Snuggle Season!
If we all pretend really hard, I totally didn't get overwhelmed by my job and not post for nearly two months. Oops.
Anyways, the timeskip's landed us in snuggle season!
Today we're gonna talk about all the fun things I've done / want to do in snuggle seasons past, present, and future :}
Various Recipes
In no particular order...
Banana Bread
Ingredients:
- Dry: sugar (1 cup), flour (2 cups), baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon (1 tsp each)
- Wet: milk (1 tbsp)
- Other idk: 1x butter stick, 2x eggs, 3x bananas
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 325 F
- Cream sugar and butter together in Bowl #1
- Add an egg to Bowl #1, mix mix, add another, mix mix
- Mash bananas and milk in Bowl #2
- Mix all the dry ingredients in Bowl #3
- Add Bowl #2 to Bowl #1, then Bowl #3 to Bowl #1
- Bake! I use a square pan
Apple Muffins
Ingredients:
- Dry: flour (1 + 3/4 cup), baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves (1 tsp each), brown sugar (1/2 cup), white sugar (1/2 cup)
- Wet: apple cider (3/4 cup), oil (1/2 cup), applesauce (1/4 cup)
- Other idk: 2x eggs, 2x apples, some apple pie filling
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 425 F
- Reduce the apple cider into a concentrate (1/4 cup) by cooking it on the stovetop for 20-30 min
- Peel and shred the apples (this is really fun actually)
- Mix literally everything but the pie filling into a goop
- Fold in the pie filling, I do like 1/2 sugared apple slice per muffin
- Bake a dozen muffins! (5 min @ 425 F + 15 min @ 350 F)
The batter tastes super good too, so leave a lil extra to eat while you wait!
Also you can take the classic cinnamon spread (unidentified mix of cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter) and just spread it on top, it's really good :]
Snickerdoodles
Nationally famous!
Ingredients:
- Dry: flour (1 cup), sugar (1/4 cup), cinnamon (1 tsp)
- Wet: none!
- Other idk: vaguely 80-85% of a stick of butter
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix dry ingredients
- Add butter and mix mix
- Separate dough into a bunch of dough balls and flatten/cut into cookies
- Score with a fork to create the # shape, and sprinkle sugar in there
- Cook for 15 min!
Apple Galette!
As copied directly from my notes:
- 2 cups flour, 1.5 sticks butter (cold, cubed), 1/3 cup water, some salt and sugar
- split the flour into 2/3 cup and 1 1/3 cup
- for the bigger part, knead the cold butter into the flour using the flaky finger method (tm)
- do it a TON. be patient, it will get better and better and better
- for the smaller part, pour the water (lukewarm) and mix into a paste
- put the paste into the PERFECTED flaky flour mix, and veryy slowly and carefully, and only using your hands, repeatedly fold in the paste and knead
- like so so carefully
- i kinda pull with fingers on each hand, and use the thumbs to push in the middle
- repeat a bunch of times, rotate 90 deg so it isn't too much, keep going
- BE PATIENT it will take up alllll the paste and fluff every last drop
- put it back in the paste bowl, and absorb all the paste (be patient)
- roll it out w/ flour as a helper. make sure it's perfectly circular and not too thin. should be a quarter inch thick
- fill the insides however u want (recommend apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.)
- close it up
- make a mix of butter (abt a tblsp or two), cinnamon, and brown sugar
- drizzle it on top, slather it, etc. be generous
- drizzle brown sugar on top also
- 425 deg, 35-40 minutes
- grease the pan and stuff, the usual way. be prepared for spills
- best galette u'll have ever had
Applejack Sandwiches
There's really not a lot to this just thinly sliced apples + pepperjack cheese + sprinkling of black pepper + sandwich bread.
Make on the stovetop for best results, and use raisin bread if you can!
Candy & Snacks
Not a recipe.
I like candy corn, chocolate coins, and Little Debbie gingerbread men!
Books, Movies, Videogames, Music
Movies and TV
BBC Little Women - about 3ish hours, really really good, especially with friends/family and people you want to get closer with. It's just so lovely.
Over the Garden Wall - fun + cozy + Autumn themed! A nice October watch.
BBC Merlin - silly medieval fantasy. Everyone has 1 (one) costume. Arthur grows on you and Merlin the other way around imo.
M4's fan edit of The Hobbit - haven't watched it this season yet! This is the best book-friendly fan edit, better than Maple's. There's a GitHub page you can download it off of. Very very good, excellent hobbit-ish experience.
Books
The Children of Hurin - but also really anything by Tolkien. Really anything high fantasy actually. Idk why but it just has such strong seasonal energy, like every scene should have leaves falling down softly in the background. Maybe it's the whole ~ magic is leaving middle-earth ~ oh we're so wistful and sad ~ it's so cold and dreary in the coming days ~ vibe.
Stolen by the Wolves - Viking omegaverse. I know you either just read that and went "what's omegaverse" (in which case, move along) or went "what." (in which case, PLEASE read this oml). Really excellent worldbuilding, author is super into viking history and the Danelaw and all and you can very clearly tell, and the whole thing is set in early medieval Scotland (with omegas). Beautiful.
Videogames
Wizard101 - very nostalgic! That's all, really.
Banished - by Shining Rock Software. Lovely lovely game, super cute and cozy, amazing music. The soundtrack instantly calms me down; I only ever heard it in the happiest, calmest parts of my life, when I played with my brother.
Music
Nilusi - specifically Lettre à l'Univers, and within that album, Birthday Girl. My birthday's in the season and I had this song and this album on repeat for so long. It's extremely winter coded to me, and I think only because of that association.
The Neighbourhood - for obvious reasons.
Wardruna - perfect to listen to in the background while reading Stolen by the Wolves. Just saying.
Activities + Misc.
Cuddles, obviously. Tis the season.
But also candles! Candles in dark rooms when you're in bed, or on the sink when you're in the shower. Nutmeg candles and fir candles and etc. Love love candles.
On the same topic of cuddles and mood-setting: soft things! Anything faux fur especially, and also really nice big cold comforters and lots of stuffies.
Presents also, though less-so. Also just the color palette of saturated red, green, and white. Also the sweater-leggings-boots combo, because I've been wearing it out more and I'm really liking it. More on that in a future post.
Ok that's all, that's snuggle season!