That's What Jenni Said

When it comes to cuisine, Marcella Hazan is my definitive guide for all things Italian, so it takes a pretty remarkable cookbook to earn a permanent space in my collection alongside her work. Domenica Machetti has written one of those cookbooks and it's titled The Glorious Pasta of Italy .  Comprised of 274 pages of well-researched and well-written recipes for making a variety of pasta, sauces, soups, and entrees, it has served as a valuable resource for exploring new flavors in my kitchen. I enjoyed Marchetti's fresh tomato sauce so much that I used it one summer recently as my basic recipe for transforming 125 pounds of farm fresh Roma tomatoes into canned pasta sauce for use all year long. The flavors remained bright and tangy even after canning. Another recipe I particularly enjoy is the orecchiette with creamy broccoli sauce. The ragu is rich and satisfying and because the broccoli is pureed it won over even the pickiest never-met-a-vegetable-I-liked eater in the family ...

This week marks the end of my first full semester of graduate school at the University of Michigan in the MS in Computer Science and Information Systems program. I was enrolled in coursework in Autumn 2012, but those classes were actually senior level computer science undergraduate courses recommended by the university to fill the gaps in my knowledge due to not having a Bachelor’s of Science degree (I have a BA in psychology from New Mexico State University). It was a very challenging semester both in terms of the content of the coursework (so much math at times) and the requirement to balance the coursework with my full time career, my full time role as a wife and my leisure hobby of weekend travel. There were quite a few weekends whilst we were en route to Asia that I had to maintain the self-discipline to study on the plane. Luckily, I was smart enough to enlist the assistance of both my husband and and my closest female friend to help keep me on track with accountability and peer...

Leather bound with crisp linen pages. Delicate paisley pastel illustrated with pink pages. Fractal pattern bursting with bright colors covering clean white pages. Each journal offering on display for sale at Barnes and Noble is  beautiful and tempting. I want to buy each one; to claim just a small corner of of the grand happiness in the universe that these books-as-a-work-of-art represent. I’m struck with the same impulse whenever I find myself browsing in Pier One. The store carries these delicate glass jars in different colors and shapes and they are things of great beauty in my eyes. I have discerned no practical purpose for the jars but I want to hold onto that fleeting feeling of joy that bursts inside when they are before me. In the same way, the journals are seemingly useless in my home. I don’t keep a personal bare-all-my-soul diary any longer. Jon had always advised me of the folly of committing momentary emotions to paper lest they prove to hurt another who might stumble...