CK Friday Links--Friday December 17, 2010

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts, your Viagra, and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!

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Is food blogging too much work? (Will Write For Food)

Why we should just dump our national dietary guidelines. (Stuffed Nation)

Creating healthy holiday traditions. (Freaking Fitness)

Yet another formerly militant vegan justifies her switch back to meat in a wide-ranging blog interview. (Let Them Eat Meat)

Recipe Links:
The best cookie you'll eat this holiday season: Lime Meltaways. (Closet Cooking)

How to make Lassi, India's favorite drink. (Aapplemint)

Possibly the easiest recipe of the year: Slow Cooker Mexican Beans. (Cheap Healthy Good)

Off-Topic Links:
What is nonviolent communication? (Rhiannon Laurie)

Brilliant and strikingly concise thoughts on the nature of education and learning. (Ombailamos)

How to slash your writing time in half. (Write to Done)

On radically rethinking holiday gift-giving. (Zen Habits, via Climb the Rainbow)


Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


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5 comments:

Melissa said...

I'm not sure how to put this... but... I hate that article on NVC. I hate that I just wrote an acronym, a label, for something we shouldn't have to dissect so thoroughly, right down to labeling every part of the communication we have with another human being. I'm all for analysis and self-improvement and doing the hard and good work of making your relationships with other people the best they can be for everyone, but I don't think it has to be picked apart into little bits like that. Just... no.

Is food blogging too much work? "Real" or typically "successful" food blogging can be. I agree with her initial list of how to be a food blogger. If people do those things, they are a lot more likely to gain an audience. I guess it all boils down to how much you want out of it, and whether what you want comes from yourself or others' feedback.

I hate the pressure of Christmas gifts. We haven't really done them for many years, but we are doing it this year. We aren't traveling to see family, a very rare thing, so we decided to surprise each other with some stuff, which I think is reasonable.

But I do also often think about the idealistic thing, something that was mentioned in the article, that people are struggling and starving everywhere in the world and here we are consuming consuming consuming. People need to wake up.

Daniel said...

Interesting take on that Melissa. On some levels I hear you. There was even a Simpson's episode several years ago that satirized non-violent communication techniques... I guess it's only a matter of time before South Park gets in on it too.

But for me, it clarified some things, and the principles in that post will actually help me communicate better with a few of my friends and family members.

However, the majority of my friends and family are blunt and don't hold back when conversing--nor should they! With them, these techniques would sound just plain weird.

I guess I see it as an (optional) communications tool that I can use if I want to or need to.

DK

Melissa said...

I can see your point. And I'm sorry Dan; that was harsh of me. You know how much I respect your opinion and while I have a right to mine, I didn't need to inject it so thoughtlessly.

Daniel said...

Not at all Melissa, I love it--I'm serious: I love it--when my readers disagree with me. And I didn't think your opinion was thoughtless at all, on the contrary it was thoughtful and thought-provoking.

We can't just sit around and agree with each other all the time, right? Who's going to learn anything doing that?

DK

Sally said...

I don't recall where I read this, but until very recently the US was one of the only countries that issued dietary guidelines. Most other countries saw no need to issue dietary guidelines.

It's only been in the last 10 years or so that other countries felt a need to do this. This is due in large part to weight gain as people have changed to a diet more similar to that of the US -- high(er) in processed, junk and fast foods. I remember China and Italy in particular.

These people are being encouraged to return to their traditional diets, which haven't changed much in many, many years (centuries).