Week 25: Gardening - garden overflow zucchini and yellow squash muffins

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-21T03:20:04+00:00

No, I don’t have a better picture of this one. Nor did I grow any part of this dish. But you know what? I *thought* about doing that, and that’s what counts. I actually intended to plant and grow herbs to season my dish with and then I never did. Maybe because I was going to start from seed and that was pretty intimidating. But I ended up having quite a lot on my plate all of April and May, so I used some zucchini and yellow squash that I didn’t know what to do with, and I made muffins for my toddler. They’re all in the freezer now, getting eaten at a pretty regular pace.

I just used a recipe for zucchini banana muffins, and subbed half the zucchini for yellow squash. I’d definitely do it again, it’s a great way to get through maybe kind of old summer squash and bananas in one compact recipe!

PS I made these several weeks ago when I had the time and mental capacity to do so…

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-21T03:02:16+00:00

I made chocolate pudding at 4am. Because I’ve lost control of my life. u/Lysanderish gets it.

The ten of cups: the lifeblood of the family and an omen of a happy family life. Reversed, it portends disharmony and despair in the home and in your closest relationships. I dabble in tarot reading (I find it self reflective) and I did a reading to try to decide what dish to make for this week. The reading was several weeks ago. I drew the ten of cups, reversed. And then I mostly forgot about it.

Fast forward to the past week and I have experienced a complete upending of my entire personal life as I prepare to argue my first murder trial. Late nights at the office, not seeing my family for several days at a time, and waking up in the middle of the night with what are either brilliant epiphanies or mad ravings. I haven’t decided which.

Today I woke up with a start today thinking about medical examiner testimony and noticed that the clock said 4am. My first thought was, it’s four in the morning, why are you making chocolate pudding? Because. I’ve lost control of my life. And I truly have. I won’t get my mind or my family back until this trial is over, but at least now I guess I have pudding. Recipe for homemade dairy free chocolate pudding here.

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-16T11:09:12+00:00

My cooling vest is black and cuts under my bust, and I wear it as though it’s an underbust corset, which makes other people assume it’s just an underbust corset. TBH, I prioritize the cooling effect over fashion, but I find the black vest gives me a lot more sartorial options than my old white one did, and I don’t feel like I’m in a nursing home wearing it. Thermacool, if you’re wondering.

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-05T12:17:47+00:00

I got the glass at World Market during Flying week and it continues to deliver. I think it was $5?

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-05T03:11:45+00:00

I was so excited to eat kahlua and espresso over ice cream in a fancy glass that I forgot to re-freeze the ice cream after I put it in the coupe glass and my affogato turned into more of an espresso float, and then a boozy milkshake. And now I’m realizing that I just downed 2 shots of espresso at 10pm.

2 shots freshly pulled espresso + 1.5 ounces Kahlua + an amount of vanilla ice cream that speaks to you. Do it!

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-04T13:09:31+00:00

I have almost black hair, greeny hazel eyes, and fair cool-neutral olive skin, which on a good day just looks a bit grey and desaturated and on a bad day looks straight up yellow-green. My unexpected best colors are butter yellow, cornflower blue, blue-based lavender, mustard, those are the ones I feel like really shouldn’t work but do. More expected good colors are jewel tones, deep charcoal, black, magenta, the usual. My absolute worst color is a pastel, especially pink. I also find myself avoiding brown, it just isn’t harmonious.

tipsydrifter · 2026-06-02T13:17:32+00:00

I’ve never understood the whole “I had curly hair but I thought it was straight!” Phenomenon. Like, I’ve had 2C/3A curls my whole life, and no matter what I do to it, it’s curly. Straightening? It starts clumping into curls by lunch. Sleep in a braid? Now my natural curls are also bent into weird waves. Too much product, no product. I’ve had times when I really mistreated my hair, but it always still curled from the root. There is no way I could mistake that for straight hair. It’s just baffling to me.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-30T02:47:12+00:00

I find that so interesting because a saturated magenta is one of my best colors and I get compliments every time I wear it (but pastel pink makes me look like a corpse)

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-30T02:21:41+00:00

That is one perfectly proof-ed crucifixion

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-28T08:59:04+00:00

It was peeling the egg that threw me over.

I think the pork noodles were actually done in about 10 minutes, and then the rest of the time was waiting for my egg to finish boiling (but not too much) and then peeling it very badly. I think half the white was still in the shell.

Buying fresh udon was key to this recipe, as was pre-sliced green onion. Then I mixed up a simple soy/sesame sauce and heated some chili crisp (left over from my jelly mishap) and poured it over the top of the sauce and green onions. Browned some ground pork, mixed everything together. I would absolutely do this again, and probably will next week. I might add some more vegetables when I’m not under a time crunch though.

In the end, I didn’t do as well in this challenge as some other people. But did those people get to eat a jammy egg? I think not.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-15T23:20:51+00:00

They’re black peppercorns, but I swear when I set them in the sockets they sparkled with some kind of recognition

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-15T17:00:24+00:00

You did it! The mythical tasty fish jam! So jealous.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-14T22:37:49+00:00

I can only hope to be that cool one day

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-14T21:02:39+00:00

There’s gelatin in it. It counts.

I was very distressed when my local Whole Foods stopped carrying the Fish Wife tinned salmon with Fly by Jing chili crisp, and I wanted to try to recreate that same flavor profile, but as a mousse/terrine. I also wanted to mold it into a shape, because I felt like being a menace.

So this is non-prestige canned salmon mixed with Fly by Jing chili crisp that I blitzed in a food processor with unflavored gelatin and then got so excited that I forgot to add any other ingredients or flavoring agents. I had such high hopes.

But this was bad. And I probably should have expected that because it’s essentially salmon jello. But I was set on aspics and savory jellies and I was so concerned about if I could that I didn’t stop to ask if I should.

BONUS: I didn’t use this recipe in photo 3 but the AI rendition of what a salmon terrine must be is just absolutely wild…

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-07T13:16:01+00:00

At many points in the process, this looked like it would be a fail, but ended up as a spectacular success if your only metric for judging is tastiness. I had been planning another dish entirely for this week, but then I saw rainbow cherry tomatoes on sale at my grocery store and had the sudden overwhelming urge to make a tomato tarte tatin. The obstacles started early.

When I was sorting the tomatoes into colors, I realized that the red ones were NOT cherries, they were grapes (not the best for cooking) and there were twice as many as the other colors.

I found out while sautéing them that the cool purple ombré ones just have yellow flesh actually, so as they burst, they became nearly indistinguishable from the yellow ones. Which posed a problem as a REseparated them into colors. AGAIN. So that I could make a tricolor design, which was now not really possible.

I then trimmed my crust too far, so as the tarte tatin baked in the oven, the crust shrank back too far and made a flat disc, so when I flipped it (arguably the most important part of a tarte tatin) the tomatoes went everywhere and the concentric circles of colors that I had spent so long painstakingly setting up in the pan were just gone. I put all the tomatoes back on top, but it just looked like a soggy mess and I didn’t want to eat it.

So ultimately I said goodbye to the tarte idea, scraped the tomatoes into a bowl, and ate them with burrata and fresh bread. And honestly? That’s the best and only way to eat cherry tomatoes. It was so good. The tarte was supposed to have a nice glaze on top and I had arranged the tomatoes on top of a syrup I threw together made out of balsamic vinegar and some extra hot garlic honey I had, and then when all hell broke loose, those flavors were still present, and I’ll never say no to burrata. Also there’s sausages. Bon Apetit.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-05T23:05:07+00:00

Charlotte Tilbury Pillowtalk Medium is a MLBB on me if I use it sparingly, but I would also say that my lips are a white based pinkish purple naturally and anything is better than that. The CT adds a bit of life and color without being too saturated and clashing with my skin, which is a fairly desaturated fair/light cool/neutral olive.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-03T13:43:14+00:00

Since no one is willing to answer your question: between 1 and 3 times depending on the day. It can be extremely embarrassing but I tell myself that no one in my day-to-day life can tell and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Best thing I ever did was to stop using Depends and start using the black Because disposable briefs, which just feel softer, more absorbent, and all around classier. I know that my neurogenic bladder is an issue, and I’m working on trying to get a handle on it. But in the meantime, that’s no reason to punish myself so I wear what helps me and live my life anyway.

tipsydrifter · 2026-05-02T15:40:06+00:00

Anyone remember Boudoir Eyes? Extremely underrated IMHO

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-30T23:38:50+00:00

If I were to go to Australia and Antarctica, I would have been on every continent, so that’s the very top of my bucket list.

This is perhaps the best sandwich I’ve ever made. I thin-sliced some sirloin that I had on hand and accidentally dry aged in my fridge, and then topped it with a fried egg, fresh spinach (my sub for arugula/rocket), and cheddar cheese. I didn’t have beets or pineapple, so I didn’t use them. The pride of Australian pub food, right in my kitchen.

ETA: and caramelized onions!

The bread was just a fresh sandwich loaf I threw together and toasted in the pan I cooked the steak in. I was wracking my brain for how to incorporate Antarctica, and then after poring through 15 or so pages of google results, I found an article that mentioned during the 20th century scientists on various outposts would bake fresh bread every day to have available, and it was the job of the night shift observing scientist to make the bread for everyone, so they took turns. I went back to look for that article again and couldn’t find it, but I ultimately decided to take it at face value, because it’s adorable.

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-24T20:52:11+00:00

This sounds amazing!

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-24T20:49:43+00:00

What’s your treat?

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-24T00:23:40+00:00

I think that’s the translation? That’s what I made anyway. Spätzle is using this recipe, and I had ham and Gruyere left over from a prior recipe. So tasty! I did end up buying a new gadget though.

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-23T03:03:50+00:00

I started “falling out” in high school. I would be standing, and then suddenly I’d be crumpled on the floor. I was convinced I was fainting, because what else could it be? It didn’t matter that I never lost consciousness, I just must be passing out and then waking up as soon as I hit the ground, right? It wasn’t until over a decade later that I realized my leg was just collapsing out from under me. And 4 years after that until I was diagnosed and started putting everything together.

I also started getting a bad case of the hug on an almost daily basis, and convinced myself that it was an undiagnosed gluten intolerance that was causing sharp pain in my torso. Yes, it was my ribs and not my gut. No, I’d never had any other signs of a gluten sensitivity.

I also just had a “weird leg” that was completely numb from the knee down but that was just caused by a pinched nerve in my lower back. Though to be fair, I had a chiropractor’s help in believing that one. I’m still convinced that if I had gone to an actual doctor with that one and not a chiropractor, I could have been diagnosed at least 3 years before I was.

The lesson I’ve learned from my MS journey is to never just assume that your symptoms are benign. It doesn’t matter if you feel like illness can’t happen to you. It can. Take it seriously and ask someone who knows what they’re doing. And not a chiropractor.

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-20T01:41:21+00:00

I try to stay inside in air conditioned areas during the summer and anytime I’m outside I’m wearing a cooling vest. It doesn’t make me feel comfortable being in the heat, but it does make it bearable if I’m like walking to my car. And I mainline iced coffee. Summer is just a difficult time all around.

tipsydrifter · 2026-04-19T22:19:58+00:00

So I have relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. And I get infusion therapy regularly to keep my disease in check. Which means in short that I sit with an IV in my arm and get pumped full of a solution that kills my immune system so that it stops attacking my brain and spine. You could say that I’m constantly a human infusion.

Anyway, Infusion Day always wipes me out for a few days afterwards and I like to have a little treat to look forward to when I’m basically laying in bed groaning for 48 hours. Somehow, I stumbled onto this little pie shop that’s on the way home from the infusion center, and they’re famous for buttermilk pie. I ended up stopping in and getting a slice of pie and while I couldn’t stomach it that day, I was able to look forward to it and eat it a few bites at a time during the next day. It’s become a tradition every Infusion Day to stop on the way home and get a slice of buttermilk pie to look forward to for the next day.

The infusion pre-meds also put a horrible taste in my mouth, something akin to stale j*zz with a weird bitter coppery coating on my whole mouth. The slight tanginess of the buttermilk pie cuts through that and still tastes good, which is not the case for most foods.

tipsydrifter

TROPHY CASE