I have here today a package for the cook AND a package for the fitness fiend in your life. Or maybe they're the same person--who knows?

At any rate, first things first. I've got a really fun item from TasteBook.com, a website that allows you to create your own cook book. You don't have to be a tech genius to figure it out, you simply go to TasteBook.com and register for a free account then you decide which recipes you'd like to include in your personal hardbound cook book.

There are several options, you can search through their files supplied by Epicurous--the company that brings you Bon Apetit and Gourmet magazines--and use their recipes, already formatted. Or you can type in your own, complete with your own pictures. Or you can select one of their pre-made sets of recipes on a theme.

I heard about TasteBook months ago and was dying to see how it worked, I chose to use my own recipes that I've published here at Scribbit and copied, pasted and uploaded 100 of my favorites straight from my web pages.

It worked well, although a couple of times when I went to the website to work on the project I had problems with the entered information being saved in the fields. If I previewed a recipe then came back to edit or save it sometimes the information in the fields I'd just entered would be empty which made for some irritation. With 100 recipes to enter a little glitch like that made things frustrating but it could have been just a tremor in the Force, a glitch in the Matrix, something that was a one-time problem--who knows?

Anyway, I got my book this week and was completely satisfied with the results, it looks so professional! TasteBook formats the whole thing for you and uses some of their stock photos for things like the cover and the dividers but my own photos printed nicely--even those of a lower resolution which I had worried about. The hardbound binder has lovely pictures and the pages are thick and sturdy. There are sections such as "meat and poultry," "drinks and appetizers," and "fish and seafood" just as in a regular cook book.

If you're interested in this cool way to have a cook book where every recipe is one you actually will use--and each recipe has a picture, an absolute must for me--then this is a nice way to go.

You can select up to 100 recipes to be included in your binder for a total cost of $34.95 plus shipping which isn't cheap but it's not too bad if you consider what a cook book at the book store might cost you--and especially considering you're more likely to use all the recipes in your custom made cook book.

What struck me too is that this is a nice way to combine family heirloom recipes (you could include family pictures with the recipes rather than food shots--there aren't rules on this you know).

SO . . . I have here a double treat. I've put together 100 of my own recipes from Scribbit into a prototype book that I'm going to give away as one prize, then Tastebook.com has also offered a random winner a shot at making their own TasteBook free of charage.

If any of you who don't win would be interested in purchasing your own copy of Recipes from Scribbit I'll be making it available for purchase at no markup, just $34.95 plus shipping straight from TasteBook.com. It has almost all of the recipes you've seen here over the past two years and has some of my very favorite recipes in the world. If you'd like to purchase one please leave a comment in the message field of the entry form and I'll get with you on the details.


And now the gift for the fitness expert in your life comes from Best Buy who has put together the Insignia Fitness package which includes:

• An Insignia 2GB MP3 player can store up to 500 songs
  
• A $10 Best Buy Digital Music Store download card for your workout playlist
• An Init armband to keep the Insignia MP3 player securely fastened
• A Water bottle
  

So you have a chance at one of three prizes this week. If you have a strong preference as to which you'd like, leave me a message to that effect in the entry form and I'll do my best to make everyone happy.


Megret at Muses of Megret is the winner of yesterday's book Growing up Green by Deidre Imus. I've got more books to tackle on Sunday so don't despair if you'd like to get your hands on one of them.

Here's how to win:

Before 12 am Monday go to the giveaway entry form on this page and enter your name and email. I will pick one of the names at random, contact the winner via their email and publish the winner's first name and home town in next Tuesday's post. See the bottom of the entry form for more details.

This giveaway is open to all readers so good luck!

Technorati tags: product reviews, giveaways, Tastebook, cook books

Link

To receive your free sample, just fill in a few questions about yourself and the products you use, then click submit at the bottom of the page.

Link

In recent headline news folks around here know I'm pretty excited about the Sony Digital Reader I was sent to review. I'd seen these jobbies (that's a word me mum uses--it means "thingamabobs" or "doohickies") over at the bookstore but I thought, "I hate reading books on my Palm so why would I spend money on a digital reader?" I didn't go into the experience with what you'd call an open mind.

But I have to say it's pretty slick. I mean slick. First of all I have to point out that Sony's reader is one of the less-expensive models you can buy and though I haven't looked at any of the others out there for comparison with the Sony reader you can load up to 160 books and the filing system has been very comfortable.

What I mean is that you can easily flip around between books and bookmarks and places you've been reading with ease which kind of surprised me--I expected it to be harder to navigate, like my Palm. It's not good if you're trying to search for a particular passage, as you would looking up something in the dictionary or a Bible because there isn't a search feature but for straight reading it works like a charm.

I like the feel of the unit, it has a nice weight to it, and it came with a lovely leather cover. The screen is nice to read, not the irritating display that my Palm has that makes reading more trouble than it's worth, this one actually looks like a page. It's nice to have so many books in so small a space, I can read several at once without having to tote them all around which will be particularly nice when I travel, no more guessing how many books to squeeze into my luggage. Supposedly the battery works for 7500 page turns on one charging and it seems to last plenty long so far.

Though here's a warning: when I took it out of the package the first thing I did was to plug it into the computer's USB port for a good charging but don't do that! At least, first turn the unit on, then plug it in, otherwise when it arrives in the sleep mode and is plugged in the unit locks and won't turn on at all for 40 minutes until it's completely charged. I thought I'd got a broken reader at first because it wouldn't turn on while it was plugged in and it wasn't until I went back and checked again later that I got it to turn on.

Irony is, the place in the directions where it tells you all of this information is in the User's Guide installed on the reader. Not on the quick start pamphlet you first see when it comes out of the box. Hmmm. . . maybe putting that tidbit on the pamphlet with a big "Don't plug it in until you've turned it on or it locks up" would be helpful rather than leaving that info on the locked-up reader.

Anyway, it worked wonderfully once I figured out what I'd done.

A couple other things to keep in mind: First, it doesn't have a light. WHAT? No light? I know, that surprised me too that you can't have a light for reading in the dark but apparently it's to maintain the page-like quality of the screen. A bit of a downside--though as I said, that screen is a beauty so maybe it's a fair trade-off.

Second, Sony ebook software that comes with the reader isn't Mac compatible. It took a bit of figuring out to get books into my library but apparently the best thing to do is to download the free application at Calibre which allows you to manage your ebook library on your Mac and then there are plenty of places such as manybooks.net that allow you to quickly download free ebooks. When you select the format you wish to download, choose the "Sony.lrf" option and that'll do it.

Anyway, if you're looking for a Father's Day gift this might be a nice little way to guarantee you a spot in Dad's will. I'm just saying . . .

I carry mine in my purse all the time now and love it. The Sony site also has a refurbished section where you might get some good deals if they have get one in stock (and we all know how I'm a refurbished freak now with my new Macbook).


And to continue with the week of books ("books" seems to be the theme doesn't it?) yesterday's winner is Stacy of Stacy's World--please claim your books by emailing me your address--and for today book giveaway here's Growing up Green by Deidre Imus.

If you'd like a shot at winning today's book leave a comment on this post and check back tomorrow to see if you won. I'll take entries until midnight.

This is the second in a series of books called Green This! and apparently Imus is an environmentalist and child advocate who gives you the run down on how to protect your children from all sorts of environmental hazards.

I'm not sure I'm the best person to promote this particular book seeing that my kids have grown up licking the lead paint off the walls and riding without their bike helmets (though they have been properly vaccinated and they do wear their seat belts, thank you very much). I take most of the environmental dangers du jour with a big fat grain of salt and ignore most of the news programs that try to work me up into a panic over the latest toxin they've discovered. That said, I do think there is some merit to this book, judging from my peek at it.

For example, there are chapters on Autism Spectrum Disorders, the over-medication of children, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the overuse of antibiotics--all valid issues in my mind. I'm less convinced about Imus' connections between environmental triggers of childhood cancers.

For example, she says, "Researchers have linked environmental exposures to a jaw-dropping number of health problems: learning disabilities, hyperactivity, headaches, asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, autism, eye damage, pediatric cancer and even rheumatoid arthritis."

I have a hard time blaming radon gas, Nalgene bottles and pesticides for all of these problems because I've seen too many children stuck inside addicted to video games and Coke to go looking for some Secret Destroyer. I tend to wonder how many childhood issues would be corrected by a regular 10-12 hours of sleep, a healthy diet full of fruits and veggies, plenty of exercise and much less screen-time. However, it's easier and more profitable to tell parents to throw out all their plastic bottles than to tell them to take away the t.v. isn't it? It's much easier to hear "keep them away from lead paint" rather than "get plenty of exercise and avoid the junk food."

So there are some non sequiturs in the book. Take page 125 where it says, "If you study this long list of vaccines, you might reasonably assume that America's children, because they are the most vaccinated, are also the healthiest in the world. In reality, the opposite is true: As more and more vaccines have been added to the recommended immunization schedule, the overall health of our children has actually declined. Could there be a connection?"

This surprises me because it's so fallacious--yes, the overall health of American children has declined but to make the assumption that vaccinations are the result is illogical. Childhood obesity is so rampant, with one in three American children being overweight, that Type II diabetes, normally reserved for fat adults, is threatening children. The startling use of common drugs like caffeine and alcohol has shot up and binge drinking among teens is epidemic. Seems to me that vaccinations would be toward the bottom of a long list of possible reasons why American children aren't as healthy as they used to be--but once again it's easier to tell a parent not to vaccinate than it is to tell them to not let their child drink alcohol on the sly. Tell parents to do something that they can control rather than something that's nearly impossible to control and they'll feel that they're protecting their children and will sleep better at night.

So . . . having said all this, I think there is some merit to Imus' book--personally I'd always prefer a good home remedy for my cold symptoms rather than paying for a trip to the doctor for a pill--but be careful that it doesn't get you worked up over the latest thing to fear. We have enough real dangers in our lives today without worrying about the latest toxin that's coming to kill our children.

Technorati tags: Sony, Digital Readers

I feel quite confident that should life ever allow this woman's path to cross my own that I'd love being her friend. Why? Well we have quite a bit in common She's married, I'm married; she's got four kids, I've got four kids; she even has hers in the same order as I do (a girl, two boys and a girl).

She loves Settlers of Catan as much as I do (to the point of memorializing the game in cupcakes), she loves ice cream and here I've been petitioning to have Ben and Jerry canonized as saints for years now. If for nothing else, the introduction of Caramel Sutra into my life qualifies them for sainthood.

Yes, the similarities are spooky--she likes Cheetos with her apple pie, I like Cheetos with my apple pie. Oops, no, strike that. She's on her own with that one.

But regardless, since I've started reading Lizzy's blog, My Ice Cream Diary, I've enjoyed her writing and her family and feel quite sure that we'd be good friends if our homes were just closer. (If our homes were closer I think I'd ask her to rent out her husband who could probably pick up some sweet cash moonlighting as an instructor for a "Learn How to Be the Kind of Husband That Makes All the Other Husbands Look Bad" course after his recent birthday performance--it's too good to recap, you'll have to read what he did for her birthday here).

Anyway, she homeschools her four children (check out her post Homeschooling and Socialization) and is expecting her fifth child, a boy, due at the end of July--though we're all pulling for him to arrive a week or two early. Isn't that every pregnant woman's dream? Just a short little week or two shaved off that 9-month period? That and to be able to fit into your skinny jeans a week after delivery.

After our busy Memorial Day weekend I had a few questions for Lizzy and she was kind enough to answer. Most of them are about blogging and after her fine performances in various editions of the Write-Away Contest I think she's eminently qualified to give advice on the topic.

I asked her if she felt any kind of responsibility towards her readers:

I do feel a responsibility to my readers. When I first started blogging it would really bother me when I would find a great blog and then suddenly they stopped blogging. It is a lot like having my favorite TV show canceled. At the very least, I think bloggers should have a grand finale, or at least say goodbye before they leave. I try to always let my readers know when to expect me back if I'm going to stop posting for more than 2-3 days.

Which makes me then ask who she blogs for--herself or her audience?

Who do I post for? I post for myself because this really is the only diary/journal I have going and I think it is important that I have a record of myself for my children. Though I post for myself, I write for my readers. Before I write any story or idea I try to think about how to make it more understandable and enjoyable for those reading. I have always tried to blog this way because, and I fully admit this, I blog for the comments. I love the feedback and the communication that comes from blogging. If you want comments you have to write in a way that encourages comments.

Fair enough. I asked Lizzy about blogging mistakes and if there were mistakes that she saw beginning bloggers making and she said:

Not posting regularly. If you post sporadically people get annoyed with the time they've wasted coming back, or they just forget to stop by. Also, not leaving comments on blogs you read. How will people know you are out there with your own great blog if you don't say "Hi?"

Any last advice for beginning bloggers out there? Words of wisdom or that sort?

Read what you want to write. Great writers throughout history, and even today, have all been great readers. When you saturate yourself with great writing you can't help but improve your own. I am always searching for successful and well written blogs to study in order to improve my own.

The other thing a writer needs to do is to have a purpose. What is the purpose of your blog, your story, or your essay? Without a purpose, moral, or priority, most writing is disposable and forgettable.

If you haven't yet visited My Ice Cream Diary stop on by and tell Lizzy Hi for me--see what flavors she's got going today.

Technorati tags: interviews, blogging, motherhood

The Uh-Ohs are a unique, engaging, and fun way for teachers or public safety officials to reinforce important safety messages with groups of children. Each Uh-Oh figurine comes with a code to access the online world of world of the Uh-Ohs, featuring NFPA®-approved games and activities that reinforce vital safety messages.

Link

By requesting a free sample, you will be signed up for a free QuickQuote account to access instant online quotes for SLA, SLS, FDM and Rapid Injection Molding 24×7.

Link

Link

Adobe Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express, the long-awaited free online image editor from Photoshop maker Adobe, will be released as a public beta on Thursday. Unlike Adobe’s more powerful image editing tools for the desktop, Photoshop Express is aimed not at the professional photographer, but at the casual snapshot fan looking to polish up images before sharing them online at sites like Photobucket, Facebook and Flickr.

I noticed I wasn't the only one thinking about my favorite books from the past, Chris from Book-a-Rama had a few of her favorites and Mommysecrets is doing her own series of book lists, but I'm using this list to introduce the Week o' Books (what?) Yes, the Week o' Books--a highly sophisticated name for a highly sophisticated system where I have a stack of books I've been given to review but have been lazy about doing so. Instead, I'm going to mention one each day over the next week then give one away each day.

Simple, huh?

So here are the books that I wax nostalgic for from my childhood followed by the book I'm giving away. If you'd like a shot at winning please leave a comment on this post before the end of the day and I'll put your name in the pot. If you are posting anonymously or without an email address attached to your profile please either leave me your email so that I can contact you should you win or keep an eye on tomorrow's post because I'll announce each day's winner in the next day's post.

1. Half Magic by Edward Eager. This story of four siblings who find a coin that grants them half-wishes appealed to my love of fantasy but less well known are the others in the series--Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle, Seven-Day Magic, The Time Garden, The Well-Wishers and Magic or Not?--which are also great reads and are good read-aloud novels. Before there was Harry there was Half-Magic.

Along the same genre is Time at the Top, an obscure story by Edward Ormondroyd about a little girl who finds a magical elevator, and The Swing in the Summerhouse, part one of a trilogy by Jane Langton. Funny thing, I actually had to write a letter to Ms. Langton for an elementary school assignment and she and I ended up corresponding for a short time. I believe she lived in Boston at the time. I had to go and Google her quick to see if she's still writing and sure enough she is and has her own site.

2. The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald. Spencer just went through reading the series and it was fun to see him enjoy these as much as I once did. All about a smart-and-cocky kid who lives in early 20th century Salt Lake City and uses his genius to milk the neighborhood kids of allowance money--it has the feel of Tom Sawyer's famous painting the fence scene stretched into a series. He's the hero you love to hate. Highly recommended by both me and my 11 year-old son.

3. The Ten o' Clock Club by Carol Beach York. If you missed this charming--and I mean charming--story of the girls at the Good Day Orphanage I only pray it's not too late to catch up and remedy the error. Unfortunately it's not in print any more and searching for the author's name at Amazon only pulls up Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales which I'm pretty sure isn't quite the same.

My mother bought me The Ten o' Clock Club and The Christmas Dolls (also by York) and I treasured both until the covers were tattered and torn. The Christmas Dolls tells the story of two misfit dolls that dream of being loved by a little girl and thanks to some Christmas magic they get their wish. The Ten o' Clock Club follows the same group of girls when they try their hand at fortune-telling.

Very sweet--you can borrow my copies if you'd like. So long as you promise to return them.

4. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. This series includes The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Black Cat, Taran Wanderer and The High King (if memory serves) and was my first taste of Tolkien-esque fantasy. My friends and I read and re-read this series up until junior high but do you remember where I said I had an elementary school writing assignment to write to an author? Well I also wrote to Mr. Alexander and he didn't answer. Not that I'm bitter. Sure, he sent me a pamphlet outlining the many books he'd written but that really isn't the same thing as a letter from an author you idolize is it? Oh well, I pulled through somehow.

5. Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. I've always loved mysteries and besides Nancy I'd have to add Trixie Belden (who was slightly cooler than Nancy based on the having-her-own-horse advantage--a horse is always better than a roadster when you're 13). I suppose it also helped that she had a real boyfriend rather than Ned who seemed to be more of a bellboy than a boyfriend but at any rate, I loved Nancy and Trixie and before that it was Encyclopedia Brown.

I read every one of the books in these three series voraciously--which later lead me to Agatha Christie--and thanks to Nancy I've sworn that someday I will write my own mystery story. On the list of things to do.

6. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards. How many of you are familiar with this fantasy novel? Mrs. Tecca, my third grade teacher, read this to us and I loved every word from beginning to end (and I loved Mrs. Tecca too). It's written by--get this--Julie Andrews of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music fame under her married name and it's just wonderful. It's been a few years but as I recall it's the story of the Potter children who go on a magical adventure with their friend the professor in search of the great and wise whangdoodle. Something like The Wizard of Oz only much, much better and without the freaky flying monkeys. Edwards also wrote Mandy which reminds me of The Secret Garden and which I loved nearly as much--another little orphaned girl with a secret house and garden that she fixes up all by herself--great stories.

7. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I might as well throw this on the list since I've just mentioned it but A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy are also gems and must-reads. How many times have these novels been made into movies? I don't know but I think I've seen every version that's ever come out. Where else will you see Ricky Schroeder in a Buster Brown suit?

8. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald. Again, Mrs. Tecca read this to us and I loved how she did funny voices for "The Cry Baby Cure" and brought the books alive. Did I mention Mrs. Tecca had been the school librarian before she was my third grade teacher? Every child should be so lucky as to have a teacher like that. Oh how I loved to hear her read to us.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is perfect for reading aloud for just that reason--the funny voices. Well, that and the chapters are perfectly contained stories so that if you stop at the end and don't pick up the book for a month you don't forget what's happened and can start back right in without skipping a beat. Good stuff.

9. The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary. I've mentioned this series before but they're funny and clever enough that they're worth repeating (though I won't subject you to hearing my story of meeting Beverly Cleary again). I think I've read most of Cleary's books except the "mushy" ones that were more romance than humor--I wanted Ramona, not kissing. I've read Henry Huggins' books to the boys and they loved them just as I did at their age.

10. The Letter, the Witch and the Ring by John Bellairs. This probably qualifies as the absolutely scariest book I ever read as a kid. I was telling David about it the other day to try and get him to read it and when I raved about how scary it was and how he'd never be able to take it (you know, challenging his bravery and manliness in a weak ploy of reverse psychology to get him to read it) he started into it but put it down saying it was too scary. I think he was lying and that he just didn't want to read it--it's very difficult for me to get my kids to read a recommendation of mine--apparently I'm just not cool enough to have a real opinion--but if Aunt Melissa or Uncle Luke recommends something they'll snatch it right up. Darn kids.

I should try reading it again to see if it really was that scary. I remember reading it at night and coming to a scene where the main character is riding in a car and glances in the rear view mirror and sees glowing eyes in the darkness of the back seat. I wigged out completely as only a ten year-old can wig out when she's not supposed to be up reading so late.

11. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. What kid doesn't love this story? I should ask, what kid doesn't think about running away from home (if just for a brief second) and this book tells the story of two kids brave and smart enough to pull it off by running away and secretly living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Don't let that disturb you as a parent it's a great story with a fun mystery wrapped in for good measure. It was my first introduction to Michaelangelo as a child. My kids and I have tossed around other places that would be fun to hide out and agreed that Disneyland would be terribly disappointing--what fun would it be to hide there when all the rides were closed?

12. Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster. I'd normally mention Anne of Green Gables but that's on EVERYONE'S favorite list so I'll give it a nod in passing (love it love it love it--it's so great it's beyond the worthiness of this little list) and mention this lesser-known work that is also wonderful. It has a similar feel to the Anne books and even has a sequel, Dear Enemy, which is also fabulous reading. It follows Jerusha Abbott as she works in an orphanage and corresponds with an unknown benefactor. I think it was even made into a movie long ago. Probably a Ginger Rogers movie--it has Ginger written all over it.

13. The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. Another unknown that any kid who likes dinosaurs would love. It's about a little boy who finds an egg--you guessed it, it's enormous--and hatches it only to find that it's a dinosaur egg. The media finds out and the issues grow as fast as the little dinosaur. Probably the precursor to Jurassic Park from a kinder, gentler time--without the blood and carnage of dinosaurs making h'ors d'oeuvres out of the humans. I also liked The Shy Stegosaurus of Crooked Creek by Laurie Lawlor about some children that find a stegosaurus hiding out near their home.

Others not even mentioned: The short books about witches by Ruth Chew, Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater, She Was Nice to Mice by Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (yes, Ally Sheedy the actress, when she was 13) and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. All wonderful books too. You'll notice I refrained from raving about Charlotte's Web which I consider a monument to the English language--it's so obvious I figured I'd let someone mention it in the comments.


To start off this Week o' Books here's Your Toddler Month by Month: Your Essential Guide to the First Four Years by Dr. Tanya Byron. Published by DK Publishing (they tend to be a name you can trust) it's just what it claims to be--a comprehensive guide to those formative years when you often look at the child you've produced and say, "Oh my gosh--how could this human being have come from me?"

Physical, mental, emotional development--it appears to be covered and my impression is that it's a nice guidebook for some of those questions you might have such as: "Is it normal for my child to strip off their clothes in public?" The answer is, of course, yes. That's why it's advisable to dress your little exhibitionist in at least seventeen layers of clothes each day so that at least you've got a fighting chance of catching them before they get down to Buck Naked in the middle of Walmart. (That part is my own expert advice--not Dr. Byron's. Though she can use it in the next edition if she wants to--free of charge).

Forgive me if I'm a little cynical when I see chapter headings like, "Communicating with Your Toddler" and "Managing Behavior." I vaguely remember those years with toddlers and the days where I'd swear there wasn't any way the both of us were going to make it through alive and sane. I could have really used a book like this.

I'm also throwing in What My Toddler Ate Today: A 90-day Food Diary by Jaqui Hermann where parents can chart their child's meals to improve eating habits and nutrition--not a bad idea is it?

But if you'd like a chance to read Dr. Byron's pearls of wisdom for yourself and count your kids' Doritos intake, leave a comment and you've got a fighting chance at winning something fun this week.

Technorati tags: book reviews, giveaways, books, reading, children