The first offical meeting of The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies will convene on Monday, September 26, at 7pm at Pete’s Candy Store. Be there!
What's on the docket?
Byzantium to Bummerville: Over 500 years of history artfully boiled down into a delicious and easily digested, condensed-soup of an overview. Learn the major causes of the Crusades, what went down in Jerusalem, and h...
In reality, all of the hot sauces we made a few weeks back were just a diversion from our main work of the day: to make awesome homemade ketchup. What we learned and what we did all follows below:
RULES ABOUT KETCHUP (also, ketchup rules.)
1) You're not making Heinz 57. I'm one of those people who doesn't like organic ketchup because it tastes too healthy and not like ketchup at all. And really, you have to ...
* aka S.A.S.S, aka home of the tagline "All the history you knew but forgot, and all the booze you need to forget it again."
Not to get all press releasy on you, but we're super excited to announce an awesome new thing that we are helping to release into the world: The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies.
What is S.A.S.S.?
S.A.S.S. is a new monthly lecture series at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsbur...
This week is busy busy, with 7 new classes in 3 days. I'm not sure what we were thinking.
Tuesday: Soma's leading a primer on perhaps the most underloved spirit, gin. Here's a primer to get you ready, or at least to explain what oude jenever is. There are even a few spots left in class!
And though the hurricane did a number on local tomato harvests, we're going to be tasting and discussing the history and bo...
You know and I both know that Russians write crazy. Wacky stuff like хорошо and я забыл and очень приятно, which we couldn't type if our little English-language lives depended on it. Their alphabet is called Cyrillic, and is pretty awesome, but it isn't exactly what we're going to talk about today.
Imagine you're a Russian, trapped in a stupid computer system that won't let you type in Cyrillic. What the hell do y...
This is a tiny course preview for Gin, which starts next Tuesday. Gin can get a bad rap sometimes, and it's my self-selected job to bring it back to the masses. Fun fact: My relatives went to jail for distilling during Prohibition, can you think of a better instructor?
Once upon a time the Dutch started distilling alcohol. Thing is, though, they weren't very good at it. Faced with the prospect of having to drink s...
Our chutney-making class went awesome, and we all made some seriously delicious stuff. But all those who didn't make it to class need not be left out - here's one of the chutney recipes we made! Courtesy of our chutney teacher Drake Page, of thedpchutneycollective.blogspot.com.PICKLED EGGPLANT CHUTNEY
(Makes 4 4-oz. jars or 2 ½ pint jars. Quantities can easily be doubled!)
½ cup vegetabl...
Study Session is a review of a test we presented to everyone at a party ages and ages ago. Follow along with the whole test here.
All right, question number one! Let's go:
1. You’re at a party in a cell hoping to impress the Golgi body. Apparently they recycle. Where do you toss your leftovers?
A. Ribosome
B. Vacuole
C. Endoplasmic reticulum
D. Lysosomes
Yep, vacuole is the right answer, but let's start off w...
The Maillard reaction is the secret king of cookery, the little bit of magic that turns a slab of meat into a nicely browned steak or a raw onion into a caramelized delight. We call it "browning," and it's a reaction between proteins and sugars in the presence of heat that creates the tasty flavor compounds.
I'm equal parts lazy and impatient, and always give up before my onions are nice and browned. There ar...
Remember that time we had that party with the crawfish and the trivia and the all-of-that? My favorite part wasn't the steam burns, but instead a wonderful little test we put together for the anniversary of the SAT.
Over the next month or so we're going to review these questions one-by-one, giving you the answers along with hopefully-interesting background. I'll also somehow work in the best-received trivia questi...
