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kissykiwi · 6 years ago

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money, money, money (pt. 2)

(part one)

wherein things progress, and harry makes a bit of an ass of himself. (mamma mia au, 4700 words)

Y/N got to sleep in the next day by just a bit. Her Big Ben alarm clock, a gift her grandmother had picked up in a thrift store somewhere in Cheshire, rang furiously as soon as eight o’clock rolled around. The day was to begin.

“Good morning dear. Mr. Styles has asked for breakfast at 9 o’clock -- a pot of tea with the fixings, some toast, and a bit of fruit, if you please -- so you’ve got a bit of time to get ready and have your shower before I need you going,” her mother said, opening the creaky, light blue door to her room. Y/N paused, frozen in her morning stretch, to stare at her mother.

“Mr. Styles? You mean Harry Styles? The travel writer?”

Dee sighed, and suddenly Y/N understood why this information had been so carefully hidden from her. Harry Styles was her favorite author. He’d been around half the world and had quite a knack for colorful descriptions and vivid storytelling alongside a cutting humor. Though she’d never gone farther than a bit into the mainland, his work made her feel like a proper globetrotter.

“Yes, that Mr. Styles. And you are absolutely forbidden from badgering him about his travels. He’s come here for a respite from all that, and I won’t have you stressing him out and running him off the island,” Dee said warningly, shaking one beringed finger. Y/N tried not to pout.

“Okay, heard. Toast, tea, and fruit, and absolutely no mention of the fact that he’s been to every place I’ve always wanted to go.”

“Exactly. Now, up!”

Y/N watched her mother go, and then rolled out of bed. Today wouldn’t be too much of a day, overall -- a few check-ins who would probably fall straight into bed from jetlag and Harry fucking Styles were her only priority. She might even have time to read on the stairs or make it down to the beach in the slow moments. A pair of old cutoffs and one of her tee shirts should do the day. One quick shower later, and her neroli scented soap had her feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day.

“Gooood morning, Helena!” she sang, throwing herself around the doorframe into the kitchen of their main guest building. At the stove, the lady who did the cooking for the Muse turned to grant her a smile.

“Can you believe this new guest, huh? Toast and fruit! Is he a traveler or a hummingbird?” she said, half to Y/N and half to herself. Helena believed strongly in meals that would stick to the ribs, and clearly their new guest was already not quite up to snuff.

“We’re only here to provide what they ask, Len.”

“Well he had better start asking for a proper breakfast before he wastes right away.”

Y/N laughed and picked up the tray of food. Helena had been careful to set out cream and sugar alongside the teapot, and they’d even gotten out the nice jadeite tea set that grandma had sent her mom from Myanmar (it had still been Burma at the time). She’d also sliced apricots nectarines and thrown a few cherries onto the plate, even added a little pot of lemons in case that was how he preferred his tea. A few slices of Mr. Alexandrou’s local whole grain bread had been toasted to a perfect golden brown and were placed delicately to the side with a small pot of local butter. Despite it not being Helena’s preferred fare, it really seemed to represent the best of Kalokairi and her environs.

“You’re an artist Len. I’ll be back for my coffee!”

Y/N trotted away as quickly as she could with a tray full of food (and alright, so maybe it was a bit more of a slow walk), headed to the stairs that carried the kitchen up to the dining balcony.

The dining balcony. That was number two out of Y/N’s eleven favorite spots on the island, with a view that could almost rival the staircase. Though it was just a little rectangle sticking out from the second level of the cliffside building, it had always made Y/N feel like a princess staring over her ocean kingdom. The far left side of the building, facing the north of the island, peeked out upon Calliope’s Beach where this side of the island went to swim. If you faced the building on that side, you could see just past into the citrus orchards where Y/N had spent her childhood munching on oranges and reading fantasy books, and even further in, the houses of some of the locals. Though almost no one who ate up there knew it, the entrance to Euterpe’s Grotto was hidden at the very end of the beach where the island curved northeast. The west view, looking straight off the cliffside, was more of the dazzling blue of the Aegean Sea, and the east peeked into the docks and the little markets that sat behind them. It felt as though all of Kalokairi was encapsulated in a single turn.

“Good morning Mr. Styles,” she said cheerfully as she came up upon the curls she had seen the night before.

He looked up, eyes even greener than they had looked on his book jackets and framed by angirly furrowed brows and purple bags.

“I was told my privacy would be respected when I came here,” he all but snarled.

Y/N tried not to visibly recoil as she set his tray down, though she heard the clink as the tea set jerked slightly.

“Well of course, I mean-- we’re not going to go about on social media screaming that you’re here. But all the same, I’m the daughter of the woman who checked you in last night, and we make a point of greeting our guests by name.”

He stared at her a moment more, gaze both analytical and totally disinterested, and she wondered for a moment if she was actually a ghost. She took a deep breath. He grunted dismissively.

“I did want to ask, Mr. Styles, if you had any questions about the island or what we have to offer here. If you don’t mind me saying so --”

“I do mind, actually,” he started, cutting her off. “Can’t a bloke get some bloody peace around here?”

Y/N’s jaw snapped shut so hard that the canals of her ears hurt faintly.

“Of course.”

She was not ashamed to say that she fled the space after that, taking the stairs in a sprint with cheeks burning like the cherry of a cigarette from sheer fury. It was only the telltale cadence of Georgie’s footfalls at the bottom of the stairs that kept Y/N from running face first into her.

“Who pissed in your coffee?” Georgie asked, grabbing her by the elbows to steady her. Y/N rolled her neck.

“Haven’t had it yet. Did you know we have Harry Styles gracing our humble establishment?” Y/N laughed, clenching her fist.

“You mean your favorite author? The guy whose books I’ve bought you for the past three out of five Christmases?” Georgie asked. Y/N could tell she was confused.

“The guy’s an asshole. Steer carefully around him,” Y/N scoffed. Georgie was frowning at her, face clearly sympathetic, and Y/N wanted to scream.

“I’m so sorry rosie,” Georgie said, stroking her hand softly down Y/N’s arm. Y/N frowned.

“I’m only warning you George. We’ve got him for three months, and whatever his books were like, he is not.”

There was more Georgie wanted to say, that was certainly visible on her face, but she nodded instead.

“Wanna talk about this over coffee?” she asked softly. Y/N didn’t, not really, but it might be easier if she did, so she turned to the worn wooden table and chairs for employees set up in the kitchen. A steaming cup of coffee was set in her usual place, alongside a plate of Helena’s breakfast hash.

“So Harry Styles sucks?” Georgie prompted, taking a mouthful of potatoes. Y/N took a bracing drink.

“Of course he does. He’s massively rich and has met a million interesting people and seen half the world. What time does he has for us small folk?”

Georgie’s eyebrows raised high.

“Not that she’s bitter.”

Y/N glared.

“For the past six years I have lived the rest of the world through him and how funny he is. Now he’s here to stay with us and I find out it’s all an act. Forgive me for my sour grapes.”

Georgie waited for the next shoe to fall.

“It just feels like...” Y/N scrubbed her hands through her hair. “I don’t know. It just feels like everything happens outside of Kalokairi. And when it happens here, it can never be the same.”

“Oh c’mon Y/N. I’d bet you half my paycheck that he’s like that everywhere. You know how rich people are, they forget what it’s like to be ordinary like us. The ants can’t help but bother him,” Georgie pointed out. She poked Y/N’s plate, trying to remind her to eat for the rest of the day, and Y/N managed a morose forkful.

“It’s to be expected. Here I am working my ass off just to keep the walls of this place upright and he’s too high on the fumes of a few euros to be nice to people around him.”

“Never meet your heroes. By the way, he’s already sent down some laundry to be done,” Georgie replied. Y/N groaned and laid her head next to the plate on the table.

---

So Harry may have been a little mean to the cute girl who brought round his brekkie. In his defense, he certainly felt bad about it. He was just feeling so rotten between how tired he was and the start of the morning. There’d been this stunning sunrise he saw lighting up his balcony, and when he went out to watch it he felt so young and inspired and ready again. He’d grabbed his typewriter (which was a bitch to lug around, but always worth it) and set up on the little wrought iron table, and-- nothing.

It was like a million different words were pounding on his chest, begging to be let out of a door that his fingers could no longer be. It was infuriating.

So he’d gone to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling again, and by the time he’d marked down for breakfast, he was properly full to the brim with ire. And then the girl had known his name and he was just so bloody sick of being Harry Styles, Travel Writer that he’d snapped at her. He’d been even angrier when she’d had a reason for knowing it and he realized how rude he’d been.

He rather wished he’d let her speak too, because he didn’t know a stitch of Greek or where he ought to go now the day had begun, and he was a bit too afraid to risk running across her in the registration house. For now, he thought, he’d explore the resort.

It was a precious place, he had to say. The hotel complex itself was basically a square of buildings around a divided courtyard. The structures themselves were all very Greek, covered over with a pale stucco and roofed in with terracotta tiles. All of the doors were a soft shade of blue that matched the walls of the rooms. He was in the building to the north, the longest one, which connected to a dining balcony with one of the most breathtaking sea views he’d ever seen -- and he’d seen a few. The north building turned an L, so that it covered a half of the east side. There was a wide gate heading out of the courtyard that led onto a small, red dust lot, and that was where he’d entered the night before. The other east building on the lot had a spillover of more rooms (the least expensive ones, he assumed, since they looked out on trees and the road down to the markets and the docks). What must have at one time been a goat house was now a bit of storage for food and miscellany, according to the owner, Dee.

Beautiful though the buildings were, Harry could see the wear. In some places the stucco was chipped, and it was more of an off white than the pure, bright white that most Greek tourism brochures tended to picture. On the registration house he’d started in the evening before, on the very south side of the square of buildings, he could see tiles missing in the roof and how nearly all of the blue paint had peeled off the attic window shutters. Nevertheless, every worn patch had a cheerful flower to match it, and the food and comfort of his surroundings was undeniable.

Harry had already gone to inspect the flowers crawling the walls (he was almost fitfully delighted to see that it was an old, lovingly cared for bougainvillea plant), and noted with joy that the little box under the attic window was decorated with a carving of all of the muses and bursting with brightly colored blooms.

The courtyard had a slope to it, and it split like a step in the middle. Dee had explained to him in the ride up to the place that people had kept tripping over the damn thing, so she’d built a wall to make it safer because she wasn’t about to be liable. Then she’d found out that if you closed the gate and it made a suitable dance floor that went well with the courtyard’s outdoor bar, and it had kind of gone from there.

Though there was something almost magical about sitting under the clotheslines heavy with laundry on the east side of the gate, he’d seen stairs on the cliffside as the ferry came sailing in, and he thought that the gate on the southwest side of the courtyard may lead to it. It’d been closed all day, but he didn’t think that meant it would be locked. Those stairs, he thought, would probably be a good place to crack open the book of Ginsberg poems he’d grabbed as he was leaving New York.

To his surprise, the door of the gate he had seen was now open. His hunch had been totally right, he saw. There were the stone steps, and he could smell the faint aroma of cypress on the otherwise salty sea breeze.

He started down them, already thrilled by the view expanding in front of him, but froze when he noticed a head of familiar hair. It was the girl. She had a book in her lap and another stack to her side, and he noticed with a start that one of his was atop the stack.

It was a paperback version of Haggled History: Viewing Europe’s Past on a Budget, one of his prouder works. It was rather dense since it covered quite a few countries, chapter by by chapter, and how best to learn their histories with only a few euros in pocket. It was also less trendy, he supposed, than much of his other work. Apparently, his usual reader wasn’t much for history reference based jokes. He very rarely found himself signing it on his book tours-- and yet there was her version, tattered and well loved. Pages were marked with washi tape, seemingly in the place of a dog ear, and just about a whole pad of post it notes had found their way into the four hundred odd pages. As the gentle wind coming off the water blew her copy open, he could see it was highlighted and marked with a heart next to whatever city it was open to, margins crammed with notes.

Feeling suddenly vaguely ill, Harry turned around and decided that maybe sleeping off his jetlag would be the best use of his afternoon.

---

Georgie, the traitor, had told Dee how Y/N’s meeting with Mr. Styles had gone. Y/N tried not to be too irritated by the fact that her mother was largely unsympathetic -- “he’s just another guest, my rose, and his euros have the same value as anyone else’s. I don’t care what his personality is like.” Still, Dee knew how much his books meant to her (even now, having met the asshole), and Y/N would have liked a smidgen of understanding. Unfortunately, her mother was right. Harry Styles’ money was metaphorically green and all that, and he was giving them quite a bit of it. So Y/N could be nice. Or polite, at the very least.

Alright, she could prevent herself from being openly hostile. Y/N really thought, though, that that should count for something! It wasn’t as though he was being a peach. He’d been here two weeks, and the entire time he’d been surly and frowning. He’d even had the audacity to ask Dee to switch his mattress, as though that was the reason he was sleeping poorly. It hadn’t helped, either, because every time Y/N brought his breakfast (or any other meal. Or an extra pillow. Or had the nerve to even look in his direction), he was still as nasty and short as he’d been that first day.

The worst part though, easily, was the fact that she seemed to be the only person gifted with his special attentions. Her mother had insisted that he’d been a total sweetheart about asking about his bed, Helena declared that she liked him, despite whatever his breakfast choices might be, and even Georgie said that he really wasn’t all that bad.

Y/N was reeling with enough betrayal that this Thursday already felt pretty sour. But then the morning had started unpleasantly, moreso than usual. Big Ben had decided to take a day off (looked like she would have to bring it round to Mr. Hatzidakis to fix, again), so she’d awoken to her mother yelling through her door that she had 15 minutes before Mr. Clark would like his breakfast at 7:30. The food had been ready since Helena worked like an atomic clock, but Y/N’s hastily dealt with hair and puffy eyes were still a dead give to her own tardiness, and Mr. Clark was kind enough to let her know as much as she set down his cuppa and two eggs, scrambled, with sliced tomato and cottage cheese to the side. From there she’d been dashing up and down the service stairs to fill every ridiculous request from the latest batch of uni kids (and who on earth could drink three frappe’s in the space of an hour without their heart beating itself out?), never having time to eat or even get a sip of coffee in, until suddenly it was nine. The worst part of her day.

“Good morning Mr. Styles,” she said breathlessly, setting down his usual plate in front of him. She didn’t have his paper yet (they tended to get a variety of english options sent in for the guests, but this morning’s ferry was running late), but it would be on the way just as soon as she got that damn uni student his fucking Lucky Charms.

Styles grunted in response. “You forget I asked for the Guardian?” he asked mulishly, picking up the container of cream. Y/N sighed, feeling the simmer of anger in her chest roar to a boil.

“No, I-”

“Oi! Miss Waitress! I asked for that cereal,” called one of the Chads from the next table over. His friends snickered, and Y/N felt her fingers twitch at her side.

“-have to do that. I’ll bring the paper with his cereal,” she ground out, wiping an errant piece of hair from her forehead.

“Don’t see why it would have been so hard to do now, but alright,” Harry muttered, and Y/N felt the angry blood in her stomach crawl up her neck. She turned and left. Georgie grabbed her on the stairs.

“Listen, I know you don’t like Styles, but if you’re going to push any of them over the cliffside, pick the frat boys. They keep talking to me as if I don’t know english, and they say it’s because I ‘have an accent’. So do they! It’s just one of those English ones!”

“Duly noted. Have the papers come in yet?”

“Nik is running them up now, should be within five minutes,” Georgie answered as she jogged away. Well, Mr. Styles wasn’t going to love that. Now that the school groups were coming and going, Y/N found that he made a concerted effort not to linger over his breakfast. Helena, with her usual artful arrangement, had set out the cereal and milk alongside a bowl on a tray for Y/N to take, but Nik was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, the food really couldn’t wait. The university boys seemed to get a kick out of complaining to her about every little thing, so the less room the better. Y/N turned and hauled herself back up the stairs.

“Cereal for you boys,” she said, voice distinctly more cheerful than she was feeling. She set the tray down and was ready to head back to see if Nik was around, but one of them grabbed her wrist.

“Pour the milk, won’t you?” he said, grinning, and Y/N heard her own knuckles crack.

“Of course.”

She poured the milk, trying to ignore the fact that her hands were now literally shaking with suppressed rage, and was once again ready to leave the balcony and maybe punch a wall, when she heard her name being called. It wa by Mr. Styles, who had a face like a thundercloud.

“Thought you said you were bringing my bloody newspaper up. I’ve been waiting all morning, and I understand that you might be busy flirting with England’s finest over there, but I would think you’d still be able to do your job,” he hissed as she drew up near him.

Oh, that was it.

“Listen. I know that in your tenure as one of the unnecessarily rich and stupidly famous airheads that wander this earth of ours, you’ve forgotten that the sun does not, in fact, revolve around your inflated head. Let me remind you though, that you are a guest here, just as they are -- in fact, very much like them since you’re in the running for ‘who treats the service workers worst’ -- and I am only one person running about to help just under eleven of you, all making rapid fire requests. So you’ll forgive me for not pulling the newspaper out of my own asshole just because you request it, but I’d just like to let you know that even if I could, I wouldn’t, because I’ve never had a guest who was less pleasant to be around and a greater disappointment of a person.”

By the end of her monologue, she knew, she was yelling. She just couldn’t help it. Two weeks of berating at the hands of someone she’d admired, someone who was regularly listed as one of the kindest celebrities in his tax bracket, and three days of those fucking university students (which, frankly, was enough). She was just so sick of being kind and amiable and patient with people who treated her like shit. From behind her, a throat cleared.

“Brought the paper up, Y/N. Nik rushed it since the boat was late, but I that didn’t really help,” Georgie said, voice torn between laughter and concern. Y/N turned around, snatched the paper out of her hands, and slapped it in front of Harry Styles so hard that the table shook.

“The Guardian, as per your request,” she snarled, and then she was gone.

---

Harry may have deserved it. “It” being the dressing down he got in front of two amused couples, four first year frat boys, and two lone guests at full volume at 9:10 in the morning. He knew he’d been pushing her, he supposed. But wow, had she gone off. Harry couldn’t help but be angry that she even looked good when she was screaming at him.

Still, it was a pretty shit way to start the day. He’d been unfair to her the entire time he was here, but again, Y/N could have let him know the ferry was running let. She didn’t have to make an ass of him. Although he supposed, again, that he hadn’t really given her the room to let him know. Whatever. Whatever, it had happened, and he planned to relax on the beach to soak it all off, since writing seemed as though it still wasn’t an option. (It was possible, he thought, that the persistent writer’s block was probably a big part of his shit attitude.)

It was only much later that evening, as Harry went to sit on the steps in the dying summer sun and read with ouzo and two small glasses (Helena had insisted, saying it would keep him from looking like an alcoholic), that he realized how different Y/N’s life really was.

There was a little landing in the stairs, just a storey below the resort itself, that had a pathway to the cellars. Harry knew from the chats he’d had with Helena in the courtyard that the little door on the side was rarely used thanks to the stairs from the kitchen, but now he could hear voices from where it was hanging ajar.

“... cannot believe you would ever speak to a customer that way! As a hotelier, you know better than that!” was the first thing Harry heard, Dee’s voice angrier than he had ever heard it. There were muffled sniffles in the background, and not for the first time, Harry felt like a proper asshole.

“I’m not a hotelier mom. I live in a hotel and I help, but I’m not a hotelier. That’s what you do. I’m just here. And I’m sick of being treated like it.” That was Y/N talking, so lowly that he could only barely hear it above the sound of the waves on the rocks below.

“Well while you’re here, a hotelier is what you will act like,” Dee responded, tone unforgiving.

“And how long is that mom?” Y/N was yelling back now, and Harry realized quietly that she had quite the temper on her. “How long am I here? Because I have begged until I was blue in the face to go to college, or Italy, or even Athens, and you’ve never let me! How long do I have to pretend like Kalokairi is all I’ll ever want when we both know it’s not?”

Harry held his breath. There was a long moment of silence.

“Y/N, you know that I don’t have the money for that --”

“I will take out loans for school. I will hitchhike, I will stay in hostels or camp illegally, I will sell everything I own, I don’t care. I just want to see -- fuck, something!” Y/N gasped, begging now. Another long moment.

“Y/N, I need you here. And I need you to do your job, the way I know you can. I’ve told you so many stories, dear. It’s not that much different out there compared to those,” Dee tried to be light in telling her story, but the tone was obviously clipped.

“Mom, I want to explore. I want to meet people, and see things. I want to make my own stories,” Y/N pleaded. Dee sighed.

“And you’ll have them, my rose. One day.”

“When?”

This time Dee didn’t respond. After another long period of quiet, Harry heard the sound of steps walking away, followed by harsh sobs.

Harry felt really, really awful. Here he’d been, so trapped by the weight of his job, that he’d forgotten how much it was that he got to do. Just like Y/N had said. So lost in his own thoughts, Harry didn’t realize that the door was opening on a tearful Y/N until they’d looked up and made eye contact. The anger he’d become so used to settled in on her face. Oh boy.

#harry styles writing #harry styles x reader #harry styles imagine #harry styles blurb #himagine

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shelbywanders · 6 years ago

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Less than $100/wk on groceries?!

If you’re anything like me, you don’t like wasting your money. You have to get your money’s worth, or it’s not worth it at all. One of my biggest struggles was grocery shopping. I HATED spending so much money on food that would just be gone in a couple of days! Dropping $200 on food a week was NOT my cup of tea, but hey, you have to eat! And grocery stores are just so tempting...

Right now, it’s just me & my fiance that eat the food. We have a four-month-old who is exclusively breastfed, and we also use cloth diapers, so we literally don’t spend any money on her when it comes to groceries! I know, love it while it lasts, right?! Even though it’s just the two of us, we were still spending way too much for my liking on groceries. But now I’ve gone from paying almost $200 a week on groceries to less than $100. And when I mean groceries, that includes all household items and toiletries. So really, I spend about $50-$60 on just food a week! How do I do it? Well honestly, there’s not a lot of tricks to it!

First things first, what are we eating this week? That’s the first question I ask myself when I go to make my grocery shopping list. Wait, back up. You don’t make a list? There’s your first problem!

Lists are VITAL to spending less money at the grocery store. Lists aren’t just great to remember things that you need to get. They serve other purposes too! I easily spend 50 bucks over my budget if I go into the store without a list prepared so now I won’t be caught dead without one. You might think that it’s silly to need such a thing, I mean come on. You’re an adult. Lists are for children. No! Listen, lists help keep my life together! When we go to the store, our eyes wander everywhere. They land on things that tempt us. You really didn’t plan on buying donuts at the store, but you spotted some, and they look soooo good..now you want them! When you write down only the things that you need, it’s easier to bypass the things that tempt you in the store. When you’re shopping from a list, your attention is focusing on the things on the paper. Therefore, you spend money on only the things you need this week and less on random items that just catch your attention when you don’t know exactly what you need. It might seem crazy that just a simple task like making a list can save you money, but you would be surprised! If you currently don’t make a list before you shop, I highly suggest to try it out and see how it goes for you!

So now we know we need to make a list. But what goes on it? It’s time to make a menu! It’s easy to forget things when we just make a list out of thin air. This is where Pinterest comes in so handy. Pinterest is a social media platform where people share recipes, home decoration ideas, inspiration for crafts and so much more. The first thing I do is get on over to Pinterest to help come up with new and easy recipes for dinners. I plan out my days and decide on what we’re going to have each day.

I am a sucker for cheap and easy meals. I mean, I have a baby, and I don’t have time to cook a dinner that takes an hour to prep and then another hour to cook. I have come up with so many dinners that are less than $10, and pretty much all of them take less than 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Some dishes take an hour to cook, but only a few minutes to prep. Those types of meals are my favorites! The only reason why I suggest Pinterest is because if you’re like me, I am not creative in the kitchen. I can cook just about anything, but if I don’t have a recipe, I have no idea where to start! I also hate having the same things over and over again, it just gets boring! It’s so easy for me to go onto Pinterest, search cheap dinner recipes and find so many different recipes to try out that don’t break the bank and help switch it up a bit to keep things fun and exciting in the kitchen!

Once I find my 7 dinner meals, I go to each one of them, and that’s how I form my list. I figure out what I need for each meal, take out what I already have at home and configure a shopping list from that. This way, I’m not just buying random things that I think I might or might not use this week. After I make my list from the recipes, I go back and add the rest of the foods I know we’ll need and then all the rest like household items and toiletries. Things that I usually add for example would be like eggs, milk, and bread. Cereal for breakfasts and lunch meat for lunches. You know, things that we use every week and that I know I need to buy no matter what the menu is.

I do realize that many people do this with their shopping lists. They know what they want to make, so people make a list of things that they need to get so that they can make it. It’s not unheard of! I used to do this too, but I would never make an actual menu for the whole week and plan my entire day out foodwise. Until I started to do that, I was still spending more money than what I wanted.

Making your menu

It doesn’t stop there! When I make my menu for the week, not only do I try to find cheap and easy recipes to follow, I try to find things that the items that I buy for one recipe will be used in another recipe too. For example, if I plan on making chili one night and I need to buy say, tomatoes, onions, and ground beef for it, I know I want to also make tacos another night so that I can use half of the tomatoes, onions and ground beef that I bought for chili for tacos too! I can buy one bigger can of tomatoes for .89 cents and split it and use it for two different meals. It’s all about looking at different recipes and seeing how you can save yourself a couple of bucks by buying bigger packages of items but using them for multiple meals.

Doing your shopping

Stores are different around the world. In my city, the biggest grocery stores that we have are Walmart, Kroger, Meijer and Aldi’s. I have shopped at all of them to compare them, and I always come back to Kroger and Aldi’s. When I do my shopping, I buy everything except protein (all the meats) at Kroger and I buy my protein at Aldi’s. Why? Because have you been to Aldi’s before?! Their protein is super cheap! Sure, it might sound annoying having to go to two different places for groceries, but I save $50 bucks easily by getting my protein at Aldi’s rather than just getting them at Kroger. So don’t be afraid to check out other grocery stores in your area and compare and contrast the prices! It might be worth it to go to two different places if you’re saving money! It is to me.

When I shop, I always buy the generic version as they are pretty much always the cheaper option. I know, the word generic sounds ugly. But honestly, most of the generic versions are still basically the same as the fancy name brand stuff! Besides, I just can’t get myself to buy something that is X amount of money when I know there’s a cheaper option available. But that’s just me! I mentioned earlier that I don’t do any couponing. Every now and then, I’ll have a coupon that I’ll use but other than that I don’t use any. Should I? Probably! But what I do pay attention to is sales. Sales! Sales! Sales! Kroger has a lot of great deals which helps my budget a lot. Never ignore the sales!

Getting home

Wait, you mean there’s more to saving money after the shopping is done? Yes! You’ve done your shopping, you’re tired, you’re ready for a bath & some wine, but you have more money saving things to do! When I used to grocery shop, I would buy one of those big things of chicken breasts (you know, the ones that look like this)

And I would just keep it like that. It wasn’t until I started portioning out my meats (therefore portioning all my meals out) that I started saving a lot of money. Not only do I portion all my meats out, but I also cut them in half. I mean those chicken breasts are HUGE! I buy the big thing of chicken, take each chicken breast and slice em in half and make twice as many meals as leaving them whole! And trust me, they are still big enough for a meal! I portion them out for two in a freezer bag. When we need to buy pork, we always buy a pork loin and then I cut them into chops if I need them or just leave it as a loin. I do the same thing when I portion them. Each meal gets its own bag. With a pork loin that costs 5-10 bucks (depending on the sale that week), you can make 3-4 meals out of it! When I need to buy ground beef, I buy the big 5 lb rolls and cut them in thirds or in half, depending on what I am using the beef for. These are just some examples of what I do with the meats I buy!

The last time I went to Aldi’s, I spent $11 on a pack of chicken breasts. They are huge, so we cut them in half, and after portioning them out, we had 11 meals! 11 meals for $11?! Yes, please! Not only does portioning the meals out help save you money, but it also makes thawing and preparing meals a lot easier too because all you have to do is take a bag out the freezer and into the fridge to thaw. No sorting out your meals or having to think about how much of what you’ll need.

So there it is! How I spend less than $100 a week on groceries! No tricks or couponing. Just planning and organizing your week makes such a difference in the money that you’re spending! To end this blog off, I wanted to include an example menu & list that I would use at my house to give you all a visual.

Mon- Oven Baked Meatball Sandwiches

Tues- Creamy Swiss Chicken Bake w Buttered Noddles

Wed- Garlic Rosemary Pork Loin w Green Beans & Mashed Potatoes

Thurs- Chili

Fri- Chicken Enchiladas w White Sour Cream Sauce

Sat- Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Sun- Lemon Buttered Tilapia over Rice

List

Bread for subs, pasta sauce, mozzarella, ground beef. Noodles, butter, mayo, parm cheese, sour cream, swiss cheese, chicken. Garlic, rosemary leaves, green beans, mashed potatoes (instant), pork loin. Tomatoes, onion, tomato sauce, ground beef, cheddar cheese, chili seasoning packet. Chicken broth, green chilies, tortillas, butter, mozzarella, sour cream, chicken. Hamburger buns, bbq, Worcestershire sauce, onion, chicken broth, garlic, brown sugar, pork. Lemon juice, butter, rice, tilapia.

As you can see, there are several items for each recipe that repeats itself. I’ll use the big ground beef for both meatball sandwiches and chili. I’ll use sour cream in the swiss chicken and chicken enchiladas, also use the mozzarella with the meatball sandwiches and enchiladas, also the butter in a ton of dishes... you get the picture! All these recipes are very different from each other yet contain a lot of the same ingredients that you can use for multiple purposes.

I’ll add on any extras like cereal, milk, eggs, bread, and other drinks. Add the household things that I might need like laundry or dish detergent and then toiletries, like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant. And then there’s my list! This was actually my grocery shopping list a few weeks ago. I spent less than $100 on it all!

Other comments & tips!

I realize that many people have bigger families to feed, but that’s okay! All of this can still help you. Most of the meals that I make, while there are only 2 of us, they could definitely feed more like 4 people. I make a lot so that I have leftovers that I can quickly heat up for lunch the next day!

The thing I like the most about making lists from menus is that it is super customizable. If your budget is $200 a week, you can make a more extravagant list. If you have time in your life to make more time-consuming recipes, you can change up your menu with more ingredients too! Just because I personally like to stick with simple but tasty and fast recipes, doesn’t mean you have to!

While I tend to buy generic items, there are plenty of ways to spice them up! I almost always buy instant mashed potatoes (I know some will cringe at this) but just add some salt & pepper, butter, garlic & sour cream & a tiny bit of cream cheese, you would think it was homemade! I buy the $1 jars of pasta sauce, add some garlic, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese & bam! So much tastier and it’s so easy to do!

If you’re interested in the recipes that I love to make (All under $10 and 30 minutes or less to cook!) make sure to follow me on my Pinterest to see what I pin!

https://www.pinterest.com/shelbywanders

Thank you so much for reading! I love saving money and love to help other people do it too! After all, saving money = happy life!

#saving money #grocery savings #grocery shopping #mommy hacks #food recipes #easy food recipes #cheap food recipes #mommyblogger #mommy blog #money #money savings #savings #organization #happy #happy life #frugal living #pinterest

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altering-perspectives · 6 years ago

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Human

As I sit in the quiet of my empty home, two children enjoying their day at school, my husband at work, the animals napping around the house, I remember. There are so many different things to remember that I can only handle a little bit at a time. I play music to reflect and let my memories pour out of me through my tears and words on this page. The haunting melodies tear at my soul and remind me that I am human and my experiences are my own, I have fought many battles (sometimes I wonder how I have done so) with so many more to come. In times like this I can let go, I can reflect, and remember how far I’ve come.

I can start with the “what used to be” mentality and rage against the world for taking so much from me. What good would it do? I had energy, memory, optimism, hope, health, family, and so much more. Now I sit here years later looking at the aftermath of the battles fought and I find myself eerily content with some of the carnage because it brought me silence, peace, and a break from the dramatic machinations of others. I used to mourn friendships lost and feel even though there were many chances to redeem the friendship before it went sour that I still could have done more. I’ve learned. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. The peace is calming as is the silence though there are times when I remember that some of these battles have left massive scars in my heart, soul, and on my body.

I’ve lost a lot. My energy, health, career, optimism, some family, a baby, friendships, and at times hope. I’ve mourned more times in my 36 years than anyone ever should. I’ve done my best with my “lemon” of a body (or rather “Lyme”), tried to do my best for my family, friends, and humanity. My battle has always been two steps forward and one backwards. It is a never-ending dance that leaves me broken, hopeless, and shattered at times. Today is one of those times.

As I clean my hardwood floors, I pick up the photo canvases that I have collected to display in a gallery wall in our foyer. I’m reminded that something is missing. Well actually it isn’t only as I clean my floors and look at pictures, its daily. You see my body is a reminder of one of my most recent and more tragic battles.

Despite the odds I found myself pregnant earlier this year (did you know in your 30s your odds of pregnancy are 20% at any given month?). I got pregnant with basically no progesterone in my body. I can notice all the small changes in my body so I noticed right away that something was weird. It was odd because my cycle had been irregular the previous month. This started the process of ultrasounds. I think I had five of my little one before 12 weeks. There were concerns about the low progesterone so I supplemented. My hyperemesis gravidarium (extreme nausea and vomiting) came back with a vengeance – I was on separate medicines to deal with the condition (the goal was to stay out of the hospital and off a PICC line). There were times I really wanted to crawl out of my body and thought to myself I wish I could make it stop. I was desperate, couldn’t sleep, was in constant pain and completely tired. I couldn’t enjoy much because of this sinister condition robbing me of the fun of pregnancy. After my 8-week ultrasound and we finally had a great ultrasound with the baby (yes he/she has a name) and saw that beautiful heartbeat I started to try to focus my energy on planning the fun things about having a baby, a gender reveal, my children having a sibling, how to tell family, a little baby in my arms, I’d give anything to have that back.

There are portions of my phone with photographs I cannot look at. It’s a section I just haven’t been able to bring myself to deal with yet. The plans for a nursery, colors, things we’d need, planning a fun gender reveal right before my birthday, and so much more. I had a list of names. Things to take my mind off that horrific condition and put myself in a positive frame of mind so I could endure and embrace the joy instead of the horror of hyperemesis. I was so excited for my 1sttrimester screen but also petrified. We had the announcement photo ready with the kids and my son came with me to the appointment. Unfortunately, my husband was busy and couldn’t come but I was going to video tape it for him. Who knew the horror that would lie ahead? I was joking with the sonographer when I noticed her concern, my 9-year-old was next to me so I asked him quickly to hop out into the waiting room to play on his iPad. It was then my world crashed. 12 weeks 5 days and I learned my baby had passed away. The chaos began. Calls to my doctor, my mother, my husband, explaining to my son what had happened. I kept my composure and let my son sit in the waiting room while I dealt with the specialist as he did another ultrasound and they informed me that my baby was gone, my body just had not recognized the loss. Walking out I had to explain things to my son, he had questions and I tried to answer everything in a kid friendly way so that he wouldn’t be scarred for life. I kept my tears hidden.

I was greeted at home by my mom. My daughter bounced home from camp excited and we had to break the news to her before heading to my OB. The decisions we had to make that day were unthinkable. I saw my baby’s form, head, body, limbs, but that screen didn’t have a flicker. I had two options: wait for my body to realize the loss (it had already been a couple weeks) or two have surgery. Coming from somewhat of a medical family I knew what this surgery was and I couldn’t contemplate this happening to my baby. I would have loved to be able to bury my little one or at least scatter ashes instead of the cold sterile way that it was dealt with in the hospital. We asked for this option but were denied because it was before 20 weeks it counted as a miscarriage. Two days later, I went into surgery. Those days of waiting were the most horrific, as I should have been waiting for those little kicks and flutters of first movement, instead I was sitting in bed knowing that I was carrying a baby who had passed away. Think about the absolute turmoil that would play on your emotions. I was wishing against all odds that it was a mistake but the ultrasound tech let me know how they knew against all odds the baby had passed (I’ll spare you the details).

The day of the surgery I was checked in to the hospital. I walked in and was completely unable to contemplate how or why this had happened. Could I have done something wrong? Was it something I ate? Did a missed dose of medicine do it? Did I eat something wrong? The questions cycled through my mind. I asked for the catholic representative of the hospital to come and pray over our baby. I knew that he/she would never get baptized and I wanted to be sure that this baby had been blessed. I was given a beautiful rosary and as hesitant as I was to have the surgery I did it. I don’t think I could have waited for two weeks to have things naturally happen (labor and all). It was that day my baby was no longer nestled safely inside of me. I know that my baby left days before and I was sure my baby was in heaven but I left that hospital feeling empty. I didn’t have the baby with ten fingers and ten toes that I was supposed to have.

The following weeks were hard. Tears and lots of them. Fights because it’s harder for some to understand the loss. I just wanted to be alone and grieve. I bought one of my favorite plants (a bleeding heart) and planted it. I had a memory stone with a quote created. I bought a garnet ring (it would have been the baby’s birthstone) to remind me of him/her. I went through so much to get to the point where I could semi re-enter society. Yet that wasn’t the end.

Did you know that your body may never act the same after you have this procedure? Periods, cycles, everything can be completely different. Did you know you could get thrown into perimenopause from this? Did you know that just because you were pregnant for however long it takes your body quite a while to readjust to life without that baby in there? Did you know that you could lactate after you lose your baby? So many things that smack you right in the face after such an utter loss. Platitudes and things such as maybe this was Gods way of saving the heartache of having a baby that had severe disabilities were not easy to hear. I understand them all logically but when we learned we were pregnant we decided we would do everything in our power to take care of this baby and make sure the pregnancy was healthy. Platitudes just don’t help when you are left empty handed.

It’s been a few months now, I adopted a kitten because I needed light and laughter in my house. His crazy kitten antics have had me laughing and yelling (claws and sharp teeth – ow), but it has brought a light into my life when I needed it. A pleasant distraction but never a substitute. While he has 10 claws and 8 claws on his teeny little feet it isn’t the same. Although, the laughter of his antics definitely helps break the mood. Life has to go on and while it does, I will still remember the day I was supposed to have the gender reveal ultrasound, I know I should be around six months pregnant now. I should have a nice round belly with kicks and hopefully feeling a bit better from the hyperemesis, but I’m not. Instead as I’m cleaning those floors I know that this child will never have a picture on my wall, a handprint canvas, a birthday party, a first day of school photo, and so much more. My body still has not recovered from this loss and is acting wonky so I’m sicker than I have been in a long time, I’m aching and screaming inside some days, and other days I’m happy and able to enjoy life.

I’ve promised to “Never let go” of the ones I love, here or in heaven and I’ll hold onto that each day as I continue to fight and battle through the barriers in front of me. I won’t let things hold me back and I won’t let my life be spoiled by things that aren’t important. I’ll hold onto the good, release the bad, and move on. I’ll never forget, I’ll never let go, and I promise that I’ll never stop remembering. I’ll remind myself that I’m human and its ok sometimes to stop and remember, to fall down and need help up, to lay your troubles down for a little while. So today I’ve let my troubles rest on this page, my tears fall down my face, and my emotions pour out of me so that I may begin again fresh tomorrow’.

“Our hearts still ache in sadness, and secret tears still flow, what it means to lose you, no one will ever know.”

All my love to my angel baby

#miscarriage #loss #missedmiscarriage #mom #angel #lyme #lateloss

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cutiecrates · 4 years ago

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Cutie Reviews: TokyoTreat April 20

Hello, here I am :3 bringing you guys another review. I’ve got time to kill while I wait for my Switch remotes to finish charging so that I can get back to the new Harvest Moon game. I also had this review ready for almost a week now and really should have gotten it up sooner <_<

For anyone new or unfamiliar with my blog, I wanted to mention that item I’ve already reviewed in the past I tend to skip as a result of not having much to say about it. Unless for some reason my opinion would have changed. If you really want to know what I think about an item I skipped, you can message me and I’ll give you the details.

“Sakura season is one of the most fun times in Japan! While enjoying the sakura and nature is great, hanging out with friends and enjoying picnics is the best part about spring! The weather is getting warmer and we’re heading to the park to party until late! Japanese parks light up the sakura at night to highlight their beautiful pink color, and people stay late eating, drinking, and having a great time! Wanna come too?“

Lucky Treat & Photo Prize

This month’s Lucky Treat and photo prize are full of adorable Pokemon goods!

Also, the last page of the booklet discusses some items Japanese like to bring with them to sakura viewing. In the past, they would normally pack bento or handmade snacks, but lately you would see things like sakura themed drinks and sweets, to the less-likely (but super-yummy) sushi, burgers, and pizza!

Frozen Coca-Cola Lemon

This is our drink this month, I was very excited. Not only because I love cola (I bought coke tic tacs if that’s any indication ;p), but because I was obsessed with lemon pepsi when I was younger, and it’s since long been discontinued. Lately, Wendy’s has been having lemon/lime cola though, and it’s amazing! I’d also recommend the strawberry Dr. Pepper if you see it.

Anyhoozles, this is a drink meant to be put into the freezer. The back marks it as 15-20 minutes wait time, but I actually had mine in there for at least an hour and it wasn’t frozen at all. Just super cold. It could be my fault because it was nearly a year old, I’m not sure, I decided to drink it anyway. It was... it reminded me of the syrupy taste you might sometimes get while drinking a slushie. It wasn’t terrible or anything, but not exactly what I was hoping for either.

Sankaku Crackers Veg. Flavor & Ham and Potato Porickey

I’ve had the first one before, so we’ll be skipping to the Porickey, which are basically savory, un-coated pocky I like to think. These were okay, but there’s barely any flavor on them; for me that’s probably a good thing because I hate ham.

Sakura Mochi Chocolate & Apple Jelly

These chocolate’s I’m very familiar with, we’ve had them once or twice before. I really like them though, I wish we’d see more of this brand in the box.

Meanwhile, the apple jelly was very much new! I love little jellies like this x3 I buy a mixed pack from the store every now and then, and when I was younger my dad used to bring some home from work, so they’ve become fairly nostalgic for me now as an adult. This one was lightly sweet with a pleasant green apple flavor, it wasn’t sour or anything.

Sakura Matcha Collon & Matcha Coconut Cookies

Our next two items are pretty unique, both featuring matcha/green tea flavoring. Collon is a fairly common snack item, they usually remind me of Combo’s, little pretzel snacks filled with a flavored cheese.

I don’t believe I’ve seen this flavor before, but I don’t dislike it. The box has a label on it saying fragrant sakura, which I would agree with. These have a flowery-sort of taste with a hint of green tea. The taste has been lingering in my mouth when I eat a couple, but it’s a nice taste.

Also, I like how this box they come in is re-sealable. That’s always very appreciated.

- - - - -

These cookies feature a sugary green tea glaze on top, giving them a lightly crunchy texture. They also come in a large pack composed of four smaller packs, each with so many cookies inside.

I really feel like green tea has been growing on me because as of late, I haven’t been completely repulsed by it like I used to be. However, I had no idea there was any coconut in them! They don’t taste like it at all, but that’s good for me again, because I also hate coconut!

Sakura Sake Kit Kats & Choco-Taro

These kit kats I remember clearly, not only because of their pretty pale pink coloring, but their strong alcohol taste. There is 0.7 alcohol, which is extremely weak I assume, but you should be careful with anyone under drinking age or those who cannot have it at all.

I’m not really fond of alcohol, but it’s okay for special occasions. These are pretty good, so I would recommend giving them a try if you really want something unique, as long as you can have alcohol.

- - - - -

The choco-taro, I feel like we’ve had before but I can’t entirely remember. It was a mildly sweet chocolate with a very soft, flaky inside that melts in the mouth a little. It wasn’t too remarkable, but it was good.

Chicken Ramen Snacks & Cabbage Chips

Nothing new here, moving on~

Taro Beans, Pollock Umaibo & Soy Sauce and Butter Popcorn

Umaibo isn’t new, and I can’t really recall if we’ve had the taro beans or not before. Kinda feel like we have, but basically they’re little crunchy, slightly salted crackers.

- - - -

The popcorn meanwhile, is a product of Fritolay under the Mike brand. They were pretty good, they tasted mostly like butter, with maybe a hint of soy sauce. They seemed to go stale a little quickly after opening though.

Ramune Candies, Burger Gummy, & Hello Kitty Sakura Candy

Sorry guys, this last pic is kinda mehhh. I accidentally deleted the original because I assumed it had been uploaded onto the computer like my others. For some reason it didn’t work. I don’t have the burger gummy in this picture now, but you’re not missing much. It was hard and unpleasant due to being so old, so after a few chews it pretty much got thrown away.

- - - - -

Our next item is this cute little pack of ramune candies, which are pressed powdered tablets. When put in water or in the mouth they dissolve, and this specific brand includes a variety of flavors, each with a cute design on the front.

Before when I had these, I had melon, so I was very happy to get a new one, more or less my most favorite fruit x3 These are lightly sweet and delicious. The melon was good too, but I think I like this one a bit more. They also come in grape, lemon, and orange.

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Our final item is a pack of sakura-shaped hard candies, available in cherry, orange, and apple! The packaging features adorable hello kitty designs and pretty flowers. The candies are very yummy too, the orange one tasted like orange soda pop, and the cherry doesn’t taste medicinal. I haven’t tried apple yet, but I assume it’ll be really good.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4 out of 5. I liked everything, and only one or two items suffered from aging I think, but only the one was actually inedible in my personal opinion. A bit repetitive, but not overwhelming. Two items in this box were present in their prior sakura-themed boxes if I recall right.

Theme - 4 out of 5. Yeah I’d say they fit the snacking theme perfectly well, there’s nothing to really complain. But if I had to, I would say that they weren’t as on point as usual with this theme as they were in prior years.

Total Rank: 8 out of 10. I really don’t have too much to leave with this time around. It featured a pleasant mix of unique snacks with more common/basic flavors, so there was something for everyone. I kinda wish they included some more savory items, but I think they cut down because of how much they were featured in March’s box.

#tokyo treat #cutie reviews

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the-genderless-cavalry · 7 years ago

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Super roommates; Chapter 2

Summary: Virgil responded to a craigslist ad about renting a house with 3 other people. There were a few warnings. Fires, messy environment, etc. But it did say that the house mates respect boundaries and personal space. That and the extremely cheap price bought Virgil on the spot. What wasn’t listed was that his three roommates were actually superheroes. This was a terrible turn of events for Virgil, seeing as though he was the villain who owned the headquarters the Trio destroyed a few weeks ago. Pairings: Prinxiety (Romantic), Platonic LAMP

A world that sends you reeling From decimated dreams Your misery and hate will kill us all *Knock Knock* So paint it black And take it back Let's shout it loud and clear

*Knock Knock Knock*

Defiant to the end We hear the call

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* To carry on We'll carry on-

“Alright! Alright! Geez” Virgil stated, turning off the music as a sign of defeat. He got up from his bed and dragged himself to the door. Opening it and looking at the unwanted visitor with a snarl. “Can I help you?” He asked sarcastically. Logan adjusted his glasses, unfazed at the response of his new roommate. “Patton cooked dinner, come up-” That was when Logan stopped. His unfazed look turned into a shocked and confused one. He caught a glimpse of the room behind the emo. The once cyan boring room became a dark cave for nightowls and emos like Virgil.

Logan tore his gaze from the room and turned to Virgil. “How did-” Logan asked, before shutting his mouth again. He had no words to help aid him in his attempt for a sentence. He awkwardly pointed backwards, gesturing for him to go out and upstairs. Virgil stepped outside and closed the door, Logan moving to the side as he did so. “K, let’s go” Virgil’s unamused reply shattered the awkward tension.

Virgil followed Logan upstairs, every step echoing through the silent atmosphere. “How did you move all those? We didn’t notice you moving furniture to your room. You know you could have always asked help from us. We’re your house mates, so we should all get along” Logan said. Yeah, that ain’t happening anytime soon. Virgil hated heroes. So, for now, he figured he’ll play along. “Yeah, sure. Just didn’t want to bother you guys” Virgil shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.

They reached the kitchen just in time to see Patton setting down a plate of meatloaf while Roman was pouring lemonade in each glass. The table had four chairs now, unlike this morning with only three. Maybe they were too busy ruining villains’ lives to remember they have a new house mate? “Heya kiddo! I hope you’re not allergic to garlic, because I made garlic meatloaf! My special recipe” Patton winked before turning around and grabbing a bowl of salad. “And salad! Because vegetables are important!”

“No, I’m not” He said, plopping himself a seat across from Roman, who took a seat after filling everyone’s glasses with the sour-sweet beverage. As Logan took a seat across an empty chair, presumably Patton’s, Patton was cutting up pieces of meatloaf into 8 equal parts, giving each head two slices each. He also placed an equal amount of salad on the side. As Virgil stared at the food in front of him, the others were already taking their first bites. How long has it been since Virgil had a homemade meal? ...Maybe the last meal where his parents were alive? Yeah. Any meal after their death was either from a restaurant, take out or instant noodles. Surprising how he survived this long with just those three options for food. “Virgil, aren’t you going to eat? Patton put a lot of effort into this!” Roman asked, his mouth half full. When was the last time he ate with anybody? A few years, maybe? D.C and the other villains usually have pizza, so Virgil took some to his room. But now, here he is. Eating with superheroes who are out to get him.

“Virgil?” Roman asked again. He snapped out to reality and noticed the others looking at him. He felt the pressure in his chest, making his heart pump faster. “Sorry... just thinking. I haven’t had a homemade meal in a while...” Virgil said, his gaze falling to the food. “Then get used to it, you’ll be getting loads of them from now on!” Patton said, stuffing another forkful of meat into his mouth. Virgil stuck his fork into the slice of meat and cut a piece off. He brought the food to his mouth and ate it. The taste of garlic and other spices blended well together with the meat. A small smile made its way to his mouth. He took another bite. And another. And another. Until his entire plate was empty. He chugged the sweet tasting lemonade, the sugar blending extremely well with the sourness of the lemon. He hadn’t had a meal like this in forever.

“You really do look like you enjoy home cooking, huh?” Logan asked, gesturing around his mouth. Virgil took the hint and grabbed a napkin from the container in front of them that was next to the sauces. He wiped the salad dressing and meatloaf juices off his face. “Yeah. I guess so” He said. He had a strange feeling. It felt weird, painful for his heart. And yet, he loved it. He hated to admit it, but he enjoyed the company of the superheroes. Maybe they weren’t so-

The notification of his phone broke the moment. Everyone looked at Virgil. He took out his phone and cautiously checked it.

D.C.

We have work to do. Meet us at the house at 12

Midnight? Really? “Who was it, Virgil?” Patton asked as he was grabbing the plates off the table. “Just my boss. He needs me to go to work at midnight. Must be a busy night if the cashier had to tune out so early” Virgil said. He wasn’t lying, they need him to work at midnight. Hoarfrost must not have wanted to work tonight, he usually ducks out of missions so Virgil has to be called. Not his problem, he was the one getting paid instead of him. “Ah. Poker houses do have that habit, do they not?” Logan said, lifting his head from a book about trigonometry. He must be tutoring tomorrow. Patton sets the dishes in the sink, ready to wash. “Ah! Patton, I can do it” Virgil volunteered. “It’s fine, kiddo! I’m the one doing chores around here” Patton laughed it off. “But you cooked the meal! And I can’t just let you have more things to do. Just, let me do it?” Virgil insisted. He wasn’t taught that way. Even villains have manners, too. Before Patton could object, Virgil already had the plates and sponge he was holding in hand. Black gloves that seemingly came from no where protected his hands from the suds and water.

“If you insist, kiddo... but... are you really sure? You know I can just-” Patton said before noticing Virgil already started rinsing the extra food scraps off the plate. Patton sighed, defeated, before going to the living room. He looked behind him,and noticed Roman and Logan were gone. He smirked before turning back to his task. He grabbed each plate and black glazed over each one, becoming shiny clean. He knew Patton was Tidal, a member of the crystal trio who can control water, but he couldn’t let someone who has done him one solid do him another without being paid back. His parents would’ve been disappointed.

...

Virgil put all the dishes into (hopefully) it’s rightful containers and withdrew back to his room. He passed by Patton and Logan, who were already heading upstairs to turn in for the night. They both greeted Virgil a safe night and Virgil greeted them good night before separating. He noticed Roman on the couch, watching Mulan on the TV. He watched from behind the couch until finally making a remark. “So, watching a Disney movie at 9 pm?” Virgil asked. Roman looked at Virgil, his gaze looking a little offended. “You can never be too old for Disney!” Roman yelled before throwing a pillow to Virgil’s face.”Hey! I didn’t say that! I meant is this normal for you? Watching Disney movies at this time of night?” Virgil clarified. “Ah! Well, before sleeping, I always end my day with a Disney movie. It just helps give the day a good ending” Roman explained. Poetic. Really poetic. He might as well be an actual prince himself. “Would you like to join me? You’ve been watching behind the couch for a good 2 minutes” Roman invited. Virgil’s face flushed. Had he really been standing there for that long? “Sure, I have 3 more hours before I have to go to work, anyways” Virgil said before setting himself down on the couch. The hero and villain sat at both ends of the couch, as far apart as possible to avoid anything awkward happening. As extra protection, Roman set the bowl of popcorn between them- providing as a barricade for the two.

Every song that played in the movie, they both sang along. Virgil had stopped watching Disney movies when he was 12, after he lost his parents; but still remembered most of the lyrics. Roman had the majority of lyrics sung, seeing as though it was his favorite movie. Nevertheless, they still had fun.

Two and a half hours later and they finished mulan and the lion king. Virgil glanced over at the clock to see he had 25 minutes to get ready. “Well, I better get going” Virgil said, getting up. He only realized now that he and Roman were sitting next to each other. Roman grabbed Virgil’s hand, stopping him from moving out. “In that?” Roman asked, looking at Virgil head to toe. His outfit did get wrinkled thanks to the small marathon they had, but honestly, Virgil couldn’t care less what he wore. Roman thinks the world of it. When Virgil shrugged, Roman stood up and quickly ran to his room- Virgil still in hand.

They ran through the hallway and reached the view-tuber's room. They quickly got in and that was when Roman released Virgil’s hand. Roman quickly went to his closet and rummaged through the assortment of clothes. Virgil stood awkwardly, his hand holding onto the his other arm. “Aha!” Roman pulled out a purple turtleneck, a black jacket, black jeans and black camper boots. “These will fit you nicely! And just your style too!” Roman threw them to the emo before shoving him into his bathroom. “Try them on!” Roman said before closing the door. Virgil quickly locked the door and sighed. What was happening? How did he get into this situation? He examined the clothes. They were in fine condition, however the angel wing design at the back of the jacket bothered him. He simply shrugged it off and tried the combo on.

He took off his jacket and shirt to reveal scars all over his body. Scars that were once wounds he had to heal by himself. Thanks to those heroes. He had to keep reminding himself who the true enemies are. People who are sharing the same house as him. He put on the clothes and looked at himself. It was okay, he looked decent. He would have preferred a hoodie, but this is good enough. He grabbed his old clothes and walked out of the bathroom to find Roman waiting for him at his vanity. Roman beamed when he saw him. “You look stunning! I knew they’d fit you. Put your clothes in my laundry basket behind my bathroom door and come over here. I’m gonna fix your makeup” Roman said. Virgil put his clothes in his laundry basket and walked over to the prince.

Prince grabbed a few eye shadows and concealers and worked his magic on Virgil’s face. “You know, I run a view-tube channel with over 2 million subs. You might have heard about me, Prince Creativity. I make-” “Fashion and makeup videos. Yes I’ve heard of you. I used to watch your videos a lot” Virgil said, finishing Roman’s sentence for him. The egoist’s expression showed shock and astonishment. “Really now?” Roman asked, a smirk playing his lips. “I suppose I was also the one who taught you how to put on our makeup?” Virgil nodded in response. Roman looked at the vanity mirror with Virgil with a proud look on his face. Virgil looked even more dark and sinister than he was before, but it complemented his outfit nicely.

As Virgil stared into the mirror, Roman chuckled. “Your hair is an extremely dark shade of black. Almost looks dyed” Roman said. Virgil shrugged. “It’s natural, believe me” “And your eyes?” Roman cocked his head to the side, smile still visible on his face. “What about my eyes?” He checked and wanted to sigh in relief to see they’re still black. “They’re like a pair of black diamonds in the midst of a wide variety of brightly colored gems” Roman said. To that, Virgil didn’t know how to respond. Is that a good or bad thing? But before he could ask for clarification, Roman had already placed his left hand on Virgil’s right shoulder. “And I mean it in a good way. You’re a good man, Virgil Dean” That struck Virgil hard. He wasn’t supposed to be a good person. He was supposed to be a villain. A person who tries to get rid of the godforsaken hero filth that crawls on this Earth. “Yeah” Virgil laughed awkwardly before standing up. “I should get going. My boss will get angry” Virgil said, seeing Roman follow his action. “And I have to get to bed, I’m going to be making another video tomorrow, and Princes have to slay” The motto of his channel. He loved the fact that Roman could use his last name in so many motivational quotes and slogans. Virgil gave a small smile before leaving him, saluting the man in bed as he closed the door.

Virgil hurriedly ran down the stairs to see he only had five minutes to get there. Instead of hurrying, however; he simply relaxed and walked out of the door. As soon as he closed the door, he sunk into the shadows- not a single trace left behind.

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phoenyx-embers · 3 years ago

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Thanks for tagging me Kiki!!!💖

Favorite color: Green

Currently reading: The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Sean Barron and Temple Grandin

Last song: Change Your Mind from Steven Universe

Last movie: Hidden Figures [also for class even though I finished class early]

Sweet/Savoury/Spicy: Depends. I am very sensitive to sweetness, and I used to be terrifed of anything spicy. Lately I've been developing more of a tolerance for it though and sometimes like spicy. I think I like salty and sour more though (ex. fries or lemon).

Three fav ships: Raeda, Yulivia, Lumity.

First ship: either Broppy or Starco, unless we are counting before I knew what shipping was. In that case, probably Fluttercord, or really Fluttershy with almost any of her friends. Applejack and Rarity maybe, or Applejack and Rainbow Dash. More than anything, I shipped Twilight x Sleep.

Comfort foods: Mint tea, raspberry tea, caramel milk tea, briwn sugar milk tea, milk tea in general, noodles, pasta in general, sushi, orange sunkist (I don't actually like orange sunkist that much, but when I was little, my dad took me to the hardware store every morning and he always bought me one.)

Fav time of the year: Hard choice. I live in southern usa, so its hot in summer, but I like to swim everyday of the summer. I like spring. Spring is when I get most of my energy back that winter stole from me. I have really bad fall allergies all the time, however, late summer/early fall is nice. That makes it a good time for my birthday, September 5th. It might actually be early August because that's when I'm free from my family. I get to go back to school and see my amazing friends again in person.

Fav fic: Can't choose. However, Don't Drink Unlabelled Potions by Adapttoeverything34, Everyoneisheretoday5, and Not Delivered by Camomile_t are both amazing. I need to read some owl house fanfictions still. Also, xSugaritos happens to be a great writer too!

Tagging: @thelavendersage @i-heart-fictional-boys @jiro-kyo-chan @becausewhatiam-iswhatimnot and anyone else!

tagged by @butchatalanta :D

favorite color: blue!! and red :3

currently reading: just comics right now

last song: The Bridge from the Arcane score

last movie: 2019 Terminator

sweet/savory/spicy: salty >:D

three fav ships: CaitJinx!! Sashannarcy, CaitVi

first ship: …Hermione/Ginny

comfort food: goldfish ^-^

favorite time of year: when it’s 17°

favorite fic: The Thunder fic!!! aka did you cut your hands on me? are my edges sharp? am i a pest to feed? by goldfyshie927 (check out all their stuff 🥰)

tagging @mira-blue @waxfeatherss @maritasdump and whoever wants to play <3

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tableandteaspoon · 5 years ago

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Monday Merriment

Infusing grandeur into otherwise drab Mondays with five ideas for the week.

I. Quarantine forced all of us into the kitchen. Some have embraced the time to learn new recipes, perfect a technique, or even begin their cookbooks. Others have a more efficient outlook, and want to get in and out of there as fast as possible. For my pantry-based culinistas, here are my top hacks to bring the depth of flavor that homemade meals offer without nearly as much effort. Hamburger Helper Beef Strogonoff: replace water with red wine, add sliced mushrooms at the same time you add the pasta, and stir in fresh sour cream before serving. Kraft or Annie’s Mac & Cheese: Make according to instruction, spoon an individual serving into a bowl and grate half a cup of sharp cheddar cheese over it. Microwave or bake until cheese is melted. Remove, stir until combined and then add a dash of your favorite hot sauce or truffle oil. Trader Joe’s Turkey Bolognese: place two servings in a large frying pan, cook on medium-low heat until defrosted, add half a bottle of red wine and a handful of chopped fresh basil, then simmer until wine is reduced. Individual Frozen Lasagna: make according to instruction and set aside. Place one cup of store-bought marinara sauce and one cup of shredded jack or mozzarella into a sauce pan, heat on medium until melted. Serve lasagna in a bowl with cheese sauce poured over it, and a slice of garlic toast. Ramen: add one bouillon cube plus a tablespoon each of rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and sriracha to your water and sauce packet before boiling. Once boiling, crack an egg into the mixture and vigorously beat with a fork until broken apart. Add ramen noodles and once finished cooking, pour into a bowl over a handful of fresh spinach and a few cilantro leaves. Squeeze one lime or lemon into the bowl and stir to complete. If you’re feeling more carnivorous, add ground turkey, pork, or beef to the bowl before pouring the ramen over. And if you’re extra ambitious, throw in a halved soft boiled egg.

II. Devastated that this year’s ArtPoint gala was canceled, a group of fellow art lovers and I were commiserating over how much we’d miss the bash, when our friend Anna came up with the brilliant idea to host a virtual version. This was a pleasant surprise, considering three of the five of us in the group chat sit on the Fine Arts Museums’ auxiliary board and the thought hadn’t occurred to us. The concept was simple - show everyone the art in your home and explain its significance. The best part - we still got to play dress up since the event took place via video (we opted for the Houseparty app, but FaceTime and Zoom are equally effective). I particularly love this idea because it gave me time to review my artwork and remember why each piece deserves to occupy the limited space in my home. The “gala” was a huge success, and such a fun way to spend time together but alone. A piece of advice if you want to host something similar - set an order for who speaks and how many pieces you’ll each discuss beforehand so that everything runs smoothly.

III. Among the sea of creative ways people are finding to pass time, one of my favorites by far has been my friend Maria and her husband Chris’s idea to batch individual cocktails and drop them at loved ones’ front doors. If memory serves, and it’s possible that it doesn’t given the volume consumed, Chris makes the best dirty martini I’ve had the privilege to imbibe. The duo chose this drink to deliver, but the approach works for anything that isn’t frozen. Replicate the thoughtful gesture by ordering french glass terrines and adding a personal note with a card or tie-on hang tag. Just make sure your recipient is home to swipe up the beverage before a thirsty neighbor preempts them!

IV. When an ex-boyfriend and I were having trouble communicating about anything other than the superficial, I was advised to give Intimacy Cards a try. Suspect, but desperate to resolve the issue, I ordered them. The gist of the cards is that each partner pulls one at random from six categories - Past, Random, Life, Relationship, Intimacy, and About You, then gives an honest answer. (I believe these cards are best accompanied with at least one bottle of wine...). Though the boyfriend and I never got around to giving the cards a shot before breaking up, I decided to experiment with them on my girlfriends. Typically, my closest crew enjoys spending Sundays creating every form of pasta imaginable. A task that produces endless hours of laughter and Instagrammable content, but also leaves us depleted by the time we actually sit down to enjoy the meal. We opted to forgo an elaborate recipe in favor of a seasonal salad paired with decadent overpriced chocolates, so that we could take turns answering our pulls from the deck. Though some questions had to be skipped, those that we did answer provided such enormous insight into our pasts and psyches that even a pair of sisters at the table learned new things about one another. I can’t recommend the provocative cards more highly. (And Amazon is still delivering them!)

V. Supporting your local restaurants and caterers (many of whom switched to prepared meal delivery in the wake of Corona) is a no-brainer if you have the resources. But what if you want to truly go above and beyond to share the wealth? Well, look no farther, because I have the perfect solution for you! Your favorite bakery is likely still operating, and would be more than happy to add a pandemic-inspired public service announcement to your confection. The Bay Area’s Butter& already prepared several options, my favorite among them being “Pretend You’re an Introvert” and would love to deliver them to all of your friends and family.

Have a wonderful week! xx tt

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tauers-go-dutch · 7 years ago

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Why Bristol?

I can’t really describe why I wanted to go to Bristol. Being a beer geek, I quickly realized that the UK has really good craft beer- most everyone’s probably heard of BrewDog, but there is also Siren, Burning Sky, Magic Rock, Buxton, and Wild Beer, to just name a few. As I kept trying new beers, I started paying attention to where they were brewed. I noticed that Wild Beer, Arbor, Moor, Tiny Rebel, and others were from Bristol, or at least nearby. Doing a bit of research, I saw there was also a Bristol Beer Week in October, where several of the neighboring breweries and bars team up to bring rare beers to the public. That, plus I had actually found that Bristol is a bit of a foodie town, I was sold- even if literally everyone asked me why I’d want to go to Bristol.

So we got into Bristol Friday evening after a bit a flight delay. We had an easy bus ride from the airport to our hotel, which was right by the main Temple Meads Station. After checking in, we had enough time for one drink. We were only a fifteen minute walk from downtown, so we wandered down to Kongs of King Street. This student bar brought me back to my college days- with a ping pong table, arcade video games, blaring rock music, and a killer beer list. Yes, even the killer beer list reminded me of college (I did go to school in Fort Collins). Despite the throwback, we definitely aren’t college kids anymore, so we called it early and got some sleep.

On Saturday, we had a food tour scheduled with the Bristol Food Tour, but it didn’t start until noon. So we strolled around and found some coffee at the Full Court Press. This small café really knew their coffee. There were several beans with different origins- Guatemala, Indonesia, Ethiopia. I went with a flat white with the Guatemalan origin bean that gave a raspberry chocolate flavor with earthy undertones- one of the best coffees I’ve ever had! Mariah had the cold brew, which was also delicious. Even though we were going a food tour, I also had a cinnamon scone and stopped at another café for a quick mushroom and halloumi brekkie sandwich (again delicious). I underestimated the amount of food that would be on this food tour- skip breakfast if you go, the quality and quantity of food is truly epic. You will not leave famished.

It was a bit of a hike to get to the starting point in Stokes Croft, the hipster neighborhood of Bristol, but we met our guide, Anika, who was a Canadian who relocated to Bristol to work in the restaurant industry. Like I said, Bristol is a bit of a foodie city- I was excited. Also, remember how literally everyone asked why we were going to Bristol? That included the people who were also on the tour- they were all local Bristolians who wanted to see what the next best thing is to eat in their town. After the initial jabs at my American accent, they all were very welcoming and very pleasant to converse with over the next three hours.

Our tour started at The Parlour, a local ice cream shop that used to be a hair parlor (yes, I am American and will leave out the ‘u’ when it isn’t in the name) in the 70s. Three generations later, the same family that owned it in the 70s runs the show today. We got to sample as much as we want, but I truly recommend the cappuccino- it was divine. Next was Flour & Ash, a pizza parlor (see what I did there J) that was started by an ex-corporate banker who wanted to do something different- don’t we all. The pizza cannot be understated; we tried three of the ever-changing selection. I loved the mushroom, but the chorizo was top notch as was the vegan featuring smoked eggplant (no aubergines here). Our guide stopped to show us a Polish Church (read Catholic Church- not common in Protestant England) and shared with us baklava from Bristanbul (I love a good pun). It was good, if almost forgettable, among the other treats on the tour. Next was a café in a laundromat (really a good idea), that featured a drink that could not be named (it was butter beer- come at me JK). Honestly, it wasn’t for me- kinda tasted like eggnog without the alcohol. Meh. Mariah was even less thrilled.

You should always start the tour with ice cream

Mariah was disappointed to find that the Butterbeer from her beloved Harry Potter books tasted more like melted butter than the cream soda she’d imagined.

Always time for some baklava

We crossed the street to a local pub called The Pipe and Slippers. We received a selection of four burgers, including the fried halloumi veggie burger. Sidenote- I’d never heard of halloumi before moving to Europe, but the English love it. It is a stiff Turkish cheese that is delicious when grilled, but it can be excessive (such as when using it to replace meat in a burger). The fried chicken and chorizo (the English love chorizo, too) burgers were good, but I actually loved the seasonal Blood and Guts burger, which featured a slab of blood sausage. If you Google blood sausage, it’s easy to get turned off, but I promise it is good. The fries (not chips) are solid too. Oh, and don’t forget to grab a local brew from the bar.

At this point I’m getting full, but we walked a little further while admiring the street art. Bristol has a vibrant street art community, probably most famously known as the home of Banksy. Stokes Croft has ton on display, and I was loving it. Our next place was a brunch spot called Ceres that was started by a Melbourne chef, and it was amazing. Serious, each time I think I’ve found the best brunch, someone just raises the bar. The food in England gets a bad rap, but the brunch game is on point. We had a dish with maize pancakes with a perfectly poached egg, but the black rice porridge with coconut milk, mango, and lemon balm sealed the deal. That dish was epic, and worth the price of admission.

The amazing black rice pudding

Afterwards, our guide brought us to the Bear pit, which is an outdoor art venue where aspiring street artists and practice and display their work. We had a bit of chocolate from Zara’s Chocolates- I really enjoyed the mint chili crisp. Then we walked back to the downtown area, saw more stunning street art, and eventually made our way to St. Nicolas Market. There we found a gyoza restaurant called eatchu (not capitalized). It was started by some locals after living in Australia and studying under a Japanese chef, and the handcraft love and care that goes into the more than 500 gyozas sold each day really shows. Meanwhile, our guide went and brought us some delicious cakes from Ahh Toots- the Orange Chai was my favorite.

In the Bear pit

Selfies are hard

So ended our tour, but we had plenty of other sites to see… but they’d have to wait until tomorrow because the sky opened up and the rain came down. Well, we just holed up in local brewery- Zerodegrees. These guys specialize in lagers, and they make some good ones. I enjoyed the slightly meltier Vienna lager, while Mariah enjoyed a black currant Berliner Weiss. Once the rain died down, we made our way to Wild Beer Co. I definitely recommend these guys if you’re looking for something different. They specialize in beer fermented with wild yeast, creating unique flavors, which can range from bone dry funk to juicy sour fruit. Maybe not always great, but definitely unique. We closed the night going to two fantastic beer bars, Small Bar and The Beer Emporium. Small Bar might have had a better tap list, but The Beer Emporium had a unique ambiance in an old underground cellar.

The next day we finally saw more of the city, but not after heading to another great brunch spot, Brew (not going to lie, I seriously debated going back to Ceres). Brew held its own with solid poached eggs, bacon, and toast. So we made our way to the Clifton Bridge (the park to the right has a great view), and back to Cabot Tower. It is free to climb Cabot Tower, and there is a great view of the city. Afterwards, we had a ‘treat yourself’ moment at the Bluebird Tea Co. The people there were extremely friendly, and explained how the quaint little tea shop is rapidly expanding all over England- including just opening a store in London. Their teas are still house blended by the founder, who also creates cute puns to name the blends (serious, I think puns are a source of English pride). We bought the founder’s book, an Advent calendar, several bags of loose leaf tea, and a gift set or two for the holidays (can’t spoil who they’re for). We then saw a vintage Banksy (unfortunately splattered with blue paint). We fought the wind walking the Wapping Wharf, and got a burger at the local joint, Squeezed. The burger was good, but the fries were really tasty since they had a light dusting of both salt and sugar. We went back to the Wild Beer Co. (also at Wapping Wharf), and enjoyed a beer before getting on our afternoon flight home.

The famous Clifton Bridge

Mariah was in heaven

Cabot Tower and the view from the top

A Banksy original, ‘Well Hung Lover”

Overall, Bristol was the least touristy place we’ve been so far, which was refreshing. Admittedly, it is a little sleepy, but there is enough culture, from the street art, to the food, to the beer, to justify a weekend trip. While we didn’t have enough time to do this, you can spend more time in the area by taking a quick train to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, Bath, home of the famous Roman ruins, and Stonehenge. Definitely keep this small city on your radar if touring through England!

Tot ziens for now.

#Bristol #Bristol Beer Week #Tauersgodutch #tauers go dutch

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suckitsurveys · 7 years ago

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1. What’s the last thing you ate? Overnight oats with peanut butter and banana.

2. What’s your favourite cheese? Goat and cheddar.

3. What’s your favourite fish? Catfish, if crab doesn’t count as a fish.

4. What’s your favourite fruit? Pomegranates, watermelon, pineapple, bananas.

5. When, if ever, did you start liking olives? I don’t remember? I never liked the Kalamamamamama olives they have in greek salads, but I love black olives and green olives with pimento. That was always on my dad’s go-to tray of appetizers when we’d have Christmas at our house. 3 kinds of olives, some cheese, and salami or whatever. I always ate the green and black olives from there. I also like green olives stuffed with other things too, like bleu cheese or garlic.

6. When, if ever, did you start liking beer? I only like some beers really. I think I’ve been conditioned to like it at baseball games because my dad does, haha.

7. When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? My whole life dude. When my parents would go out to dinner with us when we were little, they always just gave us stuff from there plates to eat. So if someone had lobster or crab legs or shrimp I would too.

8. What was the best thing your mom/dad/guardian used to make? My dad makes KILLER bleu cheese dressing. I could eat that shit with a spoon it’s SO GOOD. He also makes amazing spaghetti sauce and is pretty good at getting popcorn perfect everytime. My mom used to make really good beef stew, and her famous potatoes and eggs fr dinner. She also made the BEST potato salad, and that recipe has been handed down to me. Everyone claims it’s amazing, but I still think she made it better.

9. What’s the native specialty of your hometown? Deep dish pizza, hot dogs, beef sandwiches, caramel and cheese popcorn.

10. What’s your comfort food? Everything.

11. What’s your favourite type of chocolate? Milk chocolate. With caramel. 12. How do you like your steak? Medium rare.

13. How do you like your burger? Medium rare.

14. How do you like your eggs? In omelet form.

15. How do you like your potatoes? I ain’t got no type.

16. How do you take your coffee? I don‘t, really.

17. How do you take your tea? Green.

18. What’s your favourite mug? The one I use most often is just a plain red one that I got from Home Goods because it came with a tea infuser.

19. What’s your biscuit or cookie of choice? Sugar cookies. My favorite ones are actually those Pillsbury pre-made-dough ones you break off and bake. I also love Oreos.

20. What’s your ideal breakfast? Lox and bagels.

21. What’s your ideal sandwich? ^. Or tuna on any bread.

22. What’s your ideal pizza: Very saucy, lightly cheesy, with pepperoni and black olives.

23. What’s your ideal pie (sweet or savoury)? Cheesecake. <– Same, and it’s been waaaay too long since I last had a good piece of cheesecake. <----CHEESECAKE IS NOT PIE YOU HEATHENS, IT’S CAKE. Anyway, pumpkin pie has been my go to since I was a baby.

24. What’s your ideal salad? I don’t really have an “ideal” salad, but I like spinach salads with various toppings.

25. What food do you always like to have in the fridge? Hmm. Eggs, soy milk, condiments and marinades, sriracha, pickles, olives, cheese, water.

26. What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Ice. :P And frozen dinners for Mark. We don’t buy a ton of frozen stuff.

27. What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? Oatmeal, Ramen and other soups, pasta, rice, flour, breadcrumbs, olive oil and other oils, tea.

28. What spices can you not live without? Celery salt, red pepper, and cilantro. And of course salt and pepper.

29. What sauces can you not live without? Sriracha.

30. Where do you buy most of your food? Jewel-Osco. We might start shopping at Aldi for boxed and bagged goods. I don’t trust meat and produce from there though.

31. How often do you go food shopping? Twice a week. Once on Sunday to get lunch things and snacks for the week and dinners for that night, Monday, and Tuesday, and then Wednesday just for dinner things for that night, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

33. What’s the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? I mean, probably the fridge or stove? We don’t really own those though? Sooooo the food processor?

34. What’s the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? It’s been a while since we’ve actuall bought something for the kitchen. A lot of our stuff is hand-me-downs or wedding gifts. So probably something from when we first moved in and needed basic things like plates and silverware.

35. What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? Probably most of them? Like we need the fridge and stove for obvious reasons, so I guess next to that, the microwave?

36. How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? We try to almost every night.

37. What’s the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? Chicken and spinach last night, unless overnight oats count, which I made shortly after that to eat this morning.

38. What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig and poultry? I’ve had lamb, duck, goat, alligator, buffalo, and ostrich. Well I guess duck and ostrich are poultry?? Oh and a shit ton of seafood too since that wasn’t listed in the question. Way too much to name.

39. What’s the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? Yesterday. I ate a chip that fell in sand oops. Haha.

40. What’s the last time you ate something you’d picked in the wild? Uh, I mean, we have a veggie and herb garden in our yard. I packed some cucumbers and tomatoes from there for lunch today.

41. Arrange the following in order of preference: Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Sushi – Sushi, Thai, and Mexican are tied for first. Then Italian, Indian, Chinese.

42. Arrange the following in order of preference: Vodka, Whiskey, Brandy, Rum – Rum, Vodka, Whiskey, Brandy.

43. Arrange the following in order of preference: Garlic, Basil, Caramel, Lime, Mint, Ginger, Aniseed – I have no idea what aniseed is, but the rest are all tied.

44. Arrange the following in order of preference: Pineapple, Orange, Apple, Strawberry, Cherry, Watermelon, Banana. – Watermelon, pineapple, banana, strawberry, orange, apple, cherry.

45. Bread and spread: Um. My favorite bread is garlic bread, if that’s what you’re asking.

46. What’s your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? Popeye’s. I get chicken strips and Cajun fries. If they are having some promotional thing with the strips I’ll probably get that.

47. Pick a city. What are the best dining experiences you’ve had in that city? Any city and any restaurant that has crab legs is a good dinning experience in my mind.

48. What’s your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? What the hell is a tipple?

49. What’s the next thing you’ll eat? Lunch. I made tuna and have cucumbers and tomatoes to eat with it. I brought bread too but I probably wont end up eating that.

50. Are you hungry now? I’m a little hungry.

51. Do you eat your breakfast everyday? Yes. I have oatmeal or cereal every day.

52. At what time do you have breakfast? When I work, it’s sometime after 7am. On weekends, it’s whenever I get up.

53. At what time do you have lunch? 11:30am on weekdays, whenever on weekened.

54. What do you have for lunch? I mentioned this above.

55. At what time do you have dinner? around 7.

56. What do you have for dinner? Obviously different things every night? Tonight’s dinner is up in the air because my cousin is coming in from Hawaii and we are staying with my dad so my he will most likely order takeout.

57. Do you light candles during dinner? No.

58. How many chairs are there in your dining room and who sits in the main chair? We don’t have a dining room in our apartment. We have a kick ass coffee table that pulls up to dining-table height and we eat on the couch at that.

59. Do you eat and drink using your right hand or the left one? I eat with my right and I don’t have a hand preference with my drinks.

61. Mention the veggies that you like most: Spinach, asparagus, zucchini, butternut squash.

62. What fruit and vegetable do you like the least? Apparently fennel is a vegetable, so that. And water chestnuts if that’s a veggie too. My least favorite fruit is blackberries and raspberries.

63. You like your fruit salad to have more: Watermelon.

64. You prefer your vegetable salad to contain more: Uh. Cucumbers, I guess? Is a vegetable salad just raw veggies thrown together?

65. What’s your favourite sandwich spread? Peanut butter, I guess?

66. What’s your favourite chocolate bar? Butterfingers.

67. What’s your favourite dessert? Brownies or cheesecake.

68. What’s your favourite drink? Root beer. Preferably Barq’s.

69. What’s your favourite snack? Chips and guac or salsa, popcorn, Goldfish crackers, Cheez-its, Chex mix.

70. What’s your favourite bubble gum flavour? WATERMELON BUBBLICIOUS. I haven’t had that in a hot minute.

71. What’s your favourite ice cream flavour? Salted Caramel Butter Pecan. Only one brand makes it. I haven’t seen it in a while though.

72. What’s your favourite potato chip flavour? Sour cream and cheddar.

73. What’s your favourite soup? Potato. Egg lemon. Lobster bisque.

74. What’s your favourite pizza? Deep dish from Lou’s, thin crust from Marie’s, and 8-corner pan pizza from Jet’s.

75. What’s your favourite type of dish? Seafood dishes.

76. What food do you hate? I’ve kinda mentioned these throughout this survey. There’s not much I dislike.

77. What’s your favourite restaurant? Any place with crab legs.

78. Do you eat homemade food, food delivered from outside? Both.

80. Who cooks at home? Mark usually.

81. What kind of diet (e.g. low-fat, high-fiber, high-carbohydrate, balanced diet etc.) do you have? I try to balance it.

82. How do you keep yourself fit? I work out every day. I’m by no means “fit” yet, but I am getting there.

#surveys #food

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midnightmuncher9 · 6 years ago

Photo

Preservation

So for this blog post I decided I wanted to do pickling, and fermentation. The vegetables I decided to use for both were carrots, white pearl onions, cucumbers, and chilli peppers.

From what I understand reading online, by adding the vegetables to a 2%-5% salt brine you creating an anaerobic environment, which allow good bacteria to grow and stop bad bacteria from growing. The fermentation allows lactic acid to be produced, which gives the vegetables their salty/funky taste. You want all the vegetables under the surface of the water because anything above the water is exposed to air, and that will make the vegetable rot and spread bad mold everywhere. After about a week to two weeks the vegetables are ready to consume, you can keep the vegetables in the fridge to drastically slow down the fermentation process, allowing you to store your vegetables for long periods of time. I learned quite a lot from LINK 1 and LINK 2.

Recipe:

250g White pearl onions (5mm Slices)

500g Carrots (5mm Slices)

80g Hot Peppers

1 Bunch of Dill

6 Cloves of Garlic

Crushed black peppercorns

750ml Water

35g Salt

Collect all your ingredients and jars

Slice up all vegetables into bite-size pieces.

Coat your vegetables in salt and let it sit for a few hours. Moisture should be removed from the vegetables.

Add all your dill, black peppercorn, and crushed garlic to the jars.

Add 35g of salt to 750ml of water and pour it into the jar, making sure to cover all the vegetables.

Let the fermentation process begin. The water should turn cloudy as time goes on.

Its been about 2 weeks since I started to let my vegetables ferment so I decided to give it a taste test to see how it is. Out of the carrots, white pearl onions, and cucumbers I will do a sensory evaluation on the cucumber because that was my favorite.

The taste of fermented cucumbers is very similar to a store bought dill pickle. It had the crunchy sound and feeling when I bit down into it and it sounded exactly like a firm pickle you would buy from the store. The taste was salty with a hint of sourness, but a good sourness, nothing compared to a lemon. There was also a small undertone of sweetness. The smell the pickles gave off was a pleasant mild salty brine smell. The feel of the cucumbers were slightly firm but wet, feeling as though there were actually soaked in something. I feel like this fermentation was a success, I was very hesitant to try the vegetables because it looked like mold was growing on the top of the water and the water was all cloudy. It did not look appetizing at all, but once I took my first but I was hooked! The one thing I would do differently next time is to add some apple cider vinegar to add a little bit more sweetness to my vegetables.

#theory

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meepface · 7 years ago

Text

i’ve had a weird day so far and doing this is purely for distraction purposes just ignore me

1) What images do you have set for your desktop/cell phone wallpapers?

home screen

and my lock screen is my gf

2) Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?

oooohhh yeah. one of my first super gay crushes was on my 7th grade english & composition teacher Ms. Lawrence. i just recently unadded her on facebook bc i thought it was weird that i had her added but i’m a lil sad i did it bc that was a big ol phase of my life and i liked her soooo much ya know. i also had a big crush on this dorky geography/tennis/psychology teacher Mr. Whittlesey. he was so cute and goofy i love that man

3) What was your last text message?

i was offering to drive over to visit a friend and bring her comfort food bc her and her fiance just broke up :(

4) What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

uhh i don’t really think that far ahead but hopefully i am happy and have a stable job and hopefully i’m with the person who i’m planning on spending forever with and i have a nice lil place. maybe i’ve even finally moved out of texas by then

5) If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be?

honestly the mountains would be really nice. i really miss em and they make me feel really happy n peaceful and idk if my family and i are going to get to go or not this summer

6) What was your coolest Halloween costume?

idk one year i wrote “life” on a shirt and went around handing people lemons all night which was Extra as hell but it was also sort of iconic

7) What was your favorite 90s show?

friends

8) Who was your last kiss?

my gf

9) Have you ever been stood up?

no i don’t believe so

10) Favorite ice cream flavor?

mint chocolate chip

11) Have you been to Las Vegas?

no but my parents have been WITHOUT my brother and i!! i would love to go at least one time though

12) Your favorite pair of shoes?

i like my vans they’re comfy

13) Honestly, have you ever cheated on your significant other?

no, that is one thing i would never do. esp since it was done to me and even though our relationship hadn’t been that serious, it still sucked

14) What is your favorite fruit?

watermelon and peaches and apricots

15) Have you talked to anyone on tumblr that you could see yourself dating/having sex with? If possible?

honestly? i maybe could’ve seen myself dating a few people here but only if they were here in person with me lol i'm not interested in online relationships at all so

16) Are you into hookups? Short or long term relationships?

long term relationships i ain’t tryna mess around rn

17) Do you smoke? If so, what?

i don’t but i would like to smoke weed at least once in my life just to experience it ya know

18) What do you do to get over your anger?

sing really loudly to music in my car until i am Tired or just vent on my private sideblog

19) Do you believe in God?

i’m sure there’s something out there but who knows what

20) Does the person you’re in love with know it?

yes

21) Favorite position?

laying the fuck down

22) What’s your horoscope sign?

aries

23) Your fears?

settling for less than i deserve or want just bc being happy requires work that seems scary or difficult or would hurt someone, scorpions, the ocean, walking sticks, horses, never being enough for anyone, not finding stability in my life

24) How many pets do you have? What kind?

i have four dogs named Sophie, Millie, Rusty Bob and Joey

25) What never fails to turn you on?

gettin soft kisses on my stomach n hips

26) Your idea of a perfect first date?

we do some sort of fun activity together, we have a nice dinner and maybe chill in our cars after and talk n maybe kiss a bunch depending on how the date went

27) What is something most people don’t know about you?

i can sing kinda well ?? maybe not anymore it’s been a while since i have but i used to be in musical theatre and they wanted me to be a lead role in the musical but i was too much of a pussy and i didn’t

28) What makes you feel the happiest?

having fun bein surrounded by people i love, also when dogs are so happy to see you that their tails wag their whole butt

29) What store do you shop at most often?

probably forever 21 or h&m bc i’m all about affordable clothing that’s semi-cute

30) How do you feel about oral? Giving and/or receiving?

i’m down for both

31) Do you believe in karma?

sure

32) Are you single?

nope

33) Do you think flowers or candy are a better way to apologize?

“i’m sorry, i understand that this hurt you and i understand why and i will work on not doing this again in the future” followed by actually working on not doing that again in the future is the better way to apologize, actually

34) Are you a good swimmer?

eh i’m okay

35) Coffee or Tea?

coffee

36) Online shopping or shopping in person?

in person

37) Would you rather be older or younger than your current age?

i kinda like being 20 i think it’s nice to be right in the middle

38) Cats or Dogs?

dogs

39) Are you a competitive person?

in mario kart maybe but generally no

40) Do you believe in aliens?

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

41) Do you like dancing?

yes but i’m no good at it

42) What kind of music to you listen to?

i like upbeat alternative music generally

43) What is your favorite cartoon character?

eeyore

44) Where are you from?

texas unfortunately

45) Eat at home or eat out?

idk my dad’s home cooked meals have gotten pretttttty good but if i can’t have whatever he’s making then i wanna eat out

46) How much more social are you when you’re drunk?

i’m definitely more talkative and i laugh out loud a lot more

47) What was the last thing you bought for yourself?

i bought myself a meal last night but today i’m gonna go out and buy myself some shorts and a bikini so i’m hyped for that

48) Why do you think your followers follow you?

probably from when i blogged about youtubers back in the day, also i hosted these selfie party things and shared everyone’s selfies to boost their confidence and so many people followed me bc of those

49) How many hours do you sleep at night?

not enough

50) What worries you most about the future?

not finding stability in what i want to do and not doing what i want and what would make me happy just bc it would be challenging

51) If you had a friend that spoke to you the same way you speak to yourself, how long would you be friends?

i’m learnin a whoooole lot of self love so maybe we’d be friends a lil longer than i would’ve been if you’d asked me this in like, february

52) Are you happy with yourself?

i mean? i’m happy with where i’ve come. definitely could improve but ya know. baby steps

53) What do you wish you didn’t know?

there’s too many things i wish i didn’t know to be honest

54) What big lesson could people learn from your life?

puttin other people first too much only makes you know and love yourself less

55) If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

the loft from New Girl

56) What’s your favorite Website?

runescape

57) What’s the habit you’re proudest of breaking?

getting rid of this fb account i had and then also this private twitter account i had that i sorta used to vent and also overshare too much lmao

58) What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles?

i went to NYC before christmas last year!! my family and i are hoping we’ll be able to go to Washington this year

59) What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found at a garage sale or thrift store?

probably my mug that says “i’m too sexy to be 60″ that i bought for like $2

60) What do you order when you eat Chinese food?

i reaaaaally like kung pao chicken but sometimes i like to get sweet and sour or sesame chicken and then i’ll get wonton soup and eggrolls and white rice and sometimes edamame ooooo my god

61) If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?

idaho just so i could call myself a ho all the time

62) If you had to teach a subject to a class, what would it be?

psychology or cinematography

63) Favorite kind of chips?

lays limón chips

64) Favorite kind of sandwich?

i really like the new york italian sandwich from Thundercloud

65) Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

dictionary probably??

66) Have you ever been stung by a bee?

nope but one time i was carrying a balloon and a bee came up and stung my balloon and died and i was like oh

67) What’s your favorite form of exercise?

just goin for a walk is nice

68) Are you afraid of heights?

not heights but falling lmao

69) What’s the most memorable class you’ve ever taken?

probably my film class junior year of high school. i was part of the school’s daily announcement team and we made intros for it based off of popular TV shows and we did this whole project about drinking and driving and my teacher was so great and i had a crush on every single boy in that class

70) What’s your favorite breakfast?

i love breakfast tacos

71) Do you like guacamole?

yes

72) Have you ever been in a physical fight?

i punched a girl in kindergarten but she didn’t hit me back and i pushed a kid over in spy camp in like fourth grade but he didn’t fight me back and i shoved a really stoned guy in a pit at a concert two years ago bc he was being a dick but he was too stoned to fight me back so what i’m saying is i sort of have tried to start a fight but nobody has taken one for the team and kicked my ass yet

73) What/who are you thinking about right now?

i’m thinking about how today sorta sucks but i feel like, too sad to go out and hang out with someone and do something about it so i am just going to stay here. maybe i will eat soon if i can get myself out of bed lol

74) Do you like cuddling?

it’s my faaaaavorite

75) Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?

yeah

76) Have you ever experienced one of your biggest fears?

yeah lol

77) Favorite city you’ve been to?

hmm i really really liked Hood River, Oregon but probably mostly bc of the people i knew there and everything making it special. i loved Columbus, Ohio for that same reason too. i thought Ohio was gorgeous. i also loved Flagstaff, Arizona just because it was beautiful and quaint and i would love to go back

78) Would you break the law to save a family member?

depends on the family member

79) Talk about an embarrassing moment?

just a few weeks ago i was in my summer class and we had about 10 minutes until we got out and it’s like 1 so i was starving and ready for lunch so i was looking at my food options in the area and next thing i knew Siri screams into my quiet classroom “starting route to Raising Cane’s”, and everybody laughed and my teacher was Annoyed. and then when we finally got out i thought everybody had moved on and then the guy who sat next to me, WHO HAD NEVER SPOKEN TO ME ONCE, goes “have fun at Raising Cane’s!”

80) Are there any causes you strongly believe in?

anything to do with women/POC/LGBTQIA+ rights

81) What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

one time i was showin off on my razor scooter while zoomin down a steep hill and i fell off and got scars all over my body and a young girl witnessed it but didn’t say anything or do anything she just left me layin there and crying on the pavement

82) Favorite day of the week?

thursday is nice

83) Do you consider yourself sexually open minded?

uhh i mean yeah i guess

84) How do you feel about porn?

i feel like it gives you really false expectations about what sex is going to be like when people watch too much of it

85) Which living celebrity would you like to know?

i’d like to be good ol pals with Mamrie Hart still

86) Who was your hottest ex?

my exes were all ugly

87) Do you want/have kids?

i think i would like kids at some point. at least one

88) Has anyone ever told you that they wanted to marry you?

yes

89) Do you get easily distracted?

yes sometimes

90) Ass or titties?

titties

91) What is your favorite word?

serendipity

92) How do you feel about tattoos?

i have three and i love em. go for it pal

93) Do you have any pets?

i have four dogs

94) How tall are you?

5′7

95) How old are you?

96) 3 physical features you get complimented on a lot?

my hair, my eyes, my stomach

97) Is there anything you’re really passionate about?

yes i am v passionate about supporting other women!!!! and also about trying to be kind to everyone the most you can be bc i hear so many people spout rude things about people they don’t even know (esp when driving) and it’s like stop and listen to yourself lmao

98) Do you have trust issues?

a little bit but i’m trying to be more open and it hasn’t hurt me yet so

99) Do you believe in love at first sight?

absolutely not. that’s called infatuation

100) What are some words that you live by? Why?

two quotes: “anything that costs your peace is too expensive” and “let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier”.

i think the first one is important because i have a tendency of putting myself through a lot of shit to make other people happy and then i’m really unhappy and it’s just not a good way to live. i am really trying to learn this one. and the second one i think is important because being good to other people is a very important thing and i think you never know when somebody else needs that

#like if ya read #i started this yesterday and finished it today bc i didn't have the motivation to finish it yesterday! a new low!#nah today doesn't have to be so bad though #i am gonna go put on some nice music and have some coffee #long post #about me

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jeninthegarden · 6 years ago

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2019 Seed List

Yes, I already bought everything. No dithering this year. But the seed catalogues keep coming. Must resist buying anything more.

I feel like this is a very modest seed list compared to some years. It feels plausible, and sufficient. Okay, I got a little crazy with the broccoli. But otherwise I feel I was very restrained. I did not buy any herb or flower seeds because I usually just pick those up as plants in the local nursery.

Legumes:

Peas – “Lincoln”, from Park Seed is a standard, heat tolerant, high yielding pea variety I have grown before and saved seeds for five years successively. Park Seed’s “Sugar Sprint” is an extra early, extended harvest variety that can be planted spring and fall.

Runner beans- So, I have successfully grown scarlet and emperor runner beans which are red flowering. And I have grown painted lady which is candycane stripe flowering, but this time I am trying a hybrid white flowering from Park Seeds called “Stardust” – “a cross of a succulent, tender French dwarf bean with a robust, vigorous runner! The result of many years of breeding, Stardust delivers generous yields of huge, delectable foot-long pods on handsome climbing plants.”

Bush beans- Park Seed’s “Velour” is a compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.

Fruits:

Tomatoes – Going with Park Seeds because they offer smaller seed packs so you can grow a greater variety: Black Krim, Big Rainbow, Mortgage Lifter, Purple Cherokee, San Marzano paste, Giant paste

Corn – Why? It never works out. But I cannot resist the 3 sisters method of planting corn beans and squash together. So this year I am trying Burpee’s Maple Candy sweet corn. I don’t have high expectations about producing muck corn, but, the beans need something to climb so why not.

Eggplant – Hold my horses! I get fixated on all the different types of eggplant I could grow BUT: the Thai green and berry, Louisiana long green and Indian brown need more heat than we get; the Turkish orange variety are too bitter; the Israeli baladi purse eggplant don’t germinate well; the ghost white are bland, as are the rose pink. I need to grow standard black for roasting, and Japanese long for stir fry and grilling. So I am going with a Terratorial Seed’s traditional Italian black eggplant that fruits prolifically over 3 months, and the “millionaire” variety that is a long, black Japanese variety.

Pepper – I’m just really over bell peppers. Last year they were copious but got sunburned and rotted because I just didn’t pick them. I find myself buying bags of small, sweet red and yellow peppers, so maybe I will try growing small sweet mixes. I am going to try some hybrid sweet/hot varieties. Mix/match 3 pack of plants: sweet/spicy jalapeno, sweet/smoky cayenne, and sweet/fruity habanero from Burpee.

Zucchini – one zucchini plant will feed a family of four for a year. Everyone fixates on baby zucchinis and despises the baseball bat sized. I really love eating the blossoms, but since I bought the vegetable spiral cutter, I find that a nice, midsized (10 inches long and 3 inches diameter) zucchini has starchier flesh and makes superior vegetable noodles either spiral cut like spaghetti or thin sliced ribbons for lasagna or raviolis. They also make much creamier zucchini fries. Burpee fordhook heirloom is an excellent staple, but the Burpee’s Sure Thing variety really does well with less sun, and is very resistant to powdery mildew so I’m going with that one.

Cucumber-these are like peas, there are never enough of them. They make wonderful pickles, salads, soups, cocktails. They taste great with lemon, watermelon, cabbage, vodka, lemonade, tomatoes, salt, sugar, sour cream, onions, feta cheese, smoked salmon, crab, and caviar. This year I am trying Territorial Seed’s “Bushy” pickling gerkin because it is early fruiting and compact bush vining to save space.

Melon- need something that will grow fast. I can’t trust the summer to be hot enough long enough, so I focus on varieties that grow in the northern plains or Canada. However, Burpee has developed a cantaloupe they say is mango-flavored, so I’m going to give it a try.

Pumpkin- I am beyond jack-o-lanterns. I really want to grow pumpkins I can eat. They are so healthy for you and you get more meat per fruit than you do from sweet potatoes. Roast pumpkin like squash (it IS squash), dice it into wild rice pilaf, mash it like sweet potato, mix it into bread, pasta, pancakes, waffles. I am going with Burpee’s Cherokee bush pumpkin – shorter vines and more pumpkins, dry, yellow meat good for baking. (But I still have some Dill's Altantic Giant seeds left from last year and it would be a shame not to plant them...)

Squash: I know the bush pumpkins and bushy cucumbers, and the mango melons are good enough for the three sisters planting, but I really like delecata squash so I am going to try Territorial Seed’s “Honeybush” which is a little larger and more tan color than a standard delecata.

Okra – Burpee’s “Okra Go Big”, I have recently learned that I really like okra blistered and dipped in chili salt and humus. And, a member of the local garden club grew two big bushes of it last season. This is a seven foot tall bush okra, so I’m jumping into the first attempt at growing okra in a big way.

Roots:

Radish- why, why try again? I am obsessed with the giant varieties I have tasted at the farmer’s market. Black Spanish radishes stuffed with clams oreganata, watermelon daikon thin sliced and wrapped like mini tacos around roast duck. I have selected Territorial Seed’s Watermelon daikon (very crisp, large and sweet) and Spanish black radish (very large, firm and spicy like horseradish).

Beets- they are such a staple, so versatile, but taste so good with goat cheese. I also like them pickled. One of my biggest mistakes with beets is that I don’t thin them ruthlessly enough, even though I really like the greens. (Um, so how about planting tape, Jen? Nah, too complicated. Um, they sell it with the seeds already stuck to it at the right intervals, Jen…Nope, not doing it.) So this year I have chosen Territorial Seed’s cylindrical beets because they are more carrot shaped and don’t need to be thinned as much.

Turnip- they are soooo delicious pickled I like them better than pickles. They can also be mashed like mashed potatoes, with horseradish and scallions. But I get a little crazed about the tops, because those are really tasty too. So this year I am being very extravagant and growing both Park Seed’s standard purple top white globe which is a national standard turnip grown in spring or fall and Park Seed’s Alamo hybrid that produce big greens with rapid regrowth for multiple harvests, and is bolt resistant.

Carrot- we eat lots of carrots. I have to say the yellow varieties are really the sweetest. But Dan likes the heavy orange stew carrots for cooking. So I’m going with Park Seed’s rainbow mix, six inch regular season carrots and Park Seed’s sow all season big Nantes type orange carrot

Not going to try celeriac again. And I am not growing rutabaga either. The burdock went to seed last fall so that is already sown – I am not growing it, but I will certainly harvest it. I might transplant some to the new bed by the west wall since it is a weed and I don’t care if the deer eat it. Similarly, I have salsify and scorzonera seeds left over, and they are actually perennials that bloom, so I might plant them in clumps by the west wall.

Potatoes- a root? Not really (not according to crop rotation charts), but it grows below ground, or it should. I’ve been dithering about with grow buckets the last 4 years with limited success while they’ve been thriving in random spots where they’ve been composted, so this year they go back in the ground. I like the purple potatoes best, but I’m going to do the red white and blue mix: Yukon gold, Colorado Red and Purple Viking.

Greens:

Orach: deep magenta, slightly velvety, spade shaped leaves on an 18 inch stalk. It tastes like spinach but takes up less space and looks stunning in salad.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. “This annual green is high in vitamin C, and native to many moist areas of the country. The leaves are rather heart-shaped, and provide a substantial addition to salads and sandwiches. Probably the most cold tolerant of the greens, Miner's Lettuce will grow year-round in the cloche, greenhouse, or even unprotected in the maritime Northwest. Quickly regrows after harvest.”

Lettuce: romaine lettuce, of course. But I saw a lovely pale pink variety in the store and I can’t find seeds anywhere, so I am going with a good sturdy standard from Territorial Seed, “Winter Density” early growing, compact but round head – not the “Eiffle Tower” tall and pointy stull you buy in the store.

Escarole: My new favorite green for braising and for making green crisp chips. I’ve stopped throwing it into soup and started cooking it as a side dish. It is also nice in stuffed pork chops, or wrapped around chicken breast. Park Seeds has a tight, lettuce head looking escarole that is thick steamed but compact and space saving.

Chard: Burpee’s “Bright Lights” rainbow colored chard. Again, the fordhook is very good and reliable, but I like the colored variety better.

Arugula: standard roquette, large, round heading plant, fully flavor, cold hardy. Nothing fancy about this one. It goes to seed, prolifically in the fall, but also winters over for a second year. And I’ll be able to save seeds and replant for several years.

Spinach: Burpee’s Space hybrid is a 3 season spinach that is long growing and slow bolting.

Brassica:

Cabbage: I love cabbages. I get poetic about them. The chickens love cabbages too. This year I am focused on something that will “hold in the field” through the fall. So this year I am planting Territorial Seed’s “January King” green, slightly flattened with burgundy markings on the wrapper leaves of 3-5 pound heads.

Portuguese kale: Tronchuda Beira from Burpee is enormous with 24 inch leaves, and sweeter than most kale. Very heat tolerant.

Cauliflower: looking for the earliest harvesting type of white cauliflower. The orange cauliflower tastes like squash and the purple variety like beets. I want just plain white, small, numerous heads. Going with Territorial Seed’s “Snow Crown”. “Always mild and sweet. Its hybrid vigor and rapid growth make it one of the easiest to grow of all early cauliflower varieties. It forms fully domed curds in heads 7-8 inches across, weighing 1-2 pounds. This variety maintains its prime eating quality for up to 10 days in the garden. May manifest a delicate pink blush when maturing in the hotter parts of summer.”

Collards: Portuguese kale looks a lot like collards, but collards taste like collards and are much cold hardier. So I am focusing on collards that are really late maturing, so they won’t overlap with the Portuguese kale. Territorial Seeds “Flash” is fast growing and re-growing, and a little more compact and upright to withstand snow. We’ll see if we can grow it early and late.

Broccoli: Again, somebody hold my horses! I’m going overboard on the broccoli. Trying Territorial Seed’s three hybrid sprouting broccolis for 4 seasons of this vegetable-

Spring/Summer: Aspabroc: “This gourmet quality baby broccoli or broccolini produces tender, delicious, elongated stems topped with small, domed, 2 1/2 inch florets. After the initial central stem is cut, the plants continue developing side shoots for repeated cuttings. Aspabroc has a nice, upright habit that lends itself to tight plantings.”

Summer/Fall: Rudolph: “Enjoy fresh broccoli for the December holidays with this winter sprouting variety. Rudolph is an English favorite because it is ready for harvest long before the other sprouting broccoli. Can be planted in mid-July, to produce an abundance of full flavored spears by mid-December.”

Fall/Winter: Rioja: “Bred to overwinter and slide into a late February to March harvest window when fresh food from the garden is scarce. A productive, bright purple sprouting broccoli. Vigorous plants reach about 24-28 inches tall with easy-to-pick heads.”

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums.

Leek: Have to have leeks for the Leeky Dance. Going with the standard “Lancelot” from Territorial Seed.

Onion: The gourmet mix of red and white Cipollini onions, from Territorial Seed.

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cutiecrates · 4 years ago

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Blippo.com Order #2

Okay, so... I wasn’t entirely planning to order from Blippo.com (the official online shop for Kawaii Box), but somehow it just happened. I put the order in at the beginning of May, and I got it sometime last week. I thought it would be fun to just show you guys what I got. Sort-of compare this experience to the previous one, etc.

Oh, also, if you would like to see my last review on my very first order, click here.

Compared to the first time, I wasn’t as nervous about this one because the box wasn’t beaten up. Like before we got some papers for the brand, along with a cute art card of the service member who packed the box:

and... this next part made me very excited! If you read my last review do you remember how I complained about the lack of “branding“ on/in this box? Well lookie what I found next...

In my review, I said it would be nice for them to add pink and/or heart-shaped packing peanuts, to better suite the kawaii vibe.

Also, as soon as I saw these I decided I have to keep them. I was thinking it might be cute to put them in a clear glass or something.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to put in a code from a box so I wasn’t able to get a free bonus item. Nor were they having any sort of promotion for one at the time, but I don’t see it as much of a loss because of how disappointed I was with the previous ones...

Anyway! Let’s check out the contents of the box now :D

Wax Lipstick Highlighter

A long time ago I got a green one of these from Kawaii Box and I fell in love with it. Besides being really cute, it’s also fun to use and has an oddly, light pleasant scent. I’ve been wanting to get more, in fact I would love to collect the entire set; but for now, I’m happy just getting my favorite color.

This is really smooth and fun to use, there is a nice amount of product too, but I couldn’t say these would be ideal for coloring or anything. Puzzle books seem to be fine though. The only disappointment was that even though this looks pink, the color is closer to red, and the scent isn’t as nice as my other one. I’m still very happy to have it though.

There are 10 in total, coming in every color of the rainbow, and right now each one only costs $1.75, or if bought wholesale $1.50.

Apollo Strawberry Chocolate & Black Pepper Chips

I’ve covered both of these items on the blog before, they’re both ones I also really liked and since the shop had them in I decided to purchase them. Apollo chocolate is really easy to find for non-Japanese fans, it’s very common, but it’s so delicious~

The chips meanwhile, actually came in a 5-pack set, instead of getting one big bag. They seemed crunchier than the previous time, but they were still very yummy.

Cheese Okaki Rice Crackers

This next item.... basically, I got it because I was curious. These are rice crackers flavored plum shiso, and they have a dab of cheese right in the center. The crackers were very tasty, and they taste more like soy sauce; unless you lick them or let them stay in your mouth, then you start tasting the plum, but it wasn’t tart or anything.

But... I actually hated the cheese, which is strange, because I love cheese a lot. I couldn’t stand the cheese in these though, so I ended up scraping it off. Sort of a waste, but I still did eat the crackers...

Fettucine Cola Gummy & Bubbling Ramune Soda Candies

These are my last two items, I pretty much bought a lot of snacks this time around. Anyway, our first item (which is also by Bourbon, like the rice crackers) are gummies named after their noodle-like shape. They have a sugary, slightly sour-sweet dusting and a delicious cola flavor~

I was very excited when I saw this other candy in the shop. It has 8 flavors per-bag, about 4 or 5 of each. The flavors are Grape, Apple, Ramune, Peach, Melon, Orange, Cola, and Lemon, and they all have a pop-ish taste. What also makes these a lot of fun is that they are slightly foamy as you suck on them.

I’m not a large hard candy fan unless I find ones that pick my interest, or taste like cola/ramune/soda, I really like those flavors. These melt away pretty quickly, so I like that, and every flavor was very yummy. I would strongly recommend if you can find these.

There was also a kids oriented one with 6 flavors and xylitol to promote healthier teeth, and they came in a cutesy character shape. You could also find 1 very rare, special cream soda flavored candy in the bag.

~~~~~~

So, all-in-all, while I pretty much just bought snacks I was very happy to see how things went this time around. Nothing was broken, opened, or damaged, the box didn’t look beat up, they seem to have somehow taken my advice on the branding aspect. I would definitely order again if this was my first time.

For this month, I was planning on doing another order of Asian snacks and what-not. I was thinking Amazon, but I also was considered going to Candysan (I actually don’t know if its still open <_<), or one of the other shops associated with another subscription box I get. I haven’t done that just yet, but I really do plan on it soon.

Also, for anyone waiting for actual reviews, they will be resuming soon. I have my November DokiDoki Box to get through, and then May’s GachaGacha Crate which finally showed up today.

#blippo kawaii shop

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notifychill4-blog · 6 years ago

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Venison Marinades

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

“What marinade do you use?” is perhaps the most common question I get when people ask me about cooking venison.

Truth is, I don’t always use a marinade – a really good piece of backstrap needs little more than fire, salt and maybe some black pepper. But there is most definitely a place for marinades in venison cookery. You just need to know when to break out your favorite marinade, and when it’s better just to make it a sauce you serve at the end.

Why marinate?

Marinades are acid-based (or occasionally enzyme-based) liquids or loose pastes that are used to infuse meat (or veggies) with flavor, while at the same time tenderizing them. At least that’s the theory.

Bathing venison or any other meat in an acidic sauce (or with certain fruit juices like those from papaya or pineapple) will indeed break down some of the muscle tissues on the outer surface of the meat. The acid or fruit enzymes denature the proteins, making them actually a bit mushy, but we register this as tenderness when we eat it. What’s more, you should know that marinades cannot penetrate meats the same way salt-based brines do. According to most food scientists, a marinade cannot penetrate much deeper than 1/8 inch into a piece of meat, even after several days.

The bottom line is that acidic marinades don’t tenderize meat, and those with raw ginger, pineapple or papaya juices just make the meat mushy. I can hear you saying, “But when I marinate venison roasts, they are absolutely more tender than when I don’t!” And you are right, but it’s not the marinade that is making your roast more tender.

According to the great French food scientist Hervé This, long marinades do have an effect: “The meat is more tender,” This told the Washington Post. “But it is not the marinade that makes it tender: It is time. If you use an acidic marinade, it will protect the surface from spoilage while the rest of the meat matures. And you know when meat matures, it becomes tender.” This is the secret behind the long marinades in German sauerbraten, which can marinate for a week in the fridge.

And marinades do impart flavor onto the meat’s surface. Even a few minutes’ worth of marinating time will give you some added flavor in the finished dish because the flavorful liquid soaks into any crevices and cuts in a piece of meat.

Most importantly, marinating meat in an acidic sauce for at least 40 minutes has been shown by the American Cancer Society to reduce by up to 99 percent the amount of cancer-causing heterocyclic amines created when meat is cooked by a direct, open flame, i.e., grilling. This means a marinade not only improves flavor, but can also make that char-grilled piece of venison healthier.

Which cuts?

Because marinades can only penetrate a few millimeters into a piece of meat (at best), you’ll want to use cuts of venison that aren’t too thick. This means backstrap medallions from large deer, elk or moose, all leg steaks, flank steak, cubes for kebabs and so on.

Or, go the sauerbraten route and marinate a large roast for a week or more. Just remember the acid in the marinade (don’t do this with the enzyme-based marinades!), usually red wine, is just protecting the meat from spoilage, not actually tenderizing it. It’s the wet-aging of the meat for a week that does the trick.

One thing a marinade will not do? Tenderize silverskin and connective tissue. You absolutely need to trim all this off before marinating because not only will it not tenderize, the silverskin will actually block the penetration of a marinade.

How to do it?

You will want to marinate your venison in a sealable plastic bag, or in a covered, non-reactive container such as glass or plastic. Or you can vacuum seal it. Do this in the fridge to slow the growth of any bacteria.

A tip: If you like stir fries and fajitas, marinate the venison slices before you stir-fry them. You’ll get more flavor that way.

When you are ready to cook, take the meat out of the marinade and pat the meat dry with paper towels. Wet meat won’t brown.

If you want to use your marinade as a sauce, you can do one of two things: Boil your marinade for 5 minutes before using it, or, if this will destroy your marinade (like chimichurri, which relies on raw, fresh herbs) make more than you need for the marinade and use the extra as the sauce. Do not just reuse the marinade you soaked the venison in raw: There is a chance, albeit small, that you might get food poisoning.

Sample Marinades

Here are a few worth using. I’ll start with some that need no recipe.

Italian dressing. Yep. The classic. Any sort of oil and vinegar dressing works fine as a marinade.

Buttermilk. It’s acidic all by itself, and thick enough to use as the base to a batter or crust, the way you do with buttermilk fried rabbit.

Citrus. Like orange juice or lemon or lime juice. Pretty harsh stuff, but it works if you don’t marinate too long. A few hours should do it.

Soda. A Southern classic. Marinating in RC Cola or Dr Pepper or whatever is a thing. And it’s not terrible. Watch the sugar content, though, as it can burn on the surface of your venison if you are grilling over high heat.

Worcestershire Sauce. More of a Northern classic, I like this one a lot. It’s a sauce and a marinade all in one. Worcestershire is also a hallmark of western Kentucky BBQ.

Soy Sauce. More of a brine than a marinade, the salt level in soy sauce can be pretty severe, and it will darken your meat dramatically. Use only for an hour or so, or dilute it.

Here are a few marinades from around the world. All can be scaled up, and all are for about 1 to 2 pounds of meat.

Real Teriyaki

You can use store-bought teriyaki sauces, but I find them too sweet and too thick for a marinade. And if you make it yourself you can adjust the flavor to your liking. Just watch the sugar content, and don’t take it too much higher than what I have here, as too much will scorch. Mix together all the following ingredients before marinating.

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup mirin, a Japanese sweet wine

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1 heaping tablespoon sugar

French Red

2 cups red wine

2 to 6 bay leaves

A dozen or so black peppercorns, cracked

A healthy pinch of salt

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Bring all this to a boil, then cool to room temperature before marinating.

Das Marinade, a German Marinade

2 cups lager beer (dark or light)

1/2 cup malt vinegar

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1 teaspoon caraway seed

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Bring all this to a boil, then cool to room temperature before marinating.

Greek style

This is a good summer marinade.

1/2 cup lemon juice

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 heaping tablespoon dried oregano

Mix it all together and coat your venison with it.

Yucatecan

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup lime juice

1/2 cup water

Buzz all this into a puree in a blender. Or you can mash it together in a mortar and pestle.

Korean Bulgogi

This might be my favorite marinade of them all. I grew up with this one; my mom marinated flank steak in a version of this sauce. It’s sweet, savory and sour all at the same time.

4 green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons grated ginger

4 garlic cloves, mashed and chopped

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

2 tablespoons sesame oil

3 tablespoons sugar

2 hot chiles, minced

1 tablespoon molasses or Asian plum sauce

1/4 cup mirin, rice wine or lemon juice

1/3 cup soy sauce

Buzz them all together roughly in a food processor. You don’t want this smooth.

Source: https://honest-food.net/venison-marinades/

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