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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| c373625 | A great deal of what they were eating was gathered or grown there. The guess about Amaranth being a hardworking lass was true. She had been a dairymaid, and had a flock of goats to provide milk, which mostly went into cheese. Andie chose to believe that the dragons had bought the goats rather than stealing them. The girls had a good vegetable garden, a flock of hens, several beehives, the dragons brought back flour and other things they cou.. | maidens | Mercedes Lackey | |
| 0d058fb | One girl made flatbread, another cleaned and sliced greens, cucumbers and mushrooms, and a third made dressing of olive oil, vinegars and herbs. So while they waited they had greens and mushrooms tossed in the dressing with crumbled goat cheese on top to eat on the folded-up flatbread. There was more flatbread to sop up the juices of the stewed rabbit and vegetables, and the dragons appeared, as they were finishing the meal, with yet more f.. | food-preparation maidens | Mercedes Lackey | |
| 5e8b7e5 | Tiny rooms opened up onto the corridor, rooms that would have been like monastic cells if each of the girls hadn't made hers comfortable in her own way and according to her own taste. As she passed, Andie got glimpses of a riot of draped fabrics like a gypsy tent in one, a tapestry loom in another, painted murals of garden scenes in a third. | rooms | Mercedes Lackey | |
| ffc88a7 | She decided at that moment that she wanted Gina for a friend... if Gina wasn't already a friend. She rather hoped that the Champion was. The more she thought about it, the more she hoped. Really, Gina had been very nice to someone that she'd had no real reason to like. After all, if it wasn't for Andie, where would she be now? 'On some other uncomfortable Quest?' Well, maybe. Or maybe still at the Chapter-House. And Andie was the one who ha.. | friends gina maidens princess-andromeda | Mercedes Lackey | |
| 06ce41d | But, Andromeda-" Peri exclaimed. "You are the 'most' important person in this scheme!" "I- what?" she said. "You must be joking!" Peri shook his massive head. "On the contrary. You are the only person here who has actually been inside the Palace. You know everything there is to know about it. Without that, we can't even begin to mount an attack, now, can we?" "At least not the kind of attack we can manage with as few people as we have, and .. | important princess-andromeda supporting | Mercedes Lackey | |
| ae10a8a | There's no justice for the poor man. Money buys justice, and I have no doubt there's a great deal of money in that man's pockets to buy the finest judge on the bench. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 0c33f09 | to block | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 30c8a2f | Keep breathing. Exhale all the hurt and sorrow, inhale the untainted air. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| a621678 | This is the lesson history told me: when a religion gets so mired in bureaucracy that compassion takes second place to the law, and the law is iron-bound and iron-clad and has no room in it for exceptions, then it's no longer a religion for humans, it's a religion for paper-pushers, painted saints, and marble statues. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 63677d8 | People did stupid, sometimes unkind things. People did things that were a little bad, things that they were ashamed of. People cheated a little on their taxes, got a little greedy, sometimes they pilfered something that wasn't properly theirs, they quarreled, they abused each other (but never to the point that it would call for a Herald's intervention) and were basically just . . . people. A little good, a little bad, mostly just getting by.. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| ab63b75 | You know that all dragons collect treasure of one sort or another, correct?" he asked, looking straight at Andie. "That's The Tradition, of course," she replied. "I don't know how you could possibly escape that particular compulsion." "Well, our family does that, too, of course," he said. "But our treasure is a bit different. We're librarians." He held up his fore-claws and she saw that they had been blunted; looking closer, she saw that wh.. | librarians periapt | Mercedes Lackey | |
| 48f5e08 | It seems to me that evil is a kind of ultimate greed, a greed that is so all-encompassing that it can't ever see anything lovely, rare, or precious without wanting to possess it. A greed so total that if it can't possess these things, it will destroy them rather than chance that someone else might have them. And a greed so intense that even having these things never causes it to lessen one iota -- the lovely, the rare and the precious never.. | destruction evil greed obsession | Mercedes Lackey | |
| 349ecdf | He held out the bottle. Clarice's hand was steady as she took it from him. , she thought distantly. She tried to be horrified at the thought, but she couldn't manage it. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 7cde424 | You are speaking to a cat. If you do not believe this is magic, what do you think it is? She | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 9f5319d | But a Herald has to have your trust right away, don't you see? If you come to trust the person more than the office, the way you do with your priest, there would be trouble for every new Herald in a Sector." The boy looked thoughtful at this. "So you move all the time, to make sure it's the job that stays important, not the person doing it. I bet if you stayed in one place too long, you'd get too bound up with the people to judge right, too.. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| b0c2d60 | I, ah ... I suppose it's for the best. That you ... aren't a boy, I mean." There was another, longer awkward pause. "I ... I'm glad you aren't a boy." Despite the danger, the horror, the utterly terrible ridiculousness of the situation, Clarice felt like laughing. "Thank you," she said gravely. "I'm glad I'm not a boy, too." | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 2851435 | Teach what you know, regardless of when you have learned it--teach what you learned yesterday sagely, as if you have known it all your life, and teach what you have known for decades with enthusiasm, as if you learned it only yesterday. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 5347c09 | You are eccentric when you have enough money to not be considered crazy," Dominik" | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 79f3f5b | You marry who you think your beloved is, and then discover who they really are over the years. It's that discovery that makes a marriage work. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 4e87eba | He'd parted reluctantly from Amily, thinking again with envy of Lena and Bear. One thing that they hadn't been forced to deal with during their courtship was other people . . . "keeping an eye on them." He and Amily must have a hundred "eyes" on them at all times. Amily, after all, was the daughter of the King's Own. Practically every Companion on the Hill was "keeping an eye on her." Literally nothing they did was really private, and if he.. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 380e9a0 | Only a very careless father would be inclined to tell you what I'm going to tell you. I suppose I'm about to act like the disreputable uncle who everyone fears to leave the boys with because he encourages them to drink distilled spirits, stay up late, and do more than merely kiss girls." "Uh... what?" Mags replied, utterly bewildered now. "I am going," Jakyr said, leaning toward Mags, his eyes dancing with laughter, "to tell you how to ple.. | humor mentor | Mercedes Lackey | |
| ce908a6 | what Mr. Bishop talked to Tomas about was living with them and controlling them, as if the ability to start fires with his mind was some kind of large dog Tomas had accidentally adopted and was now going to have to learn to take care of properly, like it or not. He | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 128c661 | The night-sylphs, all of them, were armed with what looked like swords of glass. The pixies and the tiny ones were armed too, if not with knives and miniature swords , then with their own long claws. The pixies were creatures the size of dolls, but with strange attenuated bodies and long limbs, mostly clothed in colourful rags, and with dragonfly wings. Their joints were knobby, and their faces more animalistic. The smaller ones were also w.. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 5d52010 | Elves - You can't live with them and there's just no resale value. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 989b705 | By such little victories are wars and hearts won, | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| e0b38e9 | and payment exacted for the crimes and weaknesses of a lifetime. Her hands shook, and tears prickled at the back of her eyes, but she couldn't even cry. Something horrible was going to happen to her, and she knew she deserved it, but she couldn't help shrieking inside that it wasn't fair, that she hadn't known what would happen back when she could still change things, back while it would have done any good. And now, nothing she could do cou.. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| d797921 | I can't help it; present me with a situation, and I have to think about both sides of it. I can try to suppress it, but I cannot shut off the way I think. Once knowledge is gained, there's no going back to ignorance. I think about what the other feels. I can't stop it, | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| 8d0a497 | Clarice concentrated on taking deep breaths. Men did not burst into tears, no matter how terrible the tragedy. | Mercedes Lackey | ||
| eb557cf | I realized boiling is called for only when cooking vegetables, grains, and pasta; reducing sauces; and hard-cooking eggs. I could bring everything else--and I mean everything--to a boil and then swiftly reduce it to a simmer to cook through, whether I was cooking over a live fire, on the stove, or in an oven. Since simmering water is gentler than boiling water, it won't jostle delicate foods so much that they fall apart or agitate tougher f.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 41cc247 | there's no recipe for meat more straightforward than "Simmer in salted water." | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 8dc162a | To yield the most flavorful meat, place it in boiling, salted water, then turn it down to a simmer. For tasty meat and broth, start with simmering water. Add a few aromatics--half an onion, a few cloves of garlic, bay leaves, or a dried chili | Samin Nosrat | ||
| e1c0283 | Over the years, I've found that vegetables with higher water content, like asparagus and perfect little haricots verts, carry over more than denser, less watery ones, so pull them from the pot just before they're done. Root vegetables, such as carrots and beets, won't carry over even if you beg them to so always boil them until they are tender throughout. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 2214038 | Take the guesswork and measuring out of cooking whole grains such as barley, rice, farro, and quinoa by boiling them as you would pasta, until they are completely tender. Drain and serve as a side dish, or spread them out to let them cool, then drizzle with olive oil and add them to soups, grain salads, or store them in the freezer for up to two months for future use. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 45701ad | Steam little potatoes in the oven by placing them in a single layer in a roasting dish, seasoning with salt, and adding any aromatics--a sprig of rosemary and a few garlic cloves will do. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and tightly seal it up with aluminum foil. Cook until the potatoes present no resistance when pierced with a knife, and then serve with flaky salt and butter or garlicky aioli alongside hard-cooked eggs.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 2030dbf | Combine steaming with the browning that comes from intense heat in a method I like to call steamy saute. It's perfect for cooking dense vegetables such as fennel or carrots: add a half inch of water, salt, a generous splash of olive oil or knob of butter, and aromatics into a pan filled with a single layer of vegetables, and place a lid on ajar. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, remove the lid, pour off any excess water, then turn up .. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 0f8a797 | Invest in an instant-read meat thermometer for roasting meats (and use it for smoking meats, too). Check large roasts in multiple spots, because one part can appear done while another is undercooked. An internal temperature variance of just a few degrees can mean the difference between juicy and dry. My rule of thumb for cooking a large roast is once its internal temperature hits 100degF, it'll start climbing at a rate of about a degree a m.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 5dd9fd0 | Garnish soft comfort foods with crunchy crumbs, toasted nuts, or crisp bits of bacon to make things interesting. Serve rich meats with bright, acidic sauces and clean-tasting blanched or raw vegetables. Serve mouth-drying starches with mouthwatering sauces, and recognize that a well-dressed, juicy salad can serve as both a side dish and a sauce. On the other hand, pair simply cooked meats, such as grilled steak or poached chicken, with roas.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 714cc5b | Buy the best you can afford * Extra-virgin Olive Oil, pressed in the last calendar year * Whole chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy * Chocolate and Cocoa Powder Buy whole and prepare yourself * Pick and chop fresh herbs (and always use Italian or flat-leaf parsley). * Juice lemons and limes * Peel, chop, and pound garlic * Grind spices * Soak, rinse, filet, and chop salt-packed anchovies * Make chicken stock when you can (see for a rec.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 19533d6 | Claudia Roden, and Paula Wolfert (Mediterranean), Diana Kennedy and Maricel Presilla (Mexico), Andy Ricker and David Thompson (Thailand), Andrea Nguyen and Charles Phan (Vietnam). For general cooking: James Beard, April Bloomfield, Marion Cunningham, Suzanne Goin, Edna Lewis, Deborah Madison, Cal Peternell, David Tanis, Alice Waters, The Canal House, and The Joy of Cooking. For inspiring writing about food and cooking: Tamar Adler, Elizabet.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| be28537 | Salt can take a while to dissolve in foods that are low in water, so add it to bread dough early. Leave it out of Italian pasta dough altogether, allowing the salted water to do the work of seasoning as it cooks. Add it early to ramen and udon doughs to strengthen its gluten, as this will result in the desired chewiness. Add salt later to batters and doughs for cakes, pancakes, and delicate pastries to keep them tender, but make sure to whi.. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 0b118ab | In order to flavor dried beans from within, add salt when you soak them or when you begin to cook them, whichever comes first. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 2d0a9e9 | Olive oil is produced seasonally. Look for a production date, typically in November, on the label when you purchase a bottle to ensure you are buying a current | Samin Nosrat | ||
| fcf571a | Color has little to do with the quality of olive oil, and it offers no clues to whether an olive oil is rancid. Instead, use your nose and palate: does the olive oil smell like a box of crayons, candle wax, or the oil floating on top of an old jar of peanut butter? If so, it's rancid. The sad truth is that most Americans, accustomed to the taste of rancid olive oil, actually prefer it. | Samin Nosrat | ||
| 7a23bbe | look for oils that are produced from 100 percent Californian or Italian olives (as opposed to those with labels that simply read "Made in Italy," "Packed in Italy," or "Bottled in Italy," | Samin Nosrat |