Straight Ahead

The weekend's cooking accomplishments, sigh.  lol~

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My baking adventure...SUCCESS.

( For ze food )

I need to purchase a non-metal citrus juicer.  All that hard work eking 3/4 of a cup of lemon juice from 4 (!) lemons, only to think about it later, and then have that bad feeling come true when that dessert tasted like you're sucking on a coin.  :| :|  It looks pretty, though.  XD  Might post pictures.  "Here is the dessert that looked good but that I never ate."  But I have another recipe in mind, one that requires a pound and a half of chocolate for the frosting.  (!!)  Biggest fear right at this moment:  The chocolate breaking on me.  It will be :||| forever.

Also, if you have a question for me..... XD  Go ask here!  Anyone!  Everyone!  About anything!  ...Almost anything!  Fic or fandom or random.  Or.  Yeah, anything!  More than one!  I don't promise coherency.  But it's a long weekend and there's no one online to talk to, so please, for my sanity, people.  (Who said you all could sleep or have lives?  ;___;)

No really.  Go ask!  Do not be shy.  It can be anonymous!  I cannot promise you cookies, but there will be love, okay?

...Now back to "finishing" chapter 5 of the HenHae for like, the fourth time.  :|

What food did I make with those dirty hands?

Oh wait. No. That was just from the brakes I helped change today.

Drum brakes are from the devil.
( Food is food is food is food is... )

Work will drive me crazy. :D We will not focus on that. But did finally have the chance to be productive for the first time in a few days, which was nice.

Not a lot of writing over the weekend. :\ But did get a chance to expand on a few stories, and more over the past couple days. I keep posting things, and feeling like I'm posting way too often, but the bank of screaming stories waiting to be finished never seems to drop in number. Should I be concerned by that? Disenchanted? I need a magic wand. XD; But any progress is progress. Progress is good. <3

I am slooooooooooooooooowly attempting to push myself out of my nest. As in. Make a comment, reply to a thread, something... Something more than once a year. I feel it should not be this hard to do this. I have absolutely no desire to be a social butterfly, and couldn't even if I did, hah. But somehow dragging me away from my "nooo, someone will see me D:" mentality which has melded with my bone deep gratuitous laziness can, with hope, only end well...

I just made mac and cheese from scratch. Hm. The recipe was probably fine, but I think it heated too long, because it came out a little more texture-y than one would care for. Win some, lose some. I really should have halved the recipe. XD;;;;;; Better than that cake mix out of the box that turned out... ...*shudder*

Work was uneventful. What can you do. It doesn't look as bad as it could've been, though! Hoping for another good day...

...Zhou Mi is the cutest thing. There may need to be an icon. And a picture on my wall. _-_ Gah. I keep sneaking a peek and going "AHHH, cute."

Also, achoo. Black pepper. x.x Good going, me.

Am really making that boston cream pie soon... Just got more cream for the homemade pudding (!). It wanted me to make it with vanilla beans, which, you know, don't really pop up on the shelves here. However, on the travels I found one, so I have to try it... I've never made anything with a real vanilla bean. XD Exciting.

Given that I just cried all over myself the other day while I was reading over what I have of the anniversary fic, it's either not quite as big a pile of stinking poo as I'd led myself to believe a week ago, or I'm a little emotional right now. I'll settle for somewhere in between. My opinion on it is like a roller coaster. Too many long slides down...

Sleep now. x.x

My epic KyuMi is lacking the Kyu and the Mi, as secondary couple Get-Together SiHan suddenly decided they wanted to dribble adorableness around in buckets and rivers. Most of that was written in the wee hours of the morning, as I watched the clock roll from 1 to 2, and decided my muses hated me in general, and that I never really liked them to start with.

The arguably KyuMi story word count stands with a shocking two day total of 6,125, but split:

SiHan focus: 5,207
KyuMi focus: 918

So it is the KyuMi fic, but we haven't actually gotten the KyuMi in focus. That's okay. It'll happen.

The Epic ShiHan proper word count is 12,462 with at least one long scene untyped.

And the Epic HanKyu has peaked at 11,451 with several scenes needing to be typed.

One of those four characters is winning the race of coupledom. Where did that come from?

Also, I just answered the door in an old Mariner's t-shirt, slightly too short pink fuzzy pajama pants with white evergreens on them, and purple fuzzy socks. And hair that hasn't seen a brush. Good times. And I did this after I had wrote someone answering the door in ratty clothes today. Life imitating art. -_-

And now I am going to go make fabulously fabulous peanut butter cookies, because they sounded good, and no one told me no.

Anecdotal… I am such a spaz about organization… clutter clutter, piles of things, pretty singers and horses and gracious knows what all. *pauses to make my eyes cease burning from the onion I just cut up* Ahem. But the kitchen is oddly different… There have been… talkings-to to people when someone puts away the spatulas in the spoon drawer, or, kitchen forbid, putting the can opener in the wrong spot. I am surrounded by piles of books and papers and empty plates, and am frowny-attentive about kitchen organization. Fabulous.

But as I sit enjoying a piece of bread I wore my hands out kneading last night with my chai latte, I can’t really complain about the complexities of my cleaning abilities. :P

While we’re on the topic, I particularly hate the sound of the vacuum cleaner, and always have.

And to segue from doodad to another… I’m not a particularly fail gamer… excepting anything that requires guns or first person anything… but Eternal Sonata is kicking my behind. I’ve had two game over screens. I’m not fighting bosses. *taps fingers* Are you supposed to have to start heavy-duty leveling up less than two hours into a game? Apparently I’m going to, anyway. I’m getting a little tired of seeing half my party die off while I flail.

…Yesung and Sungmin are singing a song for a charity album for abandoned dogs? You all suck in such a fantastic way. ;_;

And because I had nothing better to do, I was watching music videos this morning and a few of things struck me… I’m always amused by the total ninja appearances of Hankyung in “You Are the One” vid…. They must seriously have included all of his ninja appearances from the whole ep for it to feature him as much as it does. Hankyung falls on his behind? Check. Hankyung’s head materializes over group shot? Check. Hankyung waves, snowboard in hand? Check. Hankyung and Sunglasses? Check. I’m tempted now to go watch the ep to see if he appears more than I thought. *_* (We’ll ignore the part where I teared up.) Also, struck again by how much Yesung looks like he just stepped out of the pages of D.Gray-man in his jacket. -_-

And in M’s “U”… in the same scene that tickled me with Boy Wonder’s “I have my hands on two of them and ain’t nothing you can do about it” part (and apparently the only person I had watched before today in that scene :P) I was taking note of people’s hands, which are pretty uniformly on hips or each other or just hanging, and then Kyuhyun is like *thighs* which is an image a month or two ago that would’ve made me run away screaming “Not the baaaaby” (and in the interest of full disclosure, I admit that I still do the cute-and-vocal “Oh, baby <3” at him sometimes… not sure what that says about me.)… Until I sort of gave up fighting the tide, especially after having watched 2700 hours of M interviews and shows, and then I actually watched Henry during that scene in “U,” and I’ll be exiting from under the couch in about a decade. Thank you.

And, AFI is starting to ramp up for new album release if they're preparing to bring in people for the studio by asking for videos. Yeeeeees. I wish I were not totally insane, as I'd be tempted to send in a video myself (Smith comes to get you? Are they serious? lol. Just for that alone.), but I am, so I will not. (Because this would totally how my video would go: "Hi, I'm a Jen. I'm a fan. I'd like to molest your guitarist. I sit on my couch all day. I like Korean boys. Pick me!")

Accidental computer consultant who is still angsting about scarves, over and out. -____-

Crock pot owns me soul. Just finished extracting creamy chicken and potatoes and it is, lo and behold... good! I finally bought more buttermilk, so will make more soda bread tomorrow.

She cooks, she bakes, she hides under the couch when she posts fic to a new fandom.

...Someone just walked in with three... Three!... boxes of chocolate covered cherries. What do I do with him?

Ugh, did I mention this was good? So good. I could make myself ill on this. (Thank you, recipe makers! Even I can make it!) It wanted me to add peas, and I said "Nahhhh" because peas and I, not so much. And the only thing I had in the freezer was a pea/carrot combo... There were carrots in it already, and while I do love me some carrots... Yeah. The peas thing was a no-go. (And in my defense, I did not buy that pea/carrot blend... That would be the same person who bought THREE boxes of chocolate covered cherries after moaning about needing to drop 10. He has all the impulse control that I do. Impressive.)

Well, I think that takes care of Monday.

I am making bread. I am on the final (Thank gracious!) rise. That will make rising time, all together... 3 1/2 hours. Oy. It's a new recipe, so we're seeing if this works out. Honey wheat bread... sounds good on paper, eh?

BUT.

I did not have to work at it. My brandest newest stand mixer came today, and it is shiny and I love it already. Even if the kneading did make the bowl so tight on the base I almost couldn't get it out.

Plus, it was a steal. An Artisan KitchenAid mixer, 5 qt bowl, Empire Red... Less than $200. In fact, it was $70 cheaper than the exact same thing in white... (And $110 dollars cheaper than I can buy it in a store.) My bread nor I care if the mixer is white or red. Might have drawn the line at puce. Plus, it looks spiffy, like a solid little convertible. And if the red offends, I can make a cover for it. But it's a nice spot of color in our otherwise bland kitchen.

What else... Hmmmm...

I finally bought the books, Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air. Castle in the Air amuses me to no end, really. Oh, Howl.

I read a romance novel that had a very... interesting format... last night. It was 2/3 of the time narrated first person by the female lead, and interspersed with the male lead in third person. It took me a good 100 pages to realize that. I don't know why. Clearly she made it seamless, or I was tired, or something. After I clued in, it was a little jarring though. It's an interesting way of doing things though, as an effect. I ponder this.

And I read a second novel, and that was probably yesterday too, and I was wondering why at 170 pages in that it felt like I'd just be rushed into this couple's bedtime relationship... and realized they'd know each other for 36 hours. That's quick work. Yeah. I'll have to see if I own any other of her books and see if I liked that one before deciding on a blacklist. (Yeah, I have one. It's short, but it's there.)

What else? Hmmm. I'm making bread? lol I think that's it for now. :)