Beer bread.

So delicious, my roomie and I have made it 3 times this semester, using this recipe. We used Blue Moon, but what about Guinness for a darker bread? An IPA might give it a really strong, hoppy flavor too. I'll have to try it out.

The butter on top makes the crust crunchy, but the inside stays soft for days. It's perfect with soup. We had it with venison stew one cold and snowy day:

I'll have it with leftover chili tomorrow.

My friend Larry ...

... is an incredible designer with a ton of ideas. He's started a "visual column" in the Indiana Daily Student as a way to comment on life visually and redesign the world as he sees fit.

Check out his first column, and check out his clean, cool website too.

Just a little approval.

In high school, I used to wake up early with my mom on Saturdays in the summer, eat breakfast, then drive west on 44 to the flea market. We weren't stellar thrifters but we knew what we liked when we saw it. A necklace with a bumble bee for me, a funny marionette for her.

One time I came across a simple enamel bowl with goofy medieval figures around the rim. I remembered one of the first rules of haggling: don't act too interested early on. I loved that bowl, but I placed it back on the table without seeing a price tag and looked over the other items. I was guessing it was 10 or even 20 bucks, now that retro was chic in the boonies of Missouri.

"Want that bowl? Take it for a dollar." The seller man had been watching me from his lawn chair. A dollar? For something I loved for all its weird charm? I joyfully paid in quarters.

I now use that bowl for mixing cookie dough, salad greens, and vegetables when I make spicy Haitian pikliz:


The other day, I was looking at a favorite blog, Design*Sponge when I came across a beautiful kitchen that featured products the editors love. And then I saw my bowl! It's selling for 85 bucks on etsy, and it was a piece by a famous Finnish designer Kaj Franck. Good instincts, yeah? I'm keeping them, and my bowl.

To read.

I met Thomas Lake at a Poynter writing conference and was completely blessed by his humility and perceptions on writing, life, and stories.

And then I read one of his articles.

This story is an amazing piece of work, about a high school football player who ran himself to death at practice.

The things I love about this article: Christ figure/perfection/power/surrender motifs throughout; The organization of the article leads you through with a chugging "engine." You want to know what happened at the practice and afterward, but you don't get all the details at once. Also, the mini profiles of all the main players/personalities. And the ending.

So purdy.