How I See It.

Another post about Technoblade.

I'm up at 1am crying and rewatching "so long nerds" as well as the vod of Wilbur and Philza talking about Technoblade.

Technoblade had obviously come to terms with his death. He told Wilbur, Phil, and Tommy not to visit him after Vidcon cause he knew he wouldn't be sticking around. He wrote his last video. He made merch. He knew death was near. Yet he spent some of his final moments writing a goodbye to his fans. He loved his fans. He made sure we got to finally see his face and know his name. He loved his fans and he made it clear even when he was dying. He would chose to be Technoblade again if he had 100 more lives. He would choose to make content for us

Watching Technoblades dad talk about his final moments breaks my heart. Technoblade was fighting for so long. Stage four cancer is rough, and he still fought. Hearing his dad say "Alex, you don't have to do anything else. You've done so much for so many people. Millions of people. And if you want to now, you can rest" hurts so much. He was fighting and waiting for things to get better so that he could make a video for us, his fans. He wrote his final video 8 hours before passing. In his final moments, he wrote a video for us. No parent should have to make their sons final video. Hearing his father say "I miss Technoblade" shatters my soul. I know it must have hurt him so badly to have to tell 12 million people that the person that made content for them passed away. That his son has passed away. My heart goes out to Technoblade family and I hope that they are coping well in this very difficult time.

Wilbur and Philza talking about Technoblade is both happy and heart shattering. Technoblade was funny and brought joy to his friends and fans. Wilbur saying that he felt so wierd because his world had stopped turning while everyone else was living normally hit me hard. He put what I'm feeling into words. My world has stopped because one of my inspirations has died, but everyone around me is living their normal lives. Hearing that Tommy never got to meet Technoblade hurts. Tommy looked up to him and he never will get the chance to meet him. My heart goes out to SBI and all of Technoblades friends. I hope they are doing well and are learning to cope well in this difficult time.

I know that from the afterlife, Technoblade is probably laughing about how hard we are all crying. He's probably memeing on all of us right now. I hope he's finally at rest in the afterlife. That he's no longer fighting and struggling. That he's watching all of us in the mortal realm and knowing how much good he did. How many people he impacted.

Rest In Peace Technoblade, Alexander, The Blood God, Flowergirl29, or anything we have known him as. Rest in Peace, you deserve it.

I grew up in citrus farming country, and had orange and lemon trees. And I saw a post today about how people in the US have gotten so used to everything being always availible that when they walk into a grocery store in January to buy a lemon, they expect the lemon to be there, and they never even consider how unnatural it is that we have lemons in January.

And this is so completely not the point of that post, which is why I'm making my own post, but this example really really bothers me, because as I said I grew up in citrus country, and citrus are winter fruits, and January is lemon season.

Which ultimately goes to prove the point of that post, that we are so used to this kind of constant availability, that most people don't even know what season is lemon season.

Happy All Souls Day and Joyous Samhain everyone!

Soul Cakes and Halloween Costumes

“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble” - Witches’ Speech, Macbeth

End of October and early November is an interesting time of year. Marking the end of the harvest season, October 31st - November 2nd share four separate holidays:

Halloween on the 31st;

All-Saints Day on the 1st; and

All-Souls Day and Samhain on the 2nd.

For such an interesting time of year, it’s no wonder that recipes have appeared across time to commemorate each occasion.

Traditionally baked to celebrate All-Souls Day, Soul Cakes are sugar-cookie-esque spiced cookies (or biscuits) that are made with none of the vanilla extract, baking powder, or baking soda that we’re used to seeing in modern recipes. Rather, they rely on their interesting blend of spices to treat your taste buds!

If you’re looking for something to keep the Halloween season going at school or work even after the holiday has passed, bring in these cookies to snack on!

Have a safe and happy Halloween/ All-Saints Day/ All-Souls Day/ Samhain everyone!

P.S: The fox in the picture is named Elphaba!

(Adapted from Helen Best-Shaw’s Fuss Free Flavours and Cooking Journey Blog)

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Delzoun "Tide-Me-Overs"

“While these are customary consumables at Hornmoot, the traditional human-dwarven trading festival that marks the dawn of Spring, there isn’t a holiday on the eventful dwarven calendar that doesn’t feature these scrumptious meats on the menu.” - Heroes’ Feast, p. 90

Personally, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more dwarven food than the good old-fashioned meatball. 

Heroes’ Feast’s Delzoun “Tide-Me-Overs” bring dwarven kitchens to life with these extremely tasty and juicy meatballs! Leagues better than anything you’d buy at the grocery store, I would absolutely suggest making these yourself.

This recipe is also ridiculously forgiving. Once, I doubled nearly all the ingredients by accident, aside from the meat, and they still came out amazing!

If you don’t eat pork, no worries! They’re just as tasty using only beef!

Check out below for tips and tricks when making this yourself! Get Heroes’ Feast here: https://dnd.wizards.com/heroes-feast

Prep: 15 mins            Cook: 1h 30 mins            Total: 1h 45 mins

Ingredients:

¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream*

1 egg

2 slices dark bread (such as rye), crusts discharged, remainder torn into pieces**

3 tbsp. (43 g) unsalted butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

Kosher salt

¼ tsp. (2 g) ground allspice 

8 oz (225 g) ground pork

8 oz (225 g) lean ground beef

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp. (8 g) all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups (350 ml) low-sodium chicken broth

1 tsp. (4 g) light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. (7 ml) soy sauce

½ tsp. (2 ml) fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp. (12 g) finely chopped fresh dill or parsley

* I’ve used both heavy cream and half-and-half with no issues.

** I used Vienna-style Pumpernickel Bread, cut into standard ½ -inch sandwich slices at the thickest part of the loaf.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cream and egg (top-left).

Add the bread, mix well, and set aside, stirring occasionally, until the bread is softened, about 20 minutes (top-right).

Using a fork or sturdy spoon, mash the bread into a paste and set aside (bottom).

NOTE: Apparently, the bread is not what binds the meat/other ingredients together, but works with the milk to give the meatballs moisture and texture! The eggs are the only binding ingredient.

In hindsight, this makes sense, since in baking eggs are a binder…

Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp. (14 g) of the butter. Add the onion and ½ tsp. (3 g) salt and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes (left).

Add the allspice and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 40 seconds (right).

Remove from heat and let them cool to room temperature. Laying mine in a single layer in the skillet, it took about 10 minutes.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to eat some of the onions to see if they’ve softened enough.

TIP: Cooling my onions in a single layer in the skillet took about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475℉ (245℃) with a wire rack in the middle of the oven. Coat a large wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and set it in a large, rimmed baking sheet.

Add the cooled onion mixture, pork, ground beef, baking powder, 1 tsp. (5 g) salt and ½ tsp. (1 g) pepper to the bread paste and, using a large spoon or your hands, mix until well combined and uniform.

TIP: To save yourself time when doing the dishes, line the baking sheet with aluminum foil so you don’t need to scrape any burned bits off.

NOTE: Personally, I didn’t run into this problem while making mine, but it’s important to only mix the meat mixture until everything is just combined. Overmixing will result in stiffer, tougher meatballs.

With moistened hands, form the mixture into generous 1-tablespoon-sized balls (left).

Arrange the meatballs on the rack in the baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through (right).

NOTE: I had to make double the amount of pork/beef meatballs since 8 oz packages of each ground meat were not available. Expect about half the amount of meatballs that you see here if making this yourself.

NOTE: The meatballs will sag through the wire rack a little bit when placed, this is fine!

NOTE: The ones shown above are the size Heroes’ Feast recommends. I wanted them to be a little bit larger the second time I made them, so I went for golf-ball sized. The cooking time stayed the same, but I found the weight of them might have been a bit too much and they lost way more structure than the smaller ones. 

However, that was also the time I accidentally doubled all the ingredients aside from the meat, so I’m sure there was more at play there. Just something to keep in mind. They still came out great though! In fact, they’re the ones shown in the final picture.

Wipe out the skillet used for the onions to remove any stray onion bits, set it over medium heat, and melt the remaining 2 tbsp. (28 g) butter. Stirring constantly, cook until fragrant and a shade darker, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes (top-left).

Switch to a whisk and, whisking constantly, gradually add the broth. Continuing to whisk often, cook for about 2 minutes (top-right).

Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, and ¼ tsp. (0.5 g) pepper and continue to whisk and cook until thickened, about 2 more minutes (bottom).

NOTE: The Heroes’ Feast “cook’s notes” mentions that the sauce will thicken quickly as it cools, and to add extra chicken broth to loosen the consistency.

They’re absolutely right! It’s more obvious in the next pictures but the sauce thickens a lot. It’s also a lot darker than what’s shown in the preview image in the book, so I’m not sure how much extra broth they had to add, but it seems like quite a bit.

Add meatballs to the sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 4 minutes (left).

Stir in most of the dill or parsley and taste and adjust the seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if necessary (right).

Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with remaining dill or parsley, and serve hot.

Overall, I would give this recipe a 5/5. It was a little daunting since the ingredients list was so long, but once I got started making the meatballs it was actually remarkably simple! They’re really juicy, have great texture, and the allspice-seasoned onions are so tasty!

The sauce is a little awkward to make, but it does add amazing flavour. But, again, the meatballs retained so much moisture you don’t really need a sauce to enjoy them!

Honestly, if you have the time and are sick of store-bought meatballs, definitely give these a try. 

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, you can totally make these with only beef (shown in the final picture above)! They’ll still retain quite a bit of moisture and be super delicious.

FINALLY someone understands my deep hatred of red delicious apples

This argument with my friends started just because i simply asked what their favourite triangular foods are…smh

please, untitled document was my father, call me untitled document (1)

I love mangoes your honor

Hey buddy. Mind if I get in your way while you’re shopping?

One Pot Meal

A zero-effort dinner with great flavour and fast cook time.

Simple and nutritious meals are an important thing to have in your back pocket, especially as a student. In a previous post, I shared The Ultimate Sausage Pasta, a quick and easy recipe from my housemate’s friend.

This time, we’re looking at the One Pot Meal, one of my favourite zero-effort dinners to make when I just really don’t feel like cooking. Minimal ingredients (two of which can sit in your cupboard until you need them) and an under half-hour cook time make this the perfect meal for when you’re tired or need a break from the kitchen.

As an added bonus, the Italian sausage adds great flavour on its own, so you don’t need to worry about whether you have the right spices or not!

Check out below for the recipe!

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