#you can also use it as pizza dough or basically any other white bread dough you need

[crippledanarchy]

[Image description: a home baked loaf of white bread sitting on a cooling rack next to a ceramic loaf pan]

3 cups warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher sea salt

6 1/2 cups flour

Mix well, do not knead

Let sit on the counter covered for at least 2 hours (up to 5 hours won't hurt the dough)

Chill for at least an hour or keep for up to two weeks

When you want to bake: form loaf into desired shape on a floured surface

Let rise for 40 minutes

Score with a sharp knife

Bake at 450° Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until golden brown

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

i was just reading a fic where someone said they needed to set aside their pasta dough "to rise", and that made my eye twitch badly enough that i would like to give you all a quick lesson about dough for all your writing needs.

without getting into fussy details, there are four basic types of dough/batter. yeasted doughs, quick breads, laminated/pastry doughs, and unleavened doughs.

the only one of those that ever needs to rise is yeasted dough.

yeasted doughs are, as the name suggests, leavened with yeast. yeast is a microorganism that, when activated in water, feeds on sugars to produce gas. that gas, when trapped in dough, creates bubbles. most breads are yeasted, as are things like bagels, rolls, pizza crust, soft pretzels, english muffins, etc. yeasted doughs are also typically made by kneading, a process that develops the sticky gluten in wheat and makes the dough strong enough to hold onto itself and gives a pleasantly chewy result. (sourdough is also yeasted, but it's made by capturing wild yeast from the air rather than using prepackaged yeast.)

quick breads are leavened with baking soda and/or baking powder. these agents do not need rise time, as the chemical reaction happens when they are introduced to water/acid and heat. muffins, pancakes, cake, and sweet breads like banana, pumpkin, and zucchini are quick breads, and not only are they not kneaded, they shouldn't be overworked. overworking activates the gluten in the wheat, which isn't desired in these soft, tender breads. cookies and brownies would go under this umbrella as well.

laminated/pastry dough is leavened by thin layers of cold butter reaching a quick boiling point and releasing a steam that separates the layers of dough. this effect can be most clearly seen in something like a croissant, though croissants are also yeasted. pie crusts, most biscuits (the american kind), scones, and many other types of pastries are made this way. any time a recipes instructs you to "cut" butter into flour, this is what you're doing. phyllo, the type of dough used to make baklava, uses a similar process where oil or melted butter is brushed between paper-thin sheets of dough.

unleavened dough is exactly that, unleavened. there is nothing in this dough that makes it rise. pasta, many crackers, some flatbreads like tortillas - they don't rise at all. you do, on the other hand, typically have to let it rest for at least fifteen minutes, as the mixing of the dough creates elastic gluten strands that will resist attempts to roll it out.

special mention: whipped egg whites. when eggs are whipped into stiff peaks, they become filled with air, and some recipes use whipped egg whites folded carefully into batter as a leavener. angel food cake, for example, is leavened with nothing but egg whites. many cake recipes use this technique, as it creates a very light and delicate result.

SO. please take this knowledge and incorporate it in your writing as you will. thank you. <3

ps: things that are gluten free never require kneading, as there is no gluten to develop. gluten free baking is an alchemy which i do not pretend to understand.

[earthytalesindia]

Explore Pure Flavours: Top 3 Organic Wheat Flours

There is no denying that  wheat flour flour has been part of Indian cooking for many years. It is a staple food in many homes. Whether it is about making chappatis, bread, or other bakery products,  wheat flour flour has always been an essential ingredient. But for the people who are new to the realm of cooking and are still understanding the basics of cooking, they need to know there is no one type of  wheat organic flour.

For different cooking methods, different wheat flours are used. Earthy Tales offers all kinds of organic wheat flour, which can help enhance the taste of food and explore new and pure flavours

How Many Types Of Wheat Flour Are Available?

There are mainly six different types or classes of  wheat flour flour that come from just one grain. Every type is used to get the best and finest product. Hard red as well as hard white  wheat is known to be the best for yeast breads. Whereas, soft wheat is considered best for cakes, pastries, various other baked items, and even crackers and cereal.

Know The Difference Between Bleached And Unbleached Flour.

Before knowing the top 3  wheat  organic flours, it is essential to understand the difference between bleached and unbleached flour. The bleached flour is known to be treated with chemicals for faster ageing. This makes it have a softer and finer grain. Whereas, unbleached  flour is aged naturally without any involvement of chemicals. However, unbleached  flour is an off-white colour and has a coarser grain.

The Top 3 Organic Wheat Flour Types

Here are the best and top 3  organic wheat flour types:

1. All-purpose flour

This flour type is widely used as compared to other flour types. It is derived from the finely ground part of the  wheat kernel or endosperm. This part gets separated from the bran as well as the germ when the milling process is happening. Also, all-purpose flour is a blend of hard and soft  wheat.

How to use all-purpose flour?

All-purpose  flour can be used for baking and other cooking purposes, such as:

Cakes

Cookies

Pies and pastries

Breading for vegetables, meat, or fish

It can be used as a thickening agent for different types of sauces, gravies, and even roux.

Muffins, biscuits, or doughnuts

Vitamins And Minerals Offered By All-Purpose Flour

It has iron, thiamin, niacin, folic acid, as well as riboflavin.

2. Whole  wheat flour flour

As compared to other  wheat flour types, whole wheat organic flour is milled using a complete wheat kernel, which involves the germ, endosperm, as well as bran. It involves complete wheatberry, due to which whole wheat  flour has around 13–14 per cent protein. It has a high content of fibre, vitamins, as well as minerals. It can even be paired with other  flours to alleviate the heaviness.

How To Use Whole Wheat Flour?

It can be used in recipes with liquid or fat to lighten the dense wheat. It can be used to prepare food items like:

Bread

Pasta

Pizza dough

Pie or tart crust

Bagels

Cookies and crackers

Pancakes

Rolls

Vitamins And Minerals Offered By Whole Wheat Flour

It has vitamin B-6, folate, vitamin B-12, vitamin K, etc. 

3. Cake  flour

It is a low-protein flour that is made from soft  wheat. Cake  flour has a fine and silky texture and is bleached to have a low protein value of around 6–8 per cent. Also, it is high in starch as compared to all-purpose flour. The light colour of cake flour makes it suitable for cake baking.

How To Use Cake Flour?

Cake flour can be used for:

Doughnuts

Layer cakes

Pound cakes

Sponge cakes

Waffles

Madeleine’s

Chiffon cakes, etc.

Vitamins And Minerals Offered By Cake Flour

It has niacin, vitamin B-6, etc.

Where To Buy Top Organic Wheat Flour?

Earthy Tales is the right place to get your hands on every type of wheat organic flour. It offers top-notch quality  wheat  organic  flours for you to have delectable and healthy meals. The  flours are milled using best practices to ensure top-notch quality and high nutritional value. Also, Earthy Tales offers organic cold-pressed oils and other  organic products. With them, you can get free home delivery at a minimum order value in pan-India.

About Earthy Tales

Founded in 2017 by Deepak Sabharwal, an ex-TATA, GE and Pepsi alumni, Earthy Tales is NCR’s most loved community led organic food brand, which works with organic farming communities to promote natural farming and city communities to increase awareness about Clean, Chemical free food.

Deepak quit his corporate life of 20 years to make our soils and food plate free of pesticides as Earthy Tales purpose. You can read his inspiring story on:

www.theorganicmagazine.com/meet-the-plantpreneur/deepak-sabharwal-some-earthy-tales

Source URL:- https://www.authortalking.com/explore-pure-flavours-top-3-organic-wheat-flours/

[1010ll]

do you have any new recipes that you've learned recently? i remember you wrote something a while ago about carbonara and i tried it out for myself it was really fun!!

i love this 😭 im gonna write way too much idec! something that has changed since that post: my kitchen is worse. i have a horrible combi oven which has resulted in me accidentally eating raw chicken, because it had been in there for more than 2 hours at supposedly 230 °C and i was really hungry and thought it HAD to be done by then. also i have less time and less money lol. it has made me a bit sad, and less motivated to cook nice things but i also love food! which means these tips/recipes are gonna reflect that and might seem a bit dull but probably also relatable for a lot of people.   i’ve definitely made spaghetti carbonara a bit too much because it’s simple and require few ingredients! will still vouch for that one tip about substituting the bacon with roasted veggies and other types of meat.

last week i made risotto for the very first time, i think? which means i might be assuming a bit too much, but i think it’s a great dish that you can almost make with whatever you have in your fridge. i made it with roasted beetroot(needs A LOT of time to soften, lesson learned), carrots and parsley root or parsnip(idk the difference), dried rosemary and thyme, garlic and onion. i had some leftover sushi rice, which is great for risotto apparently(love versatile ingredients), roasted them in some oil and then added white wine and chicken stock and actually added a leftover parmesan rind i had in the fridge to give the ‘stock’ some flavour, a bit of nutmeg and then in the end some shredded gouda lol… it was surprisingly delicious and i didn’t even really care to cook the rice perfectly. it also tasted delicious 3 days later, which was a nice surprise. i bet there are tons of risotto recipes online, but as long as you have rice, some kind of flavoured water, i guess you could kind of add whatever you want of veggies and top with whatever herb you have around.

another type of porridge i consume a lot these days is hot oat porridge, which i’ve eaten since i was little and it was the first ‘dish’ i learnt to make myself and it’s cheap. some people really dislike the consistency and look but i don’t. it’s also very easy to customise. i put in whatever nuts and seeds(which are often cheaper than nuts) i have around: flaxseed, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped almonds and sometimes a dollop of peanut butter. i let them simmer along with the oats. i like adding those elements because it gives it some texture and it keeps me more full throughout the day. it’s very important to me because i hate spending money i don’t have on fast-food when i’m not home and i hate being hungry. dried raisins, cranberries for a bit of sweetness and if i’m treating myself i’ll add some fresh apples cut into small pieces or some homemade berry compote(i use frozen) or brown sugar. if i had more money i’d use maple syrup but i don’t at the moment. i also add a bit of cinnamon and cardamom, dried ginger etc, whatever you feel like. some people also add milk afterwards but i’d rather spend my milk on my coffee.

a small tip: making chili flake / garlic oil. it’s really delicious, you could put it straight on pasta with some parmesan and pepper and it would be a filling meal. either chop the garlic really fine, grate it, microplane it, smash it to pieces. heat some olive oil until it’s quite hot, then remove from heat and add the chili flakes and garlic. if the oil isn’t hot enough you can just put the pan or pot back on the heat but be careful you don’t burn the chili flakes or garlic, as it will make it bitter. the longer it will toast, the less pronounced the raw garlic flavour will be, so when it smells toasted enough for your taste, take it off. i store it in a tiny glass jar and add it in stews, sauces, toasts, pizza, sandwiches etc. the flavour is very strong imo and everything it touches will smell like it. something to drink: i like strong foods and i like sour foods, which is why i like lemon/ginger based drinks. to make it even more winter friendly and easy to make, i like to grate unpeeled ginger(i hate slices of ginger, they do nothing for me and seems like a waste of ginger), lemon zest, lemon juice and mix it or blend it with some water/apple juice and honey and strain it afterwards. if you have a really nice blender you can just add all of it together with some ice. i’m basically making a large amount of ginger shot mixture. then when i feel like it, i can take some of the mixture and either drink it as it is, add more apple juice if i need a refreshing beverage or add hot water and more honey for when im cold. you could also add turmeric, chili, use less sweetener and other sorts of healthy stuff but i honestly do it for the taste so i don’t care about that that much.

something sweet: i posted earlier about cakes and someone mentioned swedish kladdkaka, which is a super delicious, cheap, brownie-like chocolate cake that is easily customized and hard to fuck up which is why i’ve made it since i was very young and is a go-to and i didn’t even know it was a swedish thing. if you like airy, light cakes this is not for your. this is sticky, sweet and almost like confection. you can add nuts, swirls of peanutbutter, tahini, actual pieces of chocolate, replace the white sugar with brown sugar, the butter with oil(you can be fancy and use a bit of olive oil) or use a mixture, brown the butter, you name it. the recipe i use is this: melt 100 g butter and let cool. mix 2 eggs + 3 dl sugar in a bowl until fluffy in one bowl. mix 1.5 dl flour, 4 tbs cocoa, 1 pinch of salt in another. mix the dry with the wet mixture and add the cooled, melted butter. this is the point where you’d add chopped nuts, chocolate etc. pour the batter into a cake tin lined with parchment (i use one that is 16 cm in diameters i think). bake the cake for around 30 mins at 150°C - 175°C degrees. check on the cake using a cake tester or a a knife. if the knife is clean after … stabbing it, it’s done! the cake will change it’s texture after cooling. this is a cheap cake, and if you like cake dough you might want to give it less time in the oven for a more fudgey texture. make it your own! there are no rules. last time i made this, i left it in for too long in my opinion but it was still delicious. also i literally have a shit oven with a round oven rack that goes in circles no matter what due to the microwave function, and the only ‘mixing’ equipment i have is a whisk and a spatula. no need for kitchen aids or  even electrical hand mixers.

something else i’ve been eating a lot for lunch is simple open faced sandwiches, and something that can really elevate those is: making your own mayonnaise(and toasting the bread). it can be challenging, but it’s really worth it imo and i can’t remember the last time i bought it in a store. i have a small plastic bowl, whisk and 1 egg yolk. something i can really recommend is buying pour snouts for bottles. i transfer my oils from their plastic bottles to smaller, old soda bottles because im cheesy like that and it’s really handy especially when making mayo. constantly whisking the egg yolk by hand and then adding the NEUTRAL oil ever so slowly. don’t be fancy and use cold pressed stuff or extra virgin olive oil because it will taste weird. i only ever fail when i try to use immersion blenders for some weird reason but i find it rewarding to do by hand anyways and i think it might be easier to make smaller portions that way. mayo needs acid and you can get it by adding regular vinegar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, pickle juice, citric acid dissolved in water etc. it’s really easy to customise! when im making banh mi, i add some sesame oil, soy sauce for saltiness and use lime as the acidic element. for more regular use i add a bit of mustard(also helps with the emulsion), for fries, i like adding some fresh garlic. something as simple as mayo, tomatoes, flaky salt and pepper topped with chives is really nice. i also really like using slices of boiled potatoes or boiled eggs(idk if that’s only a thing where i’m from), mayo and the chili garlic oil. it’s also great for making tuna salad. yesterday i made a really simple sandwich with a very simple tuna salad(tuna, mayo, yoghurt, lemon and pepper), arugula, basil, the garlic/chili oil, cream cheese, pickled jalapeños and onions, green peber, cucumber and tomatoes. you could leave out everything but the tuna salad and it would still be a great little meal.

another nice condiment that beats the supermarket stuff by far is homemade ‘pesto’. when i buy parsley from my local grocery store, it’s a gigantic amount that i in no way can consume in a week. first of all when buying fresh herbs i really recommend washing them, wrapping them in a damp towel and keeping them in a closed container. it will prolong their lifetime from lasting a day to a week(change the towel if it seems too wet). i once had some cilantro in my fridge for several weeks and still be fresh. anyways, when i buy that much parsley, i like to remove the tougher parts of the stem(which i use in stews/sauces! chop it up and sautee it along with garlic and onion), add literally just olive oil, water, pepper, garlic, and a bit of acid and then blend away! it keeps for a long time in the fridge and is also delicious beneath tomatoes/potatoes/cheese on open-faced sandwiches. if you want to be fancy you can of course add some type of hard cheese, nuts, seeds, dried tomatoes, whatever.

i know this is the longest text post ever, but as a last reminder, i really recommend watching pasta grannies on youtube. really simple recipes with focus on few, good ingredients that just takes some time and love.

[thebestofoneshots]

SUNDAY BAKING MADNESS

Paring: Dean Winchester x reader

Prompt: You and Dean are determined to finish a homemade meal and a cake for Jack’s birthday. So, naturally, the kitchen turns upside down.

Warnings: None, maybe a spoilers for 15x14? But nothing serious.

A/N: this is just a bunch of fluffy fluff because my boy Dean deserves some happy times.

You sat on the library table flipping through some monster lore pages, trying to find interesting information on possibly unknown monsters when Dean walked in, looking around suspiciously.

“Have you seen Jack?” He asked you and Sam, who had been silently reading on the chair opposite yours.

You denied with your head.

“He must still be in his room,” replied Sam “he’s been in his room ever since Mrs. Butters left.”

Dean nodded “I need you to keep him out of the kitchen at all costs!” He explained.

Sammy frowned “Why?”

“I’m making burgers, and a cake for his birthday,” He nodded and a little smile appeared on his mouth.

“Oh I can help you with the burger buns,” you volunteered.

“Did you just offered yourself to buy burger buns?”

“Not buy, make them!” You answered matter of factly.

“Wait second... you know how to make burger buns?”

“Well they’re just bread,” you shrugged.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Well it’s basically just yeast, flour and water...” you elaborated.

“Huh,” he nodded “well that sounds awesome, fresh buns and homemade patties... it’ll be a feast!”

You nodded and stood up to follow Dean to the kitchen.

He turned around right before reaching the door “Sammy, you better make sure he doesn’t go in the kitchen,”

Sammy nodded and then went back to his book.

As the two of you reached the kitchen, Dean took out some ground meat from the fridge, and an apron from the cupboard, that he then placed over his shoulders, it was a stupid black one that said “kiss the cook” in bold cursive, he loved wearing it.

You rolled your eyes but started looking for all the ingredients on your list. You needed yeast, flour, milk, butter and 2 eggs. Your buns had to rise before going in the oven so you had to start with those.

As the two of you worked in synchrony around the kitchen, just like you would on a hunt, he finished his meat blend and you finished the bread, but it still needed more kneading, if only the men of letters had a stand mixer, you wouldn’t have to do it by hand.

“Do you want some help?” He asked from behind, as he noticed you struggling with the dough.

“Be my guest,” you replied stepping aside. He started moving the dough around like playing with playdough, bland then he tried to spin it around like a pizza, you giggled from behind.

“What?” He asked.

“Nothing,” you replied “is just that you’re making burger buns, not pizza.”

He just turned around and raised his eyebrows at you.

“Here,” you approached him “you need to push, and then bring it back, push and then bring it back towards you,” you explained as you kneaded the dough on the counter.

He nodded and tried it himself. He wasn’t half bad “if you weren’t a Hunter, you’d make a decent cook.”

“Hey! I’d make an amazing cook!”

“Sure thing,” you answers and then, now that the dough looked even grabbed it deposited on a bowl, draped a wet towel above it and left on the furthest places on the counter possible.

Dean's patties were already on the fridge and your dough was going through the first rise time. “should we start with the cake?”

He nodded, “I found this recipe,” he pointed at a chocolate sponge cake one on an old men of letters’ book. You gave it a quick overview and it seemed nice, you weren’t anything close to a professional baker but you had made your fair share of cakes in the past.

“I think is a good one, you can measure the dry ingredients while I do the wet ones,” you said casually as you walked to the fridge to get some milk.

“Why are they wet?” He asked with a little sly smirk on his face. Of course he would, you weren’t even surprised. This was Dean Winchester after all.

“Well, you know Dean, wet ingredients are generally liquids, like milk, eggs, butter, that kind of stuff, so yeah, that kind of makes them wet... it does not mean they are aroused in any shape or form,” you added at the end just to mess with him. He drew a short breath like he was about to speak but you quickly interrupted “Now focus on the flour and cocoa powder please.”

He nodded and started measuring the ingredients. “The books say you have to sift them,” you told him as you departed the egg whites from the yolks.

He nodded and started sifting. As you busied yourself measuring the milk and melting some butter, you heard Dean from behind.

“Hey (Y/N)! Look what I found!” He said showing you an electric hand mixer. It was already connected, and he had already turned it on, it was just seconds from inches away from touching the mix. The mix with only dry ingredients.

Your eyes opened wide and you definitely screamed “Nooo!” as you walked towards Dean to try and stop him. But it was too late, as soon as the beaters touched the flour mixture a cloud of light brown powder filled the kitchen. Dusting not only Dean but also you and the entire kitchen around the two of you.

It didn’t take too long for him to realize his mistake and turn off the mixer. You drew in a deep breath and stared at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, now setting the mixer on the counter, still holding the bowl in his hands.

“You just dusted me completely...” you stated.

“Well not completely,” he argued.

“Dean Winchester, don’t you dare argue with me.”

“I should measure the ingredients again,” he nodded towards the Noe half-empty bowl. “Is all of this really going to waste?” He questioned, looking at the red bowl on his hands.

“Oh no, it won’t,” you said carefully grabbing it from his hands “In fact, it will be of great use,” you smiled at him and proceeded to dump the leftovers of the bowl towards him.

“What the f...” he started but you brushed out laughing, he couldn’t even finish.

“Ok fine, if that’s what we’re playing at,” he said then, dusting off all the powder towards you. The two of you were laughing at this point, and you grabbed some barbecue sauce he’d prepared earlier with a wooden spoon and softly spread it on his cheek.

“There, that’s the icing!” You smirked. He just narrowed his eyes at you but decided to be the bigger person and did not, ouch an egg on top of your head. Once your laughter died out, you almost felt bad for him. He genuinely wanted to make this dinner for Jack and an accident had gotten him filled with spices and ingredients. “All right, all right, we should probably focus,” you managed to say.

He just raised his eyebrows at you. “Sorry,” you mumbled as you started dusting off some of the powder on his shoulders and his chest. Then with a towel that sat on the counter, you started cleaning his sauce filled face. You had one hand on his left cheek and the other cleaning his right. After cleaning out most of it you nodded to yourself. “There you go, like new.”

He missed your hands cupping his cheeks as soon as you removed them. No one had cleaned his cheeks that way since he was 4, ever so gentle... so loving...

You stared at his big green eyes for a little too long before snapping out of the trance “we should go back to baking, or the cake won’t be finished, nor will the bread,” you said as you walked towards the dough and as you punched it and worked your way with it to start making the little balls.

“Is this ready?” He asked showing you the batter he was mixing.

“When there are no lumps, probably like a minute more. When it’s done you can put it on the moulds,” you commanded, “Also, don’t forget to grease the pans.”

He nodded and continued with his work until he was done. “Ready! Should I put them in the oven?”

“Yes! And then you can come over, help me make the little balls.”

He placed the cakes on the oven and walked towards you, “aren’t they too small for burger buns?” He questioned.

You shook your head “We’ll let them rise another hour before placing them in the oven.”

“Awesome,” he said and then paid attention to what you were doing “so you just roll them around?”

“Not quite, first, you have to pull the dough towards the bottom, to make the top smooth, then you can start rolling,” he nodded and tried following, but his little dough balls were a little weird. “Here, let me help,” you said as you placed your hand on top of his to coach him on the circular movement he was supposed to do. Not that either of you would admit it, but you loved every second of that hand over hand contact. “There you go!” You said as you removed your hand from his “you’re a natural.”

He smiled and continued. In just a few minutes you were done with the little balls and placed them on top of the oven, so they would rise nicely on the warm area. You then turned around and saw the mess the kitchen had turned into. You sighed “We’re gonna have to clean this out...”

He drew a deep breath “Yeah we do.”

As the two of you started cleaning the counter, Dean tripped, on attempts to keep himself off the floor he grabbed the side of the counter with one hand, but the sauce bowl was there and he only succeeded in flipping it and consequently it falling over his face, you, trying to help tried to grab his free hand, but his weight pulled you in and the two of you ended ok the floor. You on top of him and the sauce bowl on top of his head.

“Awww,” you heard him complain from underneath, you removed the bowl from his head and couldn’t help but let a small google out.

“That sauce most really like your face,” you pointed out and with your index finger grabbed a bit from the sauce and plopped on your mouth to taste it “and I’m sorry to inform you, you’re going make more since it’s incredibly tasty.”

He let out a small chuckle after that. He was in a good mood, after all, he loved having you on top of him. Not that he would ever admit it “Do you want some more?” He asked, grabbing some on his finger and plopping it on his mouth.

You thought it over “I don’t know... I’d be kind of weird to lick your face...” you joked.

But he wasn’t going to let the joke slip away that easily “you wouldn’t!” He played offended.

And that was all you needed, Dean turns things into a dare and you almost lose complete control over your own actions. Leaning closer to his face and lowering your head towards his ear, you whispered “Ah... wouldn’t I?”

And you gave a fast long kick to the far side of his cheek, laughing uncontrollably at his reaction as you rolled off of him. Your hair was now too filled with sticky sauce.

“Did you really just?” He asked in between laughter, you were both just like children when you were around each other. This just prooved it.

The two of you finally stood off the ground and continued with the cleaning. You tied your hair after trying to get some of the sauce with water and he did the same. You were determined to finish this dinner.

“Go bathe!” He said, “I’ll take the cakes out when they’re done, and put the buns in, that way you can check on them while I shower and after we can finish the burgers.”

“10 minutes more,” you said pointing at the oven “make sure to use a toothpick to make sure they’re ready!”

“You know, I’ve made cake before,” he replied.

“Have you, really?” You questioned.

He thought about it for a moment. He must have, he thought to himself. He knew he had at some point he just couldn’t quite pinpoint when. So he just repeated his earlier words “Go clean up, I’ll take care of it,” and so he did.

He checked the cakes were ready and took them out, set the timer for the buns, who had now grown into beautifully big dough balls for perfect burgers and, and placed them in the oven. But when he tried to take the bread out of the mould it wouldn’t come out.

“Hey (Y/N)!” He said loudly, so you would hear him from wherever he was, you walked in with a towel over your shoulders since your hair was still wet. “The bread won’t come out.”

You frowned “Did you grease the pans?”

“Yeah, they’re over there,” he pointed at a pile of oily frypans that sat per the kitchen table “but I don’t understand what that has to do with this...”

You sighed “Dean. You’re telling me you greased the frypans over the kitchen table...”

“Yeah, so the meat wouldn’t stick while cooking,” he replied, still fumbling with the bread on the mould.

“And didn’t it occur to you, that the moulds should’ve been greased too? So that the bread wouldn’t stick?”

Realization downed of him, that by “greasing the pans” You meant the moulds for the cake, rather than the frypans for the meat. “oh...”

“Yeah...”

“Can we fix it?” He questioned.

“We could try taking them out, some of it definitely won’t come off, no matter how much we try, especially the bottom part, but some can be salvaged,” You explained. And so the two of you went around the cakes with a knife to try and unstick the sides before Turing around the bread, luckily, two cakes came out, since the moulds were good quality and the bread had its fair share of butter on it. So other than the tops, the bread had come out almost entirely. Still good for a cake.

“All right, your turn,” you said motioning to the door, “there’re so many ingredients on top of you, you might as well be a cake.”

He chuckled at your words and walked towards the bathroom. Leaving you to tend the buns. Dean came about 15 minutes later, all fresh and clean and the two of you took the buns out of the oven together. But since he was cold from the shower you told him to focus on decorating the cake while you finished the meat. He tried to argue by telling you that he was the grill master and not you, but you shot him down by telling him he would be the master of nothing if he got arthritis from switching between cold and hot all the time.

So he finished decorating the cake, a masterpiece he called it. You tried not to laugh at the sweet intents of the big broad man to make a nice cake for Jack. You chuckled when you took a look at his face. It was again filled with stuff. This time the frosting you had prepared for the cake.

“All right grill master,” you said, walking closer to him and using the same towel as earlier to clean his face again. After removing most of if with the damp towel you smiled. He was so pretty, with his big green eyes just waiting for you to finish. “You really need to stop getting your face filled with food.”

“Well it’s not so bad if you lick it off like earlier,” he mumbled, barely audible, but you paid way too much attention to his words anyway, so you heard it. But you didn’t comprehend what he meant by it, or maybe you were too set on the idea that he would never think of you that way that you were now oblivious to the very evidence against it. So you ignored it and moved on.

The two of you finished preparing the burgers, the cake was in the fridge and you started bringing the burgers to the library, were Sam, Jack and now even Cass sat.

The dinner was fun, everyone loved your food and Jack even argued that Dean and You should open a restaurant together. He couldn’t believe his eyes when Dean brought over his cake. With a cap covering the cake to make more impact on the surprise.

“Ta daaa” he said as he revealed the cake, “Well it’s not like Mrs. Butters but—“

“— it’s great,” Jack said with a smile.

You were sitting in the table next to Sam, and couldn’t help but smile, you knew Dean was still hurt, from everything that had happened, but he was getting better, and he was starting to forgive, even if it was the hardest thing.

“Come here!” You said motioning Dean to sit next to you.

“It’s actually Nut and almond on the inside,” you said as you helped cut the cake.

“Like Nougat?” Asked Jack, with a bright smile.

“Exactly like Nougat,” replied Dean with a tiny little smirk, like he was so proud of himself.

You sighed deeply, staring at Dean for a little too long before going back to cutting the cake.

As Dean tried his first bite his face turned into one of surprise “Wow, we did great!” He said pointing at the cake “this is delicious!”

You took a bite of your slice and nodded in agreement.

“We should bake together more often,” he said casually as he took another bite.

You laughed since the frosting had gotten all over his face again. You had to resist the urge of cleaning it off. Not in front of everyone at least. “I doubt the kitchen would survive if we did...”

“Wait why?” Asked Sam with a frown.

“Oh nothing, right (Y/N)?” Said Dean giving you a look.

“Right... nothing,” you replied smirking complicitly.

What happens in the kitchen, stays in the kitchen.

Permanent Dean taglist: @akshi8278 @hobby27

Find more Dean fluff here

[romanceismycallingcard]

50 questions tag!

I got tagged by @bl-crossingtheline​! Hello darling! Sorry I’m so late on this. Needed a good block of time and then I just kept forgetting. 😜😂

Questions:

what color is your hairbrush? Aqua/Teal

name a food you never eat: Brussel sprouts. And fish.

are you typically too warm or too cold? Um... in winter I’m just perpetually cold. I prefer to be on the warmer side. But as I’ve gotten older that’s changed a little bit. But I don’t know if I’m like always cold or whatever.

what were you doing 45 minutes ago? lol eating fresh home made sour dough bread with my family.

what’s your favorite candy bar? 100 grand bars

have you ever been to a professional sports game? yes. a hockey game with my family and brothers’ hockey teams. 

what’s the last thing you said out loud?: My brother was leaving so I yelled BYEEEEE HAVE A NICE DAY from my room and he said NO~! YOU HAVE A NICE DAY! so then I said FINE IF YOU’RE FORCING ME TO. lol. That was one of our nicer interactions 😂

what’s your favorite ice cream?: anything with caramel or maybe moosetracks. Or just plain vanilla cuz it’s classic, yummy, and underappreciated.

what was the last thing you had to drink? milk

do you like your wallet?: Yes! I do! I found it years ago at a thrift store and it was just perfect for me. It’s black with a pretty metal thing with engraved flowers on it. It zips closed AND there’s a coin pouch inside. And it’s the kind that folds in half rather than the kind that looks like a clutch purse which I’m really glad about because the clutch purse shaped ones seem to almost never be quite the right size - either too big or too small and sometimes the latch breaks so then it just flops open. :P

what’s the last thing you ate? sour dough bread

did you buy any new clothes last weekend? um.... no. But i did this last Friday cuz I had to pick up some things from Walmart and I impulse bought a $10 dress that looked comfy and light weight and casual and I can wear it on days when I don’t want to wear pants. I didn’t have a good dress for days like that before.

what’s the last sporting event you watched? uh...... i don’t. Unless my friend showing me a two minute compilation clip of the danish (i think?) sport of jumping over rivers with a pole counts. or unless watching super junior perform counts. 

what is your favorite flavor of popcorn? butter + salt or white cheddar

who’s the last person you sent a text to? real texting it was a mom I babysit for. But more recently than that I was messaging blue (musicdramalove) on tumblr.

ever go camping? my family used to go camping a lot - like at least once a year. But we haven’t for several years now since all my siblings and I are adults now. I think I might’ve gone with friends a couple years ago though. idk.

do you take vitamins? nope. If I get sick, I drink a looooooot of orange juice.

do you go to church every sunday? yeah

do you have a tan? not right now. hopefully I will by the end of summer (if not June)

do you prefer chinese or pizza? chinese (but pizza’s good too)

do you drink soda through a straw? not unless I order it at a restaurant and it’s in a glass. But that’s rare. I usually order water or sometimes a cocktail.

what color socks do you usually wear? I have a set that’s cream, a couple greys, and white, and I have a set that’s cream, grey and light pink.

do you ever drive above the speed limit? heck yeah. Usually I keep it to about 5-10 above. But it also depends on what streets I’m on.

what terrifies you? Failing at working a career job or living a miserable life or being alone forever with no one to take care of me when I’m sick.

look to your left, what do you see? my purse on the floor next to my dresser

what chore do you hate the most? scrubbing my shower/bathtub.

what do you think of when you hear an australian accent? steve the animal guy or liam and chris hemsworth or KJ Apa or Rebel Wilson. Or the other day when I was talking to my nanny kiddos about accents and the girl and I could do decent-ish british accents but absolutely failed at an Aussie accent

what’s your favorite soda? root beer

do you go in fast food places or just hit the drive thru? depends on the day or sometimes the line of cars in the drive thru

what’s your favorite number? 4. idky but I’ve always thought of it as my lucky number. Plus I just like it. It’s even. It’s small. 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 x 2 = 4.

who’s the last person you talked to? my brother when I was yelling bye to him.

favorite cut of beef? yeah i really don’t know or care

last song you listened to? We by Yesung

last book you read? honestly can’t even tell you.

can you say the alphabet backwards? YES I CAN AND I’M VERY PROUD ABOUT THIS

favorite day of the week? mmm..... saturday because I usually see my friends on saturday and also refuse to do homework on saturdays.

how do you like your coffee? with a big scoop of hot chocolate powder and quite a bit of half and half. sometimes I forego the chocolate powder but my preference is to have it. 

favorite pair of shoes? oooh..... I love my shoes. I have so many that I like. um... okay I’m gonna say it’s this one pair of brown heels I have. They look kinda like leather, orangey-brown, 4in tall heel, and they’re almost like ankle boots because the material goes to just below my ankle. They look amazing with skinny jeans.

time you normally get up? mm..... somewhere between 8 and 9 I guess if I wake up naturally. But I have to get up at 6:15 for work and 7am on days when I have church bc I’m head of nursery (but church is at 10am and online cuz quarantine)

sunrise or sunsets? hm.... I guess sunset bc it sets behind the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

how many blankets on your bed? rn 1 really light one cuz summer’s basically here.

describe your kitchen plates? white with a red and grey design on them with a red border on the edge

describe your kitchen at the moment? currently a mess bc things are being moved around and sorted and everything is everywhere. Other than that, it’s got a sink, fridge, oven, dishwasher, you know, the uszh. 

do you have a favorite alcoholic drink? mm.... right now I guess my go to is a moscato wine. I think that’s my favorite thing right now. You can call me a wimp but hey it’s a step up from Mike’s hard mango punch. I also really like mules.

do you play cards? yes.

what color is your car? silver. and it annoys me bc it looks like every other unimpressionable unremarkable unmemorable car out there :p

can you change a tire? .............................................no.

your favorite state/province/county/etc.? MINE

favorite job you’ve had? my babysitting job for a neighborhood family. I’ve been babysitting them for about 7 years now and I have been with them for two of their kids’ births and I’ve gotten to watch them grow up and develop personalities and learn about life and it has been such a fun experience and blessing to me.

how did you get your biggest scar? okay so I don’t know about biggest, but the one that I’ve probably had the longest and is still clearly visible is one that’s on my foot. It’s about a cm long and is about an inch or so in from the base of my second toe on my right foot. I got it when I was... I think a sophomore in high school when my family visited my bro and sis-in-law out of state for Thanksgiving. I went to grab a bottle of sparkling apple cider out of the fridge but, in the process of grabbing it or moving something aside or something, the bottle of sparkling cider fell out of the fridge onto the tile floor right next to my foot and SHATTERED. I was frozen in shock. Didn’t know what to do. Felt embarrassed and felt bad about the broken bottle and mess. I didn’t even realize until my mom and sis-in-law were cleaning up the floor around me that there was a small shard of glass somewhat embedded in my foot. I don’t remember feeling any pain from it. I think I was probably still in shock. But I still have the scar. 

Tagging: I don’t really know and I’m tired so ANYONE WHO WANTS TO 😊

[bblissfulbb]

omg thank you for tagging me and giving me something to do @epahetero :33 also sorry this took so loonng to make lol

1. what’s the colour of your hairbrush?

-black

2.is there a food you never eat?

-porridge and eggs in any shape or form, also butter grosses me out but I still use it on bread lol

3.are you usually warm or too cold?

-tbh im not sure but i would say prob cold

4.what were you doing 45 minutes ago?

-eating breakfast and watching yt

5.what’s your favourite candy bar?

-i dont know really probs mars

6.have you ever been to a professional sporting event?

-nope but i wish lol

7.what was the last thing you said out loud?

-”bye” i think????

8.favourite ice cream

-probs like cookie dough or vanilla or strawberry (basic i knoow)

9.what was the last thing you had to drink?

-milk

10.do you like your wallet?

-nopety nope i actually hate my wallet, its a weird shape, too thick and i don’t like the colour lol, i feel like this question was personally made for me

11.what was the last thing you ate?

-bread

12.did you buy any clothes last weekend?

-nope

13.what’s the last sporting event you watched?

-probs the world championship hockey last year

14.favourite flavour of popcorn?

-just the basic i haven’t tasted any other favour

15.last person you sent a text to?

- @pillukorva :)

16.ever gone camping?

-nope but i WISH

17.do you take vitamins?

-everyday sir

18.do you go to church on sundays?

-not anymore but i wish i would

19.do you have a tan?

-i think i would if i would just go outside lol

20.chinese food or pizza?

-pizza, never tried chinese :(

21.do you drink pop with straw?

-nope

22.what colour socks do you usually wear?

-boring i know but white, grey and black

23.ever driven above the speed limit?

-i have never driven bc im too scared to even get my license

24.what terrifies you?

-driving:) and also bears and the dark

25.look to your left; what do you see?

-moisturising creams

26.what chore do you hate?

-none tbh

27.what do you think of when you hear an australian accent?

-surfer boys lol

28.favourite pop?

-none tbh but if i had to choose one i would say fanta or sprite

29.do you go into fast food places or hit up the drive thru

-go in

30-last person u talked to?

-my mom

31.favourite cut of beef?

-not a fan of beef tbh but just ground beef i guess

32.last song you listened to?

-nurse’s office - melanie martinez

33.last book you read?

-history 1 text book lol

34.favourite day of the week?

-friday:)

35.can you say the alphabet backwards

-my dyslexia says no (who the fuck can actually do that)

36.how do you like your coffee?

-i don’t

37.favourite pair of shoes

-either my kinda platform vans or my high heels

38.what time do you usually go to bed?

-lately at like 3am but im trying to go at last at midnight

39.when do you get up?

-lately at 12pm but im trynna wake up earlier

40.sunrises or sunsets?

-sunset expecially at summer when it doesn’t even get dark after the sunset

41.how many blankets are on your bed?

-one blanket and two fleece blankets:)

42.describe your kitchen plates?

-my own set is grey but my parents are just white and blue

43.go to alcoholic drink?

-long drink the original flavour

44.do you play cards?

-YES, but sadly not often enough:(

45.what colour is your car?

-don’t have one :(

46.can you change a tire?

-heelll no

47.favourite province?

-umm none?

48.favourite job you ever had?

-only had one and i HATED it 

49.how did you get your biggest scar?

-im really bad at shaving

50.what did you do today that made someone happy?

-haven’t really done anything but i hope answering this tag could make the tagger at least a bit happy :)

i have no idea who to tag so im just tag @pillukorva @rokayas @business-pug

dont feel forced to answer!!!!!

[millefeuille07]

Easy French Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour (you can also use white flour)

2 teaspoons yeast (I use Fleischmann's but it can be any type of yeast for bread)

1½ teaspoons salt

1½ teaspoons sugar

1½ teaspoons oil

1½ cups warm water (Not too hot, as this could kill the yeast. Use tepid to warm water.)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Lightly flour a countertop, and place dough on it. Knead for about 8 minutes or until dough gets firm and not so sticky; you'll have to keep on adding small amounts of flour during kneading to get the dough the right consistency. Return dough to bowl and allow to rise for about 20 minutes or so. Divide dough into two sections**, and roll out each one separately. Then twist them each into long loaves and place on a greased rectangular cookie sheet. Allow to rise for 25 – 30 minutes (This depends on how warm your house is. Basically allow the dough to rise until it’s almost the size of bread loaf you want. It will rise some more in the oven but not a huge amount, so it’s important to let the loaves rise enough before putting them into the oven.) Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Optional: you can sprinkle in garlic powder (to taste) as you're mixing in the other ingredients. Or, after baking, you can butter the top of the bread and sprinkle on garlic salt (to taste) then.

** I also use this recipe for pizza dough! After the first 20 minute rise, divide the dough into two sections, and roll them out into big circles, and put them onto two greased round cookie sheets. Allow to rise about 15 minutes, and then add marinara sauce (or pesto sauce), toppings, etc. and then bake at 425F for about 20 minutes or until the bottoms of the pizza are golden brown. (I switch the pizza pans on the racks about half way through baking, so they bake evenly on the bottom.)

[mysharetok]

Best way to reduce Belly fat, Chest fat and Love Handles for men

Not everyone will store fat in some places if you are a man your main problem areas are around Lower belly fat, Chest fat and Love handles. You find everything you're looking for in this article. Whenever I've fallen off the wagon, the stomach cushions or Love Handles were the main detect that I would see muscle to fat ratio beginning to collect. And this is definitely not just a problem for me, many men find that their love handles are not only one of the first spots to gain fat, but they're also one of the toughest areas to reduce fat from, especially since there is no way to spot reduce that area with certain exercises. A lot of people will tell you that you can just crunch or hyperextend that lower back fat away, but there's definitely no chance that that's going to work on its own. Today I want to go over 8 things you can do within the realm of diet, weight training, and cardio that will work. 1. Reduce Refined Carbs & Sugar

your first step with diet should be to reduce refined carbohydrates and sugar. But we don't want to just impose a ton of restrictions. Since the lower belly and love handles tend to be the last spots to go we want to be on a diet that we can actually stick to. Because before your body starts burning those love handles it's going to burn the fat from your face, your hands, your arms, and your legs first. So you don't only want to do what most people do and simply focus on reducing your calories, cutting carbs really low, restricting yourself, and battling cravings all day and night long because that's a losing battle. Instead, you want to optimize hormones like insulin, glucagon, testosterone, ghrelin, leptin, and growth hormone because all of them play an extremely important role in the fat loss process especially when we get down to the stubborn problem areas, that doesn't seem to want to budge. Controlling Insulin with your diet should be your first priority because insulin is like an on and off switch that controls whether you will be burning fat or storing fat. According to research having high insulin levels can also cause your body to preferentially store fat around your belly and love handles. Every time when you eat Insulin level high but especially high when you eat high in carbohydrate and sugar this is the way the first step is to reduce refined Carbs & Sugar from your diet. Refined Carbs include white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, soda, and sweet desserts. So try to avoid these things from your diet. 2. Add More Sources of Protein

Having Diet on higher-level protein helps you to lower the Ghrelin level. When a Ghrelin level is high you are consistently getting signals that you are hungry and for that, you need to eat. So you definitely want to eat more protein throughout the day to lower Ghrelin. Adjusting your Diet that 30% of your daily calories coming from Protein not only fell you full also helps to speed up your metabolism and increases fat oxidation this is because of the fact that protein required more energy to digest than other macronutrients. 3. Increase Healthy Fat eliminate Unhealthy source of Fat

Things like Avocado, Walnut, and Salmon can all help you stick to your new plan. Foods high in monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats will help in low digestion in the small intestine increasing fullness and decreasing your appetite.  You need to keep in mind that many high-fat foods really taste good but are dense in calories. Eating high calories will prevent fat loss. Keep in mind before sky rocketing fat in your diet is that some people do better on high fat diet mean while some people completely do not. The people who have better respnse to high fat diet and stay lean are considered as having high fat phenotypes mean while others gain weight on high fat diet considered as having low fat phenotypes. So before adding high-fat food to your diet check which is your body type. 4. Incorporate Unrefined Sources of Carbohydrates High in Fiber

High fiber carbohydrates such as Oats, Sweet Potatoes, Banana and Orange will help to regulate Ghrelin levels (which will helps you to manage your hunger). Many people avoid carbohydrates entirely when they try to lose fat but the truth is that almost all carbohydrates in the natural form always contain fibers. In fact, one of the main things that happen when food goes from unprocessed to process fiber will get removed. This is unfortunate because of the higher fiber diet can help to decrease insulin levels and burn fat. Now has long as you keep your protien intake somewhere around 30% you can divide up your split whole unprocessed carbohydrate and healthy fats in a way that works better for you. Both Higher fat and Higher Carbohydrates can work for reducing the size of your Love Handles. You can either choose any one or balance both. 5.Limit Alcohol Consumption

You don't want to give up drinking alcohol entirely with drinking alcohol in excess is associated with abdominal obesity. Most drinks are high in calories not only from alcohol also from added sugars that we want to avoid.       6.Full Body Weight Training

Do full-body workout once or twice a week. Even though you are using weights the primary goal of this full-body workout should be to burn fat that means you want to move quickly between the sets with short breaks around 60 seconds long. On these days you want to start with a weight that you can rep out for a slightly higher rep count around 10 to 12 reps. I want you to choose a total you 8 exercises start with the ones that work your whole body before moving on to the exercise that hit lower and upper body separately. Some examples of weight training workouts are Deadlift, Clean and press, Bench press, Overhead press, and Squats. Workout like this may be difficult but it will help you to breakdown your muscle, Increase lean body mass, deplete glycogen stores and enhance insulin sensitivity while burning tuns of calories. 7. PHA training (Upper and lower body peripheral heart action training)

Peripheral heart action training sounds like something you might do in a doctor's office, but it's actually a form of training developed by Dr. Arthur Steinhaus in the 1940s. The idea behind PHA training is to elevate your metabolism by doing exercises in a certain order so that your blood keeps circulating throughout your body. PHA is basically a type of circuit training that eventually became popular in the 1960s when Mr. Universe, Bob Gajda, started using this kind of training. The idea is that you do five to six exercises, one after the other, with no, rests in between just like a typical circuit training workout. The difference is that you alternate between an upper body exercise and a lower body exercise. That's what keeps the blood circulating during the entire workout. 8. High-Intensity Interval Training

High-intensity interval training is a cardio session arranged as short bursts of very hard work. The whole point of high-intensity training is to kick up the intensity of your cardio. In order to qualify as true high-intensity interval training, you’ll need to push yourself to the max during every set. That’s why they’re short—anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds, typically. It’s the opposite of going for a long run where you ration your energy in order to sustain the activity for longer. High-intensity interval training helps you to boost endurance, increasing metabolism, regulating insulin levels, and losing body fat. Read the full article

[a-quieter-life]

@skeletonymous said:                                                                                           What do you typically buy that your grocery bill is so low?

The real key is not buying any processed foods. Those are almost always terrible value for money. Except chocolate, which I buy on occasion despite trying repeatedly to quit.

Staples:

Flour. We have 20kg sacks of wholemeal and white

Potatoes, 5-10kg sacks

Dried beans

Dried peas

Lentils

Rice

Butter. We go through 500g of butter (at an eye-watering $6 presently) per week

Eggs, about a dozen eggs per week (free range $5/doz at the local market--way cheaper than the grocer)

We don’t eat a lot of meat--maybe 50kg/year for both of us, about 5% of the average American, aussie or kiwi. What I do eat is what I can find cheaply and ethically. The only chicken I’ve cooked in the past five years is chicken that I have butchered. I butcher 1-2 birds per year, depending on my circumstances. I don’t currently live somewhere that permits keeping chickens, so I am lucky to have a coworker with geese that he occasionally needs butchered, so that has been my primary source of poultry this past year. I also got a free-range pig (small, 55kg) and split it between my coworkers. I have also eaten a whole assortment of types of meat (including insects) as and when it became available. Again, not much, but enough to get my protein & B12.

There is a local green grocer who sells a box of damaged produce for $2, which I get on occasion. I look for the lowest price on produce and buy a whole bunch and then structure meals around that--$3.50 for a cabbage, <$2/kg for carrots, <$2.50/ea for pumpkins, etc. When tomatoes get down to less than $2/kg, I preserve diced tomatoes--this is about the same price as buying from the store, but avoids BPA and tastes better (all numbers New Zealand prices, ymmv).

The above paints a rather bleak picture, but we eat very, very well because my partner and I have taken the time to really expand our cooking knowledge over the past decade. Simple ingredients, with a bit of time and know-how, can be made into delicious dishes. We make sourdough bread, bagels, soft pretzels, crackers, tamales, tacos (with from-scratch tortillas), lasagna (with from-scratch noodles and a peanut-based mock-riccota), bisque, pesto from all sorts of greens, gnocchi, bowtie pasta, pizza, ravioli, steamed pork buns, pan-fried dumplings, stir-fry, crepes, curries, stews, roasts, basically anything except just plain meat & veg type dishes. We know how to make phyllo dough from scratch, and celebrate special occasions by using it to make apple strudel or baklava. We also make a delightful, rich chocolate cake which is very delicious because it uses 250g of butter.

We don’t drink and only go out to eat on special occasions (once every other month(ish)), which helps the pocketbook quite a bit. I actually don’t like going out to eat much, as I can usually prepare the dishes being served without burning through 1-2 weeks of grocery money.

Hopefully that helps! Feel free to ask any clarifying questions!

[andtheotherstars]

I Swear I’m Awake Tag

I was tagged by @thewingwriter​, thank you. :-) (Doing this on my procrastination blog, because the other one is for writing stuff only.)

Favorite smell: Bread. (I smell the bread every time before I prepare a meal with it.) Sweet men’s colognes. Lilac flowers. The baking and candy smells at ren fairs/christmas markets/etc.

First Job: Hotel receptionist

Zodiac sign: Aries

Favorite pizza: Hawaii, or any plain pizza like salami or margharita with additional kebap sauce or olives. (But you know what, I’ll eat any pizza.)

Favorite dog: Siberian Husky. But the sporty line not the fluffy one.

Favorite foot attire: None. Bare feet are the best feet. :-)

Favorite Roller Coaster: I get sick on Roller Coaster rides ...

Favorite candy: Nougat chocolate, ice cream, salted licorice, marzipan, Oreos, honey waffles, belgian waffles, gingerbread, anything you get at christmas markets. (Oh god, I sound horrible. But I swear I eat mostly healthy.)

Favorite ice cream: Cookie dough (yay, @thewingwriter), cinnamon, hazelnut, vanilla.

Pet peeves: (Oh, @thewingwriter, I whistle all the time in public. :-D Calms me down.) I have so many pet peeves, y’all have no idea. First that comes to mind are jaws cracking loudly when someone chews. Cereal, toast, and crisp chewing in general. When teachers or classmates would write on my work sheet with anything that couldn’t be erased. Smokers just being generally inconsiderate. People who are always the same amount of time late. (It’s not like you could prepare just that amount of time earlier, right.) People who are late in the cinema, even better when they have to squeeze past me to get to their seats. People who criticise my choice of clothing or diet or anything basically, without having been asked for their opinion. Fucking H Y P O C R I T E S! Also, tourists. (I live in a tourist area. They walk slowly, they walk onto the streets, they cause traffic jams, ...) People who overtake me when I’m already driving the speed limit or above it. A crowd that claps along with music. (Driving me fucking insane.) Unpopular opinion, but encores at concerts. People listening to music loudly in public. All those typical things a cis person says to a trans person, a.k.a. to me. (Especially the, “But you were such a beautiful girl!” GOD! Or the, “What, but didn’t you have a boyfriend?” upon coming out. Yes. Yes, I did. I also just told you I am a man, not that I fancy women. I haven’t been asked anything about my genitals yet so that’s a plus.) A lot more than those, LOL, but who has the time.

What are you listening to right now: Birbs chirping in our garden. :3

Color of your vehicle: Depends on which one I’m using. My bycicle is black and purple, our car is silver, my scooter is brown and white, and the trains are generally red.

Color of eyes: Central heterochromia, blue and brown. Looks olive green from farther away.

Favorite Holiday: I don’t celebrate Christian holidays, but probably Christmas, because of all the candy and because everyone is a little nicer and more generous.

Night owl or day person: Both. :-)

Fave day of week: It used to be Friday when I had a regular weekly schedule.

Tattoos: Snake, flower, and skull on my left underarm. Rowan around my elbow. Two ravens on my upper arm. (All parts of a sleeve, but it’s not done yet.)

Like to cook: Nope.

Beer or wine or neither: Neither. Ice wine is okay, tho, so is sweet white or rosé, mead is okay, too. Beer only mixed.

Can you drive a manual transmissions: Yep. (At least I hope I still do. Haven’t done it in years.)

Favorite color: Teal

Do you like vegetables: Yes!

Do you wear glasses: Nope. But I’m waiting for the day. Everyone else in my family does.

Favorite season: Winter

Tagging no one in particular. :-) Feel free to do this tag. 

[lespetitesmortsde]

Bechloe where Beca's a baker who saw Chloe move in through her window and is awkward but also wants to get in on that from the Neighbours AU list "I just moved into the building and I found banana bread on my doorstep. I probably shouldn’t eat it cause I have no idea where it came from buT IT’S DELICIOUS"

Beca tried very hard not to be creepy, but that’s kind of difficult when her past-time for the last hour and a half has been to stare out the window and watch a gorgeous redheaded woman carry box after box into the house beside her own.

More than once, Beca debated the merits of going out and offering to help her, but that required more game than she had ever or would ever possess. It wasn’t a bad day for moving, either. The sky was overcast, but still bright without being too hot. So Beca didn’t feel bad for whom she could only assume was her new neighbour.

It was Beca’s day off and she had originally planned to use the day catching up on her boring adult stuff, like paying bills and updating her budget (which she preferred to call ‘the financial situation’ in a veiled reference to one of her favourite musicals). Yet, here she was, staring out her kitchen window like a weirdo, trying to check out an unsuspecting lady.

Sometime shortly past noon, Beca gave up on trying to be a functioning adult. She put away her tablet and calculator on the small table by the pantry and decided that if she was going to stare all day, she could at least do something useful at the same time. From beside the calculator she picked up her kitchen notebook and walked to her spice rack, flipping to one of her favourite banana bread recipes.

At this point, cracking open her book to make banana bread isn’t so much necessary as it is habit. These days, she knows her recipes by ratio and plays with the fun stuff: flavouring, aromatics, density, leaveners, and the like. Not that Beca doesn’t like the classics, but nutmeg and cinnamon in particular for banana bread is a little ‘meh’ in her opinion.

A few weeks ago, she tried cumin and coriander with a bit of orange zest, which worked well, especially when paired with an unsalted, fresh coriander herb butter. She introduced it at her bakery after her at-home success, and so far, it was still selling well. She even got her friend Benji, owner of the cafe beside the bakery, to flavour a chai latte that would pair well with it.

They often played off each other like that, running the joke that one day they’ll tear out the wall separating their businesses. He was a good guy, if a little weird at times, and he makes a shot of espresso that gets Beca to sigh in pleasure.

Especially when she’s baked a batch of biscotti for the occasion.

But back to her current spice rack dilemma. She didn’t want to do anything too ‘out there’ because she has zero clue about the redhead’s tastes. Maybe she doesn’t even like banana bread. It doesn’t matter, she’s going to get some. It’s the least Beca can do after drooling at her all day. Beca’s baking is fucking delicious, so the new neighbour can always use it to make friends if nothing else. She seems like the kind of person who makes friends easily. And no, it’s not just her pretty face. Well, Beca’s assuming her face is pretty. She’s only seen it from a distance, but she has faith.

So Beca opted for a pretty vanilla banana bread, if you don’t mind the pun. She chuckled as the joke went through her mind and grabbed a jar of vanilla beans and a different jar full of cardamom pods.

Now, most banana bread recipes don’t have a liquid component aside from beaten eggs. However, Beca uses a quarter cup of cream for richness and, in this case, to host the flavours from the cardamom and vanilla pods. After getting a small step stool from the corner of the kitchen, she grabbed a small cast iron pan that hung from her ceiling. She set a burner to medium and tossed a few cardamom pods into the pan, lightly toasting the spice.

God help her, she is such a nerd for baking.

She measured out her cream into a glass measuring cup and split a vanilla bean to scrape out the seeds. She took another peek out the window. The woman was lugging yet another box into the house. Beca wondered how the decently-sized but also kinda small moving van had this much crap in it.

Shrugging off the thought, she added a touch of water to the pan in order to cool it a bit, and pulled it off the heat. She added the cream to the pods before adding the vanilla seeds and after a quick internal debate, the vanilla pod as well. The pan wasn’t too hot, so she used her bare hand to swirl the pan and thus the liquid around, and smiled as it started to change colour, taking on the colours and flavours of the spices.

She set it off to the side to finish steeping , prepped her dry ingredients, and mashed a few bananas from the freezer. Periodically, she glanced out the window to keep loose tabs on where the redhead was. Last Beca noticed, the woman had shut the back door of the van and gone inside.

A little disappointed, Beca preheated the oven. Then she buttered and floured a loaf pan, and took out a stick of butter from the fridge to soften for later. She figured she might as well use the last of the rosewater she’d made a few days ago for a shortbread experiment to create a rosewater whipped butter to go with the banana bread. It would complement the cardamom and vanilla softly, since it’s a delicate flavour.

Beca tried to stay aware of not overcomplicating her flavour profiles. Sometimes, less is more. She’d once made a twelve-spice bundt cake and while it was not awful, it wasn’t particularly good either.

She combined all of her ingredients and then poured the mixture into her prepared pan. One long look at it later, and she spritzed the top with rosewater. She justified it by telling herself it’ll tie the flavours of the butter to the banana bread better, and even keeps the profile if the butter is skipped.

It was a reasonable decision and not at all impulsive.

Beca slid the pan into the oven, picked up her notebook, and went to go lean against the counter in front of the window. She propped the book against the glass so she could pretend she wasn’t trying to scope out the neighbour if she needed an alibi. It’s a stance she’s been caught in before, more than once.

When you’ve been baking for more than fifteen years (Beca started when she was eight), you don’t have to set an alarm anymore unless you’re very busy. Despite being distracted, Beca was technically not busy, so she figured she’d be safe relying on her internal clock.

Luckily for her, the universe did not want her to burn anything today.

She caught the rare glimpse of the redhead through the other house’s windows. Sometimes the woman popped up in the only upstairs window Beca could see, sometimes in what appeared to be the kitchen, and most often in what looked like a living room.

45 minutes later, the bread passed Beca’s test for doneness and was put aside to cool. She turned away from her viewing pleasures to pull out her stand mixer. She changed the attachment from the ever-trusty dough hook to the whisk and dropped the stick of butter into the bowl. Eight minutes of whipping, starting at medium and going all the way to spastic, brought lovely, white, fluffy, and aerated butter into existence. She added a healthy measure of rosewater, but there wasn’t much left, so she tossed the rest in too. Another minute on high and she was scraping out the butter onto some wax paper.

It took a few minutes to wrestle the butter into a cylinder and then to squeeze the extra air bubbles out, and then Beca just stared at the tube. Something was missing. She grumbled a little as she went to her decoration drawer and pulled out five weirdly angled pieces of plastic. Beca loosened the wrapping on the butter tube, pressed the pieces of plastic into it, slipped a couple of elastic bands around the tube, and then wrapped the whole thing in cling wrap.

Stars. That’s what the presentation needed. Butter that looked like stars.

xxxxx

It had been a long day of moving stuff into her new place and Chloe was exhausted. She’d spent the better part of eight hours straight lugging heavy boxes in from the rental van. She flopped heavily onto the couch, thankful that her best friend Aubrey had been around to help her yesterday so she could get all the furniture moved in without too much struggle. She could’ve used Aub’s help today, too, but it was miraculous that Aubrey had gotten even one day off to help her. The law didn’t rest.

Chloe sighed, feeling her limbs get heavier as she laid there. Her mattress was still on the floor of her bedroom and she hadn’t gotten a chance to build her bed yet. At this point, it was looking like she might not even make it upstairs before she passed out. The couch looked like a better and better option the longer she didn’t move.

Her stomach rumbled and Chloe groaned because she doesn’t have anything to eat, aside from some instant ramen. Even that basic assembly seems too daunting.

When Chloe was trying to figure out where her phone was—she couldn’t tell anymore if there actually was something in her pocket, or remember if she put it down somewhere—someone knocked on her door.

She cocked her head to the side, trying to recall if she was expecting anybody. Not that she knew of. And unless she can’t remember a very lucid dream where she ordered pizza (which would be amazing), no one has any reason to be on her doorstep. But, even though she was absolutely beat, she got up with considerable effort, and went and opened the door.

No one was there. Chloe couldn’t believe it. Not even one whole day in her new place and the neighbourhood kids were already pranking her. Then, she looked down.

“Oh,” Chloe said softly, bending down to pick up a Ziploc container. There was a note stuck on top. Chloe looked around to see if she could spot the person responsible, but she couldn’t see any sort of movement.

She took the tupperware inside, closing and locking the door behind her. In the kitchen, she set it on the counter and pulled off the note left on top.

Welcome to the neighbourhood!Hope you got moved in alright. Please enjoy some banana bread. It’s not vegan, gluten-free, or calorie-wise, but it should be delicious. There’s also a butter that goes with it, if that’s something you’re into.Of course, you don’t have to eat it either. It’s pretty sketchy to eat random banana bread from your doorstep. It doesn’t matter. I’ll never know.

Smiling, Chloe took the lid off of the container. It looked like banana bread. It smelled like fancy banana bread. She poked it. It felt like regular banana bread too. Not that she’d know what poisoned banana bread looked or felt like. Tucked in a smaller container at the side was the butter. Chloe opened that one too and laughed when she saw the butter in star shapes. Yup, that spelled out fancy banana bread. It must have been a pain to cut all those stars out of a block of butter.

Her stomach rumbled again. “Well,” Chloe murmured, “if this is how I die, so be it.” Without bothering to try and find a knife in one of the still numerous remaining boxes, Chloe tore off a chunk. She eyed the butter, debating quickly, before smushing her bread into one of the stars.

She put the whole piece into her mouth.

Holy shit, was it delicious. It was rich and dense, but smooth and creamy with the help of the butter. There was also something extra, some spice she didn’t know. She could make out the vanilla, but something in there had more depth that blended well with the banana and the vanilla.

She ate three-quarters of the loaf, eating a couple of pieces without the fancy butter, just to say she tried it both ways. Honestly, it’s probably one of the best dinners she’s ever had. She just wished she knew whom she should thank for the truly delectable gift.

Also, she should probably give the container back. At some point, anyway.

Is it possible to fall in love via baked good? Chloe thought about it as she put what little was left of the bread away and trudged upstairs to clean up and sleep. Yeah, it probably was possible. Chloe was a goner.

xxxxx

After returning the van in the morning, and unpacking more of her belongings, Chloe took a bowl of ramen outside to eat on her porch. She was impressed she found a bowl, pot, spoon, and chopsticks, too. About halfway through her noodle lunch, a man left the house directly across from hers, and walked right toward her.

“Hello!” He called out as he approached. Chloe moved the bowl from her lap and got up, brushing her right hand against her pants.

“Hi there!” She replied brightly, stepping down to meet him on the walkway.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood! I’m Jesse,” he introduced himself with a little wave.

“Hi Jesse, I’m Chloe,” she shook his hand once he’d stuck it out there.

“Nice to meet you. Do you need any help?”

Chloe shook her head. “Thank you, but no. It’s just putting things away now and I want to be able to find things again.”

“No sweat,” he smiled easily. “Am I the first one to say hi?”

She shifted on her feet. “Kind of?”

He looked at her, waiting for the explanation.

“Well, yesterday someone knocked on my door, but when I opened the door, nobody was there. They left some of the most delicious banana bread I’ve ever had, though, but I have no idea who it is,” Chloe sighed.

Jesse laughed. “That’ll be Beca,” he told her. “She owns a bakery further into town.” He turned to point at the house next door. “She lives there, and you’re right, her baking is amazing.”

Chloe’s jaw dropped, as she looked over at the house. “Really? What’s it called?”

“Grain of Salt; it’s right beside a cafe that my best friend owns.”

“That’s so cool,” Chloe gushed, glancing back to Beca’s house.

Jesse smirked a little. “Do you want me to introduce you?”

Her hair whipped as she turned to look at him. “That’d be great!”

He nodded. “Okay, let’s go.” He started walking away.

“Wait! I need to change, I can’t go over like this!” Chloe cried, gesturing frantically at her sweatpants and tank top.

“Relax,” he said calmly. “She’s probably not dressed much better by now.”

Chloe’s brow furrowed.

“She opens the bakery every morning, so by the time two p.m. rolls around, she’s already back home and lounging.”

“Still,” Chloe said, drawing it out.

“Nope,” Jesse walked back to take her hand. “Come on, it’ll be fine.”

“Wait, wait, let me at least grab her tupperware container,” Chloe said, pulling away and marching into the house. She emerged a minute later with a clean container. “Okay, now we can go.”

Jesse led the way, even though Chloe now knew where to go. He’s also the one who knocked before calling out loudly, “Beca, open the door!”

From somewhere upstairs, slightly muffled, someone (presumably Beca) yelled back, “Go away, Swanson, I’m not watching a movie with you! Not now, not ever!”

Jesse rolled his eyes and leaned towards Chloe. “She’s being dramatic. I made her watch Titanic the other day. She hated it,” he whispered conspiratorially.

“Come on, Becaw! I have someone for you to meet!” Jesse smiled smugly.

The door flung open. “You know I hate that nickname!” She growled, before realizing exactly who it was with Jesse.

“Hi!” Chloe greeted, and on impulse went right up to Beca and hugged her.

Beca looked at Jesse, lost, but he only shrugged in return. “Um, hi?” Awkwardly, she patted Chloe on the back.

“I’m Chloe,” she said as she pulled away.

“Beca.”

“Nice to meet you!” Chloe smiled, then offered the container to Beca. “And thanks, it was amazing.”

Beca wrenched her gaze from Chloe’s eyes down to the Ziploc and back. “You finished it already?”

Chloe blushed. “I hadn’t eaten dinner when I discovered a poor defenseless banana loaf on my porch, and then it was so good I just could help myself. I finished it off for breakfast this morning.” She shrugged, “I have no regrets.”

Beca tilted her head to the side. “And did it work well with the butter?”

Chloe nodded emphatically. “Oh my God, it was so good!” But Chloe paused. “Wait, you didn’t try it?”

Shaking her head, Beca replied, “No, I didn’t want to ruin the presentation. I had faith it would be good, though, so I’m glad it was.”

“Aww, I wouldn’t have minded! Also, what spice was in there?”

“Cardamom.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that one before. It was nice though. I don’t know how to describe it, but it added to the experience.”

Beca smiled. “That’s great. That’s the goal.”

The two women just kind of gazed at each other for a few moments.

“Should I leave you two alone?” Jesse asked, already taking a couple of steps back.

Beca rolled her eyes. “What brought you here anyway?”

Jesse gestured at Chloe. “She wanted to know who baked the banana bread. Had to be you. That’s all.”

She looked at him warily. “That’s it?”

Chloe jumped in before Jesse could say anything more. “Yup! I needed to know who made this. Tell me all your secrets!”

Beca noticeably blanched. “All?”

Chloe grinned, stepping forward so Beca would step back and let her in the house. “Yes! You’re like a magical baker, I need all the baking secrets.” Chloe wandered in, slipped off her shoes, and went looking for the kitchen.

Beca stared after her, half in amusement and half in disbelief. She closed the door and followed her, hoping she wouldn’t destroy the organization of the pantry before she got there.

Jesse watched the door close in front of him. “I’m good here,” he muttered under his breath. “No, I don’t want to come inside thank you. Geez,” he shook his head at his friend’s behaviour. “Maybe she’ll get laid and be less grouchy, though.”

He turned and walked away, chuckling at the exasperation he could hear in Beca’s voice as she asked Chloe to put something down before their conversation dissolved into two distinct giggles.

[emmatrustsno-one]

Food (and class) in Harry Potter A (lengthy) guide for fans who aren’t British

After another user asked me some questions about British food as it appears in Harry Potter I decided to make a post about it, as no doubt other foreign readers have similar questions. I will talk about EVERYTHING so sorry if you have to scroll through loads of stuff you know to find what you want, but I have written it to be accessible to literally anyone and I don’t want to assume people know what something is just because I do.

Also, it was impossible to make the post without referencing class. The fact that it was impossible only goes to show how it’s probably impossible to understand the books in depth without an understanding of class in Britain. The whole texts are encoded with references to class which are so subtle (much like class itself) that even I, who grew up being encoded in the same way, had to analyse the texts to find them. At some point I’ll make a post about just class, but for now we’ll stick to the light-hearted topic of food!

Foods eaten at Hogwarts:

Main courses:

Probably to give a subtle wave to the fact that Hogwarts is the magical version of a public school, nearly all the food consumed there is traditional and British. A public school here is NOT a state-maintained school, it is a private, extremely expensive, prestigious, boarding school, e.g Eton, which only the children of people with a lot of money and a lot of influence attend. By default, these people are usually upper class or aristocracy. (Obviously in the wizarding world money isn’t a factor in school attendance, but nevertheless that is what Hogwarts is modelled on.) There is never any mention of processed foods at Hogwarts except chips and a few common desserts. Here is a list, with explanation, of foods mentioned there:

stew/casserole (meat and vegetables cooked together with stock for several hours)

roast beef and chicken (the two most commonly eaten meats here, I would say)

pork/lamb chops (cuts of those meats with a bit of bone through the top)

sausage (usually made with pig meat in the UK)

bacon (here it is larger and softer than in many countries)

steak (a cut of beef, usually expensive)

boiled (in water until soft, no skins), roast (in the oven until brown, no skins) and mashed (boiled and puréed, no skins) potatoes

chips (not crisps, of course, but rather fat French fries)

Yorkshire pudding (pancake batter which is cooked in a muffin pan in the oven until risen and crispy; originated from the county of Yorkshire and usually served with roast beef)

PLEASE NOTE THAT ‘PUDDING’ IS NOT NECESSARILY SWEET, NOR A MOUSSE-LIKE SAUCE THING. I MADE A BLOG POST LAST WEEK ABOUT ‘PUDDING’.

peas (usually small and taken out of the pod, a bit like petit pois, – garden peas; occasionally larger and softer – marrowfat peas; sometimes mashed up into a purée – mushy peas, which are usually served with chips)

carrots (peeled and either boiled or roasted)

gravy (like meat jus, but nowadays normally made from a flavoured powder that you add water to and stir. It’s brown and fairly thick)

ketchup (this one annoys me because no-one I know says ketchup – it’s tomato sauce, at least in the north)

sprouts (brussels sprouts )

steak and kidney pie (pastry filled with steak and kidney in a gravy)

PLEASE NOTE THAT PIE IS USUALLY SAVOURY HERE. We do have fruit pies, but if someone says ‘pie’ a British person will picture a savoury thing, probably with meat in it.

steak and kidney pudding (steak and kidney in gravy encased in suet pastry, which is a crumbly, soft pastry made from just suet, flour and water. It is steamed, not baked, usually)

sausage rolls (a staple of British lunchtime foods – sausagemeat wrapped in a flaky pastry and eaten hot or cold)

jacket potato (also called a baked potato, it’s a whole potato baked in the oven with the skin still on until it’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, and is usually served with cheese in it)

porridge (oats cooked in milk or water, often called oatmeal in other countries)

marmalade (jam made from citrus fruits, usually orange)

PLEASE NOT THAT JAM IS NON-CITRUS FRUIT AND SUGAR COOKED UNTIL IT SETS INTO A SPREAD.

Desserts:

jam tart (a small, open pastry case with jam in it)

ice cream (the most common flavours here are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry)

apple pie (pastry case with sweetened apples)

treacle tart (pastry case with a sweet, thin filling made from golden syrup and breadcrumbs, not treacle)

éclairs (popular French cream cake – long choux bun filled with cream and topped with chocolate)

jam doughnuts (dough fried in oil and filled with jam, most often strawberry)

jelly (called jell-o in some countries – flavoured gelatine)

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH JAM – AMERICANS CALL JAM JELLY.

rice pudding (short grain rice cooked for several hours in milk and sugar until it forms a thick mixture not unlike sweet porridge)

custard tart (pastry case filled with an egg, milk and sugar mixture which has been baked until set)

spotted dick (steamed suet pudding, which is like a warm sponge cake, filled with raisins and served with custard)

chocolate gateau (fancy chocolate cake with cream on top)

trifle (layered fruit, jelly, sponge cake, custard and cream – a classic)

mint humbugs (a hard mint to freshen your breath after eating)

At Christmas:

roast turkey (the meat we traditionally eat at Christmas)

chipolatas (tiny pork sausages)

buttered peas (just peas with a bit of butter on the them)

cranberry sauce (cranberries and sugar cooked together until set – served with savoury foods like turkey – it’s not as sweet as jam)

turkey sandwiches (literally the entire country eats this on Christmas night to use up some turkey)

Christmas cake (very rich, dense fruit cake topped with a layer of marzipan and then a layer of icing)

Christmas pudding (hot, very rich steamed pudding made from dried fruits, nuts and suet, often served with brandy sauce)

crumpets (these aren’t a Christmas food, they just happen to eat them at Christmas. They are round, flat buns, though not exactly bread, with holes in them, that you toast and butter. Often people eat them for breakfast, or, like in the book, as a snack at night. They are savoury, not sweet)

mince pies (small pies filled with a mixture of dried fruits, sugar and brandy – sweet, not savoury – they were made with minced meat a few hundred years ago, and the name mince pie has stuck)

fudge (a type of sweet made by heating sugar, butter and milk until it sets)

During the Triwizard Tournament:

bouillabaisse (French fish stew/soup that hardly anyone here has heard of/would try!)

goulash (Eastern European stew made with meat and paprika that a lot of people have at least heard of and would try!)

blancmange (French dessert which is a basically white, almond-flavoured jelly that some people have heard of and a few would try)

It’s necessary to mention here, how the fact that Hermione knows what the bouillabaisse is and has tried it is a DEFINITE indicator of class. She is upper middle class. I’ll talk more about why when I do a class post, but for now it’s enough to say that no working-class child, unless they have family ties to France or have learned about it in French at school, would even know what it was and would be very unlikely to try it if given the opportunity. You can’t read that scene, as a British person, and not understand that Hermione comes from a cultured, moneyed background.

It’s also interesting to compare these foods with the foods usually served at state-maintained schools at the time HP was written: we are talking about fatty, greasy, processed rubbish with no nutrition at all, e.g. turkey twizzlers, nuggets, pizza, chips, hot dogs, cakes. You do still find such foods in state schools but normally alongside more healthy options. Since Jamie Oliver’s war on school food things are a lot better, but the point is that the food at Hogwarts is a clear nod to the privilege of the pupils: working-class kids wouldn’t have been able to eat things like that at school. My primary school (ages 4-11) served stew sometimes, with overcooked vegetables, but that’s all, and my secondary school served pizza, hot dogs, nuggets and chips every day and that was it.

Foods mentioned but not eaten in the Great Hall:

sherbet lemons (real sweets, they are strong, lemon-flavoured hard sweets that contain a powder that makes your tongue fizz)

custard creams (biscuits made from 2 square simple biscuits with vanilla cream sandwiched between them)

Foods eaten at the Weasleys’:

Food is one of the main ways by which the Weasleys are coded as working-class. Everything they eat is either a comfort food your grandma makes or some cheap thing you eat and don’t mind but wish was something else.

corned beef sandwiches (corned beef is beef which has been processed and salt-cured and has the mushy consistency of cat food. It was popular during the war, when meat was scarce and rationed, and is associated with poverty and lack of better meat. That isn’t to say that people don’t like it, but it is true that many people don’t)

Speaking of processed meats, the Weasleys eat a lot of sausage and bacon, which are very popular but also available cheaply.

chicken and ham pie (this is the only time I can think of that it is mentioned that the Weasleys were having a ‘proper’ meat, as in unprocessed, and if I remember correctly it was for Harry’s birthday, so a special occasion. It’s pastry filled with chicken and ham in a white sauce and is the sort of thing your grandma probably made)

boiled potatoes (they do have boiled potatoes at Hogwarts, but alongside other types of potato.)

It’s hard for me to explain why, but boiled potatoes, specifically, have a working-class connotation. You are definitely more likely to eat boiled potatoes in a working-class family. Here are 2 anecdotes form my life about boiled potatoes to illustrate my point!

1. I know someone from a privileged background. Her father was an electrical engineer who held government contracts. She went to a grammar school (a school that’s free but you have to pass a test to go to) and lived in an affluent city where one of the main public schools is. As soon as she opens her mouth you can hear that she’s from an upper middle-class background. I once discussed cooking dinner with her and said I was making boiled potatoes. She scoffed and said she never did as she couldn’t see the point – if she has boiled them she might as well mash them.

2. At university my friend started going out with a guy from a solid middle-class background. His parents had a second home in South Africa, where his father worked for part of the year. They were staunch Tories (supported the political party to the right of the centre). She and I once discussed making dinner and she said it was her turn to make it tonight and the guy wanted sautéed potatoes. Her exact words next were “he’ll just have to make do with boiled, I’m too tired”.

Somehow the fact that the Weasleys eat boiled potatoes makes them working-class, an under-class. It’s somehow seen as lazy and simple by people from higher classes.

rhubarb crumble (stewed rhubarb topped with a flour, butter and sugar mixture that goes hard and crumbly, usually served with custard)

Again, this is a working-class mainstay. Many people used to grow rhubarb in their gardens because it grows easily and is hardy in our weather. Add a bit of sugar and it’s an almost free dessert.

chocolate pudding (not to be confused with chocolate pudding in American terms, ours is a suet pudding made with chocolate and served hot, usually with a chocolate sauce)

Foods eaten with the Dursleys:

a bun from the bakers (could be either a sandwich made from a bread roll or a sweet bun such as an iced bread roll, without more info it’s not clear. The word ‘bun’ is used to describe many things, and it’s different depending on where you are in the country. For example, I would never say ‘bun’ and mean sandwich but I know some people do. I personally picture an iced bun).

knickerbocker glory (an ice cream sundae)

fruit cake (dense cake made with dried fruits, like a dressed down version of Christmas cake, seems quite old-fashioned now)

roast pork (a joint of pork roast in the oven, often with a layer of fat over it that goes crispy)

soup (a common starter)

salmon (usually a whole fish, baked or poached)

lemon meringue pie (the French dessert anglicised – a pastry case filled with a layer of set lemon cream and topped with meringue)

grapefruit

I want to pause at this point to point out how clear it is that the Dursleys are higher class than the Weasleys. For one, Uncle Vernon just buys whatever he fancies from the bakers for lunch but Ron (and presumably the whole family) are given sandwiches made by Mrs Weasley, containing what they can afford. Secondly, roast pork and salmon are expensive and only eaten by people with more than the basic amount of money and even then really only on special occasions. Sometimes people will have a salmon on the buffet at their wedding, for instance. It’s a far cry from processed meats and chicken and ham pie. Not least because you can make a decent pie out of even poor quality meat, but to make a good roast, especially if you are trying to impress your boss, you need a good quality joint. Thirdly, if on a diet it’s unlikely someone working-class would eat grapefruit for breakfast. I know working-class kids who wouldn’t even be able to identify a grapefruit. Moreover, the fact that they served the meal to Vernon’s boss in three courses, followed by after-dinner mints shows that they either are middle-class, or, more likely, trying to appear so. The Weasleys just have their main course and pudding, even on special occasions. I don’t think I’ve ever had a starter in my life except for in restaurants. Furthermore, at the zoo Dudley and Piers get ice creams and Harry gets a lemon ice lolly. I don’t think there is any more striking a symbol of a working-class person in the 90s trying to treat themselves than cheap lemon ice lollies! All ice cream stands had one and it was always the cheapest thing. By doing this, Vernon is showing that he views Harry as a lesser-class than himself and Dudley. Lastly, while Petunia is preparing the meal for Vernon’s boss, Harry is given bread and cheese for his supper. Bread and cheese conjures up images of Scrooge sitting in the dark eating alone because it was so cheap: Victorian levels of poverty and definite allusions to being a lesser-class.

On a side note, the Dursleys still got their milk and eggs from the milkman, a man from a dairy who delivered to people’s houses in the mornings. In those days lots of people still did, and you do still get milkmen now to a lesser degree. My grandparents got their milk from the milkman and so did my husband’s parents, up until at least 2000.

whipped cream and sugared violets (I had to look up sugared violets myself. I think I am probably too working-class, or possibly too northern, to have heard of them. They seem to be the head of the violet flower dipped in egg white and sugar so that it becomes hard. I have never heard of putting them in cream to make a pudding before.)

Additional foods relating to Hagrid:

birthday cake (usually sponge and covered in icing. In Britain, unlike many countries, you do not buy your own birthday cake: your parents usually get one for you)

rock cakes (these are real, though I grew up calling them rock buns. They are a basically a blob of cake cake batter with currants in, baked for a short time. They are like a cross between muffins and cookies)

treacle toffee (hard black toffee, often eaten around bonfire night)

stoat sandwiches (as far as I am concerned these are not real! I have never heard of anyone eating that! A stoat is small animal like a weasel)

Foods sold by magical establishments, e.g. Honeydukes/the Hogwarts Express:

these foods don’t exist outside HP, but could theoretically be made –

pumpkin juice

pumpkin pasties (a pasty is like a pie but the pastry is filled and then folded over, not topped with a lid)

chocoballs filled with strawberry mousse and clotted cream (clotted cream is thick, rich cream that has thickened naturally, not by whipping)

mulled mead (you can get mead, though it’s not common, and mulled just means it’s cooked through with various spices)

cherry syrup with soda (to us, soda is carbonated water, not pop)

these foods aren’t real but are based on real ones –

Drooble’s best blowing gum (wizard bubble gum)

liquorice wands (you can get sticks of liquorice

fizzing whizzbees (imo based on a sweet called a flying saucer, which is a     thin, rice paper-like shell shaped like a flying saucer and filled with sherbet

exploding bonbons (bonbons here are round and soft, sometimes with a powdery centre, which break apart easily and fill your mouth

these foods are real –

peppermint creams (icing sugar mixed with peppermint oil until soft but firm, often coated in chocolate        

mars bars (chocolate coated nougat-cream and caramel)

these foods aren’t real and aren’t really based on anything, as far as I can tell –

                                                  butterbeer

                                                  gillywater

                                                  sugar quills

                                                  ice mice

                                                  cockroach cluster

                                                  blood pops

                                                  toothflossing stringmints

                                                  pepper imps

                                                  cauldron cakes

these foods weren’t real before HP but now exist as part of the HP merchandise –

Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans (they are like jelly beans)

Chocolate frogs

Two final things. Firstly, on the topic of class it is worth noting that Lupin felt he had to apologise for only having teabags. Literally nobody who is working-class drinks tea in any other form than teabags 99.9% of the time. You can get loose leaf tea, which is seen as fancy, nicer and is certainly more expensive. I got some for Christmas last year, for instance. Nobody working-class would ever even bat an eyelid at someone offering them tea in bag form. It’s totally normal. The fact that Lupin apologises shows that he is acutely aware that he is more lowly than the average Hogwarts teacher. He is embarrassed by something that most of the population find normal. He feels under them, in class terms. Even though he knows Harry grew up without privilege (though the Dursleys themselves are middle-class), now that Harry is part of Hogwarts he has ascended enough in class terms that Lupin is concerned he will disappointed to have tea from a bag. This goes some way to showing how class isn’t just about money: it’s about tastes and habits.

Secondly, in compiling this post it became really clear that sausages are a leitmotiv marking times when Harry feels cosy, familial and homey. The first thing Hagrid does is cook him sausages, which represent being lifted out of the world of cold and hunger he is living in; becoming someone who others care about and want to care for. When he is rescued to the Weasleys in CoS and is blown away by the wizarding house and starts to feel at home and safe, the first thing Molly does is feed him loads of sausages. Sausages are often mentioned at breakfast at Hogwarts, especially when Harry is in a good mood. Perhaps it was unconscious and JKR herself associates sausages with feelings of family and at home-ness.

One final thing and that’s it, I promise. While writing this it struck me how different what I mean when I say “privilege” is from what an American means when they say it. I have mentioned this before, and at some point will do a blog post about it, but race is bound up so intricately with American history and life that words like “privilege” are encoded with images of skin colour. I bet the average American read “privilege” and pictured a white person, but in the UK that wouldn’t be the case. Skin colour has nothing to do with it. Here, “privilege” means what you have access to, how valid other people see your tastes and way of life, what you have grown up doing, seeing, eating, hearing, believing. It is bound up inexorably with how much money you have, what you do for a living and where you live and, crucially, with your family’s status historically. That one thing is the reason that comparisons between death eaters and Nazis don’t really hold up: HP is about genealogy and not ideology.

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My tips for strengthening the immune system and better Anti Agging!

In order to experience aging healthy and without medication, it is necessary to activate the body's own pharmacy by observing the 3 pillars of health:- Movement- Nutrition- SleepThese 3 pillars have to be observed and cared for as one would do with a luxury object. There is nothing more luxurious than a body and a brain that works. We remain capable of learning until 10 minutes before we die. This means that we train the cognitive and physical muscles regularly, give them the right fuel (nutrition) and give them the necessary regeneration and rest (sleep).

Now to my personal experience with the three pillars:movement:Due to injuries caused by sports and motorcycle accidents, I had to rebuild the complete musculature (legs, feet) several times. Because after several months of inactivity, the muscles are gone and the tendons are shortened. This has brought me to fitness and strength training. I don't do it with great pleasure, there is something masochistic about the machines. But it helps to get back in shape. And in old age, it helps to at least stabilize and in the best case even build up the muscles. I have more muscles and strength now, at 71 years of age, especially on my arms, than I did 50 years ago!I do specific strength training twice a week in the fitness club (60 minutes), additionally at home every 2nd day between 60-70 push-ups and 1 minute planks as well as trunk bending. Without that my body would be like a rusty car with a weak engine.  After training I always take my Protein Shake nu3, Fit shake. It is a German product with 76% protein, all important vitamins and minerals, collagens, choline and green tea extract. I take the taste with vanilla because it tastes good together with the unsweetened coconut milk where I mix it, about 2-3 deciliter.See my pic here: 

Basically I orientate myself on the food culture of the Mediterranean region. That means a lot of vegetables and little red meat. As meat I prefer chicken and regularly eat fresh water fish like trout, perch, char, whitefish and especially salmon. I prefer sea fish more when I am at the sea.To grill fish or chicken, I always use coconut oil. This oil goes very well with fish or chicken, gives it a special taste. Coconut oil is also good for preserving your eyesight. Coconut oil is a remedy overlooked by Western medicine, which is effective against all kinds of infections as well as macular degeneration and glaucoma. I discovered it too late:

https://www.brodehl.de/selbsthifle-bei-augenerkrankungen/kokosoel/I discovered it much too late. From time to time I take a teaspoonful because it tastes so good. To grill red meat, I only use veal or beef, I always use cold pressed olive oil. I eat red meat only 1x a week. Chicken and fish however 1-3 times a week. As a side dish to fish and chicken I either make rice or noodles. But it can also be a bowl of mixed salad, which I enrich with avocado and feta cheese.

What I also often do is chicken with curry sauce. Cut the chicken into small pieces, fry it with coconut oil and chopped onions, then deglaze it with some white wine, dust it with some spelt flour and add some coffee cream to get a creamy sauce. Then add curry spice. This can be done with turmeric powder or Arbabian Advieh ( Arabian Advieh ground. The most sensual spice of the Orient smells almost like a curry, but it fits to the aromatic language of the Mediterranean Sea) to enhance the taste. You have to try what you like better. Special spices are available from a colleague of mine, Beat Heuberger: www.beat.heuberger.ch in Zurich. What I also like is Riz Casimir. Prepare as with chicken meat as mentioned above. When the curry is ready and the rice is cooked, I prepare the fruits as a side dish. That means I fry some fruits lightly in coconut oil. This can be sliced banana with tangerine slices, grapes and small almond slivers. When they are a little fried, add them to the curry and stir. Rice is especially rich in carbohydrates and nutrients - all around super healthy and suitable for a nutritious and conscious nutrition. In traditional Chinese medicine, rice is even considered a remedy for high blood pressure. It is also said to relieve the heart and strengthen the body - here are the healthiest rice varieties in the world:Natural rice, wild rice, whole grain Basmati riceWhat I also love is vegetable gratin. The frozen vegetables (Frozen vegetables usually contain more nutrients than vegetables in jars or cans, but also as fresh vegetables that have been stored in the refrigerator for a few days. This is because the nutrient content in fresh vegetables decreases significantly over time due to light and heat).I heat the frozen vegetables in the microwave, then put them in a fireproof bowl, sprinkle grated cheese over them and a sauce Bernaise or Hollandaise (as used with asparagus). This is heated in the oven (gratinated), you can see when the sauce turns slightly brownish - super delicious and prepared in no-time.I also love pasta, but you should not eat it every day. I like to make spaghetti with tuna fish sauce. I take tuna from the tin and heat it up in an organic tomato sauce. The sauce can also be made with a ratatouille vegetable sauce ( https://www.lecker.de/ratatouille-gemuese-33919.html )

Or spaghetti bolognese can also be made like this: 20 gr less chopped beef, but with carrots and celery in the tomato sauce. Or for the pizza, I use only fresh tomatoes, sliced and placed on the dough, with tuna pieces (canned), anchovies and capers and some recent Gruyere cheese from Switzerland. You can also use spelt dough as a base.  A simple rule for eating is: Rainbow-colored food, cooked as a side dish or sauce or raw in a salad. Then you eat a lot of secondary plant substances!

I make my homade salad dressing as follows: Mix grape seed oil with balsamic vinegar and a little mayonnaise, salt and pepper and season to taste until it fits personally. So I hope I could give you some advice what and how I eat. However, it is always important to eat what you like and to give you pleasure and pleasure. I am not an ascetic or fundamentalist when it comes to food, I also take a burger every now and then, but never with white bread.

I also love sweets, but in masses.But the most important thing to keep health and weight in balance is the interval fasting that I have been practicing for over 20 years. That means, here the 16 to 8 rule applies.How did I come to this. I had an extreme allergic reaction after the last knee operation in the 90's, due to an antibiotic infusion during anesthesia. This reaction occurred repeatedly over several months with severe skin rashes (hives). I could no longer take certain foods or painkillers and was given an allergy pass. After X sensitivity test it was found out that it was the mentioned antibiotics infusion during anesthesia.I then, independently of this allergy, completed a fasting week in Austria, the so-called F.X. Mayr cure: https://www.netdoktor.de/ernaehrung/heilfasten/mayr-kur/In this course, 1 week, my intestine was cleaned and the microbiom in the intestine, which was destroyed by the antibiotics, was rebuilt. I did not know this, but I was pleasantly surprised about the result. I can recommend thus a chamfering cure only if one has difficulties with the intestine. The intestine is so to speak the pharmacy one with the correct nutrition to effect brings. During chamfered the body disposes of increased cell wastes, whereby the damaged proteins and cell components in a process, which is called autophagy, are digested and eliminated with the defecation. The right diet helps digestion and can alleviate complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome or rheumatism. What also helps of course is stress management with mediation or self-hypnosis. A healthy lifestyle has nothing to do with asceticism or renunciation - on the contrary, everyone can decide for himself whether he or she wants to swallow daily medication in the case of chronic diseases, gets back pain in the case of overweight or even needs artificial joints. On the other hand, those who change their lifestyle and diet not only get a better quality of life but are also rewarded with a strong immune system as a defense against any viruses. My interval fasting looks like this, breakfast like a king, between 08-09h, then late lunch, usually between 13.30 to 15h and then nothing more except 1-2 glasses of red wine in the evening. I always do this when I am alone. As I said before, I am not an ascetic or nutritional fundamentalist. When I am in company, I eat in the evening or enjoy finger food during the apero. Except for sausage, offal or pork, I basically eat everything. The advantage of Dinner Canceling is also that the body's pharmacy produces melatonin, the sleep hormone. Not eating dinner also leads to a better sleep and corresponding sleep quality, which in turn leads to better regeneration. See in addition also my video to stress biology into my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/a5AFh52nz0MHow to apply the 16 to 8 rule during interval fasting is individually different. There are humans without the breakfast to do and Lunch as well as dinner consume. One must find that out for itself.Interval fasting helps me to keep my weight with +/- 78kg. Most people consume too many calories while eating. For people who don't do heavy physical work, 1200 to max. 1500 calories per day are enough, everything above that is too much.

Regeneration:Here the quality of sleep is decisive, i.e. not the length of sleep but the achievement of deep sleep phases alternating with REM phases. More about this also in my video on stress biology: https://youtu.be/a5AFh52nz0MHere is a tip for irritable bowel syndrome. Here a change in diet and also "abdominal hypnosis" helps to readjust the communication between brain and intestine so that not every stimulus in the brain is felt as pain. A special app "Care care" can help in this respect. A healthy intestine loves fiber, good and slow chewing and regular exercise.  I hope that I can help a little bit with this article so that you can activate your body pharmacy for a long and healthy aging.

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What’s your favorite nail polish that you own? I don’t use nail polish. I move my hands around too much and anything I put on my nails would get chipped in an instant. What’s your favorite play by Shakespeare? I never enjoyed taking up Shakespeare in high school. I guess I was most engaged when we studied Macbeth, though. That or Hamlet. What’s your favorite recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to prepare? Homemade pizza. We were taught how to do it in preschool–hotdogs, mayo, ketchup, cheese on white bread then pop it in the oven toaster. I haven’t had it in like a decade just because I’ve never had time to make them, but it’s the best thing that takes less than ten minutes. It’s such a preschool recipe but since I had it so many times as a kid, it’s comfort food to me. What is the smallest thing that made you embarrassed or anxious? Ordering in restaurants, asking for help at a store, talking on the phone, asking questions, people looking at me. Anything can make me anxious really, so long as I’m thrust in the spotlight. You’ve just written the most annoying computer virus ever made. What does it do?  I used to have the world’s most annoying virus on my ancient laptop. It used to type down random Vietnamese texts on its own. Like I could be watching a YouTube video and it would make a group of Viet words show up on the search bar. If I had to wish something on my worst enemy it would be that.

Did you ever attend a wedding that was a complete disaster? Fortunately no. Filipino weddings aren’t as dramatic as the horror stories I’ve heard in other countries. What is something that you were surprised you were able to do?  Dunno. Keeping a magna cum laude standing to this day is one of them though. What movie surprised you with how good it was? Wonder Woman. I never go to see blockbusters, much less superhero films. That one was a pleasant surprise. Is there anything you’re stressed out about? Yes, but I’m on Tumblr right now to de-stress so don’t remind me. Satan decides to make a new Hell for the lesser sinners where everything is mildly inconvenient. What would you expect to find there?  Ads. Lots and lots of annoying, unskippable ads. Think the Fifteen Million Merits episode of Black Mirror. Which persistent myth/misconception annoys you the most?  Can’t seem to think of any now... What’s the last video you watched on YouTube? I think it was a snippet from The Return of Superman, the Korean show with dads taking care of their kids. Do you have any extensions on your web browser? No, I don’t download third-party programs onto my Mac now since I want to keep it as clean as possible. What is the most bullshit sounding true fact that you know? The fact that mammoths were still alive when people were building up the pyramids. That or people before the 1800′s had no idea what dinosaurs were. If you were to create your own candle scent, what would it be? I don’t know. Cookie dough? I’m sure that’s been made already. Have you ever bought food online? I always have my food delivered online because I could never call them up. Are there any foods that you avoid eating? Yes. Any kind of fruit. What Oreo flavor is your favorite?  Just the regular ones. What G-rated joke always cracks you up? They’re all in Filipino so nobody would understand anyway. If you won free food and drinks for a lifetime to a restaurant of your choice, which restaurant would you choose? Vikings. It’s this huuuuge buffet restaurant so I would always have a variety of choices. What comedic sound effect would completely ruin sex? All I could think of is Mario screaming “YAHOO!” so that. Do you think they should have made a sequel to Nightmare Before Christmas where they explored the other holidays?  I’ve never seen that movie so I don’t know if it would be a good idea or not to extend it. But I know I wouldn’t want, say, Love Actually to be turned into a Halloween or a New Year’s movie, that’s for sure. What is your favorite holiday?  Halloween even though it isn’t a holiday. Do you ever make playlists? Yeah, for certain moods. I have a playlist for when I drive my car with Gab in the middle of the night and a playlist for when I’m sad, to name a couple. Do you think you could create an entirely new font?  No. I’m so not creative. Sour gummy worms or plain gummy worms? Errr I guess sour. I’ve never had a gummy anything that tasted plain. What songs have you been listening to a lot lately? Dua Lipa’s Homecoming is SOOOOO good. It’s a breath of fresh air from New Rules, which is becoming overplayed to an extent that I don’t particularly enjoy. What was something that looked easy but turned out to be hard?  Being an adult.  Ever been in a talent show? How many times? What did you do? No, because I have no talent that I could at least show off to an audience. :/ Ever try out for the talent show and not make it? Did you cry? Well not a talent show, but I did try out for the school newspaper. I got through the first cut, but not in the final one. I did cry; it had been my dream to be in that paper since I was in fourth grade (they only accept high school students.) I never tried out for it again and instead became part of the editorial board for the yearbook when I was a senior. When that was happening, the paper was begging me to pick them and work for them...too bad. What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever cried about? Nothing. That’s the stupidest thing I had ever cried about–I literally cried over nothing. Do you like peanut butter?: LOVE IT. Put it on/in my pancakes, my cookies, my cakes, my cupcakes, my chocolate bars, and on my kare-kare. Peanut butter is life. What about marshmallows?: I fucking hate marshmallows. How do you roast your marshmallows?  I don’t even eat them. Do you eat s’mores?:  Sometimes. That’s really the only time I get to enjoy marshmallows. What’s the best brand of chocolate?  Reese’s, Twix, and Maltesers. Do you own a disco ball, or know anyone who does? No. Gabie sure deserves one, though. She’s stuck in the 70′s. Own a lava lamp? I don’t but I did want one when I was like 14. Own any sort of glow-in-the-dark room accessory? No. I have glow in the dark sticks and bracelets that I got from concerts, but they’ve long faded by now haha. Ever faked an orgasm?: Never. If I couldn’t have one I’ll just let my girlfriend know and snuggle instead? Done something illegal to your car?:  No. The car wasn’t bought under my name, so if I did anything stupid it’ll be my dad who answers to that and I don’t want him to kill me. Own some type of work out machine? My mom owns one but I have no idea what it does. Ever pooped a weird color besides brown, green, or orange?: No. Are you quickly getting grossed out?  Not at all. Think a drum player for a band is hot?: I don’t find them hot, but I always found anyone who could play drums cool. Do you tend to like male or female bands better? I like bands with music I could listen to better. What scars on your body do you have? One near my eye and another on my pinky toe. Ever did something sexual in public? Sure. Do you like the taste of squid or eel?  Yep, we live on seafood down here. Ever date anybody in middle school?: I didn’t. No joke, as a grade schooler, I thought I wasn’t supposed to develop romantic feelings for anybody until I was at least 25. I just thought it was an adult thing. What was your first date like? I’ve never been on a getting-to-know-someone date...my ‘first date’ was literally the first date I had with Gab, since I went straight to asking her to be my girlfriend and never really courted her hahahaha. It was beautiful. We went to a museum and had a nice Italian dinner and had a sleepover in my house where we played video games (well she did) and had pizza delivered. It was the purest thing. What about your WORST date? Ugh. That Shakey’s date was THE WORST. It was our last date before we broke up and also my last resort to get through to her, after I realized that she was distancing herself. Everything was my treat and it was because her birthday was coming up...I felt like shit when I learned it wasn’t going to fix anything anymore. Share a really embarrassing moment?  Driving out of the gas station and nearly entering the highway when I didn’t even wait for my change :(( The gas attendant had to run after my car, since I was basically driving away from around ₱400. That’s a week’s worth of lunches, and it would have sucked if I was able enter the highway immediately. Did you like to get dirty when you were little? Nah. My mom hated it and wanted me to stay clean, so it got passed on to me. Do you find the show Family Guy absolutely hilarious?:  There are some scenes that are funny but ultimately, it’s not my humor. Most jokes just fly over my head since they’re too political or too pop culture-y for me to recognize them. Own anything that has to do with dragons or unicorns? I don’t think so. Believe in mermaids/mermen?:  Nope. What piercings do you have/want?: None anymore. What tattoos do you have/want?:  Also none anymore. Hate needles. Which is cooler - pink or purple?: Pink.