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Friday, July 16, 2021

Carnitas: The Mexican Cuisine Society Game Created by Ruth Paget

Carnitas: The Mexican Cuisine Society Game Created by Ruth Paget

I used The Best Mexican Recipes by America’s Test Kitchen to develop this game, but you can use other Mexican cookbooks as well such as 1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore. 

You will need index cards to create your own playing cards. Writing out the cards is a trick to help memorize information. 

Playing this game will expand your knowledge of Mexican food either as a customer, server, home or restaurant cook, or grocery store buyer. 

Tip for memorizing: Use the alphabet to help recall ingredients. 

Game 1: Dish Name – Dry Ingredients 

Write the dish name on the front of an index card. Write the dry ingredients on the back excluding spices and herbs. (The game for spices and herbs follows.) 

Flip the index cards to play solitaire, with a partner, or as teams. 

Game 2: Dish Name – Wet Ingredients  

On the front of an index card, write the dish name. On the back of the index card, write the wet ingredients. 

Flip the index card to play solitaire, with a partner, or as teams. 

Game 3: Dish Name – Spices and Herbs 

On the front of an index card, write the dish name. On the back of the index card, write the names of the spices and herbs used to make the dish. 

Flip the cards to play solitaire, with a partner, or as teams. 

Game 4: Dish Name – Cooking and/or Assembly Techniques 

On the front of an index card, write the dish name. On the back of the index card, write the techniques used to cook and assemble the dish. 

Flip the cards to play solitaire, with a partner, or as teams. 

You can use this game to learn about all the cuisines of the world that have cookbooks. Some of the cookbooks I have used to learn about different cuisines of the world follow: 

 -Delicioso: The Regional Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas 

-1,000 Spanish Recipes by Penelope Casas 

-The Good Food of Italy by Claudia Roden 

-Mediterranean Cookery by Claudia Roden 

-Essential Pepin: More than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food by Jacques Pepin 

-Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Vaswani 

-Complete Chinese Cookbook by Ken Hom 

-Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji 

-From the Source – Thailand by Lonely Planet Food 

-Vietnamese Home Cooking by Charles Phan 

-Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking by Maangchi 

-The New German Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Heidi Wurz 

-Classic Russian Cooking by Elena Molokhovets 

-The Cooking of Eastern Europe by Lesley Chamberlain 

-1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore 

-Joy of Cooking by Rombauer Family (4,000 recipes in 75th anniversary edition. Very good on baking)

-California Home Cooking by Michele Anna Jordan - 400 recipes from a chef and caterer

-The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma: 150 Recipes and the best of the region's food and wine by Michele Anna Jordan

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


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Monday, July 5, 2021

Camembert: Cheese Games Created by Ruth Paget

Camembert: Cheese Games created by Ruth Paget 

I used The Book of Cheese by Liz Thorpe, a cheese consultant who began her career by devising a sales strategy to group 300+ cheeses at her sales counter into 10 main flavor-profile groupings to help customers make informed buying choices. 

Thorpe’s main cheese categories or gateways to 300+ kinds of cheese follow:  

1-Mozzarella 
2-Brie 
3-Havarti 
4-Taleggio 
5-Manchego 
6-Cheddar 
7-Swiss 
8-Parmesan 
9-Blue 
10-Misfits

Thorpe’s book may surprise readers with beverage pairings besides wine for some cheese such as brown ale, hard cider, and coffee. The pairings for the main type or gateway cheese apply to all cheeses in that category. 

Game 1: Cheese Type and Beverage Pairing 

On the front of an index card, write the name of the main cheese type. For the misfits, write the subcategories. Then, write the beverage pairing on the back.

Flip the index cards to quiz yourself to memorize the pairings. Then, play with a partner or as teams. 

Game 2: Cheese Type and Food Pairings

Grapes and apples immediately come to mind when considering cheese pairings, but Thorpe proposes assorted nuts, vegetables, spreadable salami, and candied fruits. 

This game will help buyers put together subtle cheese trays in no time. 

Write the main cheese type on the front of an index card along with the number of food pairings. On the back of the index card, write out the food pairings. 

Flip the index cards to memorize all the food pairings that go with the main cheese type. Then, play this game with a partner or with teams. 

For the next three games, you will need to make cards for the 250+ individual cheeses in The Book of Cheese. 

Game 3: Cheese Name – Main Cheese Type Category 

This game is useful for buyers who would like to try new cheeses similar to ones they already like. 

On the front of an index card, write the cheese name. On the back of the index card, write the main cheese type. 

Flip the index cards to memorize the information. Then, play with a partner or as teams. 

Game 4: Cheese Name – Milk(s) Used 

On the front of an index card write the cheese name. On the back of an index card, write the milk or milks used to make it. Cow, sheep, goat, or a blend of milks are the choices. 

Flip the cards to memorize them. Then, play with a partner or as a team. 

Game 5: Cheese Name – Country (Countries) of Origin 

Write the cheese name on the front of an index card. Write the country or countries where it is produced on the back. 

Flip the index cards to memorize the information. Then, play with a partner or as teams. 

To gain even more advanced knowledge, read Liz Thorpe’s The Book of Cheese 20 times to learn about manufacturing and putting together all the tastings she suggests. 

For the avid cheese lover who would like to sell cheese, there is the Certified Cheese Professional Exam (ACS CCP™ Exam) run by the www.cheesesociety.org . 

Enjoy the cheese skills society games you can play during a tasting! 

Once you have mastered cheese, enjoy reading Cheese Primer by Steve Jenkins for travel ideas.

 By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France






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Saturday, July 3, 2021

Vienna: Coffee Games Created by Ruth Paget

 Vienna: Coffee Games Created by Ruth Paget

I used Coffee: A Connoisseur’s Guide by Claudia Roden and Coffee for Dummies by Major Cohen to create the following games that you can play as solitaire quizzing, with a partner, or as teams. 

Game 1: Roast Names Use Claudia Roden’s Coffee: A Connoisseur’s Guide to make index cards to flip for this game. Put one term per card from the following list: 

Cinnamon 
Half City 
Full City 
American 
Regular 
High 
Viennese 
French 
Continental 
Italian 
Espresso 

On the back of each card mark the correct roast using Roden’s book as a guide: 

Light or Pale Roast 
Medium Roast 
Dark or Full Roast 
Darkest Roast 

Game 2: Coffee Order Game Use Coffee for Dummies by Major Cohen to find the definitions for each of the coffee order terms below. Write the term on the front of an index card and the definition on the back. Flip the cards as solitaire games, with a partner, or as teams. 

Espresso solo 
Espresso doppio 
Ristretto 
Lungo 
Macchiato 
Cappuccino 
Caffé Latte
CaffĂ© Breve 
Mocha 
Flat White 
Americano 
Cortado 

Game 3: Coffee Geography 

Elevation, soil type, rainfall, and proximity to the equator determine how good your coffee will be in addition to production methods and brewing. 

There are two main coffee types: Robusta and Arabica with Arabica being the elite coffee type. Volcanic soil and high elevation are indicators of high quality coffee. 

In this game, you will note the coffee growing country on the front of an index card along with the number of coffee regions in the country and the capital city of the country. On the back of the card, you will note the country name, the names of the coffee growing regions, and the capital city’s name. 

Use Coffee for Dummies by Major Cohen to note major coffee growing regions in the Western Hemisphere, Africa, and the Eastern Hemisphere and Asian Pacific. 

Have fun with the coffee games that will increase your knowledge of the world’s second most traded commodity after petroleum. 

Created by Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France




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Thursday, June 3, 2021

Beer Hops Games Created by Ruth Paget

Beer Hops Games Created by Ruth Paget 

In The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp for Geeks by Joshua Bernstein, the author lists 45 hop varieties that give beer aroma, flavor, and/or bittering. 

The objectives of these games are to correctly pronounce the hop name and know what the hop contributes to a beer. Knowing this information for 45 hop types is daunting, but becomes easy as you quiz yourself, with a partner, or with teams. (Pronunciation practice is necessary as there are several German beer hops on the list.) 

Tip: Quiz yourself on 5 hop types at once to memorize them before moving on to the next 5. 

Game 1: Hop Pronunciation 

Step 1: On the front of index cards, write the following hop names. (One name per card)

 -Ahtanum

 -Amarillo 

-Apollo 

-Bravo 

-Brewer’s Gold 

-Calypso

 -Cascade 

-Centenniel 

-Challenger 

-Chinook 

-Citra 

-Cluster 

-Columbus 

-Tomahawk 

-Crystal 

-Delta 

-El Dorado 

-Falconer’s Flight 

-Fuggles 

-Galaxy 

-Galena 

-Glacier 

-Goldings 

-Halletauer 

-Hersbrucker 

-Horizon 

-Liberty 

-Magnum 

-Mosaic 

-Motheka 

-Mt. Hood 

-Mt. Rainier 

-Nelson Sauvin 

-Northern Brewer 

-Nugget 

-Pacific Gem 

-Palisade -Perle 

-Pride of Ringwood 

-Riwaka 

-Saaz 

-Santiam 

-Simcoe 

-Sorachi Ace 

-Spalt 

-Sterling 

-Styrian Goldings 

-Summit 

-Target 

-Teamaker 

-Tettnanger 

-Topaz 

-Warrior 

-Willamette 

 Step 2: Type each hop name into the Google search bar followed by the word “pronunciation.” 

A speaker icon will appear. Press the icon to hear the pronunciation, especially the accent of the hop name. Repeat the word till you feel comfortable saying it. 

Quiz yourself by saying the hop name and listening to the pronunciation of Google.

Games 2, 3, and 4 Preparation: 

Use Joshua M. Bernstein’s The Complete Beer Course to note which hops bring flavor, aroma, and bittering to a beer. 

On the back of the index cards that have the hop name, write down if that hops brings flavor, aroma, or bittering after consulting with the list in Bernstein’s book. 

Test yourself on 5 hop names at a time to master information. 

Game 2: Flavor For each hop name ask: “Does this hop bring flavor?” Yes or No 

Game 3: Aroma For each hop name ask: “Does this hop bring aroma?” Yes or No 

Game 4: Bittering For each hop name ask: “Does this hop bring bittering?” Yes or No 

Game 5: Hops Quiz - Write the names of the beer hops on a lined sheet of paper.

After each beer hops name list if it is used for flavor, aroma, or bittering.  Check your answers against Bernstein's book.

This background can help make tasting beer more than just drinking. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


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Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Maryland Trip and Role Playing Games by Ruth Paget

Maryland Trip and Role Playing Games by Ruth Paget 

One year after Thanksgiving, my husband Laurent and I set out for Fort Meade outside Baltimore, Maryland for one of his business trips. 

I knew from American history class in high school that Baltimore, Maryland was important for the defense of Washington, D.C. Baltimore sits opposite Washington, D.C. over the Potomac River. If ships sail up the Potomac to attack D.C., cannons from the highlands of Baltimore could fire on invaders below. 

Maryland is still a key player in the nation’s defense. The U.S. Naval Academy is in Annapolis. The National Security Agency is also located in Maryland, but is hard to find. 

I had no plans to visit Washington, D.C., since I was a Close-Up program participant in high school and had studied government in a weekly club with a year-end trip to Washington, D.C. for a series of workshops and presentations devoted to governing the United States. 

I still felt like a Close-Up participant despite being almost sixty. I had also worked for several years as a youth services librarian and felt as if I had reverted to eighteen years of age. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could come up with any ideas of how to get more money into the economy and banks with a role playing game. 

I thought of ways to reduce the nation’s debt on the 5-hour trip to Baltimore from Los Angeles. The game and some of the solutions I thought of for the nation’s debt crisis follow: 

Game: Reducing Nation’s Debt Background: For each $1 deposited in the bank, the bank only has .05 cents in the vaults to cover it due to bad loans. 

Watch the film It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart to know why this is a very bad situation. 

Adults are deeply in debt with credit card companies stopping to raise credit limits despite credit scores. 

Young people have money, but not too much. 

Role: You are the Treasury Secretary whom the President has asked to get money into the economy and banks quickly before year-end. 

Mission: Get money into the economy to make federal payroll every two weeks. 

Possible Problem Solutions: 

1 – Lower the percentage of money taken on coin counting machines to 5%, so coins in jars go back into the economy. 

People accumulate coins in regions where tourism is a major industry. Getting outstanding coins into the economy avoids expenses related to minting new ones, especially expenses for mining ore. 

2 – Set up Recycling Centers for Plastic, Aluminum, and glass 

Make recycling a win-win situation with people who bring in these items being paid to do so in the form of refunded deposits. Money can be used for junior college tuition, bus fare, or car maintenance funds. 

3 - Set up Christmas Savings Clubs at Banks 

When I was growing up in Detroit, banks advertised these clubs and said you could deposit $50 a month to have $600 at Christmas for gifts or meals. 

4 – Set up Layette Savings Funds to buy baby furniture and clothing for newborns 

$2,000 can buy the basics. This fund can be used for emergency car repairs, too. 

5 – Set up Car Maintenance Funds 

$2,000 to $3,000 in the bank will make it easy to do transmission fluid changes and buy new tires. 

6 – Set up an Emergency Rent or Mortgage Fund for two years 

Multiply your monthly rent or mortgage by 24 months to set the amount you need to save to have a basic safety net. 

7 – Set up a Trousseau Fund This is a fund for a layette plus wedding dress and/or tuxedo. 

The amount will vary depending on what kind of dress or tuxedo you would like. 

8 – Set up a Vacation Savings Fund 

Find out what hotels, rental cars, and meals will cost you in advance of your vacation and save for the basic amount. 

Divide that amount by 12 and make monthly deposits towards it. It is easier to buy souvenirs when you know the major expenses are covered. 

9 – Buy relatively inexpensive print items for Christmas 

These items include: 

-paper cocktail napkins and regular napkins made from recycled paper with festive patterns

-art posters 

-note cards

 -stationery 

-greeting cards 

-lithographs 

-cocktail napkins

-holiday napkins

-doilies

-wrapping paper 

-art books of varying price levels 

-origami paper

-origami guidebooks

10 – Set up a dream car down payment fund 

11 – Sell Kitchen Items 

-cookware 

-placemats 

-napkins 

-tablecloths for kitchen and patio 

-holiday decoration items 

-cookbooks 

Check bookbub.com for cookbook deals on e-readers.  Many deals between .99 and 2.99.

12 – Sell Comic Books and Graphic Novels 

13 – Sell Paper Products for the Home 

-toilet paper 

-tissues 

-paper towels 

14 - Promote Junior College Enrollment

15 -Buy clothes

You can usually enroll immediately into a junior college without waiting a year as you do for a university.  Junior colleges might also want to think about offering online courses to expand the number of students who can enroll at a college locally and outside the state at non-resident fees.

I was trying to think of items to sell that were already in stock, so sales tax could be immediately collected. A perfect game I thought would have 20 items listed to get money in the economy fast, but the plane landed. I would get back to the game another day. 

Laurent and I were headed out to a hotel near Ellicott City, Maryland. We went to Costco and got deli salads, cocktail shrimp, muffins, and cookies. 

Costco was near a shopping center with a Pizza Due (managed by a UChicago graduate I found out), Carrabba’s (my favorite place for seafood pasta), and a Barnes and Noble bookstore. 

We headed out to Pizza Due for dinner. We met the manager and ordered iceberg lettuce quarters with blue cheese – honey – and walnut dressing followed by an Italian sausage and cheese, deep-dish pizza. I loved this combination as a student at the University of Chicago as I endured icy winters and memorizing art history slides. We planned our weekend outings to travel and see friends over dinner. 

Over the five weeks we were there, we also accumulated the following gifts for our daughter Florence Paget, who was working at an investment bank at the time: 

-a Liberty Bell replica from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

-a Harry Potter Tic-Tac-Toe Game 

-Three books by Charles Whelan that we bought at Barnes and Noble: Naked Statistics, Naked Economics, and Naked Money 

I worked on creating war games that future presidents or military officers could use. I wanted to make games that you could work on individually or play around a card table or dining room table. The games I worked on include: 

-Novgorod - about the battle on frozen Lake Peipus in Russia 

-Tagalog - about restoring friendly diplomatic relations with the Philippines 

-Hangul - about the problems involved in unifying the Korean Peninsula 

-Bento - about the possible role of Japanese lunch in winning a war against Russia 

When we flew home to Monterey, I felt I had done a good job playing defense in my own little way, too. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks (Japan) and Teen in China


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Monday, January 4, 2021

Alabama Trip by Ruth Paget

Alabama Trip by Ruth Paget 

On a trip to Maxwell Air Force Base outside Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, my husband Laurent and I retraced some of the literal steps taken to launch the Civil Rights Movement in 1965. We bought groceries and, then, set out for Selma with the destination of Montgomery. 

The Selma to Montgomery March of 1965 had as its objective an end to voter discrimination. The March achieved its objective with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. However, all along the 54-mile long highway from Selma to Montgomery there were “Beware of Dog” signs. Marchers in 1965 had to deal with police dogs, so these signs are disturbing. 

Perhaps the signs indicated that racism was still alive and well, because the economy was still not providing living wages to many people who were competing for jobs. The Maxwell Air Force assignment was a short one with a trip to visit my family in Atlanta, Georgia in between. 

I was proofing my book Marrying France and was planning to edit and proof Virginia Mom, because I wanted to record where descendants of James River Plantation slaves outside Williamsburg could find slave ledgers. 

The day before leaving we drove into Montgomery to go to the Aviatior Bar and visit the Alabama Riverfront. Laurent said you had to go through the old slave market to get to the park. 

I said I did not want to go and sat in the car. I did not want anyone to walk through the slave markets, especially children. But, they were an intact historical record of what a slave market looked like, so maybe historians could deal with this issue. 

A saxophone player appeared and started playing. I think musicians in the South look for “white-guilt people” and start busking for money. Laurent came back and gave him some. 

As we were entering the Aviator Bar, I noticed a building with a huge pink bordello bathtub on its roof.

“I guess that’s an advertisement for where the nearest brothel to the capital is,” I told Laurent. Sexism was alive in Montgomery, too. I ordered Shrimp Creole and counted my shrimp when the waiter brought my dish to me. 

I signaled the waiter and said, “I hate to count, but I only got 11 shrimp not 12 in the Shrimp Creole I ordered.” 

The waiter counted and said he would be right back. The twelfth shrimp was a monster gambas shrimp presented on folded over white linen napkin. 

The Shrimp Creole was delicious, and I liked the multiracial wait staff and patrons of the bar. I wondered if Coleman Young, the one-time mayor of my hometown of Detroit, Michigan ate at the Aviator Bar when he was studying to be a pilot at Tuskegee, east of Montgomery. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks (Japan) and Teen in China

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Pennsylvania Vacations by Ruth Paget

Pennsylvania Vacations by Ruth Paget 

When my husband Laurent joined the United States Navy, his first duty station was Norfolk, Virginia. The Navy packed our household goods and sent them off as we packed clothes and books. We strapped Florence in the back seat and set off for Virginia, the Old Dominion State, with Florence singing to pop music on the radio. 

Getting to Virginia from Wisconsin required a lot of cross-country driving. Laurent and I took turns at the wheel. I drove in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio while Laurent drove through Chicago, part of Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The drive into Breezewood, Pennsylvania in the dark and up and down mountains resembled a roller coaster ride. 

The landscape around the freeway had begun to get mountainous east of Cleveland. The grass was so green it reminded me of Ireland. The homes in Pennsylvania have very high roofs with chimneys on either end of the roof. The homes are symmetrical and are nicely landscaped.

We woke up to fresh morning air in the mountains. We read in our hotel literature that the Gettysburg Battlefield was just sixty miles away from Breezewood. 

We set out for the famous battlefield on U.S. Highway 30 for a jaunt through the mountains on a country road. The first thing we noticed were the runaway truck ramps on the downside of mountain grades. Those ramps made us very careful about the speed and control of our car. Along the way, we admired how people in Pennsylvania tended to their spring gardens with tulips and daffodils popping up everywhere. Gardening is very much an East Coast and European pastime. 

When we arrived at Gettysburg, we did the auto tour. Most of the commemorative plaques that we read around the Battlefield were conciliatory towards the South, saying that the Southern soldiers were courageous. There is a huge monument with General Robert E. Lee on top of it for Virginian soldiers. In typical European fashion, Laurent knew all about the importance of Gettysburg and said it broke the morale of the South. Pickett’s Charge and Cupp’s Hill were especially important engagements. 

I did not think I would see Pennsylvania again, but thirty years later, Laurent and I were driving to Philadelphia as a weekend trip from a work trip in Maryland.  Our mission in Philadelphia was to buy our daughter Florence a Liberty Bell replica souvenir as a gift. 

We found parking near Independence Hall. I stayed in the car to avoid possible tickets or towing. I looked around at the brick houses and thought of Laurie Halse Anderson’s book Fever 1793 about a plague in Philadelphia that year. (This is a young adult book that I read as a youth services librarian prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.) I thought about that book a lot in Germany when the whole base was dealing with how to identify the cause and cure of Ebola. 

As I sat in the car, I tried to pick out the house that was best protected against plague. The one I liked had a basement opening onto the street for coal, a door which was three steps off the ground, and had a gated area for garbage that could be shoveled out or washed down depending on the season. I would also make sure to have a house with a foyer where people could exchange outside shoes for slippers to keep down tracking in germs from outside. 

Laurent came back with the Liberty Bell souvenir and said we would have to go back through Delaware, so we could tour downtown. 

We both yelled, “Cool!” when we saw the steps of the art museum where Oscar winner Sylvester Stallone ran as his Rocky Balboa boxer character.  Laurent, the film buff, was happy.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks (Japan) and Teen in China

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