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a-flickering-soul · 5 months

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Favorite easy recipe?

i love this QUESTION!!! whenever idk what to eat i'll make this lentil soup and it is GREAT it has protein and veggies and it is so good and adaptable and good for meal prep!! i'll put a picture of it here and add the recipe below the cut.

adapted from this recipe

Ingredients: 1 cup red lentils (I’m serious, JUST one cup, it’ll make 3-4 servings), 3 cups low-salt chicken stock or water, mirepoix (diced carrot, celery, onion), 2 hot Italian sausages, a handful of kale (washed, stripped from the stems, and torn into pieces), oil, salt, whole spices (I used cumin, mustard seeds, and black pepper) and 3 tbsp lemon juice

Saute the mirepoix in oil until onions turn translucent, then add the sausage (removed from its casing), break it up, and let it get a little browned. Add in the stock/water and lentils (I added in the kale here too since it’s tough and needs a while to cook) and bring to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and let it go for 15-30 minutes depending on how quickly your lentils cook, stirring every now and then. Somewhere around here, check for salt and add as much as you want. Right after you take it off the heat, add in the lemon juice. During the last 5 minutes or so, take some oil, heat it up, and fry the whole spices to make tadka (infused oil + bloomed spices). Make sure you keep an eye on it and keep it moving so nothing burns (takes about a minute, should smell really good). Serve with some bread if you want and a drizzle of tadka on top!

Kale can be substituted with any leafy green vegetable (spinach and Swiss chard would probably be really good), the tadka can totally be omitted, and the sausage can be swapped for a nice ham hock, chorizo, etc, or omitted entirely to make it vegan :) also I added extra lemon juice bc I like sour things but u don’t need to. This is also good with some hot sauce and/or Greek yogurt on top too!

#it's so good and honestly what i do is when i have a day where i have enough energy i chop up a bunch of mirepoix and freeze it #but yes i love this recipe it's so simple and soothing and so good with some bread OR you could put potato pieces in there?? so good #lentils are also wicked filling and cheap as fuck for a bag of em #this is also a really fun recipe bc it's so simple there r so many ways to customize it w spices or add ins!!!!#answered #anonymous #i have a HUGE growing google doc of recipes if anyone is interested owo i love cooking and food also #if you try this tell me what you think!!

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sasster · 1 year

Text

Restless Afternoon

[Doc for your viewing pleasure]

In the living room, Mallum lay sprawled out on the couch unbothered by the singing of the birds that drew out into the afternoon. It was a dangerous call, a siren song that invited you out into the danger of daylight. The small streaks of light that did force themselves through the filtering curtains and the cracks in between them don’t bother him either, they merely dance along the wall just behind the couch harmlessly. Up to this point, the fuchsia dozes peacefully, a leg strewn across its back haphazardly.

In an instant though, it changes when there is a small creak in the floorboard from deeper in the hive that sends him to full attention. His eyes snap open and, though he does not move, his focus settles acutely on the entrance to the hallway. Someone is moving around in there, uneven footfall that suggests whoever is in there is entirely unsure of where they are going.

For a moment, it is silent again.

Then another creak, followed by a silhouette appearing just inside his line of sight. It moves no more upon settling. They are moving along at an agonizingly slow pace. Surely they didn’t mistake Mallum for the patient type.

“What are you doing, trying to wake me up?” He calls out into the darkness, but something tells him he will not be getting a response. “Can’t sleep?”

He takes the silence that follows as an opportunity to blink the sleep from his eyes, the very homely living room coming into better focus. At the end of the hall where the visitor stands were two shelves of figurines lining the walls on either side and an end table absolutely covered in knickknacks, most of them homemade, with a single shelf underneath dedicated to board games. The clutter would drive Zerkev up a wall, says a fleeting thought.

Now a little more awake, he starts to recognize the figure standing in the hall as Zurven. Which comes across as a surprise, and perhaps a bit concerning, considering that whenever the two of them occupy the same space, Zurven does his absolute damnedest to make sure that becomes past tense as soon as possible.

There is no movement.

“Hey, are you… Are you okay?” He asks as he pulls himself to sit up fully. “Seriously.”

The brown blood enters the living room fully, trailing a hand along the wall as he walks behind the couch. He pauses to stare at the way the muddled sunlight dances across his hand, then he starts playing with it. First he balls his hand into a fist, then he splays it out and wiggles his fingers, tilting his head as he watches the light bend around his fingers.

“Is this real?” He finally speaks, in a voice so small that it can hardly be heard without a bit of effort on Mallums part.

“Is this real?” He echoes, working to keep his voice low despite its incredulity, recalling hearing something about not startling a sleepwalker in the past. Is this sleepwalking? This is definitely beyond his wheelhouse, whatever it is. “Like, are you awake?”

Zurven doesn’t respond, falling silent again as he continues to watch the light mingle with his fingertips.

Not only is this the longest conversation that the two have ever had, it is also the first. For a moment, he watches Zurven stare at his hand. What is he supposed to do with this? He considers going to get one of his partners briefly, surely they will be better company for his absent mind. But, on the other hand, what if something happens while he’s gone?

Mallum heaves a sigh and runs a hand through his hair.

This is far too much responsibility.

“Listen, come sit. I’ll get you some water.”

Suddenly, Zurven clutches his head between his hands, and though he mostly has his back toward him, it’s easy to tell that he is grimacing something awful.

“Get out!” He shouts, desperate and strangled. “There’s no room! Get out!”

He’s crying.

For a second, the seadweller wonders if perhaps his sleepless mind was manifesting how he really felt about the living room being occupied during the mornings. However, there is not a lot of time to dwell on it before Zurven starts to drift toward the front door.

Is he out of his mind?

Mallum is on his feet and over the couch in the same instant, hands up defensively.

“Hey, hey. Where are you going in such a rush? Sun’s out.” He urges, resting his hands on his shoulders from behind just as Zurvens hand ghosts along the edges of the door handle. “Come sit.”

“My head is killing me. There’s no room.”

“What, do you need an aspirin or something?” He asks as he uses his leverage on Zurven to put himself between him and the door, momentarily removing one of his hands to close the latch on the previously unlocked deadbolt just out of the brownbloods reach at the top.

They must be the only people in this place with a deadbolt, this isn’t his first freakout.

Mallum guides Zurven back to the couch, helping him to sit among the mess of blankets and pillows that he left behind. There is a split second where they make eye contact, the smaller troll's eyes shake with uncertainty when they meet.

It’s a little off putting.

“Caffeine’s s’posed to help with a headache, I think. It’ll keep you up the rest of the morning, though.” He offers, glancing at a clock and noting that it’s just a little past midday. With his thumb and index he pinches the bridge of his nose before spreading them out to rub his eyes, then he lets out another sigh. “Fuck, guess I’m up for the day too –”

“Who.. Who am I?” Zurven cuts in, seemingly only registering parts of their interaction, his dead eyed stare drifting beyond Mallums shoulder.

“Zurven?”

His gaze snaps back and they make eye contact again.

“I’m Zurven?”

“Uh, yeah. You��re Zurven. Little fuckin’ uh..” He casts a glance around the room as he speaks. How the hell are you meant to help ground someone you barely know? When his gaze lands on a framed picture of all three of his hosts, a lightbulb goes off in his head. “Real crafty, from what I hear.”

Satisfied that Zurven is settled into the blankets and not in danger of jumping out of the nearest window, he moves to grab the picture off of the wall and one of the obviously homemade figurines off the shelf. Veylin’d mentioned that all of those knickknacks were made by him anyway.

“That’s you.” Mallum says as he puts the picture in one hand and the little cat he’d swiped into the other. “And you made this.”

Zurven stares at the picture for a moment, letting it sit in his lap so he can draw his fingers along the visage he was pretty sure was himself. To his credit, he was right. All the while, the thumb of his other hand caresses the edges of the cat figurine.

Another moment of silence.

“My head hurts..”

“You uh, yeah. You mentioned that. Need a massage or something?” He makes a face, the idea of touching him again, so intimately this time, sits uneasy in his stomach. “What do you need? You can hear me right?”

“There’s no more space..”

“You mentioned that too, don’t know what that’s about though.” Not having the answers, or a clue about what’s going on makes him uncomfortable quickly, he cracks his neck and points towards the kitchen. “Well, since we’re awake, might as well have a snack. You guys have cream cheese, right?”

He didn’t expect an answer, he is not surprised when one does not come, he just shrugs and heads toward the kitchen.

It would be a lie to say it wasn’t a welcome change of scenery. The curtains and blinds on the window over the sink did a much better job of fending off the invasive sunlight and for a moment Mallum is free of the burden of caring after someone that would sooner see him dead.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?” He ponders aloud, sifting his way through the fridge. “Hey Mahkir, your boyfriend tried to fry himself this morning. Stopped him, you’re welcome. Thanks for telling me that was a possibility.”

He sighs. The behavior is clearly stress related, there’s no wondering what the stressor was.

“I just need to get him back to sleep. Back in his own head?” How do you even plan around something like that? This is fucking stupid. Where is the cream cheese?

There is no time afforded to him to wrap his head around these burning questions, the pitter patter of that poor confused troll breaks him from his thoughts and monologue. The footsteps stop at the island in the center of the kitchen.

“Can’t get enough of me, huh? Glad you��re here, new plan.” Mallum says as he turns, gallon of milk in hand, to find Zurven already seated comfortably atop the fixture. He watches the seadweller as though his voice is the only thing keeping him tethered, eyes wide.

That’s. That’s a lot of responsibility.

Instead of facing that responsibility, he starts to grab the other things he’d need for his new plan: Cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a small pot.

“Never made it myself, but my mom used to make this drink on sleepless mornings,” why is he bothering explaining himself when the man is barely lucid? “Probably do us both some good.”

Once again, to no surprise, Zurven did not give a verbal response. Or any at all. “It’s probably gonna taste like shit, real amateur hour. I’ll make enough so we can both suffer through it.”

#zurven #coko writes sometimes #long post #hey guys hey owo)/#it could be better but this is what you get #nobodies

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