"snow astronauts"

nice try, get out the way you're in our way, get lost forever

It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.

But when that fails, I cannot recommend enough: going to the library/bookstore, to a section you don't normally read, and reading the blurbs of any and every book that catches your attention for whatever reason, until you find one that leaves you with a burning question that can only be answered by reading the whole book.

Never underestimate the power of Needing to Know The Answer.

Like, I'm an avid epic fantasy reader. I like big series, complicated plotlines with tons of characters and settings. I struggle to get through classics or anything non-fiction, and I never browse the mystery or thriller sections.

And yet, so far the list of books that have broke a reading slump for me include: Jane Eyre, Cymbeline (Shakespeare play), Pretty Little Liars, Piranessi (fantasy, yes, but not my normal variety), a mystery about a 13 year old girl who suspecrs she was kidnapped as a baby, a non-fiction book on the bureaucracy behind the gestapo, and a non-fiction memoir about the residential school that used to be near where I live.

has this ever been you: you have a nicely steamed vegetable, or maybe you want to make the best butter noodles, but you know that if you put butter on those it’ll just melt and you end with kind of greasy noodles or vegetables? don’t you wish it was instead a luscious buttery glaze?

introducing: beurre monté

you will take a small sauce pan, and begin heating it with 1-2 tablespoons of water (use very little water) and bring it to a hard simmer or boil

turn the heat down slightly, and add Butter. how much? however much you dare. (start with 3-4 tablespoons and go from there)

you are going to either whisk Aggressively or you can pick up the saucepan, still holding it over the heat, and swirl aggressively so the butter is skating around the sides of the pan

done correctly, you will have liquid butter that is still emulsified. you have made Butter Sauce. season it with a little salt, and toss whatever you want in it.

if you’re butter splits, i’m sorry. you didn’t agitate it enough to maintain the emulsion, and now you have melted butter.

you can use this knowledge to make other sauces by swapping out the water for another liquid. white wine becomes beurre blanc. red wine is beurre rogue.

you want to CUM? sweat minced shallot in a tiny bit of butter, add white wine and cook it out until it’s reduced by about half. then whisk butter in hard. a few flecks of minced thyme or fennel frond stirred thru, and you eat that with a nice seared fish? or scallop? or even shrimp? wow. you will Nut

your boxed mac and cheese game can also be elevated by cooking your pasta and making a beurre monté first, tossing your pasta in that and adding the cheese packet. wow. hey; you’ll cum

Millard Owen Sheets (American, 1907-1989)

The Night Herd, n.d.

Watercolor, charcoal and ink on paperboard

22 x 30 in. (55.9 x 76.2 cm.)

feanor for yesterday’s warm up sketch