Spring time reading...

With all of my assigned reading complete and the semester drawing to a close, I actually have the chance to read the things I enjoy. I am currently reading:

1. Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

This really is the ULTIMATE vegan cook book. I think every vegan/vegetarian/food conscious individual should own this book. I have made two meals out of this book and they were both incredible, time consuming, but incredible. Tonight I made spinach kugel which had this delicious breadcrumb and tofu "sauce" that tasted exactly like ricotta and last night I made the Cauliflower and mushroom potpie with black olive crust which was so hearty and creamy and delicious I couldn't take it. The crust was salty and crispy and could easily have been eaten on its own. These are some amazing recipes with tonnes of flavour and "feel-good" power. Seriously, buy the book!

2. Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine

I am only half way through this little gem and I am finding it incredibly interesting. Cordelia Fine essentially aims to debunk the "science" behind gender difference in a witty and clever manner. She's doing a pretty good job too! This is an enlightening read for those of you who believe differences in cognitive/musical/artistic/intellectual ability are explained by gender. I'm loving it.

Let them eat cake!

Look what came in the mail for me yesterday! The Australian Woman's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book. It's the reprint of the original 80s version that we all grew up on. I love this book, it brings back so many memories for me. When I was growing up, my younger brother, older sister and I choose our birthday cakes exclusively from this book. We always knew our birthday celebration was close when our mother pulled out the ol' AWW book, placed it on the table and told us we could choose which ever one we wanted.

Every year I had a different cake from the "Girls" section of the book and my brother chose one from the "Boys". My sister then chose one from the myriad of other "non-gendered" cakes at the back of the book. Collectively, I think we have tried every single one of the cakes in the book and enjoyed every single one.

It is a book I hope my children will flick through excitedly, painstakingly deliberating over which cake to choose for their birthday. On a greedier note, I hope that my mother will send me her version of this beloved cook book, the one that she purchased the very first year it was published.

P.S. My twenty-fifth birthday will feature a cake from this book, baked by my one and only Fiance. I am very excited!

It's what I do..

People constantly ask me :"What exactly do you do at uni?" As in, what does the study of history actually entail. I'll tell you what, it involves a lot of research which in turn involves plenty of reading. So, I guess the answer to the question: "What do you do?" Is: I spend the majority of my time reading about historical events/people/places. At the moment I am reading the following:

"Inventing the Public Enemy: The Gangster in American Culture" - David Ruth
"Reforming Hollywood Gangsters and Morality from Popularism to Patriotism" - Sheri Biesen
"Freudians, Flapper and All That Jazz" - Sara Evans
"Medieval Popular Religion: 1000-1500" - John Shinners
"Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women" - Caroline Walker Bynum
"Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance" - Paul Kristeller

It's a pretty interesting mix of readings this week. I'm especially enjoying the article on Medieval women and food. And yes, all of that is for just this week.