Hog Belly and Nun's Farts and Baseball

You know how I love book signings, right? Nothing is more fun than listening to an author who is really excited about his work. That was definitely the case on Thursday night, when I went to hear Michael Ruhlman talk about his latest book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

The premise of the book is really interesting: you can reduce most foods we prepare to a basic ratio of ingredients. Cookies are 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat and 3 parts flour - vary the ingredients however you want, as long as you keep the ratios the same. I am really looking forward to reading this. I love to cook, and anything that helps me improvise is a great thing.

Anyway, the title of this post: Michael was talking about buying hog belly (to make his own bacon) and making pets de nonne, or "nun's farts"! It's a kind of popover and he was talking about how varying the amount of liquid in a dough changes the way it puffs. I want to make them just because I adore the name!

For more on Michael Ruhlman and his work, check out his blog. He also talked about the Cleveland signing.

The other signing last week was even more rare. Bob Feller is a Cleveland Indians legend and he has a reputation for not signing autographs. That made it especially exciting to hear that he would be signing copies of his newest book, Bob Feller's Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom. I decided it would make a perfect Father's Day gift - he even signed it "Happy Father's Day" - and a special surprise gift for a friend of mine who is a baseball diva.

I bought these books at my favorite bookstore, Joseph-Beth Booksellers. You can buy Bob Feller's Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom or Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking at Amazon.com.