#I also do not have a good strainer. lol.

[kingshovelbug]

forrest!! SOS!! i have no good food to eat!! ik u can cook so can u tell us some yummy recipes?

oh god i feel like senshi because im so so very late to this ask because ive been in a slump with cooking myself and youve definitely eaten by now. BUT i have a few that i make either when i want comfort food that still checks some boxes of being kind of nutritious or that are just fast

i. spam musubi but its not actually

spam musubi are these awesome hand held things. sometimes they have egg sometimes they dont but i will eat a whole can worth in one go. so i do it as a bowl instead

i start jasmine rice in our rice cooker and chop the spam into cubes vs slices like it would be for musubi. fry them on medium high until theyre crispy. then ill julienne an onion and add it to the spam. once the onion is starting to soften ill add the sauce. the recipe i saw was 2tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin with like a spoon full of sugar (honestly it was probably just under a tbsp) but ive been cheating recently and using a japanese bbq sauce i found at our local asian grocery store. once everything is coated i cook it a few mins so the sauce thickens up. by then the rice should be done and then you just take a scoop of each and i add seaweed on top

i know its not proper but since will doesnt like the sweet savory combo and im the only one eating it this way is easier for me to handle. i can store the rice and spam separately so nothing gets mushy and even refry the spam when i want to heat it back up

ii. black bean, pepper and cheese quesadilla

this is actually how i got will to try beans. i just take a can of black beans and dump the whole thing into a pot and cook on medium until i can smash them. ill also fry peppers and onions on medium until they have a little char. spices are honestly up to you and how spicy you want it. i usually put salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chili powder and garlic in with the beans. once the beans are mostly smashed and the peppers cooked ill throw them together and smash them more just so everything is easier to spread onto a tortilla. that plus you can add your cheese. ive shredded my own and used grocery store mixes so its up to you!

iii. spicy garlic tofu

almost no notes on this. i use less maple syrup than the recipe calls for so 1tbsp of everything in the sauce. and instead of gochujang i use a chinese chili paste, imo it ends up less ketchup flavored but if you like ketchup then just use gochujang

iv. https://thecookiewriter.com/roasted-mushroom-pot-pie/

i dont make this as often but this is a recipe i use as a base and then cheat. i swap in frozen veggies and it speeds everything up

v. hotpot

i love making hotpot at home. its super easy skill wise it just takes some time. you can buy premixed hot pot bases from the grocery store if you have an asian grocery store near you and you just dunk stuff in the soup until its cooked. you just need to watch out for the spice level of the broth

will and i will usually get thinly sliced beef, rice cakes, udon noodles, fish cakes, bok choy and mushrooms. all you do is bring the broth to a boil and cook your ingredients. sometimes i dunk with chopsticks other times i cook with a small strainer lol

[naviaknell777]

Loved your little sister fic.!! So adorable!!! ❤️ Its so cute for a little sibling reader lmao.Anyways. I saw requests open, and I had to request. Little sister turtle reader x The rottmmt bros-

Hear me out. Reader is like a HUGE fan of food, and has a "burrito blanket" and constantly bickers her brothers to let her spin on a pole above fire like a rotisserie chicken. She just wants to feel like food lmao 😭 Poor 10 year old turtle girl, She's just a pure innocent sunshine.

Reader is hungry 24/7 and loves mikey's cooking sm. Like this girl full on makes Donnie store some snacks made from mikey into his battle shell for her when traveling or leaving the lair lmao. You know what animal crossing villagers do when food is placed in front of them?? Yeah. Reader does that.

Bonus : Reader is really good at martial arts and fighting, and beats the shit out of a really tough villain. And when she's done, shes just innocent and is like "Can we have tacos for dinner??" While her brothers are just like.. "wtf just happened."

Ooh I love this request so much! I love the idea of a little sister who’s chaotic about food. Also reminder [n/n] = nickname

Rottmnt x little sister! Reader “Food Lover”

Y/N is 10 years old, the youngest of the siblings, and LOVES food

And I mean LOVES food more than anything.

Like it might honestly be her special interest at this point. Loves trying new foods, love learning about foods, and loves cooking when she can (which is rarely because one time she didn’t have older brother supervision around the stove… that ended up being a chaotic day)

She even owns different food related things, like blankets, plushies, etc

Likes to get the food experience as well. As in, will sit by fires wrapped up in her tortilla blanket to pretend shes cooking (even though the fire tends to dry out her skin as being a type of sea turtle)

Has also asked to be wrapped in tinfoil by or above the fire (to which, her brothers completely don’t support… not only will she dry out heavily but also it’s just not healthy and they’re afraid she’ll actually be cooked alive)

But to make her feel better about not being able to pretend to be food being cooked, Leo will team up with Donnie to make a huge strainer for Y/N to fit in and put her underneath a hose and pretend to wash her like fruits and veggies

She will also absolutely devour any food in sight, including eating everything that Mikey makes… even if it’s six servings, for each sibling plus Splinter

Whenever she eats someone else’s food (usually because she has a big appetite, occasionally to get back at her brothers for pulling a prank on her or something… looking at you Leo) and that brother will stare at her and she’ll just be like “what…?”

Man just let her eat the dang food!!

But even if she eats everyone’s dinner, especially if it’s Mikey making it, she’ll usually ask for more because she loves the taste so much

When she occasionally joins missions, she’ll sometimes make Donnie whip out a snack for her mid-battle. Doesn’t matter if he’s charging at someone or what, he’ll use one of his metal claw hang thingies to take a snack for her and toss it at her

They let her come along sometimes if they know it’s a pretty low stakes mission so she can watch them fight to learn how battles go and to learn moves from her brothers

She also trains outside of battles, and loves it, and because she’s doing all this exercise it just makes her more hungry, which is why she’s pretty much constantly eating

That and she expends a lot of energy being a chaotic little sister in general lol

But one night the brothers decided that Y/N could go on this mission with them that they thought would be pretty low stakes, just a classic foot clan plan that needs to be stopped as per usual

Except… they decided to bring a different partner along the normal two that they fight

A new recruit I guess??

But yeah the brothers didn’t predict this

(Well, Donnie probably did, let’s be honest)

Anyway. He should’ve told someone that he predicted this cause the new guy was pretty buff, like someone who does hardcore military training as a hobby

How the guy got recruited as a low rank with the other two foot weirdos is nobody’s guess

But regardless, Y/N was brought to the battle, and with this new, super buff guy they got their hands full

So Y/N, observing from afar at first, ultimately decided to help her brothers

“No one kicks my brothers like that but me!!” She yelled when the buff guy kicked Raph in the stomach

So she, being the weird brave girl she is, sprung into action! And… she actually landed hits on the guy?!

Needless to say her brothers were impressed

She managed to hit the guy a lot and with her quick agility she was able to dodge his attacks like nothing (practice from when her brothers try to hold her back from eating all the pizza… she just slithers her way out of their hold and climbs over them)

But anyway she’s actually doing really well in the battle?! She focused more on dodging in the first half to psych him out, but landed punches and kicks like nobody’s business!

(She might’ve also kicked him in the balls at one point lmao)

But yeah, in the end, she managed to dodge his head butt last minute, making him smash his head into a wall. Y/N dusted off her hands on her shorts, her mask tails dramatically flowing a bit in the non-existent wind, proud of her victory

(And the brothers managed to take down the other two foot freaks quickly per usual)

But when they were done they just stared at her and her ability to hit hard and dodge when needed. When he finally knocked himself out, she smiled and watched the buff guy fall to the ground when he became unconscious

She then turned to her brothers, who were standing next to each other. She ran to them “I’m hungry! Can we make tacos for dinner?!” She said excitedly, shaking her hands side to side at the thought of eating

“Uh, yeah, sure…” Leo said, still a bit in disbelief

“Aww baby sister you deserve all the tacos in the world!” Mikey said, making Y/N squeal a bit

“But.. where’s you learn all those moves, [n/n]?l” Raph asked, still a bit amazed at her combat power and fighting style being so developed at a young age.

“The beans must be spilled” Donnie whispered to himself dramatically.

Y/N just smiled, climbing onto Donnie’s battle shell to open it and grab a snack. She opened a bag of chips, and before stuffing her face she said

“Well I’ve watched you all fight so many times… so I guess I learned from the best!”

——

Thanks for sending in your request and reading!

All Rights Reserved ©️NaviaKnell777 2023

[recycledraccoon]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers 💜💜

ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔฅ💛💛💛💛

1. I actually really like loose leaf tea. I'm very picky about tea but once I switched to quality loose leaf it was a huge door being opened for me. I actually have a whole table with a stone tea tray on it to brew in the Chinese Gong-fu style, tho I don't sit down for a full session very often since I have limited time in my evenings due to my work hours and I'm just tired on weekends. I drink some green tea I have at work, but I don't have a good container over there to brew it so I have an abomination set up involving two Styrofoam cups and the bottom half of a tiny tea strainer. I really need to just get a proper infuser-nesting mug lol.

2. So, when I last renamed this tumblr, I was going for the alliteration and joke because I had in real life made the "my trash is your trash as long as you properly recycle" more than once. I also found the image I use as my profile picture and thought it was funny. My ao3 does not share this name but it is another animal and another raccoon and trash icon. (I've thought about changing it to my current handles/nicknames but at this point I haven't changed literally anything about my Tumblr in so long I'm being stubborn about it.)

This is all to say, neither of these animals are my favorite.

I really really like North American Badgers specifically. I bought a cheap comforter specifically because I found a cheap comforter cover that was a North American Badger. I have two North American Badger statues that I bought specifically for use as tea pets. (I use the big one on my stone table but have used the small for my traveling tea set recently.)

I do hate that initially what got me started on badgers was being repeatedly sorted into Hufflepuff way back when, but I've LONG disavowed that for obvious reasons Besides, that's a European badger.

Anyway, North American Badgers make me exceedingly happy whenever I see stuff of them, especially since they're not exactly the popular types of badgers.

3. Unfortunately, similarly to badgers, I first started my journey to liking yellow due to the previously mentioned fictional house. I didn't start REALLY loving it tho until the recent few years, and I actually own a few articles of clothing in this color now.

4. A more minor one is that I am at some of my most happiest and most content when my dog gets on the bed to cuddle with me when I go to sleep, and I can fall sleep face-in-fur. She doesn't do this very often, far more likely to sleep on the floor as she's an independent breed. If I move too much or try to move her even a little she will leave without hesitation. I have made astounding space compromises at times to achieve this falling asleep scenario.

5. Stupid jokes. I make puns at work and Verbally OUT LOUD AS WELL AS PHYSICALLY imitate the ba-bum-toosh following the jokes. Literally every time for years whenever people ask me "what's up" (usually only in relation to the type of what's up that's about one's day) I go like "ceiling, wires, insulation, ventilation-" etc. I don't go on long, a few seconds/3-4 items usually, but do always follow up with a genuine answer and return the question. These types of stupid jokes bring me endless joy and yes I do think I'm very funny.

[tobbogan-13]

My schools fall musical is Chicago and I can't decide what to audition with

idk what song I should Audition with

Your Lips and Me fits my range the best (the others fit my range fine, their just a bit strainer that YLAM)

The cabaret songs fit the show best tho

and then my freind said I would sound good with the Pippin song lol

Also to be completely honest, I have no clue what contemporary means

do any of these fit contemporary???

[flannelfoxen]

HORSE IS SO CUTE also apologies if this has already been answered, i tried looking it up on your profile but nothing showed up so i dunno if thats an error on my app or not, but anyway! how do you clean bones? a year or two ago my cats killed a chipmunk and left nothing but the head and tail, so i wanted to get the fur and flesh off the head and thiught i could boil it in some water but the ones i live with told me no because it would ruin the pot and i dont know what to do. its just been sitting in the freezer for forever now lol

H.orse says thank you.

Sorry I took forever to reply to this. It ate my reply the first time and then I forgot. I was cleaning bones this morning and then I remembered. I uh forgot to take pictures.

Don’t boil bones. It will do bad things to the bones. Break and they will never be clean.

I use maceration (using water to grow bacteria to decompose the body). Will be a lil stinky but it’s low maintenance and outside so it should be fine.

Something that small can be left in a container of pure water outside in the heat. No fancy chemicals or anything. Just make sure animals can’t get to it. I have had bodies stolen by stray animals.

An old plastic container with a lid should work just fine (butter, sour cream, etc.). Just make sure to poke some holes in the lid for the gasses to escape. You might top it off every now and then.

That’s basically it for awhile. Wait for the bacteria to grow in the warm conditions so they can decompose the animal. You don’t necessarily have to get all the skin and flesh off. You can just wait a few weeks and it should come off in the water. Don’t change the water until all the flesh is gone. You want to keep the bacteria in there.

Check if the bones are flesh-free. They probably won’t look clean and pretty right now but at this stage it’s just seeing if all the flesh is gone. If it looks good then dump the water and wash the bones off. You can use a little strainer for the teeth if you are feeling fancy. Small teeth get lost very easily.

Then we go to degreasing! I wash and reuse the container I had the thing in.

This will get all that grease out of the bones. Make them actually clean and not slimy. They will last longer.

This step requires some dish soap. I use off brand orange stuff so it really doesn’t matter what kind. You just want degreasing dish soap.

Fill your container back up with water and then add the skull. Pour some dish soap in there and then leave back outside.

This time, change the water about every week or so. If it looks dirty, change it out. You want to do this until the water stays clear.

When that happens, wash off the bones and container and it’s time for whitening. This requires some hydrogen peroxide.

It’s about dollar for a bottle at the grocery store if you don’t already have some at home.

Do not use bleach. That will severely damage the bones.

Set the skull in and fill your container with the peroxide. Make sure it is fully submerged. I know these little skulls like floating.

This will disinfect the bones and make them lighter in color. This will not damage the bones.

The longer you leave the bones in, the lighter they get up to a point. Small bones should only take a few hours to get maximum white. You can always pull them earlier if you like the color.

This also helps get rid of trapped dirt. It might make a fizzing sound. That’s fine.

When that is done, you can rinse and let dry. Glue those teeth in and you are done! Also if any part separated during cleaning you can go ahead and glue them back together.

I use just regular Elmer’s washable school glue so I can get the teeth back out if I want. Works absolutely fine. You can go for super glue if you are up for it.

I forgot to mention that bones look darker when wet. If you want to see the actual color when cleaning, let it fully dry and you will see the real color. You will also see the grease spots when dry. If you see those then it’s not done.

Hopefully this helps with your c.hipmunk!

[butyoumakemesohot]

A Steve x reader where both are sick and Steve is making tea for himself and reader 🥲 I could def see him accidentally sneezing and not being able to cover so he spills and/or gets the cups in spray but they’re both sick so it doesn’t matter LMFAO

i actually really like how this turned out!! i hope you enjoy, i always love your requests <3 sorry i got a bit carried away LOL (1.4k words)

"Soup?"

You shake your head, your voice barely above a whisper. "Not hungry."

"You sure? You n'deed to eat." Steve traces a hand absently along your arm, squeezing your skin in a comforting rhythm. "Crackers? *snrff!*"

"Too dry."

Steve heaves a sympathetic sigh, letting his hand fall to your thigh. You feel guilty for worrying him, especially when you remember that he's feeling just as sick as you are. You tiredly lift yourself off the couch, using his shoulder as leverage.

"Where are you goi'g?"

There's a concerned pinch in his brow. You smile down at him, hoping to ease some of his anxiety. "Come with me, Harrington."

He trudges close behind you, making sure to grab the box of tissues as he goes. While this mystery illness has primarily settled in your throat and chest, it's only served to make Steve terribly sneezy and congested. He plucks a couple of tissues out of the box as soon once you make it to the kitchen, cupping them over his tender red nose.

"Hih'IHSCHHH! Hh'TSCHHHEW!" He sniffles wetly, eyes screwed shut as he gears up for another itchy-sounding sneeze. "Huhh'ISCHHhhEW!"

"Bless you, honey."

"Thadk you." He folds the tissues over and blows his nose softly. "Did you chadge your mide about eati'g? 'Cause I cad mbake you sombethi'g. *snff!*"

You reach for two mugs and a container of tea leaves from a nearby cabinet, placing them on the counter.

"I'm making us tea," you explain in a small voice, clearing your throat after. God, does it hurt to talk. "I'm hoping the steam will clear you out. I can barely understand a word you say."

"Ditto," he says with a grin. "Why dod't you let mbe do it?"

"Steve, no offense, but no."

"Why dot? Hehhh... Hih-! Hih'TTSCHHh! *snrrff* Hp'SCHHHHh!"

You can't help but giggle hoarsely. "Do I really need to answer that?"

"Pffft. Your germbs are mby germbs, baby, whether you like it or dot."

If you weren't so exhausted, you'd have the strength to come up with a counterargument. However, between your aching throat and the determined set of Steve's jaw, you never had much of a chance to begin with. You perch yourself on the nearest countertop in resignation, silently allowing him to begin boiling the water and preparing the tea leaves.

"Have you done this before?" you ask after a few minutes.

"Doe," he admits. "I, uh - *snffg!* - mbay deed your help... Hh'ESSCHHHEW!"

You quietly bless him again, reaching out to prepare the strainers in each mug before the water starts to boil. He's already sniffling more frequently, thick tendrils of steam coating the air in front of him as he hovers near the stove.

"Wow," you remark as Steve pours the hot water into the mugs. "Great technique, babe."

"I speak sarcasmb, you kndow. Dod't mbake mbe spill this od you."

You start to laugh once again, but laughing quickly turns to coughing, which quickly forces Steve to spread a warm hand across your back, wincing at the faint sound of congestion rattling in your chest. He tucks back the hair that's fallen into your face once you're finished, continuing to rub your back until your labored breathing has subsided.

"That didn't sou'd good." He sniffles again, swiping roughly at his nose. "Tibe for mbore cough syrup?"

"No thanks." You're already wrinkling your nose at the memory of its sour taste. "I'll wait for tea. Should be finished soon."

Your voice is much more scratchy now; you're also speaking in fragments rather than the proper sentences Steve's used to. He sighs, looking practically heartbroken as he slots himself between your legs, dropping his hands so they're resting against your thighs.

"Hate seei'g you like this," he pouts.

"Ditto," you croak, happy to see the small smile it brings to his face.

It isn't very long before his nose is twitching again. He turns away from you, swinging the crook of his elbow up to his face. "Hh'TSSCHHH! Sorry - Heh'ESCHHHIEW! God. Fuck. Sorry. *snrrff!*"

You laugh weakly at his string of curses. It hurts. "Quit making me laugh, idiot."

"What, is mby paid and sufferi'g fuddy to you?"

He drops his mouth open, feigning offense. You shrug innocently, leaning forward until the tip of your nose bumps against his, pressing a sorrowful kiss to it after. "Maybe a little."

"Typical."

He smirks, pressing a proper kiss to your upper lip before reaching for your tea mugs and removing the strainers. He places yours into your eager hands, careful not to let its sides burn your fingertips. It's not the best tasting tea you've ever had, but you can't help but moan with pleasure at the way it instantly quells the dry, pinching pain in your throat. Steve's smile grows wider.

"Good?" he asks.

You nod - it's not technically a lie - before taking another steaming hot mouthful. "Try it."

He does. He shrugs once he's swallowed, setting his mug back down on the counter. "Dot bad, I guess. *snurff!*"

"You did good, kid," you tell him, patting him on the arm. "Accept the compliment."

"Yeah, yeah, thangks. Oh, God." He sniffles a few more times, reaching for the box of tissues sitting next to you on the counter. "You were right about the steamb. It's - Hhhhh... tickli'g mby - Hah-! Hh'ASCHHHEW!"

He manages to cover his face before the second half of the sneeze comes barreling out of him, but not before accidentally sending a bit of spray into your mug. His breath is still hitching, his body frozen in place between your legs as another powerful itch enters his nose.

"Hh'TSCHHHH! *snngk* Huhh'ISCHHHh! Ugh, I'mb sorry..." He blindly reaches for another tissue, his watery eyes still pinched shut. You grab one for him and place it into his hand, but not before he lets out another powerful, uncovered sneeze. "Hhehhh... Heh'ETTCHHHEW!"

"Wow. Bless you, Stevie."

"God, excuse mbe. *snrrf!* *snuurff!* Oh, gross."

You grimace at the sound of his soupy sniffles, infinitely more concerned over his poor nose than the newly contaminated mug of tea he's apologizing over. You set it against the counter, grabbing him a couple more tissues for good measure.

"Blow your nose, okay?" you insist, squeezing his shoulder as he fruitlessly wipes the damp underside of his nose. "It'll help. Promise."

Steve wordlessly obliges, slipping out of your grasp and unleashing more than a few gurgling blows into the tissues. You know he can get self conscious about these things; it seems like a personal win that he hasn't fled the room out of sheer embarrassment. He repositions himself back between your legs when he's finished, lifting his mug back up to his lips.

"Better?" you ask.

He nods gratefully, cheeks puffing out as he fills his mouth with some more tea.

"Your nose still all tickly?"

"Definitely." He sniffles, pinching the bridge of his nose. At least he doesn't sound so plugged up anymore. "What the hell are in those tea leaves?"

"Couldn't tell you," you admit, causing him to laugh. "I'm just glad it helped."

A few moments of silence, then Steve's quietly working his arms around your waist, pulling you in close. The lower half of his face presses into the crook of your neck. You smooth down some hair at the nape of his neck as you hug him back, reveling in the warmth of his embrace.

"Want me to make you some more tea?" he mutters, words vibrating against your skin. "Since I... you know..."

"S'okay. Your germs are my germs, remember?"

He pulls back just enough for you to get a glimpse of the fond look in his eyes, relief evident in the way he gives you another kiss. You regretfully pull away at the feeling of another cough bubbling in your throat, reaching for your tea and taking a swig so that the dryness dissipates.

"Wanna go lay down again?" you ask.

He nods, the movement fatigued. With both your tummies warm from tea and the wall of congestion in his nose finally broken, this is going to be the nap of the century. You can almost guarantee it.

[theda-rison]

Vanilla Chai Recipe

Not me running out of chai spice mix and having to look for the post about it  on my old blog because I can’t find ittttttt

Anyway, reposting (a slightly edited version of) it here for posterity:

(get ready for magic)

 (∩'ω')⊃ ．。．:･°✧ﾟ.｡ﾟ ੈ✩‧₊･｡♡*ﾟ･.★ﾟ♡｡☆ﾟ✿

So I was really pissed when I went to buy more Good Earth Vanilla Chai, to find that they had basically rebranded their look (again) and had gotten rid of it. The new one does not have vanilla (and it DOES have licorice, which I abhor completely), so I wasn’t about to buy it and put myself into a gustatory depression.

Because I possess the Too Much Gene, I decided to throw many many monies at Mountain Rose Herbs and buy all the spices listed on the side of the box so I could figure it out for myself.

Here is the result.

---

Vanilla Chai Recipe

(These are all ground or powdered forms of the spice, except for the pepper. Some are easier to get than others, Mountain Rose Herbs is where I got most of mine.  I used a teaspoon for all of these measurements. You can use whatever measurement as long as you’re counting the spoonfuls, the amounts of each flavor is in relation to the others.)

Spice mix:

2 chicory root

2 cinnamon

1 cloves

1 cardamom

1 ginger

1 black pepper*

½ anise seed

½ nutmeg

Mix all your spices well. Store the mix in a jar for whenever you want to use it. Make sure it’s airtight so you don’t lose the flavors or attract bugs.

When you want to make the tea, combine:

1 teaspoon of the mix

1-2 teaspoons of loose leaf Assam tea**

6 drops of bourbon vanilla extract***

Whatever amount of sugar you want

(I use a cloth tea bag for the spices, for easier cleanup****).

Let the brew steep for 5 minutes. Take the bag out - drain it, cloth tea bags tend to take on a lot of water - and enjoy!

~~~

*I measured this as peppercorns and then crushed them for ultimate freshness and spiciness

**An Assam tea bag should work the same, I think those things only hold about a teaspoon anyway. I went with loose leaf because I had originally intended to make the whole thing a loose leaf blend, but I couldn’t find some of the spices in a non-ground way. Next time, though, lol. If only for even easier cleanup. Cleaning ground spices out of cloth tea bags is ANNOYING, it would be so much easier to just dump everything from the strainer into the compost.

***I don’t recommend using vanilla bean, as it’s very expensive and you get no flavor out of it. When I originally made this version of the mix with vanilla bean you could NOT taste it at all. Flavor what? Vanilla who? Apparently she deigned to not show up. Never met her. Using vanilla extract brings a better flavor. I also recommend using Pure Bourbon Vanilla. While more expensive, it has a stronger and better flavor than imitation vanilla. (Like, in my experience, imitation smells more like vanilla than it tastes like vanilla, and it sucks for flavoring ice cream; I think the cold knocks out its ability to smell or taste like anything, never mind vanilla, but because pure vanilla is plant oils in alcohol, it’s fine? Idk, I’m not a food scientist but artificial vanilla sucks so we do not stan. The extract is more expensive, but if you’re literally just buying it to make this, you’ll get a lot of use out of it. I took an old glossier Super Bounce bottle that I had cleaned, and put some in there so I can get the right amount of drops. Make sure to take it all apart - even pop out the glass part of the eyedropper too - and clean all of it if you do the same.)

****I got the cloth tea bag from Mountain Rose Herbs as well. You can get a pack of like... five? ten? I also find it easier to let them dry out for a day and then flip it inside out and pull the dried spices out, so having a lot makes that easier.

[solomonish]

solomon having a system for putting away dishes? dunno how tall you are but i'm 5'1 and willing to climb if wizard husband wants to :3 about it

Ficlet Requests! (CLOSED)

ok so i went a bittt off course and instead of having a system for putting dishes away i just went with. general putting the dishes away. but i still hope you like it! also i am 5′7 which is about the headcanon height for Solomon I believe so it would just be us arguing over who wants to reach up high the least LOL

Having a system for putting away the dishes - Solomon

Surprisingly enough, Simeon was an efficient authority figure. Sure, he was great with Luke, but one stern look from him and he could even send two adult humans scurrying to appease him. After he walked into the kitchen, which was splattered in the thick, fluffy batter of a cooking experiment you couldn’t usher Solomon away from, the calm on his face was terrifying. It was clear that peace was not the last resort, and if either of you valued your own peace of mind, cleanup better happen, STAT.

After spending an hour scrubbing at the cabinets and floor, you were finally able to move on to the dishes. Most of them were fairly easy, as the batter was able to be rinsed and flushed down the drain. However, the pot was encrusted in the charred remains of Solomon's work, and after scraping your knuckles on the burnt residue too many times, you called him over to deal with the consequences of his own actions while you started to put the dishes away.

As you placed the spoons in their spot in the drawer organizer, you ignored the flash of light in your peripheral as Solomon disobeyed Simeon's no-magic rule to clean the pot. He then grabbed a large bowl in the strainer, dried it, and handed it off to you. You scanned the cabinets, searching for its place - only to huff when you saw it was at the very top of the cupboard.

"Seriously, Solomon?" You asked. "You're taller than me."

"You already dumped a hard job on me," He answered with a shrug, as if that were the most sound argument one could make.

"That's not the same thing. I couldn't do it."

"Sorry, what? I was focusing too hard on drying this dish."

Arguing with Solomon when he purposely decided to be difficult was a losing game. For a man who bristled at the mere thought of being coddled, he really did act like a child sometimes. It could be endearing and a relief, or it could be incredibly frustrating. Now, it was the latter.

"Fine." Cranking your neck to judge the distance, you nodded one and pulled out the cutlery drawers like steps. "I'll do it myself."

You could feel Solomon watching with amusement as you stepped up on the counter with shaky legs, holding on to the cabinet shelves desperately. Before climbing, you didn't really think about how far the cabinets stuck out, and you were stuck with your upper back leaned backwards in an u comfortable angle. Keeping your grip on the shelves was difficult, but there was no other area to find purchase. Solomon was kind enough to hand you the bowl from where you placed it on the counter, but even then, he purposely touched the cool ceramic to the back of your knees.

Just as you placed the bowl in its spot, Simeon came into the kitchen. "Well now, how is it- oh my goodness! What are you doing?!"

At the realization you'd been caught, you automatically cringed, the motion sending you off balance. Not wanting to break the cabinets, you simply let go, toppling backwards off the cabinet. Simeon all but shrieked, but Solomon was the one to catch you. He had a pleased smirk on his face, and you mentally thanked Simeon's presence for inadvertently saving you from the terrible pickup lines he was undoubtedly biting back.

"What were you thinking?!" Simeon demanded after clearing his throat, eyes darting between the two of you. "Both of you! Do you know how badly that could have turned out?"

And just when you thought you were finished with your punishment, Simeon generously bestowed upon you a lecture that took even more of your time.

[herbwicc]

Heyhey saw your photo of homemade oat milk - do you have a recipe for that. I can’t handle dairy quite well and I seriously love oat milk but sometimes it’s too expensive at the grocer at where I live. Would love to know how to make my own

Hi! oatmilk is wonderfully easy to make (but I somehow always put in too much salt lol). Here's the first recipe I ever used and I often go back to it to remember more or less what I need. However, I don't usually go exactly by these measurements. I use brown sugar and maple syrup to sweeten it, not dates. And that's just to taste, no measurements there tbh. Sometimes I put in vanilla extract, sometimes almond. Sometimes I'll loosely halve the measurements like maybe half a cup of oats to a cup and a half of water more or less.

BUT what's really good to know from that recipe link, is the FAQ part about how to make sure it doesn't get slimy.

Oh also, most recipes use a cheesecloth to strain it and that's SO incredibly messy and inefficient tbh. I have a mesh strainer with tiny holes and I just leave it over a bowl in such a way that I don't have to hold it consistently, then pour it in and walk away. It'll keep dripping little by little on its own until all of the liquid is out and the pulp stays behind. I've also seen some people do a mesh strainer first and then use their french press (like for coffee) to strain it one more extra fine time.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[streakfreeshine]

Hey guys, this emeto fic has some graphic descriptions of nasty stuff that comes from dirty floor drains. This is loosely inspired by my volunteering to clean the drains at work lol it also was only quickly proofread, so there still might be some mistakes and missing apostrophes.

Thomas had volunteered to deep clean the drains at the coffeeshop he works at. He had jokingly told his boss, "I love cleaning things that arent mine".

The store had been having some pretty bad plumbing issues and the three-compartment sink was no exception. The grease trap needed to be emptied, so when they drained water for any sink, a wretched smell came from the overflow drain in the floor, which ended up being the fourth drain. Three out of four of these drains were for catching the water from the pipes that snaked out of the various machines and sinks. The forth drain was a regular overflow drain.

The first two drains were easy to clean. They were a little dirty, but not horrific. The third drain, which was behind the industrial dishwasher, had pink residue under the "strainer". He almost gagged before he remembered that the enzyme cleaner was pink, causing the pink residue. The fourth drain, in the back of house, was an entirely different story.

Thomas unscrewed the drain cover, placed the screw on the desk behind him and moved the cover to the side. He peered inside the drain.

"Oh nooooo," he groaned, laughing. He decided to pull on a pair of dish washing gloves, as he didnt want to be touching the gunk that had accumulated inside.

The filth inside was black and thick. He knew the gunk wasn't coffee or coffee grinds. He decided it would be a good idea to use the screw driver to scrape the sides of the top of the drain. He pulled the screwdriver out, which was covered in that thick, black sludge.

"Noooo! No no no!" He laughed and looked away, holding it away from his face. His coworkers laughed with him. He looked at it again and gagged. He quickly grabbed a white cloth from the clean laundry bag and wiped the screw driver off.

He continued the task, gagging every once in a while. A few more minutes in, he pulled out a small clump of dirty hair that had accumulated over the years. He gagged harder than before. He set the screwdriver down and braced himself against the wall with his cleaner hand. His gagging turned to retches. He dry heaved into the crook of his arm and scrambled to the mop area in time for him to vomit harshly into the shallow basin.

"Fuck", he chuckled. He and his coworkers found the whole ordeal moderately funny.

"Did you just puke in the mop basin?!" One of them cried out, laughing. Thomas answered with a hard retch and a laugh. He lurched forward again, his meager breakfast spilling from his lips. He didn't have time to breathe before he was vomiting again. He couldn't get the image of the clump of hair out of his mind. His abdomen was beginning to hurt from heaving.

"Help," he managed to choke out before dry retching again. A coworker that wasn't super busy hurried to his side and crouched behind him. She began rubbing his back with one hand and covering the drain, screw driver and extracted filth with the cleaner side of the white towel with the other hand. Thomas gasped for air in between retches, darkness danced in the edges of his vision.

"Breathe with me, Thomas. You're going to pass out. You're doing okay," she cooed. The retching soon ceased and he collapsed backward, breathing heavily. His coworker was squished between him and the file cabinet behind her.

"Oi, you're crushing me," she chuckled and poked the back of his head.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" He exclaimed and scrambled to his knees and stood up carefully. He pulled off the soiled glove and helped his coworker up and off the floor.

"Thank you so much for helping me," he said sheepishly. Another coworker handed him a glass of water. He took it with his un-gloved hand, thanked them and swished his mouth out, spitting into the mop basin.

"Of course!," She responded, smiling. She picked up everything off the floor, replaced the drain cover, screwed it in, and tossed the screw driver into the mop basin with a laugh. Thomas set to rinse the mop basin, washing his sick down the fifth drain which he had decided earlier he wouldn't bother cleaning. He rinsed off the screw driver and disinfected it.

He boss came up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder. He, too, was laughing.

"Why dont you take the rest of the day off? By that I mean, go home, take a shower and rest," he told Thomas, his laughter fading.

"I... think that's a prime idea, thanks so much". He profusely apologized as he shamefully walked out the door and headed home.

[power-chords]

do you have a favorite mapo tofu recipe? im constantly craving it but havent gotten it right the last few times ive tried, though i'll admit my research basically ends at noodling around on youtube lol

I think Kenji’s comes the closest to what you will eat in a restaurant however you do not need to go HAM on the quantity of oil the way he does. I am not afraid of grease by any stretch but it’s a LOT. A quarter cup of good chili oil + a couple tablespoons of canola to fry the Sichuan peppercorns in is fine. I also think you can safely substitute medium or firm regular tofu if it’s to your liking. Even the "extra firm” silken tofu (I use Mori-Nu) is kind of a pain in the ass to handle on a weeknight. 

I don’t use Kenji’s method of steeping the tofu. I cube it, stick it in a bowl, boil a tea kettle full of water, and pour the boiling water over the tofu. Once all my other components are ready, I drain the water off. You may want to save some of the “tofu tea” the way you would pasta water in case your final dish needs to be thinned out a little or is too heavy on the salt. You can also use it in place of chicken broth in a pinch. The rest of the dish is so strongly flavored that I doubt you’ll taste a difference. I encourage taking shortcuts on any components you see fit EXCEPT the following:

1. Use good homemade chili oil, and buy proper Pixian doubanjiang. Kenji’s chili oil sucks. (Sorry, Kenji.) Mandy Lee’s recipe is the platonic ideal: addictive and versatile. Accept no substitutes. Once you try it, you will never go back. An hour of your time will yield two cups of paradise that can be stored in your fridge for up three months, if it even lasts that long. I made a fresh batch this weekend!

2. Also good Sichuan peppercorns, (mostly) free of the little black seeds that will make your dish gritty. It’s the husks you want. Adjust your quantity as necessary for potency/freshness/personal taste. I like a LOT of heat to my mapo tofu, so I make my chili oil with xiao mi la chilies instead of the usual er jing tao or heaven facing, but I don’t need to be numbed to death. I find it easily overwhelms the rest of the dish and the quantity in Kenji’s recipe will knock your socks off. I blitz one whole tablespoon of peppercorns in the spice grinder, sift out any big fragments or stray seeds in a mesh strainer, and fry half the pepper powder at the start of the dish/use the remainder to sprinkle to taste at the end. I don’t bother frying the whole husks and fishing them out, it doesn’t make enough of a difference.

SORRY lmao that was really long but mapo tofu is a trial and error process! Once you have your ideal spice level/salinity nailed, you can play around with the other components and variations, such as adding leeks (my fave), upping the ginger/garlic, including fermented black beans, or finishing with sesame oil. When Adam was in gout hell, I made a vegan version with sliced mushrooms and greens in lieu of ground beef or pork. Extremely non-traditional, but it was still delicious.

[unfunny-quips]

Hey so, saw a thing about ice cream being recalled because of metal shards (yikes) and thought maybe y'all would appreciate my very easy no-churn 5(ish) ingredient ice cream recipe so y'all can have a nice treat without eating shards of metal lol

Quips Super Easy Ice Cream Recipe:

One 14oz can of sweet and condensed milk

Two cups of heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Ingredient of your choice for I've cream flavor (I'll outline the ones I make most often so you have an idea of how to customize it)

I highly recommend having an electric mixer. Doesn't have to be a fancy or expensive kitchen aid, just an electric hand mixer from the grocery store. Trust me it will save your life (and your arms).

First things first: the base of the ice cream is basically whipped cream, so you're going to want to put the bowl your going to mix in and the beaters of your mixer in the freezer for at least five minutes. You're going to want them to be cold so the whipped cream forms and you're not stuck mixing for six hours.

Your heavy whipping cream should also stay in the fridge until you're ready to mix it, you want it all to be as cold as possible.

Once that's all nice and cold you can start on your whipped cream base.

Add the heavy whipping cream, the vanilla and the salt to the chilled bowl, then you are going to use the mixer to whip it at high speed for about 5 minutes.

You'll know it's done because it'll be thick and the ripples from the mixer will stay in place after you move the beaters away.

Put the bowl and whipped cream in the fridge to stay chilled while you get your flavoring ingredient ready.

This is the fun part because you can customize the ice cream to be whatever you want. These are some flavors I make most often and each of them should give you a good idea of how you can customize your ice cream to be what you want:

Strawberry:

For strawberry ice cream, you're going to need 16oz of strawberries. You can use fresh if they're in season, I tend to use frozen since I always crave it when they're out if season lol just make sure to thaw them out when you're ready to make the ice cream.

If you have a blender or a food processor, throw the strawberries in there and add in the sweetend condensed milk. Mix until smooth and all the condensed milk is mixed in completely.

If you don't have a blender or food processor, you can use a potatoes masher to smoosh the strawberries up, then push them through a mesh strainer to get the larger chunks smooshed out. You can then hand mix in the sweetened condensed milk from there.

Once the strawberry mixture is done, your going to pull the whipped cream you made earlier out and gently food the strawberries in until everything is mixed. Try to do this with as little mixing as you can as the process of folding the strawberries in will force out all the air you added to the whipped cream.

Chocolate:

Get a bag of chocolate chips (your preference on what kind of chocolate, I like dark chocolate but any other kind works).

If you have a double boiler, use that to melt the chocolate. If you don't have one you can make one with a pot and a bowl (just be careful not to burn yourself). You can also use a microwave to melt the chocolate, but if you do only run it for 30 seconds at a time, otherwise you risk burning the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted, mix in the sweetened condensed milk. Then let it cool slightly. The chocolate should still be melted enough to mix in with the whipped cream, but chilled enough that it doesn't instantly melt the whipped cream upon contact.

Cookies and Cream:

This one is pretty easy. Just get a container of Oreos or off brand equivalents. I prefer to scrape the filling out and just use the cookies, but you can leave the filling in.

Put cookies in a zip lock bag, seal it and then go ham. Just fuckin hulk smash those babies. I use a rolling pin, but any heavy object and sense of unending rage will do. Crumble those little bitches up into small pieces.

From here you'll fold in both cookie crumbles and the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream.

Coffee:

For the coffee ice cream, add a spoonful of instant coffee to a quarter of a cup of milk.

This one you are actually going to add to the heavy whipping cream with the vanilla when you make the whipped cream.

After that's been added, fold in the sweetened condensed milk.

Freezer time:

Cover the ice cream and put it in the freezer. It should stay in there for 4-5 hours, though if you want to swirl in fudge or add any bits of fruit, you will want to pull it out after about an hour and fold/swirl that in. (Earlier than that and what you add might just sink to the bottom, later and you might not be able to mix it).

And that's it! Ice Cream made and ready to eat with no metal shards!

You can really make whatever kind of ice cream you want out of this. Just figure out what flavors you want and you can experiment to your hearts desire.

Stay safe out there every one!!

[bigmammallama5]

I've been wanting to make a sourdough starter ('cause that seems to be the thing you do in a worldwide quarantine) but I've read recipes that conflict each other; throw out half every day, don't do that but keep adding flour and water, leave it open to the air, cover it with a cloth, stir it every day, leave it alone. What the hell do you do?

disclaimer: im not a trained baker and all my info is based off of my own trial and error and research, so if something i say doesnt work for you dont worry!

Okay so the biggest thing about a starter is you need equal amounts of flour and water. I used 60 grams of flour and water for mine bc I’m not planning to bake that much and didn’t want to make a massive starter. When you’re first starting out, you do need to pour off half-ish to make room in your jar. If you keep adding flour and water and don’t get rid of some of it you’re gonna run out of room lol. On slow days when I was starting mine I would sometimes feed twice a day and pour off half before the second feeding. That’s up to you. Now that mine is started, I have a schedule to feed her every Monday, but I might still feed her in between if I think she’s lookin sad.

I only stirred mine when halving and feeding, I didn’t want to disturb my starter lose that CO2 from the fermentation. It was the easiest way for me to tell that it was actively growing and maturing!

I covered my jar with a clean coffee filter and left it on the counter because my dog’s hair is super fine and literally floats in the air. I didn’t want Sam Hair in my starter lol. You can cover it with a cloth or napkin if you don’t want any large objects getting into your starter, but leaving it out on your counter is a good way to introduce local microbes into it. If you wanna get wild and crazy and have a back yard or little patio with a shaded spot, stick it out there with a strainer or piece of cheese cloth over it. I wanted to do that since I have really nice wide window sills, but we’re peak tree pollen season right now and that just sounded gross lol.

This is the basic starter guide that I’ve followed a couple times (that finally got me to my current starter).

Claire Saffitz from BA did an awesome How To Make Sourdough Bread for the Cooking NYTimes! I followed her guidance yesterday for the dough, but at the bottom she has a little section on how to maintain your starter.

I found Mike from the Youtube channel Pro Home Cooks earlier this year when I was doing some reading, and he shows you how he does his starter at the beginning of this video. He even explains some good visual signs to look for to know your starter is ready.

Since this mess started, people on twitter have been sharing their bread journeys and helping others with yeast and starters. Here are two, a new one and an old one:

For if you can’t find active yeast to buy but you have some fruit or dried fruit or the dregs of a dark beer or bottle of wine, have fun!

Or if you’re feeling wild west here’s 2019 thread on capturing wild yeast:

Which looks super fun, I wanna try this but I wonder where I could find some wild barley...

I hope some of this helps!

Also shout out to @deadbiwrites for letting me bother her with questions. True mvp. Find you a friend that can calm your baking fears.

[benbantz]

Week 17 with long term Covid

Hello to anyone reading this, those I know and those I don’t.

Had Covid 19 now for 17 weeks (or suffering after effects of covid, how ever you want to word it.) Point is had/have Corona and it’s still kicking my arse.

So since my recent facebook update (after being pretty quiet on social media for a while) a couple of peeps have messaged me asking about my symptoms and stuff as (apart from the first 2-3 weeks) I haven't really gone into any detail I just sort of say 'having rough week' or 'things flared up again' etc etc. Without going into too much detail about anything specific. So for anyone interested, and because people have been curious and asking - and as you’ll see is far to detailed to explain person to person (and want to spread the word about long haulers as a lot of people struggling) So it’s just easier for me to have it in one place. For myself more then anything. And if you get anything out of it then that’s great.

Things are just starting to come out about long haulers in the media and on the news and I know people are interested to learn a bit more about it all. So while I’m having a not too bad a time last couple of days I’d thought it’s a good a time as any to go thru all my symptoms. Get them typed out for first time.

And maybe it will be helpful to someone who randomly comes across this post - (thou please don’t use as a guide), every case is different, a lot of similarities   and cross overs , but ultimately different  Just because someone you know might be having a rough couple of days or experiencing a couple of these symptoms it could be something completely unrelated to covid. (Make sure you check with your GP or call 111 if you think you have covid symptoms long term or otherwise.) I am not a Dr.

Here's a list of everything been going on with me over last 17 weeks.           Some experiences have been completely new to me so very hard to explain , some descriptions may sound a little odd , but hopefully you get idea of what I mean! (Also sorry for any grammar mistakes....I dropped out of English A level)

Those who come across this and don’t know me personally know that while this is a (mostly) serious (but hopefully uplifting) post I’m very sarcastic and use dumb humour to deflect from how shit life is at the moment! :-) 

So first thing of the bat I'll explain is I've realised in recent weeks it's been easier to think of it as good and bad days/weeks rather then getting better/worse (as in first 10 or so weeks when I thought of it as 'it's getting better' and got in that positive mindset, the kickbacks have obviously beaten the piss out of me mentally as well as physically, as I've had about four big relapses now where I thought I'm on the right track, having a good couple of weeks then bam, I seem to go back to square one for no real apparent reason. So when I say bad day I'm describing when everything amps/flares up again, A few more symptoms go up and the volumes up on high,and likewise a good day is when things seem to be moving in right direction again and I get a bit of a break.(So now I just appreciate them when they come and try make most out of them.) A good day isn’t a symptom free day by any means, it’s just better then the bad ones.

OK so on to my symptoms.

Specific Areas

Chest - Since the first evening it kicked of early March my chest has felt like a giant has had his hand around it - that’s non stop, constant (told you my explanations were weird.)

On the better days it's a very light grip I can get on and do things to a point, but I am always aware it's there. On a bad day it's grip tightens and he squeezes (or  his fingers press into a couple of key areas - been pressing on my back a lot last few weeks.) - That’s been non stop and has not gone away since beginning. Thou I do believe its starting to ease a little. 

- Chest pain - A shooting pain in my chest (slightly different from description above, feels more like its needles on inside of body. Thankfully these are uncommon, they pop up if I push myself a bit too far one day or if I’m having rougher week.(And it’s not heart related)

Lungs/Breathing - Haven't felt like I've taken in a full lungful of air since beginning, I take a deep breath but only feels like I'm taking in 80- 85% ish (on a good day) 65- 75% ish (on a bad day) - This is week 17 numbers btw,  take maybe 10-15% off when it was at worst. I think the best way I can describe it is it feels like there’s a filter or a sieve/strainer at top of lungs, on a good day there’s more spaces available to breathe thru (but still there’s a filter) and on a bad day more spaces close and I'm breathing thru less.

 *Thankfully bar the first week where I had to get paramedic out, I haven't been gasping for air, I've certainly had to just lay and just concentrate on only breathing a few times because the filters have closed up a lot more (in the night mostly) especially where my bodies relaxed and I've woken and panicked short of air. Yes that’s as terrifying as it sounds.

- The air I do take in doesn't feel clean or fresh (best way I can describe it is when you go to a zoo and they have a indoor Rain Forrest/safari area .... very that lol) That was constant the first 12 or so weeks (even when getting fresh air outside) thankfully that’s eased a little and not so prominent, still doesn't feel like I’m breathing in fresh air but its not so hot and stuffy and noticing the difference when I go outside now.

Throat/Mouth - Burning/inflamed mouth - This is by far been the most uncomfortable/hardest for me to ignore and just get on with day to day stuff, from maybe week 6 to week 14 it was pretty much non stop burning mouth and throat (Call my mum Khaleesi because I was spitting fire.)

 Whole inside of my mouth and down my throat was just inflamed/swollen (felt like I had a golf ball stuck down there) and burning hot. The last couple of weeks its eased I don’t wake up with it (unless i’m having a flare up/bad day) It's still very on/ off but thankfully not constant like it was. And have since learned that high histamine foods make it worse - same with my chest and few other things,  (so choc, dairy, alcohol, fizzy drinks ...my diet essentially ) So have cut most of them down/out. Ice lollies have been my savior on hot throat days. - Marble in throat - Another hard one to explain, it feels like there’s a marble sort of sized ball of phlegm that I constantly need to clear. (OK maybe not that hard to explain - also sorry for the gross imagery.) But not enough mucus coming up to warrant the feeling, it’s irritating more then anything - but a few weeks ago was probs golf ball sized, so again improvement! - This sort of ties in with with the inflamed mouth, but the first thing to flare up on bad day is my tongue, feels tingly most of the time anyway but more so on a flare up/bad day.  - Same with my teeth / gums and the tingly sensation, (my teeth constantly feel like that sensation when you have some orange juice after brushing your teeth.) Sensitive/fuzzy I guess. Not particularly bothersome or concerning...just weird.

Nose

- This is probably one of newest ones, nose has felt hot(on and off)/bunged up for last few weeks. (But I know its not if that makes sense)  I guess you could say same as lungs - not breathing in a full nose-full of air either.  - sorry again for gross TMI but any mucus or boogers are clear (like almost see thru clear/never been cleaner clear)  - Phantom smells - A really odd one, I smell smoke and gas a lot, not just smell it, it feels like its in my nose and my mouth - especially smoke, almost like I’ve eaten it sometimes (non smoker in smoke free flat btw). Was a lot more prominent in first few weeks ,so much so that before I realised it was a symptom I had my carbon monoxide alarms checked because it was making me paranoid I could smell smoke/gas. A bizarre one for sure. Pops up randomly now and again.

Eyes - Last couple of weeks have been getting bit of blurry vision and sore or dry eye , I'm already blind as shit so hard to tell in terms of blurriness how bad this one is, but def finding it harder to concentrate on one thing for too long (but that sort of ties in with brain fog - which i'll get to) but pretty sure once this is done with and I go to opticians will likely need a stronger prescription (some other long haulers who never had eye problems before are now having to wear glasses) No idea if that’s a permanent one but hopefully i’m at peak of it.

Ears - My left ear has felt blocked pretty much since start (or like it needs to pop some days) Most the time I can ignore it but can be quite distracting if it kicks up a couple of dials.Which is likely why I get ear ache in same ear often as well.

*Also for most the things listed above it has always been worse on my left side of body, lung, eyes, ear, headaches.

- Tinnitus (correct word for ringing in ears right?) Usually kicks in early afternoon or on bad day. Varies on strength depending on the day I’m having.

Head/Brain - Brain Fog - So the sort of very basic science behind this is because my lungs aren't producing enough oxygen my brain knows this, so is lending them some to help out...but because of this it means I’m experiencing what is known as brain fog (I don’t know what its actually called, likely has a better more official sounding name) - my concentration is very low, i’m finding it hard to retain things and concentrate more then usual. (not been up to reading or watching something new for month or so as I just cant focus on it) Also been getting odd words muddled or confused (but the bar wasn't the highest with me on that front ha ha)

 Been dropping things when I think I have them in my hand. I do however think this is improving (The fact that I have typed this out with just a couple short breaks so far is much better then two weeks ago when I couldn't even focus on a computer game for more then half a hour) so as my lungs improve so does this or vice versa on flare up. *Edit - This whole post has taken a couple of days to draft and type up, so not too bad in terms of needing breaks etc.

-I'm also constantly aware of my brain... like I can feel it all the time (I literally cant explain that any other way lol, I guess its just heavier at moment so I can feel it against my skull) best explanation I think you'll get from that one. - Have a headache most the time (so much so that I sort of forget it’s there.) Thankfully most the time there mild/low and I can forget or distract myself but like everything else if I'm having a bad few days it goes up a notch. Likely connected to the brain fog.

Stomach and Lower abdomen - Period pains - only way I can explain it, generally thought after nearly 10 years without them it was messing my body about so much I was getting  phantom periods. (I’m a transgender man, 4+ years on testosterone, for anyone I don’t know who comes across this) been there done that, brought the t-shirt.. then sent it back because it wasn’t for me!  Very strong and painful on and off for first eight weeks, get the odd twinge now and again but think that ones done with, thank the gods. - Stomach Pains - Few aches and pains on /off, and recently experienced what felt like needle/stabbing pain for short while in short bursts - and I only really mention stomach because I haven't had the widely publicised  'covid shits' (yet, touch wood... or cloth) So yay!

Heart - Palpitations - First 8 weeks was on and off most days to the point if I was sat still my heart would be palpitating. (I couldn't even sit and listen to music I enjoyed as it would make my heart go mad.) - When I do get the palpitations it sets most things off, so if palpitations do start I generally know I'm about to have rough couple of hours or days and can’t do much, for obvious safety reasons. Thankfully these have subsided a lot last 6 or so weeks. Still get them every few days but generally know whats setting me off and how to lower them down and they don’t last as long.

Hands and Feet - Skin been very dry last couple of months, cracking and peeling on hands and feet (ew)  - Pins and needles/ numb fingers and toes - Get this a lot, obviously very normal stuff but just find them coming on a lot more (especially if i’m holding something like my ipad, phone or xbox controller for a while) Fingers feel numb/puffy a lot too. (Likely also why I keep dropping things) - Also to tie in with skin, have had a on /off spots on chest, face and shoulders for few weeks, they all came up at same time, not irritant or itchy or anything, just there.

General/Other weird things - Voice - So this is one that frustrates me the most, I have had next to no voice for last maybe 10 weeks.  I just cant chat to people at moment. For first 4 weeks wasn't to bad (I even started a youtube channel to keep me occupied and distracted) but slowly week by week it went a little bit more each time. I can talk for short periods of time if I have to/choose to ,like its not gone completely, but it kicks up all the things I mentioned in my throat and mouth directly after. If the phone rings I have to decide if it’s worth answering, in doing so knowing i’m going to have a rough day or so after. Someday’s I feel it's better then others like couple of weeks ago, chatted to my brothers online on xbox for half an hour or so for the first time in weeks, and caught up with a friend on phone for 10 minutes...but a couple of days later everything flared up again. So it's still trial and error and just being patient with my voice. (I'm quite confident no long term damage is being done now as few people in group i’m in reported there voice just eventually got better over time.) Definitely the symptom I’m having to be most patient with. - Fatigue and tiredness - My days now are normally diddily done by 4-5, (except if its a bad day then most of the day is a write off) No matter how little or much I've done, by 5-6 my body and mind are exhausted. As someone who has insomnia, pre covid I would maybe have 1-2 all nighters every ten or so days sprinkled in with 5-6 days of at most 3-4 hours sleep. In the last 17 weeks I have had just 3 all nighters, and maybe just under ten 3-4 hour sleeps. Otherwise i’m getting at least 5+ hours a night. This is the one covid thing I'd like to keep please lol.  I think it's easing a little (most the bad night sleeps have been in last month) and on good days tiredness is kicking in a little later, or it's taking me a little longer to drift off. But generally am cream crackerd a lot of time, especially if I push myself too far on a bad day. - Loss/Increased appetite - This sort of ties in with what I mentioned earlier about different foods causing set backs, the first 6 weeks I had no appetite and lost a bit of weight (I do put a lot of this down to extreme worry and stress thou)  Then I went thru a phase of being very hungry for a few weeks and put most of the weight I had lost back on. I'm somewhere in the middle now, probably because I know most of anything I eat will set me back a little (because as mentioned fussy git = high histamine diet) so i’m cutting portions (otherwise known as the amount of cheese I add to everything!) and cutting out all most junk food (you’ll never part me from my crisps!) and non healthy drinks.  

- Bloated and dehydration - This one I sort of put in pencil because it could be covid related but I also think it could be side effects  from the brown asthma inhaler I was prescribed to help with breathing. I’m still undecided as it pops up especially when I was using inhaler more but it does happen days after I’ve last used it. At it’s worse I was getting up to pee a lot! because I was thirsty all the time. So of course was just very bloated around the belly. 

*Also talking of peeing, (Great segway Ben) number 1′s and 2′s have been very different then normal, urine thicker and bubbly,and smells/is coloured different,   (same with 2′s) Also have a completely different body odour at the moment,(pungent) having to use deodorant twice as much as normal. - Admit it your life’s a little bit better now you know that information.

- THE HEAT! - I touched on this with my mouth and nose being on fire, but for the first 10-12 weeks I did not go a day where at least a couple of things were not burning hot ,like hot to the touch as well, not just inside...(very different experience then having a temperature). Extreme heat in one very specific part of body. Ears, forehead, cheeks, chest, back, nose, mouth,throat to name a few of prominent ones. Over time they have faded (if something does feel hot now its generally not hot to the touch anymore.) Maybe on a bad day a couple of things will burn up. (But in saying that, been calling today a good day but nose is quite hot) but point is its better. - Mood swings/Anxiety - While i’m fairly confident anything emotional has stemmed from experiencing...well everything you've just read. Rather then it being its own symptom (thou I have had days of uncontrollable crying, days of anger..that perhaps outside of covid I would still of had one of those days but just not to such a extreme, I think with everything going on its just amped that emotion and anxiety up.)  it's obviously been very stressful and anxiety inducing. That’s only calmed down in last week since finding the facebook group of other people going thru the same thing. I'm now seeing that people are slowly improving, i'm seeing I've not been going mad and it's all very real and not just happening to me. So the bad days are easier to deal with now and not hitting me emotionally like a ton of bricks anymore. I honestly couldn't see the end of the tunnel two weeks ago but can see it now (even if I take a step forward one day but then 2-3 back another...I see it still.)

*Mushy moment Alert - A good a place as any to include while I'm talking about emotion  - Even thou she probs wont see this,but want to mention my mum. She’s been my rock thru all this, she messages me at least twice everyday without fail, since day 1. Even thou I know she's been worried sick about me herself, she's reassured and calmed me down on the harder more stressful days. I dread the mornings when things have gone downhill a bit and having to tell her ,because I know she'll worry, but after a few texts we both end up sort of reassuring and calming the other down. (especially in the earlier days when it was really bad, scary, new and unknown.) When it was really getting me down for a while and I wanted nothing to do with anything covid related and just stay in bed and pretend this wasn't happening to me, she dug out the articles and tips and things to help or give me a boost. (Not to mention all the coming and going she and my step dad have done for me last 4 months and taking care of my shopping for first 9 or so weeks...because I was a useless mess of a human)       I know it’s basic mum stuff but this would be 10x harder and lonelier without her. Random detour I know but can’t talk about my covid experience and recovery without mentioning her.

Almost looking forward to sending her the first  'Everything normal today' text as much as I look forward to experiencing it....almost. ;-)  

Amount of Symptoms On A Typical Day

On a good day - (when I think virus was at it's worse in the first 10-14 weeks) - 4-6 symptoms ( 2 or 3 cranked up to a medium or high otherwise on mild)

On a bad day - At peak/worse - 6-10 symptoms (throat, chest and no voice on high volume, maybe a couple of things like palpitations and brain fog, heat on medium/high, other weird stuff on mild/low)

Good day  - Now 17 weeks in (excluding my voice which is still a medium to high issue most days) - 3-4 Symptoms on low to mild - usually there’s something still simmering on a medium always ready to turn up to a high if I push it too much in terms of walking or talking. (often my chest) Bad Day (Now) - 4-7 Symptoms - 1 to 3 on medium (maybe a couple will kick up to high on first day of a flare up, but generally now for shorter periods of time.)Everything else on mild or low.

So there has def been improvement in last 6 weeks, i’m sure it wont all be plain sailing and I know/prepare to expect another 'flare up' and then a bad few days. But recently instead of the bad days being 2-3 weeks of it constantly, the duration is getting shorter each time (last bad few days was just under a week)  So things are slowly improving, and i’m sure in time so will the amount of symptoms and the strength of each symptom.

I've probably missed a couple of silly/odd little things that have gone on (likely because they were so early on or very brief (or I’ve forgotten) -  fever and nausea to name a couple. When I got my notes together these were the main ones that came to mind. Quite a lot actually sitting back reading them, and I think the scary (but good) thing is, x-ray came back fine, bloods came back fine.  People have had MRI's, camera’s down there throat, most coming back fine. Covid just not showing up on any tests(unless someones suffered further complications with something) - hence why a lot of people struggling to be taken seriously by there GP's or even loved ones who think there just 'exaggerating’ or its just ‘anxiety and stress'...no living with all what you just read causes anxiety and stress Mary! 

But yeah could waffle on, once its definitely gone and I breathe and look back I can perhaps get a better overview of everything and give you better analysis of all that’s gone on. I get asked 'so when do you think it will be gone?' almost as much as 'are you better now?' To the first question, meh I don't know, I'm now into month 4/week 17 (well month 5 if I include last couple of days of Feb when I believe I caught it and had the very mild cold early March) still a lot of things going on with my body, some new things could still pop up, so instead of saying 'I think it will be gone by..'  ,like I did in the first weeks. I'm just taking it week by week (or day by day if it kicks up a notch) not making any big demands of myself or my body, doing what I can each day....but not pushing it. Instead of the sad, anxiety inducing thought 'when will it go' or the one all us long haulers worry about a lot ‘Will it ever go?’ I now try to think instead  'it will go!.'

To any fellow long haulers I say hang in there, keep fighting, trust your body and that it will get better. Take it day by day. Stay as positive as you can when everything 'flares up again' after a couple of weeks of good progress (easier said then done I know) but know it wont be forever as much as it feels like it is. Don’t be afraid to ask for help (I hate going to Drs would much rather just 'get on with it' , but from pestering a little I got a blue inhaler which has helped me a lot day to day,and had x-ray and blood tests which also put my mind at ease when they came back clear. So don’t be afraid to ask to get these things checked if you’re worried. I've been lucky with my GP's thou who I think have generally believed me and taken me seriously and I know not everyone is getting that help or respect. I think it’s really not helped us that in the early days people were stubbing their toes and thinking they had caught covid and calling their Dr’s (I’m exaggerating but hopefully you get my point lol), so if you do get a not so helpful interaction, be patient,explain yourself or try again with another Dr, remember a GP will only advise you symptom by symptom and not as a whole.   Anyway I’m repeating stuff you already know by now lol.   

Stay positive. Stay hopeful and stay safe.

To anyone else, believe us, know this is very real, and that it absolutely sucks. Its not just anxiety or in our head. We're not exaggerating - in fact most of us are probably playing it down or just not elaborating on things for an easy life and because when someone asks 'are you better now?'  it's easier to just smile and nod and answer 'getting there slowly' because the truth is...well what you just read lol. (And I'm a particularly mild case...next to no coughing, no spells in A and E, a breeze for a lot of other people with long term) Keep yourselves safe (most long haulers have no previous medical /problems/conditions. Some ,myself included, have weakened immune systems due to a long term health condition. A unlucky few are fighting another long term medical illness as well as covid. I'm lucky in that I have no dependants (except 4 easy to please gecko's) and was not working prior to catching it - some are having to deal with all this and be full time parents, or have been to and fro with their jobs (thinking there better then relapsing after going back). There’s mums messaging on behalf of there young kids who have it, lots of young people (one of the lads that co runs the group is 22 I believe), there's athletes/health fanatics used to running miles every day been completely knocked of there game unable to even walk to end of road some days. People of all age ranges. Point is anyone can catch it, it might not just be 'a couple of rough weeks' It might take over half a year for you to recover from.  This myth that it's short and sweet, or a walk in the park if your young and healthy needs to be squashed because its just not accurate. 

If not for my mum and our family and the facebook group I found, (Positive path of wellness - Covid UK Long Haulers) I'd be struggling, really struggling. It's scary, brutal and lonely. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The virus is still out there it has not gone. Keep sanitising hands and wear a mask in busy places!. - Tell the guy who's life this has been for 17 weeks, why wearing a mask in public places, to keep yourself and others safe from catching this nightmare, is a inconvenience for you Karen...go on, I'll wait...

Maybe you can help prevent yours or someone else's next few months from being even worse. x

Was going to just make this a one time post on tumblr account but if it’s a help to anyone (especially fellow long haulers) I’ll post some other bits and bobs when i’m up to it. (thinking of doing a post about things/products etc that I think have been helping me. If that’s useful to anyone) Or just some positive/ funny things to keep spirits up. Keeping it all positive and upbeat as possible.

So I’ll see if anyone reads this first and go from there

So I guess in conclusion ...lol I’m just joking, this post is really done now, go back to your lives, this garbled mess of self woe (worlds smallest violin is back in its case now), sarcasm and naff humour has taken up far too much of all of our days already. Go peacefully amongst the things. :-) 

Stay safe everyone x

[ebonyheartnet]

Potion of Can’t Forget Breakfast

Sometimes you figure out how to make sure you have breakfast and are happy. Sometimes you accidentally drink your caffeinated breakfast before bed. Sometimes you write up the recipe hours ahead of schedule because you can’t sleep anyways, so might as well.

Equipment:

Vacuum insulated thermos that keeps shit cold for over 12 hours

Blender/spinning blade thing for chopping food

Measuring cup/utensils of some kind

Big ass bowl

Fine mesh strainer

Optional Cheesecloth for straining if texture is a big deal for you

Optional funnel for getting potion into thermos

Ingredients:

1 part rolled oats

4 parts liquid; some mix of juice and water works best

Bag of tea that makes you feel awake with tag and any staples removed (caffeine not necessary but optional)

Best to use only a pinch of salt, but whatever makes you happy I guess

Ice cubes to taste (or less taste lol, but seriously you need at least a few)

Directions:

Gather all your shit

Double check you actually gathered all your shit, please, you will be really sad otherwise and I don’t want you to be sad

Oats go in chopping machine with your juice + salt; blend at max speed for 30 to 40 seconds

Strain into big ass bowl; if using cheesecloth you’ll be lining the strainer with that first before wringing it out

Transfer your potion into the thermos, add tea bag and ice cubes to finish before capping it

You can now keep your potion in your backpack overnight so you don’t forget your breakfast, and it’s safe to drink until after it stops being cold

I used 3 cups of apple juice w/ 1 cup of water, 1 cup of oats, and Irish breakfast tea. It’s pretty good, and I accidentally drank half before I remembered Caffeine, which is why you get this recipe now instead of later.

You could also totally do this with the same ratio of cooked rice instead of oats, blending it for at least 1 minute with no straining, but I like oats much better. Technically, you could also do this with dairy + sugar to taste but, my friend, I advise against it. If you forget a thermos w/ this recipe for like a month, you’ll obviously have to soak it but it should be okay. Dairy, however, will make a stink bomb* as soon as it starts rotting, and it will be pressurized. Seriously, don’t do it.

If you liked this, please reblog to help out other folks, and feel free to check my blog description to leave me a tip on ko-fi! :D

*Relative experience: 5 younger siblings and 7 years in childcare as of 2020

[hackedmotionsensors]

I would murder for some royal milk tea but I also don’t want to buy some from amazon. Bezos has got enough money he doesn’t need any more of mine if I can help it. (I have a prime account so jokes on me)

So I was checking out Art of Teas (bc ....I’m a sucker and I watched try guy videos this morning) for some Assam. And I saw this dumb “Tea Snob” mug and it made me want to yeet myself into a fire.

I hate that lmfao. I hate Coffee Snob and Tea Snob. 

I love.

LLLOOOOOVEEEEEE a fucking good cup of coffee. And an amazing cup of tea is just so good.

But I also realize I’m not going to take up to fifteen minutes to properly prepare all my tools. Nor do i want to exhaustively clean all my tools. If you don’t clean a french press or a tea strainer it can get a bitter taste. And I HATE doing the dishes. It takes me like two minutes?? to make a cup of drip coffee from my cheapo captain america coffee maker. And it makes one cup exactly which is all I need unless I want more. 

A single tea bag of store brand tea (or twinings. I usually buy twinings lol) is just fine. Being a coffee or tea snob is just like.......of all the things you chose to be a prick over you picked the one thing that’s steeped in colonialism and racism but go awf with your Goop ass I GUESS.

*sips my shitty green tea bc what I really wanted was hot water bc I ate too much*