CSN Review: Magefesa Cookware Set

Some weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd be reviewing a set of cookware that I received from CSN.com.  Well, now is the time!  I will be reviewing the Magefesa Classic Danubio Cookware set and the Le Creuset 9" and 5" baking dishes.


As soon as I put the order in for the Le Creuset dishes, I regretted getting them in a light blue (Carribbean) rather than the Dijon yellow one that would complement the dark blue of my pots better.  But oh, well!  Those Le Creusets last forever, so I guess I can get them in whatever color I want :-)

I had a few future classmates over to my parents' house for an authentic Indian dinner last weekend.  My mom and I used the opportunity to test out the new Danubio set.  It's a non-stick set (take note if you have serious worries about that!), and it is very easy to hold and maneuver.  The handles stick out quite a ways from the main dish, but they still get pretty hot when you're cooking.  But they are easy to grip and thus make it a lot easier to flip the dish or turn it around.  The dish also heats up very quickly.  I was caught off guard by that and somewhat burned my soybeans and spinach!  But it all came out well in the end.  The only slight complaint I have about this set is that the blue on the handles does not match perfectly with the blue of the dishes.  The handles are a lighter blue than the dish itself.

This set (a frying pan, a saucepan, a casserole pot and a stew pot) is just the right size for me to take with me to school in a month.  I think for the most part, it will be enough for me to cook what I need for my brother and I.  I am taking an extra few dishes, but that's just to be on the safe side.  Overall, I think the Danubio set would be great for someone working in a small kitchen with a limited amount of time.


As for the Le Creuset baking dishes- well, I just got those because I heart Le Creuset and want everything they make.  The 5" dish is very small.  I think we'll probably use it for dips and such more than for any real baking or cooking of any sort.  The 9" one, though, is a great size for making enchiladas or lasagna or anything else that I would want to make for just a couple of people.  I also do like the light blue, even if I would have preferred the yellow.

All in all, a great set of cookery to take with me to school!  Highly recommend them both, if you're in the market.

Review: Flight

I really enjoyed Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and so I was really excited to pick up another book by him, Flight.  Flight is also geared towards the young adult audience.  It's a quick, engaging read about identity, non-violence and walking a mile in someone else's shoes.

I am a total Alexie fan girl.  While I didn't love Flight as much as I did Part-Time Indian, I think that is only because it was the second book I've read by him.  The first flush of my crush has faded and now I'm just comfortably in a relationship with his writing ;-)

Flight is about a teenager who calls himself Zits.  Zits' father left his mother soon after he was born.  And a few years later, his mother passed away.  Since then, Zits has been in and out of foster homes.  He has no family, no friends, and no hopes for his future.  What he does have is a police record- he's been arrested several times.  One of his jailmates persuades him to commit an act of violence, and as Zits walks into the bank holding a gun, he is zoomed back in time to inhabit the body of someone else about to do a very similar thing.

Review: Operation Monsoon

Operation Monsoon, by Shona Ramaya, was my selection for the Spotlight Series Graywolf Press tour.  (For all participating books and blogs, see the schedule here.)

Operation Monsoon is a collection of five short stories, all of which revolve around upper-class life in India (and more specifically, Bengal.  I think) in the early 21st century.  Many of the stories have very interesting premises.  The first story, Gopal's Kitchen, is about live organ trafficking.  Another is about a polio-stricken woman who runs a highly successful match-making service.  The title story is about the impact a Naxalite terrorist had on a woman.  Another story is told entirely through email exchanges.  The fifth is about a woman doing her dissertation on the concept of belief.

Unfortunately, I didn't particularly enjoy this collection.  This will seem like an odd statement to make to people who aren't familiar with Indian literature, but once I realized these stories were mostly set in Calcutta (a city in the Indian state of Bengal), I had to steel myself.

Review: Sunshine

Note to self:  You do not like books with a lot of internal monologue.  Nope.  Not at all.  You also don't like vampire books, remember?

Robin McKinley's Sunshine is set in a world similar to ours, but that is inhabited by demons, were-creatures and vampires as well as humans.  Some time has passed since the Voodoo Wars between humans and vampires.  Humans won, but barely.  Enter Sunshine, a baker in New Arcadia who (surprise!) really loves the sun.  She also has a wee bit of magic in her, which comes in handy when she is kidnapped by vampires and locked in a room with... another vampire, Constantine.  Sunshine and Constantine manage to escape their kidnappers, but by doing so they forge a bond between themselves that is, to say the least, frowned upon by both the human and vampire sides.  And their kidnapper is still out there...

Review: The Little Prince Graphic Novel

It was only after I started reading this graphic novel adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince that I realized I have never actually read the original version.  Has this ever happened to you?  I think for me, the case is particularly prevalent with children's books that everyone reads, and so I just assume I have read them, too.  And then... er, I really haven't.  This is one of those occasions.

But after reading this adaptation, I really want to read the original The Little Prince (well, translated into English).  The story is deceptively simple- a man's plane breaks down in the middle of the desert.  He works to fix it and then, almost by magic, a little boy comes up to him and asks the man to draw him a picture of a sheep.  From there, we are taken on a wonderful journey with a man rediscovering his childhood through the help of a mysterious young boy who hails from a distant planet.  The boy (the little prince of the title) describes to the narrator his journey to Earth.  He talks about his home planet, where he is the sole caretaker of three volcanoes and a beautiful rose.  He describes the other planets he visited, all with only one inhabitant- a king, a businessman, a geographer and a lamplighter.  Through the little prince, our narrator begins to rediscover a childlike wonder for the world.