sciencegeek's Profile

My grandparents were big fans of what people are calling mid century modern. The Noguchi coffee table was in their living room along with the Herman Miller lounge chair and a few others. I found it pretty funny when MCM came back into style - it was something I'd always enjoyed in my grandparents' home.

If you live in NYC, check HPD online before you sign a lease.
It is the last link on the page.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/pr/violation.shtml
Familiarize yourself with the complaints and violations in your building before you move in. Note how many times your landlord has been taken to court. Note how long it takes before violations are resolved. Note that if people are calling 311 to try to resolve issues it means that the porter/super/landlord isn't doing his/her job.

(says she who lives in a building with 67 class C violations - yes, those are the ones that are supposed to be resolved in 24 hours)

I've been telling this to all my NYC friends for a while now and I hope it will help everyone who is looking for a new place.

When I'm feeling uninspired/tired/lazy, I find that having a few packs of frozen veggies in the freezer lets me easily add them to whatever I'm cooking. Spinach or peas are the easiest for me for this. Trader Joe's seems to have good frozen veggies for this sort of thing.

I'd suggest a look through the AM Leonard catalog. They've also got hori horis (aka soil knives). In addition a good pair of Felco's and a nice folding saw will be useful to any gardener.

In addition to purely functional gifts, a subscription to Gardens Illustrated, full of great ideas, plants and not overwhelmed with products, would be nice.

Then there's always gift certificates for seeds and plants. Something to dream away the winter with for those of us in cold climes without greenhouses.

Bought semolina a while ago to make Jacques Pepin's hasty pudding (link to random blog with recipe, because the pudding is awesome and easy to make) and now I have another reason to get it out. Definitely excited to try this.

I'd love an article on gifts for coworkers in the $10-25 range. That's usually the secret santa (or secret snowflake) range and it would be extremely helpful!

I grew up using the same cookbook, Kids Are Natural Cooks. My sister still bakes the pumpkin pie recipe for Thanksgiving every year!

Brisket! As a nice Jewish girl (ok, not so nice) I feel like I should have made brisket many times before but this was my first stab at it. I used a dutch oven in the oven and it wasn't falling apart enough so perhaps next time I'll try to borrow a slow cooker and add more veggies since they're usually my favorite part. The boyfriend made mashed sweet potatoes which were delicious.

We put up a big piece of pegboard on one wall, got a couple of hooks and hang one of my boyfriend's bikes up there. Usually it is his road bike or his cyclocross bike. I'm concerned that his mountain bike would be too heavy. I've also hung some wire baskets on the bottom of the pegboard so he has a place to put some bike stuff like lights/tubes/tools. Honestly it is the pile of bike clothing that gets to me more than the bikes - we live in an area that has four seasons and he's got bibs, tights, booties, and so on.

Gross dishwater solution: get one of those plugs that comes with a metal chain. Add a cork or other flotation device to it (rubber duckies, anyone?).