#task seven

SEVENTH TASK: MAY 1ST - MAY 31ST

Our seventh City of Dreams task will be….connection inspired moodboards!

Connections are the foundation of roleplay, the heart of our muses, and what makes us want to be online every single day. Whether the connection be romantic, platonic, familial, or even a negative connection, they all serve to boost our muses and build up the worlds we’re all creating. 

 AUSTRALIA TRIP!!!

*tw: drug use and suicide*

Read the title of the vlog, the footage was beautiful, me smiling and happy. Scuba diving to see the beautiful world under the water. Truly, it was a dream vacation to an onlooker who didn’t see behind the scenes.I made the thumbnail look fun, beachy and a little bit sexy, what my viewers want. I wish they would see through it all. Not that I let them into that much of my life, just what I want them to see. That’s for the best, isn’t it?

There was an Australia trip, but it came after I pulled out if the rehab center. I got the photos I wanted, saw a few of the animals and then booked the next flight I had to London to go home. People on Instagram ate it up. People who lived in Australia begged for a meetup. I should have tried at least that, shouldn’t I have? I could blame my gauntness on jet lag, or food poisoning, even. They would have sympathized with me. They wouldn’t have even thought that I was in rehab.

You might be wondering, why were you in a rehab center? Well, that’s easy. It was nearing the date of my daughters birth and I snapped. I missed her so much even though I had only spent a few hours with her. Seven years of pain and suffering and I thought that I had my fame, and if I died at least I wouldn’t be forgotten. Right?

My sponsor said she did not want me to wrote this, but I feel like I have to so I could get my mind around it all. Why did I think that it would be okay to plunge a needle into my arm, filled with heroin, and why did I think that the similar cuts I had made years ago to my wrist would have helped anyone? Laying in a warm tub, with my favorite music. I was a public figure. Little girls looked up to me, how was that fair? Just because I can’t seem to get my shit together. I could have caused something massively devastating.

This whole trial system was disgusting, pitting students against each other in such a cruel manner. And what if they voted wrong in the heat of the moment, jumping to a wrong conclusion? She clutched her podium and sent the occasional glare at their headmaster, angrily muttering under her breath. She dreaded voting. She dreaded all of it, every single twisted moment.

The further discussion of the matter just left her scowling and feeling even more helpless. Control was her one saving grace in life, and not having it disgusted Amaya. Nobody deserved this, whatever this was; not that poor knight, or that otaku kid. Not even that cult leader.

The execution left her reeling, and she did her best to tune it out. Her eyes were shut tight so all she heard were the screams of her classmates. She held down her own, shockingly enough, clenching her hands over her ears. Just because the execution was public didn't mean she had to give in and watch.

She wasn't sure if she could blame that Minami chick for all she had done; murder was inexcusable, but she did have her own reasons, she supposed. They all did. She had just chosen to act on hers first. Before departing for her own room at the end of what Amaya affectionately wanted to call the worst day of her life, she gave a weary glance at her classmates. She wondered if sooner or later, someone else would act.

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Sleep had graced her, shockingly, as soon as she had made it to her room. Amaya found herself awake on the floor of her room, not even managing to make it to her bed. She sat up and stared at her hands, disgusted at her own behavior. "Surely you can be more civil than that," She snarled, standing up and getting on with making herself presentable before putting on something that wasn't stained in the horrible memories of a previous day.

Farro is good stuff, people.  Now, in the making of this particular dish I was tragically out of salt, possibly the most important ingredient of great chefery, as Tom Colicchio will not hesitate to tell you.  But other than that particular failure on my part, the recipe is promising.  I think next time I would add a piece of chicken or fish on top for a different layer of flavor and to add a texture.

This was a (substantially transformative) adaptation of a traditional Indian breakfast dish, Upma.  V's mom makes it and I always have several bowlfuls.  I think I'll try making the real thing soon.

Both call for tiny amounts of different kinds of dal, here chana dal (relative of chickpea) and urad dal (the black lentils I've been raving about).  It is a fantastic idea to add a little bean/lentil earthiness to a grain dish.  You toss it in with the spices and onions, before adding the grain, to crisp them up a bit and release their delicious flavors.  There is a whole world of lentils out there waiting for me to try them.

Moral of the story? I really need an SLR camera. (Hmmm, non sequitor?)

Update: Adding chicken sausage and a generous quantity of shaved parmesan was a pretty awesome idea.  But then again when could that idea ever truly go wrong?

My awesome friend and fellow bloggist Leann recently posted a delicious-looking dish with lentils, fennel, and chicken sausage.

I wanted to make it immediately so, rather than do the normal person thing and go to the store, I decided to make it even though I barely had any of the ingredients.

I am smart and stuff.

But hey guess what it totally worked out. 

  I had recently purchased some Urad Dal (black lentils) for use in one of my upcoming Indian recipes. That, or, I may have purchased half of the products at the Indian grocery without regard to reason. Only time will tell.

So, I followed Leann's recipe but used these split black lentils instead of French green. I simply love green lentils and think the dish would be glorious with those. But these added an interesting twist that I really liked! It almost tasted like half lentil half rice. Kind of like a cool new grain (task seven: cool new grains)! Also I had no chicken sausage so I defrosted a chicken breast from ye olde freezere shoppe and went with that. What other shortcomings shall I document . . . ah yes, no fennel, but I did use a copious amount of fennel seeds and it was delightful. I had never tried fennel seeds with lentils before and this shall not be the last time, I tell you. They appear to be a match made in yumville. Next time, will use fresh fennel bulb and fronds.  

You're going to want to make this.

First of all, polenta crust couldn't me easier to make or more delicious. You basically just heat up some chicken stock, pour in your polenta, and stir for about 5-10 minutes, then spread the polenta in your tart pan (or pie plate), then stick it in a 450 oven for 10 minutes. I want to make everything with polenta crust now.

Meanwhile, you can do whatever you want for the veggie filling. You could even do a non-veggie filling. You could even put nothing in there and just eat crispy polenta for dinner.

Here's what we put in it:

one yellow summer squash, sliced thin

one zucchini, sliced thin

3 roma tomatoes, sliced thin

1 leek, finely chopped

4 oz wild mushroom (variety pack woo!), finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 cherry pepper (they are so cute! and fairly mild -- next time I might spice it up more), seeds out, finely chopped

olive oil

salt 

pepper

My brother-in-law Brian send me these Aleppo flakes that I was intending to use but then I forgot!! Alas.

Basically, you mix all the above ingredients together, then lay them out on baking sheets and bake them for about 10 minutes at 450 or so. You can do this at the same time as the crust if you are super well timed. Then you let the veggies cool for a bit and then stack them around in there in a really pretty way. I just went for alternating squash, zucchini, and tomato round and round -- make sure to get all that other good stuff in there too.

THEN here comes the good part: Take a bowl, break an egg in there, add a dash of cream and a dash of skim milk (or something) and grate some parmesan cheese in there as well, then whisk it up good, and pour it over your veggie tart, pushing gently on the top with the flat back of a spoon or some such to get the liquid to seep in nicely. Then bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes or so. Half-way through, I topped this baby with CRUMBLES OF GOAT CHEESE, and that couldn't have been a better idea.

We ate the tart with some sundried tomato pesto which was delish.

Next time, I'd add corn perhaps. And more shrooms. And more heat.

Just in case anyone is trying to make this recipe at home, I'll list the rest of the ingredients you will need here:

polenta (6 oz or so)

2 cups or more chicken broth (or veggie broth or water if you want this to be completely vegetarian) 

1 egg

1/4 cup cream + milk or just cream

parmesan cheese (1/2 cup? I dunno)

goat cheese (to taste)

Sorry for getting so moody in my last post. You readers are really quite dear, in your own invisible sort of way. I will do homemade pasta again, never fear.

Last night I went on a spree of trying to cook task items. First, we have attempt two at roasting a chicken (that chicken isn't going to roast itself!). This was the more traditional approach I probably should have started with. Get chicken, wash, take out innards, let dry for a while, dry some more,rubwith S&P, stick some herbs under the skin, cover breast with butter-rubbed foil, stick in pan with some veggies at the bottom, and bake. Oh yeah and you should likely truss the chicken. This bird I baked at 450 for 25 mins on a bed of cherry tomatoes, corn, and zucchini, took off the foil, baked for 25 more minutes, it still wasn't done, eventually I got super hungry and took the meat off the bone for a final 8-10 minutes. Oops? Don't worry, it was still yumz.

It had nice crispy skin, even though it looks a bit light in these pictures. But it certainly was no grilled chicken. However, we all unanimously agreed it was more flavorful than the grilled dude, even though I spent way more time concocting the mustard-butter glaze for the grilled guy, and barely did anything to this one (half-way through I spritzed a lemon over it and rubbed it briefly with a dab of butter).

For a more tips on oven-roasting Cedric, go to my friend Leann's blog where she explains it all with pics :).

When I realized the chicken wasn't done (we don't have a meat thermometer up here in Maine . . . we are plebes!) I re-cooked the veggies briefly over the stove and put the chickens back in the oven for a quick burst. We watched Jeopardy. And then dinner was served.

What's that other thing on the table, you ask? Why, that's a delicious quinoa concoction (an awesome grain) with almonds!

Quinoa Rainbow Medley (serves 4)

chicken or other stock

1 cup quinoa

1 large, or 2 small sweet potatoes

1/2 bunch of spinach, kale, or rainbow chard (which is what I used -- the colors of the stems are nice)

handful or two of sliced almonds

fresh cilantro

1/2 lemon's worth of juices

(feta cheese?)

Bring 1 1/2-2 cups stock to a boil (or water, if you don't have stock, or hate flavor). Meanwhile, stick sweet potatoes in the oven on a baking sheet. You can cook them at a range of temps, I did 450 because that's what Cedric the Chicken needed. Take those guys out later when they feel pretty darn soft (depends on the size -- mine were ready about 35 minutes later) and you can just peel the skin right off.

Wash the quinoa. Put it into the boiling stock, and cook for about 15 minutes. Then strain out the quinoa, fill that same pot with water,  and put the pot back on the stove, bringing it back up to a boil. Then stick the strainer filled with quinoa on top of the pot and cover it with a dish towel (word to the wise: don't set the dish towel on fire, as I have done this before). Steam the quinoa to get it all fluffy and nice for about 10 minutes. Hopefully you have a strainer with really tiny holes or a mesh one, if not you can either improvise or skip the steaming step and cook a bit longer in the first step. Try not to despair too heavily: sure, your quinoa won't taste very good and you have a sad predicament-filled life, but I bet you have lots of...other good qualities. Just kidding the quinoa will taste fine (I think).

Meanwhile, chop up those greens, reserving the stems if your greens have stems. Chop up the stems and get those cooking in a little olive oil. Once your quinoa is done steaming, put your nicely chopped up greens in there for 3-5 minutes. I had to do several batches because my strainer thingy is small. Oh, if you have an actual steamer you can use that (and smugly pat yourself on the back). Once done steaming, you may desire to pat down the greens on some paper towels and then chop them up even more -- I like really tiny pieces for this dish. You may want to add a tiny bit of olive oil and some salt and pepper to the quinoa.

At this point your 'taters are likely done. Wait for them to cool a bit, then peel off the skin and chop them into nice little cubes. Chop up the cilantro, and queeze 1/2 a lemon in with the cilantro.

We should be ready for...one two three add alllll the stuff to the quinoa! Actually don't do that, add it all more gradually and stir very carefully so as not to mash up the fluffy quinoa or the soft sweet potatoes. Don't forget the almonds and the chard (or kale) stems. I had initially bought some fresh feta cheese to put in this dish, but promptly forgot about it when Cedric was being difficult about getting cooked. It was delicious without, but I'm pretty sure -- nay, convinced -- it would also be delicious with feta. Unless you hate feta.