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randomness and despair go hand in hand

@nerrissadevampyre

Riss-dead language enthusiast-all things aesthetic-xx-she/her-bi-currently obsessing over The Master and Margarita and The Sandman and a bunch of other wild shit-will occasionally post my own attempts at digital art and writing- usually reblogs whatever catches my eye aesthetically speaking - study side blog @halfcrazedrusalka

is there anyone out there with a nyt cooking subscription

will they send me the chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing recipe

This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isn’t required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly recommended. In life and in food, you always need balance: A sip or two of the grassy, herbal tea between bites of this cake counters the sweetness, as do freeze-dried strawberries, which lend tartness and a naturally pink hue to the lemony glaze. This everyday loaf will keep on the counter for 3 to 4 days; be sure the cut side is always well wrapped.
Ingredients Yield: One 9-inch loaf ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter 2 tablespoons/6 grams chamomile tea (from 4 to 6 tea bags), crushed fine if coarse 1 cup/240 milliliters whole milk Nonstick cooking spray 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt 2 large eggs 1 large lemon 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour 1 cup/124 grams confectioners’ sugar ½ cup/8 grams freeze-dried strawberries
Preparation Step 1 In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon chamomile to a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot melted butter over the chamomile and stir. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour. Step 2 Use the same saucepan (without washing it out) to bring the milk to a simmer over medium-high heat, keeping watch so it doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat, and stir the remaining 1 tablespoon chamomile into the hot milk. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour. Step 3 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper so the long sides of the pan have a couple of inches of overhang to make lifting the finished cake out easier. Step 4 Add the sugar and salt to the bowl with the butter, and whisk until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, vigorously whisking to combine after each addition. Zest the lemon into the bowl; add the baking powder and vanilla, and whisk until incorporated. Add the flour and stream in the milk mixture while whisking continuously until no streaks of flour remain. Step 5 Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until a skewer or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are OK, but you should see no wet batter), 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Step 6 While the cake cools, make the icing: Into a medium bowl, squeeze 2 tablespoons juice from the zested lemon, then add the confectioners’ sugar. Place the dehydrated strawberries in a fine-mesh sieve set over the bowl and, using your fingers, crush the brittle berries and press the red-pink powder through the sieve and into the sugar. (The more you do this, the redder your icing will be.) Whisk until smooth. Step 7 If needed, run a knife along the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Holding the 2 sides of overhanging parchment, lift the cake out and place it on a plate, cake stand or cutting board. Discard the parchment. Pour the icing over the cake, using a spoon to push the icing to the edges of the cake to encourage the icing to drip down the sides dramatically. Cool the cake completely and let the icing set.

We out here torrenting recipes now? Reblog

Rereading Words of Radiance and I am IN LOVE with a certain prophet boy's terrible, wonderful desicion making.

"Heeeyyy not sure if I am basically the Roshar version of the antichrist, seeing the real future, or actually clinically insane but my dad has a lot on his plate right now and I am too scared to tell him but like, keep having visions of the most brutal natural disaster that will literally claim like half the lives of everyone on this planet, but like I said he's REALLY stressed so I'll just write him a note while he naps, that will work."

Imagine Ketterdam centuries in the future, where all six crows have become saints, and their shenanigans have too many references sin history books to be written off as fairytales.

Kaz Brekker, the Saint of thieves who takes pity on the lost souls and evokes power into the hearts of crooks.

Inej Ghafa the Saint of the abused, holding a protective hand over those who share her story and causing slavers great misfortune.

Jesper Fahey, the Saint of treasure whose name those whisper at gambling tables for good luck and is said to guard all zowa.

Wylan Hendriks, a Saint of runaways who watches over the shaken souls and bruised children who slip out of their bedroom windows to start new lives.

Nina Zenik, the Saint of lovers who couples leave offerings to in hopes that their love will be eternal, no matter what.

Matthias Helvar, the Saint of soldiers who younglings going to war pray to for mercy, and known to protect Grisha when called upon.

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if you are dealing with extreme heat or even just. moderate heat in your area right now. 80f/26c is when it starts getting toasty for a lot of people. if you are in a heat wave and you have not done yourself the favor of googling fucking "heat exhaustion symptoms" i am shaking you violently right now. look it up. burn the symptoms into your brain. heatstroke is no joke and it can and WILL sneak up on you before you're aware it's even an issue. ohh my god

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if you are outside and it is hot and sunny and you are sweating thru your clothes or feeling tired or starting to get irrationally agitated or upset in another way or feeling nauseous or your heart is pounding etc etc if you are feeling Weird and Bad for no apparent reason while you are in a warm/hot area then i have news for you! you need to cool down! right now! oh my god.

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and there's a very good chance that you're gonna think "it's not heat exhaustion, i don't feel any warmer than i have all day" when you consider it as a reason why you are suddenly feeling weirdbad for no apparent reason during a record-breaking heatwave and i would like to say. there is no harm in sitting in the shade and drinking some water even if heat exhaustion isn't the cause of whatever ailment is inflicting itself upon u. once i swore up and down to my bf that i was just kinda tired and headachy and got bitchy about the possibility of being overheated and needing to drink water. because heat exhaustion tends to make you bitchy. but i did as he asked and drank some cold water and my condition immediately improved. because it was heat exhaustion and heat exhaustion is evil and a liar. sit down. drink water

How to use the five act structure

Here’s a quick breakdown of the 5-act structure!

3 act structure is all the rage, but do you know much about the 5 act structure, how or when you should use it?

The five-act structure is often used for stories that have a more complex narrative and multiple subplots. It’s usually centred around the middle twist of your story and divided into the world before the event, and the world after it.

The types of stories this suits well:

📌epic fantasy or sci-fi

📌historical & periods dramas

📌character-driven literary pieces

👉 Act 1 - Exposition

As with every story structure, act 1 is all about setting up the world of your protagonist. You want to introduce us to their struggles, their current world, and propel us into the story by introducing the inciting incident.

👉 Act 2 - Rising action

After the inciting incident, your character develops a goal and should now begin to make active decisions to chase it. Act 2 is all about the build-up to the biggest moment in the story.

👉 Act 3 - Climax

This is the turning point we’ve been building up to, and the protagonist is just within reach of their goal, but something happens that completely throws them off their path.

👉 Act 4 - Falling action

Act 4 mirrors act 1, where the character readjusts to their new world based on what happened in the climax, but they now need yet another inciting incident or turning point to get them back on track. Usually they’ll being to go through their transformation at the end of act 4!

👉 Act 5 - Resolution

Act 5 is your big finale, where the protagonist finally faces that one last challenge, with their perspective or their priorities changed.

📖 My e-book “Plotter’s Almanac” breaks down the 5 act structure in more detail, but you also get the breakdowns of the 3-act structure, and the Save the Cat structure, plus templates to create your outline!

It’s in my pack of 3 essential e-books for writers! They each come with 40 pages of easy theory and resources, and cute fully customisable templates for your project.

- The Plotter’s Almanac

- The Character Bible

- The World Builder’s Chronicle

Grab it through the [link here] or below!
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gothic horror rlly is just. aw fuck look at what youve done. the house has inherited your inter-generational trauma and in response has transformed itself into a metaphorical device to track the decay of the family. we're never gonna pay off that mortgage now

Our Lady of the Wall is an icon painted by Ian Knowles on the shameful wall that boxes Palestinians into their quarters. A glimpse of hope and peace in a hostile environment (x).

You know I think an underrated theme in SOC is that, the adults have ruined the future of the next generation. They have created an inhumane environment that serves only them. They've crushed and wrung out the lives of the weaker and the new, keeping them desperate, subjugated, exploited, and dead. Pekka Rollins, Tante Heleen, Jan Van Eck, Jarl Brum, these are our villains.

But Six of Crows also says that these circumstances have manufactured a much darker and tougher individual than these people can imagine. While the older generation are content to rest on their laurels and their ill gotten easy lives, their juniors are sharpening their pain into cruel and effective tools, with a drive that someone on top simply cannot understand.

Idk, I think it's an interesting and empowering (if not subversively harsh) message for its core audience as a YA novel.

This is the kind of analysis I live for.

having a child has taught me that every toddler is completely justified in their frustrations and tantrums because learning how to do something you have literally never encountered or heard of before is insane. and being expected to be completely calm in the face of this constant barrage of overwhelming information is doubly insane.

i got charlie a sticker activity book and it occurred to me i have to TEACH someone how to unpeel stickers. it's SKILL that requires DEXTERITY and FINE MOTOR ABILITY. i thought it was obvious that you have to curl the page a little bit to create a break in the cut so the sticker comes up.

obviously a fucking BABY wouldn't know that because they have no background experience to inform their thought process. OBVIOUSLY. and OBVIOUSLY the LITERAL BABY wouldn't get it right the first few times. it would OBVIOUSLY take practice. lots of it.

i hate this feeling. it's so obvious. why are children treated so badly when they're learning everything for the first fucking time. why do people treat children so horribly and expect so much. they're brand new. why didn't i get the same grace i give to my child? why did no one have patience for me? why, when it's this easy?

it's so easy. it's so fucking easy.