Torturing Recipes

I haven't cooked in ages. Mostly, I don't want to inflict my notions of cooking on unsuspecting guests. That, combined with my overfull schedule means that I haven't made anything from scratch in much too long. When I cook, I rarely follow recipes. Between the "inspired" substitution (hmm... I wonder what "mace" is... it smells kind of like cloves, I could substitute it for cloves, I think) and the inability to find ingredients (white carrot root just doesn't seem to exist) I end up making food that sometimes just isn't edible. So the normal process is that I make it once for family (torture them, they're family!), and if it works, next time I make it for others. Of course, given the lack of time, I just made one of those substitution-galore desserts for tomorrow's Passover dinner. I haven't tried this recipe before, and I couldn't find the main ingredient... so it may not be food. But, I figure since src is making the main course, and bellicaneko is making soup, if the dessert is not edible, no one will go hungry anyway. Maybe I should pick up some macaroons just in case?

Boggle

According to a bit on NPR (about TV and ADD), the average one year old watches 2.24 hours of television per day. I'm stunned. Andrew has watched a total of about 45 minutes of TV, 15 minutes oriented toward him and about 30 minutes of being in the same room with a TV at my parents. Apparently, by age three, the average viewing time goes up to 3.36 hours. And 34 percent of 3 year olds have televisions in their own room.

Am I out of touch or is this just scary? Both Charles and I grew up in relatively TV-free households, and we don't plan on exposing Andrew to television for at least another year or so. American Association of Pediatrics recommends no TV before age 2.

Oh, and the study that triggered this showed a 20% increase in ADD-related disorders in kids who watched TV before age 2. Of course, this was a relatively small sample set, survey based study, so it's probably not worht much... but it's an interesting area of exploration nontheless.