#how did i not know about halvah before?

[believerindaydreams]

Thursday again: recovery edition

honestly I spent most of the week being extremely passive in bed, unsurprisingly.

Listening

Me: how long can it take to listen to some Kirby music?

YouTube: just the boss themes laid end to end will take three hours

Me: ...sounds like a Project!

Me much, much later: the penguin boss theme has claimed my soul

Eating

I can buy marble halvah by the pound at the international supermarket! Whoot whoot.

Drinking

Off the menu this week.

Reading

Every TV Tropes entry on my fave pink puffball Kirby. It took...awhile.

We are not in the universe where Meta Knight is played by Clint Eastwood and that's sad because he's absolutely a spaghetti western protagonist in the shape of an adorable ball.

Watching

As you may have inferred I have a pink puffball on the brain this week, so I went off to see if the fan translation of the Kirby anime had ever restarted from where they stalled out around episode 75.

(listen, I don't want my battle penguin to sound like George Bush. Japanese vocals all the way.)

answer: they finished! It's on Dailymotion! All hundred episodes! So I rewatched the pilot and was once again delighted with the story engine of "what if everything wrong with the universe up to and including Lovecraft monster squid was actually the fault of Amazon". Like. Solid premise.

I don't think I can binge watch these, but I will absolutely be coming back to them.

Writing

A mere month after finishing off Catching the Butterfly, I appear to once again be writing bits of the crossover from hell. might as well give in and name the series that, since it's gonna be one.

They will probably go on A03 eventually. But I need a title first. Which is partly a philosophical problem- as loosely as the story was following the plot of Genesis of the Daleks (not at all really) I did struggle my way to the end of that storyline, and it's over. Whatever storyline might shape up in the aftermath would be an entirely different tale and I don't know what name it bears yet. Also I'm moderately certain my ex is creeping my A03 account but not my Tumblr, and I'd kinda like to have an idea what I'm doing before it goes up over there.

wait. fuck. 50s aesthetic + Brits means skiffle.

*long sigh* I don't even like skiffle but the logic is inarguable.

On a related note, the Bad Ending Genesis AU I was having the sads about last week is now done. Sometimes you just end up writing the Cold Equations and it's like. oops.

you can really tell I spend my leisure time pounding the keyboard, huh.

(I have not figured out how to fic Kirby. Which is weird.

Puffball puffball puffball.

I'll stop now.)

[sarandsaffitz]

Salted Halvah Blondies, p.128, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made 10/16/2021 with the help of my BFF, Caroline.

YUM! These are so delicious and you feel super accomplished when you’ve made them. Absolutely ingenious recipe by our #Queen - Claire, amazing, I can’t believe this is the second easiest recipe in the book, like what?

Tips:

1. Halvah was difficult to find and a search to find vegan (I originally found some with egg in it). I ended up going to a local international grocery with middle eastern foods and found a vegan halvah there.

2. Vegan white chocolate chips are even harder to find. Somehow, I found some at Walmart, the organic ones, and stocked up so I hopefully don’t have to go back to Walmart anytime soon.

3. Claire says to use a metal tin, but I only had glass. Shouldn’t change the bake at all right? (wrong)

4. More of a zero waste tip: Did you know you can make your own brown sugar? Instead of buying it in those plastic bags, just measure out how much the recipe calls for in white sugar, then add a small amount of molasses. Using a fork, mix it all up until there aren’t any molasses pieces left over and it’s all the same color. Tada! You made brown sugar. Good job, you!

How to make vegan:

This recipe calls for butter, an egg and 2 large egg yolks. I always opt for Earth Balance instead of butter, which can come in sticks for baking. The egg we swapped for a flax egg.

The egg yolks I was unsure of, and if I were to do this again, which I probably will (and I’ll post about it if/when I do) I would do another flax egg instead of what I ended up doing. I read somewhere that chickpea flour is a potentially good replacement for egg yolks, so we used 3 tbsp of chickpea flour, with 3 tbsp of water. It didn’t seem to add or take anything away from this bake, so do what sounds right to you. Next time I’m just doing another flax egg.

Maybe because of the chickpea flour egg yolk or maybe because there may have been excess liquid or maybe because we used glass instead of metal (I kind of need Paul Hollywood to tell me what exactly went wrong), we ended up needing to bake this longer because it was just way too jiggly all over the damn thing. The recipe says to bake for 20-25 minutes, but we ended up baking for another 15-20.

The recipe also says to allow the blondies to cool completely in the pan before cutting. I did that and tried to cut them but it seemed as though it still hadn’t set completely. Into the fridge it went, and now this morning, a little coffee and a delicious, almost fudge-like consistency, salty and sweet and nut buttery blondie. Seriously delicious, will definitely be doing this one again. 10/10

Edit: 11/3/2021 - I made these again for some friends and used two flax eggs instead and it worked out great! Still had to chill in the fridge but would definitely keep this one in mind for a tasty treat to bring to a dinner party.

[even-love-unreturned]

Meanings behind Chain of Iron chapter titles (part I, Ch1-15)

1. The Bright Web

From Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet “Body’s Beauty” (1866), alternatively titled “Lilith”, written to accompany his painting Lady Lilith.

Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

2. All That Turns

3. Bitter and Sweet

4. A Good Name

From “This Marriage” by Rumi, date unknown.

May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage.

5. The King is Dead

“The King is dead, long live the King“ is a well-known traditional saying, and is the first thing that comes to mind, though I’m not convinced that this is the particular source for this title.

6. Things To Come

There are way too many possibilities for this one to narrow it down. I’ll put two of them here:

One the poem “The Flesh and the Spirit“ by Anne Bradstreet, published in 1650. An excerpt:

In secret place where once I stood Close by the Banks of Lacrim flood, I heard two sisters reason on Things that are past and things to come. One Flesh was call’d, who had her eye On worldly wealth and vanity; The other Spirit, who did rear Her thoughts unto a higher sphere.

And the other is “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1798. An excerpt:

So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Most like articulate sounds of things to come! So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt, Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!

7. Tread Lightly

Perhaps “Requiescat” by Oscar Wilde, written in the 1880s. In the poem, the speaker speaks of and to an unnamed woman, who is buried and cannot hear.

Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow.

All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust.

8. To Bring a Fire

Most of the references I can find for this are Biblical passages, but none exact.

9. The Scars Remaining

Most likely from “Christabel”, an unfinished narrative ballad written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from 1797-1800. The ballad focuses on a young lady named Christabel and her encounter with a strikingly beautiful stranger called Geraldine, who claims to have been kidnapped from her home. Christabel takes Geraldine in to share her bed, and they spend the night together. The story also involves Geraldine putting a spell on Christabel that leaves her unable to tell anyone about what they do or what Geraldine’s “true form“ is.

Brings to mind a certain other strikingly beautiful character in TLH who also does spells to a similar effect, doesn’t it?

This excerpt that includes the phrase “the scars remaining”, however, is about Christabel’s father and his long-lost friend with whom he had a falling-out, but who also turns out to be Geraldine’s father.

They parted—ne'er to meet again! But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining— They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between;— But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween, The marks of that which once hath been.

10. The Damned Earth

Likely from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “Lenore”, published in 1843.

Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise, “But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days! “Let no bell toll! — lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth, “Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth. “To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven — “From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven — “From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven.

11. Crowns and Pounds and Guineas

From an untitled poem (but often identified by its first line) by A. E. Housman, included in his poetry book A Shropshire Lad, published in 1896. According to Wikipedia, this collection sold “slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance.”

When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, “Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.” But I was one-and-twenty, No use to talk to me.

12. Requiem

A requiem is a mass for the repose of the souls of the dead, or a piece of musical composition in honor of the dead. It’d be impossible to narrow this down to a specific quote, though.

13. The Wintry Wind

Likely from “The Withering of the Boughs“ by W. B. Yeats, published as part of his poetry volume In The Seven Woods (1903). Each of the three stanzas of the poem ends with the following two lines:

“No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind, The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.”

14. The Flaming Forge

From “The Village Blacksmith“ (1840) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem makes use of the image of “the flaming forge“ twice.

And children coming home from school Look in at the open door; They love to see the flaming forge, And hear the bellows roar, And catch the burning sparks that fly Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

[…]

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught! Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought; Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought.

15. Walk by Daytime

From poem V in “A Dark Month” by Algernon Charles Swinburne, written in May 1881.

Dreams that strive to seem awake, Ghosts that walk by daytime, Weary winds the way they take, Since, for one child's absent sake, May knows well, whate'er things make Sport, it is not Maytime.

Part 2 (chapters 16-29) here.

[primeemeraldheiress]

Damian always sleeps in Jason's bed when Jason stays at the manor.

Ell, what do you do to me?

Cut because it’s looooong.

——————–

Not a Betting Matter

They didn’t notice it at first. 

Why would they?

There was no need to check on him every single night. He was old enough to get himself to bed and stay there. Mature enough to know the value of a good night’s sleep. 

They only checked on him when they needed to worry. When he had a nightmare. (When they did.) When he might sneak out at night. When he was hurt.

 The first time Dick found them, he assumed it must have been an accident. A fluke.

All of them had had a rough night getting Joker back into his cage at Arkham. But Jason had had it the worst.

Dick couldn’t imagine what was going through his oldest little brother’s head.

The rogue had obviously had an agenda. Every one of his minions had been carrying crowbars. Red numbers flashed on all the walls; counting down to whatever the big showdown had been. The showdown they’d stopped. 

By the end of it, Jason had been savage. 

Dick wasn’t sure what had kept him to his promise not to kill. Even he could see the green leaking under the mask. Leaching into his movements and words. 

He wasn’t certain he’d show the same restraint.

He’d wanted to pull Robin from Hood’s side twenty times that night. Get him away from that acid Lazarus venom. But he didn’t. They needed him where he was at. 

When Alfred insisted that Jason stay at the manor tonight, his brother had only nodded

That alone told the first Robin how bad it must have been. Jason didn’t stay unless the world was ending. Unless he or someone else was hurt.

And now… Well, they must have both been so tired. 

Dick had gone to check on Damian. To reassure him that he was still there. That the Joker hadn’t gotten another Robin. (A common nightmare they all shared.) When he wasn’t in his bed, he nearly panicked. 

Of course, he went to Jason first. 

Jason who, no matter the barbs and taunts and hate, would always protect a child. Jason, who constantly threw himself in front of Robin when there was danger. Who always, no matter how much he tried to pretend he wasn’t, was tuned into Robin’s commlink. 

Jason would go to the ends of the Earth to protect and save Robin.

Which was how he found them. 

It must have been an accident.

There’s no way, with the amount of vitriol between them, no matter the carefully hidden protection, that they would fall asleep in the same bed on purpose.

It was still absolutely adorable and he needed pictures to prove that it happened.

This was going to explode in the morning. Fireworks. He needed to have popcorn ready.

He stepped out of the room and closed the door before sending the photos to Bruce.

But then -

Nothing came of it. There was no shouting. No avoiding each other. No embarrassed looks. If he hadn’t found them cuddled up with each other the night before he wouldn’t even have known it had happened.

Whatever.

He framed one of the pictures. 

But then it happened again. 

Damian had nearly drowned in the bay; knocked off the pier by one of Dent’s men. For a split second Hood had frozen (torn between diving after him and beating the bastard bloody) before throwing his helmet to Batgirl and jumping in the water.

It was Jason that carried the boy to the Batmobile. Jason that drove him to the cave and feed him hot chocolate and wrapped him in warm blankets.

And it was Jason’s body heat he shared as he slept, still shivering ever-so-slightly. Again, Dick only found them after trying to check on Damian in his room.

Dick just didn’t understand.

“I don’t understand.” He voiced, baffled, staring into his coffee the next morning.

“What don’t you understand?” Alfred asked, placing a plate of pancakes next to him.

“Damian… and Jason. This is the second time I’ve found them sharing Jason’s bed after patrol.”

“Is that all?” The older man drawled. 

“What do you mean?”

“Master Dick, Master Damian has been sleeping in Master Jason bed’s every time Master Jason has spent the night in the Manor.”

Dick blinked in surprise. “What? Why?”

“You’d have to ask them, I’m afraid.”

“How do you know that?”

The old butler arched a brow and Dick grinned sheepishly. Right. Alfred knew all. 

“What are we talking about?” Bruce asked wearily as he joined them.

“Damian sleeping in Jason’s bed.”

Bruce blinked slowly, “Again?”

Dick nodded, “Alfred says it happens whenever Jason stays over.”

Bruce looked thoughtful as he poured himself some coffee. 

Footsteps drew everyone’s eyes as the two they were talking about walked into the breakfast room. Dick’s eyes narrowed, watching. Paying attention in a way he never had before.

They stepped apart, moving to opposite ends of the table. Jason sitting diagonally from Bruce and Damian sliding in between Dick and his father. 

But… there was communication he hadn’t noticed before.

A flick of an eyebrow. A grimace. A glare across the table when Damian frowned at his orange juice. A cough and a finger tap. 

Holy shit. 

This whole time.

This whole fucking time. 

“You…” He couldn’t shake the awe in his voice. The audacity. It had been two years. Two whole years since Damian had come to them. “You two knew each other. Before Damian came to Gotham!”

Jason froze while drinking his tea, eyes wide as they darted from Dick to Bruce to Damian.

The boy choked on his orange juice. The orange juice that, through a series of minute facial expressions, Jason had ordered the boy to drink.

“You two hate each other!” Dick continued, bewildered.

Damian, airway now cleared, began to laugh. Genuinely. Sincerely.

Bruce just arched an eyebrow, too tired for this shit.

“I told you!” Damian took a sip of his juice again. “I told you, ahki! Grayson would be the one!”

“You can’t discount Cass. She keeps things to herself.” Jason grumbled, lowering his cup and glowering at the boy.

“Pay up!”

“I don’t have it with me.” 

“Liar!”

“How do you expect me to keep it on me? You know the rule of the Manor.” Jason asked, rolling his eyes.

“You owe me, ahki!” Damian’s eyes glittered in triumph.

“You don’t know that! We gotta check with Cass first.”

“You owe me!” 

“What exactly does Jason owe you. And what for?” Bruce asked, voice tired.

“We bet-” Dick knew, right then, the whole morning was ruined, “on who would be the first to realize that we don’t actually hate each other. It was a training exercise. I won. Jason owes me his best sword.”

Annoyed, Jason snapped, “I don’t owe you crap, habibi. Not until we clarify.”

“Training exercise… bet? What? Who put you up to that?” Dick asked, afraid to know the answer.

“Mom.”

“Mother.”

“Mom?” Bruce asked, incredulous, as he stared at his second eldest.

Jason flushed. He hadn’t meant to say that. “I didn’t say that.”

“Just wait until I tell Mother you finally slipped in front of Father.” Damian gloated.

“You keep your mouth shut, you little shit, or I’m not sharing the next batch of halvah!” Jason shot back.

“You wouldn’t!” The boy gasped, outraged. 

“Try me!” Jason glared.

Bruce rubbed his temples at the two descended into the first bought of the truest sibling squabbles he’d ever seen out of either of them.

Alfred politely coughed.

Silence descended. 

Heads turned to their grandfather figure.

“I think you’ll find, young masters, that you didn’t fool me for a moment.”

“Oh, Alfie. You don’t count.” Jason chirped, “We all know that you know everything.”

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Flavors of the Sun by Christine Sahadi Whelan

The Sahadi’s Guide to Understanding, Buying and Using Middle Eastern Ingredients

 Married in 1978, I moved to Lebanon. Before coming I tried to learn a few words of Arabic and what foods might be offered when I arrived. Forty-three years later I read cookbooks with ingredients I can’t find easily  here in Lebanon giving up on many unless I am aware of substitutions I can make. THIS book is quite the opposite as every single recipe in this book is one that I thought about making almost immediately and could taste mentally without any difficulty at all. It was a joy to read and I will be recommending it to my family and friends.

 What I liked:

* The history of the family that founded Sahadi’s in New York.

* Reading about a family that survived and thrived and how they did so.

* Thinking about relatives of my husband’s family that I have never met because they left long ago for South America, America and other countries.

* The gorgeous photographs from the past along with the photos of finished recipes

* The information about ingredients and what to look for when buying them

* That multiple ways to use an ingredient were provided along with recipes to try them in

* That ingredients were used in multiple meal course offerings

* The fact that many generations of the Sahadi family have been and continue to be involved in the family business

* Wanting to try recipes that had interesting new ways for me to use local ingredients

* The beverages that incorporated more than one ingredient

* Reading portions of the book aloud to my Lebanese husband and having him say it would be fun to visit the shop in New York

* The recipes for some foods that I have always wanted to try but have only seen recipes written down in Arabic for.

* The excellent index that would make finding recipes easy

* The menus listed at the end that utilize the recipes in the book

* All of it…absolutely!

 What I didn’t like:

* Not a dislike but a quandary…and that was that I couldn’t figure out WHICH recipe to try making first!

 Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

 5 Stars

      BLURB

 A comprehensive guide to vibrant Middle Eastern ingredients, with more than 120 recipes that let them shine, from James Beard award winning Sahadi's market in Brooklyn, New York.

Sumac. Urfa pepper. Halvah. Pomegranate molasses. Preserved lemons. The seasonings, staples, and spice blends used throughout the Middle East offer deliciously simple ways to transform food—once you know how to use them.

In Flavors of the Sun, the people behind the iconic Brooklyn market Sahadi's showcase the versatility of these ingredients in over 120 everyday dishes, including starters, salads, soups, family-friendly meals, and desserts. With sections devoted to recipes boasting Bright, Savory, Spiced, Nutty, and Sweet accents, it offers inspiration, techniques, and intensely flavorful ways to use everything from Aleppo pepper to za'atar with confidence.

Throughout, "no-recipe recipes" help build up your flavor intuition so you can effortlessly incorporate any of the featured spices, condiments, and preserves into your daily repertoire.