⛤ May Q&A (Patreon)

Greetings! It's a warm summer night tonight and I'm making the most out of my chaotic sleep schedule and restless mind badgering me about having things to do and boxes to tick at all hours of the day. I've been very busy in the real world bringing pastries and confections to the man, keeping up with household chores and trying to save a local business. I've been equally busy putting together an exquisite video that has finally reached the end stages of fine tuning the sound layers and spacing and juggling a million responsibilities has forced me to abandon any semblance of a consistent sleep schedule to escape the looming autopilot mode that, like a hypnotic trance, dulls my mind and shackles my soul in what most people would call a 'routine' but I call it a prison of the soul. There is never time for anything in a routine. Yes, it is stable, and even comfortable. Perhaps even healing. But it is frustratingly, mind-numbingly passionless, lifeless and wearisome. But upending my default habits and mundane regimens - what a breath of fresh air! Like the peppermint tea that is brewing in the kitchen right now. 

On to your questions!

Got fudge? (Might make for a fun post sometime.) Always! My cherry garcia fudge sold like hot cakes and I'm working on a butter pecan flavor next. (follow my insta to snag some on the occasional flash sale!) Though my friends and neighbors sure appreciate all the fudge that I don't sell!

2 years in, how cool is Missouri? I can't say for sure. I'm positive that it's still pretty cool out there, but I haven't had a chance to do much lately. The people are still lovely. Midwesterners will go out of their way to compliment you, it's the sweetest thing. But between recurring car problems, Jack's hip injury and generally struggling in the current economy, I've been cooped up at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do besides the ordinary editing, baking, cooking and cleaning. So my life lately hasn't been very exciting.

Have you started saying “Ope” like a true midwestern person? Also, what’s your favorite beef stew recipe? Only when something startles me! Haha. And I don't think I've made beef stew since I moved here, the closest thing I've made was cream stew per an adapted Japanese recipe. 

Ally to be truthful, having the fact confirmed that my father is a lost cause and beyond saving fills me with grief. Mostly sad for the girls seeing as they most likely will seldom or never see their grandfather again. Was wondering if you know anything that might help? I think it'll help to remind yourself that it's best if they don't spend too much time around him anyway, seeing as how he has at least attempted to tear everyone in his vicinity down with him in his lost cause ways. Yes, it's a little sad that they won't get to know their grandfather, but they're young children. At around age 5, they will start to develop an identity and rationally process their surroundings (as opposed to emotional and sensory processing) and all memories of people that aren't their immediate family (mother and father) will be committed to the subconscious. They won't even remember what he looks like. As a child, you can't get attached to someone who's not around. Take it from me. I was neglected and isolated as a young child and as a result I never bonded with my family. I have no connection to anyone besides the blood in my veins. You can't miss what you never had. It likely won't scar them as deeply as you think it will. 

Did you and Jack have a pleasant Walpurgis night? Yes, we did. Though we didn't have time to celebrate as we rarely do these days. The vibe was right, though. I don't know about Jack but I was thriving amidst the fiery energies. 

Ally I’m curious do you have any favorite appetizers or starters? I'm not used to indulging in multiple course meals so I'm not sure I can give a good answer. Though I have, sometimes, when eating out, ordered off of the appetizer menu and called it a meal. Being unsure if it's an appetizer or indeed a main dish, I know I really like Vietnamese summer rolls. The fresh crunch of the lettuce in the chewy rice paper wrap is balanced by the light and savory flavors of shrimp and egg omelette. The cold rice noodles and vegetables are extremely refreshing on a hot summer day and it's only top notch with lots of cilantro! Can't skimp on the cilantro. I guess I also like well made falafels and small portions of crab rangoon. 

What recipes would you recommend for someone who's starting to bake or make desserts in general?  Maybe for taste, learning or convenience idk, or smell/appearance if the person has roommates (I might never have any, but someone seemed to want others to be a part of that for some reason?).  Can't recall why they wanted to pick up baking, but I was talking to someone on discord and they mentioned a banana bread they might want to do. I'd say tiramisu for an idea despite it gets expensive. For some reason I really loved how mine turned out and it's difficult to mess up. And you've a bottle of marsala to spare after. Idk I'm looking for recipes myself too, and you seem talented even for that. I'd start with the basics. Great desserts that require minimal ingredients and are "hard to fuck up". Brownies are my very fist choice for ticking both boxes. They come together so easy with next to no equipment and very basic ingredients. I love it when people order brownies from me cause I barely have to do anything compared to any other confection I make 🥲 Next are probably drop cookies. Any cookie that you scoop out and drop onto a baking sheet is a drop cookie. It doesn't get easier than that and even if you don't get them perfect, they'll at least still come out delicious. I have adapted this recipe into my best selling dark chocolate sea salt cookies. I think the oil based recipe is more forgiving than butter recipes and yields a perfectly crisp and chewy cookie that ages well. (Meaning it'll survive a few days in the cookie jar! haha) I hope you will come to love these recipes and feel free to hit me up for more solid advice.

What are your  thoughts on the show Skins, its a British teenager themed tv show.  I think you'd potentially love it its so deep and cool. I've heard about Skins, but given the demographic it's not really my genre at all. I aged out of teen drama stories a long time ago. 

Have you seen Black Mirror? That's another incredible deep wowzer of a tv show. Black Mirror was recommended to me a while ago and we tried watching it but as you can probably guess, the first episode is incredibly off-putting. I started watching part of the second episode by myself (Jack had already given it a solid pass), but the social commentary just hits too close to home and makes me hate society. Gives me real doomster vibes besides just being lacking in the story arc per episode. I have found it simultaneously boring and annoying. 

This is the follow up answer to my question "what kind of power and/or weapon would you take with you to a battle?" Forgive me but I was busy as well. To start off This is a fantasy battle but it will take place during in our modern time. These battles take place most of the time on land. As for power, Yes meaning superpowers you can have one such as flight or telekinesis or have many for example superman has flight, speed, super strength, and heat ray vision. Or superpowers that share similarities from one. Such as Thor with the help of Mjölnir to control lighting and storms. As for your weapons you can use a weapon you have experience with or wish you had experience with. The creativity for your weapon is all up to you. I will give you my example, for my weapon it is shaped like a guitar and it is one, but the axe part is literally an axe blade and the head of the guitar all the way down to the axe part is also a sword. I hope this makes this question easy to answer and I hope your feeling better. Thank you. I've been doing a lot better in the warmer weather, minus the last couple of days that have been emotionally draining. For my superpower I would pick the ability to control time. Slow it down, speed it up, freeze, rewind, fast forward. I don't work real well under pressure so I would freeze time and "fix things" one by one. For my weapon I would bring some kind of bat because ... I like to whack things (no joke) and I'm weirdly good at it. I give people a run for their money at both badminton and whack-a-mole. Maybe my bat could even freeze time for an individual person upon contact and I could just knock them over like they're a chapstick at the end of a console (and I am obviously a cat in that analogy). That sounds fun.

Thank you for submitting your questions again this month. It's been busy but it's always a joy reading what you came up with and answering your curiosities. The next question dump will be available soon, hopefully I'll remember to post it not long after tomorrow's stream so I don't get "back to work" and forget about it for a week and a half. I hope you've enjoyed reading this and now my husband is about to relieve me for cat sitting duty (our spoiled princess wants company and services 24/7 so we sleep in shifts more often than not) so I'm gonna wind down for the night with my nightly exercises. Can't fall asleep without exhausting my body first. 🤷‍♀️ I hope you have a lovely June and that the summer time blues doesn't hit you too hard. Also, wear your sunscreen! I already have tan lines on my legs from going on walks for like a week lol.