I’ve always been a reader. In second grade, I got in trouble for reading books hidden under my desk.  There is always a book in my purse for whenever I have a few free minutes. And when I travel, my carry-on luggage is usually half-filled with books.

I never thought I’d be an e-reader fan.  How could an e-book ever compare to the feel of a physical book in my hands? And what would I do without the beloved “new book” smell, or the musty “old book” smell, for that matter?

But then Dan got me a Nook Simple Touch for my birthday, and I’m a little bit in love.  Here’s why:

1. It is so much easier to read 2 or 3 books at a time when you have them all in a little 5×7″ tablet.

2. I realized yesterday morning that I can upload any PDF to my Nook.  So I copied and pasted my favorite blog posts from Joy, Cheryl and Jess into a Word document and saved it as a PDF. Now I have instantly accessible writing inspiration, even when I need to unplug from the internet!

3. I’ve been really pushing myself on the trainer lately.  My cycling rides often end with my sprawled on the living room rug, exhausted.  With the Nook, I can make the font of whatever I’m reading as large as I need, so I can still read as I push myself past 17 mph at high resistance.

4.  Free books! Turns out, public domain books can be downloaded for free.  I now have a collection of classics I’ve always meant to read, but haven’t yet: Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Time Machine, Vanity Fair.  Maybe now I’ll actually get through Les Miserables– it is so much easier to read a few pages at a time when you don’t have to carry a 3-inch book around.  I’ve also downloaded some of my favorite classics: Jane Eyre, Little Women and Phantom of the Opera.

Of course, e-books will never fully replace “real” books, especially when it comes to beautiful cookbooks and books that I know I’ll want to lend to friends and read again and again.  But the Nook is still one of my new favorite things.

I hosted my first dinner party last week.  In planning the menu, I tried to choose dishes that I could prepare at least partially in advance so I could spend more time with our friends and less at the stove. I also wanted to plan ahead and start cooking little components of each dish throughout the week so I could make the most of my time after work each day and wouldn’t be scrambling on Friday.

We started with roasted almonds and three types of crostini: caramelized peppers and onions, bruschetta, and pear & goat cheese.  I love the fresh baguettes from our co-op, and it is so easy to prep the toppings in advance.  On Friday, all I had to do was slice and toast the bread and spoon on the topping.

The bruschetta and pepper recipes will make a lot of toppings– enough for two dinner parties’ worth of appetizers!  Assemble only the amount you think you will need– you can always put more out later.  Use the leftovers for more crostini the next day, or as a pasta or sandwich add-in.

It was a busy weekend, one in which Dan and I spent very little time together. He was busy with baseball, and I was preoccupied with getting the garden cleaned up and planted.  So we took the time to make dinner together on Sunday.  

While Dan grilled the ribs from the Piggery, I made a ramp pesto and some crostini and bruschetta.  We served everything with a side salad of lettuce picked from our cold frames.  The lettuce leaves are still babies, sweet and tender enough that all they needed was a little bit of Garlic Gold balsamic vinaigrette.

We ate outside, talking about our weekends and admiring the new marigolds, sage and rosemary I had planted.

What little things made you happy this week?

I’ll admit it: I’m afraid of baking layer cakes.  My decorating skills are lacking, and though I am a trained scientist, in the science of layer cakes I seem doomed to uneven layers and fillings that weep and ooze.  I hate the feeling of failure, so I typically just avoid baking layer cakes at all costs.

But today is my 25th birthday, which my mother tells me is a Big Deal.  So I made a cake.  An ice cream cake.  A Neopolitan ice cream cake.

I hedged my bets by baking a three layer cake that is, in fact, only one layer of actual cake that is stacked with a layer of vanilla ice cream, then one of strawberry sorbet.  I’m confident in my abilities with frozen desserts, so 2 of the 3 layers were easy-peasy.  And thanks to a trick I figured out, I am now a 25-year-old with a stack of perfectly level cake layers.

To keep the cake layer level and even: when the baked  cake has completely cooled, remove it from the springform pan and place the cake on a rimmed baking sheet.  Rest a long bread or other serrated knife on the edge of the tray.  Slowly saw back and forth across the cake horizontally, keeping the knife level on the edge of the rim, until you’ve sliced all the way through.  Ta-da!  A cake layer of uniform thickness.  The engineer in me is proud.

Bonus: the layers are pretty enough that the cake needs no decoration, other than a few birthday candles.  For an ice cream cake, 25 candles seems risky, so I think I’ll stick with our family tradition of three.

Photo: The lead ducks from yesterday’s annual 4-H Rubber Ducks Race in Ithaca.

There have been some great posts catching my eye in the blogosphere as of late. Time to share the link love!

1. Love this video of Pentatonix singing “Somebody That I Used To Know.”  

2. What is the one food that will change people’s lives when they start making it at home? My vote: mayo. Though I need to give these crackers a shot! And perhaps give sandwich bread another chance. 

3. Apparently there is a word for how I eat produce: Scorpacciata.

4. One of my close friends from high school made + designed this chair.  How awesome is that?

5.  How national food holidays became a thing.

6.  I really like the idea of these little food doodles.

7.  Elise has some great tips for taking everyday photos.

8. How to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies.

9.  In praise of the clunky, non-newsy headline.

What’s on your reading list this week?

I don’t quite know what brought it on, but I recently set a goal to eat at least one salad every day.  This is definitely the easiest time of year to focus on good salads– lettuce and arugula and radishes are coming into season, but not much else is.  And if you’re anything like me, you’re already more than a little tired of kale and other wintery greens.

It is now Week 4 of my inexplicable self-imposed challenge.  If I’m not careful, I’m likely to slip into a same-salad-every-day rut.  Now I have a new challenge: come up with new salad additions to keep things interesting.  Last week, it was this pepper steak.  This week, I’m thinking avocado slices.  Or shredded pork.

Refrigerating:

Eggs will keep for much longer if refrigerated than if kept at room temperature, as they often are in other parts of the world.  In the United States, eggs are typically washed much more thoroughly than those in Europe.  While this is fine from a hygienic standpoint, it also means that the eggs’ natural protective coating is washed away, making refrigeration necessary.

Many refrigerators have a built-in egg tray inside the door. It  is convenient, but it is not the best place to store eggs.  Every time you open the refrigerator, the temperature rises slightly, and items near the door suffer the most pronounced effect.  A low shelf towards the back of the refrigerator makes for better egg storage.

There is conflicting advice on whether eggs are best stored in their cardboard cartons or in airtight containers.  Either is fine, and the cardboard cartons are admittedly more convenient to use.  If using the cartons, store the eggs away from foods with strong odors, as the shells are fragile and permeable and will take on the smells of the foods around them.

Refrigerated Storage Time: Up to 3 or 4 weeks.  To determine if the eggs are still fresh, try this water test from Bon Appetit.

Freezing:

Do not freeze eggs in the shell.  As they freeze, the liquid will expand, and cleaning up exploded eggs in the freezer is no fun.  Instead, crack and separate the eggs. The egg whites can be frozen in airtight containers with just a little empty space on top to allow for expansion. The yolks can also be frozen, but you’ll need to mix in 1/2 teaspoon salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar per cup of yolks so that they aren’t pasty and unappetizing when you defrost them.

This way, a recipe that calls for egg whites only provides yolks for another day’s batch of ice cream.  Or a recipe that calls for just the yolks leaves you with whites for another day’s candied pecans.

Frozen Storage Time: Up to 1 year.

When I was little, I had a rock collection.  It started with a box of colorful polished stones from my great-grandfather and trilobite fossils from the parks near our house in Cincinnati.  With every Girl Scout camping trip (with its natural fossil-hunting expedition) and every visit to a museum gift shop, it would grow.  Whenever my dad came home from a business trip, he brought with him some stones or gems for my collection.  I still have my rock collection, stashed in the closet of my bedroom in Minnesota.

Now I collect recipe ideas. I have a long list of recipe ideas from books, magazines, blogs, restaurants and my own imagination.  Some are on index cards. Some are in a notebook.  Some are just on a piece of card stock I carry with me from cookbook to cookbook when I am on a brainstorming spree.

Replicating my dad’s manicotti has long been on that list.  In fact, I think it appears multiple times on the list.  It was always the dinner I requested on my birthday, spinach and ricotta and beef stuffed into rolled pasta and covered in marinara sauce.  And yet somehow, I still haven’t made it myself.

Funny enough, these meatballs ended up tasting just like my dad’s manicotti filling.  I’m not sure how– I used arugula and parsley where he uses spinach, mozzarella where he uses ricotta.  But still, they taste exactly like manicotti filling.

There have been some great posts catching my eye in the blogosphere as of late. Time to share the link love!

1.  These whole wheat chocolate cake donuts from Brandi look amazing!

2.  Some important things to remember this week.

3.  A beautiful piece from Ruth Reichl on making better hummus.

4.  I adore these cute little recipe greeting cards.

5.  Shake it off.

6.  How to declutter your home…and what not to do in the process.

7.  Missing Picnik?  Edit photos online with PicMonkey.

What’s on your reading list this week?

Your Time, Your Money, Your Meals. Cook It Forward.

This week: one pound of pasta + a dozen eggs.

Happy Savvy Eating!