#I wanted a measuring cup sized spatula

[kedreeva]

Went out to see my mom today, and we dropped by Michaels to pick up canvases for Artemis paintings, and I got some new paint colors while I was there.

Also got a few of those clear glass ornaments that you can put stuff in yourself to make into something? I'm thinking I might see if I can put some eye feathers from my boys in them (I mean I know I CAN I just don't know how good it will LOOK), with their names written on to remember them. If it works well, I might offer some up for sale, too. Stan's eyes are always so full of love with their little white heart in the middle.

We also ran by jo-ann fabrics and grabbed some Very On Sale fleece ($4.25 for almost 2 yards, which made 6 large square hammocks and 4 corner hammocks and one long, rectangular strip I'll use across the cage), and she sewed me up some quick rat hammocks for the boys. I forgot to grab some kind of ribbon for the core attachments, so I'm gonna drive back tomorrow with a loaf of fresh sourdough to trade for another few minutes with her sewing machine.

WHICH IS ANOTHER COOL THING. I gifted my second sourdough starer to my SIL (@teameagleworks) for new year's, leaving me with just Tex for now (bless, Tex is enough to take care of rn). Who!!! is finally ready!!! to start making actual bread. So tonight I let Sark pick a recipe, and I mixed it up in a double batch so I could have one loaf for him and one for my dad. It didn't take much starter, which was cool. Fingers crossed that it comes out okay tomorrow morning.

#stories about ked's life #personal #breadventure #peahen paintings #my family #also shout out to the kid behind the counter at joanns #I hope their year is fucking amazing #because it seems like they might need it #i brought a tiny spatula to the counter but it didn't have a price tag #and I checked the shelving and the other spatulas #like I looked for one with a tag or a barcode or ANYTHING #ANY indication so I could quote a price #I wanted a measuring cup sized spatula #and when I apologized and said I couldn't find a price #they just looked at me for a second and then said #well then it's free because I don't care #and put it in the bag #and I feel that buddy #good luck with the rest of the retail year

[skaiwrites]

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream; No Ice Cream Machine Required. A Recipe*:

Total Time:

Like two days; this is not a short process

Ingredients: Total (Ice Cream Amount; Cookie Dough Amount [recommended adjustment due to weirdly specific measurements])

Butter, Unsalted**: 1 Stick (1/16 Stick***; 15/16 Stick****)

Light Brown Sugar, Packed: 15 1/2 Tablespoons (1/2 Cups; 7 1/2 Tablespoons)

Granulated Sugar: ~6 3/4 Tablespoons (1/4 Cups; 2 13/16 Tablespoons [measure 2 3/4 tbsp, add just a tiny bit more, whatever you believe in your heart to be an extra 1/16 tablespoon. Alternatively: 2 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp + ever so slightly less than 1 tsp])

Salt: ~1/4 Teaspoons (just a Dash, whatever you define that as; 15/64 Teaspoons [just do 1/4 Teaspoons]

Vanilla Extract: ~3 Teaspoons (2 Teaspoons; 15/16 Teaspoons [basically just 1 Teaspoon. measure a little light if you feel like it])

Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: 15 Tablespoons (0; 15 Tablespoons)

Pasteurized***** Liquid Egg Substitute: ~2 3/4 Tablespoons (0; 2 13/16 Tablespoons [see note for Granulated Sugar])

Chocolate Chips: 7 1/2 Tablespoons (0; 7 1/2 Tablespoons)

Milk: 2 1/4 Cups (2 1/4 Cups; 0)

Heavy Whipping Cream: 1 Cup (1 Cup; 0)

Chocolate Syrup: 1 Teaspoon (1 Teaspoon; 0)

Required Non-measurement Tools:

5 Bowls, preferably metal. 2 should be the same, roughly medium capacity size. A third should be large enough to fit one of the other two inside of it with room to spare. The fourth needs to be large enough to mix a very small amount of cookie dough inside of. The fifth just needs to be big enough to hold a cup of flour.

A lid to cover one of your medium bowls (it does not have to be a perfect fit).

Either plastic wrap or another lid to cover the other of your medium bowls (does need to be a perfect fit)

Some sort of mixing instrument. I recommend you use something electric.

Something to stir with, a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, for example.

Baking Sheet.

Saucepan.

Freezer.

Oven.

Stove.

Prep:

Night before starting, get out one of your 2 smaller bowls, whichever is best suited for mixing. Place it in the freezer to chill (we will call this our "freezer bowl")

At some point before making the cookie dough, you will want to Pasteurize your flour. This is the shortest part of the process and keeps you safe from deadly diseases, so it's not really worth skipping: Preheat your oven to 375°F (191°C). Spread your flour evenly on your baking sheet. Place in oven at 375° for 10 minutes. Take out of oven and allow to cool.

Immediately before making the ice cream, take your other two bowls. Fill the larger one partway with ice and water. Place the smaller one inside the larger one so that the ice water will keep it cold (we will call the smaller bowl our "chilling bowl").

Making the Cookie Dough:

(i recommend you wait until after you've already started making the ice cream since this takes not nearly as long)

Add 15 tablespoons Pasteurized Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour to a small bowl.

Add 15/64 (~1/4) teaspoons Salt to your flour bowl.

In a different mixing bowl, add 2 13/16 (~2 3/4) tablespoons granulated sugar.

Add 7 1/2 tablespoons packed Light Brown Sugar.

Add 15/16 (~1) teaspoon Vanilla Extract.

Add 15/16 stick of room temperature Butter.

Beat mixture until creamy/thoroughly mixed.

Add 2 13/16 (~2 3/4) tablespoons Pasteurized Liquid Egg Substitute, mixing thoroughly as you add.

Gradually add flour/salt mixture into mixing bowl, mixing thoroughly as you go.

Add 7 1/2 tablespoons chocolate chips. (you may choose to break some [doing all will be very tedious] of your chocolate ships into smaller pieces to make them roll into small balls easier. if you choose to do this, i recommend saving the chocolate chip crumbs and instead of adding them to your cookie dough, adding them directly to the ice cream to give it an extra chocolate chip taste even when you aren't biting into a cookie dough ball)

Mix until chocolate chips are evenly distributed.

Roll mixture into small balls of cookie dough (i would recommend placing them in your now empty flour bowl as you go). Balls should be about 1/4 teaspoon or a little smaller than half the tip of your pinky finger. For reference, each ball should be big enough to contain exactly one chocolate chip and still have a little doughy padding on the side.

Place dough balls into freezer to chill so that when you mix them into your ice cream later, they don't break apart.

Making the Ice Cream:

Pour 2 1/4 cups Milk into a saucepan.

Add 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream to the saucepan.

Add 1/4 cups Granulated Sugar. Stir lightly to avoid clumps.

Place saucepan on stove burner on low heat.

Take 1/2 cups of packed Light Brown Sugar, and sprinkle it into the saucepan (you don't want clumps of brown sugar in your ice cream. so, since you packed it to measure it, you need to de-pack/re-fluff it as you add it to the cream).

Stir until you can't feel any clumps (a little graininess is fine for the time being).

Add 1 teaspoon chocolate syrup. Stir briefly.

Add 1/16 stick of butter.

Sprinkle in a little bit of salt (measure with your heart. i think i shook a salt shaker like 3 or 4 times)

Stir until all ingredients are fully melted/dissolved, no grains of sugar can be felt, and the mixture is hot. A thin film of foam should have begun to form at the top of the cream and be sticking to edge of the saucepan a bit (little tiny bubbles, almost too small to instantly recognize them as bubbles. they'll make the top of the cream look a few shades lighter in color than the part underneath them)

Pour Cream Mixture into Chilling Bowl. (we are done with the saucepan forever)

Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Stir until the vanilla extract does not separate from the cream.

Cover Chilling Bowl and let sit in its ice bath for 20 minutes.

Transfer cream mixture into Freezer Bowl.

a) Place Freezer Bowl back into the freezer.

b) Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour, or until edges just begin to solidify. (this may take many hours depending on the temperature of your freezer) (the amount of time you let it sit in the freezer between mixings will determine how creamy it is when you're done. The longer you leave it in the freezer without mixing it, the more ice crystals will form, and the less creamy it will be.)

c) Take the Freezing Bowl out of the freezer.

d) Beat the mixture thoroughly, until any frozen bits are well mixed into the cream. Your goal is to break apart any ice crystals that have formed and to whip extra air into the cream so it remains soft and easy to scoop when it becomes fully frozen later.

Repeat steps (a) through (d) until mixture has reached your desired level of creaminess. (i recommend making the cookie dough during the first or second (b) interval since you're going to be waiting a while anyways)

Beat the mixture one more time.

Slowly mix your ice cream as you add your chocolate chip cookie dough balls to the mixture. (the cookie dough recipe makes a little bit more cookie dough than you probably want [you would be disappointed if it made less than you want, and there's no way for me to predict exactly how much you want, hence overestimating], so you may not necessarily want to put all the cookie dough in the ice cream. you can use the rest to make 2 or 3 cookies if you want; just make the dough balls cookie sized and place in the oven at 375°F for about 9 minutes)

Mix until the cookie dough balls are evenly distributed to your liking.

Place bowl back in the freezer.

Once it freezes again, you will have chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. do whatever you want with it.

*i made the recipe myself, based on a lot of different recipes for cookie dough and ice cream, separately. The measurements are a little bit weird in some places because of conversions required to not have to get out a whole extra stick of butter just to use half a tablespoon from it.

**i used unsalted butter because it's what i had in the house. if you want to use salted butter, just do your best to adjust the rest of the salt in the recipe accordingly

***1/2 tablespoons

****the rest of the stick (7 1/2 tablespoons)

*****please don't get people sick by feeding them uncooked and unpasteurized eggs

#chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream #gluten free #ice cream #gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream #ice cream recipe #chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream recipe #gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream recipe

[angelmush]

top five kitchen items you can't live without? or ten if it's easier. personally i am so so so grateful for access to an enameled cast iron dutch oven and it makes me wonder what others use ?

oohhh that's such a good question!! im gna have to go to ten LOL

a good chef's knife !! i tend to heavily favor my knives and could run my kitchen w just one or two easily

a big heavy bottomed pot for sauces n pasta n soups, i'd love to have a dutch oven someday lol

cast iron skillet. it is divisive which style of frying pan is best, ppl tend to be deeply loyal to their favorites. i favor a cast iron for most things, especially searing meats, making dutch babies, pizzas, veggies, fried eggs, and so on !! my go-to!! also love that it can go in the oven reliably. but i'd be lying if i wasn't attached to all my pans :'')

stainless or carbon steel pan. has it's moments where it's the right tool for the job. i like these for making fish w a good crispy skin or emulsifying my pasta water w my pasta n sauce

nonstick pan. rare, but useful for things like scrambled eggs and pancakes, delicate things like that.

this is a recent discovery for me, but a food scale!! has been sooo useful for me i've eliminated the use of measuring cups n spoons in my practice (especially 4 baking!!)

a fish spatula!! she's multi-talented <3

tongs or metal chopsticks r saviors for me bc i intuitively want to just use my hands to flip everything and these r a decent substitute to save the tips of my fingers, also great for stirring and imo could sub for a whisk

a large cake pan!! versatile, can roast veggies or proteins in it, bake cakes or cookies, can be used in prep work. just a nice little extra thingy to have around

a set of mixing bowls in a WIDE range of sizes ! soooo nice to have many on hand when meals have multiple components

#i loved this question !! #im a collector of kitchen items so this was nice to be thoughtful and intentional abt what i use the most!! #asks

[reiayanamiisbestgirl]

Improvised rosemary bread I made in my bread experiments 

I didn’t use measurements for any of this because it was improvised I just wanted bread as soon as possible

Materials:

Large mixing bowl

Spatulas

Spoons

Liquid measuring cup

Parchment paper

Large metal baking tray

Silicone food brush or napkin or spoon or something that spreads glaze on stuff

Small bowl

Damp towel

Butter knife 

Ingredients:

Flour

Packet of yeast

Can of carbonated water

Crushed rosemary

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Grated Parmesan cheese if you wanna 

Steps: 

Preheat oven to 425 f

Put a small handful of sugar in the liquid measuring cup

Put yeast in the liquid measuring cup

Pour the whole can of carbonated water in the liquid measuring cup. 

Let the liquid measuring cup rest somewhere that’s room temp or warm for about 15 minutes. It was warm outside on the day I made this bread so I let it sit outside in the sun while the yeast did it’s thing

While the yeast is doing whatever it does put some flour in the mixing bowl

Once the liquid measuring cup contents are ready, pour it into the mixing bowl

Pour some olive oil into the mixing bowl, not a lot of it but a decent amount 

Add more flour if you need to

Add the crushed rosemary into the mixing bowl, measure with your heart

Stir this stuff with the spatula until it is mixed into like a ball of dough

Knead that ball of dough inside the mixing bowl a little bit to get it fully mixed

Make a towel that’s big enough to cover the mixing bowl opening damp but not dripping 

Put the towel over the mixing bowl

Put the now covered mixing bowl in the same spot you put the liquid measuring cup and leave it there for 40 minutes. Once again, it was a warm day when I made this stuff so I left my mixing bowl outside in the sun and took a nap outside in the sun next to it for 40ish minutes 

Cut off a good sized sheet of parchment paper and lay it on your table

Put a handful or so of flour onto the parchment paper

Once the 40 minute timer is up, put the dough on the parchment paper and knead it until it’s not sticky

Portion the dough into 4 pieces and shape them however you want, i shaped mine into thick disks

Cover the dough with the same damp towel you used earlier and let it rest for like 20 - 30ish minutes

Cover a large metal baking tray with a sheet of parchment paper

Mix olive oil and salt in a small bowl

Once you’ve let the dough rest for like 20 - 30ish minutes, uncover it and put the 4 servings on the parchment paper that’s on the large metal baking tray 

Brush the servings with the olive oil salt thing you made in the small bowl

Put a bit of pepper on top of each of them

Bake them for 15 minutes or until if you stab the centers with a butter knife it comes out clean

Once baked, let them rest for a bit

Turn off the oven

If you wanna, you can put a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese on the tops of the breads and stick them in the oven while it’s still warm to let the cheese melt on. Only if you want to ofc, it’s optional.

#recipe #bread #baking #cooking #if anyone has a better name for this bread lemme know #It’s fully cooked I PROMISE #breadmaking #bread recipe

[ukulelekatie]

I want to get in to beaking bread, could you share the recipe?

Absolutely!

Disclaimer: This is going to be a kind of "choose your own adventure" type of recipe in order to make it as accessible and beginner-friendly as possible. Also, I'm not an expert by any means! This is what works for me, but questions and suggestions in the notes are welcome :)

Ingredients:

4 3/4 c. (594g) All-purpose flour, plus a little extra

2 1/2 tsp (7g) Instant yeast or active dry yeast

2 c. (472 mL) Warm water, about 100°F/38°C

2 tsp (12g) Salt

2 tsp (9g) Sugar (or maple syrup or honey) plus a pinch more

1 tsp (5g) Oil - I like to use olive oil

Equipment:

Small bowl or cup

Large bowl

Cloth, plastic wrap, or lid for large bowl

Wooden spoon or spatula for mixing

Parchment paper

Dutch oven (or a baking sheet and a large, metal, oven-safe pot)

Knife (the sharper the better)

Cooling rack

Food scale, if you're using the metric measurements

Instructions:

Part 1: Combine the Ingredients

Add 1/2 c. (118g) of warm water to a small bowl or cup. Add a pinch of sugar and your yeast, stir gently until combined. Let rest for about 5 minutes until the yeast mixture gets bubbly. This indicates that your yeast is alive and ready to go!

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar

Create a well in the center of your flour mix, and pour in the yeast mixture, the remaining 1 1/2 c. (354g) of water, and the oil. Mix together until you get a shaggy ball of dough. It should be a little sticky, but if it's too sticky, add more flour.

Part 2: Kneading

This step is optional. I find that kneading gives it a chewier texture and keeps the loaf from getting crumbly for longer, but the no-knead method is still delicious and easier. Skip to Part 3 if so desired.

I suck at kneading so I use my handy dandy stand mixer. But you can knead by hand if you want, or you can opt to not knead it at all! You're looking for a nice smooth, stretchy ball of dough.

Part 3: Rise

Lightly grease the inside of your bowl. Put your dough back into the bowl and cover with a lid or a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rest in a warm location.

I like to put mine in the oven--make sure it's turned off, and make sure everyone you share the kitchen with knows there's dough having a little nap in the oven. Not everyone checks to make sure the oven is empty before turning it on, ya know?

Let rise until the dough has doubled in size and there are tiny bubbles on the surface. Time will vary--if you're using instant yeast, this will likely take 1-2 hours. If you opted for active dry, the rise time will be longer, anywhere from 3-6 hours. If you did the no-knead, method, it may take even longer than that. You could even leave it overnight if you want!

Part 4: Preheating and Shaping

This bread is meant to be baked in a Dutch oven. Dutch ovens trap steam, which helps create a nice crust. But if you don't have a one, don't fret! You can place your loaf on baking sheet, and then place a metal pot over the loaf for the same effect.

When your dough is done rising, take your dough out of the oven and then preheat the oven to 450°F 230°C. Add your Dutch oven or sheet and pot to the oven to allow them to heat up.

Punch down the dough to get rid of the air bubbles, and then place the dough on a lightly-floured surface. Pull the edges of the dough in toward the center. You should see the shape becoming more spherical and feel the surface getting tighter. Here's a quick visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWA0RAAsBHg

Transfer your beautiful dough baby to a sheet of parchment paper. Gently flour the surface of the loaf, and then use your knife to score the top. (Don't go too deep!)

Part 5: Baking and Cooling

When the oven is heated, remove your Dutch oven and transfer your dough and parchment paper inside. Make sure the parchment paper is completely inside to prevent it from burning.

Bake for 30 minutes. After this time, remove the Dutch oven lid and let your loaf bake for 10-15 more minutes until the crust is nice and golden brown

Transfer the loaf to the cooling rack and let it cool for at least an hour before cutting into it. I know it's tempting to dig in right away, but I promise it's worth it.

Your bread should be good for about a week. I like to store mine in tin foil or in a large zip lock bag. To keep your crust nice and crispy, don't wrap it up until it's completely cool.

Enjoy!

#katie bakes #bread #recipes

[hasufin]

I am about to make an entire ethnic group mad at me. Ready? Here goes.

Southerners don't know how to make biscuits.

Please note, I am not saying they are unable to make biscuits. They make perfectly good, even exceptional, biscuits. (Note, I am talking about the American usage of "biscuit", not the British term)

But Southerners have no idea HOW they are making good biscuits. They are doing what their mama or gramma taught them, using very possibly the exact same tools, buying ingredients from the same grocery store, and reproducing the same results, but this is not a skill they have any capacity to explain.

And if you look online, you can find a plethora of Southerners who moved (invariably to New York City, apparently) and suddenly were completely unable to make decent biscuits, with no ability to diagnose why. Once they have made a clean break from their traditional tools and materials, they are lost.

Which means you end up with all these weird essays as they flail around and make up reasons for why "Northerners" can't make good biscuits, usually inventing super special secret ingredients, which they then share.

None of these Southern-led instructions work. If anything, the results are worse. If you want to know how to make good biscuits: find a Northerner who has learned and ask them. That is, find someone who learned as an outsider, because they will be able to explain what they're actually doing with awareness, not simply "and then you do like gramama did which is, uh, you just do!"

None of the instructions I've seen from Southerners on the art of biscuit-making work. By contrast, the recipe in Joy of Cooking has never failed me.

Here is what I, as a Northerner, have learned. Let's start with the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter

3/4 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat your oven to 450°F. Thoroughly clean a space on your counter to roll out your biscuits.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. If possible use a sifter.

3. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into flour. You do not want to cut it too much - stop shortly after you get it down to pea-sized bits.

4. Add all the buttermilk at once. Combine with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until it's combined enough to work by hand. Then, once you can work by hand, knead together very firmly. (I will note more on this step later, it's important but people make it Weird.)

5. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about an inch. If you have a biscuit cutter use that to cut the biscuits, otherwise use the bottom of a glass and a paring knife. Gently knead the excess dough back together and cut more biscuits until you run out of dough. The fewer times you have to knead the dough, the better off you are.

6. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet. Brush the tops with milk or melted butter and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Now, this is not a terribly complicated recipe. And, start to finish, it will take roughly half an hour, mostly due to the time it takes to heat the oven to 450°F. So here are the important things I have learned:

a. DO NOT use self-rising (or raising) flour!!!!!! Ever!!!! Yes, I know that's what your gramma used, but she was using a particular brand in a particular region with leavening adjusted based on decades of experience. Self-rising flour is a terrible scam and makes people think they suck at baking. All it is, is all-purpose flour with some unknown amount of unknown leavening and maybe salt added. How much? No idea! They certainly aren't going to tell you. It takes control out of your hands. Use unleavened all-purpose flour and measure your own damned baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

b. You do not need a special soft wheat flour which is only sold in 50-lb bags under the full moon at a mill in rural Kentucky. If that was important, that kind of flour would be in every grocery store in the country. Any all-purpose flour will work. It's possible that you might get some interesting results mixing in a lower-gluten cake flour, but odds are you personally will see no value in that kind of fussiness, and it's certainly not necessary for good biscuits.

c. By contrast, the buttermilk does matter. It's not impossible to make good biscuits using standard grocery store buttermilk, but you will thank yourself for finding a nice, rich buttermilk from a local dairy.

d. Now, the kneading. This is the big one. Biscuits are in fact an awful lot like pie crusts. And like pie crusts if you work them too much they will get awful and tough. The problem here is that most online guides make you terrified of working the dough at all, and you spend 45 minutes poking tentatively at the dough with icy fingertips, which is 45 minutes wasted because that will never get the dough to come together and you're still going to need to do actual kneading. I honestly think this is why people end up with hockey pucks: they lack confidence and end up doing far worse than if they'd jumped in and just done it. So....

First, as with any dough, it's going to be very sticky when you first add the liquid. You will not be able to knead it at this stage. You need to use the aforementioned spatula or spoon to fold the liquid in until it's no longer too sticky to knead - and only until that stage.

Second, once it's no longer too sticky to work with, you're going to need to get your fingies dirty. Make sure your hands are CLEAN and DRY. If you did this in a big enough bowl you can knead directly in the bowl, otherwise you'll need to turn it onto the counter.

Third, use a lot of pressure. This is not a "tickle lightly with iced fingertips" situation. PUSH THAT DOUGH. Your goal is to force it together. Quickly. You should be able to do this in two or three turns because you are kneading it like it's the neck of the worst boss you've ever had. The one who called you in to run the register on Xmas eve so they could go home and watch TV. If the dough were their skull, it should be crushed. Use a lot of pressure very briefly. but VERY briefly. Put your weight into it; your goal is to press the whole mass together right away and be done.

Fourth, apply that same approach to rolling it out: fast, forceful, confident.

It's a simple thing, but there are many ways to screw it up. The trick is in knowing what they really are.

[lichposting]

Roast potatoes recipe

Ingredience:

6-8 medium size Yukon gold potatoes (or a larger number of baby Dutch, any waxy potatoes can work but I’d recommend these bc I tried red and they were unimpressive)

3 tbsp butter

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup or more grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 410F/210C

2. Wash the potatoes and cut them into chunks about 1.5-2cm thick, ideally rectangular prism shaped

3. Rinse the potato pieces in a colander and then lay them on a paper towel to dry for a bit, you can dab them with a paper towel over the top too

4. Put butter into a medium size mixing bowl and melt, then add olive oil and seasoning, add the potatoes and cheese and mix well to coat em (may need to use your hands)

5. Cover a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread the potatoes out evenly across it, you can also pour the remaining butter/cheese/etc mix over the top, then grate more parm over the sheet

6. Bake till the bottoms of the potatoes are a medium brown and they’ve started browning at the top, depending on the size you cut them+your oven it could be between 25-50 minutes

7. Remove from oven, pour off any excess oil, then use a spatula to unstick the potatoes and put them on your plate/bowl/etc

8. Eat them

I use waxy potatoes bc they develop a very good smooth texture inside w/ the crisp outside that you don’t really get from russets IME

You can peel the potatoes if you want but I like them with the peel still on. You should cut off eyes/other unsavory bits tho

Also the measurements are not exact, you can do whatever you want, this is just me eyeballing and assigning numbers based on that (be careful w/ the salt esp if you use salted butter, it can get overly salty and gross)

#image #food #perso #cooking

[jrob64]

One Thrill Ride Leads to Another - Chapter 4 (More Thrilling Rides)

I’m sorry for the delay with this chapter, but it’s become a bit of a monster! It covers one day in Emma and Killian’s relationship, but the word count for the entire story is nearly doubled because it’s so long. I debated splitting it in two, and nearly drove my poor betas @hookedmom and @kmomof4​ crazy trying to decide whether to do that or not, but in the end, I kept it as one chapter. I hope the word count doesn’t put you off, and just so you know, the second half of it is what earns the story its M rating. 

Story Summary: While working at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Killian Jones meets Emma Swan, slips his name and number into her phone, and later sends her a text asking her out. His snap decision could lead to her blocking his number, or to an adventure much more thrilling than a ride on a roller coaster. 

Rating: M

Words: (chapter 4) 12,718

The rest of the story on Tumblr: Ch 1  Ch 2  Ch 3

You can also read it on ffn and Ao3

*********

Killian didn’t want to admit how much he tossed and turned during the night, simply knowing that Emma was in the room right across from him. He wondered if she also had trouble sleeping when he heard her enter the bathroom at 6:30.

He went into the kitchen to start the coffee machine, and was bent over looking in the refrigerator when Emma walked in. Taking a moment to admire the view, she waited until he had straightened up before she made her presence known. “Good morning.”

He turned and smiled at her, taken aback once again by her beauty. She was dressed in the same shorts as the day before and a character shirt she had purchased at Disney Springs. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was barefoot.

“Good morning, Swan. How did you sleep?”

“Not too bad. The coffee smells good.”

“I’m afraid I can’t offer you fancy blends like they have at Starbucks.”

“Then I guess you won’t expect me to pay seven dollars for a cup,” she grinned, causing him to laugh.

“What would you like for breakfast? Your choices are eggs, a couple of kinds of cereal, frozen waffles or I can make some pancakes.”

“Pancakes would be great! Are you a good cook?”

“I can hold my own. When I was growing up, I made dinner for Liam and Uncle Nemo so they would have something to eat as soon as they got home from work. At first, it was barely edible, but I improved as time went on.” He opened a cabinet door to take out a box of pancake mix.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Sure. Would you mind getting out the milk, butter and eggs?”

She crossed behind him to the refrigerator, quickly finding the requested items and setting them on the counter. “What else?”

“Grab a whisk out of the drawer beside the dishwasher and the measuring cups out of the cupboard above it,” he requested, while getting a bowl from the cabinet to his left and setting a large frying pan on the stove.

When everything was assembled, he began adding ingredients to the bowl while she whisked them together. Then he turned on the heat and added a slab of butter to the pan. Once it was melted, she watched him use a small plastic cup to scoop up the batter and pour it into the hot skillet, making three equally sized pancakes.

She watched with interest as he waited patiently to flip them over. “Aren’t you gonna check them?”

“No need. When these bubbles on the surface pop and don’t fill back in, it’s time to turn them.” After another minute, he slid a spatula under each one and expertly flipped them over. They were a perfect golden brown and began rising, looking light and fluffy.

“Whoa - you’re a master chef!” she praised.

He chuckled. “I doubt making pancakes earns anyone the title of master chef, Swan. Besides, they’re just from a box and you haven’t tasted them yet.”

“Well, they look delicious. Where are your plates?”

He used the spatula to point at a cupboard. She got out two plates, then pulled open a couple of drawers until she found the silverware to get forks. “Do you have syrup?” she questioned.

“There should be a bottle in the cabinet where I got the pancake mix.”

He piled the finished cakes on a plate and handed them to her. “The coffee should be ready - help yourself. There’s creamer on the top shelf in the fridge and sugar in the same cupboard as the syrup.”

“Can I fix one for you too?”

“Thanks, but I just take mine black.”

“I’ve never developed a taste for that. Ruby puts so much sugar in hers, she almost has to chew it, and M’s only drinks tea.” She took two mugs from the drying rack beside the sink and filled them with coffee, handed one to Killian, added a spoonful of sugar and a splash of creamer to hers, then stirred them in.

Taking the plate of pancakes, she poured syrup over the stack, walked around to the other side of the counter, sat down, and began eating. The satisfied moan she made when she took the first bite shot straight to his groin and he made sure he was facing the stove so she wouldn’t see the evidence.

“These are amazing, Killian! Best pancakes I’ve ever had.”

“I’m happy to hear that,” he beamed, sliding three more onto another plate for himself. “I wish I could offer you some bacon or sausage to go with them. Pancakes are usually better with some kind of meat.”

Emma tried to control her smirk, since the mention of sausage turned her mind toward inappropriate thoughts. Before her face could betray her, she took a sip of her coffee. “This is plenty. I’m not used to eating a big breakfast. I usually just have a bowl of cereal or a Pop Tart.”

They finished eating while discussing the things they were looking forward to doing at the water park. Working together, they cleaned up the kitchen, then Killian excused himself to take a shower.

While Emma was waiting for him, she called Mary Margaret. As soon as her friend answered, Emma said, “Hey, M’s. How are you guys doing?”

“We’re fine. How is your vacation going? What are you and Ruby planning to do today?”

“We’re going to Volcano Bay, but uh, it won’t be just the two of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“We…we met a couple of guys.” Knowing what was going to happen next, she pulled the phone away from her ear.

Sure enough, Mary Margaret let out a loud squeal. “You did? How did you meet them? What are their names?

“They both work at Universal, one at Islands of Adventure, the other at Harry Potter World in the main park. His name is Graham. He and Ruby are together.”

“What about your guy? What’s his name?”

Emma hesitated a moment before replying, “Killian.”

“Huh,” Mary Margaret said thoughtfully, and Emma knew it was only a matter of seconds before her friend began putting the pieces together. “David’s best friend is named Killian and he works at…WAIT! Are you talking about Killian Jones? Dark hair, blue eyes, has a bit of an Irish accent?”

“Yep, that’s him,” Emma answered, unable to keep the smile out of her voice.

“OH MY GOSH! What are the odds of that happening? How on earth did you two get together?”

Emma related the story of their meeting - how he asked her out on a date and what they had done together in the past two days, while Mary Margaret reacted with appropriate sounds of delight every now and then.

Just as she was finishing her explanation, Killian came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He went directly into his bedroom, but Emma still had the perfect vantage point to see him. She suddenly found it difficult to speak as her mouth went dry at the sight of his bare chest, covered with just the right amount of chest hair to be sexy, without giving him the look of a grizzly bear. His arms and torso were toned and muscular, and his towel-dried hair was sticking out in all different directions, which looked sexy as hell.

She didn’t realize how long she sat with her tongue seemingly glued to the roof of her mouth, until Mary Margaret’s voice cut through her haze of lustful thoughts. “Emma? Emma? Did we get cut off?”

Emma gave her head a quick shake as she admonished herself. You better get used to it; you’re gonna see him like that all day at the waterpark. “Oh, um, yeah, I mean no, we didn’t get cut off. I’m still here.”

“Did Killian tell you he’s moving to Boston in August?” Mary Margaret asked. “David can hardly wait until he’s living closer. They’ve been friends since sixth grade, when Killian moved in with his uncle. They stay in touch, but because their colleges were so far apart, they’ve barely seen each other in the last five years.”

“Yeah, he told me. That’s how I found out he knew you and David. In all the times you’ve tried to set me up with guys, why haven’t you ever told me about him?”

“I’ve only met him once, when he was home for Christmas and stopped by David’s mother’s house. I liked him, but trying to get you to go out with guys who live in close proximity to you has been like pulling teeth. I knew better than to try with somebody who lived over a thousand miles away.”

“Well, now we’ve met and…” her voice dropped to almost a whisper, “I think he’s a really great guy, M’s.”

“Oh, Emma, I’m so happy to hear that!” Over the phone, Emma heard a door close in the background and David’s familiar voice greeting his girlfriend. Mary Margaret responded excitedly, “Sweetheart, guess what? Emma met Killian at Universal when he held her phone while she rode the Velocicoaster, and now they’re together!”

“Well, not really together together…” Emma tried to correct, but what David was saying made her pause.

“You mean it was Emma’s phone he hijacked?”

“You knew?” Emma asked, while Mary Margaret questioned, “Hijacked? What are you talking about?”

“Killian called me,” David started to explain, and just then, Killian emerged from his bedroom, clad in a pair of royal blue swim trunks and a faded Van Halen T-shirt.

“Would you like another cup of coffee, Swan?” he asked quietly, hoping to not interrupt her phone conversation.

“Is he there?” David asked, and Emma suddenly felt like she was a ping-pong ball, being bounced between three different people.

“Yeah, he just came in.”

“He’s in your hotel room?” David’s voice rose a bit in volume as he took on his protective big brother personna.

“No, I’m at his apartment.”

Killian blinked hard as his brows shot up his forehead. “Who are you talking to?”

At the same time, David was nearly shouting, “Why are you at his apartment?” while Mary Margaret said, “Calm down, David! She said nothing happened.”

Emma had had enough. “Okay, everybody stop talking for a minute! Killian, I’m talking to M’s and David. David, Killian invited me to stay because Ruby was taking Graham back to our hotel room and I really didn’t want to be in the same room with them. M’s is right - nothing happened between Killian and me, except some kissing…”

“YOU KISSED HIM?”

“Jeez, David! I’m an adult, not your fourteen-year-old sister,” Emma groaned.

“Put it on speaker phone,” Killian requested. After she complied, he said, “Hey, Dave. What seems to be the problem?”

“The problem,” David huffed, “is that you violated Emma’s privacy to ask her out and now you’re…you’re violating her again!”

“By kissing her?” Killian asked, in an affronted tone, while Emma said, “He didn’t violate me!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mary Margaret cut in. “I need to catch up, David. So Killian called you and told you about getting Emma’s name and number out of her phone…”

“But he didn’t tell me it was Emma,” David interrupted.

“I didn’t know you knew her,” Killian clarified.

“Did you tell him to ask her out?” Mary Margaret questioned her boyfriend.

“He asked me if I thought he should, and I told him it would probably be okay, since she could block him if she was too creeped out or angry… but I didn’t know it was Emma!”

“Why would it have made a difference if you knew who it was?” Killian asked. Sitting beside him, Emma was grumbling about David being overprotective, and in the background on the other end of the phone, they heard Mary Margaret saying, “And that makes a difference because…?”

“Because she’s like a little sister to me!”

Emma’s eyes widened and softened a bit at his declaration, before she said, “I would be more like a younger sister, not a little one, since you’re only a few months older than me, you idiot.”

Killian grinned, then cleared his throat. “So you’re saying you wouldn’t want me to date your sister?”

“Isn’t he your best friend?” Emma added.

“He is, but…” David mumbled, while Mary Margaret folded her arms and gave him a fierce look. “But…the way he got your information was completely inappropriate. Surely you don’t approve of what he did, do you Emma?”

“If it bothered you that much, why did you say you thought it was okay to ask the girl out?” Mary Margaret asked.

“Well, he…he seemed hellbent on doing it,” David spluttered. “What did you think when you got the text, Emma?”

“I was a little upset at first, but when I met him, he assured me he’d never done anything like that before. He said he took the risk so he could have a chance to see me again.”

“Isn’t that romantic?” Mary Margaret sighed.

David stared at her disbelievingly. “Romantic? It’s criminal!”

Killian groaned and pushed his hands through his hair, while Emma admonished, “Oh, come on, David, lighten up. You might not like what he did, but it turned out fine. We’re spending some time together, getting to know each other, and…”

“And?” David asked when Emma’s voice trailed off.

Emma looked at Killian, her face reddening. “And…I really like him.”

His smile lit up his face and he reached over to take her hand. “I really like her, too,” he said softly.

“See, David? Romantic,” Mary Margaret stated, lightly slapping him in the chest.

David sighed in resignation. “I guess it would be kind of nice if your best friend is dating my best friend. Unless they break up, that is…then it would just be awkward.”

“Don’t be so negative, Sweetheart. Just let them date and enjoy themselves.”

“Fine…but don’t you break her heart, Jones. I can still kick your ass, if necessary.”

Killian looked at her as he smiled and softly sang, “I won’t go breaking her heart.”

*********

Despite Ruby’s assurance that she and Graham would be ready to go at eight-fifteen, Emma opted to knock on the hotel room door instead of using her key card. Graham opened the door, looking tired but happy.

“Killian has your swim trunks,” she told him. “He’s waiting for you in the lobby.”

“Okay, thanks. Hey, Red,” he called over his shoulder, “Emma’s here and I’m going downstairs. See you there!”

“I miss you already!” came Ruby’s reply.

Emma closed the door behind him and ventured into the bedroom, which was in complete disarray. Her brows nearly hit her hairline as she surveyed the scene. “What in the world happened…” she asked, a note of disbelief in her voice. “You know what? I don’t even want to know.”

Ruby was already dressed in a red one-piece swimsuit, with diamond shaped sections cut out above both hips and on her belly, extending up between her breasts. She grinned at Emma from in front of the window, where she was digging through her suitcase. “It was quite a night, Em! Graham is the most passionate lover I’ve ever had.”

“What part of ‘I don’t want to know’ did you not understand?”

“Okay, I won’t go into any details,” she said with a smirk.

“I appreciate that,” Emma said, pulling a coral colored swimsuit out of the dresser drawer. “I’m gonna change in the bathroom and do some touch-up shaving. It is safe to go in there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, we didn’t christen the bathroom…yet. Maybe we’ll get to it tonight.”

“I guess that means I’ll be staying at Killian’s apartment again tonight.”

“I’m sure you won’t mind. How many rooms did you two christen there?”

“We didn’t.”

“Come again?”

“We watched a movie then went to bed…in separate rooms.”

Ruby straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “What are you waiting for?” she asked incredulously. “You only have one more night with him!”

“Not necessarily,” Emma said cryptically. “Did you and Graham talk about anything last night?”

“Depends on what you mean by talking. We said things like ‘harder’ and ‘faster’ and…”

“Stop!” Emma begged, momentarily squeezing her eyes shut at Ruby’s response. “I mean, did you discuss anything about what might happen after we go back home?”

Ruby sobered at Emma’s words. “No, we didn’t want to think about that.”

“He’s moving to Boston.”

“Who? Killian?”

“Yes, and Graham.”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! If you are lying to me, Emma Swan,” she warned, “I’m going to…”

“I’m not lying. Killian told me last night. He’s starting his master’s program at BU and Graham is going to train to become a park ranger.”

Ruby let out a loud squeal. “Omigod! Omigod! Omigod! I can’t believe it! I’ve got to go talk to him!” She threw a cover up over her head, grabbed a beach towel and her bag, then turned to run out of the room.

“Wait! Do you have…”

“I have Graham and that’s all I need!” she tossed over her shoulder, then slammed the door behind her.

Emma laughed and shook her head as she went into the bathroom.

*********

Graham and Killian were sitting in lounge chairs when Ruby came flying into the lobby, flinging herself into Graham’s lap and planting kisses all over his face. When she finally pulled back after several long moments, she gasped, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” he asked, trying to catch his breath from her onslaught.

“That you’re moving to Boston!”

Graham’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“Emma just told me. Is it true?”

“Yes, it’s true. I’m hoping to become a park ranger there. Why?”

“Emma and I live in Boston!”

Graham’s jaw dropped and he blinked numerous times before finally stammering, “Y-you do? That…that’s fantastic news, Ruby!” He wrapped her in a crushing hug, burying his face in the crease of her neck.

“Wait a minute,” Killian said. “Do you mean to tell me you never asked her where she was from?”

Ruby turned around to fix him with a glare. “You didn’t know Emma lived there until last night, did you?”

His face reddened. “Point taken.”

Facing Graham once again, she said, “When are you moving?”

“At the end of August. Killian is moving three weeks before me because his classes at BU are starting, but I’m gonna stay to work for another couple of weeks and finish out the lease.”

She hugged him tightly. “How will I survive without you until then?”

“Well, we can Facetime or they do have something called phone sex, Red,” he quipped with a rougish grin.

“Whelp, I think I’ll go wait for Emma by the elevator,” Killian stated, pushing himself out of the chair and hurrying away from the oblivious couple.

He paced back and forth while he waited, wondering what type of swimsuit Emma would be wearing and how he was going to handle seeing her in it all day. He was sure, whatever she wore, she was going to look sinfully sexy in it.

A few minutes passed until he heard the ding of the arriving elevator and halted his pacing in front of the door. When it opened, he gulped at the sight of her. He couldn’t see her suit under the white, tunic-style cover up, but because it was only long enough to brush the very tops of her thighs, it did give him a very good view of her long, tanned and toned legs.

“Hey, I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I wanted to throw some things into a bag for tonight, because Ruby pretty much told me that she and Graham will be, um…using the hotel room again. Do you mind company for one more night?” she asked, shyly.

“Of course not,” he assured her.

“Thank you, Killian,” she said, taking his hand to walk toward the lobby.

They found the other couple still wrapped around one another. “Ready to go, Rubes?” Emma asked.

Ruby untangled herself from Graham and stood, pulling him up behind her. “Yep! Time to hit the waterslides and wave pool! Did you order an Uber?”

“Actually, I drove today,” Killian informed her.

“I didn’t know you had a car,” Ruby said. “Why did you use an Uber the last two days if you can drive instead?”

“I rode into work with a friend on Monday and I don’t drive if there’s a chance I could be drinking.”

“Wait until you see his car,” Emma said over her shoulder as they walked out the sliding doors ahead of the other couple. “It’s so cool!”

When they stopped in front of a black Chevy Chevelle SS, Ruby’s eyes grew huge. “This badass car is yours?”

“Aye. My brother and I restored it after my senior year of high school, with some help from David.”

“Oh, I didn’t get a chance to tell you that Killian is David’s best friend,” Emma informed Ruby. “So he knows M’s, too.”

Ruby’s eyes got even wider as her mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?” she screeched.

“I’ve known him since I was twelve,” Killian said, unlocking and opening the passenger side door, then moving the front seat forward. “I’ve only met Mary Margaret once, though. I haven’t been back to Boston often since moving down here, and when I do go back, I spend most of my time with my brother and uncle.”

“Once both of you move to Boston, we’re gonna have to have a big ol’ party!” Ruby declared, climbing into the back seat.

Graham followed her in, then Killian returned the front seat to its position and ushered Emma in, closing the door after she was settled.

They had plenty to talk about on the way to Volcano Bay, sharing stories of David and Mary Margaret and exclaiming over and over again about the numerous coincidences of the whole situation. The parking lot was just beginning to fill up when they arrived and they had to wait in a short line at guest relations to purchase the discounted tickets, before passing through the gates.

“I suggest we rent a large locker first,” Graham said, once they were inside the park. “That way, we won’t have to worry about our stuff being stolen while we’re away from our chairs.”

“Good idea, Wolfman,” Ruby praised, looping her arm through his.

They quickly stored their belongings, keeping their towels, sunscreen and sunglasses, and went in search of beach chairs in a convenient area of the park. It didn’t take them long to find four chairs together, where they spread out their towels. The guys tugged their shirts over their heads while Emma and Ruby removed their cover ups.

As soon as Killian laid eyes on Emma in her high cut swimsuit, his mouth went dry and his cock twitched in his trunks. Catching her eyes, he could see the hunger in her gaze, too.

Tendrils of heat were coursing through her as she took in his body, now clad only in low-slung swim trunks. She had gotten a brief glimpse of him after his shower earlier that morning, but standing this close to him made her long to run her fingertips over the defined muscles of his chest and arms.

“Now we’re all gonna do the responsible thing and put on sunscreen before we do anything else, right?” Ruby stated emphatically, handing the bottle to Graham, who was taking in her suit with hungry eyes. “I don’t want to get so sunburned that it hinders other, more enjoyable activities tonight. I’d like to maintain the option of being flat on my back.” Graham returned her wink, then eagerly took the bottle, squirted some into his hands and started applying it to her exposed skin.

Killian looked at Emma. “I can put some on your back, if you’d like.”

“Sure,” she said, plucking the bottle off of her towel and tossing it to him. Then she sat on the end of the chaise lounge and pulled her ponytail over her shoulder.

He straddled the seat behind her and popped open the lid, pouring a generous amount into his palm. After rubbing his hands together, he began smoothing it over her back, spreading his hands toward her shoulders.

Emma closed her eyes and bit her lower lip as his fingers massaged her skin. Every swipe of his hand spread a warmth through her that had nothing to do with the sun, and everything to do with her attraction to him. It was all she could do not to moan at his touch.

At the same time, Killian was fighting with his libido, too. Her skin was soft and silky beneath his fingers and he wanted to explore more of it. A lot more. When he finished liberally applying the lotion, he was disappointed not to have an excuse to keep touching her, at least for the time being.

“All done,” he informed her, rising from the chair.

She gave him an appreciative smile and took the bottle from him. He bent to retrieve his own bottle and when he turned toward her again, the feelings he had just fought down rose to the surface again. She was slathering lotion on her chest with her shoulder straps pulled down a bit so she could get underneath, giving him a tantalizing peek at the top of her breasts.

Swallowing hard, he sat down on his own chair to hide the evidence of his reaction, and busied himself with applying sunscreen to his legs and the tops of his feet. Every once in a while, he would sneak a glance at Emma, just to see her rubbing lotion on the glistening skin of her arms and legs. He knew sunscreen was supposed to protect people, but he was beginning to think it was going to be the death of him.

“Want some help with that?” her voice cut through his thoughts.

Her question caught him off-guard, wondering if she was offering to help him with the issue she was responsible for causing. Surely she wasn’t suggesting what his mind was picturing? He shifted in his seat, hoping his trunks weren’t noticeably tented. “Um, with what?”

“Putting sunscreen on your back.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. That would be great, thanks.”

Only it wasn’t great when her hands touched his heated skin. It caused his problem to continue to grow and by the time she was finished, he was well past half-mast, wondering if he was going to be able to hide it when he stood up.

The contact was affecting Emma, too. She spent far longer than necessary rubbing her hands across the broad expanse of his back, over his shoulders, and down his biceps, her fingers on his bare skin sending sensual and pleasurable shivers throughout her body.

“Are you guys ready?” Graham asked, bursting the bubble of lust around the couple. Emma gave Killian’s shoulders one more squeeze, then stood up on wobbly legs.

“Where,” Killian began, his voice cracking on the word. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Uh, what do you want to do first?”

“I think a nice, cool dip in the wave pool sounds good,” Ruby said. “Why don’t we start there since we’re close to it anyway?”

“Makes sense to me,” Graham agreed. “How about you guys?”

Killian sighed in relief. Cool water within close proximity was just what he needed. He looked at Emma, who nodded with an eager look on her face. “We’re in. Lead the way, Ruby,” he said.

Waiting until all of them turned to walk away, he stood up, adjusted himself the best he could in his swim trunks, and waddled after them.

*********

Their day at the waterpark was nothing short of amazing. It was a bit overcast and threatened rain, but the park remained crowded until mid-afternoon. Even though they had to wait in long lines for some of the most popular slides, they still had a great time talking and laughing together.

They stayed in the wave pool for the first half hour, all of them trying their hand at body surfing in the bigger waves. Emma was hesitant at first, but after watching her friends and seeing how much fun they were having, she decided to try it.

After attempting to ride her first wave and coming up sputtering, Killian was there pulling her to him. “Good form, Swan! You appear to be a natural!”

She clung to him, her arms wrapped around his neck. Caught up in the excitement of the moment, she kissed him deeply, until another wave splashed into them and knocked them over, pushing them underwater.

Once they exited the wave pool, they moved on to some individual slides, then tried the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, followed by the Kala and Tai Nui Serpentine Slides. By the time they were done with them, they were all feeling hunger pangs and went back to the locker for money, to buy food at Bambu and drinks from the Dancing Dragons Boat Bar.

Feeling the need to take it easy after eating, they drifted around the park on the Kopiko Wai Winding River, Ruby and Graham sharing a double innertube, while Emma and Killian floated beside each other in separate tubes with their fingers linked together most of the time.

The rest of the afternoon was spent alternating between being in the water and taking a break on the lounge chairs. A rain shower finally passed through mid-afternoon, but already being wet, they didn’t mind.

The more time Emma and Killian spent together, the more affectionate they were with each other. There was hardly a time when they weren’t touching somehow, whether it was holding hands as they moved to another attraction, squeezed together on an innertube for a water ride, or sharing kisses as they sat together on a chaise lounge. They were falling hard for each other and blatantly ignored any part of their brain that tried to tell them it was a bad idea because they hadn’t known one another long enough.

By six o’clock, they had all had enough water and sun, and decided to rinse off the chlorine under one of the outside showers, change and head back to the hotel, stopping to pick up fast food along the way. Judging by the sounds coming from the back seat, Emma was reminded that she would be staying at Killian’s apartment again that night, and found she was very excited about it. She’d had good reasons for not allowing things to go too far with him the night before, but after the day they’d spent together, those reasons seemed moot now.

When they dropped Ruby and Graham off at the hotel, Emma reminded her, “Don’t forget we need to leave for the airport by three o’clock, so you have to be packed and ready to go by two-thirty.”

Ruby’s lip stuck out as she pouted. “Fine, but it might take me a while to figure out how to fit Graham into my carry-on.”

“I have to be at work by two o’clock anyway, Red,” Graham said somberly. “What time does your shift start, Killian?”

“Same time. I wish we could take you ladies to the airport.”

“It’s no big deal,” Emma said, trying not to sound disappointed. “You wouldn’t be able to see us to our gate or go very far into the terminal with us anyway.”

“Why do they call it a terminal?” Ruby huffed. “It sounds so ominous. Maybe I should just forget about getting on a big, scary airplane and stay here.”

“I doubt your boss would appreciate that,” Emma said.

“Oh, Jefferson can bite me. He has yet to consider me a valuable employee. Maybe he needs to be without me for a while longer to truly appreciate me.” Turning to Graham, she added, “Don’t worry, I didn’t mean he could literally bite me. That privilege belongs exclusively to you, Wolfie.”

“And on that note, I think it’s time for us to leave,” Emma groaned. She was secretly glad they had an excuse to depart the hotel quickly, because she was anxious to get back to Killian’s apartment and act on the feelings that had been simmering between them all day.

Killian chuckled and shifted the car into gear, not wanting to waste a minute of the remaining time he had with Emma, whose mere presence in his passenger seat was making his blood boil with desire.

They waved goodbye to their friends and Killian pulled away from the curb. When Emma’s hand found its way to his thigh, he thought he was going to lose control of the car. His nerve endings were on edge after all the stimulating touches they shared throughout the day and he didn’t know how he was going to maneuver his car through the streets if she kept rubbing his leg like she was doing now.

“Swan,” he gritted out, “please…I can’t…you’re going to…”

“You want me to stop?” she asked innocently.

“Want you to? No. Need you to? Yes. I don’t want to get a ticket for erratic driving because of your…magic fingers.”

“Magic fingers, huh?” she giggled. “I guess I’ll just have to wait until we get there to put these magic fingers to work, then.”

He glanced over at her as she pulled her hand away. “It’s bad form to tease a man, Swan,” he said jokingly.

Her face sobered. “I’m not teasing you, Killian.”

“Are you saying what I think, uh, hope you’re saying?” he asked, his hands tightening around the steering wheel.

Emma hesitated. She wasn’t usually good at expressing herself, but somehow she knew that sharing her feelings with Killian would be worth it. “I know I told you last night I didn’t want things to move too fast and ruin what could be a very good thing, but today has shown me how…how much I like being with you. You’re fun, considerate and sweet…and you’re not bad looking, either,” she said with a smirk. “I know some people might consider it to be too soon, but as you put it the other night, what the hell? It doesn’t matter to me what others will think.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “You took the risk of asking me out and I took one by accepting, and I don’t regret it one bit. Taking this next step, well…it might be a risk, but it just feels…right.”

Killian had never wished to be home as much as he did at that moment. It was all he could do to continue concentrating on driving as her words sank in. Speeding up a little to get through a yellow light before it turned red, he swallowed hard before answering. “I, um…I’m very happy to hear you say that, Swan. I was planning to try to rein in my…my desires tonight, but it was going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You don’t know how many times I’ve had to calm myself down today because just touching you was affecting me so much. But it’s more than just a physical attraction; it’s absolutely everything about you. I’m incredibly drawn to you, Emma.”

He pulled into the parking garage for the apartment complex and quickly swung the car into his assigned space. Cutting the engine, he turned to face her. “Just so we’re on the same page, when we get inside the apartment, all of the restraint I’ve exercised today is going by the wayside. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

She took his hand and leaned across the console to press her lips to his. “I’m very sure,” she murmured.

They released their seat belts and he threw his door open, hurrying around the car to open the passenger door for her. She grabbed her bag from the floor before sliding out of the seat, immediately wrapping her free arm around his waist once she was on her feet. He pushed the door closed then snaked his arm across her back to grip her bare shoulder.

They exited the parking garage and made their way down the sidewalk, both of them wishing his apartment was closer than three buildings away. When they finally reached his building, Killian fumbled with his key for a few frustrating seconds before fitting it into the lock. Once inside, he turned toward the stairs, explaining that they would be faster than waiting for the elevator.

By the time they arrived in front of his apartment door, both of them were out of breath. His hands were still shaking a bit as he opened the door and waved Emma inside ahead of him. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, she dropped her bag and turned to him, grabbing him by the front of his T-shirt and pulling him to her. Their lips came together in a manic frenzy, a clash of teeth and tongues; their moans filling the quiet of the apartment.

Killian began walking her backwards through the kitchen and living room, never separating their lips. His hands weren’t still either, as they roamed up inside her tank top, over the enticing skin of her back and her right breast.

Meanwhile, she was already fumbling with the button of his shorts with one hand, the other one anchored in the hair at the nape of his neck. She gasped into his mouth when her elbow made contact with the doorframe of his bedroom.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “You okay?”

“Mmhmm,” she assured him, sucking his bottom lip between her teeth. Sliding her hand down his chest to join her other one, she was finally able to undo the button and slide his zipper down, thrilled to feel the hard ridge of his cock beneath it.

“S-Swan,” he murmured, tugging at the hem of her shirt, “need this off.” She raised her arms quickly to honor his request, then dropped them again to shove his shorts down over his hips. His mouth was busy sucking and licking down her throat, craving the sweetness of her skin, still tinged with the lingering scent of sunscreen.

“God,” she panted.

“Killian will do,” he smirked, before latching onto the swell of her breast just above the lace of her bra. Her head dropped back and she moaned, her hands gliding up his sides under his shirt. He allowed her to remove it, then it was his turn to unfasten her shorts and push them down.

She took another step back and her knees made contact with the bed. As she plopped down on it, she looked up at him through her lashes, watching his eyes drinking in her barely clothed body.

“You are breathtaking,” he whispered.

“So are you, Killian. I…it was so hard keeping my hands off of you today.”

“Well, you don’t have to anymore, ” he said, his eyebrows moving flirtatiously.

“Is that an invitation?” she asked, coyly.

“Definitely. I’m all yours, Love.”

Her brows raised. “Love?” she questioned.

His tongue darted out to wet his lips. “Sorry. It’s an Irish endearment.”

“Don’t be sorry. I…like it.” She scooted over to the middle of the bed and tugged on his hand to encourage him to join her.

Once he was settled beside her, she reached around and unhooked her bra. He held his breath as the fabric loosened and she let the straps fall down her arms, baring herself to him. “Holy hell,” he breathed, his eyes fastened on her perfect breasts. His fingers stretched toward them and he glanced up to ask permission with his eyes. She bit her lip and gave him a slight nod, but before proceeding, he leaned in and brushed a kiss across her lips.

She sighed and then let out a small gasp as his fingertips made contact with her nipples, which were already pebbled with desire. He kept his left hand on her right breast, his thumb strumming against her sensitive peak, as he lowered his mouth to the other. Heat shot through her as he sucked a mark into the soft flesh, and she squirmed when he moved his mouth to leave two more marks in quick succession.

Feeling it was only fair to bring him pleasure too, her fingers tickled their way down his belly and under the waistband of his boxer briefs. When they brushed against his tip, he drew in a ragged breath, his fingers and thumb rolling her nipple between them. She ran her thumb over his slit as he tongued the rosy bud of her left breast and drew it into his mouth.

Her hand continued to find its way down his hard-as-steel length and she closed her eyes, panting for breath. The combination of feeling how big he was and the wicked things he was doing with his fingers and mouth was already putting her on edge. She arched her back, silently begging for more.

Killian was more than happy to oblige. His hand continued to manipulate her breast as his talented mouth began moving down the silky skin of her belly, intent on reaching the prize still hidden by her scrap of underwear.

Unable to keep stroking him as he moved down her body, her hands found their way into his hair, which was the perfect length to grip. He nosed at her panties, finding them soaked through, and sucked the material into his mouth. Her legs fell open as she drew her feet up beside him and she let out a long groan of yearning, “Killiannnnn…”

“Fuck, you taste good,” he growled. Backing away from her slightly, he swiftly removed her final piece of clothing, then dove back in, his tongue licking through her folds.

“Killian, I…I…” Emma panted, yanking on his hair to pull him away.

He looked up at her, taking in her flushed cheeks and wide eyes. “Have you never had anyone do that to you before, Emma?”

She shook her head. “N-no.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“I…I did, but…did you?”

“Mmm, very much. Have you ever tasted yourself?”

Her eyes widened even more and her mouth dropped open. “People really…do that?”

“Would you like to?”

She hesitated several moments before finally giving him a slight nod. “Okay.”

He grinned and dipped his head again, gathering more of her arousal on his tongue, then scooted up her body, kissing her deeply when he reached her mouth. As the tang hit her tongue, she gasped, but didn’t have time to respond because down below, he was sliding his fingers through her slickness. He broke the kiss and brought his glistening fingers up between them. Holding them against her lips, he slowly licked them, his eyes inviting her to do the same. Hesitantly, she slid her tongue up the other side and he smiled at her. “Delicious, yeah?”

“I…it’s…different,” she whispered. He popped his fingers into his mouth and sucked the rest of her essence off of them. “Do you always do that?” she asked.

His eyes grew serious. “I don’t really have that much experience, but one girl I was with a couple of times during my second year of college introduced me to it. I haven’t done it since, but your scent was so damn enticing. If you don’t like it, I won’t…”

“I didn’t say that,” she interrupted. “It’s just new to me. I liked the way it felt to have…to have your mouth on me. And your fingers, too.”

“Shall we explore what else feels good to you?”

“Isn’t it my turn to make you feel good?”

“Trust me, Love. I’m enjoying all of this.”

She pushed herself up. “Yeah, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy this even more.” She made quick work of disposing of his underwear, her heart pounding as she uncovered his impressive shaft. After tossing his briefs on the floor, she positioned herself over him and slowly ran her tongue up the underside of his cock. Hearing the quick intake of his breath, she smiled and did it again, this time followed by her hand wrapping around him.

“Emma, gods,” he sighed, reaching back to grip the pillow behind his head. As she took his head into her hot mouth and slowly slid her hand up and down his length, he gritted his teeth against the sudden influx of sensations invading his body. She continued to stroke and suck him, taking him a little deeper each time, until he felt a small spasm pass through his cock. Quickly, he moved his hands to cup her cheeks, pulling her off of him and tipping her head up so he could look into her eyes. “I need you to stop, Love.”

A flash of disappointment crossed her face. “You don’t like it?”

He chuckled. “Oh, I like it. I like it very much, but if you keep it up, I’m going to lose control.”

She dropped her eyes as her cheeks filled with color. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Love. Come here,” he said, encouraging her to move up beside him. When they were face to face, he wrapped one arm around her, while his other hand brushed strands of hair away from her face. “What you were doing felt amazing, but this is our first time, Sweetheart, and I want to come inside you, not…not that way.”

“Okay. I just don’t want to do something wrong.”

“You can’t do anything wrong as long as it feels good, Emma. Just relax and enjoy it, and I’m going to do the same.”

The pinched look of worry on her face eased as a bright smile crossed it. “I can do that,” she assured him. Wrapping her arm around his neck, she pulled him to her for a kiss, delving into his mouth with her tongue and making him moan with pleasure. As it grew more heated, she shifted her body until it was covering his, her breasts rubbing against the coarse hair on his chest and her center meeting his erection.

Both of them groaned in unison at the contact and he grabbed her hips, urging her to slide up and down him. After a few passes over him, she rose up too far and his cock slipped behind her, rubbing between her cheeks. “Omigod,” she gasped, throwing her head back and planting her hands on his chest.

His eyes fixed on her breasts bouncing in front of his face. His hands moved to them, squeezing them gently and strumming his thumbs across her nipples. “You’re so perfect,” he said in a low, sultry voice.

“Killian, I…I…”

He could hear the desperation in her tone and knew she was close. Moving one hand to grip her hip and hold her steady, he took hold of himself with the other and rubbed the head of his cock against her clit. Almost immediately, she climaxed, falling over the edge with a cry of his name. He could feel her spasming against him and quickly rolled them, reversing their position. While her head thrashed back and forth on the pillow in ecstasy, he reached for the drawer of his bedside table while two fingers of his other hand slipped inside her to feel the throb.

Emma’s eyes were still tightly closed, his actions serving to prolong her orgasm. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Are you ready for me, Love?”

In response, she let her knees fall to the bed and opened her eyes. “Please,” she whimpered, and he gently removed his fingers.

He was glad he always kept a supply of condoms, although he rarely had an opportunity to use them. He used his teeth to help rip open the package and spat it on the floor, then rolled the condom over himself with shaking fingers.

“I’ll go slow so I don’t hurt you.” At her nod, he shifted his body between her legs and, positioning himself at her entrance, pushed forward until just the belled head was inside her. Looking up, he asked, “Are you okay, Emma?”

“Yeah. More,” she gasped.

Slowly, he inched forward, filling her with his rock hard shaft and gritting his teeth to ward off his own orgasm as he slid into her still-throbbing walls. When he was fully seated, he dropped down to his forearms on both sides of her body, resting his forehead against hers. “You feel so…so incredible.”

Her arms draped over his back, scratching at his skin. “So do you, but I need you to move.”

“As you wish,” he grinned before leaving a kiss on her lips, then shifted his pelvis to nearly slide out of her. He felt her hands work their way down his back to squeeze his ass and took the cue to push back inside her.

“Faster,” she breathed.

He dropped back down, gripping her shoulders from underneath. With her encouragement, he experimented with how fast and deep to enter her and soon had a rhythm established that rocketed them toward the ultimate bliss.

“K-Killian…I need…” she panted.

“Tell me…what you need…Swan,” he gritted out.

“On top. Let me…be on top.”

He raised his head to look at her, his sweaty bangs flopping into his eyes. She was biting her lip, her eyes wild with the same craving he felt. Nodding, he regretfully slipped out of her, making her whine. Quickly, he flipped over onto his back beside her and she moved immediately to straddle him, sliding her wet cunt over his cock. When she had her knees anchored beside his hips, she reached between them to position him at her entrance and ground down on him.

Loud groans of pleasure from both of them filled the air. Emma adjusted her position until he was fully engulfed within her, then planted her hands on his chest and began pumping up and down.

“Th-that’s it, Love. Ride me…hard,” he urged. He couldn’t resist the temptation to palm her perfect breasts as her chest heaved with the ragged breaths she was taking. Her control was slipping with every thrust down on his cock and he could tell she was getting close. Moving his hand down, he located her clit and gave it a light pinch.

His action had the desired effect. She shattered, her spine straightening and her head falling back as she shouted his name. Her hands left his chest to grasp her own breasts, her whole body shaking with the power of her orgasm.

It was one of the most beautiful sights Killian had ever seen. He gripped her hips firmly and thrust up into her with short, powerful strokes; once, twice, three times, then he joined her in ecstasy. His head snapped up off the pillow as her name fell out of his mouth and their bodies convulsed together.

When the intensity of their climaxes subsided a bit, Emma collapsed on top of him. Once their hammering hearts started to slow and their breathing became less erratic, he muttered, “That was…”

“The most exciting ride I’ve been on this whole vacation,” she finished, grinning against the skin of his neck.

His laugh rumbled against her cheek. “I’m very happy to hear that, Swan.”

They lay together for several more minutes, pressed against the bare skin that had been teasing them all day. Finally, Killian sighed regretfully. “I guess we should clean up, yeah?”

She folded her arms across his chest and looked into his face. “You don’t want to do that?”

“I’m rather comfortable right where I am,” he answered, wiggling his hips to emphasize the fact that his flaccid length was still inside her.

“Mmm, I agree, but getting cleaned up could be fun, too,” she smirked.

He crooked an eyebrow at her. “Why, Swan, are you suggesting we have shower sex?”

Her face became a mask of exaggerated innocence. “Shower sex? I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

Killian rolled them over, slipping out of her as he did and began nibbling up her neck, making her giggle. “I don’t think you’re quite that innocent, you minx,” he said hotly into her ear.

She shivered from the feel of his hot breath, then giggled. “Well, maybe you’ve had enough water today, so if you’re not interested…”

“I never said I wasn’t interested,” he said, pushing himself off the bed. He removed the condom and disposed of it, grabbed another one out of the drawer, then scooped her up into his arms.

“Killian!” she cried, kicking her legs as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Put me down!”

He made his way quickly into the bathroom and set her on her feet. After pulling back the flimsy shower curtain and turning on the faucet, he turned back to her, taking in her nude form. She was looking in the mirror as she removed the elastic ponytail holder from her hair, allowing it to fall down her back. It was a little stiff from the chlorinated water and sunshine they’d been in all day, but that didn’t take away from its beauty.

Stepping closer, he combed his fingers through the golden strands. “You are so beautiful in every way, Emma,” he crooned.

He could see the blush across her chest, spreading up her throat when she faced him. Draping her arms over his shoulders, she said, “You are a very handsome charmer…but I don’t mind that at all.”

“I only speak the truth.” His mouth stretched into the soft smile that made her heart melt and she leaned in to kiss him.

As soon as their lips separated, she whispered, “I thought we were gonna get cleaned up.”

He nuzzled behind her ear. “Wouldn’t you like to get a little dirtier first?”

She could feel his cock beginning to harden again and it made a hot rush of desire shoot straight to her core. Her hands scratched lightly down his back to his taut backside, giving it a squeeze, before reaching around his hip to stroke him.

“Emma,” he sighed, pressing his forehead to hers.

“Hmmm?” she asked, closing her eyes as she felt him grow harder.

“Let’s…let’s get in the shower, Love.”

Giving him one more stroke, she moved back and allowed him to step into the bathtub, following him in after he pulled the lever to turn on the shower. He pulled the curtain and she turned her back to the spray, tilting her head back and letting the water run through her hair.

Killian’s eyes and hands moved down her body, tracing over her curves and trying to memorize all the places that made her gasp. He could hardly believe this gorgeous woman was here, first in his bed and now in his shower. Three days ago, he didn’t even know her; now, he couldn’t get enough of her.

His tongue followed rivulets of water from her collarbone down to her nipple, taking it into his mouth. He felt her hands move to the back of his head to hold him there and heard her murmurs of pleasure, which spurred him to suck another mark just above her areola to join the others he’d made earlier. It excited him knowing that even though they would be separated tomorrow, she would be marked by him for several days to come.

“D-do you have shampoo?” she asked in a breathy voice.

“Mmhmm, though I’m sure it doesn’t smell as good as what you use,” he mumbled against her throat. He turned to grab a bottle sitting on a small shelf behind him, but when she reached for it, he pulled it back. “Allow me.”

She kissed him lightly, then turned her back to him. After squirting some shampoo into his hand, he put the bottle away and rubbed his hands together. Starting at the crown of her head, he massaged it into her scalp and worked the soap down the length of her blond tresses.

Emma washed her hair nearly every day and never thought it could be erotic or arousing, but Killian’s actions were changing her mind. His fingers in her hair and against her skin were causing the spark of desire in her belly to become a full-fledged flame. When he added light kisses to her shoulders, her knees became weak.

Killian could tell the effect his actions were having on her from the sounds she was making and the way her fingers plucked at her nipples, bringing them to hard peaks. “All clean,” he said in a gravelly voice, encouraging her to turn and rinse out the shampoo, while he squirted more on his hands to quickly wash his own hair.

He took advantage of her head being tilted back with her eyes closed and skimmed his hands down her body again, pausing to caress her enticing breasts. “So bloody gorgeous,” he praised, moving on to the curve of her waist, his thumbs brushing across her flat belly which had been maddingly hidden beneath her swimsuit all day.

When his long fingers reached the apex of her thighs, he felt her quiver with anticipation. “Would you like my fingers inside you, Love?” He looked up to see her biting her lip and nodding, her breath coming in short pants. Nudging her legs apart, he slid two fingers through her folds and traced her entrance with one finger on each side.

“Killian, don’t t-tease,” she begged, her nails digging into his shoulders to try to anchor herself. She was already on edge and was afraid her legs weren’t going to hold her upright much longer.

He could sense her shakiness and wrapped one arm around her back. “I’ve got you,” he reassured her, shifting their bodies until she was pressed up against the wall of the shower. Lifting her left leg, he placed it on the side of the bathtub, then ran his hand up her leg to plunge his fingers inside her.

Emma was very glad the wall was at her back because the moment he entered her, she lost all feeling in her legs. Every nerve in her body seemed to end at her center, where his fingers were now thrusting in and out of her, his thumb rubbing at her clit. The tension was building quickly and she could feel it coiling, ready to snap at any second.

“That’s it, Love, take your pleasure,” he encouraged, as every one of his senses kicked into high gear. He watched his fingers sliding in and out of her channel, becoming more and more slick with her arousal, and he could smell the heady scent of it. The mewls and groans she was making were music to his ears, and the feel of her tight, wet walls around his digits had his cock growing harder. Kneeling before her, his tongue found her bundle of nerves, circling it lightly before sucking it between his lips.

She shattered with a scream and he instantly withdrew his fingers, lapping at the juices that dripped out of her. He became aware of her hands being tightly tangled in his hair, yanking at it painfully as the waves of her orgasm passed over her.

When her grip finally loosened, he stood up to look at her. Her face was flushed, her eyes hooded and her mouth open, emitting short, panting breaths. She looked wrecked and absolutely glorious.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded jerkily. “Uh-huh,” she managed to utter.

He observed her for a few more seconds, then reached up to get a bottle of bodywash off of the shelf. Flipping the lid open, he started to tip it over when Emma took it out of his hands.

At his eyebrow raise, she explained, “It’s my turn.” Giving him a sly grin, she poured a generous amount into her palm and returned the bottle to the shelf. Very deliberately, she rubbed her hands together while maintaining eye contact with him.

He swallowed at the intensity of her gaze, then felt her beginning to apply the body wash to his skin, massaging it into his chest hair.

“I wanted to touch you like this when I put sunscreen on you this morning,” she said. “I wanted to know if this hair was as soft as it looked and I wanted to feel your muscles shifting under my hands. I was getting aroused just thinking about it.” She smirked at the way his pupils were dilating while she talked to him in a sultry tone. “I could tell how much my applying the lotion affected you.”

“Y-you could?” he stammered, his voice higher pitched than normal.

“Mmhmm.” Her right hand slid down his belly to wrap around his length, the soap allowing her to glide along it freely. “You were hard inside your swim trunks, weren’t you?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed again, before nodding slowly. “Aye,” he squeaked.

“Were you wishing I could do what I’m doing now, right there in the middle of the waterpark?”

“Gods, Emma,” he croaked. “You…you’re gonna make me come…talking to me like that and…”

“What’s wrong with that?” she asked when he didn’t continue. “We’re already in the shower. It’ll be easy to clean up.”

Her stroking increased in pace as her left hand reached underneath to fondle his balls. The back of his head hit the tiles, his eyes snapped shut, and a groan tore from his throat. Taking advantage of not having his eyes on her, Emma knelt and leaned forward to wrap her lips around his cock.

She heard his head hit the wall again and worried for a second that he might end up hurting himself. Her mouth and hands continued to move, lavishing attention on his manhood, while the sounds he was making reverberated around the small room.

“S-Swannnn…I’m so…close,” he groaned.

She could tell he was trying not to thrust into her mouth and didn’t want to give him a reason to hold back, so she pulled her lips away and tightened her hand around him. Her strokes got faster as she pushed to her feet and commanded, “Come for me, Killian! Come all over my hand.”

The cords in his neck stood out as he gritted his teeth, his hands reaching to anchor himself by gripping her hips. Her hands continued to move up and down his shaft, his skin shifting with each stroke. He could feel the tingle of his impending orgasm at the base of his spine, all he needed was a small push, which he got when she pressed her lips to his nipple and sucked hard.

He convulsed, ropes of his seed spurting out in several short bursts against her belly. His hips continued thrusting until he was spent. When he opened his bleary eyes, it was to see her looking at him with a satisfied look on her face. Glancing down, he saw that her hand and stomach were coated with his cum.

“Emma, I…I’m s-...”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry, Killian Jones,” she admonished him. “That was exactly what I wanted to happen. Turnabout is fair play, as the saying goes. Besides, I thought you liked my magic fingers,” she giggled.

He couldn’t help but smile in return. “Aye, that I do.”

They spent the next several minutes cleaning each other up, enjoying the freedom of sliding their hands over every inch of skin they could reach. When they finally stepped out of the tub, sated and happy, Killian got two thick towels out of the cupboard and handed one to Emma.

They dried off quickly and Killian left the room to find Emma’s bag where she had carelessly tossed it when they entered the apartment.

“Thank you,” she smiled when he returned. “You’re always so thoughtful.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just gonna get some pajamas out of my room.”

As he stepped out the door again, she called out, “Killian?”

“Yes, Love?”

“Could I…borrow one of your T-shirts to sleep in again tonight?” she asked almost shyly.

“Of course. The Eagles again?”

“Sure, or you can surprise me.”

He grinned and left the room, returning a few minutes later, a white shirt with black ¾ sleeves clutched in his hand. His eyes raked down her figure, seeing that she had donned a pair of fuschia panties, but remained bare otherwise, and was running a brush through her hair.

“See something you like?” she questioned, catching his reflection in the mirror.

“Oh, yes, ma’am,” he drawled, stepping up behind her and placing a sweet kiss on her shoulder. “Everything I see is something I like…very much.”

She turned to face him, cupping his scruffy cheeks with her hands and drawing him in for a kiss. When it ended, he handed her the shirt and she held it up. “Aerosmith tonight, huh?”

“Only the best bands are allowed to cover these lovely breasts,” he grinned, bending to press a kiss to the top of one of them. Straightening up, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

“Mmm, yeah. How about you?”

“Aye, We seemed to have worked off a lot of calories in the past couple of hours. What would you like?”

She tugged the shirt over her head as she pondered the question. “I’m not sure. What do you have?”

He scratched behind his ear. “Unfortunately, not very much. With our work schedules, we tend to eat at Universal or have food delivered most of the time. I can order a pizza or something.”

“Pizza sounds good. What do you usually get?”

“You’re probably not going to like my favorite.”

“Try me.”

“Ham, mushrooms and…” he paused, wanting to gauge her reaction, “pineapple.”

“You like pineapple on your pizza, too?” she asked incredulously. “None of my friends do and they think I’m crazy whenever I want to order it!”

“I’ve only found a couple of people who like it, besides me,” he said, a broad smile crossing his face. “I guess this means we are meant to be together!”

Emma knew he was only joking, but she couldn’t help thinking it was yet another thing the two of them had in common. It was like the universe was trying to tell them something. Looking up at him through her lashes, she said, “Yeah, maybe it does.”

His raised eyebrows told her he noticed the serious tone she used when she answered. “Swan, are you…”

“Let’s order the pizza, then we can talk.”

Nodding, he grabbed his phone off the counter and placed the order. “It’ll be about thirty minutes. Would you like something to drink?”

“Just a coke, hold the rum,” she replied with a grin.

After he got their drinks ready, they went into the living room and sat on the couch. Each of them took a sip, then set their cups on the floor. Killian put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder. He waited patiently for her to gather her thoughts, running his fingers through the ends of her hair.

“I’ve never believed in fate,” she finally began, her eyes fixed on the floor in front of them, “But, I can’t really explain what has been happening the last three days. What made you decide to find out my name and number and send me a text asking me out? Why did I agree to it? That’s out of character for both of us. You and I had similar childhoods - shuffled around because our parents were gone. Then we find out we have mutual friends and that both of us will be living in Boston. Everything seems like more than just coincidence, doesn’t it?”

“Aye, it does,” Killian agreed. “I’ve never felt a connection to anyone else like I do to you, Emma.”

“I know what you mean. It usually takes a while for me to get to know people well enough to let them in, but with you, it’s been completely different. It’s so easy to talk to you and…to be with you and…and I’ve never had sex with somebody after knowing them for only a couple of days, but I have no regrets.”

“Me neither. As you said before, it just feels right.”

“Exactly. So I guess what I’m saying is…” she paused for a long moment, “I think we are meant to be together, Killian. I’ve only known you for three days, but now I can’t imagine my life without you..”

He turned to face her and took both of her hands in his. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that, Love. I…I’ve been imagining what it would be like to have a future with you, and I’m certain it would be a happy one.”

Her fingers feathered through the hair at his temple. “Notice I’m not running for the door at the mention of a future together.”

He chuckled. “Running is a normal reaction for you, I take it?”

“Yeah. Sometimes it’s accompanied with screams,” she grinned.

“In that case, I consider myself very lucky,” he laughed. Dipping his head, he captured her lips in a long, languid kiss, which began morphing into something more heated. His hands roamed up her ribcage to tease her bare breasts and she moved to straddle his lap.

A knock on the door caused them to break the kiss, resting their foreheads together for a few seconds to calm themselves. “I think the pizza is here,” she whispered.

“The delivery person just lost their tip, interrupting us like that,” he groused.

Emma giggled. “They had no way of knowing you were rounding second base and heading for third.”

He sighed dramatically. “Fine. They get a tip, but just so you know, I’m hoping to hit one out of the park after we eat.”

She pecked his lips once more. “I have confidence you’ll hit a homerun, Babe,” she said with a seductive wink.

*********

Once their hunger for food was satisfied, they appeased their hunger for each other again, this time on a blanket Killian hurriedly threw down on the living room floor. The innuendos and teasing touches while they were eating fanned the fire of passion and they didn’t even try to make it to the bedroom. Emma couldn’t help but wonder what Ruby would have to say when she found out how many places in the apartment they did christen that night.

When Killian entered her, it was all Emma could do not to blurt out the words that were teasing the edges of her brain. She had only ever told one man she loved him and he had broken her heart, so it was a bit shocking to her that she was already considering saying it to Killian. But, if she did, she knew it wouldn’t be a lie. He already owned her heart.

The look in her eyes and the way she was biting her lip made Killian wonder what she was holding back as he moved within her. He wasn’t going to push her, but he was eager to know if what she wasn’t telling him was the same thing he wasn’t letting slip either. If she had a tendency to run, telling her he was in love with her probably wasn’t the best idea at this point in their relationship, regardless of her saying she wasn’t afraid of a future with him.

After they cleaned up and brushed their teeth, they cuddled in his bed, clinging tightly to each other. They didn’t voice the fact that this would be their only night together for at least a month, but both of them were fully aware of it.

Emma buried her face in the crook of his neck, her fingers stroking through the hair on his chest, while his combed through her thick blonde tresses. Although their heads were full of words they weren’t quite sure how to say, they lay quietly, soaking up the warmth and security of being in each other’s arms.

Her fingers had stilled for a length of time and he thought she might have drifted off to sleep, when her words pressed into his skin. “Killian, are you awake?”

“Aye. What’s on your mind, Love?”

She pushed up to her elbow to look into his azure eyes, where she saw what she was feeling reflected back at her. “I…I…”

Tilting his head, he quirked a brow at her encouragingly. When she didn’t continue, seemingly unable to express what was on her mind, he tenderly cupped her face between his hands and brushed a kiss to her lips. “You can tell me anything, Sweetheart.”

His gentleness and reassuring words tipped the scales and she took a deep breath, surprised to find her nerves had fled. “I think I love you.”

He blinked as a slow smile curled the corners of his mouth. “You do?” he whispered, his voice full of cautious joy.

Her head dipped in an affirmative nod. “Yeah.”

“Well, that works out quite nicely, then.”

A puzzled look crossed her face. “What do you mean?”

“Emma, I never realized it was possible to fall so hard and so fast, but now I know it is, because I’ve fallen utterly and completely in love with you.”

Her smile reassured him that she wasn’t intending to run anywhere. After kissing him soundly, she carded her fingers through his hair and asked, “Do you think we’re completely insane?”

“Not completely,” he chuckled, “but I will admit being crazy…”

“If you say you’re crazy for me, the deal is off,” she warned teasingly.

“Too cliché?”

“Yeah. Definitely.”

“It’s true, though,” he stated, as she settled her head back down on his shoulder, her arm wrapping around his waist as his tugged her against his side. He pressed several kisses to the crown of her head and she hummed happily.

They didn’t speak again for several minutes, each of them drinking in the euphoria of being in the arms of the person they had come to love in such a short amount of time.

Emma giggled when Killian yawned widely, his chest inflating under her cheek. “Tired, Babe?”

He yawned again, before answering, “Aye. Some lovely lass wore me out with mind-blowing sex tonight.”

“Are you complaining?” she laughed.

“Well, I will if I’m not able to get my full eight hours of beauty sleep because of it,” he teased.

She slapped his chest playfully. “I think you can afford to miss some beauty sleep, mister. You’re already handsome enough.”

“I’ve got a long way to go to catch up with my gorgeous girlfriend.”

Leaning back, she looked at him with a sense of awe on her face. “When we planned this vacation, I knew I’d be going back home with souvenirs, lots of memories, and possibly a sunburn, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be going back as somebody’s girlfriend.”

“How do you feel about that?” he inquired, his knuckles stroking lightly against her cheek.

“It…it’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said thoughtfully. “I know I seemed suspicious of you at first…”

“Which was quite understandable.”

She nodded. “But I’m so glad Ruby pushed me into accepting your invitation.”

“Oh, I have Ruby to thank, do I? You never told me that.”

“You more than paid her back by introducing her to Graham. She’s dated lots of guys since I’ve known her, but I’ve never seen her head-over-heels for anyone the way she is for him.”

“He’s pretty enamored with her, too.”

��Yeah. It’s gonna be fun when we’re all together in Boston.”

“I can hardly wait. The next month is going to be very long.”

“At least we can call, text and Facetime until then.”

“Mmhmm, but I’m going to enjoy every second of being able to hold you in my arms right now,” he said, tightening his arms around her and kissing her temple.

She sighed in contentment. “I like that plan.” When he yawned again, she looked up at him. “I think it’s time to get some sleep. Goodnight, Killian.”

They shared a soft, lingering kiss, then she turned onto her left side, pressing her back to his chest.

“Goodnight, Emma. I love you,” he breathed into her hair.

“I love you, too,” she whispered. Interlacing their fingers, she pulled their hands up between her breasts, before they both fell asleep with smiles on their faces.

*********

If you reached this point, thank you so much for reading!

Tagging: @xsajx​​ @hookedmom​​ @kymbersmith-90​​ @kmomof4​​ @lassluna​​ @pirateherokillian​​ @teamhook​​ @stahlop​​ @elizabeethan​​ @whimsicallyenchantedrose​​ @resident-of-storybrooke​​ @therooksshiningknight​​ @jennjenn615​​ @lfh1226-linda​​ @ilovemesomekillianjones​​ @killianswannn​​ @stories-enchanted​ @eleveneitherway​​ @withheartfulloflove​​ @kday426​​ @lyssapup27​​ @swanlovato @djlbg​​ @kristi555​​ @laschatzi​​ @xarandomdreamx​​ @lkles08​​ @wyntereyez​​ @bubblegum1425​​ @xhookswenchx​​ @yasbio2015​​ @tiganasummertree​​ @winterbaby89​​ @wefoundloveunderthelight​​ @hollyethecurious​​ @let-it-raines​​ @jonesfandomfanatic​​ @searchingwardrobes​​ @dreamingdreamsalways​​ @oncechicagolove​​ @andiirivera​​  @gingerchangeling​​ @everything-person​​ @klynn-stormz​​ @qualitycoffeethings​​ @vampcoffeegyrl23​​ @enchanted-swans​​ @ohmakemeahercules​​ @donteattheappleshook​​ @bluewildcatfanatic​​ @the-darkdragonfly​​ @demisexualemmaswan​​ @lavenderbudd​​ @grimmswan​​ @spartanguard​​ @flslp87​​ @ultraluckycatnd​​ @thisonesatellite​​ @captainswan21​​ @zaharadessert​​ @mariakov81​​ @snowbellewells​​ @xouatxcs​​ @kiwistreetswan​​ @batana54​​ @nadine200179​​ @probalicious17​​ @courtorderedcake​​ @julesep3026​​ @jackieorioncat​​ @whatthehell102082​​ @jarienn972​​ @sthonour​​ @linda8084​​  @pirateprincesslena​​ @daxx04​​ @winterbythesea​​ @artistic-writer​​ @cocohook38​​ @captainswan4life85​​ @molly958​​ @kingofmyheart14​​ @badwolfreturns​​ @itsfridaysomewhere​​@fallingforthecaptain​​  @onceratheart18​​ @strangestarlighttree​​ @omgmarvelousmorgan​​ @justanother-unluckysoul​​ @mrs-potato-but-likes-tomato​​ @anothersworld​​ @deckerstarblanche​​ @purplehawkcaptain​​  @superchocovian​​ @k-leemac​​ @citygirlscowboy​​ @laughterandbooks​​ @sotangledupinit​​ @apiratewhopines​​ @huntressandlioness1​​ @cosette141​​  @gingerpolyglot​​ @motherkatereloyshipper​​ @cs-rylie​

#csff #one thrill ride leads to another #jrob64 #cs fanfic #captain swan fan fiction #cs fluff and smut #modern cs au #amusement park workers #emma and ruby on vacation #a birthday story for Marta #cs fanfiction

[angelkin-food-cake]

Grapefruit French Macarons

8 oz. granulated sugar

6 oz. (liquid) egg whites at room temperature, separated (see note)

8 oz. finely ground blanched almonds or almond meal

8 oz. confectioner’s sugar (sifted if clumpy)

1 heaping Tbsp. grapefruit zest, from 2 large grapefruit

2 very small drops red food coloring (optional)

2 very small drops yellow food coloring (optional)

1-2 Tbsp. finely ground, unsalted pistachios for decorating (optional)

Grapefruit Buttercream:

3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1½ cups confectioner’s sugar

2 tsp. grapefruit zest

5 Tbsp. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

½ tsp. vanilla extract

It’s best if you have everything measured and ready to go before starting and have 3 half-sheet baking sheets covered in parchment. Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan. Combine granulated sugar and 3 oz. of egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and place over boiling water. Whisking constantly, cook egg whites until hot, sugar is completely dissolved, and mixture is frothy. Remove from heat and place on stand mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk for approximately 5 minutes, on high speed, until mixture has cooled and medium-soft peaks have formed (you want them to be more firm that soft peaks, but not extremely stiff as this will result in a cracked/dry cookie).

While meringue is mixing, combine granulated sugar, ground almonds, and grapefruit zest in a large mixing bowl.  Mix with your hands until well combined and any clumps of zest have been evenly distributed.  Add remaining 3 oz. egg whites and food coloring (if using) and mix with hands or a spatula until well combined.  Once meringue is finished, add in three additions to almond mixture until combined, but not mixed too much as you do not want to deflate meringue completely.  It typically takes me 2-3 minutes to mix properly.  Mixture should be sticky and loose, but not extremely liquid.

Fill pastry bag with some of the macaron batter. Piping completely vertically (i.e. bottom of pastry tip should be perpendicular to pan), pipe batter into 1/2-inch rounds (once they spread they will be close to an inch in diameter) leaving about an inch between each cookie (I was able to fit about 20 cookies on each tray).  The cookies should spread and be perfectly smooth on top, if you are left will a little peak, dip your finger in some water and gently tap down peaks. Sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of ground pistachio, if using. Allow cookies to rest for about 45 minutes, until they feel tacky and a little dry when touched and they have a slightly matted appearance. While cookies are resting, heat oven to 350°F and place an oven rack in the center of the oven.

Working with one tray at a time, bake cookies for 10 minutes. Don’t be tempted to open the oven to take a peak, this will drop the temperature and could deflate the cookie.  Repeat with the remaining cookie sheets.  Allow baked macrons to cool for one hour.

Buttercream:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium high speed for about 1 minute. Stop mixer and add confectioner’s sugar. Mix on high speed until mixture is light and fluffy and sugar has dissolved completely. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, and vanilla extract. Beat for another minute. Taste buttercream, if you would like more grapefruit flavor add more zest and/or juice to your taste.

Assemble:

Flip half of the macarons onto their backs and pipe a small dot of buttercream on the center of the cookie (about 1/2-1 tablespoon).  Find a good match (in terms of size) for each cookie and gently sandwich the two cookies together with buttercream in the center.

#angelkin #food #dessert #cookie #gluten free #vegetarian #egg #nuts #almond #fruit #grapefruit #pistachio #butter #powdered sugar #vanilla #cloudkin #dogkin #dollkin #dragonkin #faekin #kitsunekin #merkin #phoenixkin #succubuskin #tricksterkin #spring

[fighting-name-huang]

Cookieposting below the cut

I'm making sugar cookies for Kill, Grill, Chill tomorrow and each time I make this recipe, I swear to myself that I'm not going to bother with thw fuss and fanfare of rollingout and cookie cuttering the dough. And Every Single Time, I get tempted into making that mistake because the cuttered cookies look so much better than just smashing balls of dough under a measuring cup protected by a square of parchment paper.

Recipe is as follows:

10.5 oz all purpose flour

5oz sugar

2 sticks butter (soft but not melted)

2tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt if your butter is unsalted

Throw everything into a stand mixer and stir on the lowest setting until a dough forms. If it doesn't, microwave a damp washcloth and wrap it around the bowl to melt the butter. If it still doesn't, add water one teaspoonful at a time.

Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper. It will be very, very sticky. Do Not (please don't) roll it out unprotected on your counter, it will stick to the counter and the rolling pin. It should be about 1/4 inch thick. Stamp out cookies with whatever cutter you desire.

Cold is your friend. Keep any dough you are not actively working on in the fridge. If you have trouble getting the scraps out from between the cookies, stick the sheet in the freezer for a few minutes and try using a toothpick or spatula. Be gentle with the thin dough sheet or it will break.

To avoid all this grief, take flat tablespoons of dough and place them on a sheet of parchment paper. Put a small (about 4x4in?) square of parchment paper on top and flatten with your hand or the bottom of a 1-cup measure. Gently peel the parchment off and repeat.

If you want to make a bar cookie, pierce the top with a fork several times so air pockets don't form and bake for a longer time. This is unnecesary for smaller cookies.

Bake for 6 to 12 minutes (depending on thickness and size) at 375F, or until the edges are slightly brown. Let the cookies cool before moving them or you will end up with burnt fingers and broken cookies (they are very delicate when soft). Freezer is your friend.

Do not put unbaked cookies onto a hot baking tray, or the bottoms will burn. Because of all the fat from the butter, the dough is extremely forgiving and can be rolled out until there is none left.

For icing, combine one spoonful of water or lemon juice with powdered sugar. A little water goes a long way. Thicker icing will be easier to work with, dry faster, and not make the cookies as soggy. Add sprinkles if you want.

Alternately, make very thin cookies and, after they cool, spread a layer of your favorite jam on onr and top with a second for sandwich cookies.

Both icing and adding a spread will make the cookies slightly soggy but still enjoyable. This recipe makes about 36 to 48 individual cookies depending on size and thickness and can be easily multiplied for a larger batch.

I'll add another picture when they're decorated.

#huang speaks #feasting and fracas #food #cookies

[creative9blogs]

Some Important Cake Baking Tools You Need To Prepare Your Cake

Love to bake cookies and cakes? Or simply want to give baking a shot for the first time? Regardless of your response, you will have a great time! You need to have the proper cake-making materials and equipment whether you are an expert chef or a newbie searching for inspiration to begin your baking adventure. After all, you don't want to spend hours whisking only to have a flat cake! From chocolate molds to silicone spatula, there is a tonne of different instruments you can need for baking. For a hassle-free baking experience, we have selected the top must-have baking utensils!

Cake pans

Cake pans come in a variety of forms and sizes. Round, square, and rectangular cake pans are the most adaptable types. The most popular size to begin your baking experience with is an 8- or 6-inch round cake pan. You may use these to make little cakes for loved ones.

Hand mixer or a whisk

You need a whisk to prepare the cake batter. The air is added to the batter with the aid of a whisk. Moreover, it makes it simple to combine all the elements. Additionally, you may purchase a hand mixer. Your arms won't fall off thanks to it! You've all probably heard of kitchen aids; while they're great, It makes sense to spend so much money on one when starting as a baker. This is the nicest gift you can give yourself if you intend to bake frequently or have already begun.

Measuring Cups or Weighing Scale

One of the most crucial cake-baking tools is a set of measuring cups and spoons. After all, baking relies heavily on accurate measuring. A whole set, comprising both dry and wet measuring cups, is required. Obtain a spoon set that includes a tablespoon, teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, and 1/4 teaspoon. You will frequently use these fundamental baking supplies.

Rubber Spatula

An excellent tool is a rubber spatula. Moving the entire batch of cake batter from the mixing bowl to the baking pan without wasting any help. Using a spoon to scrape the bowl doesn't seem to work anymore. The only drawback is that there isn't much in the dish to lick off.

Wire Rack

The proper cooling of baked items at room temperature without sogginess is made possible by this useful instrument. Additionally, you save the inconvenience of having to flip the cake over. It is a necessary ingredient for both amateur and expert bakers.

Summary: From chocolate molds to silicone spatula, there is a tonne of different instruments you can need for baking. Which baking supplies should I buy? Start with our list of necessary ingredients for baking. For a hassle-free baking experience, we have selected the top 10 must-have baking utensils!

#Cake material shop #baking tools #cake molds #silicone cake molds #cake baking trays #cake decorating items #chocolate molds #cake baking tools and equipment

[vesterbrantley]

Cooking - Baking Tilapia

To make a vibrant cupcake topping, you simply require to add food coloring to the batter or frosting mix. A cupcake will be more appealing if you include designs with the frosting such as flower or butterfly. To create the style, you can use decorating bag or tube. Decorating tubes and bags are readily available in different sizes today and you can pick one that fits your need. You can utilize a small spatula to apply the frosting on the cupcake if you do not have decorating bags or tubes. OTheir sense of smell is made use of. The smell of milk, cinnamon, sugar, lemon and cocoa are all so various and they can benefit from all of these by utilizing basic kids recipes. baking supplies is veryimportant that you are able tomix the accurateamount of active ingredients so that the learn to bake result will suffice. Measuring cups are essential for you to blend the active ingredientsaccurately. You need to put the correct amount of componentsusing the cups.Due to the fact that these are extremely essential, try to get them in stores. Cups are extremely important for you to be able to measure the components that you will use accurately. You need to keep in mind that these cups have calibration that will assist you understand just how much you are going to gather each time. Can openers are also crucial so that you will be able to open active ingredients that are inside the cans. Since you hate the mess, time and hassle it takes to make the perfect loaf, if you discover that you've been baking less. The time has come for you to make bread baking cakes an enjoyment when again! Using baking soda is likewise really simple to do. What you need to do first is get some baking soda from your kitchen area. Place this inside a container with holes in it, such as an empty baby powder container. Next, bring it to the portion of the carpet where the bad smell is originating from. Pour the baking soda on the area using the talc container until you have a layer of it on the afflicted area. Leave the baking soda overnight to enable it to take in the dirt and the germs and bacteria which are causing the nasty smell. The following early morning, get a strong vacuum cleaner and eliminate the baking soda from the carpet. Alleviate heart burn. Baking soda is an effectiveway to eliminate heart burn and indigestion. The commonissue baking tools for heart burn is acid. Baking soda is the reverse of acid, it is an antacid, which makes it reliable in minimizing heart burn. Stir 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda into 1/2 cup of water and beverage for a efficient and safe antacid. You know how it is a must to keep things sleek and tidy, finger and toe nails included. So, need I say more relating to the credentials of manicure sets as one of the coolest tools to give a lady (or even a male who wants to be well-groomed)?

#baking #baking at home #home baking #home baker #desserts #stand up mixers #stand mixers #hand mixers #bakin

[mediterrane-ish]

CHIMICHURRI STEAK

I’ve been wanting to try to make a chimichurri sauce for a while, and recently I decided to just go for it, even though I didn’t quite have all the ingredients.  I improvised and made some substitutes, so while I probably can’t really call this chimichurri, I really enjoyed how it came out.  Plus, it was super easy and quick to make!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

3/4 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 (ish) cup green onions

2 – 3 cloves of garlic, depending on size

3 T olive oil

2 T lime juice

1 t dried parsley flakes

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Salt & pepper

What I thought was so great about this was that I finally had a recipe to use the cilantro stems I’d normally end up throwing away.  I bought a bunch of cilantro and pinched off all the leaves, and then separated them into 4 little sandwich bags for future use.  I kept one out to make this, and froze the other 3.  I also went through and chopped up the stems that weren’t wilted and added that to the leaves.  Then, I chopped up the greenest part of a bunch of green onions, which was probably about 2/3 of the way down.  I didn’t really measure any of this; it just sort of came together as I went.  I had some smaller cloves of garlic, so I roughly chopped up 3 of those.  All of the ingredients just get thrown into a food processor, so not a lot of chopping is needed, but I like to make sure I won’t end up with any big chunks that might get stuck.  I shook in about a teaspoon of dried parsley flakes and drizzled in enough olive oil to where I could tell it wouldn’t be too oily or too dry.  I had some jalapeño olive oil, so I used that to add a little extra flavor and spice.  I also threw in some red pepper flakes, which ended up making it a little too spicy for me.  Next time, I’ll either do just the jalapeño oil or just the pepper flakes.  I added about a teaspoon and a half of lime juice, which I really just measured by pouring about half the amount of olive oil.  I added a shake or two of salt and pepper, and I was ready to go!  I pulsed it for about 15 seconds, scraped it all in with a spatula, and went for about another 15 seconds.  This was a relatively small batch, so I had enough to eat with some steak and a little left that I ended up making a vinaigrette out of later.  I made a second batch a week or so later that also went great with tacos!

#recipes

[feignio]

Banana cake

Banana cake based on this recipe here

My loaf pan measurements is 8x4x2.5 inches 21cm x 11cm x 2.5 inches length - width x height

Ingredients

2-3 medium sized bananas (the riper the better)

1 egg

1/3 cups (76g) butter or oil

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup sugar (150g sugar) Can replace with honey

1/2 cup for less sweet

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup all purpose flour

30g milk

Extra toppings of chocolate, nuts, walnuts

Instructions

Heat up oven to 175 Celsius

Butter the loaf pan

Prepare flour measured into a bowl and put aside for mixing last

Prepare any nuts that will be mixed later into the batter and set it aside.

Cut banana into small sections and put into a large bowl for mashing with the hand mixer until it becomes puree.

Measure butter or oil and put into the banana puree. Mix thoroughly to be blended well

Add into the banana mixture 1/2 cup sugar, 1 beaten egg, 30g milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Then mix thoroughly with hand mixer and ensure the sugar has blended in.

Sieve the flour in sections into the banana bowl. Gently fold the flour into the mixture with a spatula.

If you want to add chocolate or nuts in the batter mix it gently in.

Pour final mixture into the loaf pan. Use spatula to even the surface of the mixture. Ensure there aren't any dried flour pockets.

If you want to add nuts to the top of the banana cake, you can do that now, once the batter is smoothed out in the loaf pan as the last step.

Put loaf pan into oven and bake for 45 minutes.

How to check if ready Use a toothpick and set it into the front, middle and back of the loaf. If nothing sticks to the toothpick then the banana cake is ready.

-----------------------------------------

In the recipe I made for the banana cake in the photos I used 1 beaten egg 100g sugar 76g oil It took 45 minutes to bake

Next time to try -3 bananas full 1/2 cup sugar Still keep 1 beaten egg Mix sugar thoroughly Don't overmix flour and wet ingredients

#banana cake #recipe #baking

[weaselle]

cooking for people who have no idea what they are doing (or are just, like, real depressed)

Okay, I’m a professional cook, but also, I get depressed. This is the cooking I do when I’m depressed, because I need the simplest path to a whole meal.

This is not for vegetarians, because, while I wholeheartedly support people choosing vegetarianism, and also enjoy cooking for vegetarians, for me, the simplest path to a meal includes meat. Perhaps when I am less depressed I will work on options.

A lot of recipes focus on achieving food that is in some way special, using special techniques, or using a precise list of carefully measured high-end ingredients... and that’s not this, this is all the parts of cooking that are not those things.

First, shopping

Meats Starches Veggies Sauces Breakfast/Snack

For a whole week you’re going to want

3 kinds of meat, with five portions each. So, for example, five chicken breasts, 10 sausage links, and 2-3 pounds of ground beef. Other possibilities include pork chops, salmon, some kind of steak, whatever. 

You’re going to want up to 3 starches. Honestly I usually stick to just rice, but you can go with rice, potatoes, and pasta. If you want to use quinoa or polenta or something, thats on you.

And, you’re going to want about 3 types of vegetables, again, about 5 portions each -- and try to stay green. So personally, I usually get 5 medium zucchini, 2 medium heads of broccoli, and then either yellow squash or mushrooms. A bag of salad greens is also a good option, and I have an easy way to make a good salad, which I will do as a separate post.

Next pick something easy that works as either breakfast or a snack. For me this is a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a bunch of bananas. Sometimes it’s nice to have an additional option here, like cereal or yogurt. 

Last, you’ll want 2-5 sauces in bottles. I would definitely recommend a low sodium soy sauce be one of them, and maybe a BBQ sauce for the other. I usually also include worcestershire and sriracha but go with whatever you want, teriyaki sauce, A1, whatever you know you’ll eat. Hell, you can use Italian style salad dressing as a cookable sauce if you really want.

Oh, and If you don’t already have some at the house, you’ll need pan lube: butter and/or some kind of cooking oil. 

Okay! we’re done shopping! Affordability isn’t the main focus here, but is undeniably important -- I live in a very expensive area, this shopping trip is going to feed me well for a week and costs me about $100 bucks. When I was living in Alabama, it probably would have cost me more like $70. You won’t need to get stuff like the sauce and rice and peanut butter every week, so you’re definitely looking at a monthly grocery bill of something like $300 depending on where you live, and that’s not too bad. 

Prep

hell no, I’m depressed, the only prep I’m doing is putting two packages of meat in the freezer and the rest of this stuff in the fridge. You CAN box or bag each portion of meat separately so you can really alternate what you eat -- me, I’m gonna eat chicken for two or three days, then beef for two or three days, etc.

and listen, don’t fuck around with microwave settings or running water on things to defrost them. If you package the meat all up separately, just move a portion from the freezer to the fridge each time you cook dinner. Or, if you do like me, move the whole package when you go to cook your last portion of the previous stuff, and just deal with the fact that it will probably still be a tiny bit frozen when you go to cook next.

Tip: When you cook dinner, you’re going to make enough for lunch. That just leaves you one small meal - I often smear peanut butter on a peice of bread and wrap it around a banana like a taco - fast, easy, practically no dishes, relatively healthy

____________________________________________________________

Cooking (this is going to take about 25 minutes)

You’re going to need

ONE frying pan, medium size w/ lid ONE boil pot, medium size w/ lid knife, a spatula and a cutting board.

If you want to be fancy, you can include a big spoon. Looks like this

No matter what the specific ingredients you’ve chosen, the basic format is going to be:

Start your starch heat pan, put meat in the pan flip meat and add veggies, cover with lid remove meat and add sauce finish starch put everything on a plate while it is still too hot to eat and you are standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the like, 4 dishes you’ve gotten dirty. eat.

Okay, before you even get everything else out, start your starch. For rice this means rinse the rice and put it in the cold water and set it on high heat, for pasta this means put your salted water on the stove on high heat. For potatoes, you can use my perfect mashed potatoes recipe (I’ll do that as a separate post) or, honestly, you can wait until you’re halfway done with the rest of everything and microwave the sucker for like 8 minutes. I would never do that in a restaurant, but trying to feed my lethargic depressed ass? Absolutely.

easy rice: Fill your smallest coffee cup with rice, put it in the pot. Rinse. Fill the same cup twice with water, add to rice. Bring to a boil, give a good stir, turn heat all the way down, put a lid on it for something like 15 more minutes.

Okay, now lube your pan. Butter, olive oil, whatever. You’re probably looking at an amount more than a teaspoon and less than a table spoon of whichever you use. Personally I try to use as little olive oil as possible, so I pour a large coin sized amount (a quarter in the U.S.) into the pan, ear off a piece of the paper towel I’m going to use as my napkin for the evening, fold it up tight, and sort of paint the oil around so a little goes a longer way.

Pan lubed? Great, turn your burner on. highest heat will work but is not ideal, medium heat will work better but is still not ideal. Halfway between the two is perfect for chicken, a little hotter for beef, a little lower for fish.

Now remove two portions of your chosen protein (that way you’ll have tomorrow’s lunch too). By the time you get the packaging open and stuff, your pan is probably hot. If it’s not, let it get hot. You don’t want the oil to start smoking (warning, butter will burn faster than oil) but if you shake a single drop of water off your finger into the pan, you want it to sizzle.

If your pan is hot, put your meat in. The more you do this, the more you’ll perfect the timing, but you’re going to cook it for ~about~ 7 minutes before you flip it, maybe a couple minutes longer if it’s chicken or pork, maybe a couple minutes less if it’s beef.

Now that your meat is in, prepare your veggie. Rinse it off, cut off any part of it you don’t want to eat, and then cut what’s left into pieces the size of a large bite. Don’t worry, it’s going to get a little smaller when you cook it. Take your time, you’ll probably finish in less time than the meat needs.

Time to flip your meat? Great. Do that, and then dump your chopped up veggie in the pan. It does not matter at all if the pieces are not touching the bottom of the pan -probably most of them will not be, a bunch will be on top of the meat, that’s fine.

Put a lid on it. Now add your pasta to the water, or put your potato in the microwave, or check your rice. If following my perfect mashed potato recipe, mash now.

Rice tip, checking: eat a grain, you want zero crunch. If it’s not done and there’s no liquid, add a splash of water and stir. It it’s done or close to done, but it is still very wet, give it a big stir and leave on the stove with the lid off for a couple minutes.

Your meat still has like, at least 4 minutes, so rinse off your cutting board and chef knife, get out a plate, table knife and fork.

 Meat done? Great. Take the meat out of the pan, leaving the veggies in. Add sauce to the pan. I like to also use a little wine, because it’s usually already in the house, if you have some and want to, pour a large swallow of wine in the pan with the sauce. I’ll often mix a couple sauces, like worcestershire and soy (makes something similar to teriyaki) or hot sauce and BBQ

Stir the sauce around with the veggies. This, called deglazing, is an important step for two reasons, 1: it will get up a lot of the flavorful stuff that has stuck to the pan and make your sauce better, and 2: it will make washing the pan much easier. Okay, put the lid back on for one to two minutes, maybe stir a couple times. Basically you want the sauce to stain the veggies.

Your starch should be done, turn off the burner, put a portion on your plate, and stick the rest in a ziplock or tupperware or something. Go ahead and throw the second portion of meat right in there with it. 

Turn off the stove and scoop the veggies onto the plate, and pour the sauce from the pan over everything.

Now, while it’s too hot to eat, and you’re standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the pot, pan, and spatula. It should be very easy because of the way you used the sauce and because nothing has had a chance to harden. This usually takes me about 2 full minutes.

__________________________________________________________

OKAY! it’s been 20-25 minutes, you’ve got dinner and tomorrow’s lunch (just add another cut up veggie, pour a different sauce on, and put it in the microwave for two or three minutes) AND there’s no danger of dishes piling up on you :) You can even add “washing last night’s plate and fork for use tonight” to where you rinse the cutting board to really keep it full circle.

It’s not gormet. It IS accessibly healthy, affordable, and easy.

If you are extra depressed, forget the starch and use more veggies; this cuts what little work there is by up to half

Using this format, you can have three good meals per day and only spend 30 total minutes a day in the kitchen — including clean up! (dishes piling up tends to exacerbate my depression and makes cooking your next meal harder)

And it’s easy to give yourself a wide variety, from soy glazed chicken, zucchini and rice one night; to steak, mushrooms and pasta the next; followed by BBQ pork chops, brocoli and potatoes... I suck at math but there’s probably a hundred options

Just to recap, because I know I was very detailed and this might seem overwhelming, once you read through the above to answer any questions you might have, simply

-Start your starch -lube & heat pan, put meat in the pan, about 7 minutes -flip meat, add veggies, lid, about 7 minutes -wash knife and cutting board -remove meat and add sauce to veggies, re-lid, 1-2 minutes -finish starch, refrigerate extra meat and starch  -put everything left on a plate -wash pot and pan -eat.

#cooking #food #depression meals

[salvia-fitness]

I meant to show you how I make chicken tacos!

All I recorded was this, which has to be done the night before.

Soak a cup of pinto beans in a pot overnight. This is the start that I forget to prepare before bed over and over. It reduces the time they have to cook and reduces the chance of flatulence associated with fiber. The beans will double in size, so make sure they have enough water. They’ll also take 2 hours to cook so give yourself plenty of time.

Tools:

1 cup dry measuring cup

1 large pot

Long stirring spoon (for large pot)

1 pan

Cereal bowl

Flat edge wood spoon (or spatula to move rice in pan)

Grill gloves or oven mitts

Small spoon

Clean kitchen scissors

Metal claw spoon (something to stir large pot)

Fork

Knife

Sieve

Chopping block and knife (if you’re traditional)

Ingredients:

1 cup pinto beans, soaked

1–2lbs chicken breasts (tip: you can have only one breast packaged for you cheaply at the meat counter, if one is available)

1 poblano pepper

2 boxes of chicken broth

Olive oil

1 cup white rice

Garlic in jar or fresh

Garlic salt or regular

Tortillas

Finely shredded cheese or queso fresco

Avocado

Here the ingredients list varies between my grandmothers and myself. If you want to be traditional, buy

Tomato paste can, 6oz (tiny)

Onion

If you want to live an easier life, buy

1 jar salsa

Both of my grandmothers make chicken tacos the same way. But, in order to save time, I have made it a little faster through two important steps. My secrets are a jar of chunky hot salsa and cutting the chicken into cubes.

Beans

Take your soaked pinto beans. Pour all of the liquid out with the matching pot lid blocking beans from falling into your sink, and pour the rest of the beans into the large pot. Fill it with water. Bring them to a boil and then bring the heat to low. Let them simmer on low for 2 hours. Stir with your stirring spoon occasionally. 5 minutes before the end, add salt.

2 hours later, drain your beans. Wash your large pot in the sink.

Rice takes a while to soak. Traditionally, you can use the stock created from cooking bone-in chicken, but honestly we’re using boneless breasts and they take the shortest amount of time of everything to cook in this recipe so I’ll tell you how to cook chicken in 10 minutes last.

Rice

If you’re a Mexican grandma, you are now chopping your onion and some garlic. My abuelita, who moved from Mexico when she was 35, has been making this once a week before and ever since, so she got lazy one time last year and just stuck the whole half onion in her rice pan unchopped. So, you do you. You can eat the onion like that, too.

Take 1 cup white rice and pour it into a cereal bowl. Fill with water. Cover with your hand, open slats in your fingers slightly, and pour the water back out without allowing rice to fall. Do this five times to allow the starch to leave the rice. We are not Asian and do not eat our rice sticky. This is a very important step that doesn’t seem very important and I’m side-eyeing you if you skip this one.

Take a pan. Put burner on medium. Pour in some olive oil, enough to lightly cover the bottom. Turn the pan this way and that, and then pour in the 1 cup of white rice. There will be some water that reacts and hisses very loudly upon hitting the hot oil. Don’t be afraid! The racket it makes is louder than its bite. If you want reassurance that you will never, ever get burned by this, stick on grill gloves.

Can I talk about grill gloves for a second guys? I don’t even own oven mitts because I can have fingers with these babies. Mine are heat resistant to up to 475° and they cost me ten bucks at Walmart. I can still feel the heat if I hold a hot pan for too long like a regular oven mitt so in the future I might invest in these 1472℉ Extreme Heat Resistant babies which I would actually use over a grill. Or, to weld hot metals, I guess. If you own them do tell how they have changed your life. Envy.

But anyway the rice is going to scream in pain at you and you just have to wait it out until they go to sleep.

Use your flat-edge or spatula to push the rice around. Add more olive oil if you’d like. The point is that we want to avoid the rice sticking too much to the floor and walls, but we’ve also gotta step back for a moment to let them actually have time to brown. And then right back in to make sure they don’t burn. That’s right, we’re frying our rice. It’s how all Mexican rice is made. Every time you get some of that orange, fluffy stuff it’s actually fried food. I never said we are the healthiest heritage. I’ve learned recently in another tumblr post that Indian rice is made by frying beforehand as well.

Don’t let it get completely brown. We’re just looking for a little bit of color, here and there. When a third of the rice no longer looks entirely white turn down the heat, take a spoonful of your jarred or chopped garlic and stick it in there. Add either a) your onion and a spoonful of tomato paste or b) half of the chunky hot salsa out of the jar with your little spoon. If you want really orange and spicy rice, use the whole jar.

You have 1 of the boxes of broth, right? Good! We’re using it for our rice. The general rule of thumb is to use two cups of liquid for every cup of rice you use, and we used one. So you can do the math. Pour it in. Don’t overflow the pan. Make red, delicious soup. Don’t forget to add salt or garlic salt. Stir it all up. Cook the pan-soup on extremely low for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. Add more broth if it looks too try for your tastes. When over time it looks like thick, fluffy rice, you know you’ve done your job right.

Also. I don’t know what Spanish rice is. This is Mexican rice. If your recipe calls for cumin or red bell peppers it is not this. Mexican rice is very simple, demure flavors, and I refuse to continue to let it be bastardized as Spanish. I do want to try Spanish paella because it’s made with saffron and saffron rice is tasty as hell.

Chicken

Wash some kitchen scissors. Put your breasts in the large pot and start cutting them into even sized cubes to cook. Or chop them up on the chocking block. Thoroughly wash your hands and the scissors/other materials in the sink, then fill the pot of chicken with only 1 box of chicken broth. You want enough to cover all of the chicken up. If the chicken starts to float and uncovers itself, you need more water, which is also acceptable in place of broth. Bring it to a boil.

A Mexican grandma will cut up half of the onion and some garlic cloves and salt and throw it in the pot with the chicken. Instead, I chop up the poblano pepper and toss it in to cook. If you saved some of the salsa you can throw it in too.

Once it hit a roiling boil, turn the burner down to medium, stir with the metal claw spoon while cooking on medium for ten minutes. Make sure the chicken is done by checking the largest pieces internally with the fork and knife. If your medium is not as hot as my medium, turn it up but never leave the chicken unattended in case it boils up and over the pot. A pretty nasty white film will develop on top. It’s healthy, but I take it out when I pour the chicken into the sieve after it’s done cooking. If you’re a Mexican grandma, you take two clean forks or your fingers and start tearing the chicken into shreds. If you’re lazy, like me, the chicken is hot and the cubes are small enough to eat on their own.

Transfer the chicken back to the large pot. Transfer the rice and pan contents into the pot also. Hell, if you feel like it, put the cooked pinto beans in there. Or keep them separate, in their own Tupperware. You made 1 or 2lbs of chicken, plus like four cups of other ingredients.

If you have a cast iron pan, you can heat it up on high heat and stick some corn tortillas on it. How you prepare your tortillas, and what kind, is up to you. Hard shell! Flour! Fried corn tortillas! Tostadas! In the microwave separated by paper towels for 20 seconds!

Check to see that all of your burners are off. Enjoy with cheese and avocado slices. Perhaps with Dole orange peach mango juice, my abuelita’s favorite.

Good luck, have fun, Godspeed, and break a leg!

sadly avocado-less

#food #chicken tacos #mexican #chicken recipe