rice cake journey

I am on a rice cake journey of discovery and invention.

I started with this recipe:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/249653/brown-rice-goat-cheese-cakes/

But I didn't have goat cheese in the house, so I substituted a mix of mozzarella and Parmesan. I'm also trying to reduce the amount of frying in oil that I do, so I steamed the veggies.

The first batch (looking somewhat roundish and in a circle) is carrot and onion with brown rice and was shaped in cupcake tins, and the second batch (cut up pieces) is sweet potato and onion with brown rice in a cast iron pan (and then cut up). Both were equally delicious, just different. They can be eaten plain, but I've been eating them with curry spooned over them.

I really like playing with this recipe. It's forgiving and allows for a lot of variation, and it still works. I'm planning on making it again, with some more variations. I want to try it on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and also to try different veggies in it.

I'm looking for something not too complicated to make, with healthy ingredients, reducing the oil but finding the right way to make it crispier by baking it in the oven, and that tastes quite good and is filling.

I'll keep everyone updated when I try again!

frozen hiking

These photos are from several weeks ago, but I still wanted to share them.

A wintery hike, and some beautiful and very frozen) puddles and streams. It was cold that day, but the hiking felt good.

It makes me think I should do something with my characters from Pyresnakes set in the winter. Fire and snow, red and white, it could be visually dazzling.

a rainforest of socks

I've been doing laundry today and I have a pile of winter wool socks that needed washing -- and with wool socks, you don't put them in the dryer. They need to be hung dry (to make them last longer, these aren't the sort that'll end up felted, thank goodness) and so I've got them laid out on every possible hook and bar that I've got. Over doors, over the shower, along the bar in my closet, etc. It's like fighting through a dense jungle of woolen socks. I expect to hear the caw-caw-caw of birds and monkeys at any moment. Perhaps the low warning growl of a felted wool lion....

The good news is, these socks dry pretty quickly. The jungle will be rolled up and packed away by morning.

Then i can start on the weird sheet city that happens when I get to washing the bedding. Draping of sheets over all the surfaces, like a maze, leading me from room to room.

Once Upon a Rianbow, Volume II

The Ninestar Press anthology, Once Upon a Rainbow Volume II was released last week and is now available!

It's a lovely mix-up of reworked fairy tales -- the themes and the story-lines are there, but they are all re-envisioned and gorgeous in the re-telling.

The link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/once-upon-a-rainbow-volume-two/

I've always been enchanted by fairy tales since they occupy a different sort of space in our heads -- they contain morals and meaning, warning and lessons learned, but all done through a spinning yarn story. (Sometimes that underbelly is unpleasant to behold.) You have to take some things at face value for the stories to work -- magic is real, animals can talk, true love exists, people trade cows for beans, and all of that -- as a way to get past the curtain to more glamorous, glittery, enchanted, dark and bitter, this-is-how-we-view-things-as-a-society sort of thing. When you start to deconstruct fairy tales, you see their seams on the inside -- as you look at how fairy tales are told across the years, you see them morph to reflect changes. (If we don't like that the mermaid turns into sea-foam when she can't kill the prince, then we'll rewrite it to make it more palatable. And everyone knows that step-mothers are evil, even if the majority of step-moms out there in the real world are putting their honest effort and resources forth to raise children, without expectation of getting anything in return, and doing a hero's job.)

One of the best things about this anthology is that the morphing is done in favor of romance across the beautiful varieties that love comes in. Well worth a cup of tea, a few cookies on a plate, and some time spent curled up in your favorite reading nook.

Once Upon a Rainbow, Vol II, on pre-order

Once Upon a Rainbow, Volume II is on pre-order now!

My story "The True Love Curse" is in it!

Here's the link to the anthology at NineStar Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/once-upon-a-rainbow-volume-two/

pink in the store

Went to the pharmacy today to get some soap and saw the shelves lined with pink things. More than a month until Valentine's Day and already the shelves are overloaded with romance. Or what looks like romance. Pink is a nice symbol of all that, and the color chosen by a lot of manufacturer's, but it is only skimming the surface of true romance.

turning water into steam

Having been reminded of the super cool science experiment where boiling water is tossed into super cold air, and having super cold air courtesy of Mother Nature who was giving up double digits in the negative category, I went ahead and performed this super awesome bit of science showmanship. It was pretty fantastic. The hot water, when thrown up into the air, became instantly crystallized and vaporized, and I watched the puff of whiteness blow away on the wind.

This long, bitter cold spell has been terrible, but it does present a tiny moment or two of amazement.