(no subject)

saw closer again. loved it just as much as before. although i think that as wax_jism relayed to me, it is a film about mean people, it's not a mean film about them. and it's so pretty in so many ways!

there are so. many. dishes. to do. but then i can make cookies! mm... COOKIES.

breakfast of poet laureates

so i forgot that today was runebergsdagen in finland, the extremely celebratory anniversary of the birth of finland's celebrated national poet. and it didn't even occur to me that all the shops were closed.

so i didn't check that we had all the ingredients before beginning to make toll house cookies. wax left a sticky note on her monitor-- "IF YOU HAVE TIME YOU COULD MAKE COOKIES, BUT I'M SURE M&L WILL BE FINE WITH PEPPARKAKOR, <3 WAX". which of course translates to "please make cookies?" i know she's been hopeful since she brought home those two non-stick cookie trays.

but we had no chocolate. and that is one thing that you absolutely cannot make chocolate chip cookies without. i mean, you can substitute walnuts if you have them, or pecans, but we don't. or m&m's, but we don't. so i walked the dog over fresh-frozen ice to the store and back when i discovered it was closed, half-falling over CONSTANTLY because another thing you can't do is teach a dog about the interlocking concepts of ice, traction, connection via leashes, and pulling. in fact, i'm not sure perry knows that the leash exists.

i decided to make chocolate shortbread instead, but i had to put 500 mL flour back in the cupboard because i'd already mixed it with baking soda. luckily we have PLENTY of flour.

have you ever noticed that a round of shortbread dough looks sort of like a semi-solidified puddle of butter? that's because that's what it is. with the slight addition of flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa.

i have a feeling these cookies are going to be really tasty, though.

highlander sorta-rec.

i'm not going to rec this novel i got from crack_van because, well, it's not a very good novel. it's very much an original one, but not a particularly riveting nor well put-together one. (that said, it's not really bad writing, just sort of--overly long and involved, and otherwise weak in spots.)

but i do recommend the first-time chapter. the first time itself is very well-handled, and there's a small sample of some of the original ideas of the author's so that they seem interesting: a bit of methos origin, not too drawn out; a bit more mysticism surrounding macleod and the concept of quickenings, and the canon double-quickening. the mood and the emotions in this first time are lovely, the language slightly lyrical, the dialogue nice and some of the images quite powerful. there's a bit of cliché which irritated me, but i won't name it and maybe you'll escape it unscathed.

this rec isn't going on my recs page because, well, i'd never rec one chapter from the middle of a story there.

chocolate shortbread (metric measures)

1. 400 g butter
2. 155 g powdered sugar
3. 470 g flour
4. 53 g cocoa powder

preheat oven to 160*C and grease a cookie sheet or pie pan. sift together flour and cocoa. cream butter and sugar. mix all together. pour batter onto baking sheet. flatten it into a circle approx. 1/2" thick with floured hands--it will be way too sticky for a rolling pin. bake 30-40 min. remove from oven and score with a sharp knife. let it cool completely in the pan before cutting it or removing it from the pan.

d'oh

gacked from daegaer, girls fined for traditional neighbourly behaviour: w.t.f?

meanwhile, wax and i are in love with paul millander, a very clever guest serial killer in csi seasons 1-2 who is sort of obsessed with grissom. i've designed an elaborate au in which he's an fbi profiler, not a killer, to arrange legit, not-ooc slash between him and grissom. wax's idea was to double-prong the plot like they do in episodes of the show (i think it'll have to be spread over two or three episodes' worth since serial killers usually operate for a sort of extended time period) and make the other plot nick/greg to trick people other than her into reading it. so... i think i'm actually going to write it. but first i think there are about seven csi eps i need to watch again to refresh my memory. you know, i don't MEAN to get sucked into these projects that won't have more than two or three willing readers. but they're always the ones that i most want to write for some reason.