January Events in Philadelphia

Looking for something to do? This January, Philadelphia hosts some exciting events! Check out these four:

Mummer's Parade, January 1, 2012

A Philadelphia tradition, old men in elaborate costumes sit in small go-karts and whiz around the streets along with bands and other festivities. It's supposed to be linked to Celtic customs, but mostly it's a raucous good time.

Story Slam: Daily Grind at World Cafe Live, January 9, 2012

In the new year, make your new favorite hang out the Story Slams at World Cafe Live and L'Etage. Twice every month real people pour their hearts out about a selected theme. You can also compete with your own five minute tale of humorous woe.

City Food Tours, ongoing

Philly's foodie scene is thriving and City Food Tours is offering a fun, social way of experiencing it through restaurant crawls. Look out for special tours like Craft Beer and Artisanal Cheese or Decadent Gourmet.

Jerry Seinfeld at the Academy of Music, January 14, 2012

The original funny man comes to the Academy to talk about nothing. Really. But he'll probably include a few topical quips about the city and his act's guaranteed to be a good time!

The Consolations of Alain de Botton

Writer Alain de Botton has made it his mission to show how thinking — and acquaintance with some of the greatest thinkers — can offer us solace and enlarge our happiness. Having begun a Ph.D. program in philosophy, de Botton left the ivory tower in order to write books for general readers. De Botton's work engages topics as diverse as airports, cookies, stoicism, and shoe shining while aiming throughout to help us lead better lives. Sound interesting? Read these five books by de Botton:

• In The Consolations of Philosophy de Botton argues that the teachings of the world's most important philosophers concern the day to day business of living in the world. In a tour of philosophical history, de Botton shows how works by great philosophers can help readers overcome everyday difficulties like frustration, heartbreak, and unhappiness.
• How Proust Can Change Your Life, similarly, presents Marcel Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past as a peculiar sort of self-help book. De Botton culls a number of aphorisms and parables from Proust and presents these lessons in his characteristically witty style.
• De Botton's book The Architecture of Happiness explores the usually unnoticed (yet often quite deep) ways the spaces human beings inhabit affect our emotional lives. This book will change the way you see the physical world.
• A Week at the Airport issued from time de Botton spent as writer-in-residence at England's Heathrow Airport. De Botton sees the airport as a uniquely modern space that concentrates human beings' arrivals, departures, beginnings, and endings in a way made possible only by the miraculous fact of airplane flight. Movingly written and beautifully illustrated, this short book is perhaps the best introduction to de Botton.
• The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work surveys the strange and wonderful world of work. Offering the book as an investigation into a realm that claims itself as one of the principal sources of life's meaning, de Botton turns an anthropologist's eye toward enterprises like logistics, accounting, cookie making, career counseling, and inventing. Listen to an extended interview de Botton gave about the book here.

De Botton also runs The School of Life, a private school based in England that hosts classes, dinners, and a series of "secular sermons." The sermons often reprise de Botton's great theme that philosophy can help human beings with the business of living. View some of these sermons online here.

100% Invisible: Five Compelling Podcasts

Great radio stories are abundant now. Thanks to the web, inventive producers can create and distribute riveting stories cheaply as podcasts. Discerning listeners, in turn, can listen easily while commuting to work or working out at the gym. Since the form distills storytelling to sound, it's often very intimate and moving. These five smart podcasts show off the possibilities:

99% Invisible
Hosted by Roman Mars, 99% Invisible bills itself as "a tiny radio show about design." 99% Invisible episodes spend 5-10 minutes looking closely at otherwise invisible features of our physical world: for example, the peculiar layouts of check cashing stores, the feedback sounds of tech devices, and the look of municipal flags. Be sure to listen to this episode on Soviet Era Design.

RadioLab
RadioLab host Jad Abumrad recently won one of the MacArthur Foundation's "genius grants." Listen to RadioLab and you'll understand why. Abumrad and cohost Robert Krulwich spend each hour of RadioLab investigating topics philosophical and scientific, like "Time" or "Loops" or "Stochasticity." Yes, stochasticity. It means "randomness" and RadioLab's great production values — and dare-we-call-it-genius writing — help make the topic compelling.

Transom
Transom is a showcase and workshop for new public radio. Its site offers tips and tools for producing radio documentaries along with a selection of shows. Transom's podcasts typically present stories that experiment with documentary form. Transom's experiments are interesting even when they aren't successful.

Re:Sound
A weekly radio show and podcast produced by the Third Coast International Audio Festival, Re:Sound gathers some of the best short-form audio pieces. The Third Coast Festival's website also features a library of short documentaries, including contemporary radio plays, documentaries, and stories.

The Sporkful
Selected by iTunes as one of the Best New Podcasts of 2010, The Sporkful's a show about food that insists "it's not for foodies, it's for eaters." Each week, cohosts Dan Pashman and Mark Garrison ruminate on the minutiae of food. Check out The Sporkful Test Kitchen blog.

Each podcast is available for download in Apple's iTunes Store.

A Little Something – Five Great Trifles

Trifles are coming back into fashion in the dessert world. If you’ve never had one, they’re layered treats made with candied fruit, cream, and spongecake, usually presented in a clear dish so you can better admire the visual splendor of the dish. Here are five great ideas for making trifles:

-          Chocolate is an awesome trifle base. Start with lush, creamy brownies, layer them at the bottom of your trifle dish, and then layer coffee-flavored pudding on top. Add chopped chocolate and toffee to finish off the trifle.

-          Angel food cake is a traditional trifle base, and pairs perfectly with fresh berries. One classic trifle uses interspersed layers of cake, fresh whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries.

-          Bananas make a great trifle base as they retain their shape well when layered. Pair them with coconut macaroons ground up and formed into a cake layer, and then top with whipped cream.

-          Using crumbled graham crackers as the base of a trifle can make it a delicious down-home treat. This pairs exceptionally well with blueberries and fresh cream, as well as melted chocolate.

-          Caramel apple trifles are a great autumn dessert, with crisp, fresh apples cooked with walnuts and maple syrup to make a delicious filling and served over caramel cream cheese and poundcake cubes.

A Spicy Pot: Chili Making Tips

Chili is one of the most popular one-pot meals in America, but there are many different ways to make it. Here are some of the most popular regional variants, as well as some essential tips to keep in mind before you start cooking.

Chili, obviously, is named after the spicy peppers that give the dish its trademark heat. The best way to get the most out of your chiles is to mix them. Using just one kind of pepper will make the dish taste one-dimensional. Combining jalapeno, serrano, and other peppers in moderation will vastly improve the dish.

Meat is the core of a chili dish, and many regional styles such as Texas chili don’t use beans at all in the preparation of the meal. Before you add your meat to the pot, brown it in a pan first. That will help release essential flavors and keep the meat from getting too mushy. I prefer using roughly-cut strips of steak, but ground beef works fine. Turkey is good for a more heart-healthy dish.

Use fresh vegetables and good quality meats. Chili was originally invented as a way to disguise the flavors of substandard ingredients, but in the modern world there’s no reason to eat bad food. The better the ingredients, the better your pot of chili will be!

Taste the pot frequently as you’re cooking to adjust the consistency and spice blend. Keep in mind that heat will develop slowly as you cook it, so don’t add more peppers unless you’re sure that it’s not hot enough.

Enjoy These Exciting Pennsylvania Fall Events

As Autumn falls upon Pennsylvania many great events await you: from huge block parties and film festivals to haunted houses and apple picking. Here’s a look at some of them:

Bloktoberfest – On October 15th from noon to 8 p.m., South Philly’s premiere block party returns and it's bigger than ever. Three blocks on South Street will be filled with great food and live music during an event that benefits education initiatives tied to the area’s schools and students.

Philadelphia Film Festival – Starting on October 20th, the Philadelphia Film Society celebrates 14 days of independent, feature length, and documentary film during the Society's 20th anniversary.

Haunted Houses – With Fright Factory, Terror Behind The Walls, The Bates Motel & Haunted Hayride, Sleepy Hollow Hayride, Lulu’s House of Horrors, and more, Pennsylvania is filled with plenty of places to experience thrills and chills during Halloween season.

Apple Picking, Pumpkin Patches, and more – Fall is the perfect season for picking apples, getting pumpkins, and harvesting a variety of other fruits and vegetables. There are also plenty of great places for picking up other fall goods like apple butter, pumpkin bread, and canning supplies. For an extensive list of farms around Pennsylvania, click here.

Craft Beer Express – Climb aboard on November 12th as a special party bus shuttles you back and forth between 12 of Philadelphia’s best craft beer bars as they host a plethora of special theme events.

First Steps For New Bakers

Baking is one of those things that even confounds expert chefs. The precision and timing required to make truly delectable baked goods can take some getting used to. If you’re interested in teaching yourself how to bake, here are some tips to get started:

First off, get a recipe and follow it. Baking is very difficult to improvise within, so following a simple, understandable recipe to the letter is vital in getting your basic skills where they need to be. It can often be instructive to try to make the same recipe multiple times to polish your results.

Prepare your ingredients ahead of time. When baking, unless noted, all ingredients should be at room temperature. Adding hot or cold liquids to doughs and batters can make them set differently. Pre-measure everything in advance before you start mixing anything – since baking is very time-sensitive, rummaging around for ingredients can throw you off.

Making sure you have the proper pans and baking sheets is also essential. Different sizes and materials can greatly change the consistency of your end product when it comes out of the oven. Do not substitute baking pans unless you’re ready to deal with the problems it might create.

Don’t open the oven door often! Keeping a consistent temperature inside the oven and protecting your cakes from shocks is vital in ensuring that they cook through and do not fall.

Let your final product cool completely before tasting or cutting it. In many recipes, the last stage of baking happens after the cake is removed from the oven, giving it time to bind together. Cutting too early can result in flimsy, crumbly baked goods.

Beauty On The Bay: Visit Maryland’s Eastern Shore

If you're looking for a trip that features awesome ocean recreation, a vacation on Maryland's Eastern Shore might be in order. The mighty Chesapeake Bay is one of the most gorgeous parts of the mid-Atlantic region. There's so much to do that it’s hard to believe. Here are some starting points if you’re planning a trip.

Maryland has a reputation as one of the best places to eat crabs in the country. If you want them fresh from the water, you’ll find them down at the shore. Some of the most delicious crabcakes you’ll ever eat are here. Maryland borders the deep south, so you’ll find culinary influences from all over on the menu.

One of the most popular destinations on the Shore is Ocean City, Maryland, a year-round resort that offers ten miles of gorgeous, sandy beaches for swimming, surfing, and boating, as well as a bustling boardwalk and amusement park. There's so much recreation here that it boggles the mind. Golf courses, water slides, outlet malls, and much more are just minutes away.

The best way to appreciate the Chesapeake Bay is on the water. Chartering a boat will give you the experience of a lifetime. Whether you’re fishing for striped bass and perch or just enjoying a laconic sail, you won’t soon forget your day out on the Bay.

Prepare for Hurricane Irene!

Irene is on her way!

Forecasters project that Hurricane Irene will strike the North Carolina coast Saturday morning, then move northeast along the east coast. On Saturday and Sunday, states in the mid-Atlantic and New England will suffer torrential rain and hurricane force winds from the Category 2 storm. According to weather.com, Hurricane Irene has the potential to produce flooding rains, high winds, downed trees, and widespread power outages in and around cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

If you don't already have one, now's a good time to create a disaster preparedness plan for you and your family. You can read the National Hurricane Center's hurricane preparedness tips at www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/disaster_prevention.shtml (clicking the link will open it in a new window). The page offers tips on developing a family disaster plan, creating a disaster supply kit, and evacuation.

Click here for weather.com's projected tracks for Hurricane Irene.

Check weather.com, accuweather.com, or wunderground.com for up to date information about Hurricane Irene.

And most importantly, be safe!

Must-See Movies Opening in September

Check it out! Here are a few movies that will be lighting up the silver screen in September.

September 1

Singularity. An epic romance centered around four people: a British officer in colonial India; the Indian woman he falls in love with; an American marine biologist; and his lover, a researcher trapped in a wrecked British merchant ship.

The Loop. In this comedic/romantic drama, a man in search of his past and a woman who lives in the moment are brought together when they pursue the origins of a stray parrot.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life. Best-selling comic book artist Joann Sfar delivers an inventive biography of famed French singer Serge Gainsbourg, the legendary poet, lover, and rebel.

September 9

Warrior. In the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family.

Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star. A kid from the Midwest moves out to Hollywood in order to follow in his parents’ footsteps – and become a porn star.

September 16

Straw Dogs. L.A. screenwriter David Sumner relocates to his wife’s hometown the deep South. There, while tensions build between them, a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them both.

Johnny English Reborn. Hilarious secret agent Johnny English goes up against international assassins hunting down the Chinese premier.

A Dolphin’s Tale. A story about the friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap.

September 30

Anonymous. An inventive political thriller about who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

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