I read this article about autistic grieving and it was very relatable. He talks about how after his father died he couldn't process information correctly anymore. That's me. My brain can see the pieces but not how they fit together. He also talks about the increase in meltdowns, shut downs, and social isolation in autistic people who are grieving.

He says the way to get through grief as an autistic is to wander, learn, and be a part of your community. We process emotions in the background and being properly engrossed in your surroundings and helping people is the best way for autistic people to go through the process of feeling our feelings. That explains why I felt my best during fall when I had the energy to go outside and play in the woods everyday.

Boyfriend said she looked like a pirate, can you imagine her yelling 'shiver me clitter' or whatever they used to say? Anyway, more Commonwealth Kitty.

need need need need everyone to see this graph i just encountered

let’s pour one out for all the janitors who clean and never get enough appreciation

Don’t they gotta clean up what we pour out

fuck stop it everyone the post is cancelled everyone please stop fuck what have I done

i’ve only ever seen this picture cropped to orlando holding the lizard… which is cute don’t get me wrong but i like this even more. Examining a little lizard is a group activity

#lizard contemplation

Certifiable lizard enjoyers

kai tabris n' friends doodles :]

i promise she's not going in soup for real.

the chanterelle head on this one was a bit of a challenge to get to stop looking like a cartoon chef's hat, but it was interesting to take on a different kind of a mushroom. the lesson learned is that i should sculpt more mushroom folks, in all the ordinary and unusual shapes there are. might do the drippy goth one next.

[photo credit: @posnakkel]

Charon !!!!

My favorite group of nerds

Fane's actually a dork. Why does the concept art depict him as an edgelord?

Edgelord imagery works on me though.

Fane my beloved Eternal...

Red Prince and Fane from Divinity Original Sin 2

What an awesome game! Love it!

Luckily, there are ethically-sourced corpses across town.

Fane from Divinity: Original Sin 2

The Dungeon Meshi renaissance is making me want to share the resources that taught me how to cook.

Don’t forget, you can check out cookbooks from the library!

Smitten Kitchen: The rare recipe blog where the blog part is genuinely good & engaging, but more important: this is a home cook who writes for home cooks. If Deb recommends you do something with an extra step, it’s because it’s worth it. Her recipes are reliable & have descriptive instructions that walk you through processes. Her three cookbooks are mostly recipes not already on the site, & there are treasures in each of them.

Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables by Joshua McFadden: This is a great guide to seasonal produce & vegetable-forward cooking, and in addition to introducing me to new-to-me vegetables (and how to select them) it quietly taught me a number of things like ‘how to make a tasty and interesting puréed soup of any root veggie’ and ‘how to make grain salads’ and ‘how to make condiments’.

Grains for Every Season: Rethinking Our Way With Grains by Joshua McFadden: in addition to infodumping in grains, this codifies some of the formulas I picked up unconsciously just by cooking a lot from the previous book. I get a lot of mileage out of the grain bowl mix-and-match formulas (he’s not lying, you can do a citrus vinaigrette and a ranch dressing dupe made with yogurt, onion powder, and garlic powder IN THE SAME DISH and it’s great.)

SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT by Samin Nosrat: An education in cooking theory & specific techniques. I came to it late but I think it would be a good intro book for people who like to front-load on theory. It taught me how to roast a whole chicken and now I can just, like, do that.

I Dream Of Dinner (so you don’t have to) by Ali Slagle: Ok, look, an important part of learning to cook & cooking regularly is getting kinda burned out and just wanting someone else to tell you what to make. These dinners work well as written and are also great tweakable bases you can use as a starting place.

If you have books or other resources that taught you to cook or that you find indispensable, add ‘em on a reblog.

Appetite by Nigel Slater (UK) has a lot of very basic recipes accompanied by multiple ways to dress them up. Really good for easy but tasty comfort food (assuming your cultural background includes these as comfort foods). This really helped me get to what the heart of various meals was in a way that lets me tinker around with flavour fearlessly.

The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alt (US) is perfect for anybody who's a giant nerd about food and food science - it's 1000 pages and most of that is getting into the whys and wherefores of the techniques it uses. I was a proficient cook before I got a copy and I've still found a bunch of ways to up my game here on things as 'easy' as poaching eggs. Really great for comfort food (US-American edition). If you don't want to shell out for the 1000-page cookbook a lot of his techniques are in his Serious Eats column online.

For my AoNZ crowd...no, you really can't go past the Edmonds Cookbook for all the basics like shepherd's pie and the unbeatable one-egg chocolate sponge. It also has a really handy set of charts and tables in the front for cooking times and temperatures and measurement conversions. But if you want to get serious about our baking tradition, Ladies, A Plate by Alexa Johnston is where you should start. You too can make brandy snaps from scratch! You will never be short of ginger crunch again! And I could go on.

Also an enthusiastic second for Smitten Kitchen, and the caveat I am legally obliged to give for Salt Fat Acid Heat: yes it's otherwise very good but she is wrong and potentially dangerously so about iodised salt. Know your own diet and location, and if you don't eat a lot of iodine-rich foods and/or live somewhere with deficient soils (e.g. Aus/NZ), DO use it. You can't taste the difference no matter what she thinks.

Smitten kitchen enthusiast too! Her Babka 💯

Also a big fan of cooksillustrated.com (it's paywalled but worth it imo. They're equipment and ingredient reviews are fabulous. if you ask nicely maybe I'll copy paste a recipe or two for you. Not sure if 12ft.io works on it)

I also love kingarthurbaking.com/ for recipes although they sometimes sneak in weird ultra niche, specialty ingredients and equipment that only a hardcore baking enthusiast would ever need. There's a reason folks (me) swear by their flour though.