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Dec. 26th, 2009 05:53 pmChristmas! It was rocking! Although I was hoping for a small christmas we actually had a way bigger one than usual, about 15, 16 people I guess, and it was actually pretty nice. Highlights included:
1. Batman earrings! (Technically, yellow earrings with bat shapes on them in black, but that's pretty close.)
2. Oh my god, the salmon my uncle bought. He told us what was in it, and I'm going to reproduce it here so I don't forget and someday when I'm really wealthy can eat it every now and then:
- two fillets of salmon, the kind that are half a fish, not the kind that are portion-sized. I guess it doesn't technically require two, but we had like four meat/fish courses and this was still scraped clean, so get plenty (or whatever you can afford: salmon is expensive, yo.)
- manuka honey (look, I know nothing about monofloral honeys, so I have no idea what substitute to suggest, but probably a darker honey)
- garlic, diced up small
- rosemary, possibly minced, you could also use dried
- makrud lime leaves (no idea where he got these, possibly Moore Wilsons, I guess you could use regular lime leaves or lemon leaves? who knows)
- lemons, thinly sliced
- he didn't actually say salt and pepper, but I think they were in it.
Score the salmon deeply in smallish portion sizes, right down to the skin. Insert the lime leaves and thin slices of lemon in the scores. Drizzle with manuka honey, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Bake at 180 celsius for about 20 minutes, could be a lot less.
This. Tastes. AMAZING.
3. Then we also had a lobster, a HUGE christmas ham, and this super delicious thai beef salad that my mother does, which is basically rare-roasted or bbq'd beef fillet on a bed of lettuce and cukes drizzled with a sauce made out of mint leaves, coriander, soy sauce, and some other stuff. I'll do that one another time.
4. I got a bunch of books, notably Barbara Kingsolver's new book The Lacuna. I love Kingsolver so I'm super-excited to read this but I'm in the middle of Cold Comfort Farm and also Red Seas Under Red Skies, so! I also got Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Marcus Zusak's The Messenger, both of which I've only vaguely heard of but they look great.
5. YULETIDE. That actually needs to be broken out.
YULETIDE.
First off, whoever wrote my Yuletide fic - well, I have a sneaking suspicion it was one of you guys, because it was a House of Many Ways fic (one of the DWJ books I wrote my essay on) about Charmain (who I love) being a professional & an expert (which I love) who doesn't want to change her name or marry Peter (which indicates to me that this person was deliberately pandering to my ridiculousness WHICH I ADORE ♥) AND THEN there were also references to Peter Pan, The Changeover, possibly Tamora Pierce - anyway, it absolutely ROCKS.
It is called Cave Canem and it rawks. Read it and give the author some love.
Then! I also have some preliminary Yuletide recs! These are only a few of the fics I have loved, and I still haven't ventured into the Glee, White Collar, or Leverage waters because I'm guessing they'll take up a lot of my time.
Vertical Desires, Take the Lead, various pairings.
I don't know this fandom at all, but this story is really really really terrific, and indescribable, except: it's about the politics and culture of dance, and also just about identity politics in the real world, and I think it's really terrific and deserves to be Famous.
Every Day is a Reminder, Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin/Susie
This story is really terrific and has a lot of plot points that I would never have believed someone could carry off in this fandom. Highly recommended; it's also happy, though it has its devastating moments.
The Lengthy, Dimly-Lit Coffee Break of the Psyche, Calvin & Hobbes which really worked it this year, Calvin/Susie
Another Calvin grows up story, but one with more time spent on Calvin qua Calvin. Really good, great Hobbes.
a patch of old snow, Animorphs, Cassie centric, during and post-54.
Just a really great Cassie at the end of canon fic.
Thorn Amongst Lilies, Tamora P.'s Circle of Magic (which keeps getting cast as Emelan which I really think is a dumb name for the fandom because Emelan isn't important at all in the same way that Tortall is in the Tortall books... but whatever), Briar/Tris
This wasn't written for me, but it totally feel like a treat because this was also one of my requests and this is just exactly what I would have hoped for! Yay.
But Rather Darkness Visible, Young WizardsxDoctor Who, Dairine & Ten
This is fabulous! Now you will all know that I want to rec absolutely every single one of the Young Wizards fics in Yuletide this year, but I beta'd and stuff so I won't be doing that until after the reveal. However, I had nothing to do with this one, though I'd love to say I did! This is really and truly a brilliant crossover, one which of course canonically makes sense. I think it does a tremendous job of bringing the Doctor into the YW 'verse and analysing him in its paradigms - there's a beautiful discussion of the Lone One's presence in relation to the Doctor that I find utterly terrific. Go read it, I highly recommend (and Dairine would make a fucking awesome Companion.)
Five stories the Reader never began, Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Guise - it's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller fanfiction! For goodness' sake, go and read it (and the other stories in this category, too!
All That's Best of Dark and Bright, Stoppard - Arcadia, Thomasina/Septimus pre-het
This is a missing scene from the play and I think it's really terrific! My articulate squee is by this point failing me (I've read a lot more than the recs I've already made - and everything has been great, by the way, these are just the stand-outs - but I'm running out of ways to say "I really enjoyed this" because I've been trying to comment on them all.)
OK! Back to play in the Yuletide sandbox, or possibly go and read some more Gibbons. Who knows? I'm on holiday...
1. Batman earrings! (Technically, yellow earrings with bat shapes on them in black, but that's pretty close.)
2. Oh my god, the salmon my uncle bought. He told us what was in it, and I'm going to reproduce it here so I don't forget and someday when I'm really wealthy can eat it every now and then:
- two fillets of salmon, the kind that are half a fish, not the kind that are portion-sized. I guess it doesn't technically require two, but we had like four meat/fish courses and this was still scraped clean, so get plenty (or whatever you can afford: salmon is expensive, yo.)
- manuka honey (look, I know nothing about monofloral honeys, so I have no idea what substitute to suggest, but probably a darker honey)
- garlic, diced up small
- rosemary, possibly minced, you could also use dried
- makrud lime leaves (no idea where he got these, possibly Moore Wilsons, I guess you could use regular lime leaves or lemon leaves? who knows)
- lemons, thinly sliced
- he didn't actually say salt and pepper, but I think they were in it.
Score the salmon deeply in smallish portion sizes, right down to the skin. Insert the lime leaves and thin slices of lemon in the scores. Drizzle with manuka honey, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Bake at 180 celsius for about 20 minutes, could be a lot less.
This. Tastes. AMAZING.
3. Then we also had a lobster, a HUGE christmas ham, and this super delicious thai beef salad that my mother does, which is basically rare-roasted or bbq'd beef fillet on a bed of lettuce and cukes drizzled with a sauce made out of mint leaves, coriander, soy sauce, and some other stuff. I'll do that one another time.
4. I got a bunch of books, notably Barbara Kingsolver's new book The Lacuna. I love Kingsolver so I'm super-excited to read this but I'm in the middle of Cold Comfort Farm and also Red Seas Under Red Skies, so! I also got Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Marcus Zusak's The Messenger, both of which I've only vaguely heard of but they look great.
5. YULETIDE. That actually needs to be broken out.
YULETIDE.
First off, whoever wrote my Yuletide fic - well, I have a sneaking suspicion it was one of you guys, because it was a House of Many Ways fic (one of the DWJ books I wrote my essay on) about Charmain (who I love) being a professional & an expert (which I love) who doesn't want to change her name or marry Peter (which indicates to me that this person was deliberately pandering to my ridiculousness WHICH I ADORE ♥) AND THEN there were also references to Peter Pan, The Changeover, possibly Tamora Pierce - anyway, it absolutely ROCKS.
It is called Cave Canem and it rawks. Read it and give the author some love.
Then! I also have some preliminary Yuletide recs! These are only a few of the fics I have loved, and I still haven't ventured into the Glee, White Collar, or Leverage waters because I'm guessing they'll take up a lot of my time.
Vertical Desires, Take the Lead, various pairings.
I don't know this fandom at all, but this story is really really really terrific, and indescribable, except: it's about the politics and culture of dance, and also just about identity politics in the real world, and I think it's really terrific and deserves to be Famous.
Every Day is a Reminder, Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin/Susie
This story is really terrific and has a lot of plot points that I would never have believed someone could carry off in this fandom. Highly recommended; it's also happy, though it has its devastating moments.
The Lengthy, Dimly-Lit Coffee Break of the Psyche, Calvin & Hobbes which really worked it this year, Calvin/Susie
Another Calvin grows up story, but one with more time spent on Calvin qua Calvin. Really good, great Hobbes.
a patch of old snow, Animorphs, Cassie centric, during and post-54.
Just a really great Cassie at the end of canon fic.
Thorn Amongst Lilies, Tamora P.'s Circle of Magic (which keeps getting cast as Emelan which I really think is a dumb name for the fandom because Emelan isn't important at all in the same way that Tortall is in the Tortall books... but whatever), Briar/Tris
This wasn't written for me, but it totally feel like a treat because this was also one of my requests and this is just exactly what I would have hoped for! Yay.
But Rather Darkness Visible, Young WizardsxDoctor Who, Dairine & Ten
This is fabulous! Now you will all know that I want to rec absolutely every single one of the Young Wizards fics in Yuletide this year, but I beta'd and stuff so I won't be doing that until after the reveal. However, I had nothing to do with this one, though I'd love to say I did! This is really and truly a brilliant crossover, one which of course canonically makes sense. I think it does a tremendous job of bringing the Doctor into the YW 'verse and analysing him in its paradigms - there's a beautiful discussion of the Lone One's presence in relation to the Doctor that I find utterly terrific. Go read it, I highly recommend (and Dairine would make a fucking awesome Companion.)
Five stories the Reader never began, Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Guise - it's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller fanfiction! For goodness' sake, go and read it (and the other stories in this category, too!
All That's Best of Dark and Bright, Stoppard - Arcadia, Thomasina/Septimus pre-het
This is a missing scene from the play and I think it's really terrific! My articulate squee is by this point failing me (I've read a lot more than the recs I've already made - and everything has been great, by the way, these are just the stand-outs - but I'm running out of ways to say "I really enjoyed this" because I've been trying to comment on them all.)
OK! Back to play in the Yuletide sandbox, or possibly go and read some more Gibbons. Who knows? I'm on holiday...
