Hey, don’t cry. Free online database of Japanese folk lore

Might I add, free database of mostly European folklore and myths

:0

Thank you!

Sharing the secrets of your hearth with strangers who will never be able to meet or thank you. Honoring the dead through learning their traditions of the home; emulation and exaltation. A good carrot cake.

Screenshots for those who want to try to make the recipes. One was completely blocked by text but I thought maybe someone would like to make them ♡

Someone with better typing skills if ya wanna type em up..... ♡

I looked up the obscured grave with the blueberry pie recipe:

GLAZED BLUEBERRY PIE

- Soften a 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese.

- Spread in bottom of cooled, cooked pastry shell.

- Fill shell with 3 cups of blueberries.

- To an additional 1 cup of blueberries add 1 cup of water.

- Bring just to boiling.

- Simmer 2 min.

- Strain reserving juice, about ½ cup.

- Combine ¾ cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons corn starch.

- Gradually add reserved juice.

- Cook, stirring constantly until thick and clear.

- Cool slightly and add:

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- Pour over berries in pastry shell and chill.

the others are:

KAY’S FUDGE

- 2 SQ. chocolate

- 2 TBS. butter

- Melt on low heat

- Stir in 1 cup milk

- Bring to boil

- 3 cups sugar

- 1 TSP. vanilla

- Pinch of salt

- Cook to softball stage

- Pour on marble slab

- Cool & Beat & Eat

SPRITZ COOKIES

- 1 cup of butter ormargarine

- ¾ cup sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 egg

- 2 ¼ cups of flour

- ½ teaspoon baking powder.

- ⅛ teaspoon salt

CONNIE’S DATE & NUT BREAD

100% Good Stuff - 0% Bad Stuff

Ingredients:

- 8 oz. dates cut into small pieces

- 1 cup raisins

- 2 cups boiling water

- 2 tsp. baking soda

- 1 ½ cups sugar

- 2 eggs, well beaten

- 4 cups flour

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- ½ cup chopped nuts

Directions:

- Pour boiling water (where 2 tsp. of baking soda have been dissolved) over dates and raisins. Cool.

- Add 1 ½ C. sugar and mix well.

- Add 2 eggs, well beaten.

- Gradually mix in 4 C. of flour and 2 tsp. of baking powder. Beat thoroughly.

- Add ½ C. of chopped nuts. Beat thoroughly.

- Bake at 350 for ¾ - 1 hr.

Bake in tin cans.

One batch = 13 small cans

A GOOD CARROT CAKE

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour

- 4 eggs

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 2 cups sugar

- 1 ½ tsp. soda

- 1 ½ cups oil

- 1 tsp. salt

- 2 cups grated carrots

- 2 tsp. cinnamon

- 1 (8 ½ oz.) crushed pineapple, drained

- ⅔ cup chopped nuts

Directions:

- Sift together flour, baking powder, soda salt, and cinnamon.

- Beat eggs and add sugar.

-Let stand 10 mins.

-Mix in oil, pineapple, carrots, nuts, flour mixture.

-Turn into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.

-Bake at 350’ for 35 – 40 min.

-Cool in pans for 10 min, remove to wire racks, and cool well.

VANILLA CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients:

- ½ cup butter

- 1 (8 oz.) cream cheese

- 1 tsp. vanilla

- 1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

- Mix butter, cream cheese, vanilla then add sugar. First between layers, top and sides.

ANNABELL’S SNICKERDOODLES

Mix Thoroughly:

- 1 c shortening

- 1 c margarine

- 3 c sugar

- 4 eggs

Sift Together And Stir In:

- 5 ½ c flour

- 4 tsp cream of tartar

- 2 tsp soda

- ½ tsp salt

Directions:

- Roll (softly) into balls the size of small walnuts.

- Roll in mixture of 6 tsp sugar and 6 tsp cinnamon.

- Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

- Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes or 400 F for 6-8 until lightly brown, but still soft.

Secret is: Keep dough fluffy!

I CANNOT wash another plate i swear

Holiday gift guide for the archaeologist in your life!

i made smthn but if i post it it’ll blow up like the duck sweater and haunt my notifs for months

but i have a pathological need to show it off so in the reblog we are

is...is there a pattern. may we see it.

there is now!

Gävlebocken/Julbock Christmas Goat Crochet Pattern :D

full pdf pattern for free on Ravelry!! making an account is free and very useful for any fiber artist

Yearning for the Yule Goat? Eagerly a-watchin’ for the Gävlebocken’s annual arson? Here’s a bona fide little guy to warm your heart all season long! Intermediate skills needed - basic amigurumi construction knowledge necessary, and the horns require the creative use of some wire. If you're fully new to crochet but would like to learn i recommend taking a look at the r/crochet wiki!

IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO BURN: I RECOMMEND MAKING A REAL YULE GOAT ORNAMENT? or you can try to make this guy with cotton and newspaper filling. i claim no responsibility for arson related mishaps but have fun o7

@ me if you make my little goat please i would love to see :D if you have any questions hit up the inbox, i'm new to pattern writing and may have missed smthn

tags for (close to) all of the pattern-requesters under the readmore

There's now a pattern!!!

Now I need to find a way to ask the yarn shop lady for a yarn that will burn nicely without traumatizing her.

Natural fibers like cotton (especially cotton), linen, and flax will probably burn the best. I’d avoid the plastic based fibers like nylon and acrylic since they tend to melt while they burn which is … not the best. Wool also just like refuses to burn without a whole lot of additional fuel or excess heat so I’d also steer clear of those yarns as well.

I made one today for my sister and I’m obsessed

I had to try several different searches to find this.

Mix with whisk until it's blended and has no visible lumps.

To prepare: 1-2 tbl per 8 oz of water.

I'll add that we made this last night, and both the 9yo and I had the same opinion that 2 cups of sugar isn't enough esp when using dutch cocoa, nonfat milk is totally fine, and marshmallows are an absolute necessity. (That last one is more the 9yo than me, though.)

Is there a dairy free way to do this?

thanks @chocolatepot for summarizing the advice in tags: #rest the batter#fill the cups high#use every other cup#start baking at 425 and then go down to 350

Kelowna, British Columbia

Chai tea bag + lil but of brown sugar + apple cider packet + 16 oz. mug of hot but not quite boiling water

it will not Fix You but like. maybe. maybe.

tags by @eridan-ampora

Update: this is the best post I've ever made because everyone is sharing their Warm Beverage recipes in the notes. Go check the notes for more Warm Beverages That Will Fix You.

As someone who works with social history for a living, I feel like I’m the aggressive opposite of an anti-vaxxer

I fucking LOVE vaccines, friends. Give me the science stab. I’m so ready. it’s a beautiful day to not die of a Bajillion and one diseases that carried off like half the population before they had even reached age 10, and a significant portion before they made it to old age, 150 years ago

I go to the old cemetery. I see the vast numbers of infant and child and young adult graves. And then I go to my doctor and get injected with Potion of Fuck That Noise. This is beautiful and miraculous and I do not remotely understand how some people can reject it – not just for themselves, but for their children

I am on my way to being the best auntie ever or the worst sister-in-law that ever lived. Possibly both.

I am making my 2-year-old niece a plushy for her birthday. She is very hands-on baby and wants to help with everything and be involved in the center of attention. A few weeks after her birthday everyone is going dipnetting. She is two and can not help with dip netting or do anything but watch.

So I am making her a toy salmon. And I am making it so she can filet it. It has guts. It has bones. It is all one piece and child friendly, and I am debating using embedded magnets or velcro to hold the filets on.

She has a kitchen set with a little wooden knife at her grandparents house, who have already heard about this and think its a great idea. We are gonna teach this kid to clean and process fish. She already knows where meat comes from and she will want to get in and do what everyone else is doing which she can not do because the fish are only slightly smaller than she is.

So, salmon plushy

BTW, I make plushies by winging it. Actually I make all my art by winging it. If you would like to comment on the fine art of making shit up as you go, feel free. If you wanna ask for a pattern, uhh,

Progress! On to bones! On to guts! Be the unhinged fairy godmother!

One sad looking headless inside out fishy 🐟

And the much happier right-side out headless fishy 😄

I have weird priorities for this fish. I want the gill plates to be shaped like a real fish so she can learn how to pick a fish up correctly and develop the fine motor skills to do so. But thats turning out to be a bitch and a half.

Also I have no googly eyes anywhere in the house and thus far I've been able to do this entire project with material on hand. I've used 4 old tee shirts and a pair of jeans, but I will need to buy velcro and eyeballs.

the head/jaw/gill plate got a lil wonky and honestly I'd like to take it apart and try again but I'm running out of time.

But we have eyeballs! We have guts! We have a gill pocket and oddly attached pectoral fins! I just need to get ahold of some white velcro for a spine and I'll have a completed plushy.

I'm actually quite proud of the velcro arrangement I've come up with, because to peel it apart with the toy knife she'll be mimicking the motion of actually fileting a fish.

He's done! He's adorable! He's filetable! I had to hide my phone from my niece because she wanted to see the pictures I was showing her grandma.

I think I may try and make another one that's less child friendly and more accurate, because I had a great time solving topology problems, but I did sacrifice alot of anatomical details in the name of practical toy construction. I like what it says as an art peice, the junstiposition of a medium associated with simplified design and the details biological reality. There's also a fun parallel that comes up when sewing and food processing (specifically fish processing) are both pretty heavily gendered labor, but when you put them together they almost cancel each other out conceptually.

So I got this tag on my answer to an ask about when it became acceptable for western women to wear pants, and you know it's all I need to go on a tangent.

I think the short answer here would be men have worn skirts as long as people have worn anything, so pretty long tbh. But since I am incapable of answering anything shortly, I think we can re-frame this question:

When did skirts stop being socially acceptable for men?

So let's start with acknowledging that tunics, togas, kirtles and such men wore through history were, in fact, skirts. I think there's often a tendency to think of these as very different garments from those that women wore, but really they are not. Most of the time they were literally referred to with the same name. (I will do a very broad and simplified overview of men's clothing from ancient times to Early Middle Ages so we can get to the point which is Late Middle Ages.)

Ancient Greek men and women both wore chitons. Even it's length wasn't determined by gender, but by occupation. Athletes, soldiers and slaves wore knee-length chitons for easier movement. Roman men and women wore very similar garment, tunics. Especially in earlier ancient Rome long sleeves were associated with women, but later became more popular and unconventional for men too. Length though was still dependent on occupation and class, not gender. Toga was sure men's clothing, but worn over tunic. It was wrapped around the waist, like a dress would, and then hung over shoulder. Romans did wear leggings when they needed to. For example for leg protection when hunting as in this mosaic from 4th century. They would have been mostly used by men since men would be doing the kinds of activities that would require them. But that does not lessen the dressyness of the tunics worn here. If a woman today wears leggings under her skirt, the skirt doesn't suddenly become not a skirt.

All over Europe thorough the early Middle Ages, the clothes were very similar in their basic shape and construction as in Rome and Greece. In Central and Northern Europe though people would wear pants under shorter tunics. There were exceptions to the everyone wearing a tunic trend. Celtic men wore braccae, which were pants, and short tunics and literally just shirts. Celts are the rare case, where I think we can say that men didn't wear dresses. Most other peoples in these colder areas wore at least knee-length tunics. Shorter tunics and trousers were worn again mostly by soldiers and slaves, so rarely any other woman than slave women. The trousers were though definitely trousers in Early Middle Ages. They were usually loose for easier construction and therefore not that similar to Roman leggings. However leggings style fitted pants were still used, especially by nobility. I'd say the loose trousers are a gray area. They wore both dresses and pants, but still definitely dresses. I'd say this style was very comparable to the 2000s miniskirts over jeans style. First one below is a reconstruction of Old Norse clothing by Danish history museum. The second is some celebrity from 2005. I see no difference.

When we get to the high Middle Ages tunics are still used by both men and women, and still it's length is dependent on class and activity more than gender, but there's some new developments too. Pants and skirt combo is fully out and leggings' are back in in form of hose. Hose were not in fact pants and calling them leggings is also misleading. Really they are socks. Or at least that's how they started. As it has become a trend here they were used by everyone, not just men. During early Middle Ages they were worn often with the trousers, sometimes the trousers tucked inside them making them baggy. In high Middle Ages they became very long when used with shorter tunics, fully displacing the need for trousers. They would be tied to the waist to keep them up, as they were not knitted (knitting was being invented in Egypt around this time, and some knitting was introduced to Europe during middle Ages, but it really only took off much later during Renaissance Era) and therefore not stretchy. First picture is an example of that from 1440s. Another exciting development in the High Medieval era was bliaut in France and it's sphere of influence. Bliaut was an early attempt in Europe of a fitted dress. And again used by both men and women. The second illustration below from mid 12th century shows a noble man wearing a bliaut and nicely showing off his leg covered in fitted hose. Bliaut was usually likely fitted with lacing on the sides, but it wasn't tailored (tailoring wasn't really a thing just yet) and so created a wrinkled effect around the torso.

In the 14th century things really picked up in European fashion. European kingdoms finally started to become richer and the rich started to have some extra money to put into clothing, so new trends started to pop up rapidly. Tailoring became a thing and clothes could be now cut to be very fitted, which gave birth to fitted kirtle. At the same time having extra money meant being able to spend extra money on more fabric and to create very voluminous clothing, which gave birth to the houppelande.

Kirtle was once again worn by everyone. It wasn't an undergarment, for women that would be shift and men shirt and breeches, but it was an underlayer. It could be worn in public but often had at least another layer on top of it. The bodice part, including sleeves were very fitted with lacing or buttons (though there were over-layer kirtles that had different sleeves that changed with fashions and would be usually worn over a fitted kirtle). Men's kirtles were short, earlier in 14th century knee-length but towards the end of the century even shorter styles became fashionable in some areas. First picture below shows a man with knee-length kirtle from 1450s Italy.

Houppelande was also unisex. It was a loose full-length overgown with a lot of fabric that was gathered on the neckline and could be worn belted or unbelted. The sleeves were also wide and became increasingly wider (for men and women) later in the century and into the next century. Shorter gowns similar in style and construction to the houppelande were also fashionable for men. Both of these styles are seen in the second picture below from late 14th century.

In the very end of 14th century, first signs of pantification of men can be seen. In France and it's sphere of influence the skirt part of the kirtle became so short it barely covered the breeches as seen below on these fashionable musicians from 1395-1400 France. Long houppelandes, length ranging from floor to calf, were still used by men though (the second picture, 1414 France), as were knee and thigh length gowns of similar loose style.

The hems continued to be short through the 15th century in France, but in other places like Italy and German sphere of influence, they were still fairly long, at least to mid thigh, through the first half of the century. In France at some point in late 13th century the very short under-kirtle started to be called doublet and they are just getting shorter in 1400s. The showing underwear problem was fixed by joined hose and the codpiece, signaling the entrance of The Sluttiest Era of men's fashion. Below is an example from 1450s Belgium of doublet and early codpiece in display. As you can see from the other figures, the overgowns of the previous century were also getting very, very short. In the next French example below from 1470s we can see the skirt shrink out of existence right before our eyes.

The very skimpy doublet and it's accompanying codpiece spread to the rest of the Europe in the second half of 15th century and it would only get sluttier from there. The Italians were just showing their full ass (example from 1490s). The dress was not gone yet though. The doublet and codpiece continued to be fashionable, but the overdress got longer again in the French area too. For example in the second example there's Italian soldiers in a knee length dresses from 1513.

But we have to talk about the Germans. They went absolutely mad with the whole doublet and codpiece. Just look at this 1513 painting below (first one). But they did not only do it sluttier than everyone else, they also changed the course of men's fashion.

Let's take a detour talking about the Landsknecht, the mercenary pikeman army of the Holy Roman Empire. (I'm not that knowledgeable in war history so take my war history explanation with a grain of salt.) Pikemen had recently become a formidable counter-unit against cavalry, which earlier in the Medieval Era had been the most important units. Knights were the professional highly trained cavalry, which the whole feudal system leaned against. On the other hand land units were usually not made of professional soldiers. Landsknecht were formed in late 15th century as a professional army of pikemen. They were skilled and highly organized, and quickly became a decisive force in European wars. Their military significance gave them a lot of power in the Holy Roman Empire, some were even given knighthood, which previously wasn't possible for land units, and interestingly for us they were exempt from sumptuary laws. Sumptuary laws controlled who could wear what. As the bourgeois became richer in Europe in late Middle Ages and Renaissance Era, laws were enacted to limit certain fabrics, colors and styles from those outside nobility, to uphold the hierarchy between rich bourgeois and the nobles. The Landsknecht, who were well payed mercenaries (they would mutiny, if they didn't get payed enough), went immediately absolute mad with the power to bypass sumptuary laws. Crimes against fashion (affectionate) were committed. What do you do, when you have extra money and one of your privileges is to wear every color and fabric? You wear every color and fabric. At the same time. You wear them on top of each other and so they can be seen at the same time, you slash the outer layer. In the second image you can feast your eyes on the Landsknecht.

Just to give you a little more of that good stuff, here's a selection of some of my favorite Landsknecht illustrations. This is the peak male performance. Look at those codpieces. Look at those bare legs. The tiny shorts. And savor them.

The Landsknecht were the hot shit. Their lavish and over the top influence quickly took over men's fashion in Germany in early 1500s. Slashing, the technique possibly started by them, but at least popularized by them, instantly spread all over Europe. That's how you get the typical Renaissance poof sleeves. They at first slashed the thighs of their hose, but it seems like to fit more of everything into their outfits, they started wearing the hose in two parts, upper hose and nether hose, which was a sort of return to the early Medieval trousers and knee-high hose style. The two part hose was adopted by the wider German men's fashion early in the century, but already in 1520s had spread to rest of Europe. It was first combined with the knee-length overdress that had made it's comeback in the turn of the century, like in this Italian painting from 1526 (first image). At this point knitting had become established and wide-spread craft in Europe and the stockings were born, replacing nether hose. They were basically nether hose, but from knitted fabric. The gown shortened again and turned into more of a jacket as the trunk hose became increasingly the centerpiece of the outfit, until in 1560s doublet - trunk hose combination emerged as the standard outerwear (as seen in the second example, 1569 Netherlands) putting the last nail on the coffin of the men's dress as well as the Sluttiest Era. The hose and doublet became profoundly un-slutty and un-horny, especially when the solemn Spanish influence spread all over with it's dark and muted colors.

Especially in Middle Ages, but thorough European history, trousers have been associated with soldiers. The largely accepted theory is that trousers were invented for horse riding, but in climates with cold winters, where short skirts are too cold, and long skirts are still a hazard when moving around, trousers (with or without a short skirt) are convenient for all kinds of other movement requiring activities like war. So by adopting hose as general men's clothing, men in 1500s associated masculinity with militarism. It was not a coincidence that the style came from Landsknecht. I may have been joking about them being "peak male performance", but really they were the new masculine ideals for the new age. At the time capitalism was taking form and European great powers had begun the process of violently conquering the world for money, so it's not surprising that the men, who fought for money and became rich and powerful doing so, were idealised.

Because of capitalism and increasingly centralized power, the feudal system was crumbling and with it the feudal social hierarchy. Capitalism shifted the wealth from land ownership (which feudal nobility was built upon) to capital and trade, deteriorating the hierarchy based on land. At the same time Reformation and centralized secular powers were weakening the power of the Church, wavering also the hierarchy justified by godly ordain. The ruling class was not about to give up their power, so a new social hierarchy needed to form. Through colonialism the concept of race was created and the new hierarchy was drawn from racial, gender and wealth lines. It was a long process, but it started in 1500s, and the increasing distinction between men's and women's fashions was part of drawing those lines. At the same time distinctions between white men and racialized men, as well as white women and racialized women were drawn. As in Europe up until this point, all over the world (with some exceptions) skirts were used by everyone. So when European men fully adopted the trousers, and trousers, as well as their association to military, were equated with masculinity, part of it was to emasculate racialized men, to draw distinctions.

Surprise, it was colonialism all along! Honestly if there's a societal or cultural change after Middle Ages, a good guess for the reason behind it is always colonialism. It won't be right every time, but quite a lot of times. Trousers as a concept is of course not related to colonialism, but the idea that trousers equal masculinity and especially the idea that skirts equal femininity are. So I guess decolonize masculinity by wearing skirts?

god this kid rules

I can't stress enough how much I miss StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon once sent me to a supercut of Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, and Lion King II, the main edit being that the scenes of Lion King and Lion King 1 1/2 were interspersed so that they happened in the order they actually happened.

stumbleupon not existing anymore can be directly traced to a dramatic decline in my mental health, I could do a thesis on it.

bestie stumbleupon very much still exists its just called cloudhiker now. i use it all the time.

mini compilation of suggestions from the replies:

The Bored Button - "Press the Bored Button and be bored no more."

The Useless Web

Cloudhiker - "Discover the most interesting, weird and awesome websites of the Internet" (not really a rebrand, it's a different person running it but they have the same intention in mind)

Astronaut.io - "These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen (by anyone but you)."

Marginalia - "This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed."

but on the real though, here is your guide to assyrian rice preparation from your friendly neighborhood assyrian:

i really played myself with this post huh. every time it gets a note i start wanting rice.

for anyone who wants it, here is my family’s actual recipe for assyrian baked rice:

Put the rice in a pot and cover it in cold water and salt. Let it soak overnight. (If you don’t have the time to soak it, rinse the rice with cold water until it runs clear.)

Edit: The reason you want to soak basmati and other aromatic rice before cooking is to preserve more acetylpyrroline, the compound that gives aromatic rice its characteristic scent and flavor. Soaking rice allows the grains to absorb water, which reduces the cooking time, which means less time for the acetylpyrroline to cook off. It’ll still taste pretty good if you can’t do this, but you don’t want “pretty good”, you want mind-blowing, so for that perfect flavor you’ll want to soak your rice overnight. The soaking process also washes away the layer of starch on the outside of the rice, which allows the grains to separate rather than sticking together; this is why you want to rinse your rice thoroughly if you don’t have time to soak it.

Preheat your oven to 325°.

Boil three quarts of water in a separate pot. Once it’s at a fast boil, drain the rice and add it to the water. Boil for 5-7min or until one grain tastes half-cooked, but not soft. Pour the rice into a colander and rinse with cold water.

Edit: This step also helps get rid of any remaining starch on your grains, for perfectly separated rice. If your colander or strainer has large holes, you can put a paper towel/cheesecloth/clean dishcloth on the inside in order to drain your rice. Pour carefully if you’re using a paper towel, though, and put a bowl underneath your colander; I once lost a heartbreaking amount of rice when my paper towel got oversaturated and tore open.

Liberally grease the bottom of your baking pan with some of your butter. Pour the rice on top. Melt the rest of the butter in the microwave and pour on top of the rice.

Bake for 45min. (If you like, cover the rice for part or all of the baking time, but I find it gets less crispy on top if you do this.) Shake the pan a couple times during baking to ensure that the butter distributes throughout the entire dish.

Eat.

Serves four. Can easily be scaled up if needed (or down, but why would you do that?). Best enjoyed with a nice cup of chai.

(cc @raisedbyhyenas )

reblog for the awesome recipe and to make op want rice (rice is so good. ofc you want rice)

>:(