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cassercole · 5 years

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the one where he has a kid (pt. 3/?)

SHIP: Q PROCTOR/STEVE ROGERS (QUEVE), PROCTOR-ROGERS FAMILY FEELS RATING: TEEN WORD COUNT: 1,677 PROMPT: INSPIRED BY @emiliachrstine‘s DRABBLE // An AU where Steve doesn’t know he has a teenage daughter. TAGGING: (permanent tag list):@whindsor @fraysquake @elenacarinandherfandoms, @peplumsandpitches, @editsbyjenny , @sgtbuckyybarnes , @chuck-hansens (those who encouraged it): @thegalanerd (WANT TO BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST?)

( PART ONE ) ( PART TWO ) ( PART FOUR )

Thank God Bonnie wasn’t around to see him punch a hole in a large slab of concrete. That would’ve given her the wrong impression. But fuck was he angry. So angry. So goddamn angry. He couldn’t believe Q had kept it a secret for seventeen years. How had she managed to do so for so long? Why hadn’t he picked up on anything before that?

Sure, there was that time they didn’t see each other for a year, but that was because he was in a war-torn country and it wasn’t safe. Then there was the time she disappeared in the middle of the night during one of their summer rendezvouses, but that was because there was an emergency at work. Right? He began to second guess all the excuses she had given him over the years or the slight things that were off about their relationship that he had ignored before. Maybe they were all lies and maybe it was because of the kid -- Bonnie instead. He should’ve known, should’ve seen it. Definitely shouldn’t have taken everything at face value. God, she should’ve told him.

On the other hand, he could almost see why she didn’t; he had been to some pretty rough places, done some very dangerous things in the name of justice and peace. It almost made sense as to why she would have kept it a secret. Almost.

“Everything alright?” he heard Nat’s voice from above him. He had settled himself on the slab of concrete he had punched a hole through, hanging his head in between his legs. He still wasn’t sure if he was going to throw up or not, so he figured it was a good precaution to take.

“Did you know?” he asked back, not being able to take any more lies. Q had said only Dawson knew, but Dawson was connected quite intimately to Nat. There could be a chance that she had been in on the secret too.

“Know what?” Nat’s posture changed: stance widening, arms coming to cross over her chest as she waited for a response.

“That Q was pregnant?” he clarified, lifting his head up so he could see her reaction. She was a spy, she was good at lying, good at staying neutral, but they had known each other long enough now that they knew each other’s tells. Her eyebrows rose out of genuine surprise,

“No shit, Suit’s pregnant?” she used her nickname for his wife fondly, even though he was pretty sure Q hadn’t worn a pantsuit in at least a decade.

“Yeah, about seventeen years ago.” he let out a dry chuckle which then turned into a heavy sigh. For once in her life, Nat wasn’t able to control her reaction. Her eyes widened and brows rose up even more in response to what Steve just told her.

“What the fuck?” she managed out while trying to compose herself. If anything, it was enough to let Steve know that she was just as in the dark as he was, “What -- when -- did she say why?” she settled on, knowing he knew what she meant.

“She hasn’t given me an explanation.” he sighed, running his hand through his hair, “Fuck.”

“Fuck.” she agreed before letting her hands settle at her hips, “I mean, obviously you’re not okay but…”

“No, I feel like I’m gonna throw up.” he cut in with a dry laugh, “And I want to cry or scream...or all three.” he listed out his options, not being able to decide on which was the best way to handle the situation.

“I will only judge you for doing one of those.” she lifted her chin up a bit as his gaze met hers. He figured she meant the crying part, “Throwing up, obviously.” she made a face and shrugged. A desperate laugh escaped from his lips and he shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around what was happening. “How did you find out?” Nat asked after a moment of quiet.

“She’s here.” he said seriously, not realizing how his voice dropped a bit at the reminder that his daughter was sitting several feet away from him.

“Suit?” she glanced around the immediate area as if she was going to be able to pick out Q right away. She could, had done it countless times before. But she wasn’t who he was referring to.

“No, my --” he tried to finish his sentence, get the word out, but it got stuck in the back of his throat. Like a bad taste. Except it was the furthest thing from it. His kid.

“What? Did she say something to you?” Nat asked, trying to piece together how exactly he found out.

“No, no.” he sat back a bit, hand going to rest on his knee while the other elbow rested on his thigh, “She was in the museum.” he nodded his head back to the building where Sam and Bucky were helping officers take care of survivors and the wounded, “School trip.” he continued before giving a brief summary of what happened afterward.

“Do you want me to kill Suit?” she offered without a hint of humor, “I can make it happen. I love her, but this is bad.” she shook her head, red curtain of hair swishing as she did.

“I know.” Again his head found his hands in between his legs. His fingers dug into his forehead as if trying to pull his brain out of his skull. Maybe that would help him deal with what was going on, “God, my blood is on fire, Nat. I might be able to understand her reasoning behind it later, but this...I don’t know what to do.” he finished dejectedly. Nat tossed her hair over her shoulder and surveyed the area, working through the news herself.

“Take a walk, okay?” she instructed with a glance back at her best friend, “Take a walk and clear your head. Everything’s taken care of here.” she assured him. He lifted his head back up and then let it fall back so his face could look up to the sky.

“Jesus Chris.” he blew out a heavy breath, “Okay, yeah.” he agreed, realizing that the further he got from Bonnie, the better it would be when it really settled on him that he had a kid. He couldn’t let her see his true reaction. It wouldn’t be a good one. Even if it was directed more so at her mother rather than Bonnie herself, he couldn’t risk her interpreting it differently. If he could get his anger from boiling to simmering before he saw Q again...it would probably be a bit helpful.

Watching Steve walk away, Nat turned to the med tent where her quasi niece (at least goddaughter -- she was owed that much) was sitting inside. She crossed her arms over her chest and paused for a split second before beginning to walk toward the tent without thinking about it twice. She told herself she was checking in on everyone, making sure the doctors were doing their jobs.

As soon as she stepped into the tent, her eyes immediately searched out the teenager. Since she was now privy to the heavily kept secret, she was able to pick out the teen in a matter of moments. Based solely on her dirty blonde waves with those bright blue eyes -- not to mention the stick straight posture and the similar mannerism she had seen on both her friends, there was not a doubt in her mind that she was Steve’s kid. And while she was so angry for Steve, and even more so at Suit, her heart softened a bit at the sight of the teenager who was an equal combo of two of her closest friends.

Putting on her friendliest smile -- which wasn’t always easy for her, Nat stepped over to the group the teenager was in. Bonnie, Steve had called her. A sweet name for a sweet girl. At the mere presence of her, all of the teens shut up rather suddenly. Something that Nat relished in for a moment, still enjoying the sense of respect she commanded however many odd years later.

“How are we all holding up here?” she asked casually. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bonnie’s eyes widen at the sight of her -- not in fear or terror but in disbelief, then she immediately straightened up even more so than she already was. Obviously, she was unaware of the connection between the two of them. Still, Nat tried to hide her smile; just in the expression and reaction alone she saw both Steve and Suit all in one go.

“Uh, yea -- yeah, we’re good. All good.” she stuttered out a response then flushed and winced a bit at the answer she gave and how she gave it. Clearly, she wanted to come off as a bit more cool and casual. Goddamn, she really was Suit’s kid, wasn’t she?

“Good, you kids did great out there.” she addressed the group, but her eyes darted over to Bonnie once more, wanting to see her as much as possible in case she didn’t get another chance to.

“We did our best.” another kid piped up and Nat let her gaze slide over to him and gave him a warm smile. Then, without meaning to, her eyes flicked back over to Bonnie and lingered on her for a long moment. Longer than she should’ve let them.

“Okay, well, be sure to let someone know if you need anything.” she took in a breath, remembering her training as she refocused on the entire group. If you were compromised, you removed yourself from the situation as quickly as possible. And boy was she compromised.

With a final look to Bonnie, she took a step away from the group of teens and moved on to a different group -- ignoring how she just wanted to gather up the blonde in her arms, hug her tightly and tell her everything.

But she couldn’t. Not yet.

#ocappreciation #allaboutocs #marvelocsdaily #**#queve fam feels #**writings

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quenchmagazine · 7 years

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Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, food editor and restaurant critic Peter Hum declared that wine and food pairing has “had its day.” “Surely,” Hum snarked, “when every food has been paired with every wine many times over, it’s time to give the thing a rest.”

So RIP wine and food pairing. Thanks for humouring me.

Admittedly, I tend to echo Hum’s sentiments. Don’t get me wrong; I think there are some truly specific — and truly fantastic — wine and food matches (goat cheese and Sauvignon Blanc, Chablis and oysters, Sauternes and foie gras, Port and stilton, Champagne and more Champagne, etc.). Some couplings complement each other like nuts complement bolts. Some offer surprising contrasts, with distinctly different flavour profiles melding together to dance a delicious taste tango. I agree with Hum, however, that things can get out of hand. Either matchings get precise to the point of near impossibility (freshly caught Niagara River rainbow trout must be poached in unoaked Chardonnay from the Niagara River VQA sub-appellation and served with same, with the age of the fish matching within a year of the vintage of the wine), or broad to the point of, well, what’s the point?

While “red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat and fish” is probably one of the oldest culinary rules of thumb, it still might be the most generally reliable. Try that rare grilled steak with a Muscadet or that oyster with some Barolo and you’ll easily understand the merits of “red with red; white with white.” It’s also true that, for the most part, local wines tend to pair with local foods (Crottin de Chavignol and Sancerre, for example). “What grows together, goes together.” (Another handy little saying.)

Where things get tricky is when you try to pair wines to foods coming from countries with no real history of wine production or that use ingredients not typically fused into the gastronomy of wine-producing countries or regions. Pairing wine with Asian cuisine presents one such challenge. The best advice in such a situation might be, “Don’t do it.” But I love a challenge.

While wine production in China dates back almost 5,000 years, most Asian countries have pretty much zilch in the way of a wine industry (snake wine being exempt as it stretches the boundaries of what we might call “table wine” a bit too far). And in case it needs to be emphasized again, sake is technically a beer, so it doesn’t count. It’s true that importing top-flight wines has become something of a big deal in China, but the jury’s still out as to whether these wines are being enjoyed with meals, displayed as status symbols or mixed with pop. In any case, the lack of an Asian “wine culture” isn’t the main reason matching wine with indigenous dishes is a tricky undertaking, but rather, the flavour components themselves.

When it comes to Asian dishes, beverage matching gets challenging simply due to the ingredients being used. Fermented sauces and pastes typically introduce high salinity. Then there’s the (occasionally lip-numbing) spice, and the sweet/sour yin-yang. Combined, they can create some palate histrionics that will send the flavour of almost any wine cowering.

With the possible exception of sushi and sashimi, which tend to be fairly delicate (assuming you haven’t doused it to the point where the dominant flavours come via the salt from soy sauce and sinus-clearing wasabi), most Asian dishes probably play the nicest with beer. But (I know, I know), you’re not big on beer. Fine. Let’s see what we can do.

First things first, as with any cuisine, “Asian food” is not a single dish, so there won’t be a single “go-to” wine (though there might be a go-to style — we’ll get to that). Chinese food itself includes Henan, which differs from Yunnan, which differs from Shanghainese, which differs from Taiwanese and so on. And authentic Chinese doesn’t include chicken balls dipped in a day-glo sweet sauce with the consistency of glue. Japanese, Thai, and Korean cuisine each present more options (and more sub regional variations).

So what will ultimately determine your wine choice will have a bit to do with the actual base ingredient, (e.g., meat or fish) and a lot to do with what that base is being gussied up with (those spices, fruits, fermented pastes, etc.). This isn’t a real radical departure from the usual. A simple grilled chicken breast is indeed white meat, which might prompt you to reach for a white wine. But serve it as Chicken Parmesan, with loads of tomato sauce and grated cheese and you’re likely reaching for vino rosso.

As well, different cooking techniques will open up (or limit, depending on how you look at it) your wine landscape. Wines that work with raw, steamed or poached dishes might not show as well with fried and fatty food. Are you ready for that beer yet?

A quick tour of the Internet (search: Asian+food+wine+helpmeoutwiththis) yielded predictable results, with a zillion sommeliers offering two zillion possibilities. I figured it was time to get a bit systematic, if not scientific, with things. If there were as many Asian wine and food possibilities as there was tea in China (sorry, that was a bit clunky), could I at least isolate some of the most popular Asian dishes and nail at least one popular wine (or wine style) to match, singularly and definitively, with each individual food item? Would one work pretty much with all the edibles?

As much as I was dying to find out, a few roadblocks stood in the way. First, finding authentic Asian cuisine would be a problem. Not so much because there wasn’t any to be had in Toronto, but mostly because I wouldn’t have much of a clue as to what dishes to order (my knowledge of Asian specialties beyond the basics being somewhat — read: completely — lacking). Second, even if I managed to find a resto serving the real deal, the chances of it having much of a wine list would be iffy at best (see my note re: Asian wine culture above). Maybe they’d be authorized for BYOB. Right. A lot of these places don’t even have liquor licenses. Smuggle my own in and hope I don’t get caught? Not out of the realm of the possible. How about just do take out/delivery? This would seem to be the most sensible route. I could pick my own wines and mix and match to my leisure. But nothing’s ever easy, is it?

The wines were no issue. I picked out four based on the Asian food elements I mentioned earlier.

With those criteria in mind, I chose a sparkling Vouvray (the always reliable Chenin Blanc-based Château Moncontour “Cuvée Prédilection” 2011 from the Loire Valley; palate-cleansing bubbles and a hint of sweetness); my “go to” house wine, Cono Sur Bicicleta Viognier 2014 from Chile (exotic and fragrant); a very popular German Riesling (I know, German and popular in the same sentence?), Schmitt Söhne’s Relax Riesling 2013, a Q.bA Mosel that’s light, low alcohol, and off-dry; and a token red, the Nobilo Icon Pinot Noir 2013 from Marlborough, New Zealand (mainly because of the meat dishes). So far, so good. But I still needed guidance when it came to the food to order. Luckily, help was on hand in the form of one of Quench’s contributors, Silvana Lau.

Chinese by descent, she knows her way around Asian cuisine and Toronto’s Asian food floggers. And she’s got pretty much a pro palate to boot. Having called one of the city’s better Thai joints the night before to confirm it delivered, a slight note of panic crept into her voice as we attempted to place an order we had spent a good 20 minutes assembling.

“But you told me yesterday that you did and it says you do on your website!” she countered when told delivery wasn’t an option (throwing me a WTF? look). “Try our second location,” was the helpful suggestion from the disembodied voice on the other end. “I did and I got a voice message about holiday hours — and this is February — can’t you guys just do a delivery?” Lau strained to interpret the Asian/Anglo banter being exchanged in the restaurant. “You will? Great! … What? … Over two hours? … You’re four blocks away! What? You can’t deliver tonight after all?” Bear in mind, this was a Wednesday, hardly a prime delivery demand day.

Long story short, we finally got delivery from another purveyor, a delivery that included: green papaya salad (Thai spicy), Tom Yum chicken soup, green coconut curry chicken (every time we tried to order seafood we were assured the chicken was the better choice; this did not assure us in any way) and Spicy Beef Noodles. We also nabbed a sushi/sashimi platter from a place a couple doors down (not exactly high-end exotic, but beggars, etc.). So, time to get busy. (As an amusing aside, the first place that wouldn’t/couldn’t deliver was suggested as a great Valentine’s Day Thai delivery option in the following day’s NOW magazine. This must have tested a few lovebirds’ patience, if not the strength of their relationship.)

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Observations on the outcome: nothing really worked well with the sushi/sashimi. The bubbly offered indifference (but sort of at least cast a glance at the vegetable maki). The Riesling was too sweet. The Viognier kind of worked, but only to the extent that it didn’t clobber/get clobbered by the food. We had hopes for the tuna/Pinot Noir combo but the raw fish was too delicate. Tuna charred quickly on a grill might have been a good match but as good as the Pinot was, raw tuna was not its pal.

I’ve paired Sauvignon Blanc-based wines to sushi with some success (the herbal/citrus notes seem to mesh for whatever reason). Tonight’s combos, however, while not epic fails, did not inspire. On to the louder, more aggressive, Thai offerings.

The green papaya salad, with its incendiary spice level, not only obliterated the taste of each wine, but damn near cauterized my palate as well. The Riesling put up a fight but, in the end, it went down in flames. What did work well (no surprise here) was a mouthful of cold, hoppy, Total Domination IPA from Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing Company. The combination of cold/bitter/bubbles and moderate alcohol zapped numbed taste buds back to life. In fact, the beer was the best match for everything … but back to wine.

The Viognier arm-wrestled the spicy/sweet Tom Yum soup into something akin to submission, with the Riesling doing so in a slightly lesser way. The same tag-team countered green coconut curry chicken respectably, but it was a match with not a lot of real excitement, just a kind of grudging agreement by each party not to kill each other.

Spicy beef noodles, on the other hand, killed all the wines dead. Again, the humble IPA took the dish on with easy grace.

Dejected, but not willing to quit, we sealed up the wines and, a couple days later, got out our chopsticks for Round Two: some traditional Korean and Chinese morsels. Thankfully, things gelled much better this time around, largely because the food in general was less spicy. There were still some sweet elements and the heat was there if you wanted it (by way of addition rather than being part of the dish itself), but overall the intensity level was more manageable than the Thai inferno.

Chinese roast pork belly showed well with pretty much every wine, the nod going to the Pinot (though the Riesling was a strong contender — especially when the sweet, sticky hoisin sauce was added to the mix). Succulent roast duck, with its fatty/crispy skin, also took a shine to the Pinot, with the Vouvray working nicely as well (the bubbles washed away the fattiness and cleansed the palate). A very pure and authentic shrimp wonton soup worked nicely the bubbly as well, though the moderate sweetness of the Riesling did an admirable job of cutting through the saltiness of the broth. Beef Lo Mein, a meat/noodle/broth take out staple (though authentic Chinese), also got along well with the Pinot.

Korean dishes including bibimbap (a traditional dish that includes rice, noodles, vegetables, a fried egg, beef, chili pepper paste, and soy sauce) and a kimchi seafood pancake (see Culture Club on page XX for more info on kimchi) also turned out to be surprisingly grape-friendly. The former dish’s mélange of flavours, textures and mild heat provided a perfect playground for the mildly earthy, sparkling Vouvray. The latter intermingled nicely with both the Pinot and the Viognier, with the tangy kimchi weaving exotic flavour tendrils around the fruit core and acidity of each wine (another one of those food “rules:” acidic foods and slightly acidic wines get along — the acids tend to soften, rather than build, on each other).

Verdict: Thai food’s best friend is cold, crisp, hoppy beer. In general, there’s too much heat and too much going on to work with most wines. Go delicate with Japanese sushi and sashimi — light, white and crisp. Chinese and Korean foods seem to be the most wine-friendly, with flavour combinations that are a bit less busy than Thai, and not as volcanic.

Wine and food pairing dead? Nah. It can be a lot of fun to experiment. It’s also a great excuse for exploring ingredients and food preparation techniques that might not normally pop up on your epicurean radar … and washing the results down with a good glass of grape (or three).

Everything you need to know about what to pair with Asian cuisine Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, food editor and restaurant critic Peter Hum declared that wine and food pairing has “had its day.” “Surely,” Hum snarked, “when every food has been paired with every wine many times over, it’s time to give the thing a rest.”

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silhouettecrow · 8 months

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365 Days of Writing Prompts: Day 244

Adjective: Cloudy

Noun: Head

Definitions for those who need/want them:

Cloudy: (of the sky or weather) covered with or characterized by clouds, or overcast; (of a liquid) not transparent or clear; (of a color) opaque, or having white as a constituent; (of a person's eyes) misted with tears; uncertain, or unclear

Head: the upper part of the human body, or the front or upper part of the body of an animal, typically separated from the rest of the body by a neck, and containing the brain, mouth, and sense organs; the head regarded as the location of intellect, imagination, and memory; an aptitude for or tolerance of; (informal) a headache, especially one resulting from intoxication; the height or length of a head as a measure; the obverse side of a coin (used when tossing a coin); the antlers of a deer; a thing resembling a head either in form or in relation to a whole; the cutting, striking, or operational end of a tool, weapon, or mechanism; the flattened or knobbed end of a nail, pin, screw, or match; the ornamented top of a pillar or column; a compact mass of leaves or flowers at the top of a stem, especially a capitulum; the edible leafy part at the top of the stem of such green vegetables as cabbage and lettuce; the front, forward, or upper part or end of something; the upper end of a table or bed; the flat end of a cask or drum; the front of a line or procession; the top of a page; short for headline; the top of a flight of stairs or steps; the foam on top of a glass of beer, or the cream on the top of milk; the source of a river or stream; the end of a lake or inlet at which a river enters; a promontory; the top of a ship's mast; the bows of a ship; short for cylinder head; a person in charge of something; a director or leader; (British) short for headmaster or headmistress; a person considered as a numerical unit; a number of cattle or game as specified; a component in an audio, video, or information system by which information is transferred from an electrical signal to the recording medium, or vice versa; short for printhead; a body of water kept at a particular height in order to provide a supply at sufficient pressure; the pressure exerted by a body of water kept at a particular height or by a confined body of steam; (nautical) a toilet or bathroom on a boat or ship; (grammar) the word that governs all the other words in a phrase in which it is used, having the same grammatical function as the whole phrase; (geology) a superficial deposit of rock fragments, formed at the edge of an ice sheet by repeated freezing and thawing and then moved downhill

#i accidentally fell asleep again #so here we are #with me a couple hours late again #today has been quite a day to say the least #anyway i love this prompt because of the image i get in my head from it #in my mind i see someone with their 'head' either completely covered or entirely made of 'clouds'#and i love that idea so much for me to write about #despite the fact there are SO many different combos and interpretations with this one #(i had no idea there were this many definitions for 'head')#thanks for reading #writing #writer #creative writing #writing prompt #writeblr #trying to be a writeblr at least

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