Fall Food

It's fall, right?  Right?  It sure feels like fall.  And there are Michigan apples at the produce market, so it must be fall.

Fall is my favorite weather for cooking and eating, hands-down.  Sure, I like spring strawberries and spring asparagus and spring lamb, summer stone fruit, and winter citrus.  But right now... let's see.  

Grapes-- real, purple Concord grapes.  Pomegranates.  Apples that haven't been on the shelf for fourteen months. Soon there ought to be delicious soft Hachiya persimmons.  Butternut squash.  Chestnuts.  Fresh pumpkin.

And redcurrants. After the success of my earlier use of poached blackcurrants this summer, I decided to do something with the two baskets of beautiful jewel-like redcurrants other than "Oh, I guess I'll make a sauce for pork tenderloin... except we don't eat pork tenderloin.  Oops."  Nope, I poached them up, this time with a little water instead of orange juice, and about twice the sugar, and I added some vanilla after I took it off the stove.  The idea was to get something closer to the fruit component of summer pudding than it was to have a super-tart complement to a very sweet custard.  It came out less complex than summer pudding, as I only used one fruit, but it's very nice spooned over Greek yogurt or tapioca pudding... and I bet it would be awesome with vanilla gelato.  Too bad I only have chocolate...

Meta Month, Day 20: High Stakes, Low Stakes

This is an extension of something I said over at amielleon's place.

War.  The battle between overwhelming Evil and whatever Good is still left on the planet. The Fate of the World (TM) in the hands of a chosen few.

Pretty high-stakes stuff, right?  Perfect for an Epic Story-- a novelization, even.  Well, maybe.

Low-stakes and mid-stakes stories are a good and lovely thing, and shouldn't be neglected, but let's just set those aside for tonight.  Let's focus on ways that a high-stakes tale of Jugdral or Elibe or Tellius can just... not work.  If high-stakes drama isn't your thing, then this probably doesn't apply to you.

( Read more... )

Some interesting Lyn's Tale AUs are here and here.  One is rated M and the other T, both for good reason.