Obscurorant 2.0

Hope springs eternal, as do book memes. Found this one here, and as always, feel free to play along at home.
1. When/how did you become an avid reader?
Second grade. The school library. The astounding revelation that I could get any book about any topic I chose. So I read Guadalcanal Diary about a million times. [...]

I’m contemplating trying this recipe for ratatouille for my inaugural use of our new mandoline.
Now that we have a mandoline, the only kitchen gadget I can think of that we’re lacking is a hand mixer, which would be useful for my specialty – soups.* The question is – do any of my dozen or [...]

21 great uses for beer.  (Apart from drinking it of course.)