One of the topics in my current class is the online library catalog and how easy various types of catalogs are to navigate for novice users. We've looked at examples from all over the nation, including the Aquabrowser catalog as it's being used in the Santa Cruz Public Library system. Many of the online catalogs out there have their strong and weak points. The biggest concern of course is if it makes sense to the user and organizes information in a way that the user can 1) easily understand what information is being presented and 2) find the information that he/she was trying to locate. The Aquabrowser reminded me in some respects of Amazon.com in the look of the results (minus the word cloud, a feature I find distracting and useless) and the refine search options that the user is given. While this familiar look to the results would help the novice user, I feel like there should be another even more "friendly" option.
And so I posed the making of a new type of online catalog to my instructor and classmates. This catalog would read (pardon the pun) much like Facebook does--which would lend to user comfort and familiarity since so many people are using Facebook nowadays. Each item, be it book, movie, CD, or other type, would have its own page. The "profile" would include the bibliographic information of each item, including its physical location--or a link if it's an e-source--in the library. Each item would then be "friended" to other items that are related by title, author, subject, genre, or any other way the library deems appropriate to make a connection. Library patrons would be able to "like" items, and even post on each item's "wall" (maybe providing additional information about the item, for example a review). Tags would be initially set by library catalogers, but patrons would be able to then add their own tags, which may end up helping those users who are unfamiliar with formal catalog searching keywords.
My instructor seems to love the idea, even going so far as to suggest I talk about this with someone to make it a reality. The only problem is that I don't know who to talk to. So if anyone with experience in searching programs and online catalogs would like to flesh out this idea, please leave me a comment! Better yet, if anyone from Facebook decides to use this idea to create a program that libraries can subscribe to (for a REASONABLE fee!!!), then please contact me so we can talk about me selling you my idea.
Now for this week's recipe. This is a recipe that Scooter and I came up with. We had only a little help from a pasta sauce we saw on the back of a package of lobster raviolis. We took down the ingredients needed, added some, took some away, changed around the amounts, and came up with the following pasta sauce:
What you'll need:
2 shallots, diced
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 sausages, precooked
1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 c. white wine (Chardonnay preferably)
1 lemon, juiced
2 Tbs. flour
1 1/2 c. cream
1/2 milk
1 lb. fettuccine pasta, cooked
What you'll need to do:
1. Cut the sausages up into small chunks. You can also substitute 1/4 lb. cooked loose sausage meat.
2. In a large sausepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until the shallots are soft, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the sausage and cook until sausage is heated through, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the flour and stir until completely mixed in.
5. Add the white wine and lemon juice and cook until liquid is reduced, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the cream and milk and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened.
7. Remove from heat and serve over fettuccine pasta or another pasta of your choice.
You should be able to get 4-6 servings out of this recipe, and I would highly recommend having a slice of french bread on hand to catch any extra sauce still left in your plate. Also, a disclaimer: this is NOT by any means a low-fat food. However, I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Another reason to keep reading the fiction I love
For class this week, we were assigned to read an article regarding fiction and the psychological benefits it might have (Oatley, 2008). As someone who thrives on reading fiction--and loyally collects all published works of three authors as they are released in paperback--I found this study to be particularly interesting. Oatley (2008) and some of his colleagues performed a study in which they examined the short- and long-term effects that reading fiction can have on a person.
To gauge the effects of long-term fiction reading, they used objective assessments with author's and non-author's name to determine how much the participants read. Once that was established, the participants were given "mind-in-the-eyes" tests in which they looked at pictures of people's eyes and tried to determine the emotion the person in the photo was feeling. Lastly, participants were asked to view 15 short video clips depicting various social interactions; participants then had to describe what was going on in the clip (Oatley, 2008). The results? "Fiction readers had substantially greater empathy as measured by the mind-in-the-eyes test, and also performed somewhat better on the interpersonal perception test than people who read predominantly non-fiction" (Oatley, 2008). So what this study turned up was that fiction could quite possibly be teaching readers what it means to be human, at least in terms of emotions and and how we interact with others.
They followed this up with another study to rule out the possibility that fiction attracts more empathic people, which would have skewed the results because they would be scoring high in empathy. Another group of participants were given a piece to read, either a fiction short story or a non-fiction essay of the same length. The participants were then given a social reasoning test and an analytical reasoning test. The social reasoning test asked multiple-choice questions regarding the beliefs, emotions, and intentions of characters in different situations. Again, those who read the fiction piece tested higher on the social reasoning test than the participants who read the non-fiction piece. There was no difference in analytical reasoning between the two groups (Oatley, 2008). So once again, we have some evidence that points to fiction developing social skills and empathy in its readers. And in the case with this particular study, the effect is immediate (Oatley, 2008). Not only does fiction help develop empathy in us, but it starts to do so right away.
I find this interesting, especially when considering the major protest against including "popular literature" during the 19th century when the purpose and intent of the American public library was in a state of evolution. Now, over 100 years later, we find that popular literature--fiction--plays a role in the psychological development of its readers. How ironic. That which was initially thought of as useless and without educational purpose has now been determined to have a psychological purpose. Maybe fiction won't necessarily teach us facts about science or mathematics, but it can teach us about cultures and the myriad of ways in which we interact with and respond to others on many levels.
So don't put down put down your Nora Roberts, Anne McCaffrey, or Dan Brown. Read on!
Updated 10/25/10: I neglected to include the bibliographic information for Oatley's article. Let me rectify that now:
Oatley, K. (2008). The science of fiction: A good novel is far more than mere entertainment. New Scientist 198(June 28, 2008) 42-43. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(08)61619-X
To gauge the effects of long-term fiction reading, they used objective assessments with author's and non-author's name to determine how much the participants read. Once that was established, the participants were given "mind-in-the-eyes" tests in which they looked at pictures of people's eyes and tried to determine the emotion the person in the photo was feeling. Lastly, participants were asked to view 15 short video clips depicting various social interactions; participants then had to describe what was going on in the clip (Oatley, 2008). The results? "Fiction readers had substantially greater empathy as measured by the mind-in-the-eyes test, and also performed somewhat better on the interpersonal perception test than people who read predominantly non-fiction" (Oatley, 2008). So what this study turned up was that fiction could quite possibly be teaching readers what it means to be human, at least in terms of emotions and and how we interact with others.
They followed this up with another study to rule out the possibility that fiction attracts more empathic people, which would have skewed the results because they would be scoring high in empathy. Another group of participants were given a piece to read, either a fiction short story or a non-fiction essay of the same length. The participants were then given a social reasoning test and an analytical reasoning test. The social reasoning test asked multiple-choice questions regarding the beliefs, emotions, and intentions of characters in different situations. Again, those who read the fiction piece tested higher on the social reasoning test than the participants who read the non-fiction piece. There was no difference in analytical reasoning between the two groups (Oatley, 2008). So once again, we have some evidence that points to fiction developing social skills and empathy in its readers. And in the case with this particular study, the effect is immediate (Oatley, 2008). Not only does fiction help develop empathy in us, but it starts to do so right away.
I find this interesting, especially when considering the major protest against including "popular literature" during the 19th century when the purpose and intent of the American public library was in a state of evolution. Now, over 100 years later, we find that popular literature--fiction--plays a role in the psychological development of its readers. How ironic. That which was initially thought of as useless and without educational purpose has now been determined to have a psychological purpose. Maybe fiction won't necessarily teach us facts about science or mathematics, but it can teach us about cultures and the myriad of ways in which we interact with and respond to others on many levels.
So don't put down put down your Nora Roberts, Anne McCaffrey, or Dan Brown. Read on!
Updated 10/25/10: I neglected to include the bibliographic information for Oatley's article. Let me rectify that now:
Oatley, K. (2008). The science of fiction: A good novel is far more than mere entertainment. New Scientist 198(June 28, 2008) 42-43. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(08)61619-X
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Recharging my battery...with biscuits and gravy
The school I work at has graduations four times a year. This may seem strange, but we are a year-round school and we have students starting and finishing their programs throughout the year, so it's hard to pick just one time for graduation. Even so, we do have students that have to wait for 2-3 months after their program is over to be able to walk at graduation.
Graduation is always a big to-do (as it should be). But each ceremony does require a lot of planning, and it just so happens that I am in charge of a good deal of the planning (as well as coordinating at the ceremony itself). I usually have to start 5 weeks in advance to make sure everything gets done in time and nothing is left to the last minute. Needless to say, when graduation is over, there is a profound sense of relief followed quickly by exhaustion as I stumble back to my car to head home. I am lucky that my boss is willing to let me take the Friday off after every graduation so I can pack up my car and head out of town to relax at my aunt and uncle's summer home on the coast. It's always a time for me to relax, recharge, have some good food, and read a couple good books.
Last week was our most recent graduation, so Scooter and I went to the coast this last weekend. It was cold and cloudy all weekend, perfect weather in our opinion for settling in front of the fire (which we did) and soaking in the hot tub (which we also did). And of course, we always plan food to cook. We ended up making lamb again on this trip because we loved it so much last time. Saturday breakfast was biscuits and gravy, which is always a team effort. I make the biscuits and Scooter makes the sausage and gravy to with it. I don't mean to brag, but I haven't yet had biscuits and gravy elsewhere that tasted so good. We were going to have pancakes and sausage for Sunday's breakfast, but we had managed to forget the pancake mix so it was eggs, toast and sausage instead.
For this week's recipe, Scooter has agreed to let me post our biscuits and gravy recipe. I'll be using the variation of the recipe we used on the trip (there were one or two ingredients we didn't have--we wanted to cut out another trip to the store--which we include in our best, and secret, variation). I'll start with the biscuits.
Buttermilk Biscuits
What you'll need:
2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. butter/margarine, chilled
2 Tbs. shortening
1 c. buttermilk, chilled
What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter and shortening and use your fingers to mix everything together until the flour looks like crumbs. Make a well in the center of the mix and add in the buttermilk. Stir everything just until the dough comes together. It will be sticky!
3. Flour a flat surface. Turn dough out of the mixing bowl onto the prepared surface and dust a little flour on the top of the dough. Fold the dough over on itself 5-6 times. Avoid overworking it; your biscuits will be lighter if the dough isn't overworked. Press the dough into a round approx 1 inch thick. Using a round cookie cutter (or a glass), cut out biscuits. Reform scrap dough and continue cutting.
4. Place biscuits on a baking sheet. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden on top.
While the biscuits are baking, time to put together the gravy!
What you'll need:
1 lb. loose sausage meat (we prefer maple-flavored, but it's not necessary)*
1/2 c. chopped onions (optional)
2 c. milk
2 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. Worcester sauce
1 Tbs. garlic powder
salt and pepper
What you'll need to do:
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute the sausage meat until cooked through. If you are including the onions, quickly saute them in another small skillet until soft and add them to the sausage meat.
2. Add the milk, flour, Worcester sauce, and garlic powder to the sausage. Turn heat down to medium-low and saute until the sauce cooks down and thickens, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Pull open a fresh biscuit and use a ladel to pour sausage and gravy on top. Enjoy!
*A side note about the gravy: you will NOT want lean sausage meat for this. The fat that cooks off will help to flavor the gravy and make it really good. If you have it, adding 1 to 2 Tbs. of bacon fat would be even better; the flavor would be a little better and you would be able to cook the onion in the same skillet at the sausage meat because there would be enough fat that the onion wouldn't soak it all up as it cooks.
I will try to get back on schedule with my posts starting next week.
Graduation is always a big to-do (as it should be). But each ceremony does require a lot of planning, and it just so happens that I am in charge of a good deal of the planning (as well as coordinating at the ceremony itself). I usually have to start 5 weeks in advance to make sure everything gets done in time and nothing is left to the last minute. Needless to say, when graduation is over, there is a profound sense of relief followed quickly by exhaustion as I stumble back to my car to head home. I am lucky that my boss is willing to let me take the Friday off after every graduation so I can pack up my car and head out of town to relax at my aunt and uncle's summer home on the coast. It's always a time for me to relax, recharge, have some good food, and read a couple good books.
Last week was our most recent graduation, so Scooter and I went to the coast this last weekend. It was cold and cloudy all weekend, perfect weather in our opinion for settling in front of the fire (which we did) and soaking in the hot tub (which we also did). And of course, we always plan food to cook. We ended up making lamb again on this trip because we loved it so much last time. Saturday breakfast was biscuits and gravy, which is always a team effort. I make the biscuits and Scooter makes the sausage and gravy to with it. I don't mean to brag, but I haven't yet had biscuits and gravy elsewhere that tasted so good. We were going to have pancakes and sausage for Sunday's breakfast, but we had managed to forget the pancake mix so it was eggs, toast and sausage instead.
For this week's recipe, Scooter has agreed to let me post our biscuits and gravy recipe. I'll be using the variation of the recipe we used on the trip (there were one or two ingredients we didn't have--we wanted to cut out another trip to the store--which we include in our best, and secret, variation). I'll start with the biscuits.
Buttermilk Biscuits
What you'll need:
2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. butter/margarine, chilled
2 Tbs. shortening
1 c. buttermilk, chilled
What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter and shortening and use your fingers to mix everything together until the flour looks like crumbs. Make a well in the center of the mix and add in the buttermilk. Stir everything just until the dough comes together. It will be sticky!
3. Flour a flat surface. Turn dough out of the mixing bowl onto the prepared surface and dust a little flour on the top of the dough. Fold the dough over on itself 5-6 times. Avoid overworking it; your biscuits will be lighter if the dough isn't overworked. Press the dough into a round approx 1 inch thick. Using a round cookie cutter (or a glass), cut out biscuits. Reform scrap dough and continue cutting.
4. Place biscuits on a baking sheet. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden on top.
While the biscuits are baking, time to put together the gravy!
What you'll need:
1 lb. loose sausage meat (we prefer maple-flavored, but it's not necessary)*
1/2 c. chopped onions (optional)
2 c. milk
2 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. Worcester sauce
1 Tbs. garlic powder
salt and pepper
What you'll need to do:
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute the sausage meat until cooked through. If you are including the onions, quickly saute them in another small skillet until soft and add them to the sausage meat.
2. Add the milk, flour, Worcester sauce, and garlic powder to the sausage. Turn heat down to medium-low and saute until the sauce cooks down and thickens, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Pull open a fresh biscuit and use a ladel to pour sausage and gravy on top. Enjoy!
*A side note about the gravy: you will NOT want lean sausage meat for this. The fat that cooks off will help to flavor the gravy and make it really good. If you have it, adding 1 to 2 Tbs. of bacon fat would be even better; the flavor would be a little better and you would be able to cook the onion in the same skillet at the sausage meat because there would be enough fat that the onion wouldn't soak it all up as it cooks.
I will try to get back on schedule with my posts starting next week.
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