Currently viewing the tag: "holidays"
School Valentines

School Valentines (John Fife)| CC BY-ND 2.0

Buried under snow and studies? Cheer yourself up by coming to the 4th floor desk this Friday from 2-4pm! We’ll have a variety of supplies for you to make valentines for yourself, your friends, or that special someone (your favorite librarian, perhaps?).

 

It doesn’t matter if your skill level is this:

 

Or this:

 

Just come and have some fun!

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‘Tis the season for visits with family, roaring fires, delicious feasts, celebrations with friends…

Oh, and a much needed break from school!

If you’re sticking around to study, be sure to check the Library’s limited hours.

Have a safe, happy, and healthy holiday from Leo, Theo, Lizzy, Catalog, and the rest of the Hirsh Health Sciences Library team!

Hirsh Holiday 1_KMedit

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Inspired by last week’s post about Healthy Oils, the crew at Hirsh Library is bringing a little Health to your Hanukkah (we are the Health Sciences Library after all). Now, Hanukkah is not the time to extoll the (debatable) virtues of a low-fat diet. How often do you get to actually CELEBRATE oil, anyway? But there are some opportunities to slip some nutritional powerhouses into your eight nights of deliciousness!

Maybe you’re looking to cut down on all that brisket, or you’re looking for an excuse to break out the smoked or cured fish. Here’s an easy recipe for Bourbon Cured Salmon with Dill and Fennel from Sydney Kramer at The Crepes of Wrath. Curing the fish takes 72 hours, so if you get started now, you’ll be ready to feast by the Fifth Night!

Photo of the Week - Atlantic Salmon Sac Fry

This little fella from Maine isn’t old enough for the Bourbon treatment… Photo of the Week – Atlantic Salmon Sac Fry by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – N0rtheast Region is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The Omega-3 fatty acids in salmon are the subject of research for treatment and prevention of everything from heart disease to depression, and you can read about past and ongoing research at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Is there a vegetarian joining you for a Hanukkah feast? You might want to try this spicy, comforting Chickpea Stew with Eggplants, Tomatoes, and Peppers, featuring harissa, the addictive North African chile paste. Most of us need to eat more vegetables anyway (check out USDA MyPlate for information about choosing a balanced diet), so make extra! And while I am loathe to mess with the perfection of a traditional potato latke, you can make a latke out of just about any vegetable. Check out Amy Kritzer’s gorgeous array of Rainbow Latkes (Beets! Sweet potato and carrot! Squash! Zucchini! Purple cauliflower!).

© Amy Kritzer

© Amy Kritzer

Speaking of fruits and veggies, get an extra serving of fruit and fiber into those Dreidel-spinning chocoholics with Martha Stewart’s Apricot Gelt recipe.

Finally, it’s Hanukkah, and I’m not a monster, so here’s the only sufganiyot (jelly doughnut) recipe you’ll ever need.

Wishing you a Happy and Healthy(-ish) Hanukkah from the Hirsh Health Sciences Library!

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latkes
Who doesn’t look forward to the taste thrills of Hanukkah?  Latkes and jelly donuts…so yummy!!!! But when you start thinking about some of the oils that go into making those treats so crispy and tasty (vegetable shortening!), maybe not so yummy…

Is there healthier oil out there for frying those latkes? Is coconut oil for donuts a more heart smart choice than shortening? Find out in the Hirsh Library’s newest addition to its collection, Healthy oils: fact versus fiction. 

health_oils_cover

Now available at the Hirsh Library:

Healthy oils: fact versus fiction.
Myrna Chandler Goldstein and Mark A. Goldstein, MD.
Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, [2014] Available: HHSL 4th floor – New Book Display

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HandTurkey

Conan Hand Turkey Happy Thanksgiving (Barbara Nilsen| CC BY-SA 2.0

Need a Friday afternoon break?  This Friday from 2:30-4:00PM you’ll find a number of games, puzzles, and decks of cards to borrow near the service desk on the 4th floor of Sackler.  Please feel free grab an empty table and play away!

And due to the popularity of our pumpkin-painting a few weeks ago, we’ll also have a November-themed craft project. Hand turkeys anyone?

Have fun!

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Happy Halloween from the staff of HHSL! Be sure to trick-or-treat at the Library Service Desk because we have some candy to fuel your Friday.

And here’s another treat for you–some staff photos from Halloweens past and present:

Jaws

CleocatraSonnyPot

 

 

 

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I recently convinced myself that August is National Tomato Month. Possibly because I have spent the last several weeks gorging on the beautiful New England tomatoes making their way to the Boston farmers’ markets and local farm stands.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that August celebrates many foodstuffs, including sandwiches, catfish, and peaches, but according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, National Fresh Tomato Day falls on April 6th.

Now, if you dragged yourself through many, many miserably damp days in March and April of 2014, you know for a fact that there was not a local, sun-ripened, fresh tomato to be found in Boston on April 6th. And I’m not the only person who thinks August is the time to celebrate the glorious tomato. Consider the world-famous, tomato-centric celebration known as La Tomatina in Buñol, a small Spanish town in Valencia that attracts over 30,000 people every August.

Courtesy Aaron Corey CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/

Courtesy Aaron Corey CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/

This is the perfect time to enjoy beautiful ripe tomatoes of all varieties. They are also a superfood, rich in Vitamin C and fiber, as well as beta-carotene and lycopene. Read more about the health benefits of eating tomatoes in the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.

If you’re looking for new ways to enjoy tomatoes, here are a few of my favorite recipes:

And of course, you can always just eat a perfectly ripe tomato all on its own, preferably over the kitchen sink.

 

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Summer is here and everyone at HHSL is looking forward to the 4th of July. There are so many options for celebrating in Boston that it can be overwhelming, so we asked some staff members for their recommendations:

8974292557_575cd8ac84_zBoston (Dylan Pech)/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

My friends like to rent a kayak or canoe and watch the fireworks from the river!  

-Becky Philio, Library Assistant

You can reserve a boat ahead of time, if you’re feeling nautical.

7511427816_92e3b0b2b1_z4th of July 2012 in Boston (Sayamindu Dasgupta)/ CC BY SA 2.0

I like to watch the fireworks just standing on Memorial Drive. They pipe the music from the Pops along the Cambridge side of the River, so you can enjoy the spectacle without having to camp out all day for a spot on the Esplanade. 

-Katherine Morley, Administrative Coordinator

If you do decide to enjoy the Pops on the Esplanade, this handy guide has all the info you need.

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USS Constitution fires a 21-gun salute toward Fort Independence during the ship’s July 4th underway (US Navy) / CC BY 2.0

Go check out the Old Ironsides turnaround cruise. You can book a ticket on a boat that follows her around the harbor or just watch from shore as the world’s oldest commissioned warship takes her annual voyage to Castle Island. This is the year to do it, though–she’ll be undergoing restoration until 2018. 

-Becky Morin, Head of Research & Instruction.

More information here. Interested in other historical events? Here’s a big list of tours, talks, and tastings happening throughout the city this week.

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Ready to Eat (David Remsen) /CC BY NC 2.0

I’m not a native New Englander, so I was really excited last year when I was invited to a community clam bake for the 4th of July. Even though it was deathly hot (near 100 degrees F), it was really fun to celebrate with the whole neighborhood out on the rocky beach, eating all of the food everyone made. It was also really interesting to watch the evolution of the fire pit throughout the day. I’m not a big seafood eater, so I didn’t partake of the steamers and lobster, but everything looked and smelled amazing!

Katie Houk, Research & Instruction Librarian

Don’t know anyone with beach access? You can attend a clambake on Spectacle Island on the July 3rd, or any Thursday throughout the summer.

 

What’s your favorite thing to do on the 4th? Let us know!

 

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's StoneThanksgiving is next week, and then we launch into a full period of exams for December. You’ll be up late studying a lot, so what to do in those precious hours you have downtime and want to just relax? Well, how about read (or re-read) the Harry Potter series?

It’s a fun adventure, with magic, hard choices, and a characters not always being what they seem. On top of that, the fact it was written for a slightly younger audience means you can fly through the first few books, getting yourself almost immediately to the parts that made you sad the first time around (don’t lie, you know you felt a few tears leak out, and you know which part is being referred to).

One of the absolute strengths of the series is on Rowling’s ability to bring the world of wizards alive, creating characters that it is impossible not to feel sympathy for (or, in some cases, impossible not to hate. Looking at you, Umbridge).  Between Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Neville, every single reader ends up having a favorite they find themselves rooting for through seven straight books, and it’s a joy to see them each grow and change as more events unfold.

Of course, no discussion of Potter would be complete without pointing out just how much fun the names are to read – Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasely, Neville Longbottom, Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Dolores Umbridge, Voldemort, Draco Malfoy – Rowling has a Dickensian way of naming a character perfectly for their personality, making it even more fun to see them running around the castle together.

So pick up a hot Butterbeer Latte from Starbucks (part of their secret menu), crack open Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and let yourself be taken away down Memory Lane on a broomstick.

And good luck on your exams.

Want to rent the Harry Potter series, starting with Sorcerer’s Stone? You can find that book here, and the full series listing here, both in the HHSL Catalog. Happy Reading!

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This Monday, May 27, is Memorial Day.

Memorial_Day_Flagged_Crosses

In honor of the holiday, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will be open special hours from noon to 7 pm.

 

Enjoy your long weekend!

 

CC photo courtesy of  Ben Franske on Wikimedia Commons.

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