Ooooooh, Where Do I Start?

[teddy_radiator]

Been a great weekend! I know it's Tuesday already, but I have Sunday & Monday off, so my week starts on Tuesdays. Had a strong Friday and Saturday at the shop, and the promised snowstorm didn't. I finished two chapters of LML, and a twisted, sick, kinda kinky little one-shot that I'm going to post somewhere. I'd like to post it here, but I don't know how. It's about 3,760 words, and I don't really want to archive on Ash or TPP yet. I'd kind of like to get some opinions. Mimi and Tales liked it enough not to beat me up, but I'd like a few more opinions before I crucify myself on the alter of good taste.

I've been wanting to make a corkboard out of some old wine corks I have, and yesterday at a thrift store, I found the perfect shadow box doodah. It's about three feet long and about two feet high, and even has a little shelf on the bottom. It is perfect. Spent yesterday sanding and re-staining, and last night gluing the corks in. I must have over two hundred corks, but it's not enough. If any of you have any corks going spare.... I'm going to ask my local pub if they'll supply me.

I found the perfect frame, including mats, for Mimi's beautiful drawing (see my userpic), and the perfect frame for Sempra's print. It needs a little work (a good clean and a coat of gloss black paint) and it will go up on the wall with Mimi's Severus calendar and drawing. I'm starting to get more excited about putting together my writing space than the kids coming. That sounds awful. I don't mean it to be, it's just so excitng to have my own little nook, surrounded by the things I love to inspire me.

If someone can tell me how to upload text so that I can post my one-shot for perusal here, I would be ever so grateful. I've seen people do it here, but I just can't figure it out. I tried to upload it to scrapbook, but it didn't want to know. I'm such a numpty about these things.

I've just found the best brownie recipe in my Bon Appetite mag - it's really easy as well. Thought I'd share - we need more sweetness in our lives.

 

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts

Makes 16

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 4 hour 50 minutes (includes cooling time)

Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, chilled

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup walnut pieces

Preparation

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

 

Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Comments

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

The writing nook will be a thing of beauty. No wonder you're feeling good about it!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I know - and CHECK OUT Sempra's new drawing for Lay Me Low - OMG X infinity!!! I am so inspired by this beautiful art I am tripping out! I feel like a million bucks!

[melusin-79.livejournal.com]

How do you normally post? You should be able to just cut and paste the text into the normal box - anything under 10k shouldn't give you any trouble. You know how to do a cut, so away you go.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thanks, mel. I tried and for some reason it wouldn't work, so I did a little tweaking and it worked this time. I got it the second time, although I'm not exactly sure what happened the first time!

[laurielover1912.livejournal.com]

You can just post it straight into a normal journal entry and hide it under a cut. It would be nice to read on here. :-)

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

I tried to post a documents file into my gallery and it didn't work, so here is my suggestion to get around it:

Upload a small picture into the gallery, like maybe your userpic, then copy and paste the text in the description.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thanks Mimi darling. I found the perfect frame for my drawing yesterday - complete with double mat. It looks so beautiful. BTW, did you see Sempra's latest drawing - it's for LML and I'm so blown away by it. I have the most talented friends!!

I like your idea as well, though, about the gallery. I will try that in future as well.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

I'd like to post it here, but I don't know how. It's about 3,760 words

For that size post, cut and paste should work fine.

There's a freebie utility I sometimes use called LochJournal -- it's not perfect, but I've found it helpful sometimes when I've had really large posts. It's available here:

http://community.livejournal.com/lochj_announce/

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- I finally got it to work the second time around - don't know why it didn't the first time.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- I finally got it to work the second time around - don't know why it didn't the first time.

LJ can be funky that way; I've had problems when trying to post chapters of my story, especially the larger chapters. Sometimes it goes like a charm, sometimes it just continually screws up.

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

If you mean you'd like it so that it has codes like <i> already included, I can do that for you by pasting what you sent me into the display window and sending back to you what then comes up as code?

Otherwise you could just use the 'Rich Text' tab at the top right of the box where you input text, instead of leaving it on the default 'HTML' setting. If you do that (in theory) you should be able to just paste from Word. Then, I think, if you highlight the text you want under the cut you can scroll over the icons at the top of the input box until you find the one for LiveJournal Cut. I think if you click it with everything highlighted, it'll ask what you want to have on the cut...

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon. I got it to work the second time around - still not sure why it didn't the first time, but it looks pretty good. I tweaked the ending a little bit and now I'm very happy with my sick little fic!!!

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

What you call a sick little fic, I call heart-warming and beautiful. I'm honoured that you would dedicate it to me.

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

So am I, and I've just posted to say so... As well as sending a PM to celta_diabolica because I know this will be right up her street.

[beffeysue.livejournal.com]

I use Semagic to post to my LJ. It's so much easier for me than trying to code lot of stuff. I can manage a little bit of code, but Semagic is way easier for me. You can download it at:

http://semagic.livejournal.com/

I had to play with it a little at first, but I've gotten good enough with it for what I need to do.