Just pose the question to yourself, whether or not there's an impending weather event. What happens? Have you got excellent flashlights, fondue pots, Viewmaster sets and drawers full of good candles? Gallons of clean water, Sterno, batteries? It’s a comforting thing to have provisions. But still more comforting to know ...

Everyday Adventures in Beingness: Some Ideas

Here are some things that might be fun. Or might not. You decide. Research memory. Or Joseph Campbell. Or the workings of the brain. Or the Shakers, or Diane Arbus, or Walker Evans. Wallpaper the bathroom with Bazooka bubblegum comics. Plan a weird ass party. Make yourself some paper mache birds and let them ...

Tap here

Tap here to begin writing, someone whispered, and she realized it had already begun. It had started somewhere after her telephone call with a friend from her early life, from when she was some inconsequential, flimsy thing unrecognizable to her now and it had fluttered, birdlike, when she began her ...

Oxygen

"Breathe," someone said to me yesterday. Good idea. #survivaltactic. How is it I had forgotten about breathing? Taking in oxygen. Even when I have worked fourteen straight days and am doing little beyond working very hard, eating and sleeping. Or especially then. I can still breathe in and out. I can still ...

Dance is a very powerful drug

"Dance is a very powerful drug, Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its ...

Choices

I am at Silver Diner for the first time, having a delightful Saturday morning. I've helped my Dad shovel two truckloads of mulch and, after my Belgian waffles, Amish eggs and nitrate-free bacon, I am going over to lounge around with my beautiful sister and talk of anything/everything. A lovely young ...

Pretty Food and Electronic Geekery

You know, don’t you, what it’s like to want to eat pretty colors? This Fennel, Beet and Citrus Salad from BrooklynSupper.net is literally the prettiest food I’ve ever seen. No geekery there! Just pretty food — Elizabeth Stark is a gifted photographer as well as a gifted cook.

Pretty food has color to it. And color is a sign of nutrients. When a plant is grown in mineral-rich soil, it absorbs those nutrients, and is hardy and far less susceptible to insects and fungus so it doesn’t need pesticides. And it’s got the energy to bust out some serious color.

So, we know we want pretty food. And keeping pretty food ready at hand takes some planning and some work what with managing ripeness for things like avocados and mangos, and wanting to eat the kale while it’s still filled with qi.

Now for the geekery. I was in the midst of this planning when it occurred to me that perhaps by now someone has come along with a program that does what I’ve been wanting for years: recipe database with grocery lists and menu planning. I googled and voila: Paprika iPad app for $3. And it’s the bomb. Really, I would go so far as to say it’s iTunes for your recipes.

It runs clean, lean and beautifully. It does what you want it to do without too much thinking or work. You can click a button to add a recipe from Epicurious or Whole Foods or whatnot, replete with luscious photo and recipe source. Here’s what it looks like: