Case of the Terribles: Bilingually speaking

The bilingual teenage boy at work, everyone.  

Tidbits

Hey guys.  Guess what?  It is still winter.  I'm starting to think that perhaps the Game of Thrones books are a little less fiction, a little more alarmingly nonfiction, about the winter coming...sigh.  Here is a big dump of stuff, because I feel a little too lazy to sort it out, and you never mind, right? RIGHT. 

• "Alright, listen up playboy.  This book be an allegorical effort to take on all the effed up shit in society and find its origin in human nature. By watching these little white boys loose their minds, we are reminded of humanities capacity for evil and how man made moral systems be straight-up superficial." Whhhhhattt? Thug Notes on Lord of the Flies, everyone! 
  
   (That said, I have mixed leaning towards positive feelings about Thug Notes. But I do appreciate stick figure artwork, good natured humor, encouraging reading, and sound analysis, so...I suspect Thug Notes wins?)
• A Monster Calls gets a movie director: I am...I guess I found this book sufficiently devastating in its power; not sure I need to see it to believe it, but do like that it could be beautiful and get a wider audience? Aka: fence.  I am on it.  
• If you haven't heard about Hoopla yet and work in libraries, you should.  It's like Netflix for us.  And I think it's brilliant, and possibly what our future will look like if we can (I'm looking at you publishers) get our acts together.  
• While admittedly cool, this new app to allow you to read a novel in under 90 minutes seems to kind of be missing the point of reading a novel entirely.  
• Maybe it's just me that finds army ration packs a little bit fascinating in the actual trying to make real food happen out in the wild/on a battlefield/etc...but maybe not because the Guardian did a really cool piece about what is in ration packs from around the world. If we were going to put them in a contest to win, I think work to food ratio needs to be considered, as does what the food is...but then again, we eat very different around the planet.  Regardless, France probably wins.  Negative points for having your food wrappers look like condom wrappers.  Seriously, Spain?
• I lovee: Eggs for breakfast. Eggs for lunch. Eggs for dinner, Eggs all DAY. .Did I mention how much I love eggs? 
• I find this literary-inspired fashion piece charming!  

Dijon Pulled Chicken (Recipe 5)

Dijon Pulled Chicken

There's no good reason I was a chicken for so long about trying any sort of braised/pulled/roasted meat, especially now that I can confidently say that I wish I'd done this sooner, so I could have optimal levels of this Dijon Pulled Chicken for my whole life. I love Dijon Chicken, but that's a pretty straightforward yet delicious recipe.  Pondering my options, I began to wonder if I could do a BBQ pulled meat with a totally different flavor profile (I live near a really good BBQ place that I can smell allllll summer long, so I suspect that is where this idea originated). However, pulled anything just seemed so...complicated, what with all the smokers and roasting and rubbing...I never thought it could be pulled off in a Le Creuset! Oh, how wrong I was.

It is shockingly easy, but a definite time commitment. Luckily, this winter is never ending and relentless, so you've got ample time on your hands after the fiftytenth snow/ice storm/cold snap of the season, and probably most of the ingredients on hand already. If you need a really good reason never to leave home again until spring for the afore mentioned reasons, get cooking and get some some of this deliciousness in your belly. Having never cooked BBQ or pulled anything, I consulted several recipes for flavor profile ideas and cooking techniques (The Kitchn's BBQ Shredded Chicken and Braised French Onion Chicken and Pete's Recipes Pulled Chicken were especially helpful). I gobbled mine up with some lightly sauteed brussels sprouts, kale, and garlic and served it over quinoa, but I'd say any of the usual BBQ pairs would go well with this riff on the typical BBQ pulled dish (ie. cornbread, a baked sweet potato, on a roll, rice, cole slaw, etc.).  I drank it with a nice Cote du Rhone (c'est French, mes amis), but I suspect a nice crisp white or beer would be great with this lightly sweet and savory mess of deliciousness.  Warning: this even tastes good cold out of the fridge in the morning.  Trouble.  

By the way - only FOUR more recipes to go before I finally complete my New Years 2011 challenge to cook 52 Le Creuset Recipes in a year! 

Dijon Pulled Chicken in a Le Creuest

Case of the Terribles: Valentine gift for your Nemesis?

Please give this calorie counting wine glass to someone you hate this Valentines/Galentines Day.

Otherwise, buy it just to drink from and immediately smash emphatically, because what kind of monster drinks wine to count calories? 

I bet that's chardonnay.
Gross.

Tidbits

This link should prove to you how long I've been putting off this Tidbits post. Yeah. Christmas, 2013. Seems like just yesterday huh? It's like I'm a hoarder. Don't judge meeee!  

Books and Libraries

• If you need a very uh...saucy gift for Valentine's day for the book fondler in your life, try these.  The 50/50 slap vs chuckle is on you though!  
• 50 Shades of Linger-grey.  Eyeroll. Probably another V-day gift idea, but could be a loaded one. 
• For the more discreet yet naughty, NPR is onto what you're really reading on that cell phone!  
• Struggling with which great YA to pick up next?  Struggle no more!  Book Riot put together a very thorough flow chart to help you muddle through this crisis of great import.  
• According to the most recent Pew study on libraries, "Some 90% of Americans ages 16 and older said that the closing of their local public library would have an impact on their community, with 63% saying it would have a “major” impact."  Thank you for recognizing the importance of your library, Americans who took this survey!  Now please, go and make all your friends agree with you!
• I'm calling it a three way tie between Alec Baldwin, LLCoolJ, and Stephen Hawkings in theRead posters of the 1980s and 1990s, compiled by Book Riot.  
• I want all of these Harry Potter stilettos, or just an invite to this inevitably awesome wedding! 
• Here is a very delightful trailer for BJ Novaks new book, One More Thing, a review of which, I promise, is coming soon.     
• Behold, the worlds worst allergy.  

Food

• How great are these fantastic tea blends based on books and TV/movies/fandoms I am not cool enough to understand?  I want to try them ALL!
• I obvi want to try these literary cocktails (especially the Sherlock and Watson), but not as much as I want to go to Novela in San Francisco! 
• It's Girl Scout Cookie season, and I have as yet failed to mention that an 8 year old in the subway station selling me them tried to get me to give her my credit card...because they take credit cards now.  Those wily minxes!  Here are some wine (they're kind of gross, in my opinion) and beer pairing ideas to go with your cookies as you ponder a world in which you can instantly buy things on credit from children.  

Movies and TV

• I truly madly deeply hope the BBC plan to adapt Anansi Boys comes to fruition! 
• These Broken Stars has been optioned for TV, but I'm more excited for the sequel.  When's that happening already? 
• Remember Little Golden Books?  Here are some TV shows reimagined as Little Golden Books (or, perhaps, cautionary tales for children about dealing meth?).  
• Oooh, Daughter of Smoke and Bone has a director.  I am so hopeful!
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has been optioned, because the illustrations weren't scary enough in 2D.  Fat chance I'll see it; still recovering from my 1994 reading experience.  
• Did you hear that Fault in Our Stars has a trailer?  Yes, yes you did, because everyone did.  Torn between being over it, and glad that people are picking up a book - hoping it leads to more exploration of YA titles!  Still kind of weirded out about the brother-lover sitch though...
• I've save the best for almost last.  OUTLANDERHASATRAILER.  Repeat, one more time, on the slow-like: Outlander has a trailer! Two, actually.  I'm embedding the better one. You know, the one in which Jamie talks and doesn't wear a shirt? Duh.  

Lastly, here is the one of the best things I've read on the Internet in a while, written by a teenage girl.  Suffice it to say, she's tired of being patronized:   

"When you applaud or critique a young girl’s taste based on how well or badly it aligns with yours, you are suggesting that your taste = THE RIGHT TASTE, because you are the one IN THE KNOW."

Huge high five to this young woman.  Well said!