#and every year for thanksgiving i do the same thing i make carrots and green beans
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Let's talk holiday season food. What’s the family/friends favorite that always gets trotted out for every occasion, what food is a “special” holiday favorite?
Yay!!! So excited for this. You already know I’m gonna go off so here’s a read more. 😜🤣
Okay I’m starting with Thanksgiving, which is my favorite food holiday. In my family, the meal is 100% vegetarian friendly except the turkey and gravy (which I despise anyway), and totally centers on local autumnal produce. Also, EVERYONE, and I mean every single person over the age of 10, contributes. Even if it’s like, my cousin who has no culinary skills - he mixes drinks. Or my uncle who is the DJ and who sets the table and does a phenomenal job—with like, local flowers and origami napkins. Or my other cousins who do an art project with the younger kids, so even though they aren’t cooking, they make centerpieces and shit.
One year, I got a fantastic deal on purple potatoes at the farmer’s market, and my brother used those for the MOST delicious mashed potatoes that were loaded with cream and garlic. That dish was a staple for many years, although in recent ones, he’s been doing smashed potatoes—or, when he’s super ambitious, Hasselback potatoes—and the crispiness is absolutely delightful.
I have made cornbread every year since I was about 12 or 13. It’s this incredible recipe that includes fresh corn and browned butter - usually cornbread is dry, but this is amazing and doesn’t need any butter or anything on it. Sometimes I add jalapeños or red pepper for color/flavor - which one depends on how many baby-mouths are coming.
We always make fresh cranberries, too, not that canned shit. The cranberry bags have the basic recipe, but it comes out way too sweet that way, so instead we use about 1/4 of the sugar and a little orange juice. I like putting walnuts in, but not everyone in my family likes nuts, so I’ve found that chopping an Asian pear and tossing that in right before serving serves the same purpose of a crunchy element.
My great-aunt’s sweet potato pie recipe is SO fucking good. It’s one of the best things on the table and the one year my mom said maybe we don’t need it because too many carbs, I staged a protest. I actually like it better than any of the desserts (and for some reason it's on the dinner table even though it's 100% a dessert--it's got a graham cracker crust and toasted marshmallow top, for fuck's sake). But anyway...
My favorite, or at least tied for favorite with like 5 other things, is my mother’s stuffing. (Well, dressing, since it’s not stuffed into the bird's ass, but the word dressing is weird to me for a substantial side dish.) She uses a mix of cornbread and regular bread, a shit ton of celery and carrots and caramelized onions, and veggie stock that smells so good, it makes me homesick just thinking about it.
Occasionally there’s also something like Mac and cheese or fresh bread/rolls, or green bean casserole or wild rice. Kind of depends on who’s coming and how many people are there, etc, because you always need everyone to contribute.
Then of course, we have tons of roasted or grilled vegetables, whatever looks fresh and beautiful, or what the more talented people have grown in their gardens: Brussels sprouts, eggplant, corn (bonus if we can find red corn) green beans, broccoli, sautéed mushrooms, carrots (bonus for purple or multicolored ones), butternut squash, cauliflower (bonus for purple). And a big salad with dark greens like rainbow chard or kale (usually grown by one of my aunts), avocado, radishes, multicolored peppers, sunflower seeds or roasted pepitas. I’ve seen other people’s Thanksgiving tables and I’m generally shocked by how much brown and beige there is. Our table is a glorious fucking rainbow.
The past 5 years or so, I haven’t been able to go home for Thanksgiving, so we now have a tradition of repeating the meal (or at least, the favorites) on Christmas Day.
Speaking of Christmas…
So, there’s an Italian-American tradition called “Feast of the Seven Fishes” that takes place on Christmas Eve. (I’m not positive how it started, but I am guessing it had something to do with how expensive seafood was in the “New World” and so it was reserved for truly special occasions.) We don’t usually do all seven, but we always make my grandmother’s shrimp recipe, mafaldi with a spicy red lobster sauce, baked lobster, and usually some kind of salmon my dad can grill. (He also cooks the Thanksgiving turkey on the BBQ. We find that his energy in the kitchen can be neurotic and thus enjoy sending him outside.) And of course garlic bread or something fresh-baked to soak up all the sauces. (Grandma called it a sponge.) Also we always have Panettone (the kind with chocolate, not the fruitcake one) for dessert, heated up with ice cream and ganache.
Then, Christmas morning is usually French toast (made with Challah so that the Jews feel represented), or this cheese blintz dish we learned from my dad's cousin.
Which reminds me, oops, I skipped over Chanukkah. Traditions there are more flexible since we don’t celebrate every day and often miss the whole 8 days and remember later in the month. Mostly since my dad doesn’t give a shit and my mom’s not Jewish. But we always at least have latkes (my brother’s are outstanding, and a few years ago he made the regular ones and I made sweet potato and they came out divinely.) Also we do chocolate-covered macaroons (not to be confused with the French macarons) since they’re my mom’s favorite, and my grandmother’s vegetarian version of chopped liver which is SO GOOD, and noodle kugel. And if we’re up for it, we’ll also make rainbow cookies, which I’ve talked about before at length. (Marzipan-flavored “cookie” layers that are basically a very decadent sponge, raspberry jam, dark chocolate.
New Year’s Day: lentil soup! Black-eyed peas! Which I think supposedly serve the same good-luck purpose.
Not specific to a particular holiday but a couple of times a year, my family does polenta parties. A huge pot of polenta and a bunch of homemade toppings, like tomato sauce, pesto, veggies, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, different cheeses, meat that I don't care about, etc.
I’m gonna stop now. I could go on for fucking ever. (Super Bowl Sunday? Easter? Fourth of July? I care about nothing except the food.) I love food and I love my family and I love eating with them. I'm so excited that this year, I'm gonna be on the East Coast for a whole month visiting people. 🥰
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Winter Wonderland
Pairing: Ransom DrysdalexBlack Reader
⚠️: Ransom being a tiny bit of a jerk, the usual fluff
Sat on the couch comfortably wrapped in your boyfriend’s burnt orange throw blanket, your eyes stay glued to the meteorologist pointing to the map on the wide screen in front of you as you mindlessly bite your thumbnail.
“This again?,” Ransom asks returning from his shower to sit next to you. Forest green tee shirt over his black sweatpants, the scent of sandalwood wafting off his skin brings you closer eventually resting your head on his shoulder while you silently take in a couple deep breaths to savor the smell. “What, are you trying to be a weatherwoman now or something?”
“No, I’m just trying to stay updated. You know, watching to see if it’ll maybe rain or snow...”
Moving his laptop from the glass coffee table to his lap, soon his fingers tap away at the keyboard below as he tries to answer emails he missed while being away with you and your family for Thanksgiving.
“Hopefully it doesn’t. I’ve got too much to do for the power to be turning off.”
“...It would be nice to see though you know?”
“Mm,” he simply replies, mind still comprehending the email from his assistant with his schedule for the upcoming month.
“Snow covering the ground perfect to make snow angels or a snowman with a cute little scarf and carrot nose. Ooh and maybe a snowball fight-!”
“You sound like a kid who’s never seen snow before,” he chuckles. Noticing your extended silence, he sits up meeting your innocent eyes as you play with one of the tassels from the blanket. “You’ve never seen snow, have you?”
“I mean yeah in movies and pictures, but never in person. Remember, it doesn’t really get that cold where I live.”
Only four months in, your relationship was still fairly new. And most of that time he was flying to see you, which was slightly concerning at first. Once he told you about his dysfunctional family though, and you briefly heard it firsthand, it made sense why he wanted to get as far away as possible.
It was just a small mistake when some of his business documents were sent to his parents’ house, but of course they assumed it was his sly way of asking for money. Not even giving him a chance to explain, a shouting match soon ensued and hence why Thanksgiving was spent with your parents.
He still wanted you to come visit to show you his home, where he grew up, and some of his favorite places especially since you showed him yours. He’d just have to be extra careful to avoid any of his family members or those who worked at his grandfather’s home if the two of you went to town.
So far though, you two didn’t have to worry since you’d either been happily snuggled on the couch or in bed since you arrived.
“Well, it’s more of a pain than anything. You need the right tires to drive on the road and even then you have to worry about them being too slick. Then sometimes the snow is like mush that basically starts melting as soon as it falls, and don’t even get me started on the shoveling,” he rants as the small smile on your face slightly falls.
“Yea I’ve uh heard that it’s not so great once you get used to it,” you respond turning the channel to some random movie before handing him the remote. “Looks like it’s not gonna snow anyway though so no worries.”
“Good, I’ll be able to make all of my meetings then.”
As you sat in silence, Ransom could feel that you were disappointed about the sunny and clear forecast. He still stood by all the negative things he said earlier, but he also remembered how excited he’d get as a kid once it started to get colder. That meant snow would eventually come, bringing snow days from school and playing all day in the backyard. That is until his mother would yell at him from the back door not to mess up his clothes or send the nanny out to get him if she felt he wasn’t listening.
Hearing your soft snores, he carefully removes his phone from his pocket, moving his typing from his laptop to the smaller device in his hand as he sends a quick text to someone who might be able to help.
———
The soft chime of your alarm from the bedside table causes you to mentally groan as you reach to silence it before it could disturb Ransom. However feeling his arm tighten around your waist bringing you closer to his bare chest, you could see you were too late.
“Sorry babe. Go back to sleep, you still have time before your meeting,” you whisper.
“No,” he mumbles, face falling to the crook of your neck making you giggle from the sensation of his breathing paired with his pouted lips against your skin.
“Can you let go then? I have to log in for work.” Shaking his head, you roll your eyes at how clingy he could be under that tough, careless facade. “Ransom come on it’s my last workday before Christmas so I can’t call out. As soon as I’m done though you can have me all to yourself okay?”
His only response is silence as you try to escape his grip thinking he drifted back to sleep. You’re slightly startled as your body is turned to face your boyfriend with his eyes still closed and a tired yet playful smirk gracing his lips.
“I already took care of work for you,” he replies opening one eye while the other stayed pressed against the plush pillow.
“What do you mean?”
“That you don’t need to worry about work until the new year.”
“How? You just told my boss I wouldn’t be in for a while and she said okay?”
“Well darling as you know I can be very persuasive,” he cockily states with a wink. Sitting up with arms crossed over your chest, he chuckles at your unamused expression sitting up himself to lean against the headboard. “I told her how I had a secret trip planned for us and asked if you could be out until you were due to be back in January. She said you had the time so it was okay and for us to have fun. If you don’t believe me call her yourself.”
“How long have you had this planned? And where is this secret trip too?,” you finally speak trusting his words.
“A while now, and it wouldn’t be a secret anymore if I told you dear.”
“Then how am I supposed to pack for said trip honey?,” you ask matching his sarcasm.
“Already took care of that too. All you have to do is get ready so we can leave in a couple hours,” he smiles gently grabbing your chin to kiss your lips. “Unless you want to go to work then-,”
“No, I’ll get dressed!” Giving him one last peck as you crawl over his relaxed form, he chuckles watching you excitedly hurry to the bathroom to start your morning routine.
After both of you were dressed and Ransom placed your packed bags in the trunk of his newly rented Range Rover, his hand stops you from entering the passenger side slightly confusing you.
“It’s a surprise remember?,” he smirks pulling a black blind fold out of his jacket pocket.
“You know, this is how a handful of those lifetime movies start before the main character goes missing and her family then sets out to find the boyfriend even though he swears he’s innocent,” you state making him deeply chuckle as he finishes tying the cloth over your eyes.
“Relax, you’re fine. Plus how do I know this isn’t like those movies where the gorgeous girlfriend acts all innocent and sweet until she gets her boyfriend away so she can kill him and take all his stuff before moving on to her next victim?”
“Touché. I guess we’re gonna have to trust each other then.”
“I guess so,” he laughs kissing your cheek before carefully helping you in your seat and closing the door behind you. The drive there didn’t seem too long as you and Ransom talked about everything from each of your favorite vacations over the years to his new book ideas and what was soon to be published under his company. Of course you tried to get him to slip and say where you were going and what he had planned, but his lips remained sealed.
Every time you asked, he’d just chuckle telling you to be patient before kissing the back of your hand.
Soon enough your questions would be answered as the car slowed while it turned maintaining the same speed until coming to a complete stop. “Are we there? Can I take off the blindfold now?,” you excitedly ask.
“Go ahead before you bounce a hole in the seat.”
Removing the cloth, you blink your eyes adjusting to the brightness of the remaining daylight outside before they can focus on what was exactly in front of you. Dark brown wooden outside with a blue green roof and stone chimney, the modern looking cabin with wrap around porch peering into the surrounding woods on one side and the calm lake on the other.
“I hope your silence isn’t because you’re currently regretting coming with me,” he speaks peering at you with soft crystal blue eyes. Leaning over the middle console, your hand finds the back of his neck bringing him closer to connect your lips with his.
“It’s beautiful! The perfect Christmas getaway,” you smile.
“Well not perfect yet. This is just part one of your surprise.”
“Ransom, you don’t-,”
“I know, I don’t have to. As you see though, we’re here so are we gonna sit in the car and stare at it or go inside?,” he smirks before getting out to open your door.
You weren’t surprised to find the inside just as charming as it’s outside view. The modern, minimalistic aesthetic along with high vaulted ceiling and open concept made it seem as if there was no end in sight for the cozy cabin. From it’s overall inviting warmth enveloping you as soon as the both of you crossed the threshold, you weren’t sure if your boyfriend, or anyone, would get you to leave when the time eventually came.
Once settled and full of dinner made from what was in the fully stocked fridge and freezer, courtesy of his assistant, you could feel the day’s toll finally weighing on you as multiple yawns escaped your mouth and eyelids began to droop.
“Don’t fall asleep on me yet, you still have your last surprise to see,” he chuckles gently nudging your arm.
“Ransom seriously everything has been more than enough. What else could you possibly have planned?,” you sleepily smile peering up at him through partially opened lids. Gently pulling you up with him, he guides you to the porch with muscular, sweater covered arms wrapped on your chest just under your neck. He places a kiss on the top of your head as you lean back into his broad chest admiring the bright crescent moon along with the shimmering stars scattered behind it in the black sky.
“Although I do love gazing at the moon with you, and think this is a really nice surprise, it’s getting cold,” you speak feeling the vibrations of his quiet laugh through his chest.
“You really need to work on your patience dear,” he whispers, lips resting next to your ear. Watching the breath from your nose turn to smoke, you soon see something fall from above making you slightly lean forward to see if your eyes were deceiving you. Sure enough, a similar white speck descended with a small swirl as you gently gripped Ransom’s arm gasping. As more and more fell, you reach out over the banister feeling bits of cold ice touch your palm before melting into miniature puddles.
“Is this real?!”
“No, there’s a man on the roof with a wind machine. Yes, it’s real honey,” he chuckles kissing your cold cheek.
“But the forecast said there was none coming.”
“Yea for where we were. That’s why I brought you a bit further north where it usually snows around this time of year. Luckily it still happened or else everything would’ve been ruined.”
Turning to face him, your arms wrap around his neck as you reach on your tip toes to deeply kiss his lips. You prop your chin on his chest, adoringly looking up at your boyfriend with a soft smile.
“Yea no snow would’ve been a bit of a bummer, but everything would still be wonderful because I’m here with you.”
“Stop you’re gonna make me blush,” he dismisses with a dramatic wave making you giggle.
For the next few moments, you both comfortably stand in each other’s arms with your head now lying on his chest gazing at the steady falling flurries, and Ransom doing the same finding himself truly happy to see snow for the first time in a long while.
Taglist: @fumbling-fanfics @honeychicanawrites @honeychicana @lady-olive-oil @themyscxiras @melinda-january @lovelymari4 @maxcullen @literaturefeen @damnitaa @curlyhairclub @plokyu23 @fullofmelaninsarcasmandepression @nunubug99 @felicity-x0 @ellixthea @jojolu @jnk-812 @brwn-sgr @captainsamwlsn @wildfirecracker @nina-sj @iammyownlover @chaneajoyyy @scoop93535 @secretmysteriousperson
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Behold another Lost Boys holiday special! It was between this and Valentine’s day, but honestly I love writing Christmas specials, its such a cozy time despite the high suicide rates, but lets not get into that. A BIG SHOUT OUT TO @imlostinsantacarla FOR HELPING ME EDIT MY FINAL DRAFT!
Fun Fact! My husband, David (yes, that is actually his name) actually does have the bah humbug hat I mention in the head canons. He’s a heavy metal goth so when I found it at the store I had to get it for him. And you just know if our David found that, he wouldn’t be able to resist it!
Christmas with the Boys
Alright, so the whole touchy, feely and mushy feelings that surround even the topic of Christmas time is not something any of the boys will ever openly admit to enjoying. After all, they see themselves as these bad ass brutal killers who thrive off of death instead of holding hands and caroling with the goodie goodies of this coastal town.
Yet, it's challenging for them not to get sucked into the glitz and glam of the holiday season. Everything is a big deal in Santa Carla. Dia De Los Muertos, Halloween, Thanksgiving- everything! But especially Christmas.
Christmas in Santa Carla dwarfs the frenzy craze of Halloween. The entirety of the boardwalk is decked out with red and green lights that are tightly wound around palm trees, red bulbous bows are wrapped tightly around street lamps, the reds and whites of velvety fabric swirl down the posts, creating the effect of candy canes. All the store windows are painted to appear frosted, or covered with painted snowmen whilst several rooftops are covered with white felt in which mimics the texture and sight of snow. Even the boats in the harbour are all extravagantly decorated in a sea of lights that parade around brightly at night in every color imaginable.
Between the dates of the 30th of November all the way to the 24th of December the city of Santa Carla hosts a plethora of wondrous events in it's annual Holiday Festival. Large green, white and red kiosks are erected, selling a wide range of baubles and treats, from delectable chocolate coated rice krispy Santa Clauses, elf candy apples caked in a plethora of dark chocolate and peppermint, to a variety of Holiday hats, masks and even hand made costumes by the many local artists. Even hand carved candles in wondrous scents of pine, mint, or spice.
Currently, David possesses a black fur Santa hat which he acquired on a night out that boasts the words "Bah Humbug" proudly sewn over the front. It's the only holiday attire he'll even humor. Last time Marko attempted to place reindeer antlers on his head, David had set them on fire roasting atop a pan of chestnuts. Now it's not to say that he's a grinch persay. Rather, the complex and intense emotions that come hand in hand with Christmas can leave him perpetually indifferent at best, disdainful at worst. The whole occasion leaves him displeased. After all, he was an orphan who had been almost eagerly abandoned by his hooker mother left to fend for himself from the beginning, and of course never met his father. Even she could not identify which of her many clients may have been responsible. Most of his mortal life he had lived as a street rat, barely making ends meet by picking the pockets of tourists and Santa Carla citizens oblivious to the true dangers of the lower side of town. The rich and uppity classes who often snubbed their entitled noses his way would never suspect as he lurks between alleyways, leaving them cornered at knife point. It was scarce that he ever did see a kind face in the sea of those who had little interest for anyone that was not themselves. Back then it was rather uncommon for anyone to step outside their own little lives, which led to most interactions, outside of the other boys, having been met with great hostility, thus he had learned to be just as equally hostile in turn. Even the mere thought of anyone suddenly dawning a false kindness due to a certain time of year simply agitated David. It rattled him to the very core in a way very few other things did. Why bother with the lies? Couldn't people just face the very basic fact that they weren't nearly as charitable as they often deemed themselves to be? I mean, the young man had seen firsthand a family having previously snubbed a dirty homeless man with appalled disdain at the sight of his muddied clothes and dirt stained skin, only to then begin volunteering at a soup kitchen to purge whatever guilt they carried on their conscience once the holiday season began. The whole ordeal was pitiful! Nevertheless, - more so for Paul and Marko's sakes than his own -, he did humor these traditions amongst the holiday's festivities. Ruining a good time just wasn't his style. Unless they started fucking singing.
Most traditions David could tolerate, some he even enjoyed slightly; although he would never be caught dead admitting something as embarrassing as that! However, he just couldn't stand Christmas carols! They were the bain to his immortal existence. The repetitive nature of these overly cheery jingles left him covering his ears lest they nest in his brain leaving him humming the same damn melody for weeks. This was the case because the dynamic duo of dumbasses were well aware of his hatred for Rudolph the Red Nosed fuckin' roadkill! Stupid red nosed abomination.
“OOOOOOH-,” Paul begins with cheerful mischief.
“Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare.” David seethes through tightly clenched teeth, eyes screwed shut in indignance.
Paul hesitates. He looks at Marko. Marko looks at Paul. Wicked grins of agreement spread wide like wildfire across their faces as their master plan comes into play. Full throttle. What’s more fun than annoying the shit out of David? One on the left, the other on the opposite side of the cave on the right. This was nothing but Divine perfection if you asked the two troublesome vampires.
“OOOOOH DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW!” Paul belted out at full volume.
“IN A ONE HORSE OPEN SLEIGH!” Marko followed in suit, the widest eerie grin plastered on his face.
“OVER THE HILLS WE GOOOO” Paul howled enthusiastically.
“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU BOTH!” David's voice hit a whole new octave it had never in all his life so far. All the while Dwayne had opted to vacate the room lest he be caught in the middle of the escalating madness with Laddie in tow. He loved these guys, but not enough to dive head first into their fuckery.
Paul thrives during the Christmas holidays! How could he not? The food, the punk rock covers of Christmas songs, the absolute babes prancing around the town in Santa hats under mistletoe?! He loved it all! You can find him sneaking under mistletoe with many sweet honeys on a constant basis, regardless of whether or not he's acquainted with them. Most do roll their eyes or laugh it off, but every once in a blue moon the guy will get a little lovin' from a beach babe in the Yuletide mood. What else could he ask for? You can bet he’ll run into the woods December first, and quite literally RIP a pine tree out of the ground to bring home like a wee carrot being plucked from the ground. The bigger the better! He may even drag Dwayne or Marko along with him if it's too big for him to carry himself. And all the boozy drinks he can concoct up? This boy is in his element! Mulled wine, spiked eggnog, candy cane vodka, butterscotch bourbon hot chocolate?! Yes! David straight up refuses to try anything that Paul creates himself (remember the concoction he made in Max's kitchen? Those poor goldfish....) which is also another reason why he has Dwayne help him. Or rather, the other boys insist the most responsible of them monitors the blonde lest he poison them with some sickly brew. That, and the fact that Dwayne's the least likely out of all of them to blow up the damn kitchen!
Dwayne is indeed the designated cook during the holiday rush, albeit a field even he tends to struggle. Avoiding the kitchen catching aflame, perfecting his craft lest he blow up the stove, leaving only a pile of ash in its wake. As previously mentioned, ever since the dreadful chain of events that lead to the unfortunate destruction of Max's kitchen, this raven haired vampire has attempted his hand at learning to use a stove properly: Although he often finds himself forgetting ingredients either in the midst of cooking or after the final product is done and he's taken a big bite.
“Shit! I forgot the milk and eggs!” Dwayne grumbled with a mouthful of dry crumbs, a true disgrace of a cookie.
Paul always gives him crap for it of course.
“Oooh I just thought you were going for a sandy, dusty dry cookie kinda thing.”
"Yeah man, these taste like ass!" Marko would cough out in midst of choking.
"And what, like you dumbasses could do any better," Dwayne retorts with a huff. Only Star manages to have any manners when testing his failed baking endeavors.
"Well I mean, the taste isn't that bad. Just a little dry is all."
"At least Marko wouldn't be choking to death." David would mutter from the darkest corner of the room, a little late in the conversation.
In all honesty, Dwayne's biggest motivation when it came to improving his skills was obviously Laddie. The kid never got much of a Christmas whilst living with his mom, so now that he was with the boys, he wanted to ensure that Christmas's were something that Laddie would remember for all eternity. Though granted, it is quite the mess when he was helping in the kitchen. But when the mini vamp grins from ear to ear whilst coated in flour and rapidly stirring an overflowing bowl of chunky cookie dough--the sight is too freaking cute!
Since Laddie joined the boys, they participate in Secret Santa every single year, which definitely includes Paul bursting through the entrance of the hotel as Santa on Christmas day. We won't talk about the fact that each year he almost falls flat on his face and swears, ruining the surprise for the kid.
"Santa where are your reindeer," he'd question, to which Santa Paul scoffs
"Pff, reindeer, I don't need any fucki- Ow," cut off by a firm and covert kick to the shin from Star, Paul quickly changes his response. "Oh! Ho ho, well, you see little boy, Santa can fly too! On his, uh, uhm… magic motorcycle! Yeah, that!"
But it's okay because Laddie already KNEW (he figured it out a year or two ago after Paul's beard fell off not once, but three times), he just doesn't have the heart to tell any of them because, well Paul really gets into it. And he knows the others are playing along for his sake. But to be fair, Laddie would have to be pretty dumb to believe it was Santa. I mean, the beard Paul's wearing is hanging half off his face by this point! But anyway, just like Paul's style, the entirety of the goody two shoes schpiel is thrown out the window, replaced with sleeves that have been ripped off, muddy boots, spiked bracelets and his Metallica shirt in full view beneath his flared red coat. He calls this BIKER CLAUS!
Laddie is not a squasher of traditions! But there was the one time that David had to intervene when Paul and Dwayne thought it would be great to use Laddie as the star at the top of the tree. David practically had a heart attack. Well, that's impossible but it still felt like he was having one!
“Ho ho ho! Now, don’t be a bitch, little David or Santa will have to give you coal.” Paul stated mockingly to David, brows furrowed.
“Well, Santa,” David scolds, a wry smile developing on his face when setting down the eight year old now off to shake his presents beneath their behemoth of a tree. “You best be careful. You never know what's in those milk and cookies, hm?”
Each year Marko buys bird toys for the pigeons in the hotel. Well, buy is probably the wrong word. More like he liberates the stores of their stock. And then for the next six months, David has to hear the agonizing jingle of bells. David almost roasted one pigeon in particular that kept flying over him to drop the ball with a bell in it on his head. That was Paul's entertainment for the next five hours, hell, he'd try to find it if the bird lost it and give it back. Marko defends the pigeon. Between running through stores buying up surprises for his friends, he's helping Paul throw out decorations for the cave. The dollar store has some surprisingly unexpected treasures, allowing him to deck the fucking halls to the max. Tinsel here, ornaments there, tiny light up trees to hide around the caves, a butt ton of cinnamon pine cones which he ends up throwing back and forth with Paul.
And Paul often steals his gifts or goes dumpster diving for any hidden gems. He forgets to take the tags off of them the majority of the time, which is always an indicator whether or not its new. Any time Star asks where he got them from he refuses to answer. Just gets up and walks away. But for David's gift? Well this lucky bastard has found coal in the dumpster and chucks it to David when he's not looking and he sighs deeply in disappointment because this is the third year Paul has done this.
"Huh? What? Who did that? Wasn't me. Somebody's throwing stuff."
Other than that he'll find a fat bag of charcoal and just tape the name David on it. David is certainly not amused. Dwayne will actually try to figure out what the others want, and has the sense to save the money taken from their previous meals. After all, they're dead, they wouldn't have much use for it anyway. He's not about to waste his hypnosis on some poor cashier. That would be a waste of time in his eyes.
When Christmas did arrive the tree was piled with mysterious boxes crudely mashed and taped together with bows and ribbons underneath it. It's obvious which ones are from Star since those gifts are wrapped in neatly pressed paper, wound tight beneath curled ribbons that remind the boys of her hair. Marko often goes on a food run rather than allow them all to be subjected to a potentially charred turkey, no offense to Dwayne of course. So, with a table covered from end to end with copious bowls of gravy, potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, a beast of a turkey in the center packed to the brim with cornbread stuffing, the boys cram into their chairs knocking back beers and spiked cider. Keeping to their own traditions, after fattening up, they gather around the tree and play card games, just as they had over eighty years ago on that frigid night. David still slays them in poker, and Marko is an utter dark horse when it comes to blackjack. Paul insists they try Go Fish. No one ever wants to play Go Fish. Closer towards the end of the night Dwayne will slip away to Jasper's shrine and bring him a fresh glass of rum as well as unwrapping what he got him that year. While Dwayne is there, the other boys will join him - omitting Star and Laddie left unaware of the Lost Boy they'd never met - in celebrating the last hour or so of the Holiday season with their fallen comrade.
Although Christmas time is often about uncomfortable mushy moments and emotions that create deep, unfamiliar times for David. The entire ordeal becomes that for everyone of the boys and Star. But God forbid anyone who even mentions it! I mean, it's kinda obvious though considering he's spending it with the people he always called family, knee deep in traditions that are sentimental to himself and the boys. There's a fluster of emotions running rampant during this particular Holiday Season, and although the blonde brooding vampire decides to squint at it with skepticism he savors these moments, knowing like Jasper, it could all be swept away with a single ray of light or the foolish hand of a hunter. So as they sit, drunk, full, and laughing beside Jasper's grave he can't help but smile at the sentimentality of it all. Christmas is a pain in the ass, but… it's a pain he'll gladly sit through for his brothers.
#lost boys imagine#lost boys 1987#lost boys#the lost boys#lost boys paul#lost boys imagines#lost boys dwayne#lost boys david#lost boys marko#christmas#holiday imagine#tis the season#lost boys head canon#headcanon#lost boys vampires#vampire boys#vampires#vampire#fanfiction writing#lost boys fanfiction#fan theory#fanfiction#fanfic
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Plz take this constructive observation in the positive way it's offered. Change doesn't occur unless we're honest w ourselves & our lifestyle choices. You often post pics of your food & most of the food groups are processed white carbs & sat fats. Your Thanksgiving dinner pic iirc had dk meat turkey, mac n' cheese, potatoes, & a white flour roll. Your most recent post shows cheese-stuffed shells & bread. All yummy. But where are the green & RAINBOW veggies? More colors = >nutrition &
I have no doubt that you think you’re being positively constructive. Unfortunately for you, you’re wrong. Let me tell you why.
I don’t know what makes you think you know anything about my eating habits and nutrition. In the past three months, I have posted pictures of 5 meals. Trust me. I went back and counted. That’s how much you pissed me off. Here’s some quick math: Let’s assume I eat three meals a day and did so for the last 3 months (let’s call it 90 days). That’s 270 meals. You saw five. That’s 1.9% of the meals I’ve eaten in the last three months. I’ll be generous and round it up to 2%. So based on the last 2% of the meals I’ve eaten, you have all the information you need to know about my nutrition and feel justified, knowing literally no other information about what/how I eat, to give me advice. Would you want to be judged about something you do when the person making the judgement has 2% of the information? No, you wouldn’t.
I obviously don’t show you everything I eat. Why would I? I post the things that I want to. Shockingly enough, it’s probably going to be “unhealthy” things because that’s what I feel like showing. I don’t post a picture of the fruit I have every day with my lunch. Doesn’t mean I don’t have it. I do. You just don’t know that.
For the record, I had a side of green beans with that cheese shells meal. It wasn’t in the picture because I don’t like my food touching and I put them in a separate bowl. They were still there. When I had some of the cheese shells for left overs, I had cucumber slices on the side. But I didn’t take a picture and post those, so I didn’t eat them, right?
I’ve got cucumbers, carrots, green peppers, oranges, bananas, apples, frozen fruit, etc. all in my kitchen right at this very moment. I eat them all the time. But I don’t post those things because I only post things when I feel like it and you’re using that 2% of information to make judgments about me.
And god forbid I post a picture of my Thanksgiving dinner. (Why you are so worked up about my Thanksgiving dinner two months later is beyond me. Are you the same person who sends me messages telling me I can’t be gay because I liked Enrique two years ago?) OF COURSE that’s what I was eating for Thanksgiving. That’s one day out of the entire year. Do you think that’s what I eat every fucking day?!
And you know what’s crazy? I’m not even mad about anything yet. The only reason I’m responding (and not just deleting/ignoring) is because you said, “Change doesn’t occur unless we’re honest with ourselves and our lifestyle choices.”
Let’s break that down, shall we?
1) I went back and skimmed that last post I made. Unless I’m much mistaken, I didn’t say I’m trying to change anything. I said that I’ve been going back to the gym and I’ve been really excited and I wanted to share the motivation behind that (which has absolutely nothing to do with nutrition or weight loss, almost deliberately so). I did say that last time I was going to the gym regularly I lost but then regained a lot of weight. I wanted to change why I was going to the gym because it didn’t work last time. That’s the only reference I made to change. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
2) Again referring to the last time I was going to the gym regularly and losing weight, I did adjust my lifestyle choices. I chose to work out for three and a half hours a day and eat at most 1000 calories per day. Since you’re the expert apparently, you tell me if that was a good “lifestyle choice.” I just went online and found that based on my current age, height, weight, and gender, and a “slightly active” lifestyle, I should be eating 1957 calories per day to lose weight. I put in the info for my approximate weight last time. 1846 calories per day to lose weight. So 1000 calories or less per day doesn’t sound like a great lifestyle choice to me. Eating three good meals a day (the vast majority of which I don’t share with you) seems like a better lifestyle choice if you ask me.
3) Lastly, and most importantly, don’t you dare tell me that I need to be more honest with myself. In any way, shape, or form. And while I know that you’re talking primarily about nutrition, I’m looking in all areas of life. I genuinely don’t think I could be more honest with myself if I tried. I have done more personal growth in the last 3 years of my life than in the whole other 25 put together. I have changed and learned more about myself than I ever thought possible because I am honest with myself. Because I sit down and write in my journal when I have a bad day. Because I’m trying to get better at asking for help, something that is really hard for me. Because I’ve learned as much as I can about depression and anxiety and OCD so I know what I can do to take care of myself. Because I fight with myself on an almost daily basis, telling myself that who I am is okay and not bad or wrong or unworthy of love. Because I’ve come to understand that what I once called nutrition is actually far from it. And now if I do actually want to see anything resembling change, it’s going to be much much slower. And that’s hard, but I’ve accepted that that’s okay and it took me a very long time to get here.
That’s me being honest with myself and it has absolutely nothing to do with how many fucking vegetables I eat.
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Blog Post #1
Thanksgiving. Everyone knows the classic American tradition. All our families gather together around the table every November with the classic turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, Hawaiian rolls, sparkling cider, black bottoms, pumpkin pie, and the list goes on and on. London and Scotland, which I was fortunate enough to visit both this past Christmas break, have something very similar, yet something very different. They have something called Sunday roasts. The main difference between Thanksgiving and the Sunday roasts are that the roasts are celebrated every Sunday, while Thanksgiving is celebrated only once a year. The main similarity between both meals is the people they gather. With every Thanksgiving, a multitude of family members join the table. Just as with roasts, many family members and friends visit. The roast in London I was at was with my friend’s family and a friend, while in Scotland, I had it with a bunch of friends from my Scottish friend. One of them was even Australian, so there were American, English, Scottish, and Australian people all at the same table eating the same food! It sure is a small world. Sunday roasts normally consist of roast meat, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding with gravy, vegetables, and stuffing. Before flying over to London, I had no idea what Sunday roasts were. My friend from London, who I met over summer camp this past summer, told me all about it and said it is one of her most favorite dishes ever. She said that her “mum” will prepare a Sunday roast for me, which made me super, super excited to try. The Sunday roast I had in London consisted of roast meat, roast potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding with gravy, carrots, brussel sprouts, parsnips, and stuffed meatballs. The one thing I had never heard of before are roast potatoes. My friend was very surprised Americans do not hold this as a typical side dish, and I was eager to try it. It might have been my most favorite thing on the dish. To me, the roast potatoes tasted hot, golden, and crispy. I made sure to have seconds, because I did not want this opportunity to eat roast potatoes slip by me! While in Scotland, I also had a roast which was a bit different from the one I had in London. It had all the normal components, such as roast potatoes, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding with gravy, and vegetables, with a new addition of “pigs in blankets” (little hotdogs rolled up in bacon with some honey glaze on them), chicken, and salmon as a vegetarian substitute. Both meals were equally good, but I did prefer the one I had in London because I thought it had better taste. In London and Scotland, there are plenty of options for dessert to be chosen. I chose a mince pie, because I have never had one before and heard plenty of good things about it from my British and Scotish friends. In Scotland, we put them in the oven and then dove right into them, and boy did it taste heavenly. It isn’t similar to our pumpkin or apple pies we might have for Thanksgiving. This pie was fairly small, fitting in the palm of one’s hand. It had powdered sugar on it, and blueberry jelly within it. It also contained a small amount of alcohol in it, which gave it a nice kick. Looking back on it, I wish I had more than just one, but I was stuffed by that point!! If I ever go back to Great Britain, I will make sure to have another Sunday roast with some great friends!!
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Nov 23: Thankful (Stark Family)
There’s nothing quiet about a Stark family Thanksgiving.
Sansa has been working since Tuesday, helping get everything ready. Between extended family, significant others, and friends (or strays) they’re over twenty this year.
Which is fine, it just means Sansa has been spending the better part of the past week at her parent’s house working on prep. At least Robb and Bran are helping, and Jon if he’s not working.
If Sansa never sees another cranberry again in her life, it will be too soon.
(She says this every year.)
Still, Sansa feels a swell of warmth when she looks around the dining room. Her dad has put several of the leaves in the table, and it fits all of them comfortably, even if the chairs don’t all match. (Aunt Lysa definitely has something to say about that, but thankfully Uncle Jon is good at re-directing her. Usually.)
The table is decorated with leaves and gourds, and it actually looks nice this year, now that the duty has passed from Rickon to Robin, as the youngest child. Rickon’s tables tended to look like a disaster hit, but nobody was going to let him get out of it.
Robin has issues, but Sansa’s cousin at least has some degree of thoughtfulness. Even if it had taken him two hours to get the job done, because he’d had to count every leaf and evenly distribute them.
Sansa’s honestly surprised that the table doesn’t sag under the weight of all the food. Two golden brown turkeys, giant pans of stuffing, huge bowls of cranberry sauce and gravy, an actual vat of mashed potatoes, two varieties of sweet potatoes (thank god they’re no longer having the annual marshmallow vs. pecan crust debate) are just a start.
Maybe it’s silly, but there’s something so special about only getting the dishes once a year. Sansa knows she could make green bean casserole or creamed onions any time, but there’s something better about them for only being once a year.
She’s also looking forward to trying the savory mashed squash Mr. Reed brought this year (Sansa still can’t call him Howland, even though he’s asked her too, it feels too weird) and the Moroccan carrot dish her mom has added. Sansa thinks the regular carrots are great, but her mom says she’ll go insane if she keeps making the same exact thing for another 40-some years, so whatever makes her happy.
Sansa can’t imagine having Thanksgiving in a smaller crowd, not having to elbow Robb and Arya to get to the last bit of corn pudding or almost shouting to be heard. Or waiting impatiently for everyone to go around saying what they’re thankful for, which takes forever, or watching Rickon and Arya make faces at each other with food in their mouths. Which, honestly, Rickon is 22, they should have grown out of that.
Sansa wishes her new boss at the animal shelter had agreed to come. Brienne is so nice and so smart and so strong, Sansa looks up to her. And Brienne said it’s just her and her father! How do you even cook a turkey for two people? It makes Sansa want to cry.
It’s not like there aren’t other people here. Arya always brings her boss, because his family is all back in Braavos and they don’t do Thanksgiving there anyway. And Bran’s boss is here this year too, since Alys’ father died last year.
Alys looks a little shell-shocked, actually. Sansa should probably check on her before dessert. The Starks, en masse, can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not used to it. And Bran is too busy making eyes at Meera to notice anything else.
What’s most interesting this year is saying thanks. Rickon says thanks for teaching people new things, which is the most un-Rickon like thing Sansa has ever heard, so something is up there. Robb mumbled something about kindness and forgiveness, which makes Sansa think he’s got someone he’s trying to date and failing (as usual). Then Jon says coffee and Jon barely even drinks coffee, what is going on?
Then again, Sansa says yarn and tea, which has a few of her siblings raising their eyebrows. So she’s not entirely blameless.
Luckily, she’s seated between Alys – whose baked mushrooms with parmesan are amazing, they are definitely inviting her back next year with a request for them – and Grandfather Tully, who is talking about his interesting cases so far this year. Sansa hums politely and pretends to care about the town’s new loitering laws and how it’s clogging up the court and taking up all Grandfather’s time, while trying desperately to turn the conversation back to Alys and new ideas for ice cream flavors at the shop.
Sansa is practically bursting by the time the guests leave (but not before she gets Syrio’s pumpkin gnocchi recipe) and the Uncles go to clean up and they all head to the den for the traditional sibling time.
Or, interrogate and beat each other until everyone spills their secrets time.
“Coffee?” Sansa demands, looking at Jon. Then turns to Rickon. “And teaching people?”
“What the fuck,” Bran agrees. He’s still got a plate of pie, and that’s where the last slice of apple cider cream pie went, the little jerk. Sansa wanted that piece.
Jon breaks first, of course, and has an epic crush on the coffee girl at Wildlings. Sansa has met her a few times – Jon is going to get eaten alive. Probably before he even gets laid.
Robb turns about seven shades of red talking about Talisa at the pharmacy, and Sansa makes a note to go pick up some vitamins and do recon.
Sansa obligingly spills about Margaery, because she’s totally been waiting for this chance, until Arya starts fake gagging. It’s not Sansa’s fault Margaery is so wonderful and easy to talk about, honestly.
Rickon is the last to cave. It takes Arya jumping on his neck like a monkey and holding him still while Sansa and Robb tickle him until he caves. It’s worked like a charm since he was four, although he’s become significantly more difficult to hold down, hence Arya.
Sansa politely refrains from asking where her sister learned the spots to use to effectively immobilize someone much bigger than herself.
“I just filled in for Uncle Brynden with some stuff,” Rickon says.
Arya twists his ear.
“There was a girl who’s kinda cool,” Rickon allows. He looks over. “She reminds me of you, kinda.”
Sansa stops tickling him in shock.
Look, she loves all her brothers (and Arya) but Sansa and Rickon are about as polar opposite as it’s possible to be.
“Me?” Sansa repeats, in case he’s actually talking to Arya.
“Yeah, she’s like some kind of a Disney princess or something,” Rickon goes on. His cheeks are actually turning pink. “She’s really sweet, it’s like you expect birds to fly out and sing songs while flying around her or something.”
Arya falls off Rickon’s back in shock.
Sansa didn’t realize Rickon had paid such close attention to the Disney movies she’d make him watch when they were kid, but clearly Cinderella sunk in at least a little.
Robb waves his hand in front of Rickon’s face. “Are you drunk?”
“What?”
It’s a hilariously defensive yelp coming from someone who’s six foot tall, with full sleeve tattoos and what is probably a very handsome beard. Or something. He’s very proud of it, Sansa doesn’t pretend to know or care about the attractiveness of facial hair.
“Opposites can attract,” Jon offers, but he’s smirking.
“It’s not a big deal,” Rickon argues.
It’s more words than Sansa has heard her youngest brother say about anyone ever, let alone a girl. Woman, she supposes, now they’re all adults. As weird as that is.
“Have you slept with her?” Bran is always the bluntest one.
“It’s not a thing,” Rickon says again. “I’ve just seen her around a couple of times.”
A woman Rickon has seen around and wants to talk to and hasn’t slept with already? This just gets more interesting by the minute.
It takes a while but they eventually weasel a name out of him, Shireen Baratheon, although he refuses to say what she does. Which means it’s embarrassing. Considering Rickon’s last hookups have included a stripper, a drummer in a failed rock band, a woman with facial tattoos, and a woman Sansa is pretty sure was a drug dealer, she’s not sure what qualifies as embarrassing for him.
It’s so nice to hear though. Maybe he’ll find someone that cares about him. Sansa thinks her brother wants that a lot more than he’ll admit. It’s fills her with joy to see most of her siblings closer to finding their person, and hopefully Sansa is too.
Now she just has to figure someone out for Arya, and it will be just perfect.
Thanksgiving next year might be even bigger.
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FALL LEAVES AND AUTUMN THINGS
~Fall Leaves And Autumn Things~ NCT!Soulmate Au Thanksgiving Special
Parts Out---> Part 1// Part 1.5// Thanksgiving Special (This is the part you're staring at)//Part 2//Part 2.5// Part 3
A/N not a part 2 either sorry guys. But since it is Thanksgiving I decided to give you a little holiday special. It is actually important to the rest of the series (especially since it gives out a lot of names) but it isn’t very good since I wrote it all literally today and did not edit it in the slightest. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Also yes I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but I’m American and really wanted to write something more for you guys because part 2 has been taking me a while. Feel free to read it as a different holiday if you want!! I promise part 2 is coming!!!
Description: He was the sun and she was the moon and they were soulmates. Which was both a blessing and a curse. She needed his light and warmth and he needed her to reflect it back to him, but they were ever so distant, both unable to truly reach each other. He reached out for her every way he could, but only in his darkest moments could she ever be found.
Genre: Mostly fluff a little angst at the beginning.
Warnings: Swearing mentions of abuse and death
Word count: 2798 words
She had never had a full family Thanksgiving someone was always gone. When her father was still in their lives, before he'd packed his bags and run out screaming "I'm your soulmate I have to love you, but that doesn't mean I have to stay," at their mother, he was busy with work and very rarely made it home in time for dinner, working as a manager in a large company didn't give you a lot of time at home. After he left their mother had spent every Thanksgiving out on the town drowning sorrows until the year she threw herself off a building and her eldest sibling, her sister, spent the day outside of the house, she'd been around when the whole family was together and it hurt her too much to know he was gone and not because he was busy at work making money to keep food on their table. After her mother threw herself off of the top of a building her sister really stopped coming around and so did the elder of her two brothers. For years now it had only been her, Taeyong, and their aunt seated around the table, but most years she didn't mind. Thanksgiving was a time to be grateful and grateful she was for what she had. She was grateful one of her siblings stuck around and loved her, thankful for the food on the table, and her aunt who even with all her flaws had still raised them well and made an effort to be sober for at least a little bit of the day and made them the dinner that sat before them. So Thanksgiving still remained one of her favorite holidays, it reminded her who truly cared and reminded her that even though she'd lost so much, she still had a whole lot left.
He remembered a time when his whole family was gathered around the table. When his father would carve the turkey and his mother would smile and laugh. He remembered the sparkle in her eyes when she looked at his father and the gentle way they held hands while they ate. He remembered happy days and love, but even now that all that was gone he still had a lot to be thankful for. He was grateful he was still alive and that his mother was too. He was thankful that they still had each other and that she always took the day off from work even if she only took the day to sleep. He still loved Thanksgiving if only because it reminded him that they still had each other and she loved him even if she had a hard time showing it these days. He spent most Thanksgivings with his neighbors and some of their friends who were far from home this time of year attending university and unable to go home for the short break. He always invited his mother and sometimes she came and sometimes she didn't.
This year was one of the ones she didn't. "Mom, Taeil and his sister invited me over again, do you want to come?" He asked her gently this morning when she came into the kitchen to get some coffee.
"Not this time honey," She replied groggily and started to pour herself some coffee, but with shaking hands that wasn't a great idea. He walked over to her and helped her pour herself a cup. "Thank you, Honey," She said as he handed the cup over to her.
"No problem mom, did you want me to stay home this year, I can make us something and we can spend the day together?" He suggested softly as she took a sip of coffee.
"No, Honey, you should go have fun, don't let this old Debbie Downer bring you down with her, you're still young you should be enjoying life not taking of me like this," His mom replied and he could see the tears in her eyes as she took another sip of coffee.
"Mom, it's no problem really, I'd love to spend the day with you," He added softly stepping closer to her, she backed away.
"No, it's better if you spend less time here..." She replied turning away from him.
"Mom," He began and took another step towards her.
"Honey, please, it's better this way," She replied and he sighed and frowned at the older woman who he loved dearly. Her hair was graying and looked like pepper from all the stress she'd been putting herself under, her appearance haggard and worn out in every way.
"Mom, I know you didn't mean it, it's ok, you're just hurting and alcohol can bring out the worst in us," He said softly, knowing full well that all of this was guilt for what she'd done. "I love you, mom."
"I know honey, but that doesn't make it ok, I shouldn't have hit you at all much less treat you like I did, so go have fun with Taeil and his sister and their friends, I'll be fine," She replied turning to face him again and putting down her mug to reach out to him. He took her hands in his and pulled her into a gentle hug.
"Ok, I'll go, but not until I've made you some food," He replied and then ushered her out of the kitchen so he could get to work.
Once he'd finished making her a small meal he put it in the fridge for her to enjoy later and then walked over to his neighbor's house where he was greeted by Taeil who ushered him in kindly and proceeded to introduce him to everyone gathered there. He, of course, knew a few from past years, but Taeil had this habit of adopting people and so the group always grew and only shrunk after members got married or graduated and moved away. Some of the familiar faces were Sicheng or as everyone called him WinWin because he was a star and everyone knew it, everything about him was wonderful and well a win, he was from China and had started coming the second year, he'd been invited by Yuta, WinWin's soulmate from Japan who'd been here since the beginning as it was too hard to get home for Thanksgiving, Johnny the reason this even existed, he'd gotten sad one year when he realized he wasn't going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving and so Taeil had been putting this together ever since, Kun, another one from China whose first year had been last year and finally Ten a dance major from Thailand who like Yuta and Johnny had been here since the beginning. Amongst the new faces were Mark a new transfer student from Canada who'd likely be coming to these every year from now on, Lucas, another student from China who had been invited by Ten this year, and Chenle Taeil's sister's soulmate and yet another student from China, the two of them Chenle and Taeil's sister had yet to enter University but attended the same high school in the area, the very one he himself used to attend until recently him being just a bit older than the pair.
Thanksgiving was one of the few days where she and Taeyong didn't have to wake their aunt, she'd already been up getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner and nursing a hangover while she did it. So they'd help her and it always got messy one way or another. This year Taeyong started a food fight with the stuffing. It had begun with a mocking comment from his sister which he retaliated to with a handful of stuffing. She had responded with a comment about how immature he was and he'd responded with another fistful of stuffing... So, she'd grabbed the food item nearest her, which happened to be cranberry sauce and dumped it on his head before mashing it down into his hair.
"You jerk!" He'd proclaimed as some of it began to slide down his face. Then he'd grabbed the entire bowl of stuffing and started moving towards her. She ran. He followed chasing her until finally he tackled her onto the living room couch and dumped it on her head as well. She immediately shoved him off and then ran back to the kitchen to refill her stocks of weapons. This time it was eggs which she threw at Taeyong as he chased after her. Three ended up hitting his chest and covering his shirt in egg, but the other six all ended up on the walls and floor. All the while he was throwing mashed potatoes at her and his aim was much better.
By the time they finally called a truce the house was a mess of eggs, mashed potato, and other foods and they had food everywhere, stuck in their hair on their chests and legs and arms, Taeyong had a piece of carrot stuck behind his ear and sweet potato all over his back. She had a green bean stuck in her hair and fruit punch dripping from her shirt. They were both laying on the kitchen trying to breathe again as they sucked in deep breaths and panted slightly.
"If you had touched the pumpkin pie, you would be dead now, I hope you know that," She said softly turning her head to look at her older brother.
"Same goes to you, munchkin," Taeyong responded sitting up and leaning against one of the cupboards.
"At least the wild animals know enough not to mess with the pie," They heard their aunt mutter angrily under her breath and started busting out laughing. "Shut up you animals, go shower and change and then we can eat," their aunt said louder looking over at them with stern fondness, she was upset with them but clearly also amused and glad they were having fun. They nodded and stood up to go do as she directed.
"Hey, does Chenle have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with?" Taeyong asked as they ascended the stairs.
"Yeah, soulmate remember plus he's still in high school and his family lives in town, anyways apparently her brother does this whole huge thing with some of the college kids, he invited me to come, but for some reason I declined to hang out with you, look where that got me," She replied staring down at the blue shirt that had now been tainted by red punch.
"Mmm, what about Renjun and Jisung?" Taeyong asked as they continued up the stairs. "Come on, you know we have plenty of food and room for them," Taeyong suggested nudging her slightly.
"Well, Jisung's family lives here, again still in high school, so he's got that going, but Renjun is probably alone, I'll ask him if he wants to come over," She answered before kissing her older brother on the cheek and going off towards her bathroom to shower. On her way, she called Renjun.
"Hey, y/n, what's up, Taeyong being annoying?" Renjun asked as soon as he picked up the phone.
"Yes and no," She replied with a smile, "Do you have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with?"
"Well, Jeno and I were just about to come up with an excuse to decline Chenle's invitation, don't really want to interrupt the whole soulmate thing, ya know?" Renjun responded and she nodded for a moment forgetting he couldn't see her.
"Did you want to come over and spend it with my family, it would be a better excuse than whatever you two were going to come up with?" She asked as she grabbed a towel and a change of clothes.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Renjun answered after a moment of silence, probably used to confer with his companion Jeno.
"Ok, head on over now then we're just about to eat," She replied and then the two hung up.
Thanksgiving was fun, but uneventful for him until dessert came around, well except for when Johnny asked a question, looking between him and Taeil. "So are either of you ever going to explain what all this tramp stamp stuff is about?" Johnny asked and immediately he felt his cheeks and ears heat up.
"What?" He choked out slightly the blush very evident on his face.
"Mmm, yeah Taeil and his little sis here keep making jokes about a tramp stamp and the only explanation we've ever gotten is it's an inside joke about our neighbor," Johnny replied staring intently at the blushing mess that was this boy.
"I feel so betrayed right now," He said glaring towards Taeil and his sister who both just shrugged.
"It was funny, sorry man," Spoke the only female in the room with a shrug.
"I'm planning on getting a tattoo, so I asked my soulmate where she'd want it," He began but he was quickly cut off.
"And she said she wanted a tramp stamp?" Ten questioned in shock "Where can I find me a girl like this?"
"Y'know there's nothing inherently wrong or suggestive about a tramp stamp right? It's just a generalized idea that is both false and demeaning," Kun added frowning a little, not specifically at ten but about useless stereotypes.
"I mean the tattoo he wants to get would look best going straight across somewhere and she suggested three of the best places for that kind of look, plus it makes it more meaningful that it's not somewhere super visible," Taeil added, probably trying to make up for using it as a joke at his neighbors expense.
"Plus if she doesn't want a tattoo this might be her way of compromising, easily hidden and forgettable, but still there so she's being supportive of his desires even if she doesn't agree," Kun added after a slight lull. That was all they said on the subject and pretty much the only eventful thing regarding him at dinner. Otherwise, it was mostly a bunch of teenagers and college students being total dorks and crackheads as usual. At least until dessert rolled around and he had the best idea ever.
It was a totally normal Thanksgiving evening, with the exception of two extra persons in the house, when she fell off the couch despite the fact that she was carefully sandwiched in between Renjun and Jeno and it should've been impossible.
"What the hell?" Renjun said as she collided with the floor and sat up rubbing her head.
"Ugh, so the universe hates me," She answered and quickly explained that she could now also hear her soulmate's thoughts on the odd occasion.
"So what did he surprise you by speaking to you or something?" Jeno asked as she concluded.
"He screamed 'I have the best idea! OMG!' Really loud in my head," She replied rubbing her temples gently.
"Ouch," Jeno replied with little to no actual feeling in his voice.
"Thank you pumpkin spice cake and pumpkin pie," suddenly rang out in her head in his voice at a much quieter level and she couldn't help but pull a face of utter confusion.
"What did he say now?" Taeyong asked leaning forward in his seat endlessly curious about his otp.
"He's thanking desserts..." She replied before chuckling softly under her breath at how dumb her soulmate sounded right now.
"Y/n, your soulmate is one odd cookie, he's perfect for you," Renjun said looking at her with mixed expressions, confusion being the chief amongst them.
Then only a few moments later in his familiar handwriting words showed up on her skin, "So, you know how I've been trying out different nicknames/pet names for you, I've finally found the perfect one!" He wrote to her and then continued, "You'll be cinnamon, cause you're sweet but also not, you know, like cinnamon, does that make sense, you remind me of cinnamon so I'm gonna call you cinnamon," He wrote beginning to ramble slightly which she hadn't even known was possible. "Then you can call me sugar, cause I'm super sweet all the time and then together we'll be cinnamon sugar which is amazing and we'd have matching nicknames which is super cute," Her soulmate wrote again moments later and she sighed with a tinge of adoration in it.
"He's adorable," She muttered softly under her breath and chuckled lightly. "Ok then, you can call me cinnamon and I'll call you sugar," She wrote back with a soft smile on her lips and the three males in the room watched in amusement at the girl who was slowly but surely falling in love.
"YES!" Was the very next thing she heard in her head from him and chuckled slightly once again. He really was a cute boy whoever he was.
Neither of them stopped smiling for the rest of the night...
A/N Thank you for reading!! I hope you liked it!!! Let me know what you thought and who you think her soulmate is now!! Remember none of these gifs are mine all credit goes to creators and owners!! Hope you all had/are having a wonderful Thanksgiving or just a wonderful day!!
#nct imagines#nct 127#nct u#nct dream#nct scenarios#nct 2018#kpop imagine#kpop scenario#kpop soulmate au#nct soulmate au#soulmate au#the sun and moon#love#sm entertainment#angst#fluff
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Simple Seasonal Eating Guide for Families
New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/simple-seasonal-eating-guide-for-families/
Simple Seasonal Eating Guide for Families
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
I’m always looking for easy ways to improve my family’s health and seasonal eating is one of the best. We don’t drive ourselves crazy over it but try to enjoy dreaming up recipes based on what’s at the farmer’s market or in the garden. And it’s not as hard as it seems! Seasonal eating comes naturally when you simply change your mindset and get in touch with where your food comes from.
Why Eat Seasonally?
Eating seasonally has many benefits:
Taste – In-season produce is often much tastier than out of season produce because it doesn’t have to be shipped as far (or at all) and can ripen for longer on the plant.
Health – For the same reason that in-season produce tastes better, it’s also generally higher in nutrients.
Support Local Economy – Eating in-season means you can support the local economy and your local food growers by buying from local farmers instead of the grocery store.
Cost – Eating seasonally also means you’re buying food when it’s least expensive, saving on your grocery bill.
Because I keep a garden, seasonal eating is a necessity. But it’s also a lot of fun to find what’s coming into season in the grocery store or farmer’s market and figure out how to use those items.
How to Eat Seasonally (& Have Fun Doing It)
Moms are often already stretched thin, so adding one more thing to the to-do list can be very overwhelming. Luckily seasonal eating doesn’t have to be another to-do list item. It can be a fun addition to a healthy lifestyle.
Here’s how:
Have a Plan
Having a plan for using seasonal produce is important. If you don’t normally meal plan, now might be a good time to start. I use Real Plans to plan out my family’s weekly meals. It’s much simpler than doing it myself and Real Plans automatically serves up seasonal recipes!
Think Differently
To start eating seasonally you’ll have to change your mindset a bit. Instead of eating blueberries every other week throughout the year you’ll have to find interesting ways to use them in the summer when they’re in season (or frozen ones at other times).
Don’t Overcomplicate
When it comes to finding seasonal recipes for the produce you’re growing or buying locally, keep it simple. Don’t try to cook complicated dishes before you’re comfortable with using certain ingredients together. Stick with simple recipes and build your skills and knowledge base slowly.
What to Do With Seasonal Produce
Once you start to buy produce seasonally, you’ll realize that you end up with a lot of one thing at a time.
Here are some ideas for dealing with large amounts of seasonal produce:
Learn to preserve – If you can buy or grow lots of tomatoes in the summer, learn to can or freeze them for the winter. Do the same for other produce you find in-season. If canning isn’t your jam (pun intended), try pickling, freezing, drying, or fermenting to extend the life of in-season foods.
Adjust to eating more when it’s fresh – We tend to eat the foods we like at regular intervals all year. But seasonal eating asks us to eat a lot of one item when it’s fresh (and little or none at other times of the year). That means we might eat lots of berries in the summer, but stick with citrus fruits in the winter.
Bake with the extra – Another option is to make sweet breads, muffins, casseroles, and quiches with whatever you have a lot of and freeze those for later.
When I get a large harvest from my garden or the farmer’s market I do all three of these things! It gives the kids something to look forward to (all the strawberries you can eat in June!) and adds routine to the year.
What’s in Season Now?
What produce is in season depends on where you live in the world. The easiest way to know what’s in season is to go to your local farm or farmer’s market and see what they are producing. You can also check a state-by-state seasonal food guide.
But local foods are not the only in-season foods. Foods that travel from other climates also have a season.
For example, most Americans can’t buy local citrus fruits, but the winter is the best time to get them at their freshest and lowest price. Here’s what to look for at the grocery store or farmer’s market for the freshest produce year-round:
January
For most people, January is a time of rest and reflection. The garden has long been put to bed and the season calls for warm soups and stews as well as lots of starchy vegetables. Here’s what’s in season in January:
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Grapefruit
Kale
Leeks
Lemons
Oranges
Parsnips
Pomegranates
Potatoes
Rutabagas
Tangelos
Tangerines
Turnips
Winter Squash
January Seasonal Recipes:
February
For many climates, February is cold and dark, so warm and bright foods are welcome! Root veggies, cruciferous veggies, and citrus fruit are abundant:
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Grapefruit
Kale
Leeks
Lemons
Oranges
Parsnip
Radishes
Rutabagas
Spinach
Sweet Potatoes
Tangelos
Turnips
February Seasonal Recipes:
March
March is the official start of spring. Spring brings back the more fragile vegetables like greens and reminds us that more fresh produce is coming!
Artichokes
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard greens
Kale
Leeks
Lemons
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Oranges
Parsnip
Pineapples
Radishes
Rutabagas
Spring peas
Swiss chard
Turnips
March Seasonal Recipes:
April
As April enters we start to see more spring vegetables and some fruits start popping into the stores.
Artichokes
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocados
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard greens
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Pineapples
Radishes
Rhubarb
Spring peas
Strawberries
Sweet onions
April Seasonal Recipes:
May
May ushers in the end of school for some and the beginning of the unofficial summer (Memorial Day). Berries start showing their faces as well as other fruits.
Apricots
Artichokes
Asparagus
Avocados
Blackberries
Blueberries
Carrots
Celery
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Collard greens
Cucumber
Grapes
Lettuce
Mangoes
Okra (a favorite of mine)
Pineapples
Radishes (my kids will eat them in this dip recipe)
Rhubarb
Spinach
Spring peas
Strawberries
Sweet onions
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Zucchini
May Seasonal Recipes:
June
The official start of summer begins at the end of June and the wealth of fresh fruits and veggies is growing every day.
Apricots
Avocados
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Corn
Garlic
Kiwi
Lettuce
Mangoes
Peaches
Pineapple
Raspberries
Strawberries
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini
June Seasonal Recipes:
July
Summer is in full swing and BBQs and backyard grilling are favorite ways to prepare meals. Here’s what to look out for this month:
Apricots
Avocados
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Garlic
Green beans
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mangoes
Okra
Peaches
Peppers
Pineapple
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
Summer squash
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini
July Seasonal Recipes:
August
For many places August is the hottest month of the year which means lots of picnics at the beach! Luckily there are lots of easy to pack fruits and veggies available this month:
Apples
Apricots
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Figs
Green beans
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mangoes
Okra
Peaches
Peppers
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
Summer squash
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini
August Seasonal Recipes:
September
As school resumes and summer vacation ends families are looking for packable lunch items and simple recipes. But September is still technically summer for a few more weeks so there are lots to choose from:
Apples
Beets
Cantaloupe
Cauliflower
Eggplant
Figs
Grapes
Green beans
Lettuce
Mangoes
Mushrooms
Okra
Peppers
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Pumpkins
Spinach
Sweet potatoes
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
September Seasonal Recipes:
October
Many areas are cooling down and crisp or brisk weather is a welcome change for the hot days of summer. October is when heartier veggies begin to come into season. Many of these veggies store well long term:
Apples
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Cranberries
Grapes
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Parsnips
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Pumpkins
Rutabagas
Spinach
Sweet potatoes
Swiss chard
Turnips
Winter squash
October Seasonal Recipes:
November
Thanksgiving is just around the corner so flavors reminiscent of this American tradition are on many people’s minds. Find root vegetables and cruciferous veggies in abundance this month as well as a few choice fruits:
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Cranberries
Leeks
Mushrooms
Oranges
Parsnips
Pears
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Pumpkins
Rutabagas
Spinach
Sweet potatoes
Tangerines
Turnips
Winter squash
November Seasonal Recipes:
December
The holiday season is in full swing and Christmas is just a few weeks away. December brings more of those hearty vegetables that are great with roasts or in soups.
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Grapefruit
Kale
Leeks
Mushrooms
Oranges
Papayas
Parsnips
Pears
Pomegranates
Rutabagas
Sweet potatoes
Tangelos
Turnips
Winter Squash
December Seasonal Recipes:
Seasonal Eating Made Easy
It might be overwhelming to start eating more seasonally but it’s not as difficult as it seems. You don’t need to go all-in and only eat local or in-season produce. Simply add more seasonal produce to your meal plan as you can. This is a great way to get you thinking seasonally. Soon you’ll be eating and serving as much seasonal produce as you want!
How do you eat seasonally? What are your tips?
Source: https://wellnessmama.com/428020/seasonal-eating/
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This Passover Is Not Like Other Passovers
A Passover Seder table | Shutterstock
The coronavirus pandemic will drastically reshape the holiday that, by definition, is about families coming together
On the afternoon before their Passover Seder last spring, Liz Alpern and Shira Kline’s Brooklyn garden apartment was crowded with furniture that the couple had gathered for the evening ahead. A giant bowl of mole sat out on the counter, while in the fridge, packets of lamb stew meat were Jenga-stacked next to containers of homemade gefilte fish. Kline and Alpern, who co-owns the artisan Jewish food company the Gefilteria, had been planning the event for months. Invitations had been sent out seven weeks in advance, and 27 people would be joining them that evening. It was the first time, says Alpern, that “all of these different sides of these families were in the same place.”
That Seder was a success. And so this year, the plan was to go even bigger, with 28 people. But in late March, two weeks before the holiday, Kline and Alpern were still sorting out their Passover plans. “I think there’s this part of me, maybe unrealistically, that thinks that there will be some solution in which some of us can be together in person,” Alpern said at the time. “Whether that’s being in a giant room together [where] we’re six feet apart or whether that’s doing something outside.”
Alpern and Kline weren’t alone in the uncertainty of their last-minute planning. This year, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to interrupt every aspect of daily life, Jews across the country are scrambling to remake tradition in time for Passover Seder, an elaborate dinner hosted on the first and — outside of Israel — second nights of the holiday, which this year begins on April 8. The ritual, which is sometimes referred to as Jewish Thanksgiving, is often cited as the most widely observed Jewish custom. During the meal, the story of the Exodus is retold, freedom is celebrated, and a matzo-fueled feast is served to the family and friends, both Jewish and not, who gather around the dinner table.
“By definition, Passover is about family coming together,” Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen co-owner Evan Bloom says. “The thing that makes this crisis and this Passover unique is that despite needing to come together, we can’t.”
That is particularly true for traditionally observant Jews, who abstain from using electricity during part of the holiday and thus won’t have the option to celebrate together virtually. But less traditionally observant Jews are using Zoom and other platforms to connect with loved ones in different cities and neighbors across the hall. Passover kits have been hawked online by the likes of Wise Sons, Oh! Nuts, and Chabad, and made by parents to be shipped to their offspring. Some people are rewriting their Passover menus, swapping traditional large-format dishes like brisket for simpler recipes and even takeout.
For Francine Cohen, the Seder meal will take the form of a socially distant potluck with a handful of neighbors in her Upper West Side Manhattan apartment building. One neighbor is handling the matzo ball soup, and another a green vegetable, while Cohen herself will prepare her grandmother’s brisket with apricots and prunes. The dishes will be portioned, packed up, and left at each neighbor’s doorstep on the morning of the meal. In the evening, everyone will sit down and connect for a Seder on Zoom.
The plans for the building’s Seders, which will likely take place both nights, were hatched in late March when a 60-something neighbor told Cohen she was craving human connection. With this arrangement, Cohen explains, “neighbors will not be without a way to celebrate Passover with other humans.”
Justin Feldstein says that his family’s plan for a Zoom Seder means that he doesn’t have an excuse not to show up. In recent years, Feldstein, who grew up on Long Island and now lives in Boston with his fiancée, hasn’t been able to get back to Long Island to attend his family’s mid-week celebration, which is overseen by his 90-year-old grandmother. But even though Zoom means their attendance is certain, their menu remains a question: While New York-based family members will receive care packages of matzo ball soup, stuffed cabbage rolls, and mandlebread that Feldstein’s grandmother made and froze before the pandemic hit the U.S., Feldstein himself lives out of the delivery range. After asking himself what an “appropriate” meal would be for the occasion, he settled on Chinese food. “At least there’s no leavened bread that I know of,” he says. “And I’ll stay away from moo shoo pancakes.”
In keeping with tradition, the family’s dinner will include a discussion of the 10 plagues, a central part of Seder. This year, it will have a timely spin. During a phone call with his grandmother, Feldstein recalls that she said, “Now we just have two plagues: the first being Trump and the second being the virus.”
In 2020, the script for a modernized, darkly humorous Passover text seems to write itself. Consider the case of Gal Beckerman, a New York Times Book Review editor who flew to Southern California with his wife and kids in order to be closer to his parents and sister. Their 14-day quarantine at a house next door to Beckerman’s parents is scheduled to end on the eve of Passover. “It’s a weird serendipity,” Beckerman says. “We’ve joked that it’s not just the freedom of the Jews from slavery, it’s our freedom from this house that we’ve been stuck in.” When the quarantine ends, they will walk next door for a family Seder.
Back in Brooklyn, Celia Muller, a media lawyer, has found that the Passover holiday tradition and her Jewish heritage have offered a sense of grounding during the pandemic. In recent weeks, she’s been “thinking about the fact that if it weren’t for a whole ton of perseverance from the time of Exodus down till now... I would not be here,” she says. “I’m drawing on that strength of the past. So to me, it became really important to have Seder.”
Muller is planning to host a second-night Zoom Seder where she will use a card deck version of the Haggadah, the book that guides the evening’s festivities. In her emails to attendees (full disclosure: myself included), she attached cards for each guest and wrote, “The Haggadah we’re using explicitly contemplates a soup/salad break, so definitely have some nosh on hand even if you don’t go for matzo ball soup.” She offered snack suggestions including gefilte fish—“(shhh some of us like it)”—and links to a few recipe possibilities for the meal.
Muller also reminded her friends of the elements of the Seder plate, which sits at the center of the Seder ritual. An edible guide to the evening’s retelling of the story of the Exodus, it includes an egg, a roasted lamb shank, bitter herbs, and a sweet paste made from fruit and nuts called charoset, along with other edible symbols. For participants who can’t or don’t want to track down the items, Muller says, “I will make sure that I have everything and everyone can participate symbolically.”
And for those who don’t relish the prospect of trying to source Passover ingredients, there is the Passover kit. In New York, La Newyorkina owner Fany Gerson has been selling Mexican Passover meals whose options include Mexican-style gefilte fish and matzo ball soup, roasted carrots with harissa, brisket tamales, and flourless chocolate chipotle cake. Over in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wise Sons is selling kits with “everything you need on the Passover [Seder] plate but the plate,” Bloom says. They include candlesticks and a full meal including brisket, matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and chopped liver; the Haggadah that Wise Sons uses at its annual Seder at the Contemporary Jewish Museum will be available for free online.
Passover kits also ensure that Seder hosts won’t miss any of the essentials, particularly matzo, which was rumored to be sold out weeks before the holiday. “Retailers were calling, frantic, three weeks ago — everything got wiped out,” says Aaron Gross, the owner of Streit’s, a 95-year-old matzo manufacturer that produces some 2 million boxes of matzo each Passover from its factory outside of New York City. But now, he adds, some of those retailers are calling and saying they no longer need those orders.
Even without a shortage of matzo, some are planning to make their own. Before California’s shelter-in-place order went into effect, Vicky Zeamer, a design researcher in San Francisco, tried to find yeast but found that stores were already sold out. She recalls thinking, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to make bread without yeast?” And then she realized that bread without leavening is the definition of matzo. “Between [the lack of yeast] and the plague, it’s feeling too much like Passover,” she quips. Although Zeamer isn’t planning on joining a Seder, she may watch the 1995 cartoon episode “A Rugrats Passover,” which is considered a childhood touchpoint for many millennial Jews.
Across the country in Brooklyn, Alpern and Kline are also planning to bake matzo. A week before the start of Passover, the couple had settled on hosting a Seder using the platform Seder2020. They’ve invited a large group of family “and a few of my friends who couldn’t have fit in my house,” Alpern says. This year, there will still be a big Seder and a busy kitchen, but the living room won’t be full of furniture. Instead, it will be crowded with voices, beamed in from Passover tables near and far.
Devra Ferst is a Brooklyn-based food and travel writer. Follow her on Instagram @dferst.
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A Passover Seder table | Shutterstock
The coronavirus pandemic will drastically reshape the holiday that, by definition, is about families coming together
On the afternoon before their Passover Seder last spring, Liz Alpern and Shira Kline’s Brooklyn garden apartment was crowded with furniture that the couple had gathered for the evening ahead. A giant bowl of mole sat out on the counter, while in the fridge, packets of lamb stew meat were Jenga-stacked next to containers of homemade gefilte fish. Kline and Alpern, who co-owns the artisan Jewish food company the Gefilteria, had been planning the event for months. Invitations had been sent out seven weeks in advance, and 27 people would be joining them that evening. It was the first time, says Alpern, that “all of these different sides of these families were in the same place.”
That Seder was a success. And so this year, the plan was to go even bigger, with 28 people. But in late March, two weeks before the holiday, Kline and Alpern were still sorting out their Passover plans. “I think there’s this part of me, maybe unrealistically, that thinks that there will be some solution in which some of us can be together in person,” Alpern said at the time. “Whether that’s being in a giant room together [where] we’re six feet apart or whether that’s doing something outside.”
Alpern and Kline weren’t alone in the uncertainty of their last-minute planning. This year, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to interrupt every aspect of daily life, Jews across the country are scrambling to remake tradition in time for Passover Seder, an elaborate dinner hosted on the first and — outside of Israel — second nights of the holiday, which this year begins on April 8. The ritual, which is sometimes referred to as Jewish Thanksgiving, is often cited as the most widely observed Jewish custom. During the meal, the story of the Exodus is retold, freedom is celebrated, and a matzo-fueled feast is served to the family and friends, both Jewish and not, who gather around the dinner table.
“By definition, Passover is about family coming together,” Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen co-owner Evan Bloom says. “The thing that makes this crisis and this Passover unique is that despite needing to come together, we can’t.”
That is particularly true for traditionally observant Jews, who abstain from using electricity during part of the holiday and thus won’t have the option to celebrate together virtually. But less traditionally observant Jews are using Zoom and other platforms to connect with loved ones in different cities and neighbors across the hall. Passover kits have been hawked online by the likes of Wise Sons, Oh! Nuts, and Chabad, and made by parents to be shipped to their offspring. Some people are rewriting their Passover menus, swapping traditional large-format dishes like brisket for simpler recipes and even takeout.
For Francine Cohen, the Seder meal will take the form of a socially distant potluck with a handful of neighbors in her Upper West Side Manhattan apartment building. One neighbor is handling the matzo ball soup, and another a green vegetable, while Cohen herself will prepare her grandmother’s brisket with apricots and prunes. The dishes will be portioned, packed up, and left at each neighbor’s doorstep on the morning of the meal. In the evening, everyone will sit down and connect for a Seder on Zoom.
The plans for the building’s Seders, which will likely take place both nights, were hatched in late March when a 60-something neighbor told Cohen she was craving human connection. With this arrangement, Cohen explains, “neighbors will not be without a way to celebrate Passover with other humans.”
Justin Feldstein says that his family’s plan for a Zoom Seder means that he doesn’t have an excuse not to show up. In recent years, Feldstein, who grew up on Long Island and now lives in Boston with his fiancée, hasn’t been able to get back to Long Island to attend his family’s mid-week celebration, which is overseen by his 90-year-old grandmother. But even though Zoom means their attendance is certain, their menu remains a question: While New York-based family members will receive care packages of matzo ball soup, stuffed cabbage rolls, and mandlebread that Feldstein’s grandmother made and froze before the pandemic hit the U.S., Feldstein himself lives out of the delivery range. After asking himself what an “appropriate” meal would be for the occasion, he settled on Chinese food. “At least there’s no leavened bread that I know of,” he says. “And I’ll stay away from moo shoo pancakes.”
In keeping with tradition, the family’s dinner will include a discussion of the 10 plagues, a central part of Seder. This year, it will have a timely spin. During a phone call with his grandmother, Feldstein recalls that she said, “Now we just have two plagues: the first being Trump and the second being the virus.”
In 2020, the script for a modernized, darkly humorous Passover text seems to write itself. Consider the case of Gal Beckerman, a New York Times Book Review editor who flew to Southern California with his wife and kids in order to be closer to his parents and sister. Their 14-day quarantine at a house next door to Beckerman’s parents is scheduled to end on the eve of Passover. “It’s a weird serendipity,” Beckerman says. “We’ve joked that it’s not just the freedom of the Jews from slavery, it’s our freedom from this house that we’ve been stuck in.” When the quarantine ends, they will walk next door for a family Seder.
Back in Brooklyn, Celia Muller, a media lawyer, has found that the Passover holiday tradition and her Jewish heritage have offered a sense of grounding during the pandemic. In recent weeks, she’s been “thinking about the fact that if it weren’t for a whole ton of perseverance from the time of Exodus down till now... I would not be here,” she says. “I’m drawing on that strength of the past. So to me, it became really important to have Seder.”
Muller is planning to host a second-night Zoom Seder where she will use a card deck version of the Haggadah, the book that guides the evening’s festivities. In her emails to attendees (full disclosure: myself included), she attached cards for each guest and wrote, “The Haggadah we’re using explicitly contemplates a soup/salad break, so definitely have some nosh on hand even if you don’t go for matzo ball soup.” She offered snack suggestions including gefilte fish—“(shhh some of us like it)”—and links to a few recipe possibilities for the meal.
Muller also reminded her friends of the elements of the Seder plate, which sits at the center of the Seder ritual. An edible guide to the evening’s retelling of the story of the Exodus, it includes an egg, a roasted lamb shank, bitter herbs, and a sweet paste made from fruit and nuts called charoset, along with other edible symbols. For participants who can’t or don’t want to track down the items, Muller says, “I will make sure that I have everything and everyone can participate symbolically.”
And for those who don’t relish the prospect of trying to source Passover ingredients, there is the Passover kit. In New York, La Newyorkina owner Fany Gerson has been selling Mexican Passover meals whose options include Mexican-style gefilte fish and matzo ball soup, roasted carrots with harissa, brisket tamales, and flourless chocolate chipotle cake. Over in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wise Sons is selling kits with “everything you need on the Passover [Seder] plate but the plate,” Bloom says. They include candlesticks and a full meal including brisket, matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and chopped liver; the Haggadah that Wise Sons uses at its annual Seder at the Contemporary Jewish Museum will be available for free online.
Passover kits also ensure that Seder hosts won’t miss any of the essentials, particularly matzo, which was rumored to be sold out weeks before the holiday. “Retailers were calling, frantic, three weeks ago — everything got wiped out,” says Aaron Gross, the owner of Streit’s, a 95-year-old matzo manufacturer that produces some 2 million boxes of matzo each Passover from its factory outside of New York City. But now, he adds, some of those retailers are calling and saying they no longer need those orders.
Even without a shortage of matzo, some are planning to make their own. Before California’s shelter-in-place order went into effect, Vicky Zeamer, a design researcher in San Francisco, tried to find yeast but found that stores were already sold out. She recalls thinking, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to make bread without yeast?” And then she realized that bread without leavening is the definition of matzo. “Between [the lack of yeast] and the plague, it’s feeling too much like Passover,” she quips. Although Zeamer isn’t planning on joining a Seder, she may watch the 1995 cartoon episode “A Rugrats Passover,” which is considered a childhood touchpoint for many millennial Jews.
Across the country in Brooklyn, Alpern and Kline are also planning to bake matzo. A week before the start of Passover, the couple had settled on hosting a Seder using the platform Seder2020. They’ve invited a large group of family “and a few of my friends who couldn’t have fit in my house,” Alpern says. This year, there will still be a big Seder and a busy kitchen, but the living room won’t be full of furniture. Instead, it will be crowded with voices, beamed in from Passover tables near and far.
Devra Ferst is a Brooklyn-based food and travel writer. Follow her on Instagram @dferst.
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Random Update Time! October/November 2017
Random update time!
Over the last two months I’ve saved up quite a few cool things to show you!
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The weekend after I got back to Japan from my trip to America, it was the Chosa Festival!
Usually it’s always really warm and sunny for the festival, but this year it was pouring rain. I thought they would have probably cancelled the festival, but Mabs and I went to check just in case, and it’s a good thing we did!
I love the excitement of the Chosa Festival when it’s a nice sunny weekend like it had been for the last couple of years, but I also really enjoyed the mysterious sort of atmosphere that the rain gave the festival.
The chosas lit up their plastic coverings and looked like lanterns, and almost everyone was carrying a clear umbrella.
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Some new Black Thunder candy bars!
This one is “Mochi Mochi Kinako Black Thunder”, it’s kinako-flavored and has mochi-flavored gummy candies inside. It was good, and the gummies were a clever way of simulating mochi.
And this is Black Thunder Volt, which is bigger and more candy-bar-shaped than the usual Black Thunders, and it has a ton of almonds inside.
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Oh! I don’t know if I ever ended up telling you all, but I chose a web design school!
I decided to go with with the first one I visited, and I’m excited to move to Osaka and start school next April!
The school gives special discounts to foreign students who can speak a high level of Japanese or a high level of English. After taking the N2 level of Japanese Language Proficiency Test last year, I had a high enough level to get the second highest tier of discounts, but if I wanted to get the highest tier of discounts, I would need to take either the N1 JLTP or get a high score on the TOEIC English test.
The N1 is a big jump in difficulty from the N2, so I decided to take the TOEIC instead! LOL
I used to use this book to teach my students who were preparing to take the TOEIC, but I thought I should look it over one more time before the test.
I had to go to Okayama to take the test, and I ended up getting to the station pretty early, so I had just enough time to make a quick run to the Aeon shopping mall and go to the store that sells all of the cute Jinbesan whale shark stuff!
I LOVE Jinbesan!! I want literally everything they sell there.
Anyway, I got myself some cute (surprisingly cheap) stuff: a cup, a small case which I’ve been using to store chargers and cords (I haven’t lost my tablet pen once since I got it!), a stationery set, and TWO JINBESAN MECHANICAL PENCILS! I’d been looking for Jinbesan mechanical pencils (I didn’t even know if that was a thing that existed, but I was checking all of the stationery stores just in case) so I was so happy to find these!!
Look how cute the inside of the cup is!
Since I’ll be moving to Osaka in the nearish future and will have to have my own dishes and stuff, I thought I would buy this to use as a water cup.
I love all of this stuff so much!
It’s so cute and I smile whenever I look at it. (〃艸〃)♡ It also reminds me of how much fun I had seeing a whale shark for the first time at the aquarium in Osaka last year! Whale sharks are the coolest!
As for the actual TOEIC, the listening section was very fast-paced; if you spaced out for a second you could miss several questions. The reading section was fine, some of the questions were trickily worded, but not difficult if you paid attention.
I definitely have a lot of respect for any non-native English speakers who can get a high TOEIC score though! I don’t think I would do very well on a Japanese test of the same level.
And last week I got my test scores back! I got a perfect score of 990 points!
I can English! ヾ(๑╹ヮ╹๑)ﾉ"
(But seriously, I feel like my ability to speak/write in English is getting worse the longer I live here.)
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As always on October 23rd, I played Final Fantasy X and had some Mountain Dew and Mentos in memory of my friend Derek.
For some reason, supermarkets and konbini in Japan don’t sell Mountain Dew, but you can find it in certain vending machines sometimes. I had to go on an adventure and just check random vending machines until I found one that had some.
October 23rd always reminds me not only of Derek, but also of how grateful I am for all of my friends.
So to all of you reading this, I just want to say, thanks! ♡
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Some before and after photos of when I cut my wig for my Halloween costume.
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Mabs and I went out for dinner at our favorite kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant back in October, and for dessert I decided to have this tart.
When I ordered it I thought it was “ichigo”, strawberry, but it turned out to be raspberry, which I was even happier with, although sort of confused about. On closer inspection the menu said it was “ki ichigo”, literally “tree strawberry”, which apparently means “raspberry”.
Raspberries don’t even grow on trees! Why are they called “tree strawberries” in Japanese?!?!
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A pretty sunset over the bridge near my apartment.
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I love goldfish (really looking forward to the day when I’m settled in one place for long enough to have pet fish again), so I was so excited about this goldfish gachapon (capsule toy), but after a few minutes the plastic fish always floats to the surface of the slime and looks dead!
Not cute.
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Someone online pointed out that the Ookurikara nendoroid (second from the left) can balance on his head, so I tried it, and he actually stands up better that way than he does on his feet when he’s attached to his stand, LOL!
I thought this was hilarious, so I had to try it with the rest of the Touken Ranbu nendoroid family, and it turns out that everyone but Manba can do it.
Poor Manba...
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At the beginning of November we celebrated Mabs’ birthday!
✧*｡ヾ(๑╹ヮ╹๑)ﾉ"✧*｡
We had a chill celebration and spent all day at home playing video games.
Mabs wore her Pikachu kigurumi!
For dinner we had delicious twice-baked potatoes, carrots, and green beans (which are usually strangely hard to find and/or expensive here).
And for dessert we made a pumpkin pie!
Also if you’re wondering what that strange creature on the right side of the photo is, it’s a potato goat. (A red potato goat, specifically.) Mabs and I came up with weird food+animal creatures for each other, and hers is a potato goat.
I put my Photoshop skills to use and made some potato goats as birthday decorations, LOL.
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November 11th was Pocky and Pretz Day! (because “11/11″ looks like sticks of Pocky)
Don’t worry, we didn’t eat all of those by ourselves (only the 5 small boxes in the front, lol) The winter cocoa Pocky (middle of the back row of small boxes) and the sweet potato Pretz (on the right) were the best!
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Fall/winter is the season for baked sweet potato things (or “yaki-imo”), so these were yaki-imo dango! Yum!
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Mabs and I celebrated Thanksgiving with traditional American food this year! (Although we had to use chicken instead of turkey, because turkeys are an endangered species here and people don’t eat them)
It was a delicious dinner!
And Mabs has totally perfected the process of making gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie!
It was really good, especially with all of that soy milk whipped cream on top!
After dinner we watched the movie “Appleseed”, which is a computer animated sci-fi movie that came out back in 2004. It had a cool style that reminded me of an old video game (actually very good animation for 2004) and was overall an enjoyable watch with some interesting plot twists. (If you search “Appleseed 2004″ on YouTube, you can watch the whole movie for free)
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Last weekend Mabs and I were reminiscing about some of our old Sengoku Basara cosplay adventures in college, and we finally did something that we’ve always been talking about; we swapped characters!
This photo makes me do a double take every time I look at it; we’re so used to it being the other way around!
I had a lot of fun trying to cosplay Yukimura! Doing his makeup went a lot better than I thought it would, and Mabs’ wig actually fit me just fine.
And Mabs made such a cool Sasuke!
It would be really fun to try to swap their full outfits with all of the armor and stuff sometime!
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And here’s one more new type of Black Thunder!
“Black Thunder: Pretty Style”???!?!?
Bascially they’re fun sized, or “cute sized” as it says on the package, LOL.
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And yesterday the weather was really nice, so I got out of the house for a walk, and I took my camera along with me to take some photos of the fall leaves!
Our area of Shikoku isn’t nearly as colorful as some other parts of Japan are in fall, but I still think it’s pretty.
Taking my camera along when I go for a walk is fun, because it makes me look harder to find things that I think are pretty and worth taking a picture of.
It’s nice to slow down and look at things more closely; there’s a lot of cool things out there if you take the time to look for them.
I liked taking photos of the trees on the hills; maybe I took too many photos like this, but everywhere you look the colors and textures are a little different!
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Hope you’re all having a good autumn! 🍁
#Japan#life in Japan#Japanese food#fall#autumn#October 2017#November 2017#2017#random update time#fall leaves#long post
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How to Survive Thanksgiving When You’re a Health Freak..
Thanksgiving is coming... and fast! For those of you who are like me and are on this whole healthy eating, part-time vegan (I’ll explain later), lifestyle change thing, the holidays can be a little stressful considering you don’t want to throw away your months of disciplined eating for only a few hours. I mean you could.. but then there would be consequences and who wants to deal with that?
I’m probably like most of you when I say that I’m pretty greedy, love to eat and am willing to try any and everything at least once. But it’s difficult when the holidays come around and your family consists of a bunch of carnivores whose main purpose in life is to “put some meat on your bones” and make sure you take a plate to go.
So... to prepare for this luxurious holiday, I’m doing research on some healthier alternatives on how I can eat what I want without feeling guilty after. By no means am I a chef or a nutritionist, but here are a few options that work for me.
1. Mixing spinach and kale with your collard greens: don’t knock it until you try it. You’d make greens the same way you normally would but just mix spinach and kale into the pot to give it a more flavorful and healthier taste.
2. Roasted sweet potatoes with honey and cinnamon: bruh.. talk about something good?! Once you perfect the cinnamon to honey ratio, bay-bee.. you’ll be in Heaven!
3. Apple crisp: desserts don’t always have to be bad and apple crisp is one of those smart, sweet treats that is satisfying without the guilt.
4. Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips and Brussels Sprouts: for the indecisive foodie who can’t decide on a veggie. Roast them all together with a touch of your favorite seasoning.
5. Green Bean Casserole: my aunt makes this as a side dish every year and it is BOMB! Make a creamy sauce using low-fat milk instead for a healthier option.
6. Parmesan Whole Roasted Cauliflower: I actually just had parmesan cauliflower for the first time two days ago and I am definitely a fan!
7. Skillet Turkey with Roasted Vegetables: Never tried this one before, but I’m willing to experiment by cooking turkey and veggies in a skillet and then popping them in the oven until the vegetables are tender and the turkey is fully cooked!
Let me know what you decide! Happy eating!
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TDFL PR W#3
To admit to a thing that everyone already knows like Bill Clinton will someday when the antifa firing squad has him wetting his senile pants at gunpoint stammering about how Epstein was onto something with the tightness of 15-year-old box: yes, I missed last week. I shockingly have a girlfriend AND aspirations of being something other than a water babysitter for the rest of my life and the two combined to stop me from shitposting about fantasy football. I have now concluded with my significant other and with my job applications, filling both with rich cum, and will thereby turn my attention to the band of misfits I decided to assemble in hopes of winning a fantasy league for once in my fucking life, which in this instance would basically be like beating ‘Through the Fire and the Flames’ on Guitar Hero in easy difficulty. At least the Eagles officially suck so nobody can feel good about real-life accomplishments except for me and my lovable group of New Englanders who use HGH as lube when waxing their shaven carrots to lithographs of Jock Sutherland’s single-wing play designs. That is a real reference and I am so gratified that I got to waste seconds of your life making you try and process such a string of words – much like you will continue to do if you keep reading! Let’s begin.
10. Leaguema Balls (Mike)
Record: 0-3 | PF: 305.1 | PA: 425.3 | Streak: L3 | Last Week (I actually wrote out a rankings but then just never added the roasts, so they were worthless, but trust me) 10
Plays Next: Sean’s Hard Mangos (Sean)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Continuing to draw breath
It’s comforting to know that I can leave my sweet foundling rankings alone for a week and still have the unmoving anchor way at the bottom to keep it grounded and sturdy. You would have thought that assembling a competent fantasy football roster was Rogaine given Michael’s lack of familiarity with the concept. If you want, Dirt, you can think up an AIM away message to leave in this slot to save me the work for the next 13 weeks and so this entry has some consistency besides sucking more than spilling soup down your shirt in a meeting. (I know that wasn’t you but this guy deserves some of your grilling space.) Marquise Brown is going to blow out a lung trying to run under Lamar’s 102-yard touch passes on Sunday and turn back into Steve Breaston with a dumber nickname.
9. Sean’s Hard Mangos (Sean)
Record: 0-3 | PF: 374.4 | PA: 401.2 | Streak: L3 | Last Week: 8
Plays Next: Oh dear christ not my repeaters again
Questionable Decision of the Week: Dick amputation by tendon fatigue
Just as I take solace in Mike’s cellar-dwelling ways, I can relax about the other two Philly league members having decent squads just by looking at Sean’s merry band of sap-sucking stupidheads. You’d find more consistent direction from Sean behind the wheel of a car than you would from a team led by Derrick Henry and James Conner. And here I thought you were done with uninterested, underperforming ball-grabbers when you broke up with Hannah. Word of advice, dawg! You’re gonna get your first win this week because the algorithm isn’t yet advanced enough to throw up in both of your faces instead of assigning a victor between you and Michael, so act like you’ve been there before, or at least act like you know how to run a palatable social media account after three fucking years of trying and failing.
8. James White is Right (Tori)
Record: 0-3 | PF: 372.7 | PA: 439.7 | Streak: L3 | Last Week: 9
Plays Next: Cartoon Colt Copulation (Hahahahaha)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Acting like her dirt star is the brightest light in the sky when in reality it’s Proxima Centauri from Event Horizon
Much like capitalism, the league has created a placated and clueless middle class, consolidated wealth in the top 1%, and left the lower half of the populace to shiver and die like Austin Ekeler on the sidelines now that Melvin Gordon is back. Of course, knowing Tori’s family, they’d just bray about how the economy is thunderously good before unironically sharing deep-fried boomer memes while she gently chides them through comments, pretending there’s not a little racist in her team name. And in her soul. James White is back, though, having just watched his wife give birth, knowing that whole time that the tearing and screeching he was witnessing would pale in comparison to Tori trying to fit a toothpick up her half-thimble rear entrance.
7. Mark Ruffalo’s Ruffalo Bills (Aidan)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 410.5 | PA: 408.8 | Streak: L1 | Last Week: 3
Plays Next: The Queen’s Booty Lickers (Liv)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Using his asshole around women and not expecting repercussions
Benefiting from a more questionable handout than the insurance settlement that gives him money for having headaches sometimes, Aidan rode high on the back of a free Mahomes the first two weeks of the season. That all came crashing down when Lauren put him in a dumpster in this past matchup, which was probably an upgrade from his place in Chicago. Aidan has a picture of the Blues Brothers’ trainside apartment on his vision board in the hopes that someday he can move somewhere that high-class. Expect further regression as Josh Jacobs and Leonard Fournette continue to suffer from some sort of Power 5 running back glaucoma which makes them barrel directly into their linemen’s asses on every handoff instead of bouncing to the acres of green space just outside the tackles. This is much like how Aidan rushes for beans on toast instead of attempting to taste flavor.
6. Airstrip One Ezekiels Engels (Derv)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 404.7 | PA: 387.8 | Streak: W2 | Last Week: 7
Plays Next: TEAM DUMPSTER BEARS (Lauren)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Fookin ‘ell ‘ard ta pick one innit luv xx
After a less auspicious start than the Easter Rebellion, Derv has rebounded from a sheer fleecing to fashion herself into something of a competent franchise owner. Knowing the strength of her impostor syndrome, though, she’s liable to swap Zeke for a scalding slap in the face *battered whisper* because that’s the type of team that she deserves. I would say this ranking of 6 will be the highest you will ever get but I think if you’re a good enough girl this year, around Thanksgiving your dad will finally put you on his shoulders so you can see the inflatable turkeys parading down the garbage metropolis a mere three hours from you upstate hovel. Otherwise it’ll be another long outing of sinking further down the standings and standing so low at 4’8 you look like you’re dissolving into a sinkhole.
5. The Queen’s Booty Lickers (Liv)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 399.7 | PA: 394.3 | Streak: L1 | Last Week: 1
Plays Next: Mark Ruffalo’s Still Not a Funny Name (Aidan)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Taking dick so long it got mistaken for the amount of time she spends on the toilet
How the mighty have fallen! One minute, you look like an infallible cock destroyer, and then BANG! You get run over. But I won’t bring up your car accident too much. I’m seeing more hopeless tears from your Johnson & Johnson RB corps than from babies piteously afflicted by their cornea-searing shampoo. It’s fitting that such an intermittent contributor would have a roster full of people that basically decide whether or not they want to do a football on a play-by-play basis. “How about an out route, Amari?” “How about you sit in a room for 10 minutes with Liv’s roommate, coach?” This team could light the league on fire but it’ll settle for searing its own britches at completely unpredictable hours. Again, just like Liv.
4. The Birds Have Arrived (John)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 402.1 | PA: 391.4 | Streak: W1 | Last Week: 4
Plays Next: Poo Poo Point Diarrheas (Griffin)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Sending Snickers to hell. She was a good cat john.
The man with the worst opinions in the league dropped Antonio Brown for some reason even though he was clearly a kindred spirit in that regard. There’s no difference between what AB did and what John said about candy, except for the fact that I’d be more comfortable with jizz on my back than I would listening to more of his sweets-based takes. (Come to think of it, I’d just be more comfortable with jizz on my back.) As alluded to before, Melvin Gordon is returning to action, which means John can stop pretending that Miles Sanders will be any kind of valuable contributor, about 4 years and one hair-tearingly bad contract extension before the Eagles do the same. While you’re on the road with the VengaBus, Oakman, see if you can pick up a kicker who realizes that people with apostrophes in their names belong on the defensive line and who can actually put the ball through the fucking uprights.
3. Cartoon Colt Copulation (Gabe)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 422.5 | PA: 333 | Streak: W2 | Last Week: 2
Plays Next: James White is Right (Delicious)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Looking past all the signs that Lauren sabotages air travel just to spend extra time with me and trying to aim my blasts to curve around her IUD anyway
I would just like to immediately point out that my points for is second highest in the league and therefore I righteously deserve my place near the top of the rankings AND could even go for higher. I would also like to admit that I have by far the lowest points against. So even when I excel, I do it in arenas that are specifically set up for me to succeed, which feels appropriate for me as a white man. I’m swinging my dick on an unlevel playing field like Steve-O on a teeter-totter with a scorpion. Saquon’s injury is all I need to have the pinchers come rocketing towards my little glistening head and put the clamps on my high-falutin’ status. BUT FOR NOW FUCK YOU JACOBY BRISSETT IS GOD which is only right and fair in the name of equality
2. TEAM DUMPSTER BEARS (Lauren)
Record: 2-1 | PF: 426 | PA: 363 | Streak: W1 | Last Week: 6
Plays Next: Airstrip One Historical Reference Yawn (Derv)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Do I really have to spell it out? After she spent a whole weekend plus in my bed? Come on, guys. Going back to Buzz City and pretending low rent is a fair tradeoff for having about as much culture as spoiled yogurt
Team Clemson had a TAMU product to thank for their banana sandwich performance in matchday number three as Mike Evans put up FORTY FIVE FUCKING BIG ONES in, of course, a losing effort for his real-life Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Scoring points but losing everything of consequence is nothing new to Lauren after her latest tussles with Catan. But the soaring to improbable heights is taking on gorgeous new wrinkles as different folks step up week after week to put up the performances of their lives, only to be invariably out of gas week nine, leaving her roster a withered, gaping husk with bitter glances back towards what once was as she tries to wring some sort of enjoyment from the remnants. Welcome to childbirth, honey!
1. Poo Poo Point Diarrheas (Griffin)
Record: 3-0 | PF: 396.5 | PA: 342.7 | Streak: W3 | Last Week: 5
Plays Next: The Birds Have Arrived (John)
Questionable Decision of the Week: Getting tested for STDs. Next you’re gonna tell Sean not to drunk drive. Narc
Griffin has the 4th-lowest point total out of all of us, yet he is the sole occupant of first place as of press time. The last time I saw a fatty get this much undeserved shine, my ex-girlfriend made me watch an entire episode of This Is Us. You’re rocking Mitchy Trubes at quarterback, whose play style must be similar to your lovemaking technique: going long a lot, but never looking like you have any idea what you’re doing. I am so happy about your brief stay at the top of the mountain and I hope you can brag about it at show choir or whatever. Just remember that the #1 spot in these rankings is not like having abandonment issues. You don’t need to get used to it.
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CSA WEEK 12
p i c k l i s t
Celery - Cherry Tomatoes - Sweet Peppers (red, yellow and orange carmen) -
Beets - Chives - Onions - Carrots - Cabbage - Heirloom Tomato - Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper
Alright Fall Friends! Here is what we have put together for the upcoming Fall CSA in the time of COVID.
Things will look a little different this year so READ-ALL-THE-WORDS to know your options.
New to 2020:
1) Your shares will come pre-boxed. With vegetables & Bread-add-on included inside the box.
2) Bread is not included in the Fall CSA- This year it is an add on. Cost: $35
3) So far Kitchen goods (salsa, sauces, pesto, jam) are not included in this year’s Fall CSA, however if we decide to add them at a later date we will consider them as an add-on to purchase separately
4) Pick up location is on farm in Plainfield NH
5) PICK UP TIME: 5-6pm
6) PICK UP DAY: WEDNESDAYS! (with a special pre-thanksgiving pick up on Tues. NOVEMBER 24TH)
7) Begins October 14TH- November 24TH (you must sign up for the 7 consecutive weeks)
8) COST FOR FALL CSA: $245 COST FOR BREAD SHARE ADD ON: $35
9) Masks required at pick up
Aside from those changes, the rest remains the same!!!
Sign up at the FARMSTAND or ONLINE: https://www.edgewaterfarm.com/fall
Peace, love, and carrots
TIPS - TRICKS - RECIPES:
FYI: I woke up on Friday tired with a deep chest cough- of course I made the completely sound judgement call that I had COVID and therefore infected our whole field crew, roommates, kids, and my inlaws. For 24 hours I determined that I was the super spreader of the Upper Valley- good god, the anxiety. As we enter into the school year, I anticipate many of us will be bracing ourselves for a million possibilities of what lay ahead. But from our fields to your pots, we are in this thing together (and yes i am speaking on both pandemic and CSA here). So let’s join forces this week- ground ourselves with earthy aromas and make the biggest communal (in-spirit) batch of chicken soup for literally all of our souls. However, IF YOU ARE NOT A CHICKEN EATER, THEN GOOGLE MIREPOIX and explore all the options for a hearty carrot-celery-onion broth to get you through)... p.s. no covid just a classic case of seasonal allergies.
Chicken Soup From Scratch
adapted from https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/the-key-to-the-best-chicken-soup-from-scratch-ditch-the-old-world-recipes/
For the broth:
1 chicken, 3 to 3 ½ pounds, with skin, cut up
3 stalks celery, with leaves, cut into chunks
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
2 yellow onions, peeled and halved
About 1 dozen large sprigs parsley-
About 1 dozen black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste
Big fat piece of ginger grated or sliced thin
1-2 Tablespoons of honey
Splash of apple cider vinegar
To finish the soup:
3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat, more if needed
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into small dice
Kosher salt and ground black or white pepper
(optional) Egg noodles such as packaged wide noodles, spaetzle, fettuccine or pappardelle cut into short lengths
Finely chopped herbs, such as parsley, scallions, chives, dill or a combination
1. Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, ginger, ACV, honey, parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is “smiling”: barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
3. When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. If you like a clear soup, Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish). I NEVER DO THIS, I SAY GIVE ME ALL THE WARM SOUPY CHUNKS.
4. Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
5. When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces.
8. Combine broth and chicken pieces and any other vegetables you have on hand into soup pot heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top.
9. Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.
Perfect roasted cabbage
recipe from my new favorite cookbook, Start Simple by Lukas Volger
1 head green cabbage, sliced through the core into 12 wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt & pepper
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter
PREHEAT the oven to 425* . Arrange the cabbage wedges on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until well colored, blistered in spots, and tender, 30-40 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Toward the end of cooking time, heat the vinegar and maple syrup in a small saucepan until simmering, then whisk in the butter. Pour this over the hot cabbage, then return to the hot oven for 3 minutes more. (Then eat).
Save leftovers to repurpose in other meals: use it in (rice) bowls- it is excellent topped with a poached egg), in sandwiches, or as a filling for TACOS(!).
Roasting contd…
Also, because it is suddenly roasting AND soup season Roast your beets!!! Actually, roast everything! Grab your flannel, open your windows (and really take in the fact that our days of open windows are numbered) and turn that oven on. And If you have not already roasted and canned/froze your cherries and plum tomatoes- get on it!
Let's finish with slaw
All this said- if you come from heartier stock then I- and the crisp change in weather has no effect on you (see your feet- if you are wearing flip flops this pertains to you!) Grate your beets and carrots, shred your cabbage, add every single fresh herb you have on hand, top with a little ACV, a splash of maple syrup, a squeeze of a lime and you got yourself a damn good summer slaw.
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