Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000) is a memoir by Anthony Bourdain about his career in the restaurant industry. As a child, during a vacation with his family in France, Bourdain ate a raw oyster, which ignited his passion for food. Bourdain describes his early escapades and experiences in kitchens and culinary school. He provides a first-hand account of how restaurants function.

I’ve wanted to read this book for many years, and wish I’d read it much earlier, prior to Bourdain’s death. Bourdain had such a sharp wit and sense of humor and a deep passion for life, travel, and food. His writings and words (in books and on television) allowed him to share his passion with the world and inspire us all to try new things and to be open to new experiences. It’s still hard to understand how a man with such joie de vivre was in such pain that he took his own life.

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The Arnold Arboretum

Harvard's Arnold Arboretum is one of my favorite places. Here are a couple photos I took from last summer while I was in Boston.




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Queen Anne's Lace

I tried something different and drew with a white gel pen on black coldpress paper. It was a challenge to draw light instead of dark. I kind of like how this drawing of Queen Anne's Lace turned out. It's one of my favorite wildflowers.


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Azalea

Here's a photograph of an azalea taken in Texas before the winter freeze.


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My Hygge Home by Meik Wiking

My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place (2022) is a book by Meik Wiking. Wiking is the CEO of The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) is a Danish word that describes a feeling of coziness, comfort, and well-being.

Wiking studies happiness through surveys conducted by his institute. He describes his institute’s results as well as those of other researchers. The book provides the reader with digestible statistics from various studies that indicate what components in a home bring people happiness. He couples these stats with anecdotes and personal stories. There is advice about lighting and the functional placement of furniture to make your space your own. Making a hygge home also involves spending time with loved ones, sharing meals, playing together, cooking, and growing plants and food together.

Some of the advice to make your home more hygge may seem to be common sense, but the book provides a reminder to make your space your own and to have it say something about you. The one downside is that there were a lot of stock photographs in the book, and most featured phony-looking, grinning people. They detracted from the authenticity of the book. I much preferred the illustrations throughout. They were charming.

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El Paso Park

Here are a few more photos from winter in El Paso, Texas.

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