nonpretentious

Product Recommendation

…to Add To Your Level of Domesticity…

We happily received our very first wedding gift in the mail last week. It was from our dear friends, A & B. It was an Oster Express Breadmaker. I was super excited when this was added to our registry, because just the idea of making my own bread sounded so very…..domestic. And I am not one who has a history of being overly domestic, but I am taking the months leading up to my pending nuptials (only 2 more months to go!) to get some extra practice in.

I used it for the first time this past weekend when my parents came up to visit us. For dinner on Saturday night, we decided to have various forms of meats, mashed potatoes, salad, and then to top it all off, fresh bread! My first batch was French bread, and it was absolutely delicious, and simple to make! There were very few ingredients (bread flour, water, olive oil, sugar, and yeast). The *only* drawback (and I really do not consider it one) is that it takes 3 hours and 50 minutes to make it. So, planning is involved, but that is what being domestic is right, planning ahead?

The best part of it is that there is a time delay timer, so you can have it start while you are out (doing…outside…domestic things!) and come home to the invigorating smell of fresh bread.

In short, I highly recommend this product, easy to use, the end product tastes great, and it is relatively inexpensive.

Product Recommendation (To add to your level of domesticity)

We happily received our very first wedding gift in the mail last week. It was from our dear friends, A & B. It was an Oster Express Breadmaker. I was super excited when this was added to our registry, because just the idea of making my own bread sounded so very…..domestic. And I am not one who has a history of being overly domestic, but I am taking the months leading up to my pending nuptials (only 2 more months to go!) to get some extra practice in.

I used it for the first time this past weekend when my parents came up to visit us. For dinner on Saturday night, we decided to have various forms of meats, mashed potatoes, salad, and then to top it all off, fresh bread! My first batch was French bread, and it was absolutely delicious, and simple to make! There were very few ingredients (bread flour, water, olive oil, sugar, and yeast). The *only* drawback (and I really do not consider it one) is that it takes 3 hours and 50 minutes to make it. So, planning is involved, but that is what being domestic is right, planning ahead?

The best part of it is that there is a time delay timer, so you can have it start while you are out (doing…outside…domestic things!) and come home to the invigorating smell of fresh bread.

In short, I highly recommend this product, easy to use, the end product tastes great, and it is relatively inexpensive.

[Book Review] The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

There are some people I know who love to read books about India. The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies, The God of Small Things, The Inheritance of Loss, A Fine Balance…. I’m not one of them. (Heck, I’ve never even seen Slumdog Millionaire.)

There are also some people I know who love to read books that win prizes. The Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Nobel Prize, a prized spot on the New York Times Best Seller List…. I’m not one of them either.

But, I do like to call myself complicated and I am an entrepreneur. In addition, I’m rather partial to the epistolary style of writing (see: the column “Letters to Inspiring Writers.”)

When I picked up “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga (on the nightstand of someone who does like to read books about India), I was intrigued by the back cover (“Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer.”) as well as the style of the book (a series of letters composed over seven nights from the desk of Balram Halwai to the Premier of China). So, I read a few pages and I stole the copy from the nightstand. (“borrowed” – without asking – though I did return it a week later.)

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