#and i cooked up my first bunch of kale the other night!

[fulltransmetalgenderist]

gardening is such a mindfuck for the adhd brain. you mean i have to WAIT !?!?! i have to do a little bit of consistent work each day and only after significant time will I reap the rewards???? what started out as a hyper fixation has now became a daily practice in patience and acceptance!?!?!? 😡

[everythingseasoning]

What the JJK men eat for breakfast

[Y’all already know what Gojo’s one is gonna be like… ]

Warnings: none! Pure fluff <3

Nanami - A medley of things: usually his breakfast consists of salmon and rice, yogurt with berries, and a leafy salad with extra kale and tomatoes. Nanami starts the day off right, ensuring he’s got enough energy to get through the day with the grueling task of fighting curses. —After all, Nanami takes his job seriously & his goal is to save people; Nanami eats well so that he’s not in a weaker state— in the case that his energy level is the difference between somebody living or dying. [bonus note: Nanami carries protein bars and runner’s gel on him at all times, in case he needs a pick me up.]

Choso - the traditional Japanese breakfast of miso soup, fish, pickled vegetables, and rice. This breakfast array is filling for the stomach, and satisfying for the tastebuds, while also being healthy and a great way to start off the day with lots of energy! —These things are important to Choso, at least nourishment is important for him to serve to his brothers. He also enjoys this typical Japanese breakfast when he’s not totally neglecting himself while in search of his brothers. [bonus note: Hundreds of years ago, Choso used to cook for his younger brothers, juggling making meals with a bunch of other things. So, he can do lots filling & healthy recipes.]

Toji - this booger will eat anything he can find. He ain’t doin no meal prep the night before. He worries about it the day of. [bonus note: he’s gotten his breakfast by stealing lunch boxes from unsuspecting children more times than he can count.] [bonus note two: Toji actually really enjoys the typical western breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast, and coffee. He would eat this a lot back when his wife was still alive.]

Geto - this pretty prince likes having a solid meal for breakfast, something both nourishing and enjoyable. His favorite breakfast meal is fried rice with lots of meat bits, miso soup, green tea, and a salad. [bonus note: Though Geto doesn’t have a sweet tooth to the extent Gojo does, Geto does enjoy a pastry in his breakfast a few times a week.]

Gojo - He loves donuts for breakfast. They’re just such a sweet treat— he loves that it’s sugary glaze (or chocolate) melts on his tongue like a shot of liquid happiness, as the first taste he experiences in the morning. Gojo will also have a berry smoothie to accompany his sweet tooth. He honestly doesn’t eat super ravenously, so this suffices as a breakfast for the almighty Satoru Gojo. [bonus note: back when Satoru and Suguru were in each others’ lives, on top of his own, Satoru would often end up eating whatever Suguru was having for breakfast.]

➜ M’s JJK masterlist

teehee I did toji dirty— or did I? (Nah he did this to himself).

Comment for a part two for the JJK students!

Comments/Feedback highly appreciated 💗!

➜ M’s JJK masterlist

Taglist: @satorulicious (it’s a small headcanon but I hope u like the Gojo part!) @kapeeshkapoosh (ily <3 hope you like hehe) and @sysysysysysysysysysysysysysy (from my taglist!)

[kabillieu]

I've done a lot of cooking the past two weeks. For my parents--and my siblings when we were all staying with my mom while my dad was in the hospital--I made a creamy chicken pot pie soup, a brothy chicken orzo soup, and a very basic spaghetti meat sauce. I also brought my mom some taco soup from my freezer on that first horrible night when my dad had emergency surgery, and I brought a Costco lasagna we had in the freezer, as well as a hunk of Costco rustic sourdough that Dominic buys, cuts in half, and then vacuum seals. The last time I saw my parents I brought them a frozen casserole that I got from a specialty foods market in Montgomery. All of this made me feel better, and most of it was, I think, helpful.

For my own family, I've struggled a little more making meals, but I've been persevering because what else can I do? I made balsamic mushroom chicken thighs with rice (a banger of a recipe I make often), chicken piccata (which my big kid calls spaghetti with invisible sauce), pan-seared salmon with sweet potatoes, Ina Garten's skillet roasted chicken thighs and potatoes, and cheesy baked pasta with ground sausage. I served everything with vegetables obviously. Mostly, these are all just comforting foods that I've made before and that most of us mostly like.

(I also ate a turkey sub from Subway that ignited some sort of nostalgia/junk food part of my brain that immediately made me want to eat 100 more Subway subs??? I find this suspicious because normally I don't like Subway very much. I think it's that I hadn't had it in so long that my brain forgot I don't like it.)

Tonight I made a new recipe, this creamy tortellini soup, even though it's in the 70s here. And it was very, very good. I mostly made it as written, though I didn't put in all the chicken broth it called for, and I used regular kale, and only half the bunch because there was A LOT of kale. I find stripping and chopping up greens to be extremely tedious, so I rarely ever use them, but I had the bright idea to ask Dominic to vacuum seal the other half of the kale, as well as the leftover (uncooked obviously) tortellini, and the next time I make this soup it's going to be soooo easy to just grab them from the freezer. It's also just a really good recipe base for whatever you have on hand, so I could see myself using baby spinach and white beans in the future, and it still being super delicious.

Anyway, everything is intolerably awful, but food is helpful. Food makes things better. I hope you all are eating comforting nourishing things too.

[briarpatch-kids]

You often talk about enjoying vegetables, so I hope you might be able to help me with something. I'm trying to add more veggies into my diet, but I'm not a big fan of raw vegetables so I was wondering if you had suggestions of how to prepare vegetables/dishes that are veggie heavy? So far I've been enjoying roasting broccoli and cauliflower in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Also you genuinely seem like a cool, down to earth person. I hope you have a good day/night!

Mixing it in pasta and noodles are awesome!! I like to heat up a big deep frying pan to about a 6 on my range top dial with a little grapeseed oil, then sear some cut up meat and add vegetables to it. Start with the tough veggies first, carrots, celery... summer squash isn't tough, but it has a lot of moisture to release to keep it from being slimy. After a minute or two I add a spoonful or two of Lao Gan Ma chili bean or chili crunch oil I try and use enough that you get the umami flavor without making it spicy.

If I'm making pasta, I've started a pot of water boiling at the same time as I start frying my meat and chopping my vegetables. I add paprika, cumin, whatever herbs I have laying around, worchestershire sauce, and either whatever beer cider or wine we have laying around, or broth. Add the noodles to the water when it boils and start a timer for them. Generally, once the timer has about 3-5 minutes left, I throw a handful of flour I'm and mix it, then whatever delicate vegetables we have laying around, usually tomatoes and peppers, nasturtium leaf, kale... that kind of thing. Drain the pasta when the timer goes off and mix the noodles with the contents of the frying pan. Food time!

If you don't want to do pasta, you can also leave out the broth and crack like 5 or 6 eggs into the pan instead and make a sort of frittata or scramble.

If I'm making noodles, I usually add ginger and garlic to the pan, then the tough vegetables. Then I turn on my kettle and pour it over a bunch of bean threads and let them soften while I add soy sauce, rice wine, and broth to the pan, then add the delicate vegetables, I use baby bok choi here along with the other delicate vegetables I added to pasta. Now I toss the half soft noodles into the pan with the veggies and cook it till the bean threads soak up all the liquid.

Sometimes I serve veggies cooked like this over rice instead of bean threads, then put tofu cooked with a Teriyaki glaze, fried pork belly, or fried eggs on top.

I also put sweet corn in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, shucked and wrapped in foil with nondairy butter and salt. Sweet potatoes can also be wrapped in foil and cooked at 425 for an hour, I don't like the texture but my husband eats them a lot dipped in sweet chili sauce.

I kind of base my regular weeknight dinners off of whatever veggies we have kicking around the fridge or garden and whatever protein we have. Sometimes it's tofu, sometimes it's polish sausage.

[midasinc]

ok jolyferre here we go!

- joly gets combeferre to research any of his symptoms just incase somethings wrong. he could do it himself but he gets too worked up so he has combeferre, a very logical man, do it

- ferre is roughly 4 inches taller than joly and joly always asks ferre to lower his head to kiss him because it’s like really hard to stand on your toes while using a cane (personal experience, just trust me on that one)

- their first date is to a sushi restaurant and ferre takes joly’s wasabi while joly takes combeferre’s ginger and it works out perfectly (i imagine they have this snow crab roll that my local sushi place has, it mixes warmth fish, cold rice, and crunchy tempura snow crab with the cooks special sauce. it’s to DIE for and i think everyone should have that as a first date because even if the date does go bad, at least you had something absolutely delicious)

- their place is pretty neat and organized EXCEPT for the office. they both have desks there and jolys is covered in medical books and random prescriptions and class notes, and combeferre’s desk is used as extra space because their bookshelf just does not have any more room because they’re both nerds so anytime ferre has to work, he has to remove like three stacks of books off his desk, as well as a bucket of fidget toys that they both use when they need to focus

- combeferre has a deep smooth voice and sings to joly when they’re both awake in the middle of the night

- combeferre always walks joly to university because he can’t carry his books and walk with his cane so combeferre holds the books so joly can walk comfortably. they meet for lunch after joly’s classes are done at a local coffee shop. joly orders some kind of tea, usually chai or matcha, and combeferre orders an espresso

i wanna hear what you think of these two tho pls

i hope you know that ur my fave rn

I LOVE ALL OF THESE!!!! they are unmatched

i imagine them being a very health-focused pair in the sense that they meal prep EVERY sunday. they have little boxes for each meal and think very nutritiously and the snacks they have around the house are just like dried okra and dehydrated fruit and kale chips and grantaire cant stand being over at their apartment bc sometimes he just wants cheese puffs or smthn

and they’re both fluent in each other’s love languages. joly knows that ferre is very physically affectionate so he’ll hug him from behind as he makes breakfast or play with his hair and hold his hand and do the thumb rub. ferre knows that joly really loves words and verbal appreciation so he leaves little sticky love-notes all over the apartment for joly to find (or in his textbooks) and is very very sweet and tells him how much he loves him very often so joly never forgets. it’s the little things

they’re both also very open with each other all the time. when joly comes home ferre will ask him how his day was and he gets every little detail. “yeah i had to log a bunch of patient info but our computers were down so i had to do it by hand and bossuet and i went to that vegan restaurant across the street and i talked to grantaire on the way home and now my stomach hurts!” and ferre is like okay awesome lets go get some pepto bismol! and when ferre has had a shitty day he can rant and joly will listen and nod and when he needs advice he’ll give it, but he also knows when ferre just needs to get stuff off his chest

in short, they’re bfs your honor

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

Be Mine, this Quarantine

"Dude." Dean nervously chuckles, scrubbing his face with his hand. The other one holds the phone to his ear. "I haven't even been able to ask this guy out to dinner. And you're asking me to ask him to go into isolation with me?"

"You're being dramatic again." Sam tells him, matter-of-factly, as if Dean's the one being unreasonable here.

Sam is the one who specifically called him on a Sunday from California to remind him to self-isolate, but "do it with someone like Castiel, okay?" - like he's supposed to be taking care of his older brother from fucking Stanford, like Dean knows anyone else like Cas, and like he's ever going to be able to propose something of that sort to Cas.

"He has a third-floor apartment." Sam points out, revisiting all of his super valid points. "You share a dorm with three other guys. And he just seems like the kind who'd be the correct amount of a germophobe." Dean rolls his eyes - although he also agrees. "Dean, you share so many classes with him that if nothing else, you could revise your entire semester together - and to top it all off, you're like best friends."

Benny comes to Dean's head and he starts to protest.

"You text him, Dean." The eyeroll and bitchface are audible in Sam's voice. "You, who exits all text chains you've ever been added to because quote unquote you're not an adolescent teenager with a celebrity crush, or looking to be catfished - you, Dean Winchester, text Cas."

That - wasn't far from the truth.

He wouldn't call them texting buddies or anything, but Castiel always sends a good morning text, and Dean always sends him a picture of his breakfast (because that's what he's up to by the time Castiel wakes up) and sometimes Dean's late for class because he lost track of time while talking to Cas, and sometimes they stay up all night together discussing the most inconsequential things like why mattresses matter to Dean and bees matter to Cas, and - yeah. He should probably call them texting buddies.

"Whatever, bitch." Dean throws back, taking the small losses his way as long as he wins the final battle. "Fine, we're friends. That doesn't automatically mean we'll be able to live together."

"You cannot actually mean that." Sam scoffs. "You're the best kind of neat freak I know, because you just end up doing all the tidying up by yourself. And you can cook." Dean huffs. "Admit it, jerk. Compatibility in a shared living space shouldn't be your concern."

Sure, Sam makes some good points, but Dean has the biggest card up his sleeve - which will trump all of Sam's meticulously presented arguments.

He's sorta in love with Cas.

But to say out loud to his little brother, it comes out as, "What if Cas doesn't want me there?"

Sam pauses.

Point, Dean Winchester.

"That's exactly why you need to talk to him." He finally says, but he sounds more thoughtful like it finally entered his twenty two year old brain that Cas might not want to shack up with Dean.

"Like hell, I will."

"I swear on your bullshit, Dean," Sam threatens. "I won't hesitate to take a cheap-ass flight, straight to Cas's apartment."

Dean balks. "You're not getting on any planes right now, Sammy -"

"And you're asking him." Sam declares, and if he were in front of Dean, he'd be crossing his arms on his chest which usually implies the end of a debate in Sam-the-to-be-lawyer speak. "Promise me."

"What will I even say?" Dean retorts, indignant. "Like, do I just go up to the guy like 'hey, wanna have me impose on you for a bunch of weeks?'" Sam snickers like Dean's trying to be funny. "'I promise to clean and make you food if you let me live with you during a pandemic'?"

"Something like that." Sam laughs, and Dean has to smile - because that doesn't happen very often and when it does, it reminds him of a past where they were much closer than California and Kansas. "Tell me how it goes, okay?"

"Nothing's going -"

"You promised."

"I didn't fucking promise a thing -"

The line clicks, and Sam is gone. Dean lands back on his bed, and wonders briefly if it'd be easier to die.

*

He calls Cas - because they're not goddamn texting buddies, no matter what Sam says - and asks if he's free for lunch.

Cas says yes and actually sounds excited about it.

*

When Dean reaches their usual diner, he takes longer than usual to park the Impala - all the while thinking about how he's going to frame the question to Cas, because he's fought it out with himself and knows that he's going to do it. He'd also taken longer than usual to drive there from the University apparently, because when he reaches, Cas is already there.

He's sitting on a table for two - probably just because that allows him to have a seat against the wall and Cas is kind of adorable about small things like that - and he's slumping over his phone.

But he puts it down when Dean approaches, and as Dean takes off his jacket, Cas puts his phone back in his jeans and uses his fingers to fidget instead. When Dean sits, a little amused, Cas is the one who speaks up first and in a hurry.

"Would you like to quarantine with me?"

Dean blinks. He takes a moment to think and then asks, "Did Sam get to you?"

"Uh, your brother Sam?" Cas frowns, shaking his head. "No, why would he?"

"Nevermind." Dean believes him. Though he cannot believe what just happened.

"So?"

"Oh." He's supposed to give an answer, because Cas doesn't know how much Dean's been thinking about it. Though, in his defense, most of the time, Cas tends to be so goddamn intuitive that Dean feels like he can read his mind.

Nonetheless, Dean tries to answer as casually as he can. "Yes. I mean, of course. Thank you for asking."

That's Dean Winchester in a sentence.

He tries to shoot for the normal, and ends up in affirmative-response-to-a-promposal territory.

"Are you sure?" Cas asks, sounding slightly less sure than before.

Did you not hear me say 'of course, thank you for asking' after that yes?

"Yeah, buddy." He pulls the menu from Cas's side of the table to his, sliding it on the table. "So what are we eating?"

"I'm not forcing you into this, am I?" Cas interrupts, hand on Dean's wrist jolting his attention back and ruining his complete 'casual' cover, because now Dean's sweating too. "Just because I asked, and just because we're friends - you don't have to say yes to anything, okay?"

"I know that." Dean gives Cas his best reassuring smile, though it's a little non-assured from his own core.

"I wake up late and I'm not sure when I sleep." Cas confesses, eyes worried. "The flat is clean only because I stuff everything in the closets. And I have a neighbor - you remember Balthazar, right? He just returned from France."

"How long ago is 'just'?" Dean repeats, and then adds. "And frankly I'd assumed he was simply being pretentious when we met."

"Two months." Castiel bites his lip. "And he is. The accent is fake."

"We'll survive." Dean announces, grinning broader. "Plus I can't wait to hear that guy minus the accent now."

Castiel makes an exasperated sound.

"Cas, how do I put this?" Dean sighs, knowing that things would eventually come to this. "I would be grateful if you'd let me stay with you, and -"

"Sometimes I wander around the house with my cat past midnight." Cas volunteers, out of the blue.

Naked?

Dean's brain jumps there and then he drags it back from the gutter - or, you know, the land of tempting imaginable scenarios.

"I want to live with you, you dumbass."

Cas pauses like that's at all surprising. "You do?"

"I was literally trying to figure out how to ask." Dean rubs the back of his neck, feeling his face heat up. "And then you did, okay? And then I said yes, and I wanted us to not talk about it all lunch because later we're going to have important shit to figure out like food and beer and toilet paper and -"

"When exactly you'll move in." Cas offers, and when he puts it like that, a little bit of Dean melts.

"Uh-huh."

"Okay." Cas smiles, and finally it's that smile - eyes all crinkled, nose all scrunched up, the very definition of gummy - and fuck, Dean's very much in love with him and has just dug himself a huge, apartment-shaped hole, but he'd fucking like to live with him too, and he's a fucking liar if he isn't being a little hopeful about it too.

"We'll not talk about it." Cas declares. "And before, you'd asked me what we were eating?"

Dean nods.

"Well, I asked the waitress for recommendations for something memorable and she offered me the specials menu." Cas says, innocent as though everyone in the city doesn't know not to ask for the specials' menu at Reed's diner.

Dean starts to pray.

"So, kale pecan pesto." Cas announces. "And yes, I had to Google what that is later and no, I'm not showing you."

"God-fucking-dammit, Cas." Dean glares at him. "These might be our last diner meals for the foreseeable future, I don't want to have rabbit food -"

And then Cas winks at him like that's something he's allowed to do, and Dean's suddenly flustered again - and if that isn't an apt summary of how living with Cas is going to be like, he doesn't know what is.

[leavesofolive]

🌞🧹🌻Hearth Witch Tips!🌻🧹🌞

04: Your kitchen eats with you!

Just like with the rest of the house, what you put into the kitchen also heavily affects its energy. When you treat the hearth in certain ways, it reacts in certain ways. Your relationship with any room in the house is give-and-take. That means that if you don’t give back occasionally, the room will grow cold and stop appreciating your presence. But there are plenty of ways to mend your relationship! And the first step is to identify the problem!

From my experience, there are three main reasons why the kitchen stops being a warm and inviting place: 1) You are filling the cupboards with too much toxic, processed foods; 2) You aren’t spending enough time in that room; 3) Or you aren’t keeping the room clean enough.

When there’s a problem in the hearth, it’s always either one of these things or some combination of them. We’ll start with number three since it’s the easiest to explain. The kitchen should be anyone’s top priority to keep clean. It’s where all of your food, the nutrition and fuel of your physical and spiritual bodies, comes from! What you eat is your first defense against illness, injury, and your mental health. If the kitchen is filthy, then the food you take into your body will also begin to develop the same properties.

To keep the kitchen clean, I always start my day by washing last night’s dishes and give the counters a quick wipe. Once a month, I take stock of what’s in the fridge and freezer and scrub them out to prevent bacteria build-up. Sweeping the kitchen floors happens once a week and takes me all of three minutes to complete, tops. Once per season, normally at the beginning, I scrub the floors with soap and water, descale the coffee maker, wipe down the other appliances, and clean out the cupboards. So the only true “cleaning days” for the kitchen is four days out of the entire year. The rest of the time, the chores only take me about 30 minutes. As a quick tip, rinsing your dishes before setting them in the sink speeds up the dish washing process a ton! I’ve personally never trusted dishwashers since they don’t clean stuff well enough and it’s easier, faster, and far more cost effective to do it by hand.

The next problem the kitchen’s energy might be suffering from is how much time you’re spending there. First, spending a lot of time in the kitchen is a great thing! It absorbs the energy you feed to it, so when you don’t go in the kitchen very often or just don’t spend much time in there to begin with, the kitchen grows darker and colder. It loses the warmth and emotion and love that would’ve been sinking into it when you aren’t there.

The way to fix this problem is actually really easy! Cooking your own meals ensures that you are in there for a good amount of time each day because of the prep work and meal planning, etc. Plus, you get healthier, tastier food that way too! If you can’t cook all that well yet, don’t worry! Just like any skill, there’s no talent involved in learning something. It just depends on how much effort you apply to it. Another way to boost the hearth’s energy is to just hang out in that room. Invite some friends over, set out a snack tray, and just chill in the kitchen. Of course, since it’s pandemic right now, it’s best to wait until that’s over with to try this approach. But you, yourself, can still hang out in the kitchen!

The last problem, and a very, very common one in this day and age, is the influence of toxic food. Just like how your house absorbs energy from the land its on and what its built with, the kitchen also absorbs energy from the ingredients you keep within it. Toxic foods include anything processed or with a bunch of added sugars, and even GMO ingredients to some extent due to the trace chemicals that are still on the crops. These kinds of foods, if that’s the only thing in your house, will rot the energy. Not to mention, easy to grab snacks also end up causing you to spend a lot less time in the kitchen if that’s all you eat. Needless to say, no one eats healthy all the time. I don’t either! But having only toxic food in your kitchen isn’t great for you or the hearth.

Once again, cooking comes to the rescue! Even if you’re bad at it, it’s the thought that counts and little by little, as your skills grow and improve, the kitchen will learn to help guide you. There have been many times where I’d be stuck on how to fix something and a bottle of spice would fall of the shelf right next to me. If you listen to the kitchen, it will listen to you, too! Even if you don’t have time to cook, snacks like apples, berries, seeds, nuts, and dried meats are all healthy alternatives! I usually keep kale chips in the house for some yummy, salty crunchiness!

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

If you are worried about cost with this approach (believe me, due to my own situation it’s been a struggle at times), I’ve found out several tips and tricks to significantly lower the grocery bill. Anymore, my bill would actually be bigger if I bought crap food instead! Here’s my advice:

☀  Plan your week ahead! I always plan four meals a week that I’ll cook, and three days that I’ll scavenge for snacks and leftovers. I also stick to the rule of “one simple, one chicken, one meatless, one freebie” to remain more cost effective! The “simple” meal is just something I can make quickly if I know I’ll be short on time. The reason for have one of the meals be chicken is because it’s a much less expensive meat than beef or pork, and it’s a little better for the environment. The meatless meal is for the same reasoning. Meat is expensive and commercial brands are horrible for both the environment and the animals themselves. When I do buy meat, I make sure to buy local, grass-fed, organic meat as often as I can afford to. Keep in mind that every time you purchase anything, you are casting your vote for what is acceptable for society to continue. The “freebie” meal is just whatever I’ve been craving. If I want some kind of beef, I wait until this day.

☀  Learn to bake your own bread! For those of us with the time, this is a great way to save money and to stay healthy! Basic, white bread is actually pretty easy to make and only uses a couple ingredients. Those ingredients also go a long way. It costs me about 24¢ to make one loaf of bread because things like flour, sugar, salt, butter, honey, and yeast are all things that you buy once and can use for several loaves before you have to buy them again! It’s also not as time consuming as you’d think. Yes, it takes about 2 hours, but most of that time is proofing so you can easily be running around doing other things in between.

☀  Grow a garden! Even if it’s just a small, window herb garden, it can take the edge off of your overall food cost. Portobello mushrooms are also super easy to grow inside with minimal effort and equipment. If you have outdoor space, planting a small garden with the ingredients you use the most can help immensely!

☀  Only buy what you need! I know those sales look crazy tempting, but most of them are actually bogus and don’t actually save you any money. Think about what you are actually going to use before it goes bad and stick to your list. The bottom shelves at the store, aka the ones not in your direct line of sight, are usually where the grocery stores hide the better priced goods. At the back of most stores that have bakeries, there’s also usually a spot to get baked goods left over from the previous day for a slightly cheaper price. Day-old baked novelties like bread, cookies, and cakes are still perfectly good, and much easier to enjoy where you don’t have to spend as much!

☀  Check what’s already in your fridge before making your list! This is a huge one, since it prevents food waste, which in turn prevents money waste! What can you make during this week that can use up some of the ingredients leftover from last week? You’ll be impressed how quickly your food cost drops when you aren’t throwing things away. Waste not, want not! This trick also applies in another way, as well. When making your weekly meal plans, what types of foods use similar ingredients? If one meal calls for a slightly pricier ingredient, what other food can you cook with that ingredient to make the cost worth it? This also ensures that you get full use of things without wasting them. For example, this week I bought some fresh mozzarella cheese. Because this item is a little more expensive, I’m using it to make both the tomato mozzarella sandwiches and the beef wellingtons I’m making this week!

☀  Buy mostly produce! One of the best ways to lower your bill while still eating healthy is to simply add more fruits and veggies into your diet! There are so many tasty recipes that call for these babies that you’ll never run out of options, and there’s several things out there for everyone! Because I deal with sensory issues, I had to experiment a lot with what textures and tastes I could handle, especially on the bad days, but even still I found an over-abundance of things I love to eat. Fresh produce is way less expensive than meat, and much less expensive than many of the more mainstream snacks like chips or other processed foods.

                                     ------------------------------ All in all, taking care of your kitchen will also end up taking care of you, as well! Spending time there, actually using the kitchen the way it’s supposed to be, and just keeping it clean can work wonders in opening up your home and making it ten times warmer and more inviting! Trust me, your health and home will thank you for it!

[luminousdetails]

Bad

The days aren’t all bad. Remember this, when we all look back at March through May as some sort of gaping black hole or faded bloodstain on the duvet cover of this year. The days weren’t all bad, maybe I’ll sigh this to my children someday, staring out the window at nothing. There was that day in early April when the rain finally let up and spring broke all around us like an egg yolk, and everyone opened their doors and stood outside with their faces lifted towards the yellow sun. There was the day a few weeks after that, when the dry heat was holding, when I laid out a towel and sprawled on my stomach in the wide driveway reading the New Yorker all afternoon without a twinge of guilt. I put my ear against the warm humming concrete and stared at the roots of the kumquat tree and wondered why I had never done this in the four years I have lived in this crumbling green house. We are such creatures of habit.

There was the day I wandered up into the patchwork of hills above Highland Park, taking a different route on a whim, and found a street called Wildwood snaking its way through Highland Park and Eagle Rock, a series of dead ends lined with cottages tacked onto the sides of hill-faces and Eucalyptus trees shedding their bark in dusty white strips. As I picked my way up the narrow street, dusk settling around my shoulders, I realized I have always wanted a little house in the hills, a cottage with a wild backyard and knots of cacti and scratched wooden floors and all the furniture I’ve inherited from all the different lives I’ve led. This feels obvious, like some secret dream I’ve been harboring since I was a little girl, instead of something that just occurred to me and clicked into place the way the truth does. I would have an open door policy and friends over for dinner every week (if they bring wine) and dried flowers hanging everywhere and music playing softly all the time and nobody to care if I’m messy or don’t brush my teeth or leave the fridge door wide open while I’m cooking. On Sundays, I’d stretch in my underwear on the living room floor.

There were other days, too. There was the day I put my hair in braids and picked up a farm box from Echo Park, leafy greens and radishes and startlingly orange carrots curled in on themselves like they were crossing their legs. I buckled the white plastic trash bag into my passenger seat and drove the long way home, down Sunset through Silver Lake and into Los Feliz and Hollywood, circling Echo Park lake and heading home on surface streets, listening to soft music and feeling a clutching in my chest every time I pass a closed shop or restaurant or bar with a handwritten note stuck to the door, as if they had had to leave town in a hurry. No one expected this. Dates are crossed out, rewritten, replaced with the wide-eyed blank stare of “indefinitely.” The streets are empty and silent and coated in slick sunlight; I am heaving with grief. I stand in my kitchen, home again, safe again, and exhale without realizing I was holding my breath. Instead of crying, I unload my sack of vegetables, a kid’s nightmare inverse of Santa, and carefully wash the dirt off each leaf, each root.

A week later, I use two bunches of wilting kale to make a vegetarian lasagna. The days were not all bad. There was a night I took a long hot shower, combed out my damp hair, and made a cocktail by blending cucumbers into a pulpy juice and adding in gin and lime and sugar. Dehydrated, I drank half in one gulp and tipsily made kimchi pancakes and banana bread with cream cheese frosting. It feels good to use your whole hands to make something. There was the day I spotted a red whiskered bul-bul perched on the power lines crisscrossing my backyard, its strange little mohawk and desperate four note call. There was birthday cake for breakfast for a week. My hair is longer than it has ever been. I am finishing books for the first time in a year and stacking them brings me great satisfaction. I stop and smell every rose I see without a hint of pretension. I pull down my mask and bury my face in a wall of jasmine. I touch myself until I fall asleep, the full moon looming outside my window like a ping pong ball lost under a table. I walk the crooked streets of Highland Park at dusk and watch all the lights come on inside the houses, the twinkly porch lights flickering on and front doors hanging open behind screens. Inside their little boxes, sanitized and safe, people grill meat and chop vegetables for stir fry, surrounded by the ones they have chosen as theirs. Who would we choose to be with if we knew this was the end of the world? The question itches at me like static electricity. I watch these people from outside, feeling an expanse of nothingness for miles and miles. Behind thick panes of glass, they ripple and glow like candles, like the bluey oval center of a flame.

One day, I was reading on the porch and looked up and gasped. The hummingbird who had nested on our front porch two years ago, who felt precious like some skittering sign from the universe, was back, sitting in her woolen nest that balances precariously on a wind chime. Her long beak haughty in the air, like “did you miss me?” Strands of my hair are braided throughout her nest. Of course she came back. There was the day I discovered a ridge tiptoeing across the back of the canyon, a skinny little street without sidewalks that led me from the main thoroughfare of Highland Park to the main thoroughfare of Eagle Rock, about a mile and a half. There is joyfulness in finding your footing, I think to myself, in realizing that the world unfolds further and further with each step you take. I want to tell someone this, but I have no one to tell (if this was it, maybe I would choose to be alone). But there is also a joyfulness in swallowing the secrets of the universe whole.

[in-tua-deep]

Hi, I'm the anon who asked for the fluffiest most heartwarming headcanons and they really cheered me up thank you so much! ❤️

asdfghASFGHJ i can give some more random headcanons if you’d like >:3c

we’re gonna go with a theme of food since i went grocery shopping today

After a while in the apocalypse, some things started to grow back. Plants are tough, and a fantastic way to supplement a diet of insects if you know which ones are edible

that’s a long way to say that the siblings witness Five just stuff an Entire Flower into his mouth and he also randomly will stoop while walking and just grab some clover or something and stuff it in his pockets

“And y’all say I’m weird.” Klaus says while they watch Five absently pick and eat an entire patch of dandelions on their Forced Family Bonding Picnic

Five isn’t the only one with food issues - Klaus and Ben also come with food issues and surprisingly Luther also has food insecurity thanks to his time on the moon (everyone noticed that nice note which asked his dad to please remember to send more food right)

Klaus lived with homelessness and Ben hasn’t eaten actual food since he died regardless of the fact that Klaus always sets a place for him or saves him a cup of coffee or tea to include him, and the day that Klaus manages to make Ben manifest enough to actually eat and drink is going to be a Whole Barrel Full of Emotions

honestly what i’m saying is that there is some really wholesome mealtime shenanigans where everyone takes turns providing dinner or lunch and everyone has to attend because it’s family time and there is. varying level of success.

Luther’s food is a little basic but edible enough once they all grab some seasoning. He doesn’t do anything fancy with it, but he can put together a fairly solid meal - and if he actually genuinely studied for this and watched a bunch of youtube channels on cooking well he’s allowed to do whatever he wants on his free time thank you very much

Diego is. Well. He’s been living on his own for a while he’s technically capable of putting a meal together. And if everyone is served scrambled eggs on toast then hey it’s breakfast for dinner shut up that’s a real thing screw you all. (He might have forgotten it was his turn until someone casually mentioned it and he had to make do with whatever was in the kitchen oops)

Allison looks competent in her life but the first time it’s her turn to do dinner they end up having to order pizzas because Allison gets distracted and everything burns. There is some extreme heist shenanigans scrubbing everything down and busting out the air fresheners before Five gets back and Five scowls when he finds out but is actually endeared though he’d never admit it

Everyone expects Klaus’s dinner to be a fucking disaster and it was but that disaster is not what the family was fed so it all turns out okay in the end. Mainly because they went shopping earlier and ended up with a bunch of freezer food and so the family is served a wonderful mean of turkey dinosaur shaped nuggets with sides of kraft mac n’ cheese and microwaveable steamed broccoli

look Klaus is easily distracted and inclined to experiment to the point of inedibility which is not a fantastic combination for family dinner night. the only reason it goes decently is because Ben exists to act as Klaus’s one brain cell and Ben’s intervention depends entirely on how much his siblings have pissed him off this week so.

Five probably just fucking. Proudly dumps a bunch of cans of food on the table and considers his job in ‘providing’ for his family done. When question he defensively says “they aren’t even out of date yet!” and everyone is left squinting at these metal tubes containing their dinner

Next meal though, after much explanation on what they mean by family dinner nights, is probably some kind of stew?? probably a really bizarre and weird veggie stew because you can just kind of toss whatever in a stew pot and go with it which is probably one of the only real things he knows how to make. He may or may not build a fire in the courtyard to cook it since he isn’t sure how to do it making an oven and stove but like. baby steps y’all baby steps.

Ben gets to opt out of being in the roster for family dinner nights due to. his dead-ness. plus the fact that Klaus isn’t reliable in keeping him corporeal yet, but he does make some bomb ass desserts on klaus’s dinner nights when klaus has the energy to manifest him (as long as ben bugs klaus to remember to get whatever it is out when it’s ready)

Vanya makes so many casseroles y’all. When she was on her own she looked up stuff she could make that could be made in one dish and kind of went from there. Did she watch too many shows as a kid where a kindly neighbor brought over some casserole? probably. but her food is actually both edible, homemade, and freeze-able which puts her a leg up on pretty much all of her siblings tbh

the last day of the week, bc ben doesn’t cook, goes to Grace and everyone eagerly awaits those days because let’s be real Grace’s food is the best food and yeah, they might have come up with this thing to give her a break in the first place but damn if she isn’t the real expert and at one point or another they all end up seeking out her advice which she is always pleased by

Five might mainline coffee but surprise! He’s actually not alone in that. Vanya has long long hours of orchestra practice and needs a kick to stay awake, and Allison is completely unashamed with her starbucks obsession. Klaus is always eager to accompany Allison and gets the biggest most sugary drinks possible (as long as she’s paying)

Vanya does try to switch and keep to teas though. Especially after the whole apocalypse debacle. Look her powers are linked to her emotions and she’s going to drink whole gallons of calming whatever tea if it means she isn’t going to punt her idiot brothers through a few walls and go full on Carrie (even if they totally deserve it). She does have some regrets about the frequent bathroom breaks though

Luther is the sibling who tries the teas with Vanya. It’s quiet, they don’t really have to talk to each other, and it’s supposed to be calming so it’s their little bonding thing since god they both need it a lot tbh

Diego thinks coffee pollutes his system and probably keeps a whole bunch of sports drinks. and SMOOTHIES or like those dumb blended drinks? everyone loses respect for him the day they witness him voluntarily drink something with not one but multiple raw eggs in it

even Diego “my body is a temple” Hargreeves balks at Allison’s health smoothies which havekale in them. Allison insists they don’t taste that bad but everyone sees her grimacing when she thinks they aren’t looking. The only one that dares drink Allison’s smoothies is Five and everyone is convinced his taste buds died with the rest of the world in the apocalypse

Allison and Diego team up at least once to try and get the rest of the siblings to go on a health kick. Luther reluctantly joins their side because of the power of Allison and is regarded as a traitor by the rest. Vanya was almost persuaded until Allison said they were having spaghetti and brought out spaghetti squash. 

Klaus is ardently against this health kick because he wants waffles for breakfast, mainly. Five is only against it out of spite because they tried to throw away his marshmallows for his sandwiches

Klaus gets really hungry after using his powers to manifest Ben. His power is usually passive but when he’s actively using it, he’s burning calories. This probably leads to at least one collapse before Five elbows his way in to coach Klaus on How Not To Pass Out and to keep snacks on his person

Five’s power is similar in that jumps burn calories for him, which is why he almost never jumped in the apocalypse unless his life was in danger. The peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches were created to give himself some much needed calories and energy. He fainted a lot as a kid and knows how to handle this kind of bullshitbut Klaus is kind of garbage at taking care of himself so i mean. it’s a big old learning curve going on and tbh both Klaus AND Five don’t eat enough they’re both too skinny smh

Everyone takes turns going grocery shopping except for Five and Klaus. Five because he’s not driving to the store alone because he might get arrested (plus his grasp of paying for things is. very loose). 

Klaus because of the Incident that Shall Not Be Mentioned involving a local grocery chain store, an entire aisle of baby food, just a little bit of public nudity, and a wet floor sign. That, and Klaus always came back with the most ridiculous things possible anyway so

Klaus tries to wheedle everyone into letting him go because Ben is with him, guys! But no one falls for this. Ben is petty and will take Klaus’s side or egg him on almost as much as he acts as Klaus’s sole brain cell, and Klaus also has a history of ignoring Ben even when he is acting like that one brain cell

Klaus does occasionally tag along with the others. Mainly Diego, because Diego has a not-so-secret Klaus-shaped soft spot. Klaus usually demands to ride in the trolley and knocks things off shelves like a small toddler or particularly mischievous cat

Everyone in the house teams up to make sure Klaus eats at least one (1) fruit or vegetable at least every other day

okay that’s all i got for now i have to take a shower but enjoy ;3c

[fattywrites]

Cheap, Simple Recipes

So I’ve put together 10 of my cheapest recipes. Each one - according to my grocery costs - runs about ~$5 to feed ~6 people (or one very, very hungry fatty). 

1. cabbage and sausage >>put like half a stick of butter in a pan (this is necessary). Get in melting. Go in with a sliced onion and one of those rul cheap smoked sausage links cut into slices (I cut mine super thin so that I get more bites of sausage). When the sausage is looking brown and the onions are soft, hit it with an entire head of cabbage. You can cut the cabbage how you want to. Sometimes I slice it thin like slaw, and this only takes like 40 minutes. Other times I cut it in bite-size squares, and this takes an hour and a half. It’s up to you. Anyway throw a whole head of cabbage sans core in there. If you can barely stir the pan, you’re doing it right. Season with seasoned salt or creole seasoning (or regular salt, I guess) and let it cook covered low and slow, stirring it like every 10-15 minutes until the cabbage is all softened and buttery and your mouth is watering. I honestly make this like every two weeks cuz it’s life, so be warned, it’s addictive.

2. haluski >>Shred an entire head of cabbage and start melting some butter in a rul big sautee pan. When the butter’s melted throw in the cabbage. You can also throw in a sliced onion if you want. Don’t forget to salt and pepper (I use creole seasoning, keep in interesting). Get that going. Heat a pot of salted water (I use creole seasoning to salt the water, too. No chill) to a boil while the cabbage is going. Add in a bag of egg noodles to the water, cook & drain them. The cabbage should be ready. Add in the egg noodles. Carefully fry them up with the cabbage, adding more butter if you need to. Once it’s getting a little crispy, take it off the heat and serve.

3. congris >>I’m going to be honest, I have about 7 different recipes for congris and I don’t remember which one is my favorite so I’m going to give you 2 options Option one: drain a can of black beans over a measuring cup. Get a sauce pot hot with some coconut oil, fry up a lil garlic, a small onion, and like half of a green bell pepper. Add in 2 cups rice and fry it in the oil for 3 mins (I actually set a timer cuz I’m bad at noticing when the rice is toasted). Hit it with the beans, then take your measuring cup to your water supply and fill it to the 3 cup mark (move fast don’t burn your rice). Add the water in (stand back it’s gone bubble up). Mix it. Season it with EITHER adobo seasoning OR a chicken bouillon cube (Maggi is the best ijs). Add a touch of oregano. Bring it to the boil, boil it until the water’s looking kind of evaporated and you can see the rice, then cover it, drop it to low, and let it steam for 30 minutes. You actually want the rice to be dry not sticky, and for there to be a crust on the bottom of the pan. Option two: drain a can of black beans over a measuring cup. Get a sauce pot hot with some coconut oil and fry up like a 1/4 or a 1/3 cup of sofrito (the green one. It has a different name in the grocery store but literally everyone I know whose latinx calls them both sofrito lmao). This is not going to take long. Add in your 2 cups rice, toast it 3 minutes. Add the black beans in. Fill your bean-juice filled cup up to 3 cups, add it in. Use EITHER adobo seasoning to taste OR add a chicken cube (Maggi is best). Boil it until the extra water has evaporated off, drop it to low-low and cover it, let it cook 30 minutes until the rice is cooked by dry and there’s a crust on the bottom of the pan.

4. split pea soup >>Heat your oil of choice in the bottom of a pot, then add in some onion, garlic, a carrot cut into pieces, and if you have any, some sweet pepper. Let it cook a little. Wash and drain 2 cups (or a 1lb bag) of split peas. Add them in. Cover in water, add in chicken bouillon for your salt, then throw in a leftover steak bone. Cook for 2-3 hours or until the peas have turned to mush. Can be eaten on its own but I like to crumble a piece of corn bread in the bottom of my bowl and then ladle the soup over it, oh ma god.

5. bacon beans >>Cut up like half a package to a full package of bacon and fry them in your soup pot. When the fat is rendered out, add in 1-2 jalepenos diced finely with their membranes and seeds removed (you can put the seeds if you want but that’ll make this rul spicy). Wash and sort 2 cups or a 1 lb bag of dry pinto beans (no soaking required). Add them into the pot when the bacon’s looking incredible, then add enough water to cover the beans by like an inch. Add a chicken bouillon cube and about 1/3 cup of red salsa (whatever’s in your fridge is fine). Mix it up, and cook it covered (or uncovered if it looks soupy) for a few hours. It’s done when the beans are soft and tender and when your entire house smells so good you don’t even know what to do about it. Like the split pea soup, I usually serve this over a crumbled up slice of corn bread.

6. ham and peas >>Dice up a package of fully cooked ham (you can use those precut ham chunks, you can use a ham slice, you can use ham slices for sandwiches if that’s all you have, you can also use smoked sausage cut in quarters and diced or hot dogs diced up, I won’t tell on you lol). Add a good amount of butter to a sauce pan, add some sliced garlic, put it on medium heat, go in with your ham and sautee it. When it’s starting to get brown, add in a bag of frozen peas. Let it heat through and mix around until the peas are that gorgeous bright green color they get. Then take it off the heat. This literally takes like 10 minutes.

7. pasta e ceci >>fun fact, I got this recipe from my Italian Renaissance history professor. This dish predates the use of tomatoes in Italy and it was a staple dish among the peasants. Put some olive oil in a pan. Slice up a few garlic cloves, put them in the cold oil, then turn the heat on. Once that’s sizzling dump in a can of chickpeas with their juices. Add a little bit more water to make sure they’re covered, change the heat to high. Add adobo seasoning (or salt, I guess) and like a half tablespoon of dried rosemary depending on how old your rosemary is. Let it boil for like 5 minutes, then mash 1/2-3/4 of the chickpeas. Add in 2 cups of a small pasta shape - elbows, shells, bowties, etc - then add enough water to cover the pasta by like an inch. Still on high heat, cook it, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is done and the chickpea sauce is thicc. This takes about 15 minutes but it also depends on how much water you add and I am a lawless hellion who doesn’t measure things so I can’t help you there. This tastes amazing asf though.

8. beans and greens >>Soake a 1lb bag of washed/sorted white beans the night before.Day of, add garlic to a good amount of butter or olive oil in a soup pot, then heat it. Water your outdoor plants with the bean water, then add the beans to the pot and add fresh water to cover the beans by an inch or two. Add in some chicken bouillon as salt, a can of diced tomatoes, some herbs (I like italian seasoning here), a little red pepper flake, and lots of black pepper. If you have any old hard cheese rinds, add it in here, too. Cook it for like 2 hours until the white beans get rul thicc and break down. Then add some finely sliced dark, leafy greens and let them break down (if you’re using collards just add them when you add the beans, btw. But I typically use a bag of frozen kale cuz it’s already cut small asf). Also this might take a lot longer than 2 hours to cook if you have old beans, fair warning. After the greens are tender, the soup is done. As a Next Level flavoring, if you have miso paste on hand and you mix a little in at the end it takes this soup to the next level. This is definitely optional, though.

9. john bisseti >>This is another old family recipe from my great-grandmother during the Great Depression. One time her sister published the recipe and she didn’t talk to her for a few years. My great-grandmother passed away like 40 years ago but I don’t want to be haunted so I’ve adapted this from her original a little, it is not the recipe I use. Brown a package of ground sausage with green pepper, onion, and celery, and cook a bag of egg noodles. Mix up a can of condensed tomato soup. Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Add half the noodles, then add half the sausage mix. Add the rest of the noodles, then add the rest of the meat. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top, then pour the soup mix over everything. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. You want the noodles at the top to be crisp and crunchy.

10. kimchi soup >>This isn’t authentic at all but it’s friggin delicious and I highly recommend it. Heat oil in the bottom of a soup pot. Sautee a sliced smoke sausage link and the white parts from a full bunch of green onions. If you want to splurge for mushrooms, dice some up and add those as well. Once it’s a bit brown, go in with a jar of kimchi that’s already cut up. If you don’t want this to clear your sinuses I recommend draining the brine off* first. Saute it a little bit, then add an entire head of cabbage cut in bite-size pieces (shredded, square, your choice). If it’s hard to mix, you’re doing it right. Season with adobo or creole seasoning or salt--kimchi is salty so don’t use too much, and especially if you put the brine it, you may not need to add salt at all. Let it go on low like 20 minutes, then go mix it up so your sausage doesn’t burn. Then cook the shit out of it. Low and slow for like 2-3 hours. You shouldn’t need to add any liquid beyond what cooks out of the cabbage. Just before serving add in all the green parts from your green onion bundle. This soup is the best.

PROTIP: you can reserve the kimchi brine (or the brine of any pickles you like) in a jar, add in freshly cut vegetables, put it back in the fridge, and in a few days you can enjoy refrigerator pickles.

[elizapbrooke]

A discovery of pancakes

This is my newsletter from Friday, May 22. You can sign up here.

I am disappointed to announce that the bird call I thought belonged to an owl comes, in fact, from a mourning dove. “One of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds,” Wikipedia says. It’s an embarrassing but maybe understandable mistake. I figured this owl was out during the day because it was a creature of New York like the rest of us, its circadian rhythm all fucked up by early morning garbage trucks and the blue glow of the Chase Bank across the street. The mourning dove’s coo is low and melancholy, a distinctive series of five notes. I’d certainly forgive you for thinking it’s a hoot. As I was listening to mourning dove calls on my computer and having this horrible realization, one landed on the fire escape and startled me with the loudest, most intimate rendition of their song I’d ever heard. It may as well have pressed its beak up against the glass. (I assume it thought there was a dove in the apartment.) I crept over to the window to confirm with my eyeballs what AllAboutBirds.org had already told me, and, yep, there it was. It felt so special to have a mystery owl in the neighborhood, but I guess doves are lovely birds too, with their plushy throats and elegantly tapered tail feathers. Anyway, my friend Sid tells me he’s heard owls in Gowanus, so I’m keeping my hopes up. This week I published a story for Curbed detailing the history and recent evolution of the home office. As I was fact checking it, I realized I’d accidentally talked to ten hundred sources, so please do enjoy the fruits of my labor. I’m not here to talk about home offices, though. A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and discovered I’d been brainstorming pitches in my sleep. I was thrilled. On account of pandemic depression and seeing very little of the outside world, I’ve really been struggling to come up with story concepts, which is problematic because that’s my job. Most of my dream pitches evaporated upon waking, but I managed to hold onto one, and in my sleepy haze I thought it was possibly the greatest idea I’d ever had. It was: PANCAKES ARE HAVING A MOMENT IN QUARANTINE. I decided I’d email the New York Times first thing in the morning. In the light of day, I realized that there wasn’t really a story there. When you’re writing a trend piece, you want to be able to point to, I don’t know, at least four really solid examples from the public sphere. My evidence was:

Alex and I had made pancakes recently

We were planning to make them again

I’d recently discussed pancakes with Molly and Vivian

I’d heard you can make pancakes from sourdough starter discard (which actually does speak to the zeitgeist)

But here’s the thing. Pancakes are a great topic for a newsletter. So here is my pancake article.

***

I’ve always liked the look of a big stack of pancakes, but I never really got why people were so into eating them. I like a breakfast that is hyper-functional and maximally filling. Because I’m an aging hippie, my preferred breakfast is a double-sized bowl of Ezekiel cereal, which tastes like delicious cardboard and fulfills 42% of your daily fiber needs. Pancakes, like pastries, always struck me as glamorous but pointless. I was even somewhat distrustful of my mom’s pancakes, which are dense and nutty, not sweet at all. Her recipe came from a “chiropractor/health nut in San Diego about 31 years ago” and involves grinding your own flour from winter wheat berries, groats, rye, brown rice, and millet. I love them, but a family pancake breakfast still makes me feel very out of control. This all changed a few weeks ago when Alex and I decided to make pancakes for dinner. All I can say is that quarantine has a way of melting away the rigid little fucks you used to give. For once, the chaos I associate with pancakes sounded fun and freeing. Also we’ve been watching a ton of Parks & Rec, and I was feeling inspired by Leslie’s diet of waffles and whipped cream. We made buttermilk pancakes, extra fluffy ones that require you to whip the egg whites on their own for several minutes before folding them into the batter. Two with banana chunks, two with bits of frozen peaches, two blueberry, one bonus plain for me. I had mine without anything on top, enjoying the choking feeling of eating so much cakey carb. It felt like a hug. When I saw my friend Todd post a gorgeous stack of pancakes on Instagram, I asked him if he had any theories about why they’re such a good quarantine food. At first he thought I was trolling him, but when I told him I was dead serious, here’s what he said: “What I love about pancakes right now is that they feel both ordinary and radical at the same time. Ordinary because they are nostalgic, all-American, homey, comfortable, and approachable. Anyone can make them. But there’s also something really subversive about a stack of pancakes right now—the gluten, the non-plant-based butter and eggs, eating breakfast when Goop tells us we should be intermittent fasting, so forth. Eating pancakes in the time of coronavirus brings into focus how overwhelming wellness culture has become in recent years—celery juice and collagen smoothies will never, ever, ever beat a big, buttery, syrupy stack of flapjacks.” I would agree. Given my dedication to breakfast foods that involve sprouted beans—which predates our wellness moment but was certainly bolstered by it—I definitely find pancakes subversive. They make me feel nostalgic, too, but not for anything I’ve personally experienced. For weekends in high school that I spent ensconced in the television world of Gilmore Girls, maybe, where breakfast at Luke’s Diner is a comfortable routine. As I continued my journey into pancake reportage, I sought out the perspective of Sarah Jampel, an editor at Bon Appetit. While pancakes made from sourdough discard have their fans, Sarah is not particularly one of them. She’s also team waffle. I don’t really have a horse in the pancake/waffle debate, but Sarah makes a compelling case. “I have thought a lot about pancakes,” she emailed back when I asked if she had anything to say about the topic. “And yes, I have made them since isolation started—mostly because I'm ‘every woman’ and my fridge is overflowing with sourdough discard. ‘Put it in pancakes,’ I thought. The issue is that I need to add more flour (as well as butter or oil and leaveners) to sourdough discard to turn it into pancakes, so I ultimately end up using more ingredients for the sole purpose of not throwing some stuff into the trash or compost (but really, the trash). And even though pancakes sound nice in theory—why not start the day with a hot breakfast instead of the usual routine, eating a Clif bar with one hand while the other clings bare to the subway pole (huge sigh of nostalgia)?—in actuality they're inferior waffles. Unless you take care with your pancakes—loading them with lots of butter and separating the egg yolks and whites (this recipe's my fave)—they're too mono-textured.” Never fear: Alex and I loaded ours with an alarming amount of butter. I suppose it is to be expected that when you go out hunting for pancake insights, you come back with waffle testimonials. When I asked Alex’s high school friends to weigh in on the appeal of pancakes during a global shutdown, Nico said, “Waffles are the superior carb. They provide greater textural variety and are a better delivery vessel for condiments.” (Dylan has been eating toast all quarantine, and Dan “didn’t understand the question” because the only god he acknowledges is the Joy of Cooking’s pancake recipe.) My friend Molly has been eating a lot of savory pancakes under quarantine, for breakfast or lunch. She sautées a bunch of garlic and kale in olive oil, adding scallions at the last minute, and then sets the vegetables aside in a bowl. In goes the Bisquick, and she adds the kale mix on top of the pancakes as they cook; after a minute, she tops the pancake with shredded white cheddar so that when she flips it, the cheese turns crispy. She’ll eat that with a runny egg or garlic yogurt. I can’t wait to see her again so she can make one for me. Pancakes are one of the few foods that Molly has consistently been able to stomach during this period of immense anxiety. They have a strong positive association for her: in pre-corona times, she would make savory pancakes after playing soccer on Saturday mornings. Those games are one of the things she misses most right now. We talked on the phone while she made her daily trip outside to juggle a soccer ball. Molly likes to chat with friends during these breaks because bouncing a ball on your feet benefits from loose attention. “Cooking a pancake is similar,” she said. “It requires some focus but it’s not that hard. You don’t really need to cut anything. You just watch it.” Alex always says that cooking is meditative for him. I would respectfully disagree—to me, it feels more like hurtling down a mogul course—but I can see it with pancakes. You’re just systematically waiting and flipping, waiting and flipping. After making buttermilk pancakes, we progressed to Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes for lunch on a Sunday. I can’t find the recipe online, but here’s a photo. For those who are lucky enough to have dodged my Sqirl talk thus far, it’s a phenomenal, semi-healthy breakfast and lunch spot in Silver Lake. Every time I’m in LA, I badger my companions into going right when it opens at 8 a.m. so we’re sure to get a table. When I was there to write about Dax Shepard in November, I high-tailed it to Sqirl right after our interview and embarrassed myself in front of the staff by inhaling bits of a particularly seedy cookie and having a loud coughing fit, after which I went around the corner to die in private. Alex and I thought we had all the requisite ingredients for Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes, other than cactus flour, but the recipe calls for corn flour and it turns out cornmeal isn’t the same thing. We subbed in whole wheat, so they weren’t really Sqirlcakes, but they were still tasty in a restrained, earthy way. Alex convinced me to try one with raspberry jam, which I reluctantly admit was a great pairing. A week or two later, we made them again. I wasn’t really hungry because it was 2 p.m. and I’d already eaten lunch—Alex had just gotten up—but I pledged to eat my portion cold out of the fridge. Alex thought this was insane, but he sometimes forgets that I like my food a little squidgy. We went grocery shopping the next morning, which was as much of a bitch as it always is right now. Even though we’ve gotten the process down to a science, it still takes three hours from start to finish, with significant angst on my part about the cleanliness of the inbound goods. Finally everything was put away, and Alex headed off to take a shower. I was agitated and crazy hungry. I scrubbed my hands one more time, pulled the pancakes out of the fridge, and promptly dropped one on the floor while trying to get it into my mouth. I ate the rest in big, angry bites, one after another, standing in the middle of the kitchen. I didn’t want to sit down in my outdoor clothes. The pancakes were perfect, though. A shot of sweet, comforting carb straight to the heart.

[sustainablesabs]

What a Zero Waste Vegan Eats in a Week

This post has been a long time coming (someone requested it several months ago so apologies for the delay!) and I’m hoping this gives you guys inspiration for simple meal ideas using bulk/plastic-free ingredients. I won’t do a grocery haul but I below I’ve listed the bulk items I almost always have on hand, and the ones I have this week. I also don’t really use recipes, but if I do I’ll link the titles in case you’re interested in making them.

Bulk staples: Grains (rice, quinoa, barley, oats), legumes (black beans, puy lentils), pasta, snacks (walnuts, dark chocolate chips from bulk, popcorn), oils + vinegars (olive oil, coconut oil, balsamic, apple cider vinegar), and lots of spices. 

Monday

Breakfast: oatmeal pancakes, coffee

Instead of topping with maple syrup, I chopped and sauteed an apple with cinnamon. I kind of ate these pancakes as tacos and the apples served as the inside, but feel free to eat with a knife and fork like a normal person XD I also had a cup of coffee which I made in my French press using bulk grounds (pictured below).

Lunch: black beans

Made a huge batch of black beans via the mama eats plants recipe. Since they’re kinda soupy, I just ate these as such. Apple for dessert.

Snack: chai latte, red bell pepper, chocolate chips

Got the latte from Brooklyn Whiskers, a vegan cafe that serves in all reusables (!) and when I got home chopped up a bell pepper into slices and also had a good handful of chocolate chips.

Dinner: leftover barley with leeks, leftover black beans, leftover kabocha squash

Roasted the kabocha yesterday so I have a bunch for the week. The barley was super simple to make, just cooked normally (2:1 water to barley) and added chopped leek, asparagus, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. Sauteed all of the above in a pan to heat through and topped with nutritional yeast. Also had an apple afterwards.

Tuesday

Breakfast: apple oatmeal, coffee

Sautéed an apple and when it started caramelizing, I added oats and some homemade coconut milk that I made this weekend. Drank remaining coffee from yesterday’s batch.

Lunch: pasta with kale and kabocha

I made some bulk pasta and topped with blanched kale, leftover kabocha squash, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Snack: apple, chocolate chips

Dinner: sushi

Went out for dinner this night! Made sure to bring my reusable chopsticks - they had cloth napkins at the restaurant as well.

Wednesday

Breakfast: apple oatmeal, coffee

I’m a creature of habit...

Lunch: gluten-free vegan crepes

Had a team lunch with my coworkers at one of my favorite vegan spots in Brooklyn - Little Choc Apothecary. Highly recommend for gluten-free crepes and afternoon tea!

Snack: ginger lemon tea

Dinner: leftover penne, kabocha squash, and red bell pepper

Mixed everything in a bowl and added nutritional yeast, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Delicious!

Thursday

Breakfast: apple, banana, walnuts

Wasn’t particularly hungry this morning so just had a quick and easy on-the-go breakfast.

Lunch: beet veggie burger with kale salad

Went out to lunch with coworkers on this day.

Snack: two energy bites

Made them for my coworkers but they were kind enough to share! Just processed dates, walnuts, and oats as the base, put coffee grounds in one batch and candied ginger in the other.

Dinner: jasmine rice with leftover black beans, kale, mushrooms, and radish

Cooked up a big batch of rice and kind of threw the beans and chopped veg into the pot once it was done cooking. Super tasty.

Dessert: apple

Friday

Breakfast: apple oatmeal, coffee

You get the drill at this point.

Lunch: leftover jasmine rice, kale, onions, and radish

Worked from home today! I sautéed the veggies first then when they were nicely cooked, I added leftover rice until heated through. Topped with soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and freshly ground pepper.

Snack: peanut butter cookie, cafe au lait

Went to a cafe near my apartment to do some work, and they have vegan options!

Dinner: roasted potatoes

This dinner was a combination of me running out of produce (woohoo for no food waste!) and my laziness XD. I had a bunch of small white potatoes leftover from my last farmers market trip, so chopped them up and added to an oiled pan with rosemary, dill, and salt, and roasted at 400 for 45 minutes. Topped with nutritional yeast once they came out.

Dessert: chocolate chips

‘Nuff said.

Saturday

Breakfast: apple oatmeal, coffee

Same old same old!

Snack: blueberry hand pie

They sell the cutest little vegan pies at my farmers market! I had a blueberry one :) 

Lunch: potato, mushroom, and onion hash

Using leftover roasted potatoes from yesterday, I sautéed them with chopped mushrooms, onions, and a drizzle of olive oil. Topped with nutritional yeast! So tasty and delicious!

Dinner: ramen

Friends came over and they brought sweet potato noodles and baked tofu (however they were both in packaging, sigh). To the soup, I added freshly made veggie broth using vegetable scraps, onions, carrots, mushrooms, miso paste, seaweed, soy sauce, and spicy mustard, as well as the noodles and tofu. One of the best ramen dishes I’ve ever had!

Sunday

Breakfast: apple oatmeal, coffee

Sautéed an apple and when it started caramelizing, I added oats and some homemade coconut milk that I made this weekend. Drank remaining coffee from yesterday’s batch

Lunch: chorizo burrito, mini churros

Jajaja is life (one of my fave vegan restaurants in NYC!)

Dinner: potato kale soup, apple

Made soup using leftover roasted potatoes, some chopped kale, and the veggie broth I made yesterday. Apple for dessert.

[duhragonball]

Tagged by @sweethoneysempai

Go to page or paragraph 7 of your WIP, go to Line 7, and post 7 lines. Then tag 7 other writers! 

Okay, so.... I’ve got four things in progress right now.   And they’re all kind of a mess, so I’m not sure seven lines would even be consecutive. 

I’m gonna use the Bardock fic, since that’s got the strongest start, and the seven lines actually seem reasonably coherent.

"Don't listen to 'em, Toteppo," said Seripa as she patted him on the arm.   "Your cooking's fine.  Better than anything the rest of us could manage, or we'd be doing it ourselves."

By humanoid standards, a woman of Seripa's shape and features might have been considered conventionally attractive.   Like the others, she wore form-fitting armor that flattered their powerful physiques, and she had an earring on her right ear that implied a sense of aesthetics to balance her warrior's attire.   At first glance, an onlooker might have found such an aesthetic to be exotic or adventurous, but such an illusion would be shattered up close.    To meet Seripa in person was to smell the stench of dried blood in her hair, and the odor of viscera on her breath.  There was nothing mysterious or captivating about the steely gaze in her dark eyes; her expression was merely a warning to any who would dare to cross her.  

Toteppo grumbled at her compliment and made a half-hearted shrug.  

"It's not about the cooking," Toma insisted.   The others regarded him skeptically until he added: "Okay, I miss her cooking, but it's not just that.   She was good for morale."

"That's true enough," Panbukin said.  "Right about now she'd be telling us how great we did in the battle last night."

"Or going on about her brats," Seripa said.   "I wouldn't mind hearing how Raditz is doing."

"I can tell you how he's doing," Toma said.   "The little guy's eating better than we are."

I’m reluctant to post seven lines from my Caulifla/Kale story, because with any luck I aim the post the whole thing very soon, but this excerpt is mostly abour Dr. Rota, so let’s run with it.

Still, despite their miraculous reprieve, Universe 6 had still lost the game.   The team had fought hard, but they simply lacked the power to cope with their opponents.  Dr. Rota was especially frustrated, since he was eliminated from the tournament by Vegeta before he had gotten a chance to show off his true abilities.    This was what had brought him to Parnassan III.

"After we were brought back from erasure, your fellow Saiyans expressed a desire to continue training," Rota went on.    "This got me to thinking.    Perhaps the gods will hold other tournaments in the future."

"Maybe," Cabba said.   His dark eyes kept darting around, as if he were waiting for something to happen.   Rota paid no attention.    So great was Rota's love for his own voice that he cared little if anyone else heard him.  

"Naturally, you three would want to catch up to your Universe 7 counterparts," Rota said.    "That odd fellow, Son Goku, and Vegeta.    I have a score to settle with him.    Well, I don't mean to make it sound like a grudge.   More of a friendly rivalry, if you will.    Perhaps not exactly friendly.   I'd like to humiliate him, if at all possible."

"Yeah," Cabba said.  

"So I contacted the Sadala Defense Force to look you up, and they told me you were here.   I must say, this is an ideal training spot you've chosen.   No sapient life forms, plenty of open space, a wide variety of environments and climates to challenge both mind and body.   Nothing but me and three Super Saiyans.    A fine place to hone my skills."

"Uh-huh," Cabba said.  

This other thing I’ve got is an X-Men bit that probably needs a lot more work.   Mostly, it’s just dialogue that I was going to flesh out later.   But here ya go.

"Nope.    Sorry to worry you."

"No it's okay.   I'm actually kind of... Did you just apologize for something?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, I guess you really have changed," Cecilia said.    

"Life is change, healer," Sarah said.  "I really didn't mean to surprise you."   She pointed at one of the lengths of bone on her back.   "I didn't think dropping by during the day would be a good idea."

"I understand," Cecelia said.   "But you never asked for medical help before.    From what I can tell you heal almost as quickly as Logan."

"Relax, doc," Sarah said.   "It's just a social call.    Thought I'd be friendly like all the respectable X-Men."

Basically, I learned that Dr. Reyes never quite left the X-Men’s neighborhood, so it might be cute to have Marrow drop by her place unannounced.  But I’m not sure if I want to set this before or after Marrow got zapped by the Alan Davis Ray. 

Just as a bonus, I’ll toss in paragraphs seven and eight from Luffa #87, since they’re ominous and perhaps the only two paragraphs that don’t spoil a bunch of stuff.

As she chewed on a ration bar, she glanced up at the main viewer occasionally.   It was set to display a continuous readout on the sensor sweeps and life sign readings she had requested.   She had an hour before she would fire her pistol on the bridge again, and she hoped that she could knock out two more chapters of the novel she was working on.  

She was not alone.

I dunno who to tag for this.    Off the top of my head, I know @raxceni, @ediblenonsense, and @semercury write stuff, but I’m probably overlooking someone.    If you see this and you wanted an excuse to plug your work, this is it, effendi. 

[wellhalesbells]

If you have the time and if you don't mind, what are some books you really recommend? Doesn't have to be all time faves, but anything that pops into mind that you want more ppl to read and love, Extra points if lgbt+ , i got the whole summer with little to do and i wanna spend it reading some good quality writing and honestly so far your recs have introduced me to so many faves its unbelievable

[blushes profusely] oh wow, thank you!!!  i’m so glad you’ve trusted me enough to check out some of the stuff i reblog; that is like the ultimate compliment, i can’t even???  i don’t mind at all(!), fair warning though: i only started recording what i read partway through last year and my mind is like a sieve so i’ll do my absolute best to remember what’s sang to me in the recent past.  warning number two: i’m in an open relationship with absolutely every genre out there so i’ll try to note which belongs where so you can avoid those that hold no interest for you.

LGBT+

i’ll give you the sun.  i loved this book, the writing is fucking transformative and all the characters are so damn likable, while still being realistically flawed human beings.

the raven cycle (tetralogy).  definitely my favorite series since harry potter.  the writing, the world-building, the characters, it’s all on top-form.  i wrote a little, mini non-spoilery review of it: here, back when i was better (worse?) wordly-wise and my feels were brand new.

more happy than not.  i’m still not sure how i feel about this book.  it was hard, but it felt very true to the characters and the lingo and style matched the ages of the players and i have a lot of respect for that.

the watchmaker of filigree street.  woooow i loved this book.  i admit ‘historical fiction’ kind of makes me cringe.  it never precludes me from reading a book but it does knock it down the list by a book or five because they’re often very dense and very clunky and end up taking me ages to get through.  but this one was gorgeous.  i loved the plot, the attention lovingly placed on every character and the historical elements.  the surprise gay in an already brilliant book felt like winning the lottery honestly.

captive prince (trilogy).  okay, truthfully, i’m only putting this on here because the second book is such a high point for me.  it was never bad at any point but it had unfortunately been hyped far too much for it to live up to my, admittedly, very high expectations.  hopefully it’ll fare better with you?

everything i never told you.  i go back and forth on this one.  i like the writing a lot, i like the LGBT aspect a lot, and i like the mystery aspect a lot but there are definitely characters i would cut out entirely for sheer predictability if i could and that killed a lot of my enjoyment at the time (but i think much more highly of it in retrospect?).  so, take that as you like.

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe.  if there’s a book that handles its characters with more care or respect or consideration then i haven’t run into it.  i love the way this is written and the people it’s populated with.

flying lessons & other stories.  a bunch of uber talented authors writing a bunch of uber diverse and LGBT-focused stories and, yes, that is exactly as awesome as it sounds.

the song of achilles.  it is utterly heart-breaking but so rich, honestly.

FANTASY

the diviners.  (also has a minor LGBT character, who may play a bigger role in the sequel?)  fair warning, i have not read the sequel, lair of dreams, because it is somehow still not out in paperback (yes, i read physical books, yes, i pretty exclusively read paperbacks so i can lug them everywhere with me, YES, I PRE-ORDERED THIS ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO AND IT’S STILL NOT OUT, NOT THAT I’M BITTER ABOUT THAT OR ANYTHING) so i can’t speak to that one finishing on a high note as i don’t know.  but this was the first historical novel i managed to like in a long while.  it does such a good job of fusing in 1920s lingo and dress and aspects that i couldn’t help but love it.  add in the fantasy elements and i can admit i’m the perfect sucker for it.

the scorpio races.  i’m not sure why but it took me a long-ass time to get into this book, i wasn’t flipping pages with gusto until well towards the end but - especially as i was reading so much YA at the time - i really appreciated coming across a romance that lets both people come into it as themselves and stay themselves, neither puck nor sean were ever smashed or crumpled or shaved away to fit into their relationship, which was so refreshing.  plus the water horses were fucking cool.

the night circus.  the writing, the atmosphere, the circus.  just… it is all very whoa.

all the birds in the sky.  i loved this writing style and these characters and the magical elements.

CONTEMPORARY

i’ll meet you there.  there was something about this and i just… ended up liking it way more than i expected to.  i might’ve just read it at exactly the right time, i’m not sure, but i really enjoyed it.

the invoice.  this is honestly just hella cute and so freaking surreal.  swedes, man.

NON-FICTION

why not me?  i like mindy kaling a lot.  i make no apologies for that.  plus you can read both her books in about five seconds, haha.

SCIENCE FICTION

station eleven.  i loved this book.  the way the narrative is woven is so refreshing and i wish the comic book miranda was writing in this book was a real thing more than anything else in the woooorld.

illuminae.  hot DAMN this book was cool.  the plot was rock solid, the characters were hilarious and badass and the graphics made out of text and spiraling words and just the way this thing is put together?  shit, it’s worth your money and then some.

a robot in the garden.  okay this is just cute as hell.  i can’t even with tang, he’s the most adorable robot to ever adorable.

annihilation (southern reach trilogy).  (LGBT minor characters.)  okay, honestly?  i don’t know.  this was freaking zany but i was invested as fuck in all the kookiness for reasons i can’t articulately elaborate on.

the martian.  hilarious, engaging, SPACE.  what more do you want?

HORROR

things we lost in the fire.  this is more atmospheric than anything but, damn, could this get me wishing i wasn’t reading this in the dark or looking over my shoulder to make absolutely sure no one was standing behind me.  it’s a book of short stories (by the way, i love books of short stories and i definitely realize that is not true for everyone) and each one is so well-delivered and stylized.  i really enjoyed reading this.

let the right one in.  okay, this is legit horror so definitely stay away if you’re easily squicked out but it is harrrrrd to find good horror (at least in my opinion) and this definitely, definitely qualifies.

horrorstör.  i honestly had such low expectations for this, a horror story set in a wannabe-ikea, but it ended up being so ridiculous and strange and funny that i was won over by the finish.

the girl with all the gifts.  holy unique and well-executed zombie idea, batman!

SHORT STORIES

the bigness of the world.  there were definitely ones here that hit better than others but the ones i liked, i really liked!

GRAPHIC NOVELS (i read a lot of these so, um, prepare yourself)

saga.  (LGBT minor characters as well.)  this is world-building to a degree that i’m convinced did not exist before.  just, i can’t say enough amazing things about this series and the staggering amount of imagination that regularly goes into it.

ms. marvel.  heart-warming as fuck.  it’s definitely really easy to lose faith in the world these days, luckily kamala is there to remind you that people are primarily and genuinely good.

black science.  this is another one that took just an insane amount of imagination to cook up.  i got off to kind of a rocky start with this one but the gray-ness of all the characters really speaks to me, and that doesn’t really blossom until later in the series.

spider-man/deadpool.  this was very satisfying for my super duper spideypool-shipping mind.  joe and ed did us so good, and joe basically said in his sign-off: i made it absolutely as gay as they would let me, haha.

the wicked + the divine.  (LGBT minor characters that you’re going to get way too attached to, and retroactively.  it’s awful [sobs].)  the concept for this, gods reincarnating into teenagers before they burn up their hosts after a predetermined set of time, is so fucking cool.  the humor and the characters and the plot is all just aces.

iceman (LGBT MAIN CHARACTER).  okay, so this just started.  like issue #2 was only released days ago but 1) i am liking it so far and 2) marvel did it so dirty and barely advertised bobby - an openly homosexual superhero - was getting his own series, like, i found out about it the day before it went on sale and i keep my ear fairly close to the ground (not as close as some BY A LOT, but closer than the lay person i’d say) so if you can support it, please do!  pre-orders mean a lot in terms of numbers. :))))

descender.  admittedly, this starts out rooough.  because the main character, TIM-21 (and his little dog too), are annoying as hell.  he’s an android so there’s no dimension to him so he’s booooring as all get out but i am so glad i stuck with it through to the next trade because, probably picking up on the unsustainability of him as a main character, he gets shuffled off and the side characters get the stage and they rock so hard.

paper girls. (LGBT main characters.)  i’m kind of just convinced that brian k. vaughan can do no wrong at this point.  his plots are so tight and mind-blowing and badass.

monstress.  here’s a little tid-bit about me: female comic book writers are 100% more likely to get my money and my time because they are so damn rare and this series is unique, badass, and eye-opening.

black monday murders.  i’m a little premature with this since there’s only one volume and i usually try to wait until there are at least two but i check up on a volume two a lot so that definitely means something intrigued me!

nailbiter.  okay, i haven’t read the final volume yet ‘cause i’m reluctant to let it go but, so far, a series about multiple serial killers all being from the same town has me VERY HOOKED.

i wish i could remember more but this is honestly way better than i expected to do, haha.  they’re definitely not all my all-time faves but they’re ones that have stuck with me for one reason or another and that i didn’t feel i wasted my time on, so that’s something, right?  i hope this helps get you started and that you don’t think too awfully of me when you inevitably run across ones that aren’t your cup of tea!

[edgewaterfarmcsa]

CSA WEEK 17

P I C K L I S T

Onions - Sweet Habanada Peppers - Plum Tomatoes - Basil - Spinach - Carmen Peppers -

 Potatoes - Carrots - Jalapeno Peppers - Spaghetti Squash

Oh Summer CSA fam! This will be our last week together, and it is incredibly bittersweet.  Together, we completely rocked this season in picking, washing, packing, prepping, chopping, roasting, preserving, eating, etc…  My hope is that the weekly CSA share served as a marking of time as we nourished ourselves through this season.  We went from little greens and strawberries in June, Blueberries and cucumbers in July, Tomatoes and corn and more tomatoes in August, peppers and potatoes in September, Winter Squash and greens in October, and herbs all the way through.  With a whole summer of no-friends-covid, you CSAer and our field crew have served as my nearest and dearest and I love you all for it.  Though we never formally partied in person, we communed weekly through food!  Thankyou for inviting our farm into your kitchen all Summer long.  

I also want to take a hot minute to sing the praise of our unsung field crew heroes.  They range from the age of 1.5-60 something years old. Roy, Strong, Ramone, Jasper, Garnet, Petey, Jaarsma, Dave, Juliana, Gus, Mike, Mrs. T, Ray, Hobbes, Billie, Anne and Pooh.  These are the people that seeded, grew, planted, weeded, picked, cleaned, packaged, planted some more, picked some more, etc…  These are the people that made all of this food show up on Wednesdays and goodness gracious, I am so grateful to each and everyone of them.  Mrs. T took on the super-early-before-sunrise herb pick, Roy packed out each and every box with me, Strong and Ramone bunched the most beautiful bouquets of mizuna, Jaarsma delivered boxes all around town, Jasper and Garnet gathered all the cherry tomatoes from the field, Dave assembled and stacked every wax box for us to fill, Billie ate all the pepper rejects, and damn near everyone picked strawberries.  This crew is everything.  

Lastly, with the end of Summer CSA comes the end of the Farmstand.  We officially shut the sliding barn doors for the season on October 11th at 4:30pm.  If you are deeply saddened by this (i am!) you can find our harvest at the following spots:

All the COOP food stores (Lebanon, Hanover, WRJ) - Crossroad Farmstand in Norwich for onions and potatoes - Brownsville Butcher and Pantry - Woodstock Farmers Mkt - Sweet Beet Market in Bradford NH - Rumbrook Mkt in Grantham 

AND OF COURSE THERE IS THE FALL CSA: 10 SPOTS LEFT!!

HOT TIPS:

Jenny’s Note: The following recipe is a spinach staple in my house.  It is warming and earthy and absolute comfort food.  We have yet to start our Ginger harvest due to an extremely wimpy ginger crop (my fault im a terrible ginger grower).  So please source yourself a can of coconut milk, ginger root, and a pinch of cumin and we will take care of (mostly) the rest.  

3 tablespoons ghee/coconut oil/butter

20 ounces flat-leaf spinach, washed and drained

2 shallots (or onions), halved and sliced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 teaspoons minced jalapeno chile

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Pinch of sugar

1 cup coconut milk

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Heat scant 1 tablespoon ghee in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add spinach and cook, stirring, until just wilted, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain spinach in a sieve, pressing to remove excess liquid. Let cool slightly, then roughly chop.

Return pan to medium heat and melt remaining 2 tablespoons ghee. Add shallots, ginger, and jalapeno and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in flour, cumin, and sugar and cook for 1 minute, then slowly whisk in coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir chopped spinach into coconut mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Oh my Gosh, Spaghetti Squash by Sarah Britton (read on for nutrition and eating)

Winter squash rocks because it is a powerhouse veggie. Unlike summer squash (re: zucchini, crookneck, pattypan), winter squash has had a lot more time to develop and pump itself full of vitamins and minerals throughout its lengthy life on the stem. We’re talking oodles more vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), vitamin C, manganese, potassium, and even some extra dietary fiber thrown in just for kicks. This combination of nutrients spells good news for asthma sufferers, those with heart disease, elevated cholesterol, or inflammatory conditions such a rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

The other bonus? Nature designed summer squash to be rather delicate, with a high water content for those hot summer days when we need a cool down. Naturally, their shelf life is rather short during our abundant harvest season when produce is plentiful. On the flip side, winter squash has a tough outer skin and lower water content, which allows it to be stored for a very long time – some varieties up to six months. This means that we can keep these vitamin bombs around for a long time after the first frost to provide our bodies with the nutrition we need to see us through the long months of winter when there is nothing fresh in sight.  Put that in your oven and roast it.

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

1 bunch kale (leftover from last week? Or try it wth spinach?)

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can)

3 cloves garlic

olive oil

sea salt

pinch crushed chilies

¾ cup toasted hazelnuts

Pecorino Romano (hard sheep’s milk cheese)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Prepare the spaghetti squash by cutting it in half lengthwise, removing the seeds, rubbing the inside of each half with a drizzle of olive oil, then seasoning with salt and pepper. Place face down on a lined baking tray and place in the oven – cook for about 45 minutes.

3. While the squash is baking, prepare the rest of the filling. Wash kale well and remove the tough center rib of each leaf. Roughly chop kale into small pieces.

4. Heat oil, ghee, or butter in a frying pan, then add minced garlic, crushed chilies to taste, and a pinch of sea salt. Cook 2 minutes until fragrant, then add chopped kale and cook until the leaves are bright green and just starting to lose structure. Throw in the chickpeas and cook just to warm. Remove from heat.

5. Remove squash form the oven when it is cooked through. Using a fork, scrape out the insides, which will pull away from the shell in strands, like spaghetti (whoa). Place all strands in a bowl, and toss with the kale and chickpea mixture. At this point you can either serve it from the bowl, or mix it everything together and place back in one half of the empty squash shells for a beautiful presentation. Sprinkle with chopped toasted hazelnuts and shaved Pecorino Romano. Enjoy.

I wish everyone out there a truly beautiful Thanksgiving; we sure have a lot to celebrate.

This year I am grateful for so many things: the incredible people in my life, a job that I love everyday, the warm food in my belly, sound sleep in the night. I also want to give thanks to you for reading this, for caring, and for getting back in the kitchen again to feed your body with the food it deserves. Even though we’ve probably never met, I can feel us standing side by side at our cutting boards, making so much more than dinner.

 JENNYS NOTE:  my goal in life is to always have a jar of pickled onions in my fridge- this is the recipe i use.  Fin.

 You can use any thinly shaved or sliced vegetable you like for this recipe. We love quick pickles on sandwiches because they add acidity and crunch. And you don't have to be someone who's "into canning" to make your own. Keep them in the fridge for days and put them on everything.  Makes about 1 cup

½ cup unseasoned rice vinegar

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 cup thinly sliced vegetables (such as carrot, red onion, and/or cucumber)

Whisk vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small bowl until sugar and salt are dissolved. Add vegetables and let sit, squeezing gently with your hands occasionally to help them pickle more quickly, 10 minutes.

Do Ahead: Vegetables can be pickled 3 days (months) ahead. Cover and chill.

[irltrexxx]

wwoof day 2

siesta time!

i had a busy morning. i slept like the dead last night because there is no light here at night and also no noise. i woke up around 6am and stayed in bed until i heard other people moving around. at around 7:30 i got out of bed and went to the kitchen to see what was up. claudio had made a run to get potable water (no potable water here!) and maddalena was in bed sick :(.

claudio showed me where everything i need to make coffee is and we had breakfast. i had an a caffe with a dash of raw sheeps milk and claudio had a caffe lungho with leftover panettone from christmas and honey.

then claudio gave me a tour of the facilities. we first checked on the furnace, which i guess burns out every night? it’s basically a metal log burner and when there’s enough heat generated inside something electrical turns on and takes the heat upstairs? not really sure. but we restoked that (i just brought wood and watched), fed the cat (twice), fed the hens and roosters, said hi to the enormous sheep dogs, and headed to the caseficio to clean up.

when you go into the caseficio you have to put on a white coat and white boots and a white apron. not sure who says. i cleaned cheese molds, milk jugs, shelves, racks, knives, the floor, the sinks, the walk in refrigerators, the tables. i also helped claudio turn the cheese, which involves moving one round of cheese (these are all aging parmesans i think) from one rack to another, hitting it hard so that some of the bacteria (little animals who eat the rind) fall off, and flipping the cheese to the other side and placing it on the new rack. we did this for probably 200 cheeses.

we started working at 8 and finished around 12:30, just in time for lunch. maddalena had laid everthing out for us so we could cook things quickly. we had penne with tomato sauce, fried eggs, a salad of red cabbage and fennel, and cheese of course! then claudio did a xword and i brainstormed meals i could make for the two during my stay. i’m thinking either beef kofta with tabouli and pita or chili with cornbread. or both! they don’t seem to each much meat...so maybe i should think of veggie option.

claudio went to take a siesta until his son daniele (whose room i’m staying in) comes to help with the sheep at 4. claudion said i could come watch too so i can meet the sheep and learn a bit. i spent some time going through the family cookbooks and taking photos of all the recipes.

i’m just now realizing how tired my body is! it was a very active morning. maybe i will also take a little siesta.

the news said tomorrow it’s supposed to be windy and rainy, but i think it’ll be okay because we’ll be inside making cheese.

—

okay i’m back! after i took a little siesta i met up with danielle who showed me my barn tasks. mostly feed the sheep (alfalfa for the young sheep, less nutritious stuff for the old sheep) and assist during the milking process (open and close gates, give oat treats). those sheep are chatty, man! they look and sound just like a bunch of pissed off old ladies. there are a few lambs as well that were born in december. danielle told me rule number one of working on a dairy farm is not to get attached to the lambs cuz they ain’t here for long! it sounds like they keep 5-6 lambs around at a time to keep the ladies producing milk, but when the lamb stops suckling he goes to the butcher who turns him into delicious agnello chops. danielle said for this reason he does not believe vegetarians should be eating cheese. behind every cheese is likely a dead lamb. but i wonder if this is true in usa milking factories.

when i go in the barn i get to wear a cool coverall to protect me from poop and mud. i think i have learned a valuable lesson on this trip: i am a city girl.

later in the evening we gathered for dinner. maddalena still does not feel well so she had riso in brodo. i’m still way over brodo. we had leftover kale and lentil soup with rice and parmesan and it tasted pretty much like risotto. makes me think there’s no reason to put the effort into making risotto. we also had some little grilled sausages and some boiled kale with lemon and olive oil.

after dinner i asked claudio about his history as a cheese maker. he said he started making cheese only after moving into this house in the 1980s. he and maddalena used to live in milan, but they wanted to be closer to nature so they found this house with no electricity and no water. they restored it and claudio was making cheese just to be self sufficient. but they needed money to live so he started producing full time. danielle and mattia don’t want to take over the business when claudio is too old, so claudio is slowly diminishing his herd. it must be tough to invest so much work and time into a lifestyle and see it snubbed by future generations...i am sure it happens all of the time. note to self: don’t expect future generation to respect the work i do.

i took a shower post dinner and am now in my room with a chocolate bar i smuggled in. i just opened the shutters on my windows and i hope i don’t regret it later tonight when the wind storm starts. 🤞🏻

also maddalena asked me to cook something for breakfast while i’m here. i think i’ll make them biscuits if i can figure out a sub for baking powder, which i’m pretty sure is in biscuits.