#2. Fish Pieces Recipe

[flavors-of-india-666]

[bunjywunjy]

Sooooooooo... Recipe on that beef and mushroom thing you made last night? Looks like it might be, as the kids say, goated with the sauce

oh right, my bad

BUNJY RECIPE BOOK: FIVE-HOUR BRISKET

you will need:

4-7 pounds of the lean brisket, fat trimmed and cut into several manageable pieces (using less meat just means a higher gravy/meat ratio)

3 shallots, minced

16 oz white button or crimini mushrooms, chopped into chunks

3 gloves crushed garlic

olive oil

32 oz good beef broth

2 cups dry red wine, like merlot

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp paprika (heaping)

2 tbsp ground black pepper (heaping)

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/2 cup worcestershire sauce

also 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

a great big dutch oven

first, combine the dry spices in a large bowl and whisk them together. just toss your brisket pieces in the bowl until they are all well covered, then let them sit at room temperature while you do the next step. in a large saucepan, heat some olive oil over medium heat and saute your shallots until they start to go translucent, then add the mushrooms and cook them all together until the mushroom liquid has released and then reabsorbed. put the onion/mushroom mixture aside in a bowl and wipe down the pan real quick, then add more (about 1/4 cup) olive oil and return to medium heat. BEFORE it gets up to temp, add about 1/3 cup of the worcestershire sauce, and swirl it around. add as many of the brisket pieces as will fit and brown them on either side, swirling the oil occasionally to make sure the worcestershire sauce doesn't burn. add more worcestershire sauce in rough 1/3 cups until you reach your 1 1/2 cup total and cook the beef until all pieces are cooked on both sides and are all worcestershire-y. (you won't really get a brown crust and that's fine. drop the meat and all the oil/sauce left in the pan into your dutch oven, then add the water, beef broth. wine, additional two tbsp of worcestershire sauce, and crushed garlic, and swirl it around a bit. add the shallot/mushroom mixture to the pot and swirl this around also, and try to scoot the meat around so there's very little poking above the surface.

put a lid on the dutch oven and cook in a PREHEATED 325 degree oven for 3 hours. when the time is up, lower heat to 300 degrees and cook for another two hours.

next, fish the brisket pieces out of the broth and place them on a plate LOOSELY tented with aluminum foil for 15 minutes. this will let the muscle fibers relax.

once this time is up, get a good carving knife and cut the brisket into thick slices against the grain, this may be difficult if the meat just starts falling apart but do your best. return the slices to the broth, add salt to taste as necessary, and serve, ideally with mashed potatoes or something else to use the gravy on. you CAN also take some extra time to reduce this in a saucepan if you want but you really don't need to.

bone ape the teeth!

[ltwilliammowett]

Cooking like a Sailor - New England Clam Chowder

However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. - Moby Dick

What Herman Meville describes here is a very famous New England dish - the clam chowder. A chowder is "a soup or stew of seafood (such as clams or fish) usually made with milk or tomatoes, salt pork, onions and other vegetables". Whilst there are different types of chowder, clam chowder is undoubtedly the best known. The definition of chowder varies depending on the part of the country, but most contain clams, potatoes, onions and some form of pork. Some use milk or another type of broth, but this type of dish was very popular on board ships where it was cooked and served in different ways. According to Savouring Gotham: A Food Lovers Companion to New York City, it is believed that New England chowder was introduced to the region by French, Nova Scotian or British settlers and became a common dish in the region around 1700. The chowder grew in popularity over the years and, according to What's Cooking America, was served in Boston as early as 1836 at Ye Olde Union Oyster House (the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the country).

But let's get to the recipe so you can cosy up at home with your copy of Moby Dick and enjoy a nice serving of clam chowder.

What do you need: 1 small onion 1 kilogram of salted pork 2 medium potatoes 1 1/2 cups of water 1 tin with about 200 grams of clams 1 bottle with about 350ml clam juice

1/8 teaspoon of pepper 1 1/2 cup of milk

To prepare:

cut the meat into pieces of about 2.5c and brown in a pan over a medium heat. Then set aside.

chop the onions and fry them in the pan, in the meantime cut the potatoes into small pieces and add them to the onions, cover with water and cook until the potatoes are soft.

add the clams and their juice and season with pepper. Cook over a medium heat until they are steaming.

Add 1 1/2 cups of milk. Heat over a medium heat for 5 minutes.

Add the meat and serve. Best eaten with ship's biscuits or fresh bread, if available.

Enjoy your meal.

[littlemissclandestine]

Soft!Adler Headcanons: (Girl)Dad! Edition Part 2

⭐ A continuation of this post

He'd try his best to be there for any award ceremonies at school, sneaking in at the back just in time to see his daughter on stage. As soon as she makes eye contact, he'll give her a thumbs up and a wink, mouthing 'I love you'

I wanna say he'd be that dad who stands up and claps loudly, telling everyone that that's his daughter on stage. He's so supportive bless.

Oh and photos where he stands behind her and has his hands on her shoulders and smiles for the camera. Yup, quite a few of those stashed away.

When she'd have a presentation to give on her biggest inspiration and/or hero in her life, it would be about her dad. It would end up in tears for her as he'd be away...or would he? Adler would come in, standing off to the side, watching her recite from a piece of paper saying how much she looks up to her father, how she misses him etc. It almost brings a tear to his own eyes. Everyone's heads would turn and his daughter would run up to him, Russell scooping her up and hugging her. Missed you my lil spaghetti

During downtime, his priority would always be his daughter. No ifs and no buts. Even if he hated the idea she proposed.

One of those was testing makeup. Russell would always straight up say no, asking her to call her mother for that but when he saw how upset it made her, he'd sigh and grumpily sit down in a chair by her dresser and let her do whatever she wanted. -> "Jesus, kid, watch it, you always this rough with your friends too?" He'd ask with a chuckle as she blends the foundation. He could sit there all day and listen to her explain how to use each product and proceed to yap about whatever crosses her mind

When she'd put on eyeliner and apply it to his waterline, he was genuinely scared -> "Don't poke my eyes out, the only thing I got going for me. God, can't believe I'm letting you do this, missy." He'd pinch her side and tickle her.

As soon as he's allowed to look in the mirror, he does a double take, wondering how the hell he looks like such a diva but he downplays it. -> "Good job, kid...good job indeed."

When she hurts herself, he can't help but kneel down and help her. He knows he should stop and that she needs to develop her independence but it's hard for him. -> "Got a boo boo, sweetheart? Let me see. Aww on the knee, huh? Come here, let's get you cleaned up and get a plaster on it, yeah? Shhhh you're okay."

Baking with his daughter? YES. They'd make a mess of the kitchen for sure, not really tidying up as they go. Every time his daughter would come to him with a new recipe, he's out the front door with her in an instant, ticking off their checklist of ingredients in the store and thinking of ways he could add their twist on it

Her drawings would be on display with personalised fridge magnets that spell her name etc

There's a wall or archway where he measures her height every year and marks it on with pencil. -> "Heh, you've had a hell of a growth spurt, sweetheart. Would you look at that."

If his daughter was a trouble maker, he'd be that parent that would refuse to see what was wrong. It was self defense as far as he's concerned. He doesn't really need to do much of the talking. He's genuinely surprised seeing her stand up for herself, the corner of his mouth curving into a smile as he watches her rant to the principal. Did he teach her that? To not play by the rules? Guess he's rubbing off on her. A little worrying but eh -> "Put that in your pipe and smoke it." High fives as soon as they get back into the car after the meeting with the principal is over is a given.

If there's something you should know about Russell Adler, it's that he loves being spontaneous. One day, he might take his daughter out fishing, teaching her the ropes, the next they're at a painting class together, his daughter being impressed by his hidden talent or cycling in the summer during the sunset, Russell asking her what her goals are in life and telling her how proud he is of her and that he wishes he could be around more. Bonding time is so important to him.

There are certainly times where he struggles. Apart from the emotional side of things and his job getting in the way i mean. Possibly control. Like we know he has strong leadership skills he's developed over his career. I'd like to think that seeps into his parenting a little too much. He tends to ramble and tell his daughter how to do something and talking her through it, hovering over her even though she knows already and has been doing said thing for years.

Maybe it's just a part of him wanting to feel useful and needed. Still wanting her to rely on him even in her 20s or 30s, partly in denial that she's not that young girl who'd sit on his lap anymore. It really hits him when he's walking her down the aisle.

And maybe he'd be over-critical of himself as a parent and her as a daughter, especially since he sees the cost of mistakes in the world of espionage and the military

The only people that have seen his daughter from work are Sims, Woods and Mason and maybe Park but it isn't a regular thing, wanting to keep her as far away from the CIA as possible. Park had a shock when she saw him like that for the first time. -> "Never thought i'd see the day, Adler. You, a family man? Rather ghastly I must say but you do look happy."

[princessisfinethx]

Monster!König x Reader pt.2

You guys liked the first one so I'll keep going.

Warnings: tentacles, curse words. Mate mention

M!König: Who left a bundle of fish wrapped in seaweed for you one day in front of the veterinarian building. Which the desk workers stumbled upon first, with no note. So they were disgusted by it and threw it away before you could see it. And König was pissed.

M!König: Who had to catch more fish but this time, he hand delivered it to you. He made his way into the vet once again and glared down at the desk worker, specifically the one who threw away that perfectly good batch of fish.

M!König: Who, when he saw you, presented the fish once again. It was dripping on the floor, the seaweed bundle. You smiled wearily and took the fish, looking over the different kinds. You thanked him and promised you'd eat all of them, even mentioning you favored one fish species that was caught in the bundle. "I know some good recipes for these."

M!König: Who... couldn't stop staring at you. Something was clicking in his head, something he really liked. He felt his tentacles beneath his hood stir and his eyes widened a bit at the realization. When it became quiet in the lobby, you asked quietly if you could look him over to see if he was healing properly. He nodded and followed you to your office once again. Once you two were alone and he lifted his hood, you put your gloves on and reached up, moving some of the tentacles aside.

M!König: Who was deeply embarrassed when his tentacles wrapped around your hands, more than last time. He said nothing. You commented that he was healing amazingly. Without muttering a word he pulled his hood back down and left the vet. You watched, confused and missing a glove because his tentacles wouldn't let go.

M!König: Who just fucked himself over by x10. It was only meant as a thank you, but when you happily took the bundle, stating you liked the fish?? He swallowed thickly and covered his eyes. He had to ignore this, the urge to take you as his mate. You were a human, he was not, this wouldn't work. Not that he knows for sure. But the urge to give you more, to provide and show you that he could be a good mate..it's not going away.

M!König: Who felt the funny glove taste in his mouth still and pulled the glove out from his tentacles. He stared at the blue piece of latex, thoughts bubbling in his mind, but he ultimately threw the glove away, his face red.

~~~

Vet!Reader: Who washed all the fish and wrapped them in something more sanitary to bring them home later. You'd be spending the slow parts of the day looking up other recipes for the other fish.

Vet!Reader: Who got playfully teased because the 'scary fisherman' was trying to court them. You'd only grin, looking away and typing on your phone. You then got curious and began to do some broad research on tentacle face people. And frowned when something called The Call of Cthulhu popped up, but you saved it to read for later. Maybe it could tell you more about your friend König.

[wellntruly]

What's up friend So the salmon chowder recipe you posted on here a while ago has since become a beloved family favorite. Mom asks me to make it all the time whenever we're all together. It's the perfect treat on a cold, rainy day and I can't thank you enough for sharing it. However, I must confess that mine is not the original recipe. I have made some...... modifications While the soup is simmering, drain a 14.5oz can of sweet corn in a colander. Stir it in with the cream and fish during the final step Also I find half&half works just as well as light cream Also i use canned salmon without shame. You were so right, chum salmon is where it's at for this. Anyway. As a show of appreciation I offer you a soup recipe in kind. May it bring you and yours as much joy as yours has brought me and mine \o/ TOM KHA, KING OF ALL SOUPS 1 tbsp coconut oil 1/2 yellow/white onion, thinly sliced 2 cloves garlic, chopped (add more if you like garlic (you should be adding more)) 3x 1/4 in slices ginger OR galangal if you can find it 2x Thai chili peppers OR half a red jalapeno, sliced (I've also used Scotch bonnets with some success but they tend to be a little smoky. Habaneros are just too much.) 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste 1 stalk lemongrass, pounded with the side of a knife and cut into 2 in long pieces 4 cups chicken broth 4 cups (2 cans) coconut milk, full fat and unsweetened 2 medium chicken breasts (~1 lb), cubed OR substitute 1 lb shrimp or cubed extra-firm tofu if you want 8 oz white mushroom caps, sliced 1-2 tbsp coconut sugar 2-3 tbsp lime juice (about a whole lime's worth if you're squeezin' it) 1.5-2 tbsp fish sauce 2-3 green onions, sliced thin fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

>Heat the coconut oil over medium in a good size pot. >Add the onion, garlic, hot chilis, galangal/ginger, lemongrass, and red curry paste and cook for 5 mins or until onions soften. Make sure to stir frequently so you don't burn the curry paste. >Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 mins. >After the half hour is up, strain out the aromatics and discard if you don't want them in the finished product. Or keep them in there if you're feeling adventurous, I'm not your dad. >Stir in the coconut milk, chicken (or shrimp/tofu), and mushrooms. >Simmer until the protein is cooked through. Chicken should not be pink, but shrimp should. Know the difference! >Then add fish sauce, coconut sugar and lime juice to taste. My golden ratio is 2 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp lime juice (the whole damn lime), and 2 tbsp fish sauce, but your tastes may vary. >Cook just another couple minutes, then ladle into bowls and serve topped with scallions and cilantro. This soup is one of my favorites because it has literally every single flavor at the same time. It's bright and beautiful and really nice for summer evenings. Enjoy.

Oh and if this blows up you can check out my Warhammer paintjobs and bad hockey opinions at jfenris.bsky.social

Yessssss, elated to receive a tom kha recipe, such a quality soup!!!!! SOUP EXCHANGE, SOUP EXCHANGE!

[orig Buttery Salmon Chowder, from 2017 wow! 8 years of chowder]

[confuzing]

I've put together a fun lil Stardew Valley Challenge designed to be hard for casual players like myself ( I'm sure some people will think this is easy). Gonna type it up and post it it here. OK, here goes.

The Doomsday Prepper Challenge

Premise: You've just found out a startling truth, the apocalypse is imminent, the world will end in 2 Years! So you quit your job and go head out to your Grandpa's farm where you hope to stockpile enough supplies and become self sufficient enough that you can survive the coming end. Can you get your farm in order and your supplies all ready before time runs out?

What you need to do/collect under the cut.

You do not anticipate most of the rest of Pelican Town surviving the apocalypse so don't bother making friends you'll lose anyway. (You can still fulfill quests, attend festivals and make friends to unlock things, but you're doing that to reach your end goal.)

You need to get married (kids not required) Gotta have a spouse to help repopulate the planet. Theoretically you should pick Harvey but if you can think of a good reason why your farmer would pick someone else go ahead.

Complete the Community Center (no Joja route, the Junimos are magic you could use them on your side.)

Unlock Ginger Island- Build the House and Farm Obelisk there, have the recipe for the island totem and at least one crafted one in storage (essentially you need to be able to get to Ginger Island and back without relying on Willy.)

Upgrade all your tools to iridium quality

Have a fully upgraded backpack

Fully upgrade your house ( up to having a cellar- the optional upgrades of extra rooms not required)

Have a Calendar, Mini Fridge, Telephone, Farm Computer and Dresser in your house.

Have both a cat and dog

Have 500,000 gold in the bank

Have at least one of all the following farm buildings: Fully Upgraded Coop, Fully Upgraded Barn, a Stable, a Silo, a Well, a Mill, a Shed and a Fishpond

At the end of your challenge your Silo(s) must be full

Have at least one (or the number listed) of the following machines/items on your farm: A Workbench, A Woodchipper, 3 Tappers, 5 Furnaces, An Oil Maker, A Fish Smoker, A Dehydrator, A Charcoal Kiln, A Crystalarium, A Recycling Machine, a Bone Mill, A Mayo Machine, A Cheese Press, 5 Preserve Jars, a Loom, 5 Kegs, A Seedmaker, A Worm Bin, A Bee House, 5 Crab Pots, A Lightning Rod, A Solar Panel and A Mushroom Log

Have an Armory- A full chest (so 36) weapons. Scythes are included as weapons.

Have a First Aid Kit- A chest with 100 Energy Tonics, 100 Muscle Remedies, 100 Life Elixirs, and 100 pieces of cloth ( for bandages)

Your Dresser should have at least 50 articles of clothing in it not including hats and rings.

Have a Supplies Stockpile- 100 of each type of Bombs, 50 Tents, 50 Cookout Kits, 999 Sap, 999 Coal, 999 Fiber, 999 Wood, 999 Stone, 999 Hay ( in addition to your full Silo), 500 Clay, 100 Copper Bars, 100 Iron Bars, 100 Gold Bars, 100 iridium Bars, 100 Refined Quartz, 100 Pine Tar, 100 Oak Resin, 100 Maple Syrup, 100 Batteries and 300 Seeds of any type.

Have a Food Stockpile (some categories on this list overlap, you cannot count things for two categories)- 112 (a year's supply) Cooked Dishes, 112 Drinks, 112 Dried Fruit or Mushrooms, 112 Smoked Fish, 112 Preserves, 112 Berries, 112 Eggs, 112 Milk, 112 Cheese, 112 Vegetables, 112 Fruits, 112 Flour, 112 Sugar, 112 Oil, 112 Vinegar, 112 Rice, 112 Forage, and 112 Mushrooms

Ending: You did it! You're all set for the end of the world! What now?

...oh.

After talking to Grandpa's Ghost and waking up to an un-ended world you realize you were wrong, the world isn't ending at all! Sell as much of your stockpile as you want ( all of it is really fun) and find your farmer's happy ending. Did you marry someone you didn't actually care about? Divorce them and chase your sweetheart! Really want to get into Slimes? Go nuts! This is your life and there's no deadlines anymore. ( My Farmer on my successful play through divorced his wife, married his boyfriend and is now a Perfection Run.)

[evolutionsvoid]

In a land of plentiful fluids, there is a great variety of life that thrive within them! Be it water, bile or blood, these fluid bodies are always a host to an incredible array of aquatic creatures!

1. Silt Snorter - A large bottom feeding fish with two mouths and iconic whiskers. They spend their lives down near the silt and muck, using their twin mouths to suck it up and filter food through their hairy gills. Their long whiskers help them keep their bearings when the silt is disturbed and the fluid is clouded. Growing to giant sizes, they are prized trophy fish, but not so great for eating. Their flesh is tainted by their mucky diet, but with the sheer quantity you can get from a single catch, no one wants to waste it, thus folk have developed recipes to help mask the flavor. Also a good source of sea snot.

2. Nailbiter - A keratin clad fish with a dexterous maw. They specialize in pulling prey from nooks and crevices, using their oral fingers to reach in and drag them out. With no actual biting or shearing teeth, they can only eat what can be swallowed whole. Their armored scales are tough but light, allowing them protection while not weighing them down. They are caught for their "fish fingers," a dish made from their oral digits. Legends like to say this fish came to be from a greedy fisherman who reached into the water for one too many fish and had the offending hand taken to replace what he stole.

3. Sperm Eel - An odd boneless fish known for its strange reproductive habits and milky nature. They live in riverside burrows, feeding on small invertebrates and floating bits. The species lives only long enough to reproduce once, as the viable adults congregate up river. When the time comes, these breeding fish straight up disintegrate into reproductive fluids, with the males becoming a cloud of sperm and the females a cloud of tiny eggs. Entire floats of white frothy egg masses form from this breeding session, creating thousands of larvae. This season can clog rivers with these rafts, but it is a bountiful moment for other species that come to feed. When it comes to fishing them, they must be caught and kept alive, as their bodies melt upon death. Though there is no meat to gain, they are used as a soup thickener and add a delightfully milky and salty flavor to a dish.

4. Syringefish - A parasitic fish of the rivers that targets larger piscines or wading beasts. Their single tooth is hollow and built for sucking Blood from prey. Typically look for sluggish fish to feed on, or disturbances from animals swimming. Will ram themselves into whatever flesh they can find and drink as much as they are able. Their stomachs can swell up to fit their meal, growing until they are practically sphere shaped. A pest to any who have to deal with them when wading through the river or trying to catch fish that don't have puncture wounds all over. At least good for a nice bloody snack for those who catch engorged ones.

5. Scabfish - Crimson in color and crusty in texture, they typically appear in bloody waters or in scarred regions. They rest upon the floor of the fluid body, waiting for prey to pass close for an ambush. Their rough scabby skin makes them unappealing to some predators, and make them quite abrasive to handle. Some seafolk may use their dried skin for sanding wood and ivory. Can also be used to make scab crackling.

6. Urolith Fish - A jagged fish that prefers to rest on the bottom rather than swim, using its wide fins to crawl in a way. Typically hides in tight spaces and uses ambush tactics to swallow prey. They are infamous for their spiny bodies. with nasty spikes that break off agonizing shards into those who touch them. Once inside the flesh, they are difficult to remove and are prone to breaking into smaller pieces. These fish serve as a reminder to watch your step when wading through the shallows. To be avoided and not eaten, as their meat reeks of urea. Some shady folk have found their spines good as debilitating knives, stabbed into victims to paralyze them with pain.

7. Mantinia - A colorful creature of chitin that slices through the water with its razor body. Its frontal appendage is designed for lashing out with blinding speed and snaring slippery prey in its barbed grasp. It lacks a true mouth, and instead uses its hollow spines on this "arm" to suck fluids from its prey. Its vivid coloration is believed to be used to win over mates. Despised by fisherman for stealing catches, cutting lines and shredding nets. Legends say that this fish came to life when a warrior surrendered his colorful chitin blade and gave it to the water.

8. Skullcracker - A powerful bulky fish known for its bony forehead and cracking teeth. They feed primarily on ivory corals and other hard-bodied prey, using a mouthful of broad teeth to shatter shells and armor. Their bulging forehead is solid and makes for a good weapon against predators and rivals. They make for dangerous catches, as they may ram the boat with their head or jump from the waters at inopportune times to concuss the unwary fisherman. They have gained this name for a reason.

9. Snot Shroud - A tiny fish that is capable of producing an incredible amount of Phlegm, they use it to surround their body in a false mass. This mucus sheath acts as a fake body and shield, allowing them to ward away parasites and survive predation. This sticky mass also collects food particles and tiny prey for the fish to feed upon. A potent producer of sea snot, and typically kept alive by seafolk on ships to churn out this marine Phlegm for medical purposes.

10. Searfish - A parasitic fish that possesses Yellow Bile and a nasty suction cup on its head. This structure is made to latch onto the sides of larger fish, where it then pumps the burning humor to melt through scale and flesh. The porous surface of this sucker allows it to absorb nutrients from its host, feeding on fluids and digested flesh. Typically target leviathans as their vast size allows them to shrug off these wounds. Circular scorch marks are the scars they leave behind, and some fisherman have found them on the bottom of their boats. If not deterred, they can scorch straight through the floor of a small canoe or boat, thus fisherman take steps to keep the burning buggers away.

11. False Floater - A seemingly rotting fish that plays a deceptive game. Their belly-up posture and patchy skin makes them look quite dead, but this fish is alive and well. A gas filled bladder suspends them in the water, while perfect stillness lures in scavengers. A multi-part jaw filled with needle teeth snares prey that comes to feed on this supposed corpse. Though they are not actually rotting, their meat is very pungent and slimy, thus is avoided when it comes to eating. Their dead appearance does lead to them being associated with the Mother of Snow.

12. Spiretail - A creature instantly recognizable due to their preference of hanging vertically and upside down in the water. They often hover just above the bottom, feeding on the small bits and critters that pass by. Sharp shards of Black Bile jut from their bodies, warding off predators. Often hang out in groups, gaining more protection through numbers. A bane to swimmers who accidentally swim through these schools, as such encounters guarantee several lacerations.

13. Cysthorse - A diseased looking fish that is actually filled with a burning toxin. Attempts to eat or touch them will result in these noxious boils to rupture and seep out this vile poison. Flesh that comes in contact with this fluid often winds up looking like the fish's unsightly skin. Avoided when it comes to fishing as one snared in a net may ruin both the net and the catch with its boiling fluids. Plus, they are associated with sickness, thus their appearance is an omen for future afflictions upon the catcher.

14. Sawtooth - A vicious fish with a killer overbite, they use their protruding blade of teeth to wound and shred prey. Appear to be solitary and not fans of their own kind, judging from the scars their hide often bears. They are a prized catch of any fisherman, though bringing them in without losing the line or a limb is difficult. Their upper jaws are often saved as trophies and turned into tools or weapons.

--------------------------------------------

Recently got and completed the fishing game Dredge and was inspired by it. So the obvious choice was to fill the fluid bodies of FOI with some fishies!

[the-witchhunter]

Apples in Caramel Bourbon Sauce

Want a delicious dessert? Want to up your game? Why not both? This recipe once literally got me laid, it’s that damn good, so use at your own discretion

Or not, I’m not your mother

Ingredients:

2 apples (gala or honeycrisp recommended)

1/2 cup - 3/4 cup sugar (depend on size of apples and thus the amount of sauce needed)

4 tablespoons butter (I use salted, if using unsalted I recommend a pinch of salt on the final step)

“A splash” of bourbon (couple tablespoons to a 1/4 cup)

1) core and cut apples. Peeling is optional. Smaller pieces will cook faster so I prefer cutting into 1/8 slices and cutting those slices I half, but theoretically you could just cut the apples in half. Just make them roughly the same size

2) have all your ingredients on hand. Seems silly to make this its own step? If you have to hunt down during the next step you risk burning and starting it over. Just have your stuff ready

3) in a dry frying pan, add sugar and heat on medium. DO NOT WALK AWAY! Heat until sugar is melted and caramelized. It’ll start to darken and at this stage it can go from perfect to burnt very quickly. Stir with wooden spoon if needed to prevent burning but it’ll likely clump. Just break up clumps and it’ll melt when it’s hot enough.

4) add the butter and stir to combine. At this point it’s a very rudimentary caramel sauce.

5) add apple. It’ll likely seem too thick and not coat the apples immediately but just let them cook, stirring occasionally until apples are tender. How long? Depends how big you made your apple chunks. Sauce will get thinner as it pulls out moisture from the apples 

6) fish out cooked apples once tender and set aside

7) reduce sauce for a minute or two

8) add splash of bourbon (not from the bottle directly) and cook until harsh alcohol taste is cooked off

Serve by itself or the recommended method of over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, still warm

Makes 2-4 servings

[najia-cooks]

[ID: An extreme close-up of ground spices in various shades of brown and orange laid out in lines on a plate. End ID]

سبع بهارات فلسطينية / Seb'a baharat falastinia (Palestinian seven-spice)

Seb'a baharat is one of a few spice blends often referred to in English simply as “baharat” (the plural of Arabic بهار / bahar, “spice”). A warm, earthy blend, it is commonly used to season meat, fish, and poultry in the Levant, Eastern Arabia, and Egypt, where recipes differ from region to region and from person to person. Common ingredients include cumin, cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Palestinian versions of seb'a baharat are usually dominated by allspice, black pepper, and cinnamon, giving them a pungent and sweet head; nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom provide additional warmth, while cumin and coriander often round out the blend with earthiness and a hint of florality. Ginger is also an occasional inclusion.

By the early 2010s, decades of Israeli taxation on exports and imports of non-Israeli goods had eroded Palestinian economic and culinary self-determination; Israel had instituted further blockades of the Gaza border in 2007, leading to a sharp decline in exports. Several farmers in Gaza turned to growing spices and herbs, including cumin and ginger, on their farms with the intention of finding a profitable market for them in Europe. However, frequent border closings, punitive export taxes, and Israeli shooting at Palestinian farmers who were attempting to work their land, made the plan unviable.

More recently, Palestinians have continued to work to find new ways to produce food despite shrinking access to arable land and fresh water. Resisting Israeli targeting of Palestinian food self-sufficiency is a matter, not just of subsistence and economic power, but of identity and dignity.

Today, Israel's total siege of Gaza continues as civilians run out of food, water, power, and medical supplies. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has put out an urgent call for donations to provide medical supplies to hospitals when supply lines reopen. Also contact your representatives in the USA, UK, and Canada.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp ground allspice (6.6g; 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp allspice berries)

1/2 Tbsp ground black pepper (6.2g; 1/2 Tbsp black peppercorns)

1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon (5.3g; 1 large stick Chinese cassia)

1 1/4 tsp ground coriander (2g; 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds)

1 tsp ground nutmeg (1.4g; 1/2 nutmeg)

1 tsp ground cloves (2g; 1 1/4 tsp whole cloves)

1 tsp ground cardamom (scant 1/2 Tbsp pods; 2.6g just seeds)

3/4 tsp ground cumin (2.1g; scant tsp cumin seeds)

Instructions:

1. In a mortar and pestle or using the flat of a knife, roughly crush nutmeg and cinnamon.

2. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast whole spices one at a time until each is strongly fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool in a single layer on a large plate.

3. Grind all spices together in a mortar and pestle or a spice mill. Pass through a sieve to remove large pieces. Store in an airtight jar in a cool, dark place.

[littlethingwithfeathers]

Chicken Gnocchi Soup (AKA Cheater Chicken and Dumplings)

My friend @hellofeanor requested my recipe for this so here we go! 2-3 TBS olive oil 1 small onion diced 2 medium carrots peeled and diced 3-4 stalks of celery diced. 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced. 1/2 cup white wine 2-3 TBS flour 1 box chicken broth (I think it's like 32 oz?) 2-3 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into big chunks ** 1 bay leaf 1/2 tsp dried thyme salt and pepper to taste 1 14oz pack of fresh gnocchi 1/4 cup grated parmesan ** 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional) In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and then add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook until softened and the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Sprinkle on the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Deglaze with the wine and then add the broth, chicken, and seasonings. Bring to a steady simmer and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally. The chicken should shred easily when it's done. Add the gnocchi and cook per package instructions (Mine only needed 2-3 minutes). Add the cream if using and the parmesan. Taste for seasoning. Serve immediately with crusty bread. ** for the chicken, you can do a few different things. I just like the thighs because with a long cooking time it makes for a consistency like chicken and dumplings. You could use boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces. Just add that about five minutes before you dump in the gnocchi. And you can cut the cooking time to just 30-40 minutes. You can also use a cup or two of precooked shredded chicken like from a rotisserie. Add it with the gnocchi so it can heat through. ** if you're a culinary nerd like me and keep parmesan rinds, you can totally use one of those instead of the parmesan cheese. Just toss it in with the bay leaf. Just don't forget to fish it back out again. This is also really good with just... normal pasta. The gnocchi add to the creaminess of the dish but use what ya got. Anything short and curly would work great... maybe a 1/2 pound of dry pasta? Season with your heart... there's a lot of herbs that would be good here. Italian seasoning... rosemary... use what you like. I just like the simplicity of just a little thyme and bay. Also, if you've got the time, this dish REALLY benefits from homemade chicken broth. I've made it where I made broth from some bone-in skin-on chicken thighs and then shredded the meat before putting the bones back to simmer awhile longer. Then I just tossed the already cooked chicken in at the end. A+ best soup ever. And if you're into fresh greens in soup, some kale or spinach would be lovely added right at the end.

[shoku-and-awe]

Ingredients  

2 cups chicken stock, unsalted, preferably homemade

1 ½ cups coconut milk, (see note 1)

½ teaspoon table salt

1 lb chicken thigh, boneless skinless, cut 1-inch pieces (see note 2)

1 stalk lemongrass, bottom half only, smashed and cut in 2-inch pieces

12 thin slices galangal, (see note 3)

5 makrut lime leaves, twisted to bruise and torn into big chunks

1-3 Thai chilies, to taste, smashed until broken or cut into large pieces

2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon finely chopped palm sugar,  or granulated sugar

5.5 oz oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-size pieces

2 ½ tablespoon lime juice

Chopped green onion and/or cilantro, for garnish

Jasmine rice, for serving, optional

Notes

For a lighter soup, you can add reduce the coconut milk by about ½ cup and increase the chicken stock by the same amount.

If using chicken breast, cut into ½-inch thick slices and marinate in 1 tablespoon of fish sauce while you're prepping. Skip step #1 as chicken breast does not need to be simmered and is best cooked only briefly, and omit the salt. Reduce the chicken stock to 1 ½ cups and add it at step #2. Add the chicken breast to the soup at the end along with the mushrooms in step #3 and cook for a couple of minutes just until the chicken is done. Be sure to taste and adjust the salt at the end!

The lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves are meant for infusion only and not meant to be eaten. Please inform your guests or remove them before serving.

Instructions 

Bring chicken stock to a boil, then add the salt and chicken thigh. Simmer gently for 15 minutes or until chicken is fork tender.

Add the coconut milk, lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves, chilies, mushrooms, about half of the fish sauce, and sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes to infuse.

Taste and add more fish sauce as needed. Turn off the heat and add about 2 tablespoon of the lime juice, then taste and add more as needed. Top with green onions and/or cilantro.

Serve with jasmine rice as part of a larger Thai meal, or enjoy on its own. See this video about how to eat a Thai meal for how Thai people serve soup! (Note: the herbs are for infusion only and are not meant to be eaten. Either remove them before serving or inform your guests.)

[puckpocketed]

hello i was tagged by @18minutemajor for WIP Wednesday. it is not Wednesday but i am also not a cop so . here we gooo!!!!!!! tagging my esteemed colleagues (very politely and with no pressure!!!):

@neonfretra @oensible @sorrellegiance @moregraceful @stereax

@wheelsnipecelebrini

@korshrimpski (EDIT: it won’t?? let me tag you. unless these are on separate lines <3)

what's in-progress in your life <3 writing? art? recipe? skill acquisition?

if any crafty people see this - if ANYONE sees this - and would like to join in, feel free and consider yourself tagged <3 (and tag me back so i can see your stuff!!!) link to 18minutemajor's post if yall curious :3 my VERY long wip dump + ramblings under the cut!

its christmas soon and i like to paint gifts for my friends + and i'm finally revisiting my anime/lineart/inking era (here you are K!! my lineart past, present, and future!! <3) so here are some things i've been working on/coming back to/MAY NEVER FINISH: hockey related:

this is juraj slafkovsky and his dinky little middle part which he can absolutely learn to style into something a little less dinky but never does. i am so charmed by him. i imagine he just rocks it because his pretty privilege supersedes dinky middle parts . LMAO!!

here is Sasuke from my Naruto Hockey AU. I am a little stuck on jersey mockups lol. here he is. our haunted little 1OA who is absolutely normal and regular about his captain (LOUD incorrect buzzer):

personal oc art

wanna know some puckpocketed deep lore? i've never been one to make OCs. i was just not a very creative kid tbh. spent all my time drawing sailor moon instead. i still go back to her sometimes because she is one of my favourite shapes in the WORLD!!

in my 20s i took up playing d&d because of the. uh. plague. <3 and got pretty close to having OCs!! those count right? anyway. here is my tavern-wench-turned-wizard!!! i think i painted this 2 years ago? <- put dates on your works guys it saves lives. her name is Mel (short for Melins (pronounced like melons. on account of her knockers. can you tell i never grew out of my 12 yr old booby/cock joke era?) i revisited Mel recently and have started painting her in earnest again!! :3

I briefly dated someone who was very into streetwear and fashion, and I fell down a techwear/gorpcore/cyberpunk rabbit hole for a couple days out of curiosity. i remember literally zero salient info on any of it except the broad strokes of silhouetting and Vibes. what i emerged with, however, was a ?? sorta OC?? im not sure what to call them. they dont rly have a name or gender. I did this little sheet ages ago + the aborted attempt at a portrait later:

Here are my most recent explorations (i have been doing SOOOO much art. <3) which include:

unfinished character sheet + chibi art. I played with their jacket (much more structured/square/tailored thing) and added a lotta random buckles and belts. i took textiles class years ago and have a little experience in garment construction. and i know for a fact this thing does not make any sense. it hurts me to look at a little bit LMAO so i've paused it while i go draft patterns (badly. i was never good at drafting. i think i may have to break out my scrap fabric stash and hand sew a real life mock-up. HELP!)

here is me having fun with them and imagining them as some kind of cyber-fisherman. the best part of every game is the fishing mini-game to me. i love fishing mini-games so much. I made their hair really big because i wanted them to have big unwieldy hair and the vibes told me i should add more movement to the piece aside from the fishing line. I messed with their jacket AGAIN because i can't stop thinking about what kinda jacket they'd wear. gorp-core ? idk. it sure is something!

gifts for my friends :3

back in my weeb era for real YAYYYY!!! up til now i'd been making hockey art using a zero pressure sensitivity pen brush because i simply did NOT want to deal with that. it is and has always been a barrier to me making art that uses line art. <3 easing my way back into it though!

I used to paint gifts for my friends and then get them printed into lil posters and mount them on nice backing :3 i am now ready and back to painting.

Here is my girlbestie's OC. just a rough pose sketch. i think im pretty unsatisfied with the gesture of the head/hand. i wanted to include her gun in some way. i fear i may have to rework the pose entirely <3

For the genshin girlies.. here are some of my friends fave characters.

Yelan - this one i started many holidays ago and put on the backburner because the colouring was wigging me out. you can see where i started rendering stuff + got sidetracked and started on something else (the crystal choker IM LAUGHING @ past me...)

Ayaka - I reaaally like what i did here with the perspective + foreshortening. I don't know if the pose or expression is in-character or not, but i had fun :3 got stunlocked looking at references of genshin weapons so this is where i left off:

if you made it all the way down here hi... <3 ice hockey really cracked the ketchup bottle open for me when it comes to making art again. i love the communities i've found, and i'm inspired by every artist on here every day. thanks for being so cool + have a great day :)

[lesorciercanadien]

La Chandeleur

Candlemas, or La Chandeleur as it is known in French-speaking Catholic communities, starts on the evening of February 1st into February 2nd. It commemorates Jesus's presentation at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40) as the Light of the World.

The Blessed Candle

This time of year is full of light festivals all over the world. For Acadians, la Chandeleur is celebrated with the blessing of a candle at church at 8am, and bringing it home to in turn bless the home.

The blessed candle is kept at the parents' bedside, or on a tiny shelf in the kitchen. It would be lit during big storms, as a foil to lightning, during periods of illness, a hard childbirth, and when a death occurs in the house. When a priest would visit the house to provide communion to a sick parishioner, the candle would be lit and carried to guide the priest to the ailing person's bedside, and the same rite would apply to the final rites of a dying person. The flame remains lit during the wake. The candle is also lit during Marial devotions during the month of May. If healing is prayed for during a novena, it also doesn't hurt to light this candle.

Once those candles are blessed, the master of the home is to bring the lit candle to every corner of the house to bless it with its light. They would also bring this light to the barn and the fields for blessings. Many families boast of a special candle holder just for this candle.

On Prince Edward Island, pieces of this candle's wax were also brought aboard on fishing boats along with woven palm fronds, and were meant to keep the fisherman safe during storms at sea.

Acadian Candle Blessing

"Daignez bénir et sanctifier ces cierges pour notre usage, pour la santé des corps et des âmes, sur terre comme sur mer."

"May these candles be blessed and sanctified for our use, for the health of our bodies and souls, on land as on the sea."

Chandeleur Crêpes

It's also a crêpe-making day!!! On the eve of this holiday (Feb.1), families would make crêpes for dinner, often using the last of last year's flour. This stems from medieval France, when peasants would use the previous year's flour (most likely their only flour left) to ensure the next year's harvest would be bountiful. It is tradition in Acadie to have every member of the household flip their own crêpe, to determine if a successful flip would grant them luck for the year. Some families even kept a piece of the crêpe in their cupboard all year long to ward off bad luck.

Crêpe recipe

One cup white flour

1 1/4 cup of milk

1/2 tsp of salt

1 cup of freshly fallen snow, compacted (nowadays, I wouldn't recommend it. Snow falls on the ground polluted. It used to be a common ingredient in Acadian and Quebecois cooking. You can skip it and the recipe would still turn out fine.)

Frying grease or vegetable shortening, or butter for the pan.

Serve with molasses or grated maple sugar.

A Season of Giving

It is also a time in Acadian villages where folks would go around and ask for donations to their local food banks or church soup kitchen service. They would parade with a tall staff with a rooster figure on top (called a chief's cane) and with each donation, a ribbon is added to the stick. In the evening, when the village would gather for a community potluck, people could reclaim their ribbons from the rooster staff. Festivities of fiddle playing, dancing and merriment were in order in most homes and community centres.

Acadian communities like Chéticamp and other small Acadian hamlets still celebrate to this day!

Ideas for Anyone Far from a Community

Seeing as I don't live in an Acadian community sadly, here are some ideas of things I can do, and maybe you can do too, to celebrate today!

Make crêpes and perform the best flip! Your luck depends on it!

Bless your own candle with holy water, parade it to every corner of your home.

Create a chief's cane, and plant it in your front yard. With every donation you accept for a food bank or other charitable effort, add a ribbon, heck, ask your neighbours and friends to participate!

Organize a potluck!

Use the wax from the candle to bless the lintel post of your doors, or other objects you wish to bless.

Bonus photo: Moonshadow blocking my holiday book's Chandeleur page and refusing to move.

Source

Georges Arsenault. La Chandeleur en Acadie. Editions la Grande Marée. 2011.

Painting

La Chandeleur. Painting by Camille Cormier, painted in 1984. Oil on canvas. Coll. Musée Acadien, Moncton University. Acq. 1986-17.

[deliciousangelfestival]

Lovers Say Goodbye | 5 - B.Barnes

Character: soft!dark Bucky x ex-girlfriend!Reader

Summary: Bucky finds solace and love in an unexpected place, only to have his world shattered by a shocking revelation about the person he cared about.

Chap 1, Chap 2, Chap 3, Chap 4, Chap 5, -

Thank you to everyone who has read this chapter. Please let me know what your thoughts are. I'd love to read all your comments. Thank you once again.

Main Masterlist || support: Ko-fi

The car's interior felt like a tomb. The air hung heavy and frigid, starkly contrasting the heat throbbing in your side. The three agents, faces in pale masks under the harsh overhead light, tried desperately to maintain an air of composure. Beads of sweat trickled down their temples, betraying the growing unease that gnawed at them.

"I took my job seriously," you said, leaning back in the plush seat, a predatory glint in your otherwise dull eyes.

"Chopping the body into smaller pieces wasn't just about convenience," you continued, a cruel amusement twisting your lips. "It minimized the amount of soil needed. A smaller hole meant less suspicion."

You spoke as if describing a recipe, a terrifying calm replacing the pain that should have been etched on your face.

Your words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. The young agent in the passenger seat swallowed audibly, his Adam's apple bobbing like a frantic fish. The driver's knuckles tightened around the steering wheel, his grip white-knuckled against the worn leather.

"And using the remains… well, let's just say the human body has surprising properties," you continued, your voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Compost of that nature makes for phenomenal fertilizer. That's why the roses in my shop always bloomed so spectacularly.

A collective shiver wracked the agents. The image you painted, of your idyllic flower shop fueled by a dark secret, was enough to curdle their blood. The line between professional and psychopath had blurred beyond recognition.

The quiet, unassuming agent they'd been tasked with escorting was a monster in disguise, and they were trapped in a moving steel cage with her.

They heard Agent ODIN is scary, but not this psycho.

"Most of the bodies I handled belonged to double agents," you mused, your gaze flickering to each agent in turn, a challenge in your eyes.

"Director Brandon always got his hands dirty through me, the silent cleaner. Now, after two years of his ungrateful service, he wants to dispose of me?"

The question hung in the air, a dark accusation that sent a fresh wave of terror through the agents. They were no longer just transporting an injured colleague; they were transporting a ticking time bomb, a weapon potentially more dangerous than any they'd ever encountered.

You leaned back deeper into the plush seat, a satisfied smirk playing on your lips. With a calculated movement, you crossed your arms, the gesture chillingly casual in the face of the horrifying confession you'd just delivered.

"So," your voice dropped to a low purr, "let me get this straight. You were sent to babysit me, not protect me." Your gaze flickered from one agent to the other, each flinching under your unnerving scrutiny.

The young agent in the passenger seat finally snapped. Fear had morphed into a desperate defiance. With a trembling hand, he whipped out his gun, pointing it straight at you.

"Don't move!" he barked, his voice cracking with a mix of terror and bravado. "We only follow orders."

You, however, remained undeterred. You'd anticipated this reaction, the hollowness of their previous assurances echoing in your mind. A heavy sigh escaped your lips, a theatrical display of disappointment.

"Three of you against one," you mused, your voice laced with a hint of regret. "Such a shame. Didn't you learn basic protocol? Always restrain high-risk assets, especially after they casually confess to serial disposal."

The young agent's face contorted in confusion, the trigger finger hovering uselessly above the gun. In that split second, you capitalized on his bewildered state.

With a lightning-fast flick of your wrist, you whipped out a small syringe from your pocket, the needle glinting ominously under the car's harsh light. It was a practiced movement, born from years of operating in the shadows.

"Because," you explained with a chilling smile, "right before you so rudely interrupted, I injected you both with a little… persuasion."

A wave of panic washed over the two side agents. Their skin flushed an unnatural red, a prickling sensation spreading across their bodies. Their breaths became shallow, gasps escaping their lips. The fear in their eyes was a stark contrast to the bravado they'd displayed moments ago.

You didn't waste another glance on their agonizing contortions. Instead, you turned your icy gaze to the driver, his grip now slack on the steering wheel. The fear was a tangible thing hanging heavy in the air.

"Let me out of the car," you commanded, your voice laced with a deadly calm. "And perhaps I'll consider letting you take your friends to the hospital."

The driver, paralyzed by a mix of fear and the poison's effects, could only nod dumbly. You offered him a small, humorless smile, a chilling promise of freedom hanging in the stagnant air.

A cold dread snaked its way down the driver's spine. The chilling words of their orders echoed in his head: "Make her gone, or I will wipe you and your family from this earth." He cast a terrified glance at you, your calm demeanor a terrifying counterpoint to the chaos within him.

"I'm sorry, Agent L/N," he choked out, his voice thick with a mix of fear and morbid defiance. "Let's die together."

Before you could react, the engine roared to life. The car lurched forward, accelerating at a terrifying speed. You swore under your breath, the truth sinking in like a lead weight. They weren't going to the safe house; they were eliminating you.

Panic surged through you for a fleeting moment, a stark contrast to the carefully crafted facade you'd presented. You lunged for the door handle, ripping it open just as the driver steered the car towards the looming darkness at the edge of the cliff.

With a sickening lurch, the car plunged off the cliff face. You managed to throw yourself out of the car at the last possible second, rolling across the hard ground as the vehicle exploded into a fireball below, a final, fiery testament to their desperate attempt.

Shoving yourself upright, you winced at the renewed ache in your side, the adrenaline slowly ebbing away. You gazed at the smoldering wreckage below, a dark humor twisting your lips.

"Tsk," you clicked your tongue, a sardonic sound that echoed in the stillness of the night. "Is this how they repay loyalty?"

You surveyed your surroundings, a cool night breeze whipping at your hair. You were alone, stranded on a deserted road with a body – well, at least the agents thought it was a body – to your name. A laugh escaped your lips, a dark sound that echoed in the stillness.

"Going back might be a slight problem," you mused, resting your hands on your hips.

The truth is, you never came here. The story you told the agents before was a lie. You just wanted to scare them. And you didn't inject the other two agents with poison. It's just a thin pick that you always bring if you get locked up.

You never intended for them to believe you were a deranged murderer, just someone they couldn't control.

But the satisfaction of manipulation was short-lived. Now, you were stranded in the middle of nowhere, with a very real problem: how to get back to civilization without blowing your cover.

You scratched your head in mock frustration, the throbbing pain in your side a dull counterpoint to the burning adrenaline. "Do I have to walk all the way down?" you muttered, gazing at the long stretch of deserted road leading back to civilization.

As if summoned by your thoughts, a low rumble echoed in the distance, growing louder by the second. A pair of headlights cut through the darkness, momentarily blinding you as they drew closer. A sleek black sports car screeched to a halt beside you, the engine purring like a caged beast.

The driver's side window rolled down, revealing a face you both expected and didn't. Bucky Barnes, his expression a chilling mix of amusement and something akin to grudging respect, stared at you.

"Need a lift, sweetheart?" he drawled, the familiar glint of mischief in his eyes.

You forced a strained smile and managed to mutter, "No thanks. I'll just jump," though the words felt heavy on your tongue.

Bucky chuckled, a sound that sent a shiver down your spine, causing your shoulders to tense involuntarily.

"How does it feel to be betrayed by someone you trust?" he asked, his voice laced with bitterness, his eyes piercing into yours, searching for a reaction.

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[stemmmm]

Stem's Thoughts on Harvest Moon 64

(that other title's too long so i'm cutting it down now)

Harvest Moon 64 opens on a scene of your character walking around the street, speaking to everyone in the village who’s come to the event. You quickly piece together that this event in question is actually your grandfather’s funeral, the same grandfather who’s farm you’re about to take over. This little scene beautifully sets up both the tone of the game, and immediately shows the player that this iteration is far more focused on the story and characters. HM64 tells a story about the lives of many people in a small, dying town. It is a story about life, and it is a story about death.

A short disclaimer before we dig in: I played this game before the idea to write these essays cropped up, and have not replayed it since then, so this will be mostly vibes. I will try to do my research to make sure I’m not straight up lying though. (Also all of the images in this one are from google because I don't have a means of getting images from my N64 other than photographing the tv screen and I'm not doing that.)

What’s new!

HM64, also called Harvest Moon 2 by HMGB2 and nothing else I’ve ever seen, is the direct sequel to HM SNES. It’s not a sequel in the usual way sequels are, where you’re continuing where you left off with the same character, but in that every main character is the descendant of their equivalent in the previous game. It’s not important to the story, in fact if you don’t already know this, you probably wouldn’t notice anything past some similarities. I played this game before I tried out SNES and it still took me a minute, plus having it directly pointed out to me to get it. Maybe I’m oblivious, who knows. 

Gameplay-wise, this iteration is home of a few series firsts: For one, your house can be upgraded to have a kitchen! You can't cook though, only collect recipes. You can also get a greenhouse where you can grow crops year-round. Sheep are introduced as barn animals that produce wool. You receive a fishing rod you can use whenever you want, but as far as I understand, the timing is nigh impossible unless you’re playing on a CRT (I am not, and never managed to catch a single fish). There’s a mine you can access in winter for something to do while you can’t grow crops (there are fall crops, but not winter) where you can find about two key items and garbage otherwise. Tool upgrades are no longer done by magic, but by leveling them up through use! Which I think is very neat and feels very natural, like you’ve just become more proficient with them as a farmer through practice. Characters can now come to visit you on the farm at random times, for either special story events or just to say hi! Your farmer can get sick from working too hard in bad weather, just like your animals, and there’s now medicine for that, just like your animals. And there’s inventory menus that I'll discuss at better length later.

What’s the same is… Most things in a basic sense. You’re on a farm with a dog, planting crops, raising livestock. You can make friends with folks in town by talking to them and giving them gifts. The livestock mechanics, as far as I could see and as far as I’ve been able to understand from online forums, are exactly the same as they were in SNES, the exception being there’s no wild beasts that can kill your animals but they’ll still get sick if they aren’t fenced overnight– and they’re not going to eat any grass unless they’re out overnight anyways.

As for your farm, you’re set up with the usual: a small house, a barn, coop, and fodder silo, a wood bin to store debris cleared off your farm, and a big messy field that you have to clean up before you can properly use it. It starts with three new additions though; a doghouse, a bowl that you can feed your dog with by putting edible items in there, and a mailbox that you’ll occasionally receive letters and notices in! They’re small additions, but very, very charming. The one thing that’s been removed is the toolshed, now replaced by a tiny toolbox by your house.

The world outside your farm is like an enhanced version of the SNES map. Imagine the town and forest now have one or two extra sections tacked onto them, one in the town for some extra housing, and a couple in the forest to let you explore the mountain more and get you deeper into the woods. The mountain still has a cave in it (this time with Harvest Sprites, who have been removed from your farm) and a summit you can climb to for certain events, but it has been upgraded with little wild animals that wander around and can be picked up and shown to people for a few friendship points, if they like the animal. (This applies to your dog too, there’s a well known exploit to max out Karen’s friendship in one day by repeatedly showing it to her in the bar where time is stopped.) The crossroads zone is also expanded by having three new areas you can travel to– the ranch that you buy animals at, a vineyard that’s more of a story-area, and a beach that mostly comes into play for a couple of summer festivals! 

On the visual side, this game is the series’ first venture into the new frontier of 3d graphics… kind of. The artstyle is made of isometric 3D models that are rendered into flat sprites and then projected onto the TV as if that’s not what’s happening. The game even lets you turn your farm around in 3D to face different directions, but it’s locked to only let you play in specific angles. Changing the direction made me forget where everything was and get lost on my own tiny farm, so I never touched that mechanic.

Due to the dramatic artstyle shift– not only being in 3D but also presented at a 45 degree angle, the game becomes a fair bit harder to play than either of its 2D predecessors. The controls are just a little clunky, and the bizarre shape of the N64 controller really doesn’t help. This makes the tedium of farming a little irritating to do, since it requires pretty precise inputs done over and over for every extra thing you’re trying to grow. Fortunately, you're not on the hook to ship everything before 5PM comes around like in SNES, so you get to move a little bit slower. The fickle farming experience also gets a little help from the new inventory menu that can be accessed anywhere and any time. It has multiple inventory slots for both tools and items, each type having a dedicated section so there’s no need to prioritize carrying tools versus turnips. Unfortunately, this actually ends up being a little more cumbersome than useful, as the menu takes a little longer than is comfortable to open and is pretty clunky to use. I mostly avoided it unless I was bringing gifts to people. But the addition of an inventory opens up the opportunity for something else which defines this entire game...

Key items– a set of unique, unsellable items –are most frequently found in random, secret places around the farm and town, and they give you a reason to scour every inch of the place. They can also be given to you by NPCs when you gain relationships with them, which is convenient because their entire purpose is to help you get even better relationships with each of them, and maybe even unlock little stories with characters. For example, there’s a music box you can dig up in your field that can be given to any of the girls for a decently sized relationship bump. There’s also an old weathervane in the shape of a chicken that you can find in the little mine. If you give it to Rick, he’ll tell you that it was a precious thing that belonged to his grandmother as a cute scene to deepen the town’s lore and connect it to the first game. Key items quickly become the most important and sought after things in the game because they act as a vessel to deliver that which the game is all about: stories.

Lots of people in a little town

The narrative premise is exceedingly simple: you need to fix up your grandfather’s ruined farm and make a new life for yourself in this town within a certain amount of time, just like its predecessors. Except, this game is a lot bigger than either of them, and it didn’t fill all the extra space with new things to grow on your farm. In my entry on the SNES game, I mentioned that the introspective style of writing turned the repetitive farming gameplay into something more like meditation on things going on in the town. This game takes that idea and runs with it! The town in this game may only be slightly bigger than it was before, but it has a lot more people in it, and every single one of them has a lot more to say, more to do, more festivals to go to, and more story events to take part in. There's even a new photo album that fills in with images for reaching special events or succeeding at certain festivals! Your given goal may be to successfully revitalize your farm, but that rapidly stops being the reason why you want to play. Farming is only a means to further the narrative of the town.

Story events are no longer a reward for reaching the highest heart level with a girl, but instead something that happens naturally in the world as you make better friends with people, or if you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. The world doesn’t only consist of you living it and things happening to you. Instead, you end up being a fly on the wall to other people’s conversations and life events, and you get to see how those events change the people around you. People will begin to say different things, go different places, live different lives without your input at all– often much better lives, as everyone in the town is pretty deeply troubled, whether they seem like it or not.

There’s an added depth, too. While the characters in this series have always been defined by their conflicts (in the first game, every big cutscene with each girl was exclusively about their major life conflicts), this game takes it further in multiple ways. Characters have conflicts with their families: you as the player have a conflict with your parents who can take you home if you fail to farm well, Lillia and Basil have conflict over their marriage and the fact that Basil leaves for half the year, and Karen’s family situation is…. A lot. Then, there are characters at conflict with things much more nebulous, like the Mayor who tells you that the town is going to die out but he can’t find any way to save it, or like the young boy Kent who wants to be a farmer just like you, but through a series of events is forced to learn that life isn’t so simple, people can’t just do whatever they would like, and it takes very hard work to get to do the things you dream of. And then there are conflicts that aren’t even necessarily conflicts unless they run into your long-term plans.

Instead of only having a bunch of girls in town who exist only as your prospective marriage candidates, there are also five boys in the town who will marry those girls instead of you, if given the chance. Like in SNES, there are 5 levels of hearts that the girls can have for you. Unlike SNES, each one of these hearts has a corresponding event you can have with the girl where there’s a chance of her liking you more afterwards, if you say the right things. In addition to that though, there are just as many events coming from the other side of the story, rival events that trigger if you happen to be good friends with the boys.

My favorite story by far is that of Harris the mailman who falls in love with the librarian, Maria, from just seeing her handwriting on the outside of all the letters that she would write. I frequently saw him in the bar at the end of the day and he would tell me the woes of his love, saying that he just needed to work up the courage to finally speak to her. Then one day, I happened to be outside of the library when he and Maria met face to face and she handed over a letter addressed to him. No longer did he sit in the bar forlorn every night, instead all he would do was excitedly tell me about Maria, and then when I visited the library, Maria would tell me about Harris!

While I’m on the subject of these characters, I think it’s worth going in a little more depth on who these people are past the grandchildren of the characters from the last game. See, you may be familiar with names like Karen and Kai and Gray, etc., etc. from a little recently remade game called Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, which is a modern version of Friends of Mineral Town on the GameBoy Advance, which is a port of Back to Nature on the PlayStation. These are not those characters. At all. While the basic elements of these characters are intact– Popuri is cute and childish, Ann is a workaholic, Maria is shy and a little oblivious –nothing else is the same. They all work different jobs and marry different people than they are paired with in later entries, and in my humble opinion, it all works WAY better in this game, probably because of the fact that these characters were designed for this specific context!

As an example, Popuri’s exasperated mother, Lillia, runs the flower shop and Popuri was named by her father, Basil, who loves plants. She’s childish and sweet and loves flowers, but can also be a complete brat. She eventually marries Gray, Ann’s brother, who lives on the ranch run by his father, Doug, who struggles to understand his children. Gray is an angry young man who seems to have a particular dislike for you, but you don’t learn why until you discover he was a promising young jockey until he got a bad injury and had to give up the sport.

Am I gushing a bit and letting the game design part fall to the wayside? Sure probably, but I can only gush because the game does a brilliant job of making a cast of characters who, while simple on their own, have interconnected lives that come together to give every one of them so much more depth than they would have otherwise. It all builds a narrative, and while narrative design is definitely something different than game design on its own, this game is far more about the narrative so it’s impossible to not focus on.

The problems

The trouble with these events is that I nearly missed the chance to see that letter be exchanged. You have some control over the progression of the events, because you have to be decent friends with the boys in order for them to trigger at all, but unlike the girls who have a handy visual signal of how much they like you, the boys have no such thing, so you can’t really know if a new event is ready to fire off. There’s no way of knowing where or when they’ll happen either unless you look it up, and even then you have to get lucky because sometimes they just don’t trigger when you want them to. I had a lovely moment in my game where I managed to accidentally catch a cold from working too hard in the snow and lost a day to being bedridden, followed by the New Years celebration which takes a day away from you, then followed by Kai and Karen’s wedding– something that I had missed multiple events for and therefore had no idea was coming, which also took a day from me. After that three day chain of no work, I think I was extremely lucky my animals didn’t get sick and die. 

This chain of events led directly to me never speaking to Gray again, even though he was the boy I was most interested in, because I wanted to marry Popuri and there was too much risk of him getting to her before I could. The reason why I didn’t go into more detail about the relationship between those two when I was talking about them earlier is because I straight up don’t know it, I couldn’t risk giving them a chance to get together.

The thing is, even if I hadn’t forced Gray and Popuri’s cutscenes to stop, I still wouldn’t actually know what their relationship is like, because I have not beaten this game. I know what the ending entails and I can reasonably expect I probably would not have gotten an excellent one, but I’m sure it still would have been fine. I stopped playing the game entirely before I even managed to get married. Why? Because I couldn’t get any of Popuri’s heart events to trigger. I had her hearts maxed out and had a blue feather ready to go in my pocket, so I could turn on the game and marry her right away anytime I wanted to. But I wanted to trigger the little events, even if they’re just a couple seconds of some pixels talking to me on a screen. They’re cute. And it made me sad that I couldn’t see them for some imperceptible reason. So I stopped playing and didn’t pick the game back up.

I don’t remember how close I was to the end of the game, I know I was at least in year 2, but I don’t even remember how much longer the game is after that. Probably a good amount. I had definitely gotten most of the events you could get at this point, since multiple other characters had gotten married, and the farming wasn’t something I really enjoyed so I can’t say I wasn’t at least a little bored by this point, but I wasn’t frustrated with the general mechanics of the game. The days were long enough, but not too long, that I had just enough time to go anywhere I wanted and do what I needed before night came. I could still talk to characters and go to festivals and play minigames. But I didn’t want to, because the game wasn’t doing what it seemed like it was supposed to for some arbitrary reason and that frustrated me enough to make me stop. When the fun of a game is found more in experiencing special events rather than anything else, the player feels cheated out of their good time when those events are too hard to find or can be missed outright, and that’s exactly what I experienced.

Parting Thoughts

The ending, according to what I've read, is very similar to the SNES endings, in that you’ll get different results based on all of the different things you’ve done. Whether you’re married, how many crops you shipped, how many animals you have, how well liked you are by the town… I imagine it’s not quite the victory lap that SNES’s ending was with its little cutscenes, since apparently all you get are comments on how well you performed by various people in the town, but it still seems nice and rewarding! At least like more of a reward than whatever the hell GB1 was trying to do. It seems like a perfectly good ending that it would be nice to see myself someday.

Despite all my troubles with this game, I believe HM64 is still the best one out there– at least that I’ve played yet. The events are plentiful and the content is meaty. The repetitive day to day dialogue still has the simple breath of life that SNES did, that manages to make the most out of a small amount. Don’t get me wrong, this game came out in 1999, I’m giving it a lot of praise but the characters still repeat the same line to you every day, and they still freeze in place until you leave the room. It’s revolutionary, but this is comparing it to a game on the literal Super Nintendo. Absolutely pick up this game to try it out, but keep those expectations tempered. That said, I never picked up this game nor knew a thing about it until I was well into my 20’s, but the moment I started playing, it hit me with a wave of nostalgia as if I’d known this game my whole life. At least to me, the look and feel of the game were like coming home to a childhood I never had.

 Will I pick up this game again with the intent to beat it? Maybe! Hard to say for sure when I’m trying to play decades worth of games and write about them at a comprehensive level. What I do know is that this is exactly what I want more farming games to be. It’s a game that has thoughts about life, and about death, both good and bad. And I think this is the perfect context to share those thoughts.