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baking

Taiwanese pineapple cakes
Need to cook pineapple for longer next time. IF USING NONFAT POWDERED MILK, need to increase amount of fat.
basque cheesecake
A+ recipe. Coworkers took it home.
thumbprint cookies
biscotti
cocoa powder brownies
Bake time ended up being 40min. Very chocolately, moist, and delicious. Possible mods---add peppermint bits, use port instead of vanilla.

caneles

  1. base recipe
  2. Replaced rum with port. Port flavor came through.
  3. Iced lemon loaf tea. Good flavor. Trying other teas will be worthwhile.
  4. Black cask bourbon tea + nonfat milk. Tea was good. If using nonfat milk, definitely need to up fat content. Center wasn't as moist as with whole milk.
  5. 25g pandan leaf (same method as tea). I thought pandan flavor was too strong + unsubtle. Others really liked it.

notes

more writing i guess

We've Got to Dream Past It
taken from this prompt. ngl, my writing & website feel to unprofessional 'submit' my response.
Inhale. Exhale. The sky is white. Inhale. There is no sky. Exhale. It's a storm. Just another storm. Inhale, exhale; a run-of-the-mill snowstorm. Nothing you haven't seen before.
You put on your glasses and roll up the blinds. The streetlights are invisible, and the snow is backlit by a strange red hue. Is it sunrise? Your phone says it's 3AM; sunrise won't come for four more hours. There's something moving outside. There's nothing moving outside. The wind forces the snow to take on strange shapes; snow people moving their snow legs to march towards your door. Inhale. They're pounding on your front door. It isn't locked. Exhale. It's just the wind. And maybe your front door is locked. The other tenants might not have unlocked it again. Oh, who are you kidding?
You slip a shirt on. Should you check the front door? The doors to your unit are locked, after all. But the downstairs lock is weak. You doubt someone would struggle to break in. And what if that's not just the wind howling, but someone trying to come in? It could be the downstairs neighbor trying to get into your unit again. Well, a friend that's knocking at his door, or he doesn't know which door, or there's never been someone pounding on your door and it's all in your head.
The wind shrieks, and you stare out the window. This weather is violent. What'd a lightning strike look like? Can lightning occur during a snowstorm? Your phone says yes. Wikipedia brings you to an article about thundersnow, which is rare, but not unheard of in areas you haven't lived in. Youtube brings you to a clip from a weather channel; the clip was uploaded 5hr ago, and the location is an hour south of you. "We're going to show you what thundersnow looks like," and the sky lights up a brilliant shade of purple, or is it blue, perhaps lavender is correct. Your window shows no thundersnow, just violent snow creating violent snow people who will---
You grab your keys, which are attached to a canister of mace. Can mace hurt snow people? Inhale, exhale; reign in your imagination. Nobody is trying to hurt you. Open and close your bedroom door, observe the pale glow of lights from a roommate's bedroom, and walk down the stairs. Quiet. Fumble with the lock of your front door and enter the hallway. The EXIT sign lights up the space; the dim red glow feels appropriate. Still, the door is closed. You shudder as you walk toward it, hearing pounding, and rolling, and crashing. Your fear subsides. The door is unlocked. Inhale, exhale, and you peak outside. There's nothing there. Everything is white. You stick your hand out, allowing the wind to drag you out of the house and into the street.
There's a roar, a pounding, a yellow light. Which way did you come from? The house, you were in the house, you were filled with fear, you needed to lock the door. The door! You wave your arms around like a madman, needing to escape the light that's approaching you. There's a thwack and a pain in your arm---yes, a car, a car parked in front of your house, and there's the railing of the porch. You pull yourself up and you're inside the house, the yellow light growing brighter, you locking the door and the pounding---is that you, fleeing, or the snow people? You lock the second door and head for your room, lock the door. Inhale, exhale, take off your glasses and crawl under your blankets. There's still something pounding at the doors. The snow people will break in. As the snow that's on you melts, you pull the blankets closer. Snow people can't reform from this melted snow, can they? Or is their essence inside it? There's no way out, then. Sleep overtakes you, and the snow people will come. Perhaps, you hope, you can dream past it.