My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

Salty Snacks: Make Your Own Chips, Crisps, Crackers, Pretzels, Dips, and Other Savory Bites

From Amazon.com…

“This collection of 75 recipes for savory puffs, chips, crackers, breads, nuts, veggies and meats puts a fresh, crunchy spin on homemade snacks.

Are you ready to take your love of salty snacks to the next level?

This collection of seventy-five recipes for veggie chips, cheese straws, toasted nuts, pita chips, herb crackers, savory cookies, and snack mixes puts a fresh, crunchy spin on homemade nibbles.
So broaden your horizons beyond microwave popcorn and bagged chips to include inventive snacks like Roasted Chickpeas with Sumac, Coconut Crisps with Basil and Chiles, Salami Chips with Grainy Mustard Dip, Stilton and Walnut Pinwheels, and more.
Indeed, with all the excess sodium and hidden preservatives in prepackaged foods, it’s smart as well as delicious to make your own savory bites from scratch. Nutritious offerings like Parsnip and Carrot Chips, gluten-free recipes like Cumin Lentil Crackers, and the option to customize the amount of added salt (or alternative spices and sprinklings) will appeal to snackers of every stripe. Perfect for cocktail parties, after-school snack time, or anytime you need a nosh, this collection’s easy techniques and exotic flavors are sure to delight anyone with a “salty tooth.”

* Discovered via Baking Bites

Previously in Books on Hold:

• Pancake: A Global History
• Breakfast for Dinner: Recipes for Frittata Florentine, Huevos Rancheros, Sunny-Side-Up Burgers, and More!
• Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
• Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes by Nigella Lawson
• Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future
• Meatless: More Than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes (Martha Stewart Living)
• How to Boil An Egg by Rose Carrarini
• Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant by Amanda Cohen
• See more Books on Hold here!

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: etsy.com via Douglas on Pinterest

Previously for Valentine’s Day…

• #1 Valentine’s Day History
• #2 Reaching Across the Distance – Love Letters for Valentine’s Day
• #3 Strawberry Heart Poptarts for Valentine’s Day
• #4 Valentine’s Krispy Treats from Cookies and Cups

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

Another cookbook for the “To Read” pile. #KitchenParty has been a big influence on my reading habits lately. We have taken to making a lots of the foods that we used to buy, whenever we can. This can be something siple like making our own Taco Meat spice mix or something more complicated like making our own pasta. I look forward to checking out the recipes here to see what else we might be able to make at home.

Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Chernila

From Amazon.com…

“This is my kitchen. Come on in, but be prepared—it might not be quite what you expect. There is flour on the counter, oats that overflowed onto the floor, chocolate-encrusted spoons in the sink. There is Joey, the husband, exhausted by the thirty-five preschoolers who were hanging on him all day, and he is stuffing granola into his mouth to ease his five o’clock starvation. There are two little girls trying to show me cartwheels in that miniscule space between the refrigerator and the counter where I really need to be.”

In her debut cookbook, Alana Chernila inspires you to step inside your kitchen, take a look around, and change the way you relate to food. The Homemade Pantry was born of a tight budget, Alana’s love for sharing recipes with her farmers’ market customers, and a desire to enjoy a happy cooking and eating life with her young family. On a mission to kick their packaged-food habit, she learned that with a little determination, anything she could buy at the store could be made in her kitchen, and her homemade versions were more satisfying, easier to make than she expected, and tastier.

Here are her very approachable recipes for 101 everyday staples, organized by supermarket aisle—from crackers to cheese, pesto to sauerkraut, and mayonnaise to toaster pastries. The Homemade Pantry is a celebration of food made by hand—warm mozzarella that is stretched, thick lasagna noodles rolled from flour and egg, fresh tomato sauce that bubbles on the stove. Whether you are trying a recipe for butter, potato chips, spice mixes, or ketchup, you will discover the magic and thrill that comes with the homemade pantry.

Alana captures the humor and messiness of everyday family life, too. A true friend to the home cook, she shares her “tense moments” to help you get through your own. With stories offering patient, humble advice, tips for storing the homemade foods, and rich four-color photography throughout, The Homemade Pantry will quickly become the go-to source for how to make delicious staples in your home kitchen. 

Previously in Books on Hold:

• To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink
• Risk Intelligence: How to Live with Uncertainty by Dylan Evans
• Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man by Mark Changizi
• The Naked Brewer: Fearless Homebrewing Tips, Tricks & Rule-breaking Recipes by Christina Perozzi, Hallie Beaune
• The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life by Margaret Roach
• Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
• The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen (Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks)
• Martha’s American Food: A Celebration of Our Nation’s Most Treasured Dishes, from Coast to Coast by Martha Stewart
• The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage 
• Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven (Author), Oof Verschuren (Photographer)
• Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants

I came across this lovely cabinet at one of my client’s today and had to grab a picture. Something I’ll keep for future inspiration and reference.

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life by Margaret Roach

From Amazon.com…

“Margaret Roach has been harvesting thirty years of backyard parables-deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper-and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more.

After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with “horticultural how-to and woo-woo.” In THE BACKYARD PARABLES, Roach uses her fundamental understanding of the natural world, philosophy, and life to explore the ways that gardening saved and instructed her, and meditates on the science and spirituality of nature, reminding her readers and herself to keep on digging.”

Previously in Books on Hold:

• Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
• The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen (Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks)
• Martha’s American Food: A Celebration of Our Nation’s Most Treasured Dishes, from Coast to Coast by Martha Stewart
• The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage 
• Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven (Author), Oof Verschuren (Photographer)
• Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants

I have a lot of interests, as most of you already know. Therefore, I have a lot of different blogs, events,  and groups in my portfolio of online engagements. I also try to make myself available wherever people want to converse. This means that each of my interests usually has multiple presences on the Internet.

Here is a list of almost all of the ways you can talk with me and learn about what is happening in my life and work. You don’t need to, nor should you, try to subscribe to all of them. That would only lead to you seeing multiple copies of the same information. Rather, pick and choose whatever ways you would like to consume my “content.” If you are a heavy Facbeook user, you might want to join my pages there. Is Google+ catching your fancy? I have a home over there, too. Maybe email is your thing? No problem, almost all of my content can be emailed directly to your Inbox.

My goal is to make my content available in whatever way makes the most sense to you. It also means you can contact me and converse with me on your favorite online services. This list is also broken down by interest. If you want to see everything I post and share, the first section is where you can find it. This will contain information from all my areas of interest including events, careers, gardening, technology and my organizations.

Maybe, though, you are only interested in my gardening information. You can narrow your reading to my gardening blog or Facebook page. The same applies for careers, technology and my organizations. Select whatever is most interesting, and valuable, to you.

Thank you for supporting me, my blogs and podcasts and my organization over the years! I look forward to talking with you — and sharing more with you — in 2013.  

• All my interests and personal information as well as my Food-related blogging
  • My Word with Douglas E. Welch Blog
    • Subscribe to My Word via Email
    • Subscribe to My Word audio/video/podcast via iTunes
  • Douglas E. Welch on Facebook
  • @douglaswelch on Twitter
  • WelchWrite/Douglas E. Welch Mailing List
  • Douglas E. Welch on Google+
• My Kindle eBooks
• Free samples available and no Kindle required
• From A Gardener’s Notebook: A Collection of Essays
• Career Compass: Finding Your Career North
• Cultivating Your Career Reputations
• The High-Tech Career Handbook
• Social Media Self Preservation
• My YouTube Channel - Videos from all my blogs and podcasts
• Careers
  • Career Opportunities Column and Podcast
    • Subscribe to Career Opportunities via Email
    • Subscribe to Career Opportunities audio/video/podcast via iTunes
  • Career Opportunities on Facebook
  • @careertips on Twitter
  • Career Opportunities Mailing List
  • Career Opportunities on Google+
• Gardening
  • A Gardener’s Notebook Blog and Podcast
    • Subscribe to A Gardener’s Notebook via Email
    • Subscribe to A Gardener’s Notebook  audio/video/podcast via iTunes
  • A Gardener’s Notebook on Facebook
  • @gardenersnotebk on Twitter
  • A Gardener’s Notebook Mailing List
  • A Gardener’s Notebook on Google+
• New Media
  • Careers in New Media Blog and Podast
    • Subscribe to Careers in New Media audio/video//podcast via iTunes
  • @newmediatips on Twitter
  • Subscribe to the New Media Interchange Mailing List
  • New Media Interchange page on Google+
  • New Media Interchange page on Facebook
• Technology
  • TechnoloyIQ Blog and Podcast
    • Subscribe to TechnologyIQ via Email
    • Subscribe to TechnologyIQ audio/video/podcast via iTunes
    • @techiqpod on Twitter
    • Subscribe to the TechnologyIQ Mailing List
    • TechnologyIQ page on Google+
    • TechnologyIQ page on Facebook
• Organizations
  • CareerCamp International
    • CareerCamp International Blog
    • Subscribe to CareerCamp International audio/video/podcast via iTunes
    • CareerCamp International Mailing List
    • CareerCamp International on Facebook
    • @careercampintl on Twitter
    • CareerCamp International on Google+
  • New Media Interchange
    • NMI Blog
    • Subscribe to New Media Interchange audio/video/podcast via iTunes
    • New Media Interchange on Facebook
    • @newmediatips on Twitter
    • New Media Interchange Mailing List
    • New Media Interchange on Google+

Nine days until Christmas (or 21 days, if you celebrate until Epiphany on January 6th — the traditional Twelfth NIght), so there is still plenty of time to make up a few batches of cookies for friends, family, or maybe even just yourself! You can find some inspiration in my cookie videos, created as I prepared of my own annual Cookie Party.

All of the recipes from my party are also available in my FREE cookbooks, I’m Making Cookies! and Sharing Christmas with Friends over on Bakespace.com (and also available via their FREE iPad app, Cookbook Cafe!

Watch my Cookie Party Prep videos in this Youtube Playlist. Please LIKE the videos if you enjoy them. It helps other YouTube viewers find them.

Can’t see the videos above? Watch them on YouTube

See more food-related videos on my YouTube Channel

2012 Gift Guide Completes!

As the shipping window begins to close on this holiday season, and after 115 different items,  our 2012 Gift Guide comes to an end. I hope you have found my suggestions useful, practical and enjoyable and hope you have found gifts for your friends, family and yourself. Some of these items might be available locally or can be downloaded, so you still have some gifting time left.

You can find a complete list of all the gift guide items at the end of this message.

Books by Douglas E. Welch

My ebooks, can be “gifted” directly from Amazon.com and/or immediately downloaded to a eReader you might also be giving. I hope you’ll consider these book as a gift to your garden/careerbuilder/social media friends and family.

Cookbooks

All the recipes for my Annual Christmas Cookie Party are now available in these FREE cookbooks – available on your iPad or computer!

Video from Douglas

My video work has been growing over the last year and you can find all of my videos on my blogs and YouTube Channel. Subscribe to that channel, or the podcasts, to see each new video automatically.

New to DouglasEWelch.com

My gift to all of you this season is a collection of new blog and video series to feed your garden/career/new media needs. Some of these series have started already and you will see them in the appropriate blogs These include In the garden…, New Media Gear, Garden Vocabulary, Subscribed, New Food, Recipes in Rotation and more. You can also catch me each week as co-host of #KitchenParty, a live interview show where we get to talk to all our foodie friends. You can see past episodes on the Bakespace.com YouTube Channel.

I am transitioning away from my computer consulting work and focusing more the blogs and podcasts, so you should be seeing more great content, on a more regular schedule, than ever before. I hope you will join me in the coming year. I would love to hear what you think about anything you see here.

Wishing you all the best in 2013!

2012 Gift Guide

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch
46. Tribes by Seth Godin
47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
48. The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook
49. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
50. Classes from The Institute of Domestic Technology
51. Olympus PEN E-P1 12 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
52. Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren
53. Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer Packs
54. Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
55. Podcast Solutions by Dan Klass and Michael Geoghegan
56. The Craft and Business of Songwriting by John Braheny
57. Dexim Visible Green Smart Charge & Sync Cable
58. Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove
59. Rosanne’s Top 5 Books for Film Buffs
60. Bon-Aire HN-10C Original Ultimate Hose Nozzle
61. Microphones from Giant Squid Audio Labs
62. Re-Imagine by Tom Peters
63. Razer Gaming Mice
64. Garden Hod harvest carrier
65. Nest Learning Thermostat
66. Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas
67. Yes, You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too: The Modern Step-By-Step Guide to Preserving Food
68. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative
69. Fiskars 7936 PowerGear Pruner
70. Chi-qoo Solar Power Pack Kit from Bootstrap Solar
71. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli
72. Sterling Audio ST51 Large Diaphragm FET Condenser Microphone
73. DollarSeed.com – One Stop Seed Shop
74. 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
75. Desktop Microphone Stands
76. Logitech Harmony 650 Remote Control
77. Maple Sugaring Startup Kit from Tap My Trees
78. Sennheiser HD-280 PRO Headphones
79. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace
80. Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Bags
81. The SeedKeeper Company
82. Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall and David Wecker
83. Joby GP1-A1EN GorillaPod Flexible Tripod
84. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirkey
85. How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious (but True) Stories of Common Vegetables by Rebecca Rupp
86. Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History
87. Behringer XENYX X1622USB Premium 16-Input 2/2-Bus Mixer
88. Starter Kit for Newsite Arduino Uno R3
89. RAM Vehicle Mounts for iPhone (and nearly any other device)
90. The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart
91. Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity by David Whyte
92. Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees
93. Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job
94. Olloclip 3-in-1 Lens for iPhone
95. Rules of Thumb by Alan M. Webber
96. Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Microphone
97. Asus Google Nexus 7
98. A Country Year by Sue Hubbell
99. The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander
100. A Book of Bees : And How to Keep Them by Sue Hubbell
101. Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Mic Converter/Mic Preamp
102. Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work by John C. Maxwell
103. Fiskars 9625 18-Inch PowerGear Bypass Lopper
104. Minecraft
105. The Pursuit of Wow! by Tom Peters
106. Urban Sanctuaries
107. Twine – Your first step into The Internet of Things
108. Behringer 302USB Premium 5-Input Mixer
109. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
110. Garden House: Bringing the Outdoors In
111. Mophie Powerstation 4000mAh 2.1A External Battery Charger
112. Arriba Cases Gear Transport Bags
113. Microwave-heated Plant Press
114. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirkey
115. Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting & More

Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting & More

Voted Best Graphic Design by the Garden Writers Association

From Amazon.com…

“You can transform your garden into a handmade, personality-infused oasis. Author Lorene Edwards Forkner — part eco-friendly non-traditionalist, part crafty creative — will show you how.

Projects run the gamut from eye-catching structures, like a pergola made from plumbing pipes, to imaginative details, like a tree-hung chandelier for nighttime ambiance. You’ll also find helpful plant guides to accompany projects: delectable herbs to fill a stacking container tower, stellar succulents for a vertical gutter garden, glorious flowering vines to climb a bamboo obelisk, and so much more.

Ready to get started? All you need are refreshingly simple, inexpensive materials — hardware store basics, salvaged goods, repurposed castoffs from cluttered basements — along with a little do-it-yourself spirit. With clear instructions and inspiring variations on every theme, this book is easy to follow and easy to love. Your journey to a made-from-scratch outdoor space starts here.” 

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

Read more…

Microwave-heated Plant Press

Kylee Baumlee over at Our Little Acre (and fellow Saturday6 members) posted this plant press to her own Gardening Gift Guide and it quickly reminded me of the one my son and I would use when he was very young. He loved to collect flowers from the garden and press them to preserve them for later. This press adds the convenience of being microwave safe, meaning you can dry flowers quickly and, according to the description, maintain more of their color and shape, than traditional pressing.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

Read more…