2009: The Year of...

yes, well, that's the question, isn't it? the year of bread was great. i learned, i developed a new skill/craft, it was photographable and and very blogable, it was sharable and eatable, it was infinite in its varieties and i really enjoyed it. it also made 2008 the year of blogging for me. this entry will be the 110th blog of the year. not bad, really. it's more than the homesick texan or canarygirl or the wednesday chef, so....not too shabby, i think. of course, not all entries were about bread as i dabbled in a little storytelling as well--40 chapters, by the way. hard to believe, isn't it, given all the dry spells? and yes, i realize we are in the middle of a dry spell now. well, i will continue--at least, i plan to continue--writing the stories, if and when i am inspired to do so, but it will only supplement my 2009 activity, which will be....what? le sigh. this is NOT an easy thing to figure out! i was going to do homemade pasta, but...i don't have a lot of pasta eaters in the house. i thought about other food things but, you know, the world really doesn't need another food blog. the three i cited above along with maddog and TNS and peabody and use real butter and culinary in the desert, not to mention literally thousands of other food blogs, well, there are enough. really. but then, my blog hasn't been about the masses and isn't marketed to the masses--it's all about me :) so, i can do whatever the hell i want. and i thought, you know, it doesn't have to be food related at all. i could chronicle my adventures in learning how to....knit, or weld, or saw a woman in half, or some such thing. i could pursue becoming a modern rennaissance man! so, you know, i googled "modern rennaissance man" and realized i had misspelled "renaissance." oops. nice start. but in checking out several sources and checking off descriptions such as weaponry (i qualified expert with the rifle in the army), the outdoors (i geocache), foreign language (check), art (i carve pipes & walking sticks), music (i play guitar), poetry (hey, those weren't really shakespeare's or tucker's verses in those cardigan stories), world travel (check), and knowing how to communicate with the world via the internet (honestly, i saw that in a list, so this blog qualifies, i think)--heck i already am a modern renaissance man! so, plan B: i would dedicate the year to writing ridiculously long paragraphs! bwah-ha-ha!!! oh, henry james already did that? le sigh. plan C: i could learn chinese! oh....er, yeah, i did that already....plan D: steal somebody else's idea. now, why didn't i think of that in the first place?! hmmm....ben started a new blog about how he's reading this book (The Road to Reality: a Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, by roger penrose) to boost his mathemathical & physics IQ. yeah, i could do...that...naw, i don't want to steal ben's thunder. yeah, that's it. that's his project, not mine. thank buddha. but maybe i could....find one of those lists of "10 books every person must read" and work on that! so, back to the google board. oy. what horrid lists. wretched. ain't no way, no how, no mccain i'm gonna read the books on those crappy lists. blech. but...hmmm.....how about forming a list from people i trust? people i admire? people i know? yes, dear readers--YOU! if you're still reading this, that is, here is your charge: give me the name of a single book that you think i should read. no, wait. scratch that--i don't want to read a bunch of diet books. not a book that you think i should read, but a book that you thought was incredibly enjoyable or influential or thought-provoking or whatever. last year, for example, i read a book that mira loaned me that i probably would never have read otherwise, and i'm glad i did. so, that's it: one book each, until i finish them all. it can be fiction, non-fiction (shudder), classic or modern. i will insist on it being in english, though. and one movie each. and one CD each. i will read, watch, listen to them and offer commentary. i will also be cooking this year from my christmas present book "The New Best Recipe" from america's test kitchen. this book is over 1,000 pages, and has 1,000 recipes. they make dozens of variations of each recipe, experimenting with different ingredients, techniques, cooking temperatures and times and everything else to come up with the single best version of each recipe. so, i want each of you to pick a number between 1 and 990. i will prepare the first recipe on that page (or, on the next page if there are no recipes on that page). yes, this is nearly as bad as stealing: i'm making all of you do my work for me :) i will make other dishes from the book, too, but this will make a little more fun and challenging. i'm trying to join a CSA (this one, actually) this year and, if i do so, that will provide a weekly challenge for me as well. hey, i was just wondering about a random number generator and went back to google and, lo and behold! i found one here. i asked for a random number between 1 and 990 and it gave me 590. so, i will definitely be making Grill-Roasted Pork Loin with Barbecue Rub and Fruit Salsa. this summer. so, that's it. 2009 will be the Year of The Best! you are to assign me the following:

The Best Book
The Best Movie
The Best CD
(a page number for) The Best Recipe (you can request a particular food if you like as well)

NOTE: please, no books by roger penrose. or henry james. or mary shelly. and no jodi picoult!
i'll let you know if i've read/seen/listened to your suggestions.