Another batch of bappir, with more authentic ingredients.

In most cases, when a cuneiform text says “honey” it’s referring to date honey. So I took 16 oz of dates, pitted them, and pureed them with 16 oz of water, making a delicious and aromatic spread.…

Teas have proliferated on my desk. In the back corner, I have

• Two kinds of yerba mate
• Good Earth
• Lipton Vanilla Caramel Truffle
• Dawson’s Raspberry Cream Caramel (not actually tea, mostly barley)
• Some packets of brown sugar ginger tea mix

So, I’m taking another crack at brewing a Sumerian beer. And the first step, is making a Sumerian bread called bappir. Here’s the recipe:

• 24oz organic barley flour
• 16oz warm water
• 8oz grape nuts cereal (flour, malted barley flour, salt, yeast)
• 8oz honey
• generous amount of freshly ground coriander
• generous amount of freshly ground cardamom
• generous amount of ceylon (true) cinnamon

Recently, we had an interesting discussion at our writing group. At what point in the writing process to you turn something over to a first reader? There’s a lot of variables, but in the end the answer amounts to “it depends on the reader and the author.”…

If you live in a large swath of northern Cali you can electronically check out books from the NCDL, most of which are Protected PDF, and read them on devices such as an iPad. It’s simple, just follow these 7 easy steps

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