Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, shares his insights on fostering creativity and managing a successful creative organization in “Creativity, Inc.” The book details Pixar’s journey from a small tech company to an animation powerhouse, offering valuable lessons on leadership, innovation, and maintaining a creative culture. Catmull emphasizes the importance of creating an environment…
Chotpoti – Bangladesh street food consisting of chickpeas, onions, peppers, and topped with a grated boiled egg. This actually came together quite quickly and the only thing I had to specifically source was the tamarind paste. Working with a new ingredient can be risky and it reared it head for this dish because the tamarind…
Pretty standard local pizzeria joint meatball pie. Due to a shortage of time, I used frozen premade meatballs for this and some canned sauce. Yes, I know.. but sometimes you want pizza and simply don’t have time to make everything by hand. Now, that being said.. the sauce really tasted like canned sauce so it…
“The Obstacle Is the Way” by Ryan Holiday is a modern interpretation of Stoic philosophy, particularly focusing on how to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities. The book draws heavily from the teachings of ancient Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca. Key points of the book include: The underlying Stoic philosophy emphasizes…
In my never ending quest to perfect a NY pie I sometimes try popular Youtube / Instagram recipes that have gone viral in order to test them against my standard Pie (Tony Gemingnani NY pizza dough). This pizza dough wasn’t too finicky and was easy to open but I found the flavor lacking – the…
Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest is a hip-hop classic that dropped in 1991, blending jazz samples with boom-bap beats to create a smooth, innovative sound. The album’s production, largely handled by Q-Tip, set a new standard in hip-hop, showcasing how jazz and rap could mesh seamlessly. This album is crucial because it…
This weekend we visited lovely Costa Rica! Galo pinto – the national dish of Costa Rica is a very tasty rice and beans dish with a side of twice fried plantains (pantacones), and a big slice of pan de elote – sweetened cornbread made from fresh corn. Overall a flavorful combination of Latin American flavors…
“Meditations” is a collection of personal reflections and philosophical thoughts written by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD. Known as the last of the “Five Good Emperors,” Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher who wrote extensively on how to live a life of virtue, resilience, and rationality amidst the challenges of ruling…
This one is pretty standard pizzeria fare but one that I haven’t tried before. I cooked up some vodka sauce, used a standard NY pizza dough, finished with dry and fresh mozzarella and a dusting of Sicilian oregano. It was actually really good – the only note I have is the sauce has a ton…
“Measure What Matters” by John Doerr is a compelling guide to the use of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a goal-setting system pioneered at Intel and later adopted by companies like Google and Amazon. Doerr demonstrates through numerous case studies and personal anecdotes how OKRs can drive alignment, focus, and accountability within organizations of any…