Crystal meth homemade shake and bake recipe

i thought it would be beneficial to start a thread of everyone's favorite foods to eat when they're having a bad flare-up.
here are mine:
-protein shakes. i've been enjoying the owyn vanilla meal replacement shakes lately. they're fortified with a variety of vitamins & minerals and they're higher in calories. they're also vegan.
-juice. this one is often demonized but i spoke to my dietitian and she said liquid calories (even juice) are a great option when eating & digesting food makes you tired. you can also mix in a protein or fiber supplement. homemade smoothies are better for sure but making a smoothie and cleaning the blender is not practical for me during PEM.
-canned chili or refried beans with cheese & tortilla chips or rice. sometimes it's really hard to get in enough fiber! this is one of my favorite high fiber meals.
-amy's frozen meals. the 3 cheese and kale bake is sooo good and gluten-free without tasting like it.
-greek yogurt or soy yogurt with microwaved frozen berries & nut butter.
-snack plates. i try to make sure it has carbs, protein, healthy fat, fiber, and vitamins. example: whole grain crackers, hummus, grapes, salami, and cheese.
-if there's nothing good to eat in the house and i can't be bothered to think about groceries, i'll doordash something. usually i'll either get a burrito, a gyro bowl from nick the greek, taco bell, or pizza.
i would love to know what you guys like to eat when you're exhausted.

Hello,
I am following sallys baking addiction artesian bread recipe. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-artisan-bread/
Making a boule which I have made before, but I'm using bread flour now. I left it in the fridge overnight (as a boule) and now when I take it out. It is not bread shaped anymore - so I punched and reshaped.
How long do you typically let your bread 'rest' on the counter before baking in the oven when this happens? A lot of snippets online are saying just bake it straight out of the fridge - but it wasn't possible to do that. I did somewhat try to do that last time and the bread was too dense.
Thanks

A newcomer to the strange town of Maelstrom finds himself embroiled in a strange festival dedicated to their Great Eel God
“Maelstrom! Everyone off for Maelstrom!” The lethargic voice of the bus driver rang out.
I felt a dozen seated eyes on me as I awkwardly stood up, mumbling apologies as I shuffled past the unhappy-looking man beside me and onto the aisle. I couldn’t help but notice the bus driver’s stare on me as I clambered down the steps off the rickety old bus. Nobody else had alighted with me.
“Hey, sir!” He called out. I gulped. Did he notice…?
“You sure you’re alighting here? Augusta’s two stops down.” He continued.
“I’m alighting here, that’s right.” I said, a small sense of relief washing through me. His eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something else, but apparently decided otherwise and bit his lip.
“You’re letting the bugs in!” An annoyed voice shouted from within the bus.
“Alright, suit yourself.” The driver gave me a slow shake of the head before closing the doors. The bus drove on down the lonely road, spluttering black exhaust as it clattered onwards.
I took a deep inhale, breathing in the salty scent of the sea. It had been a long time since I was on the coast, or anywhere nice, really.
It was a short walk off the road and along the coast before I came upon it: Maelstrom. The tiny quiet fishing village stretched from the coast all the way up the side of a hill. The villagers had carved the slope up into terraces, each packed with houses, narrowing the higher up the hill they went. Each terrace had its own path, and they were connected by steep flights of stairs cut into the earth.
Something caught my eye. At the heart of the village, around halfway up the hill, construction was ongoing. It seemed like some sort of festival square, wooden beams and arches draped with unlit white lanterns. Two open-air wooden towers flanked the square reaching in height to the next terrace up, a wooden plank connecting it to that path. Banners with all colours of the rainbow were strung up between them.
My gaze then leapt from house to house, spotting a lone red one at the very top where I presumed the village chief stayed, but none of them showed any signage designating them as an inn.
 
“An inn?” The first stranger I’d gone up to asked as if it were the strangest question in the world. He was slightly taller than me, with dry matted hair and leathery sun-baked skin. “We don’t have an inn.”
“You don’t?” My eyes widened.
“Don’t get visitors around here. We don’t like tourists.” He gnashed his crooked teeth together.
“I’m not a tourist. I just want to stay here for a few days before moving further upstate.”
“Well, doesn’t change much. We don’t have an inn, a motel, or a hotel here.”
“Great…thanks anyway.”
Staring at the man as he limped off towards the coast, various possible solutions ran through my head. This wasn’t going to be fun.
 
My sore knuckles rapped against the next door down.
“Hey, sir, I’m new in town. I’m wondering if you have a room that I could rent for about three to four days.” I forced a smile for the umpteenth time.
“No tourist is going to live in my house.” The bald grumpy fisherman slammed his door in my face.
“I don’t even have enough rooms for my own family, run along.” The bearded man with a long scar across his eye shooed me away.
“Leave!” I heard the elderly lady latching at least three locks on her door.
“Sorry, no openings here.” A young woman said, only peeking her right eye at me from behind her door.
The setting Sun’s orange rays peeked through from behind the hill and cast a long shadow behind me as I went for what must have been my millionth door and tapped on it. It slowly creaked open.
“Hi sir, I’m new here. Do you have room for rent or something?” I asked. God, I was thirsty.
“Room?” A raspy deep voice emerged from the house. Elongated thin fingers about the length of my hand wrapped around the edge of the worn wooden door and pulled it open, slowly revealing the inhabitant to me.
The man was tall, at least two metres in height. He towered far above me, bending down nearly 70 degrees to avoid hitting the doorframe. I barely reached his hips, which were supported on disproportionately long and thin legs. A belt had been curled three times around his waist to hold up his baggy pants…or were they regular-sized?
“You need a room, you say?” His beady eyes surveyed me as he leaned out the doorframe, then grunted in annoyance at the sunlight reflecting off the sea. The brief glimpse of him in the light illuminated what his wrinkled, sagging oval-shaped face. Both it and his long neck were covered in black festering sores. He settled back halfway out the door.
“I think I’ve one to spare, young man.” The man said, scratching his arms. I had a sudden, very bad feeling about this situation.
“A-actually, I don’t need one.” I stammered out.
“So, you knocked on my door for fun?” He glared at me, his scratching on his arms getting faster and faster. “I think it’d be rude not to come in to take a look, wouldn’t it?”
“No, no, um…how many rooms do you have on offer?”
“One.”
“Ah, see, I’m actually renting for two people.” I said, before another thought rushed into my mind. “And we both cannot stand being in the same room with each other.”
“Hmm…well I think I could spare two rooms.” He pondered, biting on the skin of his index finger and pulling it a dozen centimetres away before letting it snap back.
“Did I say two? I meant three people total.” I nodded frantically. “Three rooms. We all hate each other.”
He stared at me.
“Welp, gotta go then.” I gave him a slight bow and power-walked away from the house as fast as I could.
Just my luck! I grumbled under my breath as I walked off. I’d chosen this town since it was so remote and unknown. Just one review on Google too (one star), saying it was weird but cheap. Everything lined up, or so I’d thought.
Now what? Addison was probably heading this way, if she hadn’t been caught already, but it would take three or four days. The thought of sleeping rough in such a strange town didn’t bode well, but if I had no choice…
I was snapped out of my thoughts when I nearly walked straight into a thick wooden pillar in the middle of the terrace path. Looking round in annoyance at this awful bit of town design, I realised I’d accidentally stumbled my way onto the festival square. Nobody seemed to be around; it was evening after all.
Rounding the pillar of the leftmost tower, I stepped onto the festival square. It was about 15 metres wide or so, with the centre having a massive rectangular platform raised slightly from the ground, stretching to the edge of the terrace facing the sea. Perhaps they’d construct some altar of sorts, I thought.
I stared into the sea, waves gently lapping at the shore. I blinked. For a moment, I thought there had been something utterly massive under the waves.
“First time seeing this?” A gentle-sounding voice came from behind me. I quicky turned round to see an attractive young man, looking to be around my age, with loose, neck-length black hair and tanned skin, dressed in a T-shirt and frayed jean shorts.
“Umm…sorry I was just taking a look.” I tried to explain.
“Yeah, don’t worry, you’re new.”
“Oh, is it that obvious?” I scratched my hair sheepishly, cheeks turning red.
“We don’t get many visitors, and people who live here don’t gawk at the festival square like that.” He said, running his hand along the wooden pillar of the towers. As if on cue, a tall woman with stringy blonde hair walked by, clasped her hands, and slightly bowed at the square, before continuing onwards without a second glance at us.
“What’s this festival about anyway?” I asked, glancing round at all the beautiful decorations in the half-finished square.
The young man stepped closer to me and pointed out to the sea, where the waters twinkled with the orange sunlight and where several boats were slowly pulling back to the small harbour.
“This town worships a god, who lives in the sea. Each year, we hold a festival, lighting this square up, and bring him to shore where we give him our devotion.”
“And he shows up?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.”
“You don’t believe me, I get it.” He giggled. “Just look there.”
I followed his finger, watching it trace an invisible line from the square all the way to the coast, across dozens of houses. At first, I didn’t quite get what he was showing me. There wasn’t a road or path for this god of theirs, it was just various houses, somewhat haphazardly built.
That’s when I noticed it. These homes. They were repaired out of seemingly whatever materials the villagers could get, unlike the ones to the edges of the village or in the terraces of the hill. They looked awful, like two halves made from different materials and by different people had been awkwardly smushed together, but only houses in a rough wide line from the coast to the square. Almost as if a very precise tornado ripped through there a year ago.
Or a god.
“Well, if that’s true,” my mind was racing for explanations, “why would they rebuild their houses in the same place? Why not leave a proper gap for your god?”
“That’d be the smart choice, I guess,” he had a small grin on his beguiling face, “but people think its auspicious if their homes get touched by the divine.”
Touched? Just how big was this god of theirs, if he were actually real?
“When is this festival?”
“In two days. We’ve never actually had a newcomer arrive this close to the festival. Will you be staying?”
That stomped my current conundrum firmly back into my conscious thoughts and all I could do was sigh. “Well, I want to, but this place doesn’t actually have an inn, and people don’t want me to rent out a room.”
A twinkle seemed to appear in his brown eyes.
“You’re not going to believe this.”
 
“Hmm…”
I sat straight as a needle and sweated buckets as the short, middle-aged woman with dark eye circles and braided hair circled me, looking me meticulously up and down by the light of a candle.
At the other side of the small wooden dining table sat the young man, who I now knew as Erik, giving me an embarrassed smile, frequently averting his eyes.
“Mom, come on, isn’t that enough? Nick's fine.” He shook his legs anxiously.
“Hmm…he seems nice enough, not like a troublemaker.” She said in a wiry voice. Erik covered one side of his face in sheer awkwardness.
“Plus, he’s not bad in height.” She continued.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, throwing in a half-hearted laugh to avoid sounding rude.
“We like tall people around here. The taller, the better. It symbolises closeness with our deity.” Erik explained. The image of that grotesquely tall man staring at me in the doorframe crept back into my brain.
“We’ll let you take that room then.” Erik’s mother pointed to the closest of a set of three doors. “Rent will be $30 a day, and you will have to pay for what you eat here at the end of your stay.”
“Thank you so much!” I leapt up and shook her hand, feeling the weight of one solved problem being relieved, and at a price I could afford too! I’d been saving so much on my money that I’d even actually not gotten a real ticket for that bus ride. That would be solved once Addison makes it here. If she could without getting caught. Right away, I handed over the $30 in cash.
“Hope you like seafood.” Erik was positively beaming, an alluring smile from ear to ear.
“Don’t worry, I love seafood.” I said, sitting back down at the table again.
“Speaking of seafood, those useless fishermen caught less than half their usual haul today.” She said, bringing a plate of steamed fish to the table, the aroma making my famished stomach grumble.
“Mom, it’s just that they caught so many eels this time.” Erik said, clearly salivating at the food too.
“Eels are nice.” I said, causing both to look at me. “I’ve a friend, Kana, who’s really into researching them.”
“Research?” Erik’s mother raised an eyebrow.
“You know, studying them in jars, cutting them up after death, that kind of stuff.” I’d just finished the sentence, but it was like someone had taken a knife to the mood. Both the others at the dinner table now stared at their food, disdain slowly rising in Erik’s mother’s face.
“Um, Nick,” Erik cleared his throat, “eels are kinda sacred here in Maelstrom.”
I felt a deep sinking feeling in my gut.
“Sorry, really sorry, I didn’t know.” I said, looking over to Erik.
“Newcomers are always like this, right?” He gave his mom a light laugh in an attempt to defuse the situation.
“Don’t say it again.” She stared straight through my soul.
“Never will.”
 
The room they gave me was alright apart from all the junk that looked like it had been dumped in the corner and chopped apart with an axe.
“And that is?” I pointed at it, small candle in hand.
“Ah well,” Erik sat down on the bed, bouncing on the mattress a little, “this was my uncle’s room. But he did something we didn’t like.”
“We as in you and your mom?”
“We as in Maelstrom.” Erik looked down at his feet. “Look, there are some lines you don’t cross if you were born here, and he did.”
“And he’s…gone?”
“He left the village. Mom gave him three days to come back, and when he didn’t, she destroyed everything that he owned and has been looking for someone to live in this room for a while. To get rid of the scent, according to her.”
“Why not burn it, instead of just leaving it lying in a corner?”
“We’re not really allowed to start a fire so close to Storålens natt, even during the day. Inauspicious thing.”
“Sto-what?”
“The festival.” He let out a giggle. “Like I said earlier, we light up the square at night and bring our god in once a year. Every other night, Maelstrom is darkness incarnate.”
I peered out of the window, and he was right. The only light source was the dim glow from the candle in my hand. Everything outside the wooden windows had been swallowed up by the pitch-black night. I could hear footsteps in the dirt and some light chatter from nearby, but unease crept into me at not being able to actually lay eyes on those producing the sounds.
“That’s…creepy.”
“You get used to it. You can start unpacking now, I guess.” Erik motioned towards my bag.
“I don’t have much.” I chuckled softly, unslinging the backpack from my shoulders, placing it on the floor, and pulling my camera from it.
“Is that…?” His eyes widened.
“A digital camera, yeah. Smile.” I raised it to my eyes and aimed it at him. He let out a childish squeak and waved his outstretched hands to block his face.
“Don’t worry, I’m just joking.” I laughed again, lowering the camera and moving to replace it in my bag.
“Are you any good at photo taking?”
“Sure, I’m decent.”
“Hmm, I suppose it would be a waste to not take a picture.”
“So, you do want it, Erik?”
“Alright, Nick, you can take your photo. And you can delete it if it’s not good either.” He hurriedly threw the second sentence in.
“Smile.” I brought the camera up. Erik scrambled to a better position on the bed, crossing his left leg over the other and giving a slight smile. I clicked the button and enveloped him in a bright flash which made him flinch in surprise.
“Careful, don’t aim that out of the window.” He warned, before pushing that concern aside and practically bounding across the room to me. “How does it look? Not too bad, I hope.”
I flicked it over to gallery, staring at the captured image: his twinkling brown eyes, his smooth hair, and semi-confident look. “I think you look great.”
“That’s quite good. Uncle never took photos like this with his camera.” He rubbed his hands together in excitement.
“Did it get smashed to pieces?”
“He took it when he left.” He said with a wistful tone that clearly divulged some sort of longing for that man. “Do you have anything else fancy?”
“Just my extra clothes mostly.” I gave him an apologetic smile.
“You’re not traveling with much. Where are you going after these three days?”
“Upstate probably. Just waiting right now for a girl, Addison.”
“A…girlfriend?” He looked away at the floor.
“Nah, just a good friend. A partner of sorts.” I just hoped she’d avoided trouble so far.
“And you’ll be settling down somewhere in northern Maine then.”
“I suppose, yeah. You?”
“We’re not really allowed to leave. That’s part of why my mom was so mad about my uncle.” He sighed, anxiously fiddling with his fingers. “When we reach adulthood, all of us swear an oath for a lifetime of devotion to our god.”
Both of us fell silent for quite a few seconds before he awkwardly got up and cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you to it then. Goodnight, Nick.”
“Goodnight, Erik.”
 
They say the first night in an unfamiliar place is always sleepless. I’d managed to sleep in all sorts of places just fine since I left home seven years ago. But now here I was, staring into the ceiling, engulfed in total darkness now that I’d snuffed the candle out. Something about Maelstrom was off. It wasn’t just the weird customs or religion. The whole village felt wrong.
As I tossed and turned in the bed too short for my stature, strange sounds began to creep through the closed windows. I strained my ears, trying to make it out.
That was…hammering? Sawing? Soft chatter. Dragging wood and metal. Slowly, I got to my feet and crept to the window, pulling them open. The noises got louder. It was definitely construction, and it seemed to be coming from the direction of the festival square. Of course, as much as I squinted, I failed to pierce the veil of night that hid them. Why were they doing building up the festival stuff without any light? It seemed like a safety hazard.
Should I…take a photo with flash?
No, no, awful idea. Erik already warned me about the rules. Physically shaking my head as if to get that dumb thought out of it, I closed the wooden windows again and settled back in bed, the sounds of them building the festival square forming a monotonous background noise.
I’d just began to drift into sleep when I heard a different, louder sound. Boots crunching in the rocks and dirt, getting closer and closer. My mind shot awake immediately, but I stayed lying under the blanket. Just someone passing by with materials, probably.
The footsteps got closer and closer until they got to outside my window. Then they stopped.
I sat up quietly.
Sniffing sounds came from outside. I heard the wooden windows slowly open with a creak.
As silently as I could, I reached into my bag, taking extra care until I felt the metal blade of my knife and the remnants of dried blood on it. Tracing my finger along until it touched the handle, I grabbed the weapon and pulled it out, crouching low to the ground and very slowly creeping until I was beside the window, which had just hit the angular limit of its opening.
Then nothing.
They were waiting, I was sure of it. Waiting for me or waiting for something. I couldn’t see a damn thing, so I only had my ears. It was quiet except for the distant construction and the loud thudding of my heart, pounding at my ribcage. My hands were so sweaty I was sure I was going to drop the knife and alert whoever it was.
I could smell something vaguely fishy. As in actual fish. What the hell was happening? Should I go back to the bedside and light the candle?
Something big touched me on the front of the chest. Barely able to restrain a yelp, I hacked the knife down as hard as I could, cutting through it. Something heavy thudded to the floor and a deep howl of pain came from outside the window. Footsteps quickly retreated away from my window towards the festival square.
One hand still clutched on the knife handle in a death grip, I backed away until I felt my legs hit the bed. My left hand swept across the bedside until I grabbed the lighter, flicking it on and reigniting the candle.
I pushed the windows closed with my foot to make sure no light escaped and crouched down to the floor, searching for whatever I’d chopped off. My heart nearly stopped when I saw red blood staining the wooden floor. Following the trail, I spotted my target.
Still squirming on the floor was a severed human finger, at least fifteen centimetres long.
 
All the colour drained out of Erik’s face when I showed him the bloody mess the next morning.
We went out for a walk at dawn at his insistence, and I watched as he quickly tossed the finger into a small pond nearby, where the fish began to devour it ravenously.
“Don’t talk about it.” He told me grimly, and I could do nothing but nod. After a quick breakfast, Erik led me down the hill and into the more coastal section of Maelstrom. We navigated through streets filled with junk, where stray cats hissed at us and tired-looking villagers shot us glances as they went about the chores. Up close, these hastily rebuilt houses looked even worse. Walls barely held up corrugated metal roofs and gaping holes led water into them.
Finally, we arrived at the vacant remnants of a house that evidently never got reconstructed. Most of the items in the house had been cleared, as had much of the debris, leaving several piles of junk and the occasional weathered piece of furniture, where two others sat, a young man and young woman with dark tanned skin.
“Who’s the tagalong?” The woman asked, giving us friendly waves.
“This is Nick, he showed up in Maelstrom yesterday. Nick, my friends Jonas and Sigrid.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“We haven’t had a newcomer come this close to Storålens natt before.” Jonas mused.
“How exciting.” Sigrid said with a level of sarcasm I didn’t know was possible. “You looking to get eaten too?”
“Eaten?!” I exclaimed in alarm. “What do you mean?”
Both of them looked over at Erik.
“What?” He shrugged sheepishly. “There wasn’t a good time to explain yesterday.”
“You’re saying this festival involves people getting eaten? I thought your god just came ashore, crushed a few buildings, and got worshipped.”
“See this house we’re sitting in?” Sigrid said.
“Not really much of a house.” I pointed out.
“Exactly. The Larsen family used to live here. Two elderly parents and an unmarried son. The two old folks got eaten a couple of festivals ago, and their son finally went with them last year. Nobody was left to rebuild this place, so the village chief just collected their stuff and distributed it.”
“You need to explain what the hell happens.”
“Our god, a great eel, comes out onto land on Storålens natt every year.” Erik said, a deep frown on his suddenly crestfallen face. “Part of the festival…the most important part…devotees feed themselves to him.”
I gulped reflexively.
“They stuff him as much as possible, and he vomits out most of them before he leaves. Those ‘lucky’ ones are consumed, and we believe he takes them to his underwater kingdom to live for eternity. The Larsens got lucky, as they say.”
Words failed me in the moment. I looked back and forth at all three of them. Jonas gave me a sympathetic shrug.
“And those that get thrown up?” I finally said after what felt like an eternity of silence.
“They get blessed by the Great Eel God, physically.” Sigrid said.
My mind, overwhelmed by racing thoughts, snapped on a crystal-clear image. “You mean they get really tall and thin.”
“That’s one of them.” She nodded.
“Erik,” Jonas said hesitantly, “is your mother still insisting on feeding the Great Eel God tomorrow?”
He looked away. Both Jonas and Sigrid gave him empathetic looks.
“But don’t you all think that’s good? I mean, in your religion?” I asked.
“We’re supposed to.” Sigrid sighed. “But once you’ve actually…lost people or seen them change, it doesn’t feel good.”
“All the proper adults, our parents, the chief, everyone. They say it’s the nature of youth to have shaky faith in the Great Eel.” Jonas threw his hands up. “As if we don’t know anything.”
“Hate the chief.” Sigrid growled. “Spineless prick. When my grandma got eaten, he scolded me when I was sad. Said I was selfish.”
“We just have to go with it. Not like we can leave anyway.” Jonas continued.
“Why not?”
“I already told you last night. We’re not allowed to.” Erik said.
“Are there guards preventing you from leaving?”
“Um…no?”
“Then why can’t you leave?” The three of them stared at me incredulously.
“We can’t just leave our parents, you dick.” Jonas’ face reddened.
“It’s Nick. And I ran from my home when I was just 13. Sometimes, if there’s a situation where you just have to get out, you get out, even if it hurts. You have to let go.”
They all glanced at each other, except Erik, who stared at the ruined ground and refused to look over.
“And has your life been good since you ran away?” Sigrid asked.
I took a sharp inhale. “Well, no, it’s been pretty awful to be honest, but it was better than staying with my mom and dad. I’m just saying, really think about it.”
We stayed talking for a while, them prodding me for life details and me prodding them on this festival, but nothing substantial came from it. Sigrid and Jonas showed me around the coast, and before I knew it, the Sun was setting again. We bid goodbye to the two and Erik led me back up the hill through the steep terrace staircases and back to his home.
As we reached the terrace where his home was located, our path was blocked by two figures. I recognised the first man immediately. Looming menacingly before us was the same tall, thin man that I had rejected the room rent offer from, his saggy face with disgusting black sores moving closer to me.
“Village chief!” Erik greeted immediately, standing up straight.
“He’s the village chief?” My disbelief that my luck could be that bad rising.
“Is there a problem?” The village chief rubbed his ten spindly fingers together.
“Oh, no, chief. I’d just assumed that the village chief would be staying at that lone house up there.” I pointed to the highest house on the hill, roof glinting with sunlight.
“That’s just where Old Henriksen stays. Just a weirdo who never shows up.” Erik explained. A weirdo even by Maelstrom’s standards? That I had to see.
“Through my tenure as chief and my predecessors before me, it was deemed untenable to move Old Henriksen from his rightful home. But enough about that. I see you have decided to stay, newcomer.” He said.
“Yes, with Erik here.”
His lips curled open, but not into a smile, instead showing his rotting pointed teeth.
“I recall you saying you had two companions with you who required separate rooms. Yet young Erik here only has one room to spare, that of his rotten uncle.” His breath was pungent like rotting fish and meat.
“They decided they hated this place and left for Augusta.” I stood as strong as I could, barely hiding the sheer panic telling me to run for the next town.
“Very well. You are welcome in Maelstrom, even to observe Storålens natt, but we will not allow you to participate.”
“I understand.” Not like I wanted to get eaten by this supposed eel god anyway.
“And you will not take any photographs or videos to share with the outside world. This is our most sacred ceremony…I hope you understand for your own good.” He slapped me on the shoulder with his hand, fingers wrapping halfway down my spine.
“Of course.” I said, stepping back to dislodge the physical contact. “We will be hosting it here tomorrow night.” He gestured at the festival square one terrace step down. Work had been done on it since yesterday. A wooden roof structure with angular bent pillars covered the rectangular platform, now covered with a glittering piece of purple velvety cloth. The decorations of unlit lanterns and banners was far more complex, criss-crossing over and hanging from every available height.
“One more thing, don’t forget not to use any bright lights at night, or there will be consequences.” The chief said, breaking into a smile. “At last, after having been so devoted for so long, I will finally get my chance to join our god down in his eternal abyssal domain.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Erik asked, surprised.
“Yes, Edvard here will be taking over.”
The man behind him, even taller and thinner with crumpled scratchy skin, nodded in a way that was somehow threatening. He scratched furiously at his face, where the skin was clearly peeling off and red raw.
“You better listen, newcomer.” His voice was thin and croaky.
His hand. Where his index finger should be was instead bandaged and stained with dried red blood.
“Lost your finger recently?” I stared at him. He returned the gaze with his beady dark eyes.
“Fishing accident.”
 
The exquisite taste of the salmon was almost enough to make me cry.
Erik’s mother looked at me amused as I scarfed down the food as soon as it touched my plate.
“See, son? My cooking is as good as it still is.” She boasted with the proudest grin on her face.
Erik stared sullenly into his own plate of food, taking the smallest nibbles once in a while. As dinner went on, his mother talked constantly to both of us, but he never replied to her once.
“What are you so angry about?” She finally asked. “Is it about Storålens natt?”
He didn’t speak.
“Erik, I’ve been waiting for this chance for a long time. I know your faith is shaky.”
Silence.
“Your father got lucky that day, you know?”
“He did. But we didn’t.” Erik mumbled just loudly enough for us to hear.
“Stop talking nonsense, Erik.”
“He got to go to his eternal underwater kingdom. We had to live life without him.”
“You should be happy for him.”
“I am. I’m just not happy for us.”
“I know you miss him, Erik. I miss him too.”
“Then why did you let him go?” He was shouting. “Why did you let the Great Eel God consume him?”
“It’s what he wanted.”
Erik silently shook his head, staring down at the table. “He was being selfish, letting us go.”
“Erik, what are you talking about?” His mother snapped at him.
“How much of our money did you have to spend on this?” He jabbed a fork at the salmon.
“Having a guest over is a special occasion.” His mother awkwardly glanced at me.
“Uncle Jakob had to get two jobs to help earn us enough money. He saw Storålens natt for what it was. That’s why he ran away.”
“That idiot abandoned us!” She slammed a palm on the wooden table. “He left us to have to fend for ourselves.”
“Isn’t that what dad did too?”
The sheer boiling rage displayed across her face made me want to cower under the furniture. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him with little resistance to her room and slammed the door shut. I heard loud cursing and the sound of palms colliding onto flesh. My appetite suddenly gone, I hurriedly retreated into my room.
About half an hour later, I heard the door open and slow footsteps shuffle into Erik’s bedroom. I heard him crash onto his bed and softly sob for a long while. Part of me urged me to go over to talk to him, comfort him, but when I stood up, nothing but a huge wave of anxiety and fear washed over me.
Giving up on that thought, I sat back down on the bed and took my camera out in the dim candlelight. Clicking into the gallery immediately took me to the pleasant photo of Erik last night.
Could I? Should I?
Two sides of my mind were in fierce debate. I’d enough run-ins with the law not to risk it. Not to mention the village chief had warned me of ‘consequences’.
But listening to the quiet weeping next door, I had to. I was going to capture evidence of this accursed festival tomorrow and get some sort of law enforcement intervention.
 
Read PART TWO here.

Silicone molds have gained popularity in kitchens worldwide, but a common question persists: Can silicone molds go in the oven? The short answer is yes, they can. Silicone molds are designed to be heat-resistant and safe for use in both conventional and microwave ovens. Here's a closer look at why silicone molds are a great addition to your baking arsenal.
Heat Resistance and Safety
Silicone molds are made from food-grade silicone, which can withstand temperatures ranging from -40°F to 450°F (-40°C to 232°C). This makes them ideal for a variety of baking tasks, from freezing to high-temperature baking. Unlike traditional metal bakeware, silicone molds are flexible, non-stick, and easy to clean. They can be safely used in the oven without the risk of melting, warping, or releasing harmful chemicals.
Advantages of Silicone Molds

1. Non-Stick Surface: Silicone molds offer a naturally non-stick surface, reducing the need for additional greasing. This makes it easier to release baked goods without them sticking to the mold.
2. Flexibility: The flexibility of silicone molds allows for easy removal of baked goods. You can bend and twist the mold without damaging the baked item, ensuring perfect shapes every time.
3. Even Heat Distribution: Silicone molds distribute heat evenly, helping to prevent overcooking or undercooking in certain areas. This results in more consistent baking outcomes.
4. Versatility: Beyond baking, silicone molds are perfect for making chocolates, ice cubes, gelatin, and more. Their wide temperature tolerance makes them incredibly versatile.

Using Silicone Molds in the Oven
To use silicone molds in the oven, simply place the mold on a baking sheet for stability, especially if the mold is thin or contains intricate designs. Fill the mold with your batter or mixture, and bake as directed in your recipe. Once baking is complete, allow the mold to cool before attempting to remove your baked goods.
Conclusion
Silicone molds are a fantastic addition to any kitchen, offering convenience, versatility, and reliable performance. Whether you're baking cupcakes, making chocolate treats, or freezing homemade popsicles, silicone molds are up to the task. For high-quality silicone molds, consider PJ Bold, a trusted brand known for its durable and user-friendly bakeware. Happy baking!

[from the wiki]:

The botanist's amulet and factory outfit's three-piece bonus do not affect overloads
The scroll of cleansing and other ingredient-saving bonuses have no effect

• [The Factory outfit] gives 12.5% chance of creating 4-dose potions instead of 3-dose. This effect works with most tradeable potions, including juju potions, overloads, and extreme potions.
• [The scroll of cleansing] gives a 10% chance to save "a secondary ingredient", recurring This is 11.1% of any secondary ingredients saved.
  • The first ingredient of a potion's recipe cannot be saved. This is usually the vial of water, crystal flask, or base potion, but in some cases, this leads to unintuitive results, such as when a potion does not require a vial or flask. For instance, when making overloads, extreme attacks cannot be saved. However, when making supreme overload salves, supreme overloads can be saved.
  • This means that, over the long term, you can make 10 potions for every 9 ingredients you have—an 11.1% savings in materials

• the factory outfit has a 1/8 chance of making 133% overload, an effective increase of 16.62% more overloads.
  
• the scroll of cleansing at supreme overload options works on all the non-crystal flask ingredients, ignoring the super potions, you're getting 11.1% more overloads & the secondary potions are 11.1% cheaper (saving 8,835.05 gp per overload)
  
• the scroll of cleansing at elder overloads works on fellstalk and primal extract (484.65 gp per overload)
  

Each overload made manually and not using the pre-mixed shakes from Botanist Workbench (T3) means you're Getting 29.56% more overloads and making each overload 9319 gp cheaper)
with the wiki page on supreme overload, each overload as calculated on its item page is worth 70,449 gp. 29.56% more overloads mean that the price of 70,449 GP for 1.2956 items comes out to 22.82% cheaper OR 57,359.55 gp for each overload or another saving of 22098.44gp.
Every time you use the T3 workshop to pre-mix overloads, you're losing 31,408 gp on bonus overloads you did not get
the true "issue" with making overloads is the time-sink in obtaining all the tiny materials you require to get your end product, not the actual production step.

Looks like there will be a food truck rally on the 7th in West Chester. Looking at the list, which ones would you recommend?
Adena's Beefstroll Chicago Style/ American Cuisine
AJ's Cheesesteaks, Wings & Waffle Fries American/ Cheesesteaks
A Lil' Taste of Soul (GF, V, VE) American Soul
All Good Stuff (GF) Homestyle Cooking/Family Recipes
Baby Cakes Mini Pancakes (GF, V) Desserts
Big Dogs Pizza Pizza by the slice, cheesy bread and pretzel sticks
Boom Box Sliders (V) American Burgers/Chicken Sliders
Brent's Smokin Butts & Grill (GF) BBQ and Grilled Food
Cheese N Chong Food Truck (GF, V) Gourmet Grilled Cheese
Chicago Gyrose & Dogs (V) Chicago Street Food
Chicken Mac Truck (GF) American
City Belle Fried Pies (V) Fried pies/Savory and Sweet
Davis Cookie Collection Cookies
Dine-In Hawaiian (GF) Hawaiian/Asian
Dojo Gelato (GF) Italian Style Ice Creams and Gelato
Don Tacos Mexican Foodtruck (GF) Mexican Authentic Food
El Cardenal Taqueria (GF, V,VE) Mexican
Eliza Jane's BakeSbop Dessert
Funnel Vision (V) Dessert
Graeter's Ice Cream (GF,V, VE) Ice Cream
Kona Ice (GF) Tropical Shaved Ice
Mama Afrique Nigerian Cuisine (GF, V VE) Nigerian Food
Pretzelfuls llc (GF, V, VE) Stuffed Pretzels and Sides
Quad Que BBQ (GF) BBQ
Red Sesame (VE) Korean/Mexican
Roll On In (GF, V, VE) Asian/Latin
Schmidt's Sausage Truck (GF) German Food
S.E.A. Cuisine (V) South East Asian Food
Sugar Dessert
Sweet Maize Kettle Corn (GF, VE) Kettle Corn
Sweets & Meats BBQ (GF, V) Smoked Meats & Homemade sides (BBQ)
The Bangin' Grill Smoked BBQ Meats Sides Desserts
The Barking Burger Co (GF, V, VE) American
The Cheesecakery Gourmet Cheesecake Cupcakes
The German Corner (V) German
The Lemonade Guy Lemonade
The Naughty Lobstah Seafood/Chicken
Topped Fries (GF,V) American
Turkeys R Us (GF, VE) Turkey, Vegetarian, Fish and BBQ
Triple Js BBQ (GF, V) American/Soul Food/BBQ
Twisted Greek (V) Greek
Victory Lane Pizza (V) Pizza

So today, I attempted to bake homemade bagels. I prepared all the ingredients and used a recipe I found on Google that had 4.9 stars. It was supposed to be an easy at home recipe. I followed the recipe, step-by-step and everything was going fairly smooth. Until, I had to shape the dough which was so sticky that I could barely pull it apart. I’m not sure what happened. To anyone who bakes bread, how do I prevent the dough from being so sticky that it sticks to anything and everything. I baked them as blobs and they only came out half cooked. I know this is my first attempt but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm on my last brain cell. I'm sure I should be able to Google this, but I've tried and I'm too user-error to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I just need a veggie-and-bechamel pasta bake recipe WITHOUT tomatoes. My parents are lacto-ovo-pescatarian and low potassium, and I've been feeding a meat-and-potatoes man for so long that my algorithm won't give me a plain cheese-and-vegetable pasta bake.
I prefer to cook from scratch ingredients-- milk, butter, flour, stock and I have homemade pesto. And to include plenty of veg, aside from tomato, onion and potato due to dietary constrictions. I'm very comfortable modifying recipes.
I'm drowned at work to the point of multiple teary breakdowns and I don't have any close friends to lean on. Please, Reddit friends, could you recommend a recipe?

OOOH. I was SO excited for these! I got an 8 pack sampler set (which they have a REALLY cool system where you can pretty much get as many samples as you like, and aren't limited to a 5 pack). They came in while I was away on a trip, so thankfully I got to skip a week waiting period and get to them after they had settled a bit, to try them out. Great TAT from this house (got them in within a week or two) AND you got to pick which Freebie you wanted, which was so awesome!
My review of this scent house so far: 4/5. It would honestly be a 5/5, but for that they have such a short wear period on my skin. Pretty much every 2 hours, I'd have to reapply :/ But, pretty much every single scent was really great and accurate to their scent descriptions, and I'll probably still FS buy a few!
Just make sure to slightly mix these guys up by turning them up and down a couple times (not so fast that you create air bubbles), to make sure the scent is fully mixed. You'll read in my notes, some of my first impressions when I Didn't do that. Don't make my mistake lol
My Rating System:
1/5: In my opinion this scent just smells really bad. I am not interested in the least. It is NOT my cup of tea and I would actively run away if I smelled it on someone else
2/5: Eh, it smells more like a scent for a cleaner or laundry detergent or maybe just a room scent. Not a perfume/cologne for me
3/5: Not my cup of tea, but It's well balanced and I could see someone else wearing it! Just not me lol
4/5: Almost perfect, just missing a scent note or two, or doesn't last very long, or dries down powdery/weirdly
5/5: I love this scent and will definitely be wearing it, if not FS-ing it!
______________________________________________
Cottagecore No. 1:
Official scent description: It is a warm and inviting blend of blueberry cobbler, wood burning stove, and spice cabinet. It starts off sweet with a buttery rich crust and fresh picked blueberry cobbler. A whisp of spices cut through to break up the sugars. There's a background of smoke, musk and burning wood that lingers in the background but really comes to life on the dry down. The sweetness fades to meet merrily in a dance of oud wood, smoke, spice and cobbler. Feels like a cottage in the woods on a warm summer day after picking berries all morning. A fresh cobbler in the wood burning and comfort in your soul. A gender neutral scent that anyone can enjoy.
Top- buttery crust, cinnamon, incense
Middle- blueberry, brown sugar, wood smoke
Bottom- vanilla bean, oud, musk, amber
My review: Straight out the bottle, it is pure blueberry cobbler, but as it dries, it gets weirdly perfume-y? Very quickly, too. You still get the hints of blueberry, but this powdery note kinda overtakes it all.
After a little bit the powder dies down and do you get more of the buttery crust blueberry cobbler, but this one may not be my cup of tea, sadly :/
2/5
**after about 10 minutes the blueberry pops back up to a mix of spices and blueberries that I actually like! 3 or 4/5. I do wish it had a bit more blueberry throw AND didn't have that weird powdery burst at the first dry down. A very fruity comforting fall scent, I think. Yeah, I really like it for a fruity fall scent**
**UPDATE*\*
I had to try this one a second time after that initial review. Just to try it after shaking it lightly, just a bit, to mix.
Wet I absolutely love this scent. It's giving start of fall and you're making blueberry pie or cobbler and it's spiced with fall spices and you even scraped out some authentic vanilla beans for the recipe and I actually don't get that weird strong powdery note at all! So, definitely make sure to turn samples from this house a time or two, to make sure everything is mixed, but not so much that there are air bubbles. After about 30 or so minutes it dries down to autumn cooking spices, mainly, with mainly a hint of a fruity scent. Still lovely though!
4.5 /5 it would be 5, but pretty much all the scents from this house go poof very quickly on me. All trace of it leaves my skin by 2.5/3 hours
______________________________________________
MIDNIGHT CIRCUS
This one was my freebie. My brother and I are putting on a type of Dark Karnival -esque camping event this fall and I really wanted to get a scent to wear there lol
Official scent description: a dark yet lively experience of caramel popcorn, fire, lacquer floorboards and whimsy
Top- hickory, honey, incense, cinnamon
Middle- smoke, amyris, caramel, salt, praline, spice
Bottom- cedarwood, moss, oud, olibanum, amber, musk, leather, popcorn, butter, vanilla
My review: This smells exactly like you're walking around a fall carnival with a big bonfire going on in the middle. Essentially it smells like your favorite fall candle scent, but just a bit more complex with the wiffs of campfire smoke and cedarwood in there. Even though it's the end of May, I sniff it on my wrist and think it's gonna be chilly outside. That feeling you get when the seasons are changing.
Strongest notes on me: wood smoke (though I wish I got more hickory to it), spices (cinnamon mainly), carameled buttery popcorn, vanilla and maybe the honey, maybe praline? It all blends very nicely into a great, if slightly generic, fall scent
Notes I don't get at all: leather, moss, oud. Those are the notes that would probably make this perfectly complex, but I just don't get them out of it. It's pure fall gourmand. I'll probably layer this over a scent that has those notes and need sweetening
Enough of a throw that I get a wiff going about my day
last drydown: dries down to autumn spices, essentially. Reminds me of walking in Gatlinburg in the fall, through all the little shops nestled in the mountain amongst the autumn trees. Completely gone within 3 hours though
4/5
______________________________________________
BLACK HONEY
Official Description: Black Honey is a sultry blend of Spiced Honey, black amber, cedarwood, tonka, and tobacco leaf.
My Review:
I like it! I just don't LOVE it :/
The spiced honey notes in this, wet straight on my skin, are my favorite parts, though there is a weird 'Clean' note behind it as an undertone. Maybe it's the black Amber or the tonka. I've been running down a dead note for myself and one of those might be the one. The strong Clean note blends back down into the other notes, after a bit, though. But, going back to it after about 30 minutes, it does still smell very 'clean' smelling. Like, I showered with a dark spiced honey shower soap.
Sadly, I think honey may just be a note so good note for me. So far, it always goes soapy/clean on me :/ I'm hoping it's not just the Honey note in particular, and more just an underlying note or two that generally gets paired with Honey. Otherwise, honey may be a dead note for me :/
Long drydown: it smells like I just stepped into a specialty soap shop. The ones where they sell soaps, beeswax, and honey. And by afternoon my skin just smelled lightly sweet from it. Not my favorite for most days, but maybe on occasion, or to layer in a honey note to my darker more witchy scents
3.5/5 *sigh* I really just want a dark spicy Gourmand honey. Can anyone give me any suggestions for that?? a Honey scent that DOESN'T dry down clean and powdery??
______________________________________________
Haunted Library
Official description: This scent will transport you to an old Victorian library. With ceiling high wooden book shelves, Creaky floorboards, leather bound books covered in a blanket of dust, fragile yellowing pages, and musty tufted chairs. Wafting through it all is the scent of sweet tobacco- the scent of the spirit that haunts these walls.
Top- Teakwood, tonka
Middle- cedar, leather, sweet tobacco, molasses
Bottom- sandalwood, Patchouli, mahogany, dark musk
My Review: a VERY light scent. Wow. Make sure you turn up and down a bit to really make sure the scent is fully blended, cause I could Barely smell it out of the bottle. It's a bit Cleaner than what I think a haunted library would really smell like. But, maybe like a lady ghosts' personal library? Overlooking the sea maybe? It weirdly gives off Cape Cod/Northeast coast/maine vibes to me. Like a Ladies Library in a Newport mansion.
I'm generally more of a sweet fruity over complex herbally scent person, or really cool gourmand scents, but I actually really like this scent! I have no clue in what instance I'd wear it, but I really do like it. I'll probably use it to give a tea or vanilla scent more complexity, or after wearing them, maybe even layering it with Stains of scarlet (down below). I don't get too much of the individual notes, but they all blend Very nicely for a femme leaning unisex scent!
As it dried the dust notes got sharper and the molasses got brought out more. First out the bottle, the wood and pachouli notes are a bit stronger. I still don't really get any leather though. My kingdom for a good strong leather scent! Lol. This is like a dainty haunted library, haunted by one of the Bridgerton ladies lol. Sweet, slightly dusty and papery, with a light hint of nostalgia and faded sweet perfume….Oh my goodness, this is Eloise's scent lol, to a T
4/5 only really because it's not really my vibe and this scent house goes poof too fast on me. All the scents from this house poof in about 2.5/3 hours
______________________________________________
White Magic
Official description: White magic is an herbaceous blend of sage, lavender, incense and eucalyptus. The sage, lavender and eucalyptus are balanced equally where the incense is more of a background player here. This blend feels clean and comfortable and wears beautifully. Sage can be an off-putting smell to some put it is added subtly to not shine over the lavender. It rings to me, as a comforting freshness that I can't get enough of. This is a gender neutral scent.
Top- lavender, bergamot, pine needles, eucalyptus
Middle- chamomile, sage, camphor, rosemary, pepper
Bottom- Cedar, Sandalwood, incense, Orris root, amber
My thoughts: First out the bottle my first thought was YES!!!!!! Finally a lavender scent that doesn't smell powdery or like laundry soap! It does smell a wee bit Clean, but I think that's more the nature of any scent with these scent notes, since they're used in cleaning supplies and soaps so often. But, this scent is a Super green floral. No powdery note to my nose at all! (and I pull powder like CRAZY lol, it's been a problem for me since I hate powdery scents). This scent transports me to a spa shop full of fresh drying Eucalyptus, sage, and lavender. By the last drydown, the Eucalyptus is the strongest note
4.5 out of 5, only because this scent house goes poof too fast on me. All the scents from this house poof in about 2.5/3 hours ______________________________________________
Memento Mori
Official Description: an intriguing blend of smoked vanilla, dark spice, patchouli and black amber.
Top- smoke, clove, white pepper, blood orange Middle- sandalwood, jasmine, amber, nutmeg, black pepper, cardamom seed Bottom- black amber, vanilla, dark musk, benzoin, amyris, patchouli, cassia bark, ebonywood, dark musk
My review: Not gonna lie, this is almost chrismasy. Like a Dark Yule vibe. The dark spice in there completely reminds me of late fall/early winter spices. It's definitely going to be a fall/winter scent for me. Smokey spiced vanilla and clove. It'll be perfect to mix with an Apple scent to add more Autumn/early winter complexity! It gives walking in late fall/crisp winter when the leaves are almost all gone and you have a cinnamon chai warm in your hands walking out in the cold, vs Midnight Circus which gives off Fall carnival with smoky campfire vibes
By the end of the drydown (1.5 hours, maybe 2), all I get is cinnamon and maybe some other spices, Very light sweetness coming from the vanilla. This'll be a good mixer with some of my more sharp winter woodsy scents from Pineward, for a great late fall/winteyule scent!
4.5 out of 5, only because this scent house goes poof too fast on me. All the scents from this house poof in about 2.5/3 hours
______________________________________________
Nightshade Elixir
Official Description: Nightshade Elixir is an intoxicating blend of deadly nightshade, Moonflower Nectar, Elderberry and absinthe. There is a mysterious quality to this blend that keeps it from being too sweet from the berries or too floral from the Moonflower. There is a perfect blend of fruity, floral, spice and mystery. It starts out on the sweeter side to draw you in (from the black currant and agave), before the deadly dark side starts to shine through on the dry down with black tea, saffron, absinthe and Anise. An all together delectable and mysterious blend that will keep you coming back for more
Top- saffron, anise, agave
Middle- Black current, black berry, jasmine
Bottom- amber, tonka, dark musk, black tea, absinthe, dark musk
My review: Okay, this one does go a bit on the powdery/clean perfume vibes. But, I do still like it?? Very strange, considering I hate clean/powdery scents, but this one balances the Clean notes with a juicy fruity flowery vibe that it balances things quite nicely and I can't stop smelling myself. There's a sharp powdery note in there, though, that keeps me from giving it a 4/5. I've narrowed it down to either the Amber or dark musk or tonka. Whatever it is, it's totally a dead note for me. It's popped up in a few other scents over the samples I've gotten, and it's been quite annoying. I May add something a bit juicier to this. But, it almost gives Spring Fairy Queen vibes. fruity and florally, but also a bit perfumey and stringent
3.5/5 I do like it, it's just a bit too powdery perfume-y for me. Under a pear or other fruit scent, I think it would be quite nice!
______________________________________________
Black no 1
Original description: This scent was inspired by Type O Negative's song, "Black No.1", with notes of crisp fall leaves, burning cedar, smoke and incense.
I wanted to capture the essence of burning leaves as well as autumn air, a faint whisp of clove cigarettes, freshly dyed hair and wolf skin boots. The scent opens up with deep Notes of leather, incense and smoke. Then, brightens slightly with spiced fruit in autumn air, intermingled with warm amber. Wrapped up on a base of burning cedar and musk. This is a deep, gender neutral scent, not for the faint of heart
Top- incense, cedar leaf
Middle- green leaves, smoke, pine, spiced fruit
Bottom- cedar, amber, musk, leather
My review: Ooh, you DEFINITELY get the spiced fruit. Where Memento Mori you get a late fall Slightly into Winter vibe, this scent is ALL winter vibes. Like you're drinking mulled berry wine and christmas shopping downtown, so there's a tinge of cold in the air and incense/fall scented candles are lit in the stores. This scent house REALLY likes its cinnamon note. Those spices are the strongest hit in this, first on my skin. Straight spiced mulled fruits
4/5 but only because the scent description notes of 'clove cigarettes, freshly dyed hair, and wolf skin boots' kinda gave me the vibe that it would be more a kickass chick wearing a leather jacket- kind of scent, but it's more a straightforward CHRISTMAS scent lol. Did not expect that vibe from the original scent description. If the leather and smoke and leaves and cedar were more prominent, maybe. I just REALLY want a good leather scent :/
______________________________________________
Stains of Scarlet
Original description: It brings to life the image of fresh picked strawberries from your yard, homemade preserves and strawberry shortcake on the top notes. With the tartness of the rhubarb cuts through the sweetness to balance it out and earthy, fresh turned dirt from your garden on the dry down.
Top- fresh strawberries, citrus, rhubarb, Italian bergamot, geranium leaves Middle- buttery shortbread, jasmine, rosewood Bottom- vanilla cake, white oak, light musk, dirt
My thoughts: I love this. 5/5. Love the scent combo of the strawberries and rhubarb. The rhubarb adds a tartness to the strawberries and the vanilla and shortbread notes help it to not be Too fruity/funky. It's really nicely balanced and by the end of the drydown (2.5ish hours (DO NOT RUB INTO SKIN LOL)) it was a super nostalgic strawberry scent. Like from the 'strawberries' you fed your baby doll lol. The ones that came with a little actual scent
_____________________________________________
I hope this review helps out someone looking for new samples to try!
Also, if anyone could recommend a really good leather scent...please hook a girl up? ;)
______________________________________________
UPDATE: About a week after I posted this, I found out you're not really supposed to rub the scent in lol. Let it air dry. Rubbing it in destroys the top notes and quickens the overall scent fade. Now that I've stopped rubbing them in, the scents go from lasting 30 or so minutes, to more like 2.5ish hours. Still not too long a scent life, but Way better!

I really dont know if this is parfum or perfume but im just going to say its perfume
When I made this perfume I wasn't paying very much attention to the amount exact measurements of the stuff I was adding, so this recipe wont be very detailed, or the measurements might be off. please forgive me.
Note I did all of this in a 2 inch height 1 inch wide bottle.
Homemade perfume, Vanilla scent with a touch of lavender.
Ingredients:
Vanilla extract
Lavender essential oil
Carrier oil (I used apricot kernel oil, so preferably that)
Recipe:

1. Take your bottle and fill it up with about 70 percent carrier oil (or about 5 tablespoons)
   
2. Add about 30 drops of lavender essential oil
   
3. Add in about 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
   
4. Shake well until most is combined
   
5. Enjoy!
   

Measurements can be altered based on your scent preferences
2 things to note:

1. This is strong perfume/parfum. You really only need 2-4 spritz
   
2. The carrier oil you use will make your perfume/parfum spell much different. Mine mainly smells like vanilla, but you can also smell the apricot oil. If you used a different kind of carrier oil and it smells weird, that might be why.
   

Sorry in advance, I should have taken a picture. I'm new to baking and was wondering how to fix these two issues I was having. The filling came out fantastic, but the meringue needs some work.

1. When it came out of the oven the meringue was a consistent golden brown across the surface rather than being white with dark brown peaks. Is that normal? Pictures seemed to look very different, and I'm thinking I smoothed out the meringue too much and should have created more peaks and valleys on the surface.
   
2. As it was cooling, moisture pulled up through the meringue and formed small crystallized golden beads on the surface. Again, not necessarily unappealing but not what was expected.
   

I followed the recipe and baked for 25 minutes at 325. Does it just need to cook longer to remove more moisture? I figured if I baked it for longer then the top would get too browned, and since it was my first attempt I wanted to follow the recipe to the letter. Here's the recipe I used.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15093/grandmas-lemon-meringue-pie/

Prompt:
Please make me a recipe out of these ingredients only:
ENRICHED CORN MEAL (CORN MEAL, FERROUS SULFATE, NIACIN, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), VEGETABLE OIL (CORN, CANOLA, AND/OR SUNFLOWER OIL), AND LESS THAN 2% OF THE FOLLOWING: SALT, MALTODEXTRIN (MADE FROM CORN), YEAST EXTRACT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, POTASSIUM SALT, CITRIC ACID, SUGAR, ARTIFICIAL COLOR (RED 40 LAKE, YELLOW 6 LAKE, YELLOW 6, YELLOW 5), CHEDDAR CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), ONION POWDER, WHEY, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, GARLIC POWDER, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, BUTTERMILK, SODIUM DIACETATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, AND DISODIUM GUANYLATE.
Response:
Based on the ingredients you provided, which seem to be common in a snack product like flavored cornmeal snacks or chips, we can create a simple recipe for Cheesy Cornmeal Snack Bites. Here’s how you can make them:

Cheesy Cornmeal Snack Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 cup enriched cornmeal
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn, canola, and/or sunflower oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon maltodextrin (made from corn)
• 1 teaspoon yeast extract
• 1/2 teaspoon monosodium glutamate (MSG)
• 1/4 teaspoon potassium salt
• 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon artificial color (optional, for appearance)
• 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese powder (or finely grated cheddar cheese)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon whey protein concentrate
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon natural and artificial flavors (if available)
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sodium diacetate
• 1/8 teaspoon disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate (optional, for enhanced umami flavor)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the Oven: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
2. Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt, maltodextrin, yeast extract, MSG, potassium salt, citric acid, sugar, cheddar cheese powder, onion powder, whey protein concentrate, garlic powder, buttermilk powder, sodium diacetate, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate. If using artificial color, add it now and mix thoroughly to ensure even distribution.
   
3. Add Vegetable Oil: Gradually add the vegetable oil to the dry ingredients, mixing well until the mixture resembles wet sand and holds together when pressed.
   
4. Form the Snack Bites: Take small portions of the mixture and form them into bite-sized balls or flat discs. Place them onto the prepared baking sheet.
   
5. Bake: Bake in the preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the snack bites are golden brown and crispy. Keep an eye on them to prevent burning.
   
6. Cool and Serve: Allow the snack bites to cool completely on a wire rack. They will become crispier as they cool. Once cooled, they are ready to serve.
   

Notes:

• Flavor Adjustments: You can adjust the amount of cheese powder, garlic, and onion powder to suit your taste preferences.
• Storage: Store the cooled snack bites in an airtight container to maintain their crispiness.

Enjoy your homemade Cheesy Cornmeal Snack Bites!

My dear summer child, do I have news for you...... This is not a christian sub. But more seriously, this IS a sub about the synthesis of a multitude of psychoactive compounds, and the "no talk about prohibited substances" rule refers, as specified in the subtext, to the shake and bake procedure for meth.
I am frustrated that I can't see the usernames of people reporting posts with the comment "it's a drug!!! What are the mods doing????", I'd like to have a word with them....