Friday open thread: awkwardly asking for things

[dolorosa_12]

As is customary, if I have the opportunity to repurpose a snowflake_challenge prompt as a Friday open thread prompt, I will.

Today's prompt asks create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

(While it's not explicitly stated, I assume the intent is to ask for things on a small-scale personal fannish or material level, not to express wishes relating to the myriad large, overwhelming global crises or things of that nature. I ported it over as an open thread prompt intending a similar spirit.)

I find this sort of thing a bit awkward, but let's give it a go:

1. I would love for people to fill the requests on the outstanding needy trees in fandomtrees. You can see details here. While my tree is not on the list, while I'm talking about this fest, I'd always love to have more gifts!
2. Recommend your favourite folktale, fairytale, and/or mythological retellings — book medium only. In terms of the spectrum on which these types of retellings exist, I tend to prefer things closer to the Angela Carter end of the spectrum as opposed to the Disney end when it comes to tone and approach.
3. Tell me about delicious things that you've cooked and enjoyed eating recently! I'm an omnivore with no dietary restrictions.

I know some of you have already created your own wishlists in your journals, but please feel free to link them in the comments. And do look at other people's wishlists in the comments, and see if you're able to fulfill anything. Let's use this post as a way to work through our awkward feelings about wanting things in public. (Or maybe it's only me.)

Comments

[eglantiere]

i recommend Lewis' Till We Have Faces, if you haven't read it! it's a Psyche myth retelling from Psyche's sister perspective, and it's beautiful, humanistic, fucked up and angry.

[dolorosa_12]

I haven't read it, but I really should, and your recommendation might be just the push I need to actually do so!

[pauraque]

Enthusiastically seconded! I love that book.

[yarnofariadne]

Angela Carter's are honestly my favourite favourite retellings. It feels a bit self-serving to recommend a book I'm also in, but I loved the stories "Black As Snow" (Snow White retelling) by Zeena Mubarak and "Become a Flute, Become a Spyglass, Become a Knife" (The Singing Bone retelling) by Elou Carroll in Grimm & Dread.

I've also always found it difficult to want things in public. In the interest of overcoming shame, here's my wishlist.

[dolorosa_12]

That book of short story retellings sounds great (including your own contribution)! The Singing Bone is one of my favourite folktales. Thank you for recommending the collection, and for sharing your own wishlist.

[falena]

I got you some DW points. :)

[yarnofariadne]

Thank you so much! ♥

[rekishi]

is baking okay? because I made delish brown butter miso cookies! otherwise, I add a piece if dark chocolate to bolognese (vegetarian as well as meat) for added flavour profile.

eta: it's not just you, I struggle!

[dolorosa_12]

I'm not a huge baker (the precision required just goes against how I am normally as a cook), although I love eating the results of baked goods made by people who are, but those brown butter miso cookies sound so delicious!

Dark chocolate in bolognese sounds intriguing.

[rekishi]

have someone try them, they delish https://butternutbakeryblog.com/miso-chocolate-chip-cookies/ (I reduce the sugar and some if the chocolate. still delish)

Just a piece goes a long way there!

[yarnofariadne]

I just saved another miso recipe so if I may try these too while I'm baking things with miso :D thank you for sharing!

[rekishi]

Oh? Another miso baking recipe? Show me? :D :D :D

[yarnofariadne]

This one's cooking rather than baking, but it sounded so good and I just got a Dutch oven so I was excited to save it - miso scallion mac and cheese! I halved the recipe and converted it to metric from a friend who had it in American measurements but this is what I have:

227 g pasta
Salt and pepper
14 g melted butter
28 g unmelted butter
85 g crumbled buttery crackers
15 g flour
473 ml milk
1 tbsp white miso
½ tbsp Dijon mustard
113 g grated Cheddar
57 g grated Gruyere
28 g grated Parmesan
61 g chopped scallions

Step 1

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water according to package directions until a few minutes shy of al dente. Drain.

Step 2
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the melted butter and crackers and mix until well blended.

Step 3
Heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In a large Dutch oven, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium. Add flour and cook, whisking frequently, until well incorporated and flour is no longer raw, about 1 minute. While whisking constantly, add milk in a slow, steady stream. Add miso, season with salt and pepper and bring back to a simmer, whisking occasionally and mashing the miso to help it dissolve. Cook, whisking frequently, until mixture is smooth and slightly thickened, 3 minutes.

Step 4
Turn off heat and add mustard, Cheddar, Gruyere and Parmesan. Whisk until smooth and season with salt and pepper.

Step 5
Add pasta to the cheese sauce and mix well. Stir scallions into the cracker mixture, then scatter it over the top of the pasta in an even layer. Bake until golden brown, 20 minutes.

Step 6
Serve warm in shallow bowls. Garnish with more scallions and pepper, if desired.

[rekishi]

Ohhh this sounds amazing, thank you!!

[dolorosa_12]

Yum!

[falena]

For #2, have you red Ali Smith's Girl Meets Boy? It's a retelling of an Ovid's myth. It's one of my favourite books by Smith, who is crazily talented as a writer, imho.

[dolorosa_12]

I haven't read it, but I really should. Ali Smith is a writer whose books sound right up my alley, and she's even somewhat local to me! It's ridiculous that I haven't read any of them yet.

[falena]

Also, you have inspired me.

[dolorosa_12]

Ooh, cool, I'll come by and contribute at some point this weekend!

[kingstoken]

Thank you for promoting the needy fandomtrees!

[dolorosa_12]

You're welcome! I can see that people have made a dent in the list even in the 24 hours or so since I posted, so the word is clearly getting out.

[luzula]

What I made for dinner last night: sour-dough pizza with tomato sauce, butternut squash, feta cheese, sage, Tuscan kale, thinly sliced red onions, maize, and some grated cheese on top.

For dessert: home-made vanilla ice cream with half of a Bourbon vanilla pod, along with cherries from the freezer and Amaretto.

A little disappointed that the butternut squash, which seemed like it had matured and has kept well, did not have good seeds in it to save for last year. But I guess that's because we had to harvest it immature, and it only matured (insofar as it did) indoors.

[dolorosa_12]

Both the dinner and the dessert sound absolutely amazing! I love the combination of butternut squash (which I, as an Australian, call 'butternut pumpkin'), cavolo nero, sage and feta, although I would never have thought to put it in a pizza. Was the kale from your garden as well?

We had a similar problem with our butternut pumpkins last year — it got too cold before they fully matured, and we had to take them in. This year, the seeds didn't even germinate at all, and in fact other than herbs and flowers, the only thing I grew successfully was an absolute jungle of tomatoes.

In any case, that sounds like a delicious meal.

[luzula]

Yes, the kale, maize, butternut, onions, and sage were all from the garden. : ) I had to dig in the snow to harvest the sage!

the only thing I grew successfully was an absolute jungle of tomatoes.
Sounds like a good achievement, though, and one I aspire to next year!

[merit]

I recently made recipetineats' "easy chocolate brownies" and they are certainly that. I'm also not much of a baker as my heart yearns to just spice things up as I see fit. The brownies are extremely delicious and rich.

I am sure we have a lot of cross over with more modern fairytale/etc retellings but I loved The Crane Husband
by Kelly Barnhill. It is a retelling of the Crane Wife.

[dolorosa_12]

I will look up the recipe. I want to be more of a baker, and easy recipes seem like the way to make that happen.

Thanks for the rec for The Crane Husband — that does sound excellent.

[lyr]

I am partial to Robin McKinley's fairytales, especially Beauty and Door in the Hedge.

[dolorosa_12]

I love McKinley too! I've read and enjoyed Beauty, but Door in the Hedge is new to me — I'll give it a try!