Hot Topic: Facebook campaigns

This past week there was much ado about people changing their Facebook profile pictures to cartoon characters to raise awareness about child abuse. First,  it was criticized because how in the world is changing a profile picture really going to end child abuse? Then a rumor circulated that it was really a ploy by a pedophile to gain access to more children via Facebook.

To the first point - Everyone discusses how  the fundamental weakness of all Facebook campaigns from changing your status to fight cancer to not posting for a day to this latest incarnation is that these campaigns won't actually change anything unless you do something else. I mostly agree. However, I do believe there is value in the power of prayer or positive thinking.  I believe that the fact that all those cartoon character folks spent a moment thinking about the prevention of child abuse in a way that they wouldn't have without the campaign will manifest itself somehow. Will this be enough to end child abuse? Absolutely not. But it may flip a switch that makes someone send money the next time she gets a solicitation from a non-profit that supports children or intervene at the mall when an adult is being abusive to a child.  Prayers and positive thoughts matter.

To the second point - children should not be on Facebook. Children who should not be on Facebook should definitely not be accepting friend requests from people they don't know - whether the profile picture is a cartoon character or not.

What do you think?

Ask Angie: Good ideas for Holiday gifts?

A couple people have asked me for good websites for looking for unique gifts.

For the philanthropic
A gift certificate to http://www.kiva.org/ is great. The recipient picks an entrepeneur in other country to loan the amount of money equal to the gift certificate. When the loan is repaid, the receipient can decide to cash out or reinvest in another entreneur.

For fun gifts
I love http://www.uncomongoods.com/. It has great bar accessories and all kinds of kid gifts.

I also like http://www.delight.com/ and http://www.thewirelesscatalog.com/.

Another site I love is http://www.redenvelope.com/. It has a great mix of jewelry and I love their plant related gifts.

And of course, as you shop online - don't forget to stop first at http://www.goodshop.com/. You chose your favorite charitable organization and then the website will donate a percentage of your purchase to that organization.

Happy Gift Giving!

Book Review: If You Have Cry – Go Outside by Kelly Cutrone

Kelly Cutrone has appeared on the The Hills, The City and her own series Kell on Earth. She also runs People’s Evolution. If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You  surprised me. I didn’t expect much but I really enjoyed some of the key messages of the book:

1. Believe in Yourself

2. Find and listen to your inner voice

3. Focus on building a Tribe

4. Work hard

5. Give back

Cutrone is unapologetic about the need to work hard and pay your dues to the extent that no one in her office eats until the people higher up than them in the hierarchy have eaten. She is deeply committed to pay it forward and breaking the cycle of women competing, backstabbing and manipulating each other in order to get ahead. She lost me a little in the passages that explained her spirituality, but inspired me as some of the chapters read as pep talks. She is also committed to telling the truth. This is a good book for someone who is going through a transition – graduation, job transition, etc. It’s not as heavy handed as some books I have read and offers some good practical advice.

Brewing Report: Tasting Notes from the Cajun Cafe Beer Festival

In mid-November, my husband and I headed to the Cajun Café Beer Festival. Cajun Café is a great restaurant in St. Petersburg with fantastic food and great location. We were really impressed with this festival. It is unique because the owner doesn’t use one particular distributor and spends the year stockpiling interesting micro-brews. He also invites some of the local Home brewing clubs.


The festival was well laid out. Each table had six to fifteen beers to taste. The tickets also included a fruit and cheese plate and a Taste of Cajun Café plate – gumbo, red beans and rice, crawfish cornbread. Yum! Plus the band was so fun!

The beer festival highlighted a few of the beer trends:

- Super hoppy beers: I think this trend may be ending – thankfully, but it seems like breweries were completing to see how much they could out-hop each other.

- High alcohol – We had trouble deciphering between the 13% beers. They all had a very sweet, alcohol taste.

- Aging in a bourbon barrel – The fest had two bourbon barrel ales – Windmere Reserve and a local home brewer’s version. The Widmere Reserve has nice flavor, but we were impressed with how the home brewer was able to produce a very balanced smooth beer.

- Sour beers – I hadn’t tasted a sour beer before and the Festival had a couple stunners. It reminded me of sitting back in the back of bus on the way to Washington DC eating sour balls until we burned the insides of our mouth. The highlights were Zuur and the Cascade Creek Northwest Style Sour Ale. The Cascade Creek was the best at the Festival. It was smooth, full bodied and a great palette cleanser.

We picked up the best tip – a pretzel necklace. A lot of the beers had very strong flavors – sour, hops, and powerful stouts. We definitely needed a palate cleanser after some of those.

We will definitely go again.

Here are some of our tasting notes:

Red Hook Expedition 8-4-1: A nut brown ale with malty flavor on a strong background of hops.

Cuvee 2: Oak Aged, deep flavor, very smooth

Starr Hill The Love Wheat: Crisp, fruity with a slight note of sour

Ommegang 3 Philosophers Quadruple Belgium Style Ale: Tartness of the cherries helps to offset the sweet from the high alcohol content.

Ommegang Witte: Very refreshing wheat with great citrus notes

Great Divide Smoked Baltic Porter: A great porter base with a smokey flavor that delivers on the promise.

Ommegang Cup of Kindness Limited Edition: A scotch ale that delivers on its promise.

Mike’s Homebrew Pumpkin Spice: A great balance of both pumpkin and spice flavors. The only pumpkin beer Angie has ever liked.

Dunedin Brewers’ Guild Belgium Double Chocolate Stout: This stout made by a local home brewer was so decadent. It was delicious, velvety and super-sized chocolate flavor.

Dunedin Brewers’ Guild Petit Saison: A solid saison. Light fruity, but still had the body of a beer.

Red Brick Vanilla Gorilla: Smooth vanilla dark ale that reminded us of cream soda.

Fort Collins Brewery Common Ground: Coffee flavor but not dark. It is a really good and unusual beer.

Dunedin Apricot Wheat: This beer delivers a wheat background with apricot flavors and nose.

Dogfish Chicory Stout: What a great combination! The flavors of chicory meld nicely with the solid stout background.

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter: Definitely had vanilla flavor, but avoided being overly sweet. A solid porter.

Are you watching? Castle

I am really enjoying the second season of Castle. The show centers on a writer who is shadowing a New York detective. The writer becomes an asset for whole team and, of course, a source of sexual tension for the dectective. The crime solving is augmented by a glimpse into the writers' home life with his charming daughter and eccentric mother. They usually provide a nice break from the investigation plotline.

I was very intrigued when I saw copies of the novel mentioned in the show for sale.



I read Naked Heat (Nikki Heat) by "Richard Castle" over the weekend. It's a pretty thick novel that reads like an episode of the show. What makes for great television doesn't necessarily make for a great novel. For instance, introducing new characters in the last couple chapters and one of them just happens to be the villian. I thought I missed a couple chapters. I think it is a very smart marketing ploy and it does match the plot quite nicely. If you are huge fan of the show, I would pick it up just for the novelty factor.

Recipe: Swiss chard - Almond Pesto Pasta

Photo credit: Dan Robert, http://www.rachelraymag.com/

Yesterday for dinner I decided to test drive a recipe from the most recent Rachel Ray magazine. It was featured in the $10 spot - recipes for a family under $10. The original recipe was for Kale Walnut Pesto Pasta. 

I had rainbow swiss chard from our recent CSA pick up and smoked almonds from our Thanksgiving cheese plate so I decided to substitute. It turned out really well. I love the technique of turning greens into pesto. I had done it with spinach, arugula, and now swiss chard.

Here we go:

1 bunch of swiss chard - stems removed and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 smoked almonds or toasted almonds
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp hot sauce
Rotini pasta - these spiral are important because they hold the pesto really well

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add at least 2 pinches of salt. Put the chard in the water for 5 minutes.
Remove the chard with a slotted spoon. You are going to boil the pasta in the same water.
Place the chard in a colander and run under cold water until all the chard is no warmer than room temperature. Squeeze the chard to remove extra water. Pat dry.
Add your pasta to the water and cook until al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, put the garlic and nuts into the food processor. Pulse until chopped.
Add the cheese.
Add the chard.
The mixture will look a little lit tabbouleh. Taste it and add the salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.
Continue to mix and drizzle in olive oil. The chard mixture will form a paste-like clump. You are done.
By now, the pasta should be done.
Reserve at least one cup of the water prior to draining.
Drain the pasta and return to the pot.
Add the clump of pesto. Add the reserved water until all the pasta is coated.

Enjoy!

Hot Topic: World's AIDS Day

Today is World's AIDS Day. You remember AIDS, right? That disease that scared a generation into practicing safe sex.

Remember when CNN showed stories about Ryan White, Magic Johnson and how to stem the AIDS tide instead of YouTube videos of cats peeing?

Remember the vigils, the fear, the hopelessness?

I do. I remember.

Even though football players won't be wearing red this Sunday and KitchenAid isn't making commemorative mixer - AIDS is still a huge burden here. Maybe we can forget about it because it takes place more in Sub-Sahara Africa than it does in suburbia.

But on this day we should remember. We should care. We should do something.

Maybe pray for the 33 million people battling this disease including two million children under the age of fifteen.
Maybe send money to organizations searching for a cure or a vaccine or providing comfort.
Maybe educate yourself on what is the current status of the fight against AIDS worldwide.
Maybe remind someone that AIDS still exists and lasts far longer than a one night stand.
Maybe just click on the Light for Rights banner up there on the left side of this page to see what other people are doing to remember.