Entry tags:
Low sodium sauteed pork chops
Ingredients:
2 boneless pork chops
~1/2 cup diced onion
~1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 of a large jalapeno pepper, diced (control the spice level by leaving in or taking out ribs and seeds)
1/2 of a small apple, peeled and also diced
2-3 tbsp oil
~1 tbsp minced garlic
~1 tsp whole cumin seeds
~1 tsp whole mustard seeds
~1/2 tsp smoked paprika
~1/4 tsp garam masala
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~1/4 tsp curry powder (has salt so be careful with it, basically anything that has fenugreek and turmeric)
White wine, water, or apple juice to deglaze the pan
Directions: Heat oil on medium heat. Add spices and garlic and cook til fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add apple, onion, green pepper and jalapeno and stir to coat everything. Cook on med or med-low for about 8 minutes until the onions and apple start to caramelize. Add pork chops and cook for ~4 minutes per side for small boneless chops. Toward the end of the cooking, deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of liquid (white wine, applesauce, water) and stir to incorporate everything. Serve chops topped with curried apples and vegetables. I also served a side of broccoli with it.
(Approx 40 mg of sodium per pork chop.)
2 boneless pork chops
~1/2 cup diced onion
~1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 of a large jalapeno pepper, diced (control the spice level by leaving in or taking out ribs and seeds)
1/2 of a small apple, peeled and also diced
2-3 tbsp oil
~1 tbsp minced garlic
~1 tsp whole cumin seeds
~1 tsp whole mustard seeds
~1/2 tsp smoked paprika
~1/4 tsp garam masala
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~1/4 tsp curry powder (has salt so be careful with it, basically anything that has fenugreek and turmeric)
White wine, water, or apple juice to deglaze the pan
Directions: Heat oil on medium heat. Add spices and garlic and cook til fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add apple, onion, green pepper and jalapeno and stir to coat everything. Cook on med or med-low for about 8 minutes until the onions and apple start to caramelize. Add pork chops and cook for ~4 minutes per side for small boneless chops. Toward the end of the cooking, deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of liquid (white wine, applesauce, water) and stir to incorporate everything. Serve chops topped with curried apples and vegetables. I also served a side of broccoli with it.
(Approx 40 mg of sodium per pork chop.)
Entry tags:
Entry tags:
10 minute dinner
Neither D nor I wanted to put much time into dinner tonight, but I managed to make something pretty good anyhow, using vegetables and leftovers and some minute wild rice:
1 cup pre-cooked or 1-minute minute rice (I used microwaveable mix of brown and wild rice). you can use more if you want more rice. I am carb-counting and D didn't want a lot of rice so we were good splitting 1 cup cooked.
~1/2 to 2/3 pound leftover protein (We had some leftover grilled pork loin, already cooked, but chicken or shrimp or steak would work fine), chopped into chunks
~4 cups coarsely chopped aromatic veggies. Mine included:
1/2 carrot, sliced into ovals
Mix of red/yellow/orange/green bell peppers
Sweet onion, about 1/3 of a big sweet onion
1 med-sized slice of red cabbage, chopped up
add 2 tbsp olive oil to a med-hot pan and add all veggies. Cook for ~5-7 minutes until they are softened but not mushy. Turn heat down and add the pre-cooked protein to heat it up.
meanwhile, while that is cooking, make a quick Cheese sauce. All of these were eyeballed:
~2 tbsp butter
~2 tbsp flour
~2/3 cup milk (add more milk or water to add as necessary for the right consistency)
~1 tbsp horseradish sandwich spread (optional)
~1 tbsp tahini (optional)
~1 tsp adobo seasoning
~1 to 1.5 cup shredded cheese (about a handful. From my hand. I used mexican blend it was what was in the fridge)
Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour to make a dark roux. When the roux is set up and bubbly, reduce heat, add milk a bit at a time to combine. It should be thick but still liquidy. Add adobo seasoning. If you are adding the horseradish and tahini, add it now, and it might thicken the sauce considerably. Add in some more water or milk to thin it down before you add the cheese. When you get a consistency that is liquid enough (not pasty) add the cheese in and melt it all together. If the mixture is too stringy, add more liquid.
Pour cheese sauce over veggies and protein in the pan. Mix to combine. Heat rice in the microwave and serve veggie/protein mix over rice, immediately.
Honestly this came out surprisingly good. I had a giant jar of tahini leftover from making watermelon poke bowls the other day and have been trying to figure out how to use it. Apparently, sneak it into cheese sauce is a good option! It gives it a hint of that rich sesame flavor. Anyhow I thought it came out quite well for a "winging it" recipe that literally took 10 minutes to make. The longest part was chopping the veggies and pre-cooked protein, and even that didn't take too long.
1 cup pre-cooked or 1-minute minute rice (I used microwaveable mix of brown and wild rice). you can use more if you want more rice. I am carb-counting and D didn't want a lot of rice so we were good splitting 1 cup cooked.
~1/2 to 2/3 pound leftover protein (We had some leftover grilled pork loin, already cooked, but chicken or shrimp or steak would work fine), chopped into chunks
~4 cups coarsely chopped aromatic veggies. Mine included:
1/2 carrot, sliced into ovals
Mix of red/yellow/orange/green bell peppers
Sweet onion, about 1/3 of a big sweet onion
1 med-sized slice of red cabbage, chopped up
add 2 tbsp olive oil to a med-hot pan and add all veggies. Cook for ~5-7 minutes until they are softened but not mushy. Turn heat down and add the pre-cooked protein to heat it up.
meanwhile, while that is cooking, make a quick Cheese sauce. All of these were eyeballed:
~2 tbsp butter
~2 tbsp flour
~2/3 cup milk (add more milk or water to add as necessary for the right consistency)
~1 tbsp horseradish sandwich spread (optional)
~1 tbsp tahini (optional)
~1 tsp adobo seasoning
~1 to 1.5 cup shredded cheese (about a handful. From my hand. I used mexican blend it was what was in the fridge)
Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour to make a dark roux. When the roux is set up and bubbly, reduce heat, add milk a bit at a time to combine. It should be thick but still liquidy. Add adobo seasoning. If you are adding the horseradish and tahini, add it now, and it might thicken the sauce considerably. Add in some more water or milk to thin it down before you add the cheese. When you get a consistency that is liquid enough (not pasty) add the cheese in and melt it all together. If the mixture is too stringy, add more liquid.
Pour cheese sauce over veggies and protein in the pan. Mix to combine. Heat rice in the microwave and serve veggie/protein mix over rice, immediately.
Honestly this came out surprisingly good. I had a giant jar of tahini leftover from making watermelon poke bowls the other day and have been trying to figure out how to use it. Apparently, sneak it into cheese sauce is a good option! It gives it a hint of that rich sesame flavor. Anyhow I thought it came out quite well for a "winging it" recipe that literally took 10 minutes to make. The longest part was chopping the veggies and pre-cooked protein, and even that didn't take too long.
Entry tags:
Queso dip
Had friends over last night to play cards, and I put together this queso dip that turned out pretty well (all amounts approximate)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
3/4 c whole milk
1/4 c jalapeno flavored cream cheese (I used philadelphia brand)
1/2 c restaurant style Mexican salsa (I used leftovers from our last order from the local Mexican restauarant)
2 c shredded cheese (I used a mix of muenster and cheddar. Best to grate these from a block, not get pre-shredded)
pinch of chili powder and chipotle powder to taste
melt butter in a saucepan over low-med heat. add flour a bit at a time and incorporate into a roux. It doesn't have to brown, you just want it to be able to thicken the sauce. when the flour/butter mixture is consistent (it can be quite thick), add the milk a bit at a time until you get a smooth consistency. Add the cream cheese and melt it to incorporate. Add the salsa and stir until everything is smoothly combined. Add the cheese a bit at a time until it melts and incorporates. If the result is too stringy (eg, behaves like melted cheese instead of a more liquid sauce), add a bit more cream cheese until you get a more sauce like consistency. Do a taste test and add chili powder/chipotle to taste. Simmer on low-med heat until the excess moisture is boiled off and the sauce thickens. Serve with veggies or tortilla chips!
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
3/4 c whole milk
1/4 c jalapeno flavored cream cheese (I used philadelphia brand)
1/2 c restaurant style Mexican salsa (I used leftovers from our last order from the local Mexican restauarant)
2 c shredded cheese (I used a mix of muenster and cheddar. Best to grate these from a block, not get pre-shredded)
pinch of chili powder and chipotle powder to taste
melt butter in a saucepan over low-med heat. add flour a bit at a time and incorporate into a roux. It doesn't have to brown, you just want it to be able to thicken the sauce. when the flour/butter mixture is consistent (it can be quite thick), add the milk a bit at a time until you get a smooth consistency. Add the cream cheese and melt it to incorporate. Add the salsa and stir until everything is smoothly combined. Add the cheese a bit at a time until it melts and incorporates. If the result is too stringy (eg, behaves like melted cheese instead of a more liquid sauce), add a bit more cream cheese until you get a more sauce like consistency. Do a taste test and add chili powder/chipotle to taste. Simmer on low-med heat until the excess moisture is boiled off and the sauce thickens. Serve with veggies or tortilla chips!
Downloading LJ Scrapbook Photos with R (Public post)
Here is what I did. This works for public entries. For private albums or folders you may have to use some extra arguments to curl. See this stackoverflow for more details.
Steps:
- Open up a plain text file on your computer
- For each album in your scrapbook, click on it, and click the "Add all pictures to Post" link at the top.
- Click "Add link to original" when prompted at the post and click "add pictures"
- Copy/paste the entire list of img links into the text file, one link per line.
- Save the text file: "ljpics.txt" or what-have-you into a directory in your Downloads folder or wherever you would like
- Install R (https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/) if you don't have it already
- Open a terminal and cd to the directory where your text file lives.
- Open R, by typing "R" at the terminal
- Read in the text file as a data frame in R:
- Make a vector of the original picture links out of the html text as follows:
(that first gsub statement should be whatever complete text appears before the file url name in the html link. It should be the same for all of the files that were copy-pasted)
- Read in each file name using a for() loop:
Et voila! It will loop through all your files and download them to your current directory. (And also, now you will have a very powerful and free statistical computing and graphing environment if you want to keep R around.)
For private files, you might be able to add extra command line statements into the loop using the argument ' extra = "-u (lj username)" ' after the "method" argument, though I'm not sure what format you need to provide the username in, but it should prompt you for a password according to this stackoverflow page.
Steps:
- Open up a plain text file on your computer
- For each album in your scrapbook, click on it, and click the "Add all pictures to Post" link at the top.
- Click "Add link to original" when prompted at the post and click "add pictures"
- Copy/paste the entire list of img links into the text file, one link per line.
- Save the text file: "ljpics.txt" or what-have-you into a directory in your Downloads folder or wherever you would like
- Install R (https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/) if you don't have it already
- Open a terminal and cd to the directory where your text file lives.
- Open R, by typing "R" at the terminal
- Read in the text file as a data frame in R:
links <- read.table("ljpics.txt", header=F, sep="\n")
- Make a vector of the original picture links out of the html text as follows:
filenames <- unlist(lapply(strsplit(gsub("<a target=_blank href=", "", links[,1]), ">"), function(x){x[1]}))
(that first gsub statement should be whatever complete text appears before the file url name in the html link. It should be the same for all of the files that were copy-pasted)
- Read in each file name using a for() loop:
for(fname in filenames) {
download.file(fname, destfile = basename(fname), method="curl")
}
Et voila! It will loop through all your files and download them to your current directory. (And also, now you will have a very powerful and free statistical computing and graphing environment if you want to keep R around.)
For private files, you might be able to add extra command line statements into the loop using the argument ' extra = "-u (lj username)" ' after the "method" argument, though I'm not sure what format you need to provide the username in, but it should prompt you for a password according to this stackoverflow page.
Entry tags:
Principal Components (Eleven, River, Action/Adventure) Part 14
Part 14 was trending upwards of 6000 words so I've split it into two parts. This is the first part.
Main Post and Chapter Index
( Part 14 (3200 words) )
Interlude V| Part 15
Main Post and Chapter Index
( Part 14 (3200 words) )
Interlude V| Part 15
(no subject)
Am I mis-remembering things, or did one of the new Who doctors jettison the Zero Room (along with some other things maybe?) to get some extra welly for the TARDIS to do something at some point? I've searched through transcripts but can't find it anywhere. I thought it might be Eleven.
ETA: It was the swimming pool, not the Zero Room. From The Doctor's Wife:
--------
RORY: Oh, what is happening?
DOCTOR: We're leaving the universe.
AMY: How can you leave the universe?
DOCTOR: With enormous difficulty. Right now I'm burning up Tardis rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye, swimming pool. Goodbye, scullery. Sayonara, squash court seven.
(Whoosh, thump, crash, then all is still and silent.)
AMY: Okay, okay. Where are we?
DOCTOR: Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been.
ETA: It was the swimming pool, not the Zero Room. From The Doctor's Wife:
--------
RORY: Oh, what is happening?
DOCTOR: We're leaving the universe.
AMY: How can you leave the universe?
DOCTOR: With enormous difficulty. Right now I'm burning up Tardis rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye, swimming pool. Goodbye, scullery. Sayonara, squash court seven.
(Whoosh, thump, crash, then all is still and silent.)
AMY: Okay, okay. Where are we?
DOCTOR: Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Crockpot chicken and wild rice with mushroom sauce.
I refuse to use canned cream of mushroom soup for anything, so this is what I did instead.
( under the cut )
I refuse to use canned cream of mushroom soup for anything, so this is what I did instead.
( under the cut )
Entry tags:
Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas
These just used a few canned pantry staples but came out really good.
6-7 small or 4-5 large tortillas (corn or flour, whatever your preference)
1 container (1 cup) Minute brown and wild rice
1/2 package of Uncle Ben's Zesty Mexican Beans
2/3 cup (approx) frozen corn
1 15 oz can green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese
2 tbsp canned green chilies (optional)
1 tsp hot sauce or zhoug sauce (optional)
black olives for the top (optional)
more cheese to sprinkle over the top (optional I guess but you probably want this)
If using corn tortillas, heat them each with a dab of oil in a sautee pan over medium heat for about 1-2 min per side so that they won't crumble or break when rolled.
Preheat oven to 350.
Take the plastic top off the rice and heat in the microwave for 1 minute
Put the frozen corn in a microwave safe dish with some water and heat for 2 minutes, drain
Warm the beans according to directions (90 seconds in the microwave)
Mix together rice, beans, corn, 1/2 cup cheese, about 4 tbsp of the enchilada sauce, green chilies and hot sauce if using. Layer a bit of oil or butter onto the bottom of a glass pan (so the tortillas don't stick) that will fit all your enchiladas and then spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce over that. Fill the tortillas and place them folded ends down in the pan. Top with olives (if using) and pour over the rest of the enchilada sauce. Bake for 20 minutes until the sauce is bubbling. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve.
6-7 small or 4-5 large tortillas (corn or flour, whatever your preference)
1 container (1 cup) Minute brown and wild rice
1/2 package of Uncle Ben's Zesty Mexican Beans
2/3 cup (approx) frozen corn
1 15 oz can green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese
2 tbsp canned green chilies (optional)
1 tsp hot sauce or zhoug sauce (optional)
black olives for the top (optional)
more cheese to sprinkle over the top (optional I guess but you probably want this)
If using corn tortillas, heat them each with a dab of oil in a sautee pan over medium heat for about 1-2 min per side so that they won't crumble or break when rolled.
Preheat oven to 350.
Take the plastic top off the rice and heat in the microwave for 1 minute
Put the frozen corn in a microwave safe dish with some water and heat for 2 minutes, drain
Warm the beans according to directions (90 seconds in the microwave)
Mix together rice, beans, corn, 1/2 cup cheese, about 4 tbsp of the enchilada sauce, green chilies and hot sauce if using. Layer a bit of oil or butter onto the bottom of a glass pan (so the tortillas don't stick) that will fit all your enchiladas and then spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce over that. Fill the tortillas and place them folded ends down in the pan. Top with olives (if using) and pour over the rest of the enchilada sauce. Bake for 20 minutes until the sauce is bubbling. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve.
Entry tags:
For posterity so I can pretend I did anything on purpose
Made turkey stuffed peppers tonight, Italian style. Winged the recipe and it's cooking now but it smells good anyhow. It has some carbs from the rice (but you can use brown or wild) and the bread crumbs (but there aren't many of those).
So before I forget ( this is what I did )
I shall report back on the outcome.
Verdict: the flavor profile was great, but there was too much moisture for the egg/rice and bread crumbs to work as a binding, would need way more bread crumbs. So next time I will probably leave those out and just have it be crumbly (since it was crumbly anyhow). The other option would be to put way more cheese in them and have them stick together that way.
So before I forget ( this is what I did )
I shall report back on the outcome.
Verdict: the flavor profile was great, but there was too much moisture for the egg/rice and bread crumbs to work as a binding, would need way more bread crumbs. So next time I will probably leave those out and just have it be crumbly (since it was crumbly anyhow). The other option would be to put way more cheese in them and have them stick together that way.
Entry tags:
Thanksgiving... salad?
I know usually salad isn't the star of the show but I wanted to share this one I made that was really really good. I got inspiration from a poached pear and goat cheese salad that we had at an Italian restaurant in Siesta Key:
I used a bag of forelle pears; they are like 1/3 the size of regular pears and were a good size for a small serving of salad.
Champagne Poached Pears:
12 forelle pears or 4 big pears (sturdy and firm)
1 bottle dry champagne (I used prosecco)
1 cup orange juice
some freshly grated cinnamon (I didn't use a whole stick b/c I thought it might overpower)
handful of dried cranberries
~1/2 to 1 cup of sugar (to taste)
water to cover
Peel the pears (could also core them but could do that later as well). You can put the peeled ones in a bowl with some lemon juice mixed with water in order to keep them from browning as you peel more and do the other steps. Mix orange juice, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon in a stock pot or dutch oven and stir to incorporate the sugar. Stand the pears up on end in the pot, put on med-high heat and pour in the prosecco and enough water to cover. You can also put a "top" on the pears of parchment paper cut to the shape of the pot, with a hole cut in it to let steam escape and to keep the pears completely submerged. Boil until pears are tender, approx 15 minutes for little pears, maybe 25 for big ones.
Remove from heat and store pears in the poaching liquid in the fridge.
Salad:
50/50 mix of arugula and organic spring mix
poached pears (cut in half and cored, 1/2 pear per serving if the servings are small, could use more)
a few sliced strawberries
Toasted pecans
Salted/roasted Pepitas
crumbled Goat Cheese
diced roasted pumpkin (with enough water roasted out of it that it has a good consistency and isn't mushy)
Raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. (This was what I had in the fridge, "Newman's Own" brand. It worked well. If you want to make your own champagne vinaigrette or something, that would work well. Salad does not need a ton of dressing, just a little bit).
It was really good.
I used a bag of forelle pears; they are like 1/3 the size of regular pears and were a good size for a small serving of salad.
Champagne Poached Pears:
12 forelle pears or 4 big pears (sturdy and firm)
1 bottle dry champagne (I used prosecco)
1 cup orange juice
some freshly grated cinnamon (I didn't use a whole stick b/c I thought it might overpower)
handful of dried cranberries
~1/2 to 1 cup of sugar (to taste)
water to cover
Peel the pears (could also core them but could do that later as well). You can put the peeled ones in a bowl with some lemon juice mixed with water in order to keep them from browning as you peel more and do the other steps. Mix orange juice, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon in a stock pot or dutch oven and stir to incorporate the sugar. Stand the pears up on end in the pot, put on med-high heat and pour in the prosecco and enough water to cover. You can also put a "top" on the pears of parchment paper cut to the shape of the pot, with a hole cut in it to let steam escape and to keep the pears completely submerged. Boil until pears are tender, approx 15 minutes for little pears, maybe 25 for big ones.
Remove from heat and store pears in the poaching liquid in the fridge.
Salad:
50/50 mix of arugula and organic spring mix
poached pears (cut in half and cored, 1/2 pear per serving if the servings are small, could use more)
a few sliced strawberries
Toasted pecans
Salted/roasted Pepitas
crumbled Goat Cheese
diced roasted pumpkin (with enough water roasted out of it that it has a good consistency and isn't mushy)
Raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. (This was what I had in the fridge, "Newman's Own" brand. It worked well. If you want to make your own champagne vinaigrette or something, that would work well. Salad does not need a ton of dressing, just a little bit).
It was really good.
Stats Experiment
10 days to Get your guesses in!
I am trying to see how well crowdsourcing will work to estimate the number of M&Ms in a bowl, so the more answers I get, the better!
I am trying to see how well crowdsourcing will work to estimate the number of M&Ms in a bowl, so the more answers I get, the better!
Stats experiment
How many M&Ms are in this bowl? Tell me your answer in the comments (without looking at others' first).
(Full disclosure, I don't know the answer, it's a contest for a "fun event" at work and I figured I'd try crowdsourcing as my strategy)
Bzuh?
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58682472
RTD is back! Um, I don't know what to think about this, actually. I hope he can take the show in a cool new direction. I don't want to see Rose again. And probably not Jack; I feel like his character is kind of done. OTOH It would be absolutely lovely to have characters I actually care about (the Doctor included). But does this ever actually happen? I feel like maybe the Beeb is squirrelly about all of this, or just generally uncomfortable, to ask someone back who left.
Then again, we will be able to see if RTD can ignite the same level of ratings he did at the show's start.
I'm curious, anyhow. First big question is will he stick with a female doctor or go back to tried and true? (And *that* might be something the Beeb would weigh in on, IDK. Especially if they are feeling vulnerable and squirrely).
RTD is back! Um, I don't know what to think about this, actually. I hope he can take the show in a cool new direction. I don't want to see Rose again. And probably not Jack; I feel like his character is kind of done. OTOH It would be absolutely lovely to have characters I actually care about (the Doctor included). But does this ever actually happen? I feel like maybe the Beeb is squirrelly about all of this, or just generally uncomfortable, to ask someone back who left.
Then again, we will be able to see if RTD can ignite the same level of ratings he did at the show's start.
I'm curious, anyhow. First big question is will he stick with a female doctor or go back to tried and true? (And *that* might be something the Beeb would weigh in on, IDK. Especially if they are feeling vulnerable and squirrely).
Snowflake Challenge #7
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
snowflake_challenge number 7 is to create your own challenge!I have no idea if I will get to this or not, But I think personalized Fandom Flowcharts would be fun.
Kind of like a timeline but also sort of referential, if there were any "Gateway fandoms" that got you into one or the other (same actor, same genre, rec from friends). Nothing so complicated as Univariate probability distributions (yes, I own this poster and have been pencil-coloring it for a while), but something personalized that shows your own Fandom Journey, be it simple or complex.
(And I really, REALLY want to see
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespirit's chart, just for the explosion of 70's British TV and the links that follow actors from one show to another!) You could have color coding on the charts for your engagement types -- making fic, vids, just watching/reading, etc. Or like, if you were shippy about it or not, etc.
I wonder if there are any free online flowchart makers that could help someone visualize this kind of thing. Then you could have your own personalized fandom graph or timeline or sankey diagram or what-have-you out of it.
I have no idea if this counts as a challenge. It's a challenge to me to come up with some kind of viz for it, I suppose.
Snowflake Challenge #6
I'm behind, I know. Challenge #6 is to rec 3+ works by other people. So here are some things I've read recently that I have not yet extolled to the ends of the universe :)
*
and they did live by watchfires by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
picnokinesis. 20345 words
In some timelines, Captain Jark Harkness rescues her from prison. In others, she escapes on her own. In many of them, she makes it back to New Year's Day in Sheffield, 2021.
This is not one of those timelines.
Thirteen onscreen has not been all that appealing to me, but luckily there are some fic authors out there who are doing her justice. This story is everything I wanted from the setup at the end of the last series--it makes the Doctor's incarceration mean something, it is a mindbending twisting tale where the lines of what is real and what is a dream are blurred, it is a sometimes brutal but ultimately redeeming fairy tale. With countable infinities.
She knows she left people behind. People she needs to get back to. A family. But time is stretched thin, distorted, the seconds and minutes and hours and days and months and years blurring into one. Past and future have traded places – what has come before is cast into uncertainty and what will come the only thing she knows for sure. Without a doubt, she will be here.
*
the very last inch of us byhellynz. 6978 words.
River spends years in Stormcage. Her only visitor is the Doctor. Him, and a blonde stranger, a fellow inmate, who keeps appearing in the corner of her cell.
oooh, another Thirteen in Prison fic, but this one has River Song in it. It's timey wimey, with despair and hope, and of course, a love story.
*
The Light byvailkagami. 402 words.
Nothing is in sequence.
Some things just Are.
A beautiful TARDIS POV ficlet. I have a soft spot for the Old Girl and her perspective. This is a short journey through her life, non-linearly.
*
forever is the sweetest con bydollsome. 4719 words
River drops in during the Doctor’s year with the Ponds in “The Power of Three.
Is this me recc-ing fluff? OMG it is. Because it's fun fluff that is so true to the characters, with laugh-out-loud dialogue and at the same time it has that bittersweet tinge because we know how things turn out.
"Hello, hello; gorgeous to see you, slightly slime-covered bride of mine," he says, pulling her dramatically back up into his arms. When they’re cheek to cheek, he whispers in her ear, "Please do explode something. I’m so bored, I’m— and this is in no way an exaggeration—going to die of it in five seconds, and you’re far too foxy to be a widow."
River kisses his earlobe. "Everybody feels that way about visiting the in-laws," she whispers back. "Suffer."
*
*
and they did live by watchfires by
In some timelines, Captain Jark Harkness rescues her from prison. In others, she escapes on her own. In many of them, she makes it back to New Year's Day in Sheffield, 2021.
This is not one of those timelines.
Thirteen onscreen has not been all that appealing to me, but luckily there are some fic authors out there who are doing her justice. This story is everything I wanted from the setup at the end of the last series--it makes the Doctor's incarceration mean something, it is a mindbending twisting tale where the lines of what is real and what is a dream are blurred, it is a sometimes brutal but ultimately redeeming fairy tale. With countable infinities.
She knows she left people behind. People she needs to get back to. A family. But time is stretched thin, distorted, the seconds and minutes and hours and days and months and years blurring into one. Past and future have traded places – what has come before is cast into uncertainty and what will come the only thing she knows for sure. Without a doubt, she will be here.
*
the very last inch of us by
River spends years in Stormcage. Her only visitor is the Doctor. Him, and a blonde stranger, a fellow inmate, who keeps appearing in the corner of her cell.
oooh, another Thirteen in Prison fic, but this one has River Song in it. It's timey wimey, with despair and hope, and of course, a love story.
*
The Light by
Nothing is in sequence.
Some things just Are.
A beautiful TARDIS POV ficlet. I have a soft spot for the Old Girl and her perspective. This is a short journey through her life, non-linearly.
*
forever is the sweetest con by
River drops in during the Doctor’s year with the Ponds in “The Power of Three.
Is this me recc-ing fluff? OMG it is. Because it's fun fluff that is so true to the characters, with laugh-out-loud dialogue and at the same time it has that bittersweet tinge because we know how things turn out.
"Hello, hello; gorgeous to see you, slightly slime-covered bride of mine," he says, pulling her dramatically back up into his arms. When they’re cheek to cheek, he whispers in her ear, "Please do explode something. I’m so bored, I’m— and this is in no way an exaggeration—going to die of it in five seconds, and you’re far too foxy to be a widow."
River kisses his earlobe. "Everybody feels that way about visiting the in-laws," she whispers back. "Suffer."
*
Fandom Snowflake #5
This is mostly a placeholder, but snowflake_challenge number 5 is to discuss/promote a canon you love.
Aaaaah what do I choose???
Oh wait, of course I choose John Crichton and Aeryn Sun in Farscape. Oh my frelling GOD, it is the most epic and amazing love story, brilliantly acted, brilliantly scripted, beautifully filmed, laugh out loud, cry your eyes out, tear your heart out and hand it to you a thousand times over in a show that lasted only four seasons and a made-for-tv movie. It's the essential "contemporary astronaut flung through wormhole into strange land meets bad-ass but emotionally stunted alien commando and they fall in love" but aaaaagh it is so much more than that. Growth, survival, death, torture, angst, hilarity, slow descent into madness, more death, EVEN MORE ANGST, and lots of shooting things.
If I go searching for highlights, I'm going to end up rewatching the whole series. And if I post them all here, I will definitely spoil you all. But you start here:
Rank and Regiment, Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9nv9rw1pSs
Very. Clear. Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V7-Ta-t-EY
Is somebody docking?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RKumWTkkE
[3.5 seasons later]
End up around here (which hey, also has a nice recap since it's the start of the miniseries, and doesn't particularly spoil very much):
One More Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1gBNNyACvI
And in between.... it's a hell of a ride.
snowflake_challenge number 5 is to discuss/promote a canon you love. Aaaaah what do I choose???
Oh wait, of course I choose John Crichton and Aeryn Sun in Farscape. Oh my frelling GOD, it is the most epic and amazing love story, brilliantly acted, brilliantly scripted, beautifully filmed, laugh out loud, cry your eyes out, tear your heart out and hand it to you a thousand times over in a show that lasted only four seasons and a made-for-tv movie. It's the essential "contemporary astronaut flung through wormhole into strange land meets bad-ass but emotionally stunted alien commando and they fall in love" but aaaaagh it is so much more than that. Growth, survival, death, torture, angst, hilarity, slow descent into madness, more death, EVEN MORE ANGST, and lots of shooting things.
If I go searching for highlights, I'm going to end up rewatching the whole series. And if I post them all here, I will definitely spoil you all. But you start here:
Rank and Regiment, Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9nv9rw1pSs
Very. Clear. Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V7-Ta-t-EY
Is somebody docking?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RKumWTkkE
[3.5 seasons later]
End up around here (which hey, also has a nice recap since it's the start of the miniseries, and doesn't particularly spoil very much):
One More Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1gBNNyACvI
And in between.... it's a hell of a ride.
Snowflake Challenge #4
Snowflake Challenge #4 is to set some goals.
Well, I have some personal/private goals (that I have little control over, but they are goals), and some boring health goals, and some family goals, but I'll stick to fannish/crafty ones here.
For 2021:
1) Finish the WIP-o-Doom aka Principal Components. That is a lofty goal, I know. More immediate goal is to post the next section before the end of the month (hopefully long before). After so many years and a lot of fits, starts and stagnation, it's truly on the home stretch now. And that's even given that I know exactly what happens in the story and have for like 9.5 years. It still takes forever to tear words out of my head. At least for that story.
2) Rec more attardis_library. I've not been on much of a Who-reading spree in the last year plus, but lately I've been doing a little bit more reading and been finding some good stories. And reading more also makes me feel more connected to fandom and might spur me to more creativity. I'm not really enjoying Thirteen on screen but there are some brilliant writers out there that are doing her better justice. And I miss the older eras too.
3) Read some Actual Books. Even licensed fandom stuff can count, though I should probably read some more substantial stuff too. Last year I read a few books, mostly on my Kindle. Station Eleven, Radium Girls, 3 Twelve and Bill adventures, the first Dresden Files book (erm... someone says they get better), and I started a few others. It's tough when I have writing I want to get done though. Even when I'm not doing the writing, It's like, if I'm reading I'm explicitly NOT doing writing. Whereas if I'm goofing off on the computer, at least I've got the computer open and my file open and Ostensibly Could Be Writing.
4) Make a Princess Dress. For my niece. This has been on my to-do list for like, a year and a half. I have pattern, fabrics, hoopskirt, etc. I need to design the skirt--the hard part--and then construct the top from the existing pattern--the tedius but easy part. Except I will probably have to change a little bit of what niece designed for the top because she wants two fabrics diagonal (on the bias?? Does silk/taffeta have a bias?) and that's going to be a PITA.
5) Watch some more Blake's 7. I've seen the first 3 episodes and folks assure me it gets better ;)
6) Write a story that isn't the WIP-o-Doom. This one's a maybe. Maybe if I get the right motivation. I've got a few ideas. A few things started, even, that I could flesh out. But I'm not going to force it if it isn't in the cards. There's a LOT of non-fannish goals I have for the upcoming year anyhow.
7) Does it make any sense to try and learn tumblr or Discord? Ehhh, probably not. Get off my lawn. It's just I've been seeing some younger fen around lately who are writing amazing things and it reminds me of years ago when LJ and DW used to be hopping places and I interacted a lot more with people and we wrote things for each other and spurred each other on. Now all the fandom is on platforms I don't know how to use. Aaaand a lot of it is for shows/books/manga/movies etc. that I have no idea about. And I'm not in college/grad-school anymore so there are more immediate repercussions for doing things like spending the day reading an amazing fic story instead of working (Admittedly, that has not necessarily stopped me).
8) Get back into some Big Finish. The audio adventures were definitely something that helped me connect with fandom and kept my creativity going. And it's something to do for either a Fake Commute or during exercise or laundry folding, etc. (I used to listen to them on my hour-long commute to/from work)
Well, I have some personal/private goals (that I have little control over, but they are goals), and some boring health goals, and some family goals, but I'll stick to fannish/crafty ones here.
For 2021:
1) Finish the WIP-o-Doom aka Principal Components. That is a lofty goal, I know. More immediate goal is to post the next section before the end of the month (hopefully long before). After so many years and a lot of fits, starts and stagnation, it's truly on the home stretch now. And that's even given that I know exactly what happens in the story and have for like 9.5 years. It still takes forever to tear words out of my head. At least for that story.
2) Rec more at
tardis_library. I've not been on much of a Who-reading spree in the last year plus, but lately I've been doing a little bit more reading and been finding some good stories. And reading more also makes me feel more connected to fandom and might spur me to more creativity. I'm not really enjoying Thirteen on screen but there are some brilliant writers out there that are doing her better justice. And I miss the older eras too. 3) Read some Actual Books. Even licensed fandom stuff can count, though I should probably read some more substantial stuff too. Last year I read a few books, mostly on my Kindle. Station Eleven, Radium Girls, 3 Twelve and Bill adventures, the first Dresden Files book (erm... someone says they get better), and I started a few others. It's tough when I have writing I want to get done though. Even when I'm not doing the writing, It's like, if I'm reading I'm explicitly NOT doing writing. Whereas if I'm goofing off on the computer, at least I've got the computer open and my file open and Ostensibly Could Be Writing.
4) Make a Princess Dress. For my niece. This has been on my to-do list for like, a year and a half. I have pattern, fabrics, hoopskirt, etc. I need to design the skirt--the hard part--and then construct the top from the existing pattern--the tedius but easy part. Except I will probably have to change a little bit of what niece designed for the top because she wants two fabrics diagonal (on the bias?? Does silk/taffeta have a bias?) and that's going to be a PITA.
5) Watch some more Blake's 7. I've seen the first 3 episodes and folks assure me it gets better ;)
6) Write a story that isn't the WIP-o-Doom. This one's a maybe. Maybe if I get the right motivation. I've got a few ideas. A few things started, even, that I could flesh out. But I'm not going to force it if it isn't in the cards. There's a LOT of non-fannish goals I have for the upcoming year anyhow.
7) Does it make any sense to try and learn tumblr or Discord? Ehhh, probably not. Get off my lawn. It's just I've been seeing some younger fen around lately who are writing amazing things and it reminds me of years ago when LJ and DW used to be hopping places and I interacted a lot more with people and we wrote things for each other and spurred each other on. Now all the fandom is on platforms I don't know how to use. Aaaand a lot of it is for shows/books/manga/movies etc. that I have no idea about. And I'm not in college/grad-school anymore so there are more immediate repercussions for doing things like spending the day reading an amazing fic story instead of working (Admittedly, that has not necessarily stopped me).
8) Get back into some Big Finish. The audio adventures were definitely something that helped me connect with fandom and kept my creativity going. And it's something to do for either a Fake Commute or during exercise or laundry folding, etc. (I used to listen to them on my hour-long commute to/from work)