May you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.
— Ray Bradbury
Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2021’
A Wish for You
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, quotes, ray bradbury, Valentine's Day on February 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Baking Today
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, bread, delicious, Not Entirely As Planned on February 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’m baking today. I made a double batch of Sammich Bread so we would have two loaves of actual sandwich bread, and two loaves for experimentation. The extra loaves are a cinnamon walnut twist and a raisin bread with pear, cardamom, cinnamon and lemon syrup.*
The bread is currently in its second rise. I’m posting now because
1) isn’t it nice to be on top of things?
and
2) I’m pretty sure the raisin bread (at least) is going to go Not Entirely As Planned. Also, there’s no way I can get them all in the oven at the same time, which means rise times are probably going to be Not Ideal. Ah well! These things happen.
And if I post now I have a perfectly reasonable excuse not to include photos of said bread. Which may or may not look at all like I hoped:)
Photo by Vaibhav Jadhav on Pexels.com
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* I cheated a little, as I made poached pears the other day and that sauce is so delicious. The pears went into a jar and the extra syrup is going into… everything else:) This flavor combination is highly recommended! In fact, here’s a photo of the pears. Which are delicious. Have I mentioned?
March 15, 2000
Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, harry potter, My Wayback Machine on February 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I am a (very) sporadic diary/record/idea keeper, and the things I write often take the form of notes scribbled on the backs of envelopes or random drafts scattered around my hard drive. This file popped up as I was searching for something else, and I had fun revisiting my first thoughts about Harry Potter. Let’s hear it for the power of magic imagination:)
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March 15, 2000
A few days ago I started reading the Harry Potter books. Started by a single mother in a café on the back of a napkin, these books are the biggest thing since the Lord of the Rings, and written for the same audience – children and their parents. While the author description emphasizes Rowling’s financial need, I would bet that she was also in need of a creative outlet. How often have I done something similar, just to spend time in a world of my own making?
Reading these books, I’m reminded of the value of such stories. Tales of good versus evil are what kids need to frame their worlds, but adults need very much to be reminded of the difference as well, perhaps more so. They make me remember reading at night with my family, breathlessly listening for the fate of hobbits in their battle against a seemingly invincible foe. This, despite the fact that we’d all read the series many times before. Or the way we watched Star Wars (the original, thank you) over and over again on a black and white screen, until the tape wore out. We knew the words by heart, but the story never failed to inspire.
Books for adults often present complex situations and ideas in worlds painted an uncertain grey. But for me, what Harry Potter and others like him give us may be more useful in the end – challenges, yes, but also humor, a sense of wonder and triumph, and in the end, the understanding that lines need to be drawn against evil, and that we can all work towards good.
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Variation on a Theme
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, free fiction, Kintsugi, Nature's Futures, science fiction, The Grinder, writing tools on February 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
You may remember a recent post about Kintsugi, or the art of repairing broken things. In that same vein, I came across this story from Nature’s Futures section and thought I’d share:
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Nature is a great venue for writers who put interesting, concise twists on the potential futures of science. It has high standards but pays well, responds in weeks rather than months or years, and publishes often. For more details and a link to the Guidelines, I recommend my favorite (free!) authorial tracking site, The Grinder.
Enjoy!
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Magpie Mind
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, birds, creativity, duct tape, productivity on February 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’ve got a bit of a magpie mind. This is a magpie:
Magpies are known for collecting things.* Little things, shiny things, things that don’t belong to them, things that don’t always seem terribly useful (although it turns out they are only birds that recognize themselves in a mirror). But maybe they’re just curious and like the way these items stimulate their brains?
That’s how it works for me. I collect the things that I like, and my shelves are full of maps, pressed pennies, metal animal figurines, little mechanical toys, outdated cameras, paper, stamps, books of course, secret decoder rings, Star Wars stuff, wood stuff, stuff to make other stuff. Lots of things in that last category, actually. Here’s a sample.
I subscribe to the McGyver school of creation, so pretty much anything has the potential to be, well, anything.**
And from it all I get… ideas! That’s the kind of approach that works for me, but there are a lot of ways to be creative. No matter how you do it, the best advice is to do it.
A lot of it. That’s the lesson I need.
“quality is a probabilistic function of quantity… the prolific strategy is the most consistent method to cultivate your imagination and creativity. Try it out, keep the portions that work for you, and throw out what doesn’t. After all, there’s no right way to approach creativity —there is simply your way…. Discipline will get your routine started, but happiness and excitement keep it going.”
— Herbert Lui, Creativity strategies for more breakthrough ideas
Do that. Make that. Be that. And go magpies!
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* It turns out this reputation is undeserved, but I’m going with it because the idea is widely-held and because it fits today’s theme, dang it! Magpies are also a controversial species. They are loud, territorial, predatory and not above a bit of casual thievery (I claim none of these traits for myself), but while some people hate them, they can also be both useful and delightful.
** Except duct tape. That stuff’s irreplaceable.
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Soothing Pain
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, bad jokes, bread, Franglish on February 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’m fortunate enough not to get headaches much, but last night I had a doozy. So headache plus poor sleep plus Tuesday (my least favorite day, you may recall) means that today is a bit of a slog.
Most of my time will be spent working, but I thought I’d take a few minutes for something soothing. And since I’m an English speaker with a penchant for bad Franglish jokes (sorry, French Canadian half of the family!), this bread-making video caught my attention.
Pain for pain, get it?
Told you my jokes were terrible!
Slow Time
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, geology, Pangea, perspective, plate tectonics, science on February 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Some days, time just seems to fly by. Those are usually days with new and interesting experiences, where every moment fires off new synapses. Other days not so much, particularly on days that call for the predictable.
If you, like me, are feeling the drag of Pandemic Mondays, you might find a little comfort in this new model of Earth’s tectonic activity over the last billion years. Because there’s time that feels like it’s crawling by, and then there’s sloooooow time.
“It’s mesmerising: like ill-fitting jigsaw pieces, bits of continents slam together and morph into supercontinents, break apart, and then crash back together in new formations – with each second of the video leaping forward 25 million years.”
— Tectonic timelapse – Cosmos Magazine
See the linked scientific paper for details, caveats, additional maps etc., or just sit back and watch the world morph like Play-Doh.
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While you’re at it, have fun locating modern day sites across millions of years, and by milestones like first flowers (120 million years ago!).
Ancient Earth (interactive; kind of like Jurassic Park, but with fewer teeth)
Plans, and the Demise Thereof
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, free fiction, Kelly Link on February 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
My plan for today’s post involved social connection, history, economics and the evolution of institutions, but it hasn’t come together. Yet.
I’ll keep working on that but for now, allow me to direct you to this sampling of free fiction from the inimitable Kelly Link:
Biscoff, or is Speculoos Fiction a Thing?
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Biscoff, cookies, recipes, spice is nice on February 6, 2021| 1 Comment »
I’m in the mood for cookies today, and winter spices seem like just the flavor. I’m not big on commercial cookies but I do have a soft spot for Biscoff.
A Belgian speculoos cookie, Biscoff are crunchy, flavorful, go great with coffee or tea, and can be (here’s the sad part) hard to find. They were at Costco for about a minute and then gone. Amazon would be happy to sell me a bunch but for inflated prices.
After some fruitless searching among the European delis in the area, I wondered if I could make my own. (Surely I could write reams of speculative fiction, if only I were fueled by speculoos. I had to find out.)
Good news! Stella Parks put together a recipe for a homemade version. You can dive into it here, with her explanation of why what should have been a simple process was not, and why some of the most important ingredients can get lost in translation.
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This recipe was a great place to start but not spicy enough for me. If you compare the original with what’s below, you’ll see I’ve boosted the spices considerably. I’ve also trimmed down the ingredients a little.*
Candi sugar was ok but it was hard to find and I found it a little too sweet. The kinako, or roasted soybean flour, was interesting but was a little too nutty and could lean toward burnt flavors.
I don’t know that these cookies have done much for my writing, but they are perfect for an afternoon coffee break. Enjoy!
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Biscoff-ish
(adapted from Homemade Biscoff (Belgian Speculoos Cookies) Recipe)
Makes thirty-two 1 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch cookies
Ingredients
- 150g (2/3 C.) deeply toasted sugar
- 90g (6 1/3 T.) butter, softened
- 4.75g (3/4 t.) baking soda
- 2.5g (scant 1 t.) Ceylon cinnamon
- .5g (scant 1/4 t.) ground or freshly grated nutmeg
- .4g (fat 1/8 t.) kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume or use the same weight
- .25g (fat 3/16 t.) ground cloves
- .4g (scant 1/4 t.) ground cardamom
- .125g (fat 1/16 t.) ground anise
- 15g (1 T.) water
- 155g (1 1/4 C.) flour
Directions
1. With oven rack in lower middle position, preheat to 350°F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine sugar with butter, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, cloves, cardamom, and anise. Cream on medium speed until fluffy, soft, and pale, about 10 minutes, pausing to scrape the bowl and paddle as needed if the sugar seems dense and compacted at the bottom of the bowl.
2. While creaming on medium speed, slowly drizzle in the water a little at a time. Once it disappears into the fluffy butter/sugar mix, reduce speed to low and add the flour all at once. Continue mixing until the dough begins to gather around the paddle.
3. Turn the dough onto a clean surface, and knead gently to form a ball. Pat into a rectangular shape, then dust with flour, above and below. Roll to a thickness of ~3/16-inch, using a ruler for guidance. Slide a spatula or bench scraper beneath the dough to loosen, and brush away any excess flour.
4. With a fluted pastry wheel, pizza cutter or blade, cut the dough into 3/4-inch strips, then cut crossways to form 2-inch rectangles. Cut the scraps with cookie cutters or bake as is. With an offset spatula, transfer the cutouts and scraps to a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving ~half inch between each piece to account for spread.
5. Bake until cookies are golden brown, about 16 minutes. Cool to room temperature directly on the baking sheet; the cookies will not crisp until fully cool. Store leftovers in an airtight container up to 1 month at room temperature; the scraps can be ground to use for crumbs and frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.**
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* I’ve included Imperial units but note that they are by nature less precise than weights, and I’ve only tested the recipe in grams. I will say that a couple of years ago I bought an inexpensive spice scale to go with my regular kitchen scale and it was very much worth it.
** Seriously though, they won’t be around that long. And I usually make a double batch.
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Starflakes
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, fun with paper, star wars, still snowing on February 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I know I’ve been on a whole snow / winter kick but hey, it’s winter! It’s also snowing here today and is very pretty, with the sort of light, fluffy flakes that bring a blanket of quiet as they fall. Which reminds me!
These free printable Star Wars snowflake patterns from Anthony Herrera Designs are very cool. If you like that sort of thing, which I do!
I’ve made these in printer paper, cardstock and acrylic, using everything from scissors, Cricut, and laser cutter. Print, cut, and enjoy!
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