sapphic

ぎゅっと集まる🐕 together

the devil on my shoulder: or, you can add five more commas, a semi colon, three em dashes, fifty more words, and it’ll all come together in a way that’s technically grammatically correct but completely incomprehensible to anyone who reads it, even yourself!

https://twitter.com/fancy_foxtrot/status/1205747696813756416

Lazer guns that are literally only about as effective as actual guns that shoot metal bullets but are inherently cooler because they shoot lazers. Please note that if your futuristic weapons are basically the same as our current weapons but they look cooler, they’re probably useless. I’m not saying lazer guns in and of themselves are bad and you shouldn’t use them–I’m saying that while scientists may someday invent lazer guns just for the sake of imitating sci-fi, they won’t become commonly-used weapons unless they’re better than our already-existing guns.

So-called “aliens” that look exactly like humans but with unnaturally-colored hair/skin/eyes and maybe horns or tails. It’s okay for your aliens to be mildly humanoid (eg. bipedal, similar genitalia, similar very basic body structure), but if they’re exactly like humans except with color differences and extra appendages, or maybe way taller/shorter, they’re not really alien. Think “natural selection.” What genetic mutations in these aliens would help them adapt to the conditions on their planet? If their planet is similar to Earth, then they might be humanoid. If it’s nothing like Earth, than what reason do they have to look exactly like humans?

Any alien race that is technologically advanced must be snooty and must always use the insult “primitive apes” to refer to humans. First of all, if these aliens are really as intelligent and advanced as they claim to be, than they should know that humans are not apes; we are related to apes. We don’t call birds dinosaurs, at least not seriously, because we understand that just because they’re related doesn’t make them the same. These aliens should be able to explain why humans are primitive to them, not just brush us off with a sneer of “you primitive apes wouldn’t understand.” This makes the “advanced” aliens look pretty stupid.

So-called “aliens” that have evolved in completely different conditions but have the same morals and ethics as 21st century western humans. If mean! Not even every culture on Earth has the same morals! So if two cultures separated by only an ocean can think completely differently, why can’t two cultures separated by entire solar systems? A culture revolving entirely around war shouldn’t have rules of “honorable combat” or see anything wrong with sending children to the battlefield. A culture of natural telepaths shouldn’t even be able to grasp the concept of verbal language, let alone naturally speak human languages.

Every futuristic and/or alien weapon has to have a crazy incoherent and probably scientifically inaccurate name like ‘quantom atomic decacanon.’ If you can come up with scientific names for weapons that are actually scientific terms describing the weapon acurately, then by all means, but don’t expect all of your characters to call it that either. Weapons have nicknames. Nobody in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs calls the FLDSMDFR (the Flint Lockwood Diatomic Super-Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator) by its full name, and they even get the acronym wrong on multiple occasions.

It’s five-hundred years in the future but everyone still has the exact same morals and ethics and taboos and religions. Our morals have, in real life, changed over the past decade. That’s only ten years. So why should it be the exact same in five-hundred? Times change, and they change quickly. Religions die out, and new ones appear. Groundbreaking scientific discoveries are made. Cultures disappear. The human race should be psychologically different in five-hundred years.

It’s five-thousand years in the future but all life on earth still looks the same and hasn’t evolved at all! I don’t essentially mean super-noticably, either. But for some reason, in the future, average height and weight and build all stay the same. People haven’t gotten taller, or shorter, or lighter, or heavier, or thinner, fatter, more or less muscular, etc. Specific hair colors, skin tones, eye colors, etc, haven’t become more or less common. What if, in the future, average height doesn’t vary by sex? Or what if men look more feminine on average? What if, because beauty standards have changed so much, people are heavier on average because nobody spends a desperate amount of time and money trying to lose weight? The same applies to animals and plants, too. They should change a bit as well.

Aliens have the same beauty standards and gender roles as 21st century western humans. Do you really think a completely war-oriented alien race whose minds and bodies are hardwired for the military are going to think big boobs are attractive? Or care what gender you identify as, as long as you can serve your tribe/clan/group/house/whatever? Do you really think a super-lazy and completely pacifistic alien race who don’t fight or do any physical labor are going to find big prominent muscles attractive, when they have no reason to think of physical strength as important or desirable?

Aliens are all either snooty “you primitive apes” advanced humanoids or crazed “war is glorious” murder-aliens. And ne’er the two shall meet, either. There are no lazy laid-back aliens, no silly comedian aliens, no humans who are on about the same level as humans but with different values. They’re all either military or uptight scientists. What about an alien race who are scientifically advanced and hardwired for the military? They could be forced to advance quickly to preserve themselves because of the war. Or snooty uptight aliens who are less advanced than humans! They could be too stupid to realize they’re actually the primitive ones, in the same way that a young child will always insist they’ve won an argument with their parent because they can’t really grasp the parent’s argument or the superior reasoning of it yet.

Humans are capable of interstellar travel but there are no human-alien hybrids or human colonies on other planets. I mean, that’d kind of be an interstellar-scale version of real-life globalization. People traveled to other countries anad they made colonies, and had kids with the locals, and cultures intermingled and borrowed from each other. More of that in sci-fi, please! Interstellar globalization! Fuck yeah!  

Humans are the only species in the universe with half-decent diplomatic manners. If we want to make contact with aliens, we approach their ships politely and announce ourselves clearly and ask their permission to come aboard. If aliens want to make contact with us, they capture us, or shoot at us until we ask them what they’re doing, or kidnap some of us and demand our authorities meet with them or else. How about diplomatic aliens who understand humans as well as we understand them? 

Aliens’ moral codes are the exact same as 21st century western humans except one of our common phrases/words is social taboo to them. One single difference does not an entirely different culture make. Just because the word “fish” is the most awful thing anyone could say to these aliens, doesn’t mean their culture is alien. It’s practically the exact same as the difference between that one teacher who lets their students use their phones for classwork and that other teacher who gives a massive lecture if anyone’s phones even make it into the classroom. Just because of their differing opinions on that one particular thing, doesn’t mean they’re essentially of different cultures. The same goes for aliens. Difference in swear words does not equal difference in culture.

Resource Dump: Creating Characters!

Primary Characters

Your Hero: Top Ten Rules

10 Traits of a Great Protagonist

4 Steps to Creating a Truly Active Protagonist

20 Tips for Creating Relatable Protagonists

How to Center your Story

How to Create Unforgettable Protagonists

25 Things You Should Know About Protagonists

Creating Memorable Characters

Creating Strong Female Protagonists

Creating Dynamic Protagonists

How to Create Characters

Inner Dialogue - Writing Inner Character Thoughts

25 Things a Great Character Needs

5 Ways to Create 3D Characters

Secondary Characters

10 Secrets to Creating Unforgettable Supporting Characters

How to Write Effective Supporting Characters

Question to Ask (& Strengthen) Your Minor Characters

5 Tips for Developing Supporting Characters

Techniques for Creating Great Secondary Characters

5 Steps to Dazzling Minor Characters

3 Ways to Create Stupendous Supporting Characters

Creating Memorable Secondary Characters

5 Archetypes for Supporting Characters

Your Map to Creating a Memorable Minor Characters

Names

Top Ten Tips

8 Tips for Naming Characters

7 Rules of Naming Fictional Characters

Name that Character!

6 Creative Ways to Name your Character

Naming your Characters

A Guide to Naming Characters

Female: 1 | 2 | 3

Male: 1 | 2 | 3

Alien: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Surname: 1 | 2 | 3 

Unisex: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Traits

List: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Developing Character Traits

How to Create Good Personalities for your Characters

Develop Memorable Personalities

Give your Character Personality

How to Create a Character’s Personality

How to Make Sure your Character’s Personality Shines

5 Building Blocks of your Character’s Personality

Appearance

Appearance Generator

Your Character’s Physical Appearance

How to Describe a Character’s Looks

Describing a Character’s Appearance

Character Description Resource

Examples of Physical Characteristics

Describing the Physical Attributes of your Characters

How Great Authors Describe Character Appearance

Ultimate Guide to Nailing your Character’s Appearance

Describing Clothing and Appearance

Character Appearance Help

Character Description Resource

Describing People: A Person’s Physical Appearance

Describing the Physical Attributes of Characters

Speech

Talking About your Character: Speech

Variety in Character Voices

All your Characters Talk the Same

How to Create Distinctive Character Voices

How to Create Characters Who Don’t Sound like You

The Art of Voice in Fiction

Create Varying, Yet Realistic, Speech Patterns

The Art and Craft of Dialogue

Writing Character Voice

Creating Differences in the Speech Patterns of your Characters

Style: Person and Speech

Dialects: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Backstory

Building Better Backstories

Basic Tips to Create Better Characters with Tragic Backstories

How to Write a Backstory

Writing Characters Using Conflict and Backstory

Backstory Description Generator

Questions to Create Character Backstory

How to Weave in Backstory to Reveal Character

Nail your Character’s Backstory

How to Write Backstory Without Putting your Reader to Sleep

How to Write a Killer Backstory

Diversity

How to Make Young Adult Fiction More Diverse

Writing People of Color

A Few Tips and Resources for Writing Characters of Colour

Writing Characters of Colour Tastefully

Writing With Colour

7 Offensive Mistakes Well-Intentioned Writers Make

Writing Characters of Colour

Describing Characters of Colour

Gender

Female: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Male: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Transgender: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Non-Binary: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Sexuality

Main Character Sexuality

On Writing LGBTQ Characters: 1 | 2

Writing Gay Characters

Guide to LGBT YA

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Writing Bisexual Characters: 1 | 2

Writing Asexual Characters: 1 | 2

Pansexual & Demisexual Characters

How to Write Gay, Bisexual and Pansexual Characters

Introduction

Introducing a Character

Introducing your Main Character

Do’s and Don’ts for Introducing your Protagonist

First Impressions

How to Introduce a Character

How Not to Introduce a Main Character

Introducing the Protagonist

Development

Character Development

9 Ingredients of Character Development

Characterisation 1 - Character Development

How to Develop a Character for a Story

Character Development

Character Development Drives Conflict

Developing your Characters and Making them Interesting

Relationships

How to Write Strong Character Relationships

Character Relationships

3 Keys to Developing Character Relationships

The Secret Behind Great Character Relationships

3 Tips for Character Relationships

Building Believable Relationships

Sibling: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Platonic: 1 | 2 | 3

Romantic: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Strengths

Identifying your Character’s Strengths

Character Strengths and Weaknesses

Introducing the 24 Character Strengths

Character Strengths and Virtues List

Strengths and Weaknesses

A Balance of Strengths

Flaws

123 Ideas for Character Flaws

DarkWorld RPG Flaws List

Character Flaws

Ten Ugliest Character Flaws

The Four Types of Character Flaws

On Giving Flaws and Weaknesses

Character Flaw Index

Goal

Why your Character’s Goal Needs to be 1 of these 5 Things

Goals Define the Plot

Goal Setting for You and your Character

How to Explore you Character’s Motivation

4 Ways to Motivate Character and Plot

Motivation

By Genre

Fantasy: 1 | 2 | 3

Sci-Fi: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Romance: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Thrillers: 1 | 2 

Horror: 1 | 2 | 3

Heroes

Your Hero: Top Ten Rules

How to Write your Own Hero Story

What Makes a Great Hero?

Creating Heroes and Heroines

Write a Story about a Hero

How to Create an Antihero that Readers Love

Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes

Create a Super Hero

How to Create a Brand New Iconic Hero or Villain

What Makes a Hero

Villains

How to Create a Credible Villain in Fiction

How to Make a Purely Evil Villain Interesting

9 Evil Examples of the Villain Archetype

How Not to Create a Villain

Creating Villains People Love to Hate

3 Techniques for Crafting a Better Villain

Basic Tips to Write Better & More Despicable Villains

Writing Tips for Creating a Complex Villain

How to Create a Great Villain

Do’s & Don’ts

Do’s and Dont’s of Writing a Good Character

How to Create a Character

Characterisation Dos and Dont’s

Female Characters of Do’s and Dont’s

Do’s and Dont’s of Dialect

Helpful Writing Blogs

fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment*

writeworld

referenceforwriters

thewritingcafe

aquestionofcharacter *

writingwithcolor

fuckyeah-char-dev

dailycharacterdevelopment

Clichés

Characters and Cliches

Top 10 Character Cliches

7 Lazy Character Cliches 

10 Most Cliched Characters in Sci-Fi

Four Worst Character Cliches

Female Character Cliches

Character Cliches to Avoid

The Cliche Character Test

How Cliches Can Help You Make Great Characters

Templates

How to Create a Character Profile

Writing Character Bios

Character Sheets and Character Creation

Gender/Sexuality Generator

Extremely Detailed Character Template

Writer’s Resource: Character Template

even if you get along great with your family you will get along even better with them after moving out 

generic is almost always just as good as name brand. But there are some things you never buy generic, including: peanut butter, ketchup, liquid NyQuil, Chips-Ahoy chewy chocolate chip cookies

just imagine the person on the other end of the phone hates talking on the phone as much as you do. Even a receptionist. I worked as one and I hate talking on the phone

at least once in your life you will go to Wal-mart to buy something under $20 like an ironing board or something and your debit card will get rejected. No one will judge. Everyone at some point in their lives has had $2.98 in their bank account. 

thrift stores

everyone else is too busy panicking about everyone else noticing every tiny thing that could possibly be wrong about them to notice any tiny thing that could possibly be wrong about you

you will screw up. a lot. you live and you learn. and when you start to think too hard about that embarrassing thing that happened and how you wish you could change it, just tell yourself that what’s done is done. There’s no changing it, so just forget it and move on. It’s the only way to stay sane.

do the dishes before the sink grows its own ecosystem

you can’t put Dawn dishsoap in the dishwasher. 

if you are the only one in the aisle at the grocery store, and you need to get from one end to the other without even looking at anything in that aisle, then you should totally cart-surf down the aisle. Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. Hold on to the little things. They make all the difference.

never try to make cake from scratch at 3am. You end up with a topographical map of Middle Earth.

15% tip. 

the best way to get money for food is to tell your grandparents about how you basically live on microwaved mac and cheese. Their horror may result in twenty bucks and orders to go out and get yourself “a real dinner”.

sometimes life sucks, and knowing that it might get better doesn’t always make it suck any less, but you’ll never get to the non-sucky days without enduring the suckiness. 

no seriously, NEVER put Dawn in your dishwasher

Always check the type of light bulb that goes in lamps. A 60w is not interchangeable with a 40w.

Rice, pasta, flour, sugar, cheese, eggs, milk, a pack of chicken, a pack of frozen veggies and a well stocked spice cabinet go a long way food-wise. Splurge and get the biggest container of rice you can. You don’t have to go back and buy it again anytime soon and it makes a TON of meals in the meantime.

Rice can be cooked on the stove. You don’t need a fancy rice cooker. Two parts water to every one part rice (two cups water for one cup of rice for example). Get your water boiling, add rice, put a plate or lid on it, put it on low for 20 minutes. It should be done.

Keep a calendar on your pc of bill due dates. If your bills are set up at inconvenient times, like all of the services started on the first or something, then call up the company and find out if you can get your billing date switched to something more manageable. A lot of places do try to work with you.

There is no shame in calling a company and asking for an extension on a bill. Let them know what you can pay, pay that amount, and they arrange when the rest of the payment is required. This can stop you from having services shut off man. It shows responsibility on your part.

Take time to eat, even when you don’t feel like eating. Your body needs energy to live.

Wash or rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. It prevents gross caked on junk.

“The Works” is an excellent cheap toilet cleaner.

MAGIC. FUCKING. ERASERS. THEY WORK ON EVERYTHING JUST DON’T SCRUB HARD. I took the ring out of our bathtub with one. Also generic ones work just as well.

Keep some bleach around but if you use it for cleaning? Dillute it. There’s rarely ever a case where you need to pout straight bleach on anything. A cap full or two in a bucket of water works just fine.

DO NOT MIX CLEANERS. Chemical reactions are can be very dangerous. Here’s a good list. (Note that vinegar and baking soda can actually be a good combo for removing smells from things but it’s not very good at actually -cleaning-.)

If you drink? Don’t take meds at the same time it’s just not good.

Make sure you check the dosages on your pill bottles. No one wants to accidentally overdose on cough syrup or ibuprofen.

If you have a uterus make sure you have a heating pad and ibuprofen on hand for the pain. Hot baths also generally help and Ginger Tea is excellent for any nausea.

Buy a first aid kit. It’s worth it in the long run.

You can often do your taxes online at places like TurboTax.

Here’s some good sex ed resources because I had to explain what a yeast infection was recently. 

Petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) is good for chapped lips and you can get a decent sized tube or tub of it (generic brand version) for cheaper/same price as Chapstick.

KEEP TRIPLE ANTIBIOTIC OINTMENT IN YOUR HOUSE FOR CUTS AND SCRAPES AND SORES. 

~~Medications~~

Over the counter medications (stuff you can buy right off the shelf no prescription needed) have a name brand and a generic name. ALWAYS buy generic if it’s available it is literally the same thing and way cheaper usually.

Some names to remember when you’re looking for meds!

Acetaminophen = Tylenol

Used to treat pain and reduce fever. Do not take with Ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen = Advil, Midol, Motrin

Used for pain and fever, is an anti-inflammtory. Is good for period cramps because it is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug).

Naproxen = Aleve, Naprosyn

Treats fever, pain, arthritis pain, gout, period cramps, tendinitis, headache, backache, and toothache. Is also an NSAID.

Acetaminophen + Asprin + Caffeine = Excedrin

Usually marketed as “Migraine Relief” as a generic.

Asprin = Bayer

Use for pain, fever, arthritis, and inflammation. Makes you bleed easily so should not be used for periods. Might reduce risk of heart attacks.\

Triple Antibiotic Ointment = Neosporin

Used on cuts, sores, and scrapes to reduce risk of infection and promote healing.

if you live off ramen, add stuff to it! add veggies you like, don’t use the whole flavor packet to cut down on sodium and msg or don’t use it at all and add your own spices.

if you’re making something with potatoes in it (beans, stew) potatoes are done when you can easily stab a fork through them.

you can microwave a hotdog as long as you put it in a microwave safe container of water. microwaves work by making water molecules vibrate. also, when reheating rice leftovers, add a small amount of water, like maybe a spoonfull, so it doesn’t get hard and crunchy.

the rice cooking advice above is for long grain rice. if you’re making short or medium grain rice, a 1:1 ratio (one cup water for one cup rice) is better, so the rice doesn’t come out too mushy.

buy a few cans of chicken. wholesale club stores like sam’s, costco, or bj’s tend to carry multipacks for a good price. they’re incredibly useful for when you forget to defrost meat.

buy meat on sale and put it in the freezer. buy vegetables on sale, and put them in the freezer. frozen veggies are often as flavorful and good as fresh ones, keep longer, and often come in microwaveable bags or with microwave directions.

soak ink stains in milk to help get them out or at least lighten them.

soak blood stains in water as soon as possible, with a bit of detergent or stain remover. scrub at them. use cold water, heat binds proteins to fabric. tbh, there’s no real need to change the washer from cold-cold setting unless the thing you’re washing says to wash in warm water.

-coolant or water if your car overheats (coolant is preferable cause it won’t hurt the engine in the long run but hey i know money is tight) 

-flashlight in case you break down at night and need to check under the hood and your phone is dead

-SPARE TIRE. 

-jumper cables.you will at some point leave your lights on. you just will. 

Don’t be afraid to go to your local food bank. They are there for a reason.

1. Buy a roll of parchment paper from the cooking shit aisle. A big roll will last you for-fucking-ever. Pretty much any time you’re using a baking pan you can line it with that stuff and save yourself A: food sticking to the pan and B: it’s a quick rinse and it’s clean.

2. Bread can get fucking expensive, so make your own. A bigass bag of flour and a bag of active dry yeast (store it in the friiiiidge!!!) works out a FUCK of a lot cheaper than buying bread at the store, and you can do so much more with it. Bread, pizza, rolls, cinnibuns, homemade pizza pockets. It seems intimidating but it’s stupid easy.

Seriously. It’s stupid simple to make, and most of the “3 hours” to make it is sitting around surfing the internet or doing whatever the fuck you want while the dough rises. If you have an afternoon free once a week to sit and play video games or surf the net, you have the time to make your own bread on the cheap. Here’s my simple-as-fuck recipe:

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (You can buy a bag of this stuff CHEAP in bulk stores, the little packets are hella stupid priced) 1 cup warm water (think a hot bath) 1 ½ teaspoons sugar 2 tablespoons oil (any kind works for the most part) 2 ¼ cups flour 1 teaspoon salt

1. Stir the yeast, water, sugar, and oil up in a bowl. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. It will foam up VERY high, this is the yeast getting happy! If it doesn’t get all foamy, the water may have been too hot or not hot enough. Remember, Yeast is alive! Treat it like a nice girlfriend!

2. Mix your flour, salt, and the yeast concoction up in a bowl.

3. Knead that shit for about 5 minutes. It will start sticky as heck, but will come together into a nice dough. If it’s still super sticky, toss in a bit more flour. Here’s how to knead it: 

4. Put your dough in a covered, lightly oiled bowl and leave it someplace warmish for an hour. At that point it will have roughly doubled in size, give it a gentle punch to release the gasses that have built up inside. Cover it again and let it sit for a bit longer.

Boom. You have bread dough. Here are some baking times and uses for ya:

Optional egg-wash: Just crack an egg into a bowl, add a pinch of salt, and mix the bejeebus out of it with a fork. Brush (or if you’re like me, goop it on with said fork) that shit thinly on bread before baking for a nice crust.

Pizza: Stretch it on a pan, stab the fucker all over with a fork, add toppings, bake 425*F 15-20 minutes. 

Bread Sticks: Make snake-shapes, let rest on pan 10-ish minutes, bake 400*F 10-20 minutes.

Dinner rolls: Make ball-sized (yes those balls) balls. Place on greased pan, let rest 10-20 minutes to rise. Egg-wash and bake 375*F 25 minutes.

Bread: Lightly score (cut) the top, let sit for 20-ish minutes on/in whatever you’re using to bake it, egg-wash, bake at 375*F for 20-ish minutes. It’s done when it sounds hollow if you knock on the bottom.

You bet your ass you can deep-fry this shit for cheapie yeast doughnuts. Roll that shit in sugar or dip it in whatever, it’s fucking tasty.

Bagels: YES. YOU. CAN. Form bagel-shapes out of the dough and boil them in salty water for about 2 minutes. Egg-wash them and bake them at 400*F for 10 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls: Roll that shit out into a rectangle. Brush it with a mix of butter, cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt (no exact amounts here, do it to your taste). Roll it up into a log, and cut it into discs. Let them sit 20 minutes in a pan and then bake at 375*F 15-17 minutes.

You can add whatever you want to the dough for some variety, just if it’s dried spices remember you really only need 1-ish tablespoons. I personally like making bread with about 1 tablespoon of dill in the dough. Roll it out flat, sprinkle it with cheddar, roll it into a log, squeeze the ends shut, and bake it like a regular loaf of bread. Cheesy dill bread OMNOMNOM.

*ahem* That got a bit long. But yeah. Bread’s expensive, yo. Save your wallet.

Simple Red Beans and Rice

Ingredients

2 (1lb) dark red kidney beans, drained (safe to buy cheap or store brand banned beans, and they typically sell for 50 cents or less)

1 tablespoon hot sauce (I always keep hot sauce around for doctoring up mac and cheese, frozen pizzas, ramen, pretty much anything. If you don’t like spicy food, leave this out)

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (I always put in a bit extra because I like pepper)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large cloves of garlic minced (or you can use garlic powder)

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (dry) long grain white rice

1 can vegetable broth (also super cheap. Get the store brand, it’s fine.) (You can use water instead, but the vegetable broth gives you some extra vitamins I think and also makes the rice taste better and stand up to the beans) (veggie broth is also a really good thing to cook ramen in instead of water for more flavor, especially if you replace the flavor packet with your own seasoning)

1 tablespoon butter (not needed, but it helps your rice not stick to the pot and gives a bit more flavor to the dish)

**If you have any sort of large link sausage (italian, bratwurst, kielbasa) on hand, go ahead and cook some up, cut it into slices/chunks, and add it in when you cook the beans for extra protein. However, the dish works just fine without sausage

In terms of cookware, you need a medium sized pot with a lid that fits, and a large skillet. Also something to stir the rice and beans.

Instructions

1. Saute the garlic in the olive oil on medium, but be careful to stop when you can really start to smell the garlic otherwise it will scorch and be no fun to clean up. While you’re at it, pour that whole can of veggie broth into the pot and turn the heat to high.

2. When the veggie broth boils, pour the rice in and the butter. Stir it so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot, and when it gets back to a boil and the butter has melted, put the lid on and turn the temp on the burner to low. Leave it alone for 20 minutes.

3. Pour the beans into the pan with the olive oil and garlic, then add the hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes (3-5) on the medium to medium-high temperature to get everything warmed through and flavored, then turn down to low (I usually keep it on what seems to be 2 on the stove) and let it simmer (meaning there are some bubbles in all that lovely gooey sauce down at the bottom) while the rice cooks. Stir it sometimes, taste it every so often and add more seasonings as you find appropriate.

gold and blood

deep water, rusty clay cliffs

wet sand and black ink

lilac, wisteria, lavender, and bronze

honeycomb, pomegranate seeds, and raw meat

the green/silver/rotting earth tones of old growth forests

clean, milky sky blue and the bright, bruised tones of out-of-control fire

every gentle grey you can think of shot through with electric teal