reading, etc.

I never come to an answer. It makes me kinda batty, honestly. I feel like there’s GOT to be some sort of rough guidelines for how much one needs to take in to stay on top of things, and also just to be a better writer, but I’ve never figured that out.

I keep reading, though. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes a little. And much of it is interesting.

So, with that in mind, I decided I’d share a short reading list of links I’ve encountered recently that I think are interesting. While I’ve encountered them recently, they may not all be very recently written. Just FYI.

Food

While I always enjoy Maryn McKenna’s writings at National Geographic’s series “The Plate”, I have to say this post about the movie, Farmland, really caught my eye. I’ll be viewing the movie soon-ish. If you’re in/around Chicago & interested in doing the same, let me know. We’ll throw a party or something. Seriously!

A fantastic piece on what is happening, environmentally, in Minnesota corn country, and what could be happening. In Corn Country We Have Two Choices. Let’s Pick the More Logical, Beautiful One over at Big Picture Agriculture. I haven’t ever read this blog before this post, but it definitely has my attention. I’ll likely be reading more of it.

I never did understand, until we bought all that tuna, precisely what the difference between sushi vinegar and rice vinegar was. I recalled buying sushi vinegar over a decade ago for making California rolls, but when I went to go buy some recently, all I could find was rice vinegar. So, I wondered if I remembered incorrectly. Nope! It is possible to buy sushi vinegar, but it’s almost as easy to make it! I’m looking forward to making different sushi seasonings and finding out exactly what Bill and I like.

Beverage

The mysterious “they” are prone to telling us that we shouldn’t cook with wine we wouldn’t drink. While I theorize, personally, this is as much to give the cook an excuse for a glass while cooking as to avoid salty cooking wines, I’ve always wondered how far that goes. I, for example, keep those single serving bottles of wine on hand for cooking (a tip from Angelique and MBBB). But I haven’t ever drunk any of that wine (and have been advised not to). Is that good enough? It always has been for me, but am I doing it wrong??? The folks over at Serious Eats say I am not. They agree not to use “cooking wine”, but otherwise not to worry too much beyond selecting appropriately if a recipe calls for “dry” wine.

Bill is very much not a fan of French press coffee, but in Baltimore, I discovered it was far more to my tastes than his. At some point, I’ll get our press back to the friend we loaned it to, and try for myself. But first I’ll have to ask our friend for it, which I think I’ve done about 0 times. And before that, I’ll memorize these tips on how to make it spectacular.

Science

This COULD have ended up in beer, but it’s definitely science. There’s a species of butterfly that is endemic to Colorado and lives on wild hops. And, folks are working to survey and understand it. As well as other interesting species, of course. I find this fascinating in part because riparian vegetation is SO important for so many species, and particularly in areas like Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, it is getting more and more scarce. Anyway, a very neat thing. I hope to see more photos of this butterfly and the hops it lives on soon!

I actually have a lot more to say about this, but consider reading it now so you have the background. Adding certain chemicals from alcoholic beer made non-alcoholic and very low alcohol (undefined by this write-up) beers more palatable to “beer experts”. I have so many thoughts on this, but for now I’m happy to share and ask you all’s thoughts. (Also, I’m trying to locate the paper, since the citation quality is poor here. That will help me formulate my thoughts.)

Blather

I know several folks who have been trolled to the point of abuse online. I worry, at times, that will be me someday. I hope not. And I’ve heard of several cases where the abuse seemed to truly reach illegal levels, but nothing has happened to the abusers. So imagine my surprise and interest in this Buzzfeed article on what it’s like to go to prison for trolling. It’s a bit of a redemption story, and all set in Briton, and quite fascinating.

Some comments on how not hard (easy, in fact) it is to make games more diverse. This feels like it shouldn’t need any commentary, but apparently there are some who believe that “historically accurate” means “mainly or totally white folks,” particularly white men. Never mind that, sometimes, the source material flatly contradicts that, as the post points out.

Can restaurants die? Tyson Ho over at Serious Eats describes it as such when a restaurant closes. And I can see why, from his writing. An excellent, if sad piece.